The Jack LaLanne Way To Vibrant Good Health - La Lanne, Jack.

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THE
JACK LALANNE WAY
TO VIBRANT
GOOD HEALTH
THE
JACK LALANNE
WAY
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Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Englewood Cliffs, N. J.
• •
TO
VIBRANT GOOD
HEALTH
by Jack LaLanne
To all those people —and there
have been many over the years
—who have helped, inspired,
encouraged, and especially to
my amazing mother, Jennie
Garaig LaLanne.
© I960 by Jack LaLanne
All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this

book, or any portions thereof, in any form, except for
the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Copyright under International and Pan-

American Copyright Conventions
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 60-7656
Printed in the United States of America
50929
Contents
PART ONE
A Personal Message from Jack LaLanne vii
1. I'm All For You 1
2. My Magic Three: Your First Steps to New

Vitality 9
3. Some Personal History 18
4. Fat Is the Killer 23
5. The Greatest Ninety Day Wonder of All 31
6. Now Show You the Fun of Exercising

I'll
the Jack LaLanne Way 36
7. The Great Madison Avenue Brainwash —

And How To Resist It 45
8. Planning Our Sculpturing for New Beauty 54
9. Replace Life-shortening with Life-giving

Foods 68
10. Try This Program If You're Underweight 71
v
vj CONTENTS
PART TWO
11. Our Changing Nutrition Habits and Our

"Foodless" Foods 76
12. Jack LaLanne's Ten Commandments of Good

Cooking 86
13. What I've Learned in My Kitchen 89
14. There Are No "Miracle" Foods 95
15. There's A Science to Shopping 101
16. Let's Talk About Eating Habits and Diges-

tion 111
17. Try Eating Out the Jack LaLanne Way 1 17
18. Keeping Life in Your Food 123
19. Nutritional Research and your Health 143
PART THREE
20. Let's Plan A Miracle Together 149
21. Take This Guided Tour for New Glamour 160
22. It's Fun to Keep Ahead of Your Years 173
23. Goals, Guidance, and Work Equal New

Beauty and New Vitality 4 179
24. Jack LaLanne Directs Your Complete Fam-

ily Exercise Program 190
Happy Endings and Bright Tomorrows

Index
A Personal Message
From Jack LaLanne
Dear Reader:
My mother has often teased that I am too enthusiastic about
things in which I believe. Maybe she's right; maybe I am. In my
eagerness to help people enjoy vibrant good health, as I do,
perhaps I make it sound too easy sometimes.
The fact is, of course, that some people are spending good
money misguidedly for non-existent cure-alls. According to the
American Medical Association, some 10,000,000 Americans
are duped out of $500,000,000 annually by nutrition quacks
and health faddists. This appals me, as it must all right-thinking
persons.
I know these 10,000,000—though they are by no means
vii
limited to the United States. They are symbolized in every half-
sick man and woman who comes hopefully to me for help. As if
I had some magic pill! I don't. I am not a doctor — certainly not

a witch doctor, medicine man or cure-everything-now faddist.
I cure nothing except, perhaps, your own carelessness with that
wonderful body of yours. In this, my enthusiasm is boundless
(and I believe helpful).
As you will see throughout this book, I do not pretend to
healing powers. I say instead that if you are in normally good
health and need to take off weight, or reproportion the weight
you have, I've a thousand and one tips for you. In this, I contend,
I'm the doctors' helper. I will guide and direct you, giving you
the details of exercise and nutrition which your doctor may
not have time to do. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than
to work successfully with him.

I have always been careful to maintain my good name with
members of the American Medical Association. Over the years,
both in civilian life and the Navy, doctors have found they
could send me patients for guided exercise after surgery or
accidents and for help in getting the best results from diet. My
enthusiasm has, I believe, helped us all.
I should also point out that I personally have tried the methods
I recommend. New ideas on exercise and nutrition changed my
own life many years ago. I have followed closely all research in
physical culture over the past two decades and welcomed de-
velopments which lead to a healthier, happier people. The
things I have learned, and pass on to you herewith, have changed
the lives of thousands of men and women.
Even with my conditioning studios and television programs,
however, I obviously couldn't reach all who want help. So I
decided to write this book. And right here is a good place to say
how am to my good friend John Wesley Noble for
indebted I
helping me put my ideas on paper. I hope it will be read

attentively by men as well as women and that, from it, thou-
sands of families will find the new zest and health they want in
their lives.
viii
Sitting down to the task, with all my natural enthusiasm, I
am mindful of my mother's admonition and the $500,000,000

those 10,000,000 health seekers are spending in a vain hope
for quick cures. If you are looking for an easy cure for anything,
put this book down now.
It offers no easy cures. I repeat: I'm not a curer or healer and
this isn't a quack book. If you want good health and a handsome
body, you will have to work with me. Eager as Iam to help you
enjoy vibrant good health, I prescribe only common sense and
my daily program, for which I am,
Enthusiastically yours,
JACK LALANNE
IX
• PART ONE •
The
Jack LaLanne Way
to Vibrant
Good Health
^^^^^^ ^^^^^^.
.^
—
CHAPTE »/ .
I'M All for You.'
Get a calendar and circle the date. This is your day. Starting
today, something is going to happen for you —something you
may not have thought possible. I am writing a book about you.
It's a book for you and the people around you. You will find
yourself all through it.
This will not be a negative book. There are too many volumes
already filled with don'ts. Rather, it will be filled with positives,
especially happiness. The happiness you should be enjoying
and will enjoy — as you read on. I am determined that you shall
have this happiness and with it well-being and peace of mind.
Haven't you wished at times you could be born again? Born
1
1 THE JACK LALANNE WAY
is, with a new body, vibrant health, physical grace, a
over, that
new look and outlook? With a new bounce to your step that
makes men and women look at you with admiration? You'd be
less thanhuman if you didn't.
I know this longing. I had it myself, once, so desperately that
I had to do something about it. I wouldn't consider myself a real
friend if I didn't tell you what I did, and what you can do. I
want to help you feel better and look better and live a happier
know that you can. I am all for you.
life. I
From this moment, really, it's your book. It is in your hands,

you are reading it, its message now is moving into your mind.
Keep your mind open, I urge you, for this is a do-it-yourself
book. It may well be the most important investment you've ever
made, since it's your own investment in you. The good you
derive from it will depend on how you put each idea to work.
Physically strong as I am, I can't force one idea upon you. You
must reach out, grasp, and take hold.
Let's try the first step.
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL
We will begin with an appraisal of you. This is vitally im-

portant and very personal. Only you can do it properly, in the
privacy of your own mind and bedroom, preferably before a
full-length mirror.
Close the doors, if need be, and draw the blinds. Now take
off your clothes, all of them, and stand bravely up to the mirror.
I want you to look at yourself. (Naked we came into this world

the first time, remember. If you would be reborn, even figur-
atively, you must cast off the old.) Remember, too, most of us
tend to look at ourselves selectively. We suck in our stomachs
ever so gently to camouflage saggy bulges, we twist and turn
to get only our best profile and tilt our heads to lift double chins,
dropping mental veils over our bad features and seeing our-
selves as we wish we were.
TO VIBRANT GOOD HEALTH 3
Happiness doesn't come by that route. That way leads only

to the same old disappointments and despair like the diets and
exercise programs on which possibly you've embarked so
hopefully before and abandoned so quietly. Stop looking only
at your good points! (Of course you have them.) Quit fudging.
In a moment you'll be testing those faults with a tape measure.
See clearly for once what it is that needs doing. You alone are
looking at you. Discouraged already?
Does your mirror say it's impossible to change what you see
there into what you would like to be? It's taken years, your
mind tells you, to get into this condition. So it will take a like
number of years, you think, to undo it? Ah, but that's not the
way it works.
The longest journey begins with the first step. You have
taken that step by examining yourself candidly. I, Jack LaLanne,
(pronounced "LaLane," but friends and students simply call
me Jack) have faced your problem with thousands of men and

women. It won't take years. I tell you flatly it won't even take
months. We're going to get results right away.
So let's get on to the second step.
HONESTLY NOW, HOW DO YOU STACK UP?
Since mirrors help us to kid ourselves, and you want to know

exactly how you stand as of now, let's take your actual measure-
ments. Once more you will do it yourself. Get your tape
measure and I will tell you how I measure a man or woman.
In my conditioning gym, we know this as the "Coming-in Tape."
Later —and we'll have one in this book, too —we have the
"Going-Out Tape." (What a different person you will be when
those measurements are taken!)
As you make these first measurements, though, don't just
sighand edit away fractions of an inch here and there. Write
them down on the chart included in this book. They'll be a
source of encouragement to you as early as next week.
FOR WOMEN
Chest (two measurements)
1. Largest circumference (around bust) Inches
2. Under bust Inches
Arms (Extend and measure largest part of upper arm) Inches
Waist
1. High (just below rib cage) Inches
2. Middle (at smallest part) Inches
3. Low (just above hip) Inches
Hips (Measure around largest circumference) Inches
Thighs
1. Largest part, near groin Inches
2. Smaller part, above knee Inches
Calf (largest part) Inches
Ankle (at smallest part) Inches
Weight (without clothing, upon arising) Pounds
There are good reasons for measuring the waist and thigh at
several points. We may find after several days that you have
taken off two inches, say, from the middle of your waist and
nothing above or below. We will then want to change our
course a little to get those bulges, too.
One more thing we want now for the "Coming-in" record.
Your weight. Again, you must be scrupulously honest. Weigh
yourself the first thing upon arising in the morning. Do it in the
nude. That is YOU,
Boys are a little different from girls, as philosophers have
noted, so we'll use the "Coming-in Tape" differently.
FOR MEN
Neck Inches
Chest
1. Normal (straight across nipples) Inches
2. Expanded Inches
Arms
1. Upper arm, largest part, flexed Inches
2. Lower arm, largest part of arm extended Inches
Waist
1. High Inches
2. Middle Inches
3. Low Inches
Hips (at largest point) Inches
Thighs
1. Largest part Inches
2. Above knee Inches
Lower leg
1. Largest part Inches
2. Ankle at smallest point Inches
Weight (without clothing, upon arising) Pounds
Now you have written yourself into this book. You are here,
in physical dimensions, as surely as the heroine or hero of a
novel. And just as surely as the protagonist of a novel changes
with the passing pages, so will you. Perhaps we should add one
more thing.
VISUALIZING YOUR IDEAL

When I was very young and decided I must do something with
my body to escape from the morass of bad health, bad spirits
and an unattractive disposition, there were few guideposts. I
had to make my own program. I soon saw I would need an ideal.
I found it, happily, in the person of Professor K. V. Iyer, a

brilliant Hindu physical culturist.
Professor Iyer was known for his physical perfection, rather

than feats of strength or endurance. Most exciting to me, he was
about my height and bone structure. I thought if only I could
equal his proportions, I would be the happiest mortal alive.
I tacked Professor Iyer's photograph to the wall by my bed.

His measurements were there on the photo by his magnificent
body. Next to it I tacked my own sorry measurements — the
"Coming-in" ones like those you've just taken and written in
this book. Then, each day as I improved, I wrote the new
measurements in an adjoining column. One day, as will happen
to you, I found I suddenly had duplicated my ideal.
There will be strength and encouragement for you in this.
Who embodies your ideal? A movie star? A striking fashion

model? Perhaps yourself, as you were in high school, or in
your courting days, or when you were a beauty queen, a svelte
model or, if a man, the school quarterback. (Ladies recall
these details better than men.) Try now to remember your
proportions of those glorious days; your weight, measurements,
dress size. Write them down where you can refer to them every
day as we go along together. Why not enter them on the chart
with your "Coming-in" figures? You may, of course, never
quite duplicate them. Or you may eventually improve on them,
as I did on Professor Iyer's.
Measurements, remember, don't describe things like skin

tone, posture, flabby folds under your chin or the backs of your
arms. They don't speak up for the "biscuit dough" skin under
your thighs. This part of your ideal you must carry in your
mind. Work for it. Look at your chart and picture your ideal in
your mind before going to sleep each night and on awakening

in the morning. Fix it in your mind. Believe me, it can come to be.
TRUST YOURSELF
One more thing I would tell you before we get on with our
story. There are those who may poke fun at you for getting
involved in this "silly stuff." Curiously enough, it may even be
someone closest and dearest to you. It may be a husband or wife
who asks: "Why try to change yourself? You're OK the way you
are."
Why do they do this? Don't men really want their wives to be
prettier? Are they jealous of the glances she will get as she
strides pertly down the street? Or, are they afraid perhaps they,
too, may have to stir off their haunches?
Whatever it may be, don't be turned aside. Trust yourself.
You have decided already you're not quite OK the way you are,
or you wouldn't be in this book.

