Jack LaLanne Quotes & Sayings

Develop a positive attitude. Think and picture how amazing you are going to be. Visualize it! — Jack LaLanne

The brain's preferred source of fuel is glucose/carbohydrates. And when you go on a low-carb/high-protein diet, your brain is using low-octane fuel. You'll be a little groggy, a little grumpy. — Jack LaLanne

Remember this: your body is your slave; it works for you. — Jack LaLanne

People will set a New Year's resolution: "I'm gonna get in shape this year." But they don't set a parameter for how they're gonna measure it. Or if they do measure it, they wait until the first day of the next year. You'd never run a business that way. Document your progress. — Jack LaLanne

Ten seconds on the lips and a lifetime on the hips. — Jack LaLanne

One of the reasons so many people fail is they get on this treadmill for an hour or an hour and a half. That's totally unnecessary. If it's cardiovascular, you don't need more than 15 to 17 or 18 minutes if it's vigorous. — Jack LaLanne

I never think of my age, never - I could be 20 or 100. I never think about it, I'm just me. — Jack LaLanne

It's survival of the fittest. You can't have everything perfect, that's impossible, but the fit survive. The fit can handle the impurities in the air and in the water, but the poor people who are sick, it really affects them more. — Jack LaLanne

Probably millions of Americans got up this morning with a cup of coffee, a cigarette and a donut. No wonder they are sick and fouled up. — Jack LaLanne

I can't afford to die. It would wreck my image. — Jack LaLanne

I'd rather see you drink a glass of wine than a glass of milk. So many people drink Coca-Cola and all these soft drinks with sugar. Some of these drinks have 8 or 9 teaspoons of sugar in them What's the good of living if you can't have the things that give a little enjoyment? — Jack LaLanne

The spine is the lifeline. A lot of people should go to a chiropractor but they don't know it. — Jack LaLanne

As it's often been said, the rest of your life is the best of your life. I'm reaching for your hand now to help you reassess your attitude on living and jump into the happiest, healthiest, most productive years you will ever have. — Jack LaLanne

Many so-called spiritual people, they overeat, drink too much, they smoke and don't exercise. But they do go to church every week and pray 'Please help my arthritis. Please help me bring up my strength, make me young again.' — Jack LaLanne

I train like I'm training for the Olympics or for a Mr. America contest, the way I've always trained my whole life. You see, life is a battlefield. Life is survival of the fittest ... How many healthy people do you know? How many happy people do you know? Think about it. People work at dying, they don't work at living. My workout is my obligation to life. It's my tranquilizer. It's part of the way I tell the truth
and telling the truth is what's kept me going all these years. — Jack LaLanne

I believe so strongly in what I do and I practice what I preach! My Dad died at fifty - do I have to die at fifty? My Dad ate all the junk food, he wouldn't exercise - how can you tell your Dad anything? We know about nutrition and we know about exercise. There's no reason for anybody to be sick and tired, fat and out of shape - it's ridiculous! — Jack LaLanne

Sometimes people - especially people over 40 - underestimate what they really are capable of. They believe they're not capable of doing something great. I tell people who are over 40, "I don't want your best. I want better than that. I want better than what you perceive your best is." — Jack LaLanne

Your age is the sum total of your physical condition, the condition of your mind, and how you feel. — Jack LaLanne

If you don't like Corvettes, you don't like sex and money. — Jack LaLanne

Progress is made where progress is measured. — Jack LaLanne

Physical fitness takes commitment to exercise just as it requires good nutrition. But it doesn't have to be painful. Just the opposite: Vigorous exercise actually is stimulating. It boosts your energy levels, invigorates your mind, and just feels good afterward. The hardest part, of course, is getting started. — Jack LaLanne

Everything you do in life, I don't care, good or bad - don't blame God, don't blame the devil, don't blame me, blame you. You control everything! The thoughts you think, the words you utter, the foods you eat, the exercise you do. Everything is controlled by you. — Jack LaLanne

Invest in yourself now and reap the dividends day after day after month after year. — Jack LaLanne

Who puts the food in your mouth? Who goes to the bathroom for ya? You do. You came on this earth alone and you are going to leave alone. Think about it. If anything happens to Jack La Lanne good or bad, I made it happen. If anything happens to you good or bad, you made it happen
right? — Jack LaLanne