Back in high school, my friends laughed at me, too. They
TO VIBRANT GOOD HEALTH
At top I'm shown at age 17.

Center, in my mid-twenties and
bottom shows how I keep my-
self in shape today. I certainly
don't suggest that it necessary
is
to take up body building as

seriously as I have, but you can
benefit from the many things
I have to teach about every-
one's physique.
called me a "muscle man" and a "health nut." The yearbook
cartooned me running for a touchdown with a bunch of carrots
under my arm. Because I did systematic exercises, didn't smoke
and refused syrupy soft drinks, I was considered a crackpot.
Either I was a terrible barb to their conscience (for which
I'm not sorry) or, like most people, they thought nothing could
injure their health.
Not long ago, I met one of those boys. A man now, his left
leg dragged as he came down the street. From my own high

school class? I scarcely recognized him after his stroke. Once
we had played football together. Now I barely could understand
the words he mumbled. I said a little prayer of mercy for him
and gratitude for me. Some of our classmates aren't even here
any more.
But I promised positives.
CHAPTE R <£ •
Mr Magic Three:
Your First Steps
To New Vitality
America today is afflicted with an epidemic I have diagnosed as

"pooped-out-itis." Perhaps you're a victim. It isn't necessarily
fatal, but it does send thousands of men and women to drug
stores for tranquilizers and pep-up pills. Well, I've a quick,
no-pill medicine for that. It's my own specific and there's no
such thing as an overdose. You may refill and use as often as
you like. I call it my Magic 3, though my friends speak of it
fondly as the "De-pooper." Here's the prescription:

Draw up one straight chair. (Any dining room or kitchen chair
will do.) Sit well forward with your feet planted in front of you,
arms dangling loose at your sides, stomach in and shoulders

—

squared. Now lean forward quickly between your legs as if to
touch your forehead to the floor. (You won't touch it, of course,
but push as if you meant to.) Feel the air press out of your
lungs as your head goes down? Like a powerful bellows inside
you? That's good.
Now come back up. All the way and on back, eyes to the
ceiling, arching your shoulders as if to grip a pencil between
your shoulder blades. Feel the muscles tighten in your chest,
arms and abdomen? (Yes, and your neck and jaw, too.) Now
down again between your legs.
Do you realize what is happening? In the forward position,

your head is lower than your heart. The blood rushes to your
head, flushing away the cobwebs and, at the same time, giving a
wonderful beauty treatment to your hair and eyes. We'll do this
three times in succession — this Magic 3 —working our bodies

a little harder each time. Inhale as you come up and really fill
your lungs. Going down, the "bellows" will clear them.

As you come up, throw your arms back hard and inhale
deeply. Feed those marvelous lungs of yours. Flush out the
cigarette smoke and carbon dioxide. Shoulders hard back now
harder — strain your eyes to the ceiling behind you. Feel that roll
at the back of your neck? That's where the Dowager's Hump

begins to form, where worry and tensions concentrate. We'll
break them up.
Forward again, head between your legs. Press down hard.
Now up, back, a little farther each time. Really pinch those
shoulder blades together. Fling your arms back again and
stretch hard. I'll bet you haven't felt your shoulder blades like
this for a long, long time.

Feel the pull on your stomach muscles? You know what that
means — already you're rebuilding nature's girdle, tightening
your waistline and flattening your abdomen. A few Magic 3's
each day will perform swift magic on your middle. At the same
time, of course, they're stimulating your liver and giving your
spine a good flexing. (We're only as young as our spines, re-
member. With advancing years, inexorably, the head bends
toward the ground.) But you're defying that pull of gravity

now. Don't you feel a little different already? More alive? Of
course you do.
Practice the exercise. Perfect it. Do it several times each day,
and particularly when you feel the onset of pooped-out-itis.
Your doctor will tell you the Magic 3 is one of the finest
exercises you can take. We'll use it often together and even work
out some variations on it.
DO YOU REALLY KNOW HOW TO BREATHE?

Is your heart beating a little harder now? That's fine. We want
that great muscle to have its exercise, too. Feed your lungs some
good big gulps of air. Clean blood will go coursing through your
body. While at it, I'd like to show you something about breathing.
"What's the man saying?" you ask. "Jack LaLanne teach me
how to breathe? Haven't I been breathing all my life without
special tutoring?"
You have. But didn't you say you wanted a new start all
around? Now, have you ever watched a little girl skip rope?
Notice how her pretty little pink cheeks seem to puff breath-
lessly? She's not breathless, really. She's just breathing deeply
and energetically. Now watch an old man slowly rocking on the

porch. His breathing is almost imperceptible. You can't help
but associate activity and vitality —happiness—with youth.

Naturally, I don't expect you to jump rope all day. But you will
be using your body more and I want it to be as easy for you as
child's play.
After each exercise with my television audiences, I call for
exaggerated deep breaths. Inhaling, we touch our toes and

come erect, bringing our arms up wide and flinging them far
back to lift and expand the rib cage to its fullest. (Don't think
the lungs don't appreciate that!) Exhaling, we bend and almost
touch our toes to make the bellows force out the old air.
My students learn always to inhale through the nose. There

are three good reasons for this: 1) Nature's built-in filter will
strain out most impurities; 2) The air is changed to body temper-
ature before it reaches the lungs; and 3) passages (particularly
for smokers) are cleared as the air passes through.
Try it and see if your breath doesn't go farther.
NATURE'S FIRST RECIPE FOR BEAUTY AND GRACE
Now you are well started. The Magic 3 has awakened your
body to the stimulation of exercise. You've given your lungs a
fine repast of fresh oxygen. Perhaps you're wondering what this
LaLanne fellow offers you to eat. After all, if you're going to

reshape your body, it must mean you can't continue to eat all
the things that made you look as you did before the mirror.
You're right, of course — unless you think you must starve, as
you may have on so many diets.
That's one of the most important objectives of this book of

yours. I want you to eat and eat well. I want you to have plenty
of food, and enjoy every bit of it. You must not skip one meal.
While I know that nature's foods, raw and organically grown,
(of which I will have more to say) are best for us, I also under-
stand the society in which we live. I won't let you be called a

"health nut."
Let's prepare a luncheon, then, of things I'm sure you have
in your own kitchen right now. Start with a salad since raw
vegetables, rich in minerals and vitamins, are nature's first
recipe for the beauty and grace which can only start from
within. Later, if you work, or can't be at home for other reasons,
I will show you how to order a fine, invigorating health meal at
the corner hamburger stand.
Later, too, I will teach you how to buy and store fresh fruits
and vegetables to get every last ounce of value from them. For
now, get a head of letture from the refrigerator and shred it.
Take celery — as much as you like —and chop it small. Slice one
or two tomatoes. Prepare an oil and vinegar dressing using olive
oil, corn oil or soya oil, (but sparingly) and pour over your
salad. Season to your own taste with garlic or onion powder.
Perhaps you have some cold roast beef left over from last
night. Cut a generous slice because this is a great source of

protein. If you don't happen to have cold roast at the moment,
substitute a patty of ground meat and broil it with just a dash
of onion and garlic mixed in. (Above all, we want your taste
buds to dance.) Now add a scoop of cottage cheese to your

plate and you have more protein to build tissue for the body
you're making over. A cool glass of tomato juice should go nicely
with this and the salad.
Still hungry? Have the dessert I eat with every meal — fresh
fruit. An orange, perhaps, or an apple, a banana, a bunch of
grapes, half a cantaloupe or a papaya, if the geography and
season are right. Fruit is nature's blood cleanser. It satisfies
your sweet tooth and, though you may not have known it, is
one of the finest sources of quick energy on earth.

So what have you had with all this? Only about 300 calories,
and we've hardly exercised our ingenuity yet. We'll plan some
really exotic meals as we go along.
I KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU

Now, I'm sure, you'd like to ask some questions. Since I
know you pretty well by now, I think I can guess what's on your
mind. What, you are asking, will all this really do for me? Could
my bustline actually be improved? Simply and quickly? (Def-
initely!) Am I too old? (Never!) Can I smooth out face muscles?
(Absolutely!)
I can promise the attentive student some of these things
immediately because I have seen with my own eyes how easy it
has been for many of them to regain vibrant health and be

happier. The very first thing I notice in the men and women
who really get results from my program is that they begin to
acquire confidence and peace of mind. Hundreds of letters I
receive tell me this. Everything in life suddenly is easier, many

say. The job's not so boring. Hair, nails and skin seem to have
a new look. People are fun again.
And why not? You are starting to come alive again, to bloom.
Your posture probably improves. You look better in your
clothes. You don't get out of breath so easily. You find yourself
planning for fun today, not constantly remembering "the good
old days" when you were younger. Your eyesight may be def-
initely improved. Your food tastes better. And how you do sleep!
"But," you protest, "why should all this be necessary when

the scales tell me I'm normal for my height and weight. Why
shouldn't I feel all these things already?"
While you're still fresh from the Magic 3 and that lunch,
I'll let you in on a little secret. Scales are the biggest liars in the
world. In fact, a lot of people aren't in the world any more,

simply because they believed the scales.
You say you weigh exactly the same as you did in high
school? So what? So the mild little clerk in your grocery store
may weigh the same as a Mr. America. (I am 5 feet 7 inches
and weigh 175 pounds. No scales in the world would give you
a proper picture of me.) A man probably has a great deal less
of his high school weight on his chest and a lot more of it on

his behinder. If his waistline is larger than it was in high school,
then his arms probably are smaller. The height and weight may
be the same as it was a few years ago, but the pounds have
moved to a new, less attractive, location. If you're a woman,
you've undoubtedly redistributed your weight since you were
in high school.
So the obvious answer is to shift it back. We build up a little
where you want it and take it off the places where it is un-
attractive. Rearranging your body to the contours of youth
seem a little far-fetched? Think of a sculptor. He takes a lump
of ugly, inanimate clay, puts an idea to work on it, and creates
a thing of beauty. That's a part of the mental ideal I want you
to keep in mind. If such a thing can be done with inanimate clay,
why can't it be done with the most wonderful thing God put on
this earth, the human body?
It can be done. You will do it. You started when you recorded
the measurements of your "rough clay" on the "Coming-in"
chart. You made the first gentle strokes when you learned to
perform the Magic 3. You are helping it now by proper breath-
ing, and you're building healthy new tissue with each meal you
plan.
When friends begin to compliment you on your newly un-
folding figure (and they will), you'll know the greatest satis-
faction in life. "/ did it," you may say to yourself. "I can make
my life what I want it to be."
We do plan our futures. I know I do, every day. Everything I
have accomplished with myself got done because I did it. (With
God's help, of course.) If I should let myself get sick and die,
it would be because I did that, too.
Some people would duck the ideas I'm going to put in this
book. They're afraid I'll try to reform them, perhaps even take
away some of their habits.
I won't do this, as you will see. I won't stop you from smoking
or having a cocktail just as I won't ask you to eat all the foods
I eat or exercise as I do. I am proud of the muscular physique I
maintain for myself, but I know it isn't vital to everyone's well-

being to become a muscle man. You need never lift a dumbbell
to profit from the suggestions in this book. I will ask you to cut
out nothing, except perhaps the overwhelming amount of fried
foods Americans eat. Rather, I will ask only that you add things
to your life.
Two things I want to do for you. First, I want to keep you

from serious from shortening your life. Much more im-
illness,
portant, Ishow you how you can enjoy living today.

want to
When I show you how to take off one pound a day, I won't
tell you how good you're going to feel afterward. My plan is
that you feel good now, while you're taking off the pounds.
As I said earlier, we in America have epidemic "pooped-out-
itis." It shows in nearly everyone I watch walking down the
street. Everyone tells me his story. Not in words, of course, but
by the way he walks and talks and works. I read it in the lagging
step of that middle-aged man who believes he is "over the hill,"
in the sagging, slipping contours of that lady waiting for her bus,
Behind the scenes at my coast-to-coast television show. I never miss

a chance to get our studio crew into the exercise act.
the shameful waddle of that girl with the pretty face who is now
so overweight.
You got a glimpse of it in the secrecy of your mirror. There
is probably not a thing organically wrong with your body, but,
like other people, you often wake up in the morning tired. Like
the others, you're still tired at 10 a.m., more tired at noon, and
come home in the evening dragging. Too tired, in fact, to take
much fun from life. No wonder so many of our neighbors drink
too much. They'd like to feel "high" again and they can't,
naturally.
In the Hollywood movie colony, where I reside most of the
year, and where my daily television show on health and nutri-
THE JACK LALANNE WAY 17
tion originates, I see the most beautiful women and most hand-
some men in the world. It is no accident, of course, that they
are beautiful and handsome. Their careers demand that they
be, and that they stay that way.

I'll let you in on another little secret now. Some of the biggest
Hollywood names are looking over your shoulder right now as
you read this. They need, and want, this book for the selfsame
reasons you do. Many stars have discovered at last that plastic
surgery, the wizardry of makeup and trick camera angles can't

keep sparkle in their eyes or spring in their step forever.
Like you, they wish to be born anew. They know it is possible.

CHAPTE .3
Some Personal History
I must intrude here with my own story, for it illustrates the

miracle I promise can be yours if you work for it.
I had a terrible start in life. As a teen-ager, I was surely the

most unattractive kid in California. My health was bad and it
reflected inevitably in my personality. As bad health and dis-

figurement warp the personalities of most of their victims.
For years I had an unsightly case of pimples . . . had to
wear arch supports and special braces for my shoulders. I suf-
fered from blinding headaches (glasses didn't help), from

chronic constipation which drained all my energies, and from
such violent tempers I actually tried three times to kill my
18
brother Norman. I was a little guy, remember, and every kid in

the block beat up on me. (Even the girls.) But do you know
what? Secretly I almost grieved my life away because I yearned
so for people to admire me. And I wanted terribly to be an
athlete.
In my despair one night, I got down on my knees and prayed

to God to let me be born anew. It happened, too, though not
through burning bushes or quick miracles. I was shown the way,
just as I now am trying to show you. Once I saw it, I worked
for it with all my heart and spirit.
Today, in my forties, I know no man who is getting more fun
out of life and I'm sure none is healthier. (I recently sailed
through the physical exam for a whopping insurance policy.)

I can, if I choose, dance the night away, arise at 5 a.m., and do a
vigorous day's work without even yawning. (You'll be doing it,
too, once you discover the way to control the wonderful recuper-
ative powers of your body.)
Now, rather than being a chronic patient, I am the doctor's
helper. These dedicated men have been trying for years to
convince people they should take a little exercise (maybe no
more than our Magic 3) and pay attention to their habits of
The busy doctor today doesn't have time to go much
eating.
further, to outline plans of exercise or how to prepare meals

which are both delicious and healthful. You aren't really sick.
How, then, can you expect your doctor to sit down and tell you
how to tone up this muscle or that one? Truthfully, wouldn't
you be too embarrassed to say to your physician: "Doctor, it's
nothing serious really — I guess. It's just that my husband — well,
he doesn't glance at me quite the way he does at some of the

girls on the street. Can you tell me a quick, easy way to firm up
my hips and improve my bustline?"
You wouldn't do that at all. Any more than a grown man with
a reputation in his business or profession would tell his family
physician: "Doc, I know I'm 50 years old, but would it be so
bad to have a physique I could show off at the beach?" I'm
aware of these thoughts, as I say, because I know you.
When I learned the secrets you seek, I made physical culture
my career. I've been at it more than 20 years. I work at it every
day, all day, and at night, because it brings me the fullest
measure of joy. (The joy of being happily alive.) If there's any
fun greater than that, it lies for me in seeing these things work
for other people. For you.
I am, as I say, happy and healthy and enjoy complete peace
of mind. I say to you they are yours for the taking. You will,
in fact, take them off these pages. You will be born again — you'll
be a new person —by the time you've finished this book and
diligently applied its principles.
How can I be so sure? Because it happened to me.

By now you may logically be asking: Why all this fuss for
people Jack LaLanne has never even seen? Why write a book
on daily health habits for someone he may never see? Is it all
for money, perhaps? The answer to that is no, of course. My
needs are provided for by my conditioning studio and other
enterprises in which I have taken an interest. For his ego, then?
No again. That part of my life has long since been satisfied by

the little daily contacts of my work.
Just the other day, going to lunch at a Hollywood restaurant,
I happened to meet Ken Murray. "Jack!" he greeted me, as if I
were an old friend, "you were in my home only an hour or so

ago." I was, but through the medium of television. I had never
before had the pleasure of meeting Ken Murray in person.
Many of the movie and television stars, I find, tune to my pro-
gram every morning for tips on nutrition and exercise. I tell
them the selfsame things I am setting forth in this book. The

day after the 1959 Academy Awards Dinner, when newspapers
still were exclaiming at how radiant Bette Davis looked, her
secretary told me Miss Davis had been following my show for
seven weeks and had shed both pounds and inches.
Naturally it is gratifying to learn that a big star attributes
just a little of her glamour to my counseling. Sincerely though,
I will be just as pleased when you can tell me the same thing
after a few weeks. It is you I am reaching through these pages.
. :
Honestly, I have a much more personal reason than you might

think. It goes back to a vow I took many years ago. 1 was re-
minded of it — and my father, John LaLanne — just the other
evening. I was in a famous Hollywood restaurant enjoying a

crisp tossed salad and rare steak I saw this man. He was a
when
handsome chap in his thirties with a fine head of curly black
hair. He was big, too. One look at his broad shoulders gave you
the impression this Adonis was indestructible. That was what

reminded me of Dad.
My father was a too, when he came over from
handsome man,
France. However, he had known poverty in his youth, and when
he married Mother over here, he vowed there would never again
be a lack of food in his house. Nor was there, for he did the
shopping himself and brought home the groceries as a man will,
with no thought of calories or cost, either in money or health.
He didn't skimp. There were four of us but we could have fed
a dozen at any meal. It was Dad who ate the surplus.
Of course it caught up with him. Where once he'd been a
handsome dancing teacher, he went into a sudden decline in
his forties. He had to get glasses. He was losing his hair. He
developed an awkward paunch (Dad loved the story of the

Hunchback of Notre Dame and we started calling him the
"Hunched Front of America.") He had frequent distress from
gas. But he would not quit eating.
He'd stuff himself at the table and flop in a soft chair to listen
to Amos n' Andy. Maybe he'd doze off until ten o'clock. When
he awakened, he would eat again. Though I was only a youngster,
I could see what was happening. I loved my Dad and I pleaded
with him time and again to quit eating so heavily and get some
exercise. By then, though, he wouldn't even play ball in the
evening with Norman and me.
One evening, when he awakened, Dad looked around in
alarm. "Kid," he said, "I don't feel so good. Maybe we'd better
get to the hospital." I rushed him there, saying every prayer I
could think of. Three days later he was dead. Coronary throm-
bosis and cirrhosis of the liver.
Does it make more sense to you now when I say I am inter-
ested in you — in all people and their mothers and dads? I
vowed on the day of my father's funeral that I would do every-

thing inmy power to spare other families this terrible tragedy.
My mother, may God bless her, has been with me all the way.
CHAPTER 4 .
Fat Is the Killer
Excess fat, science tells us, is the killer today. It's as malicious a
growth as cancer, albeit a growth which can be removed safely
and relatively easily. Our doctors tell us every day to remove
excess fat, or die.* And every day new murders are compounded
in the American kitchen.
Consider the Case of the Pared Potato. It is re-enacted almost
every afternoon somewhere in every city. Probably in your home,
* In the course of my work I've read many books on the subject of fat
and cholesterol. One of the best, clearly presented and most useful is The
Low-Fat Way to Health and Longer Life by Dr. Lester M. Morrison (Engle-
wood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.).
23
—

too. Mrs. Housewife is preparing dinner, and she's in a mood.
The television is acting up —probably the picture tube going
and six more payments to be made on it. She had counted on a
few dollars toward a new dress and it won't be there this month.
The children need dental work. And the Joneses across the
street have just driven up in a new car.
Mrs. Housewife is in a murderous mood, then, as she picks

up the paring knife. She looks at the potatoes on the sink and
takes a butcher knife instead. They'll get a paring they won't
forget! As she thinks of her troubles, she slashes at the potatoes,
removing peels big enough to ski on. When she is done, the pile
of peelings is almost as large as the cluster of naked white
potatoes.
Now what does she do? She takes those wonderful peels
which contain nearly all the mineral salts and vitamins of the
potato —and dumps them in the garbage can. I submit this is just
as criminal, certainly as wasteful, as ordering a healthful baked

potato in a restaurant, carefully removing the crisp peel and
eating only the filler. (Personally, I eat the crisp skin and leave
most of the meat.) But Mrs. Housewife is angry and in a mood
for murder.
She brings a pot of water to boil on the stove. And now she
dumps those poor, naked little potatoes into that boiling water.
They boil and boil while she stews on about the state of her
household. After a while, of course, they are dead. But Mrs.
Housewife isn't through yet. Snatching the hot pot from the
stove, she pours the water down the drain. And there, for sure,
went the last vestige of nutrition from those potatoes. Still with
fire in her eye, Mrs. Housewife now seizes the masher and pro-
ceeds to vent the rest of her worry and frustration in smashing
them to a paste. Finally, as her innocent family sits down to the
table, she spreads on 3000 calories of butter or gravy to make

that white goo palatable.
I contend that 3000 calories in one dish is innocent American
homicide. It literally balloons the body with fat, the malicious
killer growth.
YES, PEOPLE ARE (TRAGICALLY) FUNNY
Several years ago, some friends invited me to join them on a

little family picnic. Let's call them the Smiths; they're typical of
so many fine, honest American families.
Being an amateur photographer, I took my cameras along
and got some good pictures of my friends. I'm looking at one
now. In it, Sam, a big, husky guy, is munching on a huge ham-
burger sandwich with French bread. Beside him, Mary, as she
looked then, is passing a slab of chocolate cake to their daughter
Patsy, a rather plump little girl, but cute. Old Duke, their dog,
is nearby contentedly gnawing a bone.
It was a nice outing and we had such a good time I gladly
accepted when Mary Smith called to invite me to another picnic
this year. As usual, I took my cameras. There's quite a change
in the snapshot I'm looking at now — the one from this year's
outing.
First of all, Sam isn't in He dropped dead six months ago.
it.
An unsuspected heart condition. And Mary isn't standing by the

begun to pull her down. Little
picnic table. Arthritis has really
Patsy, not so more like her mother every day.
little any more, is
She's much plumper now, and she's the one passing out the
cake.
The only one unchanged in the two pictures, in fact, is Old
Duke, the dog. He's a little older, of course, though he doesn't
look They tell me he's 15 years old, in fact, which would
it.
make him about 75 by human standards. No one has told him

he's 75, though, so he doesn't know it. A moment after the pic-
ture was snapped, he was off chasing a girl friend.
Fat isn't one of the problems of a dog's life.
OUR CURIOUS BELIEFS

Perhaps it has occurred to you by now that our world is
filled with healthy dogs, well-kept parakeets and miserable

people. We see them crowding hopefully into health food stores
— as if what they needed could be found in a bottle of synthetic
pills — getting out of taxis to hobble into a hospital, trudging up

to psychiatrists' offices, or turning, in despair, to religion.
Many of them will even buy a copy of this book. But what
will they do with it? Will they, like you, immediately practice
the Magic 3, deep breathing, or sensible eating? They'll mean to.
Hell, as you know, is paved with good intentions and the victims
of fat.
"Monday," they'll tell themselves. "I'll start on that program

Monday."
Why Monday, I don't know, although it has become the key
day in many people's weeks. They should see their doctor? They
make an appointment for Monday. The dentist? Monday. Start
physical conditioning? Monday. The trouble and the tendency —
— is, if they miss then, they put it off until next Monday. Person-
ally, I refuse to wait for Monday. I live for today. Now. The
date you've circled on your calendar.
Monday is only one of our curious beliefs. Religion is another.
Don't misunderstand me — I don't for a moment criticize religion.
My life is built on faith and expressed (I hope) in the confident

manner in which I face life. What is curious about religion, to
me, is how some of its practitioners can distort the clear and
beautiful message of the scriptures.
Not long ago, for instance, I went to church with my mother.
The minister was to speak on moderation and temperance, and
naturally I was interested. Unfortunately, I felt, he built his half-
hour sermon into an attack on over-indulgence in alcohol,

tobacco and coffee. "Sinners!" he stormed in his righteousness.
I listened with a part of my mind. The other part followed
my eyes to the body of this man who considered it a sin to
indulge one's self in tobacco and alcohol. He was badly over-
weight, florid of face and noticeably short of breath. I couldn't
help but wonder, as he spoke of temperance and moderation,
whether he, by his eating, wasn't just as sinful as if he gulped
down a fifth of whiskey each day.
Perhaps, as you enter into my program of moderate eating
and moderate exercise for a happy life, you will find added
strength in the meditation used by the good people of Alcoholics
Anonymous:
God grant me serenity to accept things I cannot change,
courage to change things I can, and the wisdom to know the
difference.
A PAID-UP "LIVING" INSURANCE POLICY
I have promised you the possible ways to achieve two things,

happiness and physical well-being, plus living insurance against
disease and an early death. I am thinking of Dr. R, a fine young
man in his thirties. A pathologist, his career is devoted to
examination of the bodies of people who have died unnaturally
or prematurely and to find the reasons why. I met him first a
few years ago when he came to my studio to condition himself
for the rigors of skiing.
Later, a frightful skiing accident was to save his life. He
broke both legs so badly the arteries were exposed. Examining
them in surgery, the doctors made a fearful discovery. These
weren't the normal arteries of a 30-year-old man. They were,
rather, the arteries of a man The reason? They were
of 70.
lined and almost plugged with cholesterol, believed by many
doctors to be the fatty herald of heart attacks. Clearly a diet was
called for.
It was suggested to my pathologist friend that he go on a low
fat diet immediately. He got off animal fats such as butter, cut
eggs to a minimum, ate only lean meats, broiled. The diet per-
mitted no hydrogenized fats such as margarine or mayonnaise.