I don't care how old I live! I just want to be living while I am living! — Jack LaLanne

The food you eat today is walking and talking tomorrow. — Jack LaLanne

There is no fountain of youth, What you put into your body is what you get out of it. You would not feed your dog a coffee and doughnut for breakfast followed by a cigarette. You will kill the damn dog. — Jack LaLanne

I'm a believer in routine. I like to see people work out at the same time each day. — Jack LaLanne

Be young. Keep yourself young by having a good, sporty car like a Corvette. It keeps you on your toes. It keeps you young. It keeps you thinking young. It keeps you thinking modern and good things. Corvette is a modern, modern automobile. — Jack LaLanne

Sitting around on your big fat gluteus maximus talking about the good old days. The good old days are right this second. You've got to exercise VIG-OR-OUSLY! Life is tough. Life is a challenge. Life is a battlefield ... Life is an athletic event, and you must train for it. — Jack LaLanne

Homosexuals love to look good. They're clean, neat. They're fastidious, well mannered and well educated. They like aesthetic things. They like good, firm, tight bodies. Health. They want to attract other guys. What's wrong with that? Why be slobs? You've got to be insane to suggest that because someone looks good, he must be gay. That's envy. — Jack LaLanne

It's difficult to change overnight but if you are persistent and take one step at a time you will see results! — Jack LaLanne

You can't get rid of it with exercise alone. You can do the most vigorous exercise and only burn up 300 calories in an hour. If you've got fat on your body, the exercise firms and tones the muscles. But when you use that tape measure, what makes it bigger? It's the fat! — Jack LaLanne

Muscle cells strengthen in response to intense exercise - whether you're 18 or 88. But the intensity is what's lacking in most people's workouts. And there are doctors who'll give you the advice, "Well, don't push it." — Jack LaLanne

I want to move well and comfortably, and enjoy the world around me. — Jack LaLanne

I can't die. It would ruin my image. — Jack LaLanne

I eat 6 or 7 raw vegetables every day, 4 or 5 pieces of fresh fruit. I eat egg whites each day. If I eat bread, it has to be whole wheat. I eat brown rice. I don't eat between meals. I eat at 11 o'clock in the morning and 7 o'clock at night. — Jack LaLanne

Maybe 50 or 60 percent of all divorces are predicated on someone's being physically unfit. Who wants to live with negativism? Love goes out the window. — Jack LaLanne

The only way you can hurt your body is if you don't use it — Jack LaLanne

Living is like training for an athletic event. You have to have goals and challenges; you need to exercise and eat right. — Jack LaLanne

My wife is my protector. Without her, I'm nothing. She wants to please me, and I want to please her. We've been together over 53 years. — Jack LaLanne

Billy Graham is for the hereafter, I'm for the here and now! — Jack LaLanne

I see a sea of millions of people going down with their own negative thoughts, going down for the third time in this big sea of iniquity and negativity. — Jack LaLanne

That's what I wanted! I wanted to be an athlete , I wanted the girls to like me, and I wanted to be able to get good grades in school, and this man said I could do all that. — Jack LaLanne

Don't talk age! Age has nothing to do with it. One of my guys who started out at my gym is 87 now, and he still does ten bench-press reps with a hundred-pound dumbbell in each hand. He's training to set a leg-pressing record. I put things in the guy's brain way back when, and now he'll never get away from it. — Jack LaLanne

Focus on your problem zones, your strength, your energy, your flexibility and all the rest. Maybe your chest is flabby or your hips or waist need toning. Also, you should change your program every thirty days. That's the key. — Jack LaLanne

If man made it, don't eat it. — Jack LaLanne

If you want to change somebody, don't preach to him. Set an example and shut up. — Jack LaLanne

Jesus, when he was on Earth, he was out there helping people, right? Why did he perform those miracles? To call attention to his profession. Why do you think I do these incredible feats ? To call attention to my profession! — Jack LaLanne

When it comes to health, diet is the Queen, but exercise is the King. — Jack LaLanne

Sex has to do with imagination, so the sky is the limit. If you're not doing bodily harm, why shouldn't you do what turns you on? — Jack LaLanne