He was to eat an abundance of raw fruits and vegetables.
He cast off 1 5 pounds in two weeks, then stabilized his weight.
When he was able to work out again, he came back to the studio
and up a nice trim-waisted, muscular physique.
built
Not long ago, Dr. R was telling me he was becoming alarmed

by the number of young people dying from cholosterol-clogged
blood vessels. The word got around. Younger men suddenly
wanted to shed surplus fat. I remember Bill Lee, in particular, a
well-known chain store operator in California, who brought
himself down from 240 to 180 pounds in five weeks. "Jack," he
told me, "I just wanted to be around to see the first man come
back from the moon."
We laughed together, but we knew he had better reasons. As
so many people have, he'd discovered what deadly killers his
appetite was planting in his body.
HOW DO YOU TREAT THE CLOSEST FRIEND

YOU HAVE?
I see I'm letting other people slip into the story. No matter.
They all help to illustrate my philosophy and experience. In a
sense, everyone who has passed this way has been a living
laboratory for us. But let's get back to you and the slave you
were born with, your body.
In reality, your body is the closest friend you have. It works
silently for you 24 hours a day and tries not to complain too
much. After all, its instinct is to feel good and to replace those
of its components which get out of tune. Do people dare abuse
other friends as they do their bodies? Not many do.
Consider your stomach. It accepts whatever foods you give
it and attempts to put them all to work for you. How have you
treated this fine, strong fellow?
See him as the alarm rings in the morning. He's had ten to
12 hours with nothing to do but rest and he's just waiting for
that nice breakfast you should be sending down. And what does
he get? First, a searing billow of cigarette smoke, then a deluge
of hot, black coffee and more smoke, then a horrible jiggling
as you dash off to work.

The morning goes along queasily for him. (Then that coffee
break!) Lunch time comes at last. Now what have you ordered
for him? More coffee, more smoke, some soggy doughnuts or a
greasy, garbagey, hamburger sandwich. (That isn't the only
kind of hamburger, incidentally, which can be prepared.) Some-
—

how Mister Stomach hangs on through the afternoon, getting
more disappointed and a little disgusted.
Comes the dinner hour. A cocktail brings him wide awake.
"Say," he says to himself, "this is more like it — this is living.
The guy upstairs must finally have ideas for a real repast and
everything's going to turn out dandy." You're feeling pretty
hungry yourself, thanks to the cocktail. So what do you do?
You send down ten times more food than he can handle. Includ-
ing, perhaps, 3000 calories worth of mashed potatoes, gravy
and butter (but not ten ounces of real nourishment). Is it any
wonder Mister Stomach is rebelling by the time you get him to
bed? Is it any wonder, after months and years of this treatment,
he becomes irascible and ulcerous?

We can't be right and wrong at the same time, and we can't
be sick and healthy at the same time. Health is a very logical

process. When I learned this years ago, I tried to blueprint the
logic and put it to work. The healthy body I have earned came
logically from diligent work, proper nutrition and self-denial.
It's so logical there can't be any other way.

You can't buy health and vitality in pills. The unhealthiest
people I see every day are in health food stores. I say this with
no intent of criticizing these stores. As a matter of fact, a good
portion of my food budget goes to them. The mistake of some
people, of course, is in kidding themselves that they don't have
to do anything except pop pills or elixirs in their mouths. They
delude themselves — or unscrupulous advertising deludes them
into believing the Fountain of Youth, so long sought by Ponce
de Leon, has at long last been located in health food stores. It
hasn't. Blindly eating carbons, sugars and starches, getting no

exercise, gulping synthetic vitamins and ignoring the natural
wants of the body — these aren't the guideposts on our road to
health, happiness and peace of mind.

It's vital now to sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk with
ourselves. (Just as you had a person-to-person visit in your
mirror at the beginning of this story. ) We must decide, each of
us, what it is we really want out of life. Money? Social position?
Special education? Health and grace? Or simply the capacity to
have fun in whatever way you choose. Determining this is a
good mental exercise in itself.
Maybe you just want to be a bon vivant with the energy to

play all night. Or maybe you want to improve your mind. I'm not
trying to reform anyone. I believe in live and let live. I'm only
trying to help you get what you want. book
If it's money, this
won't help directly. (Though you'll get from it the energy and
clarity of mind to pursue other goals. ) If it's social position you
desire, the book again can only be an indirect aid. (A smiling,
graceful man or woman is socially desirable anywhere.) I care
little for social station myself. I do care, however, when an

unattractive body keeps you from attracting the opposite sex;
and it's my concern when you can't enjoy a million dollars in the
bank because you're down with "pooped-out-itis."

I said you can't buy health in pills. You can buy it with
thought and directed effort. The answer is to examine your life
as it has been and make substitutions. Substitute open windows

for closed windows. Honey for sugar. Simple exercises, of which
I'll give you plenty, for slothfulness. Fruit and vegetable juices
for soda pop and excessive coffee. In other words, good habits
for bad ones.
These are the positives I preach.
CHAPTE R t> •
The Greatest Ninety Day
Wonder of All
You agreed at the outset that you did wish you could be born
again to a new body, vibrant health, physical grace, a new look
and outlook. By now you're beginning to see that it can come
to pass, and how. As you know, every cell in our bodies, with
the exception of the nervous system, is rebuilt every 90 days. That
means a new body literally.
You have circled this date on the calendar as the anniversary

of your "Rebirthday." This is the chief difference between you
and so many other people.
How many times, on meeting a friend, have you asked: "How
are you today?" And he answers : "I don't feel so hot today, but
31
— " —

I'll be OK tomorrow." Will he, really? Why should he? What is
he doing to cause that, other than hoping half-heartedly? The

world waddles under false hopes like that.
My Bible tells me that faith alone isn't enough. It must be

accompanied by works. So I offer you faith, hope and works. It
starts the moment you begin to do something anything —

toward the objective of health and well-being you've chosen. You
have faith already, in the objective and in yourself. You marked
it on your calendar and said, in effect: "Today I am going to start
being a new person."

God will help. He always helps those who try to help them-
selves. This I know. When my Dad died, Mother was stunned.
"Why did God take him?" she cried over and over. "He never
did anything wrong. He was good to people
—
After a while, I was able to show her that it wasn't God's
doing. Dad did things — the wrong things to himself, by over-
eating and mistreating his body. He didn't do things for himself.
He didn't accept the choice of a rebirth. Mother did. She
changed overnight —her habits of eating and exercising —her
outlook on life. In that sense she was born anew. Today, at 77,
she is just about the happiest and healthiest woman I know.
WHO'S TOO OLD?
Is it too late, you ask, to make major changes my appear-

in
ance? To undertake a program of reproportioning my body? Of

reaching out for the cosmetic appearances of youth?
It is a law of nature that the more you use your body the
more it improves. I like to use a door hinge as an example. Let's
say you take a hinge off a door or cabinet for some reason.
Probably you drop it in the basement or shop and forget all
about it. Slowly it rusts and freezes in the position you left it.
Later, perhaps, you need a hinge for something else and re-
member the old one. It won't bend. What do you do? You pour
on oil to lubricate the stiff joint and force it by bending it back
and forth until it works almost as well as it once did. It's the
A visit with my wonderful

mother at her ranch in
Santa Rosa, California. At
77 years young she's just
about the healthiest and
happiest woman I know.
same with our bodies. The movement we give them is exercise;

our blood is the lubricant.
What, then, does age really mean? In my conditioning studio
I have men in their fifties, sixties and seventies, in addition to
those in their twenties, thirties and forties, and teen-agers. The

women's department draws ladies in the same age groups. Some
of my "old" men are the strongest in the gym. Several of them
turned to physical conditioning after nervous breakdowns,
arthritis, cancer surgery, tuberculosis and other ailments.
I'll never forget the day Mr. B hobbled into my office. He
still was shaken from an experience he'd had. Mr. B suffered
from arthritis so bad he couldn't lift his arms in front of him.
One day, however, when his wife was out shopping, he tried to
take a bath. He managed to get into the tub and turn on the
water — it was the hot water unfortunately —and suddenly
realized he couldn't raise his hands to turn off the faucet. He
might have been scalded then and there if it weren't for the
timely arrival of his wife. She was the one who urged him to
come to me.
Here was the old story of the hinge. I put him on a series of
pulley exercises to help unlock the stiff joints — a possibility, it
seemed, in his case. Months later, and though he was in his
seventies, Mr. B decided to resume the contracting business from

which he had retired. He felt so good, in fact, he bought a
sports car and drives himself to his jobs, jaunty as a movie star in
his beret.
Another, a sheet metal man in his fifties, was terribly
emaciated from months in bed after surgery for rectal cancer.
Everyone told Scotty he was lucky to be alive. I didn't look at
it that way. I reminded him he was alive, and why not enjoy it.
Not long ago, I stood in the doorway watching as Scotty worked

out on one of our benches, slowly raising one hundred-pound
dumbbells, one in each hand.
Just the other day a nurse called me. She wanted to tell me
about her patient, a 7 8 -year-old lady who was confined to a
wheel-chair. Every morning, she said, the lady asked to be
wheeled in front of the television set where she could watch me
lead exercises. She couldn't do many of them, to be sure, but her
hands moved, she kicked her feet a little and bobbed her head.
She wasn't too old to try.
I look at it this way. The years you've lived are gone, like all
the $10 bills you've spent and forgotten. You can't do a thing
with those years except remember them. The years you have
now are currency you can use. They're as good as new.
I DON'T BELIEVE IN THE MYTH OF HEREDITY
You say Uncle Joe died of a heart condition and Aunt Sue
was diabetic? The inference is that you are doomed, thereby, to
these or similar ailments because of heredity. I don't buy that.
I like to believe I have a body entirely different from the bodies

of Uncle Joe and Aunt Sue. Furthermore, I have given my body
all the advantages of nutrition and exercise that Uncle Joe and
Aunt Sue didn't have, or wouldn't use. I ask you to look at it
the same way.
The thing we do inherit, I insist, is bad family habits espe- —
cially the bad eating habits —
of our ancestors. Grandmother's
favorite recipe comes down through the ages, defying analysis
or criticism by trained scientists and nutritionists, to load avoir-
dupois on those of us who follow. Nations are known for their
traditional cookery. They're also afflicted with it. A lot of it they
would be better to forget.
I offer you herewith an opportunity to break bad hereditary
patterns. Accept the offer as your new inheritance, coming as it
does with the day circled on your calendar. Begin with this book
to build your own healthy cuisine.
How long will it The longest
take? That's entirely up to you.
journey begins with that first step and we've taken it. Look again
at your goal — —
your ideal and remember the mathematical law
that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points.
I'm with you all the way.
CHAPTER 6 •
Now I'll Show You