That is the beautiful part about weights: even if you are 100 year old, you can lift something. Maybe it's only a half a pound or a pound or two pounds. It will still do something. — Jack LaLanne

Ask the guys who are doing serious triathlons if there are any limits to what can be done. The limit is right here. You've got to get physically fit between the ears. Muscles don't know anything. They have to be taught. — Jack LaLanne

When I first started out, I was considered a crackpot. The doctors used to say, Don't go to that Jack LaLanne, you'll get hemorrhoids, you won't get an erection, you women will look like men, you athletes will get muscle-bound
this is what I had to go through. — Jack LaLanne

The secret to a long and healthy marriage is to work at it and don't try and change each other. — Jack LaLanne

People thought I was a charlatan and a nut. The doctors were against me
they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive. — Jack LaLanne

I don't think about wealth. I get one thing in my mind, "How can I help people ... come on humans ... do something, you know. Let's wake up. Man alive ... you're half dead. Let's do some living". — Jack LaLanne

My top priority in life is my workout. Regardless of what happens, I hit that gym. Even when I was in the hospital twice with serious knee operations: Right after I came out of anesthesia, there was a chin bar over my head and dumbbells. I worked out immediately. — Jack LaLanne

Inactivity is the killer and, remember, it's never too late. — Jack LaLanne

Whatever you can handle, it's up to you. Pick something where you are going to do it to failure
in other words, where you can hardly do it. That's the key. So many people will just take five pound weights and do something 10 times. What are they getting out of it? Nothing! Say you are going to build up your bank account. If you put in a penny a day, it's going take a long while. It's the same with exercise
the more you put into it the more you take out. — Jack LaLanne

I was the worst, most sickly kid of all
30 pounds underweight. The girls used to beat me up. Actually I was a mean kid, early on because I had no self-esteem. — Jack LaLanne

I've never been satisfied with myself, ever. But I feel good about myself, because I'm truthful. I don't corrupt myself. I'm also a perfectionist. I'm very impatient. I've got energy and drive and I can't stand inefficiency in people. And I can't stand dumb people. Why surround yourself with people who are going to tie you down? I don't suffer fools. — Jack LaLanne

I've always liked fast cars and slow women. — Jack LaLanne

Better to wear out than rust out. — Jack LaLanne

I have spoken to a whole group of millionaires, head executives at Microsoft. Boy did I chew those guys out. — Jack LaLanne

There are so many health food nuts out there that eat nothing but natural foods but they don't exercise and they look terrible. — Jack LaLanne

Never get satisfied. The minute you stop trying, you go downhill. — Jack LaLanne

Be an example of what you teach. [As a personal trainer], delve into your student's life, know everything about him. Be interested. — Jack LaLanne

Have you seen some of the crap they're selling as exercise equipment now? How about that Suzanne Somers? She should have been thrown in jail for selling the piece-of-crap Thigh Master. It just develops a little muscle on the inner thigh. What good is that? — Jack LaLanne

So many older people, they just sit around all day long and they don't get any exercise. Their muscles atrophy, and they lose their strength, their energy and vitality by inactivity. — Jack LaLanne

It's not what you do some of the time that counts, it's what you do all of the time that counts. — Jack LaLanne

If you've got a big gut and you start doing sit-ups, you are going to get bigger because you build up the muscle. You've got to get rid of that fat! How do you get rid of fat? By changing your diet. — Jack LaLanne

Yes, exercise is the catalyst. That's what makes everything happen: your digestion, your elimination, your sex life, your skin, hair, everything about you depends on circulation. And how do you increase circulation? — Jack LaLanne

Anything in life is possible, if you make it happen. — Jack LaLanne

If you lose a couple of inches off your stomach, your business down there will look a lot longer. — Jack LaLanne

You got to do what's happening today in the world. You got to keep up with time. Keep up to date, keep modern - keep up on your toes! — Jack LaLanne

People feel so guilty about not exercising. Especially people over 50, who feel like they've gone a lifetime without taking care of themselves. Instead of aiming for perfection, you should try to celebrate the progress you're making. — Jack LaLanne

If you can't afford a half hour three or four times a week taking care of the most priceless possession, your body, you've got to be sick. You're stupid. — Jack LaLanne

You see, you don't get old from age, you get old from inactivity, from not believing in something. — Jack LaLanne