The Fun of Exercising
The Jack LaLanne Way
Consistent activity. There's the key to it all. We must give these

bodies of ours daily directed activity. Several times a day, in
fact. When you learn a few simple-to-follow movements — every
movement has a meaning all its own —you can work on cheek
muscles, tummy, ankles, any part of the body as you like. You
can do this, furthermore, while watching television (a wonderful
time for a relaxed workout), while doing the housework, even
while driving the car. You don't need to sign up for a body-
building course at a gym. Every bit of equipment we'll need, as
you shall see, is near at hand.
36
First the Warmup
The human body, like any complicated mechanism, works

smoothly only when its parts are coordinating and the lubrica-
tion flowing. My students know the value of this. Personally, I
like to start the day with a brisk morning run around my neigh-
borhood with my big white shepherd dog, Happy. (Don't worry.
I don't expect that of you.) But you can see the effectiveness of
it. When your car has been standing, you run the motor a while
before you drive. Baseball players take more than an hour before
the game loosening their muscles and rehearsing their bodies in
the rhythm of plays, throwing the ball and batting. After that,
everything goes smoothly.
Let's Run A Little
You don't need to leave the room for this. Just start trotting,
right where you are. Trot around the furniture, if you like, or
simply jog up and down in one spot. Perhaps you would be
more comfortable in other clothes. Go slip into your bathing
suit. But trot all the way to the closet and keep trotting as you
step into the suit. Pump your arms. Knees higher. (Just try to
worry about the bills or Junior's report card while you're running.
Try Not so easy to do, is it?)
it!
Lonesome? All right, trot in to your mirror and accompany

yourself. Knees higher. Faster. You're really stimulating your
heart and lungs now. Don't worry, there won't be bad after-
affects. There will be good ones!
That's enough now. Take a deep breath. Fling your arms up
and back and breathe in through your nose. Fill your lungs until
your rib cage stretches. Hold it. Now exhale.
Hop To It
Let's give the heart and lungs another shot of pep. We'll hop.
Try it gently at first, four times on the right leg. Catch your
breath and hop on the left leg. One. Two. Three. Four. Count
it to yourself. Now try another set. (We'll make this one of
our Magic 3's.) Right leg —count— one-two-three-four. Now the
left leg. Feel it working down the lower leg? That's what we want.
Now one more set. Right leg then left leg. Rest and take that
good, deep breath.
A few of these each day will fill out the calves of those legs
and trim down the ankles. Who ever thought you'd hop to a
beauty treatment? Now who's smiling at whom in the mirror?
Some Jumping Jacks
Here is the warmup exercise with which I open my television
show every day. Arms at sides, feet together, head and shoulders
back. Now jump up quickly and spread your feet. At the same
time clap your hands together over your head. Now back — feet
together and hands at your sides. Repeat. Feet out and clap
hands. Feet in and hands at sides. Do it in rhythm. Count as you
go. Up, down, one-two. Up-down, three-four. Head back, Stom-
ach in. Up-down, seven-eight. And rest, nine-ten. Watch in the
mirror and you'll see you're working just about every muscle in
your body. Take that good, deep breath. Exhale through your
mouth.
Chorus Girl Kicks
Here's one to start reproportioning part of your body while

we're still warming up. You've seen how trim chorus girls are,
how light on their feet and agile, and what beautiful figures they
have. It's sort of funny. They're getting the most wonderful
exercise they could have at the very moment they're doing their
work. I recommend chorus girl kicks both to men and women.

They're great for the thigh and waistline. They stretch the hip
and spine. (Just try lifting your foot high without feeling your
stomach muscles tighten.)
The idea of the exercise is to kick your foot high across your
body. Start with the right foot. Kick. How close did you get it to
)
your left shoulder? Not very close? Well, try again. A little
better? All right. Try the left leg now —keep it straight as you
kick up and across toward the right shoulder. Three or four
of these with each leg every morning will loosen you up for all
the day's tasks.

While we're thinking of chorus girls, by the way, let's learn
a simple little exercise to improve the bust line. (Men will find
it strengthens the pectoral muscles on the chest and arrests that
sag.) Stand with your arms straight out from the shoulders on
each side. Head back. Now work your arms forward and back,
forward and back; straight from the shoulder and parallel to the
floor. Keep the arms stiff. Forward and back. Feel those chest
muscles pull? Try three sets of these, counting to ten in each set.
( One-forward. Two-back.
Would you like an alternate exercise for this bustline develop-

ment? All right. Hold your arms as if you were going to row a
boat, elbows out to the sides, hands in front of you and clenched.
Now raise the elbows to shoulder height. And row your boat!
Out, back. Out, back. Elbows higher. Head back. Out, back.
Ten times and rest.
Inhale through the nose. Deeper. Hold it. Exhale.

While you're resting, we'll talk a moment. I have a friend
who bought a big, expensive automobile a few years ago. He paid
a lot of money for it. After he'd had it a few days, and the
novelty was gone, he began to treat the car about the way he
treats himself. He never had the spark plugs changed. He bought
any grade of gasoline for it, though its high-compression engine
called for the highest octane. He got spots on the upholstery; he
didn't have them cleaned. He picked up dents over all that
sleek metal body. He didn't take time to have them removed.
After six months, the car looked old. And it acted old. It
started hard. It sputtered in traffic and struggled on the hills.
It simply didn't have the zip it should have to get out and roll.
What happened then was natural. My becamefriend dissatisfied
with his big car (just as people sometimes become dissatisfied
with their out-of -shape bodies).

With a car, you can trade it in quickly on a new model. My
friend took his to a used car lot. The manager offered exactly
half what he'd paid for that fine car only six months before. A
week later, my friend was driving past the used car lot and saw
a car that looked something like the one he'd traded. It was
the same model, in fact, the same color, and it had the same
license number. But it looked like a new car.
"Of course it's your old car," the manager readily admitted.
"It wasn't in half as bad shape as you thought. We spent a few
dollarshammering out the dents, cleaning up the upholstery and
replacing the tires. After a tune-up and new spark plugs, it's as
good as new."
This reminds me of so many
They have their little people.
pot at their waistline, their double chin, and rolls of fat where
their belt should fit. They lack energy and vitality. Like the car,
it wouldn't take any time at all for me to help them firm up all
—
around to give them a thorough physical tune-up and send —
them out as good as new.
I thought of this again the other day as I was having my
groceries checked out at the register. A housewife just ahead

happened to recognize me from my television show. She smiled
as if she'd met an old friend. Then she told me her story. Her
husband worked all day at his job while she was home tending
the two children, making beds, doing washings, answering
questions and all the other exhausting things housewives must
do. There's a lonesomeness about this job that few men appre-
ciate. By when her husband returned from work, she
evening,
was mentally and physically tired. They weren't getting the joy
they should have out of each other and their marriage.
"I was afraid something serious had happened to us," she
confessed to me there at the supermarket check stand. "And

then you came into our home, by television. You talked of this
very thing and recommended minerals and vitamins. I felt you
were speaking directly to me when you said I could look better
and feel better, that it was all a matter of pep and energy. I took
your little exercises and I guess I talked to you while we worked
out. In just a few days, I felt tiptop. All the little irritations were
falling away. I thank you sincerely, Jack LaLanne."
Believe me, I thanked her. This was exactly the result I hoped
people were getting from my television visits with them. It's
exactly what I hope I am beginning to do for you through these

pages.
TRIMNASTICS: SECRET WEAPONS FOR

TROUBLE SPOTS
I told you this book wouldn't be like any other book on your
shelves. Now I'll prove it. Oh, I know you have cook books and
do-it-yourself books which tell you how to do this and that.
But do they participate literally and physically in the doing?
This one does. We're going to use it now for some "Trimnastics,"
the specific little exercises I want you to take to shape that body
of yours in the image of your ideal.
You've heard how professional models learn balance and
poise by walking with a book on their head. We're going to do
better than that. You're going to exercise with this book on your
head.
Probably you'll want to try it before your mirror. With the
book balanced on your head, you will raise your right leg four
times, full length in front of you, then the left leg four times. I
want you to keep that leg straight and bring it all the way up
or as nearly as you can today. Let's try it —One, up. Now down.
Two, up. Down. Three up, and down. Four. Feel the tummy
muscles tighten? How can you keep a paunch when you do this
every day? Try again. (We'll do a Magic 3 series on this, too.)
Get the foot a little higher. Left leg now. Higher; higher. You
can't cheat with this exercise, can you?
Now let's work on that "back porch" — that gathering of the fat
where you sit. Balance the book on your head. (Perhaps you'd
better have a straight chair close by to steady you. Just hold
lightly to its back.) Now slowly swing the right leg out behind
you. Gently. Full length. Now down. We'll do this to the count
of four and in a series of three. First the right leg, then the left.
Straighten the leg behind you as it lifts. The straighter it goes, and
the higher, the stronger will be that natural girdle you're building.
Now we'll get to the thighs and hips. They need a little firming.
Steady the book on your head. Pull in your tummy. (To men:
"Suck in the gut!") Now do four slow knee bends. Down; up.
Down; Keep the book balanced. Down;
up. Slower. up. Down;
up. And Take a deep breath and exhale.
rest.
What was the last good book that had you doing this? Gone
With The Wind? Well, let's call this "Gone With The Fat."
Do you want better looking legs? That part from the toes to
the knees? The book will help us again. Stand with your heels
book on your head. Now rise on your
together, toes out. Set the
toes to the count: one-two, three-four. Up-down. Up-down.
Repeat this as often as you think of it during the day and feel
those calves go to work.
Haven't you seen a girl in a swimsuit with a figure that would
be perfect but for the flabby inner surface of her thighs? Or a
bowed effect between the knees and groin? There's a way to firm
and develop that inner thigh. This exercise also works on the
little pot that some people have on their lower abdomen. We'll
use the book again and a straight chair. (See what a fine
gymnasium you have in your home?)
Sit firmly on the chair. Clench the book between your knees.
Now grasp the chair firmly and bring your knees up to your
chest (or as close to it as you can at this point). Up-down. Up-
down. One-Two-Three-Four. Knees to chest. (Do a Magic 3
set, each to the count of four). Let's try again now, a little
slower. As you go more slowly, noticehow your muscles

tremble to the effort. That's great! The more you can make
them tremble, the more good you're getting from these Trim-
nasties. You can't go too slow.
Now we're going to do a little remodeling on your chin and
neck line. You'll think I'm really shoving this book down your
throat on this one. In fact, you'd better run and get a clean
handkerchief before we start. You'll want to protect your book,

so drape the handkerchief over the edge of it.
I want you to lie across the seat of the chair. Plant your upper
back solidly on the seat, feet and legs bracing you in front and
your head projecting over the other side. Wiggle your head up
and down a few times to be sure you have clearance. Now —and
this is no gag — put the book in your mouth. The edge, that is,
you've covered with the handkerchief. Press your hands close

to your hips. Lift your head a few inches. Feel the throat muscles
tighten? Lower your head. Now let's do it to the count: At One-
up, Two-head down. Three-head up. Four-head down. That's
one set of these Book-of-the-Mouth-Club exercises. We'll do
three, and those chin wrinkles will really scream for help. Bite
the book hard —and feel it firm the jaw muscles. Head-up. Down.
Up. Down. Bite harder. This Trimnastic wears away jowls.
Head-up on the count of One. Down-Up. Three sets in all,
remember. Tomorrow you can take the same position and, using
the same count, turn your head from side to side. You'll almost
hear double chins falling off on the floor.
Why not run in and take a shower now? There's nothing more
invigorating after a good workout than a shower. Start it warm,
then turn abruptly to the cold. As you dry yourself with a rough
towel, you'll realize what a beauty treatment you've had. Your
skin will tell you.
As you set off down the street to do your shopping, think back
over these exercises, and I'll bet you'll smile. A smile as you
set out to shop? Isn't that, of itself, a great big sign of returning
happiness? I told you we were going to bring fun into your
life. These little Trimnastics of mine (they're yours now, too)

are sort of funny. But they work.
If I were to walk down Fifth Avenue, in New York, or Market
Street, in San Francisco, whistling and smiling as I went, people
probably would think I was insane. Why? Because that isn't the
pattern in a world afflicted with Pooped-out-itis. I do it anyway.
I whistle and smile when I walk because I feel like it. I feel
good. And it delights me when one of my students learns to perk
up those jaw muscles and smile, too.
Too many members of the race of man have lost one of their
oldest and most important instincts. The instinct to be active.
Put them in a confining job or occupation and they limit their

bodily movements. Inactivity is the essence of decay. Wild
creatures instinctively know this. Take a fish out of a pond and
put it in a bowl in your living room. Many times a day, instinc-
tively, it will dart around and around the bowl. A squirrel in a
cage thoroughly enjoys the treadmill that gives it exercise and

motion. A parakeet in its cage performs acrobatics all the live-
long day. Put men in prison cells (or offices) and they'll prob-
ably sit and mope. Their minds can soon become as sick as their
bodies. You have make them exercise.

to
That's one reason I smile when I see my students striding

along with a grin on their face. They're coming back swiftly to
what nature intended them to be.
—
• c HAPTER / •
The Great Madison Avenue
Brainwash— and How to
Resist It
You have looked in your mirror to see yourself in relation to

you.As we turn now to another big phase of my plan for
your rebirth, I suggest you look at our society, the life about us,
into which you must fit.
Statistics tell us our life span is increasing. In truth, we are

keeping people breathing longer. But are they really alive? Look
at the men and women about you in their thirties, forties and
fifties. How many of them are merely subsisting? How many are
living cripples from bad hearts, bad backs, poor digestion?
Isn't there a sameness about them? I recall how my mother
before we changed our eating habits —used to spread out the
45
dough for cookies. When she had the raw materials ready, she
would take her cookie cutter and stamp them out. A dozen, two
dozen, three dozen. All the same.
Americans look to me as if they were turned out by an endless
cookie cutter. Why is this so, you ask? I think it's because we're
victims of Madison Avenue nutrition. Advertising hucksters,
not nutritionists, have taken control of our eating habits. (Iron-
ically, theirs is the profession known for ulcers, nerves, tranquil-
izers, pep-up pills and breakdowns.)
They work from million-dollar budgets, convincing us to eat
thisand drink that. They brainwash us, through radio, television,
the magazines, every media of communication. They persuade
us— if we're not wary —
to eat junk almost any doctor and dentist
would advise us to avoid. We look at the same TV shows and

magazines, we of the mass market, and that's why Americans
are coming to look all alike.
Look through any of the current popular magazines. (Circu-

lations range from 1,000,000 to 15,000,000, but probably four
times that number of Americans read these books.) On the cover
you may find a blurb for the newest "Crash Diet." Heed the
advertisements and you'll need such a diet, if not a doctor.
Except for the automobiles and household appliances (at
times there's some question about their beneficial effect

also
on our national health), what do you find? Do you find pages

calculated to build healthy energy? Look again, carefully.
The inside front cover is likely to be devoted to whiskey or
cigarettes. A little farther along, you come to starchy spaghetti
and meat balls, Now some

or rich, creamy dessert preparations.
carbonated, syrupy soft drinks, more beer and whiskey, and
dry breakfast cereals which have been over-cooked, bombed,
detonated or otherwise devitalized until they are what I call
"foodless" food.
We nutritionists know how the body protests when you don't
eat good foods. It develops an odor, for one thing. So, quite
logically, here are ads for deodorants. (A night club comic
friend of mine uses a gag about the newest deodorant, which
kill
Take a look at the wonderfully life-giving vegetables grown by

my mother who isan expert organic gardener. It's such a shame
that highly advertised prepared food products— what I call "food-
less" foods— have all but driven fresh fruits and vegetables out
of the average American diet.
causes you to vanish. "They can still smell you," he says, "but
they can't see you.") How do you get some of these foodless
foods out of your body? Do you dynamite? No, there are ads
for laxatives.
Nutritionists also know that if you don't eat properly you are
going to have aches and pains. Eat all the white-sugar, white-
flour products you see advertised and you'll know what I mean.
—

The Madison Avenue "nutritionists" know this, too. They
have other budgets devoted to pain killers: aspirins, stomach
pills and alkaline fizzers. (It doesn't make sense, if you have a
tack in your shoe, do you take an aspirin or go after the tack?)
I have read through many current magazines at a sitting and
watched all the television shows on my part of the air without
finding a huckster item really good for human beings. No
I must take that back. Here and there you do see a product which
boasts how it has preserved all the natural minerals and vitamins,
saved the proteins and preserved Nature's bounty as it was given
by the good Lord. The product? Pet food. It isn't for human
consumption.
I don't really mean to be over-critical of the hucksters. If we
can look at their words objectively and refuse to be utterly brain-
washed — if we add something to our bodies for all the things
the pleasures of our society take away —then not too much harm
will be done. This body of ours can take a lot of punishment.
Perhaps none at all if we remember way Nature
that the repairs
our bodies is through the blood stream and what we put into it.
DO THIS IF YOU SMOKE

I have never smoked, myself. But I know many people do,
and presumably they find a solace and pleasure in it. If you
smoke and wish to continue to, that is your business. I believe,
as I have said, in live and let live.
Speaking strictly as the nutritionist and physical culturist,

however, I should point out that smoking seems to do certain
adverse things to your body. (Without getting into the lung
cancer debate.) It irritates sinuses, desensitizes taste buds, and
evidence seems to show it may drain Vitamin C from the blood
stream. This in turn could have a negative effect on skin texture,
the eyes, gums and heart. It might cut energy, vitality and
endurance.
How can we counter-act these possibilities? With extra Vita-
min C. Drink more orange, tomato and grapefruit juice. Eat more
bell pepper, cabbage and papaya. These natural foods are rich
in Vitamin C. Depending on your budget and individual need,
you may take Vitamin C tablets.
IF YOU DRINK
The cocktail has become almost a symbol of our society and
times. I do not, as the preacher I mentioned, decry it as a sin,
although I do, of course, recognize it as a dangerous temptation
for some people. Alcohol is a concentrated sugar. To digest it,
you must have Vitamin B. Since the body's natural way is to

heal itself, you may help in the process by taking brewers
yeast (whether going out for only a few drinks or a big night).
Otherwise, you invite a hangover with its psychological low, and
tired-knocked-out feeling.
When friends ask what to do, I tell them to mix a tablespoon
of brewers yeast with orange or tomato juice before going out
for the evening.Take another glass when you come home.
Wheat germ is another source of that necessary Vitamin B.
Mix it with one of the blender drinks to be found later in this
book. Or simply mix a tablespoon of wheat germ with skimmed
milk and drink it the morning after. Another way would be to
spread it over your cereal. Better yet, use yellow corn meal
as your cereal. Cover it with honey, wheat germ and skimmed
milk.
HANGOVER BREAKFAST
Probably the best specific I can give you for a hangover is
the Jack LaLanne Morning-After Meal I worked out for a
friend. It is cool, sweet, pleasant to the taste, and bound to give
you a quick comeback. As my friend says, "it really puts out the
fire." I offer it to you herewith:
Into your automatic blender put a teaspoon or tablespoon
(depending on your appetite) of brewers yeast, soya powder,
wheat germ, honey, non-fat milk solids, soya or safflower oil.
(You may cut the ingredients to make the blend thicker or
thinner, as you like.) Put in a banana for flavor and mix with
skimmed milk or your favorite fruit juice.
Pleasant? You don't have to have a hangover from alcohol
to enjoy this breakfast. Try it any time you need a quick pickup.
COFFEE HOUND?
I don't hold with those who say coffee is terrible, though I
don't drink it myself. No question but that it is associated with

nerves — it's a stimulant —and often is the beverage of nervous
people. Again, as with alcohol, the B Vitamin will help you
feel better when you drink too much coffee. Liver and brewers
yeast are good. You may even find, when taking them in
quantity, that you don't have the urge to drink so much coffee.
THE BEST STIMULANT I KNOW

The best stimulant I know is neither alcohol nor coffee. It is
a shower. Whenever I'm a little depressed — all of us do get

that way once in a while — I take a quick shower. Turn the water
on as hot as you can stand it to open the pores, dilate the blood
vessels and bring the blood to the surface of the skin. Then turn
the water abruptly to cold. As cold as you can stand it. This is
a stimulation that will last longer than any I know of. You just
can't worry while you're drying yourself from a hot-cold shower.
GETTING THE MOST OUT OF NATURE'S RECHARGER
Sleep is Nature's recharger, though there are no set rules for

sleeping. One individual needs eight hours a night, another nine,
and still another only two or three. (When I first changed my way
of life I slept 12 to 14 hours a day and felt worse for it.) Now
I say a little prayer thanking God for a healthy body and a happy
life, compose myself and fall into a sound, restful sleep. I often
take naps during the day, though not at set times. I believe every-
one should develop this nap habit. You can, with practice, drop
off for just five minutes, in a chair, at your desk, anywhere.
Some of the most successful doctors, lawyers and theatrical stars
I know do this several times a day and wake up refreshed.
Thomas Edison attributed his seemingly endless store of creative

energy to this nap habit.
ANOTHER LITTLE LESSON FROM MAN'S

BEST FRIEND
You've heard people say how they "jump out of bed." (As if
that were the acme of physical condition.) I don't go along with

them. These are the people, I'm afraid, who run out of gas before
the day is over. (Perhaps I'm just suspicious of anyone who leaps
right into a thing as if he were going to build Rome in a day or
get everything done by Thursday.) I believe we should get up
slowly from our nap or night's sleep.
Take a couple of good deep breaths to fill your lungs with
energy-giving oxygen. Then stretch. First gently, then mightily.
(Have you ever watched a dog get up from sleeping? Notice

how he takes his time and unkinks every muscle before he
moves?) I like to lie quietly a moment or two, breathing deeply
and thinking calmly of the next tasks I have to do, arranging
them my mind in orderly fashion. Then I reach out my arms
in
and legs, and my neck, as far as they will stretch. I work my toes
and my fingers and the muscles of my face (by grimacing and
clenching my teeth) Only then am I ready to hop up and resume
.
the tasks of the day.
ARE YOU MISSING THE KEY MEAL OF THE DAY?
Later I will go into specific foods for breakfast, but I should
like to say a word here about this meal. It is the key meal of the
day, so far as I am concerned, and all my students concur.
The fuel you take on the first thing in the morning will run your
body motor for the all-important start of the day. It will be
My dog "Hap" has never read a book or magazine article on health care
most of our pets, he's a marvelous example of vibrant
in his life but, like
good health and takes care of himself good like a pooch should. There
are many health lessons we frantic, tired out humans can learn from our
pets and you'll find several discussed in the text.
enough fuel, or not enough, good tone-setting fuel or foodless,

depending on you.
The ideal breakfast is simple, satisfying and scientific. Start
with fresh fruit or fruit juice. Follow with any lean meat — or
liver or fish — or with eggs, poached or scrambled. If you like
bread, have a piece of whole wheat toast with a little honey.

(But no jam or jelly.) An excellent breakfast, if you eat at
restaurants, is chicken-liver omelet.