You only live once, why be miserable? Fat people are miserable
you are carrying 50 lbs on your shoulders all day, you get a disease called "pooped-out itis". Don't tell me that they are happy with the way they look and feel. I have to be honest, that is all I have. — Jack LaLanne

Thoughts are things. Negativity is what kills you ... It's tough to do, but you've got to work at living, you know? Most people work at dying, but anybody can die; the easiest thing on this earth is to die. But to live takes guts; it takes energy, vitality, it takes thought ... We have so many negative influences out there that are pulling us down ... You've got to be strong to overcome these adversities ... that's why I never stop. — Jack LaLanne

You've got to appeal to the pride in people. When a woman is flabby and soft, she's unattractive. When you married a beautiful girl and all of a sudden you start seeing her tits down and her breath stinks and she's not clean anymore and has no pride in herself, you can't love her. You may bullshit yourself, but you can't. Energy makes people beautiful. That's what charisma is. — Jack LaLanne

The only way you can hurt the body is not use it, — Jack LaLanne

Look at the average American diet: ice cream, butter, cheese, whole milk, all this fat. People don't realize how much of this stuff you get by the end of the day. High blood pressure is from all this high-fat eating. — Jack LaLanne

You've got to work at living-99 and 9/10 of Americans work at dying! — Jack LaLanne

You start out with an hour on the treadmill, then another hour of lifting - hell, in two weeks you're not doing anything anymore. You gotta be reasonable. — Jack LaLanne

You should be proud of what you're doing, but not conceited. If you can't be proud of yourself, you're a failure. And discipline. To do anything in life you have to have discipline. To accomplish anything, you have a goal, challenge yourself, and work until you accomplish that goal. Practice what you preach. — Jack LaLanne

Most people, when they reach a certain age, let down and talk about what they used to do. Well, who gives a damn about what you used to do? It's what you're doing now. — Jack LaLanne

You can exercise vigorously and eat junk and get by. But you can't eat perfectly and not exercise. Look at many athletes today; they are human garbage cans. They eat anything, but they exercise so hard they burn it up. But why not exercise and put the right fuel in too? — Jack LaLanne

It's a bunch of bull! If God, or nature, or whatever you want to call it didn't want you to mix carbohydrates, starches and fats, you'd never have a grain, you'd never have a vegetable or a fruit, would you? What's in a grain? It's got carbohydrates, starches, fats, sugar. It's got everything in it. Why does nature do that? One guy says don't mix carbohydrates, and the other guy says don't mix protein with it; it's all a bunch of lard, something to sell a book. And the poor public is so confused, they don't know what to do. — Jack LaLanne

Exercise is king. Nutrition is queen. Put them together and you've got a kingdom. — Jack LaLanne

I do it as a therapy. I do it as something to keep me alive. We all need a little discipline. Exercise is my discipline. — Jack LaLanne

Everything in life that's meaningful takes effort - takes vitality. You have to work at it. And God helps them who help themselves ... help you. — Jack LaLanne

Scales lie! You lose thirty pounds of muscle and you gain thirty pounds of fat and you weigh the same, right?
Take that tape measure out. That won't lie. Your waistline is your lifeline.
It should be the same as it was when you were a young person. — Jack LaLanne

Twelve to seventeen minutes is plenty on the treadmill
if it's done fast. That's all you need for cardiovascular benefit. You don't need to spend that extra time unless you are over weight and you need to burn off extra calories. Do it vigorously, like somebody is chasing you. You've got to do it hard. Otherwise, if you just take it easy and do it longer, you are spending all that time when you don't need it. Use that extra time with your weights instead. — Jack LaLanne

Another intruder that plagues our good health is sleeplessness. Insomnia is much like constipation in that stress or nervous tension can bring it on or aggravate it until there's almost no coping with it. That's why you find sleeping pills in so many medicine cabinets next to the laxatives. — Jack LaLanne

Virtually everything we do in life is a matter of habit. Habits make us who we are. Why not change your habits to better your life? — Jack LaLanne

The essence of decay is inactivity. — Jack LaLanne

Never, ever get satisfied; keep the carrot in front of the horse. — Jack LaLanne

Your waistline is your lifeline — Jack LaLanne