The key to the whole thing, of course, is getting your blood
sugar up for the day ahead. The secret is not to eat sweets or
toast (for the starches which turn to sugar in digestion). These
will bring up the blood sugar, but for only a half hour or so.
Then it dips and you're out for your coffee break with pastries
to do it again. Carbohydrates from fruit, plus protein from the
meat or eggs, digests slowly. The blood sugar stays up for hours,
or well past lunch time. Obviously, you keep down your caloric
intake and avoid building weight.
-
CHAPTE R O •
Planning Our Sculpturing
For New Beauty
Some pages back, I suggested that you think of the sculptor

who takes a mass of clay and, using creative ideas, shapes it
into a thing of beauty. We

now ready to start sculpturing on
are
your body. Whether you are now underweight or overweight,
(see my Ideal Weight Chart), we must redistribute areas of
your body as the sculptor does his clay.
This is living tissue we're working with, however. We can't

simply carve off a hunk and throw it away or put it in another
place. We will work, instead, with simple exercises and easy-to-

follow menus.
You will notice I don't say "diet." I hate the word; it's a hor-
rible word. I don't believe in dieting and I don't permit my
54
students to practice it. I believe in a happy balance of quality

eating which is scientific nutrition. I want, and expect, you to
eat just as high quality food as you can get. The quantity will
depend on your needs for your activity and livelihood.
The girl who sits glumly down to her head of lettuce every
day, as dieters know, is a sad chick. It isn't long before she be-
comes nervous and irritable. Soon she is half-sick and disillu-
sioned, convinced she can't have the beautiful body of which she
has dreamed, and goes back to all her old habits. There are in this
world an amazing number of girls with fantastic will power
but no brains. They force themselves to diet, substitute cigarettes
and coffee for balanced meals, and spend half their lives feeling
rotten. If it were me, I'd much rather be fat and sloppy and feel
good.
If your problem in sculpturing your body is to take off some
excess "clay," the procedure is as logical as health. You must eat
fewer calories than your body is burning in its normal activity.
In that way, spending your surplus of avoirdupois, you will lose

pounds and useless fat.
There are two factors to consider here: Appetite and Hunger.
Hunger is the natural calling of your body for the foods it needs
to perform properly. Appetite, however, is the unnatural,
mechanical thing our uncontrolled minds build up in us over
the years. When the clock says 12 Noon or 6 PM, we eat
whether we're hungry or not.
Nature's creatures never do that. You may put out a dish of
food for your dog or cat any time you wish. He won't eat it until
his natural hunger tells him it is time.
When we are paring off the excess, we will run into a certain
mental resistance (all within ourselves). The first day or two,
for example, deviating as we are from normal habits, we may
seem to feel hunger pangs and be lacking in pep. This is pretty
much an appetite thing. As Shakespeare says, "It, too, will pass
away."
For some, it is over in a day. For others, it may take two days.
The longest any of my students describes this weakness and
craving is three days. Then the vitality seems to flood back and
they say they haven't felt so wonderful in years. They notice a
tranquility, a toning-up and well-being, as if a load of cares
suddenly was dropping away. Those coming onto the program in
reasonably good shape tell me they have no days of weakness or
uncertainty. They feel fine from the start.
All reducing plans should, of course, be accompanied by

vitamins and supplements. The worst thing with "diets" — the
factor that can make them dangerous — is that dieters subsisting
on little but raw vegetables don't get sufficient minerals and
vitamins for the body's needs (they simply aren't there in
quantity) or enough protein. To this I would add my mother's
prescription: Use plenty of Vitamin F-in-G — Faith in God.
There may be hours when you feel sorry for yourself. That's
the time to talk to yourself. Ask yourself the question: "Am I a

child who must have everything I want? Or am I an adult?"
Keep in mind the image you created for yourself at the outset,
when you wrote your measurements in this book. Refer back to
them. Demand of yourself whether the momentary pleasure of a
snack is worth trading for the delight you will have when you're
receiving the compliments and glances of your friends.
I'd like to give you another little reminder on this page. It is
something I sometimes do on my television show. I write the
letters F-A-T on a blackboard. Then I try some words they

suggest, thus:
F— fatal
A — awful
T — trouble
Perhaps I suggest what an awful thing it is not to be able to

wear your prettiest dresses or slacks because you've put on rolls
of fat. Then I ask: "What are you going to do about it?" and
suggest: "Let's throw the fat away." I erase F-A-T and the
words it suggests. Reversing FAT (literally) I put T-A-F on the

board and these words:
*
T — today
A— all
F — fun
Come to this page if you waver. Remember again the little
prayer that helps alcoholics: God grant me serenity to accept

things I cannot change, courage to change things I can, and the
wisdom to know the difference. Like the "Vitamins F-in-G," it
will help immensely.

This book of yours will be so much more valuable if it also
brings into your life a touch of self -discipline.
YOUR CALORIE DEMANDS

Here is a simple formula for determining the number of
calories your body will require each day:
1. At complete rest, your body burns 11 to 13 calories per
pound of body weight.

2. If you are sitting or lounging, your body burns from 13 to
15 calories per pound of body weight.

3. If you do light labor, your body burns from 18 to 20
calories per pound of body weight.

4. If you are doing hard labor, your body burns from 23 to
3 1 calories per pound of body weight.

As an example, let's assume your ideal body weight for your
age, height and body structure (see Ideal Weight Chart) is 120
pounds. Here is how to figure the calories you will require each
day to maintain normal body weight. Multiply 120 (your ideal
body weight) by the number of calories per pound you burn each
day in the type of activity in which you are engaged. Assuming
you are doing only light labor (this would include housework)
multiply 120 by 19. You get an answer of 2280. This is the
total number of calories you should consume each day.
Now let's get to work re-sculpting your body. The first
program offered here is the one you would use if overweight

now. (It will be followed by the alternate program for those
underweight and wishing to gain.)
IDEAL WEIGHT CHART
Tables for Height and Weight, Without Clothing *
Note: Check your normal weight according to your age, height, and
bone structure. Read the bold face figures if you have medium bone
build, the figuresabove if you have light bone build, and the figures
below if you have heavy bone build. Tables end at age thirty because
your weight should remain fixed after that age. (However, after age sixty
a slight decrease is considered desirable.)
Men Women
Height 15 yr. 20 yr. 25 yr. 30 yr. Height 15 yr. 20 yr. 25 yr. 30 yr.
92 101 105 109 90 95 97 100

4' 11" 102 112 117 121 4' 8" 100 105 108 111
114 126 131 136 113 117 122 125
94 103 107 111 91 96 99 102

5' 0" 104 114 119 123 4' 9" 101 107 110 113
117 128 134 138 114 119 124 127
96 105 109 113 92 98 101 104

5' 1" 107 117 121 125 4' 10" 102 109 112 115
120 131 136 140 115 123 126 129
99 108 112 115 94 100 103 105

5' 2" 110 120 124 128 4' 11" 104 111 114 117
124 135 139 144 117 125 128 132
102 111 115 118 96 103 104 107

5' 3" 113 123 128 131 5' 0" 107 114 116 119
127 138 144 147 120 128 131 134
105 114 119 122 99 105 107 110

5' 4" 117 127 132 135 5' 1" 110 117 119 122
131 143 148 152 122 132 134 137
109 118 123 125 102 108 111 113

5' 5" 121 131 136 139 5' 2" 113 120 123 125
136 147 153 156 127 135 138 141
113 122 126 129 104 111 113 116

5' 6" 125 135 140 143 5' 3" 116 123 126 129
140 152 157 161 131 138 142 145
116 125 130 132 108 113 116 119

5' 7" 129 139 144 147 5' 4" 120 126 129 132
145 156 162 165 135 142 145 149
120 129 133 136 112 117 120 123

5' 8" 133 143 148 151 5' 5" 124 130 133 136
149 161 166 170 140 146 149 153
Men Women
Height 15 yr. 20 yr. 25 yr. 30 yr. Height 15 yr. 20 yr. 25 yr. 30 yr.
123 132 137 141 115 121 123 126

5' 9" 137 147 152 156 5' 6" 128 134 137 140
154 165 171 175 144 151 154 158
128 136 141 145 119 124 127 130

5' 10" 142 151 157 161 5' 7" 132 138 141 144
159 170 176 181 149 155 158 162
132 141 146 150 122 127 131 133

5' 11" 147 156 162 167 5' 8" 136 141 145 148
165 175 182 188 153 159 163 167
137 145 151 156 126 131 134 136

6' 0" 152 161 168 173 5' 9" 140 145 149 151
171 181 189 194 158 163 167 170
141 150 157 161 131 134 137 140

6' 1" 157 166 174 179 5' 10" 145 149 152 155
176 186 195 201 163 168 171 174
146 154 161 167 135 139 140 143

6' 2" 162 171 179 185 5' 11" 150 154 156 159
182 192 201 208 168 173 176 179
150 159 166 172

6' 3" 167 176 184 191 All weight s are in pounds.
188 198 207 215
* This table is based on almost 3,000,000 health examinations published in

an excellent book, The Life Extension Foundation Guide to Better Health by
Harry J. Johnson, M.D. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1959.)
There are three sets of menus for reducing excess weight. All
have been tried and found successful by my students from Holly-
wood to New York. I suggest you follow Menu No. 1 for seven
days, break training for one full day, then resume the plan for
another seven days. If you follow the program exactly as directed,
you should lose one pound per day.
I should tell you now that I don't believe in prolonged calorie
slashing. Over long periods of time, it can be injurious to one's
health. I have found that by cutting the caloric intake for short
periods and giving yourself a day of grace you achieve the same
results.
If you find you have quite a bit of fat to get off, I suggest you
:

follow Menu No. 1 for seven days, go off it for one day— eating
whatever you wish, (within reason, of course) —then go to Diet
Number 2 for seven days. At the completion of the second seven-
day period, if you still are overweight, return to your normal
eating habits for seven days, and then follow Plan Number 3 for
nine days. At the end of that time, you should have your weight
well in hand.
Remember, as the pounds melt away, take your changing
measurements and record them on the charts provided here.
You will find genuine encouragement and delight as you com-
pare them with the "Coming-in" statistics you entered at the
beginning.
MAGIC REDUCING PLAN NUMBER ONE

Seven Day Menu
No Alcdnol— No Soft Drinks— No Salt— Little Seasoning

(If you are allergic to eggs you may substitute the following: 4 oz. ground
lean beef, half-cup cottage cheese, or small piece of broiled liver.)
Monday
Breakfast (have this same breakfast
2 eggs every day for all seven
Grapefruit days.)
Coffee
Dinner
Lunch 2 eggs
2 or 3 eggs Combination salad
Tomatoes 1 slice of toast
Coffee Grapefruit
Coffee
Tuesday
Breakfast (same)
Lunch Dinner
2 or 3 eggs 2 lamb chops
Tomatoes Sliced tomato
Coffee Raw carrots
Cucumbers
Celery
Coffee
Wednesday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
2 or 3 eggs Steak (top ground round)
Spinach Tomato
Grapefruit Lettuce
Coffee Celery
Grapefruit
Coffee
Thursday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
2 or 3 eggs Steak (top ground round)
Spinach Tomato
Coffee Celery
Grapefruit
Coffee
Friday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
2 or 3 eggs Combination salad
Tomato Fish
Grapefruit 1 piece of toast
Coffee Grapefruit
Coffee
Saturday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
Fruit salad (nothing else) Same as Wednesday
Sunday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
Chicken Vegetable soup
Raw Carrots Chicken
Tomato Cooked cabbage
1 piece of toast Carrots
Coffee Celery
Grapefruit
My theory on weight-reduction does not include coffee, tea or any stimulant.

You may drink coffee if you wish, but I would suggest that you substitute
bouillon, alfalfa mint tea (obtainable at any health food store) or any good
beverage substitute.
MAGIC REDUCING PLAN NUMBER TWO
Seven Day Menu
Monday
Breakfast (Standard for the entire

1 medium orange seven days of this plan)
1 egg, soft, hard, or poached
1 slice melba toast Dinner
1 cup coffee, & cup skim milk Parsley coleslaw (cabbage,
shredded, J» cup; parsley,
Lunch fresh, % cup)
Hamburger, 2 oz. broiled Baked Lamb, lean, 3 oz.
1 mediumtomato, sliced Celery, stewed, 1 cup
Peas and onion, & cup Carrots, diced, # cup
X
# peach, canned, no syrup Applesauce, A cup, unsweet-
MUk, 1 cup skim ened
Skim milk, 1 cup
Suggestions for preparation of menu: for Lunch use lean beef such as ground
round steak, for hamburger. If other cuts of beef are used, be sure all fat is
trimmed off before grinding. Cooking peas and onion together adds flavor to
peas. Diced celery adds flavor, too. If preferred, a slice of onion may be eaten
raw with the hamburger. A no-calorie flavor bonus: sprinkle the sliced tomato
with a tablespoon of minced parsley. To make parsley coleslaw, shred fresh
cabbage on a fine shredder or cut thin with a sharp knife. Mince the parsley
sprigs or cut them with a scissors. Toss the shredded cabbage and parsley
together with a couple of tablespoons of reducing dressing.
Reducing French Dressing Reducing Mayonnaise

Vx cup olive oil 3 egg yolks
% cup lemon juice 1 cup peanut oil
Juice of one tomato or Juice of one lemon
X cup tomato juice Teaspoon vegetable salt or
powdered kelp.
Beat egg yolks and salt,
or kelp, together. Add

lemon juice and beat in
slowly the cup of oil. If
not thick enough, add
more oil slowly.
No-calorie flavor bonus: add a few strips of pimiento to the coleslaw.

Tuesday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
Tomato juice,4& oz. Tomato and lettuce salad
Cottage cheese salad plate (cot- (tomato, 1 medium; pars-
tage cheese, 5 tbls; cucumber, ley, 5 sprigs; lettuce,
& small; radishes, red 3; cel- green, 3 leaves.)
ery, 1 stalk; parsley, & cup.) Round steak, broiled, 4 oz.
Melba Toast, 1 slice Spinach, & cup
Apricots, canned, no syrup, 2 String beans, diced, Yt cup
Skim milk, 1 cup Pineapple, no syrup, 1 slice
Skim milk, 1 cup
Suggestions for preparation of menu: for Lunch make your cottage cheese
salad plate with skim milk and cottage cheese. Moisten the cheese with a
little skim milk or reducing dressing. Mince half the parsley, dice the celery,
dice 2 of the radishes, and add 1 teaspoon minced onion. Season lightly with
salt, pepper and paprika. Mix well and serve on lettuce leaf, surrounded by
sliced cucumber, sliced radishes and the remaining parsley sprigs. No-calorie
flavor bonus: top with thin rings of green pepper and strips of pimiento.
For dinner, make the parslied tomato salad with chopped or cut parsley,
tear lettuce into bit-sized pieces and cut the tomato into eighths. Mix with
reducing dressing. Trim fat from the round steak. No-calorie flavor bonus:
serve steak with broiled mushrooms, cooked with a trace of butter just enough —
to keep the mushrooms from drying.
Pineapple may be fresh or canned. If fresh fruit is used, the amount should
be % of a cup, diced. No-calorie flavor bonus: Combine fresh pineapple with
watercress or mint.
Wednesday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
Salmon salad plate, 2 oz. Raw celery and carrot sticks
(salmon, canned, no oil) (celery, green, 2 stalks; car-
Tomato, 1 medium rot, raw, 1)
Cucumber, & small Liver, broiled, 4 oz.
Lettuce, green, 3 leaves Pepper and onion, sauteed
Melba toast. 1 slice (green pepper, &; butter,
Apricots, canned, no syrup, 2 scant teaspoon)
Skim milk, 1 cup Potato, boiled, % medium
Grapefruit, no syrup, & cup
Skim milk, 1 cup
Suggestions for menu preparation: for Lunch make salmon salad plate by
draining off all the oil from canned salmon. Mash bones (high in calcium)
with fish. Cut tomato in petals, fill with salmon mixture and serve on lettuce
leaves, surrounded by sliced cucumber. No-calorie flavor bonus: mix the sal-
mon with minced onion and celery to taste, adding lemon juice if desired; top
with thin rings of green pepper and pimiento strips.
For dinner the carrot and celery may be eaten raw out of hand, or the
carrot may be shredded, celery diced, and both mixed with reducing dressing.
To saute the green pepper and onion, slice both very thin. Melt a scant tea-
spoon of butter in a small pan and saute the vegetables. If desired, green
pepper and onions may be sliced thin, quick-cooked for a moment, drained,
and then sauteed. The potato may be baked, if desired, but do not add butter.
No-calorie flavor bonus: baked potato half may be hollowed out, potato mixed
with a bit of skim milk, minced onion, seasoning and chopped parsley, sprin-
kled with paprika, stuffed back into shell and placed under the broiler for a
moment or two. Criss-cross strips of pimiento over the top of baked potato.
Fresh or canned grapefruit may be used for dessert. No-calorie flavor bonus:
Toss grapefruit sections with watercress and minced pimiento.
Thursday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
Hamburger, broiled, 3 oz. Green pepper coleslaw
Tomato, 1 medium, sliced (cabbage, shredded, Yi cup;
Carrots, cooked, diced, & cup green pepper, X)
Applesauce, unsweetened, & cup Veal chop, broiled, 4 oz.
Skim milk, 1 cup Tomatoes, stewed, & cup
Spinach, & cup
Pear, canned, no syrup, Yi
Skim milk, 1 cup
Suggestions for menu preparation: For Lunch, a no-calorie flavor bonus:

mix hamburger meat with minced onion and parsley. Season to taste and
broil. A sprinkling of crushed mint leaves, fresh or dried, makes cooked car-
rots taste extra good.
To make green pepper coleslaw for dinner, shred cabbage fine, mince green
pepper or slice it very thin and combine with reducing dressing. No-calorie
flavor bonus: add minced parsley, minced onions, and minced pimiento.
Friday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
Tomato juice, 4& oz. Beet salad ( 1 beet sliced on
Cottage cheese salad plate lettuce)
(Cottage cheese, 5 tbls; cucum- Halibut, broiled, 4 oz.
ber, % small, radishes, red, Spinach, 1 cup
3; celery, 1 stalk; parsley, Potato, boiled, X medium
fresh, )z cup) Pineapple, 1 slice
Melba toast, 1 slice Skim milk, 1 cup
Apricots, canned, no syrup, 2
Skim milk, 1 cup
Suggestions for menu preparation: Lunch: see suggestions for preparing Tues-
day's lunch.
Dinner: to make beet salad, use canned or cooked fresh beets. Slice it thin,
or shred it, and marinate it in a little lemon juice, cider vinegar, or herb
vinegar (tarragon). Serve on lettuce. No-calorie flavor bonus: add a few thin-
sliced onion rings to the marinate. Sprinkle the beets with a bit of grated
hard-boiled egg yolk. Be generous with the lemon and the parsley on the
broiled fish. Any fish of similar calorie count may be substituted for halibut.
No-calorie flavor bonus: sprinkle chopped fresh dill on the boiled potato.
Add heated chopped canned mushrooms to the spinach.
Saturday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
Salmon salad plate Cucumber and parsley salad
(salmon canned, no oil, 3 oz.) O2 small cucumber; 5 sprigs
Tomato, 1 medium of parsley)
Cucumber, ¥2 small Baked lamb, lean, 3 oz.
Lettuce, green, 3 leaves Cabbage, cooked, 1 cup
Melba toast, 1 slice String beans, 1 cup
Peach, canned, no syrup, ¥2 Pineapple, 1 slice
Skim milk, 1 cup Skim milk, 1 cup
Suggestions for preparation of menu: For Lunch see suggestions for Wednesday.
For Dinner the cucumber and parsley may be either raw, sliced cucumber
and minced parsley tossed in reducing dressing, or marinated cucumbers. To
marinate slice the cucumbers thin and let stand a few minutes in cider or herb
vinegar to which a bit of garlic has been added.
Cabbage can be cooked in a wedge, but preferably it should be shredded
and quick-cooked for a few minutes until tender. No-calorie flavor bonus:
add bouillon cubes to cabbage cooking water. Canned bean sprouts make a
delicious combination with cabbage.
Sunday
Breakfast: (same)
Lunch Dinner
Lettuce and green pepper salad Poached egg on spinach
(lettuce, green wedge; ¥2 green (1 egg, 1 cup spinach)
pepper) (You may substitute ham-
Chicken, broiled, ¥2 burger plate, cottage
Tomato, broiled cheese salad, or salmon
Mushrooms, broiled, 5 salad plate)
(butter for broiling, 1 tea- Melba toast, 1 slice
spoon) Celery and apple salad
String beans, ¥2 cup (/2 cup celery diced; ¥2 diced)
Cherries, Queen Anne, % cup Skim milk, 1 cup

Skim milk, 1 cup
Suggestions for preparation of menu: Lunch: to make lettuce and green
pepper salad, cut lettuce in a wedge. Mince the green pepper, add to reducing
dressing, and pour over lettuce. No-calorie flavor bonus: add fresh chopped
dill to the reducing dressing.
To broil the tomato, cut it in )i slices, place on a lightly greased broiling
pan, sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion juice and a dash of grated cheese. Broil
three to four minutes. Sprinkle with minced parsley before serving. To broil
mushrooms, cut off woody ends of stems and wash caps thoroughly. Dry and
spread over the mushrooms. Broil them cap side up for 2 minutes, turn and
broil 7 minutes longer, just until the mushrooms are tender.
REDUCING PLAN NUMBER 3

NINE-DAY MENU
You still find you must carve off pounds? Be sure to weigh yourself and
enter the weight, along with new head-to-toe measurements, on the chart.
We'll now go into Plan Number 3. Follow it to the letter, and I guar-
antee you will drop one pound a day.
Meat is the magic ingredient. Meat with a proper combination

of other high proteins and vitamins. Big juicy steaks, steaming
hamburger, sizzling lamb chops. You can have them all.
You may also eat vegetables and fruit to your heart's content.
(All, that is, but the starchy ones.) Almost no fish, chicken or
game, though. Since meat means strength, you will never be weak
while on this plan. The high protein content steps up body
metabolism, and a heightened metabolism burns fat.
Don't improvise with this part of the program. Eat everything

prescribed and eat heartily! You will get thinner by eating this
way than you would by starving yourself on a lettuce leaf. You

will be reaching your ideal while building health into your body.
Remember your exercises. They help burn calories. Do those
Magic 3's. Run in front of your mirror. (Run about your house-
hold chores, in fact.) Do the Jumping Jacks we learned. If you
have an overwhelming urge to put something in your mouth,
get the kitchen chair, grip our book between your teeth as I
showed you, and work on your jaw muscles and stomach muscles.
You will notice results more swiftly from now on.
NINE-DAY MENU
Breakfast: Every day eat & grapefruit and coffee (or a coffee substitute
such as mint tea).
MONDAY Lunch: Chicken sandwich on rye toast, no butter.

Dinner: Stalk of celery, steak, tomato and endive
salad on lettuce, no dressing.
TUESDAY Lunch Omelet or scrambled eggs; 3 whole
wheat crackers.
Dinner: 2 lamb chops, stewed carrots or toma-
toes, or string beans, & grapefruit or
sliced pineapple.
WEDNESDAY Lunch: Minute steak, stewed tomatoes.

Dinner: Minute steak, stewed tomatoes, plain
spinach, lettuce and tomato salad; no
dressing.
THURSDAY Lunch 2 lamb chops, stewed tomatoes.

Dinner: Tenderloin steak, stewed tomatoes, plain
carrots, & head lettuce (lemon juice
may be used on all salads), )k grape-
fruit.
FRIDAY Lunch: Whole wheat French toast.

Dinner: 2 lamb chops, any vegetable, stewed
celery, 2 olives, raw apple.
SATURDAY Lunch: Ham, cheese, or chicken sandwich on

rye toast.
Dinner: Chopped meat, tomato and endive salad
or mixed vegetable salad, & grape-
fruit.
SUNDAY Lunch Any appetizer, any meat, any vegetable,

£ helping of dessert.
Dinner: Scrambled eggs, sliced tomatoes.
MONDAY Lunch: Omelet, 3 whole rye wafers.

Dinner: 2 lamb chops, stewed carrots and celery,
2 olives, )z grapefruit.
TUESDAY Lunch: Scrambled eggs, sliced tomatoes, apple.

Dinner: Broiled halibut, green salad, any vege-
tables, sliced orange.
Now go look at yourself in the mirror! Now gloat over those

new measurements! It has all been well worth it, hasn't it? And
isn't it easier to do the exercises! Grip your fingers in front of
you and touch your left elbow to your right knee. Your left
knee to your right elbow. You should feel like doing a couple
of chorus girl kicks. Do them. Watch in the mirror. You could
almost qualify for the chorus line at the Copacabana.
CHAPTE «9 •
Replace Life- shortening With
Life-giving Foods
Let's think it through again right here. If you started this book
very much overweight, you must know how easy it would be to
get that way again. Later in the book I will go into a detailed
discussion of nutrition and many of our foods. I will even give
you a sample of some of my favorite recipes for exciting ad-
ventures in nutrition. (I see that I'm going to have to write a
Jack LaLanne Cook Book to tell you all the ideas I have on this
subject.)
There are some general statements on foods you should eat
and foods you should not eat, which I would like to make here.
But let's start with positives.
68
FOODS I RECOMMEND
1. Fat-free, broiled, roasted or boiled meat (a minimum of
pork), fish or fowl, bacon (crisp and drained).
2. Any fish except dried fish and fish canned in oil (such as
sardines and tuna).

3. Eggs, skimmed milk, cottage cheese to which no cream
has been added.
4. Generous amounts of:
Artichokes Asparagus Brussels Sprouts Leek

Broccoli Celery Summer Squash Kale
Endive Chard Italian Squash Rhubarb
Chicory Spinach Cucumbers Tomatoes
Mushrooms Lettuce Eggplant
Medium servings of:
Beets Onions Cauliflower Pumpkin

Carrots Radishes Okra String Beans
Peppers Cabbage
Small servings of:
Celery root Rutabagas Small Canned peas

Parsnips Hubbard squash Turnips
5. Medium servings of:
Grapefruit Peaches Oranges

Melons Berries Fresh pineapple
Unsweetened canned or dried fruits.
Small servings of:
Apples Grapes Pears Oranges

Unsweetened applesauce
6. As much as you like of:
Vegetable Soup Beef Tea Alfalfa Mint Tea

Clear Soups Bouillon Coffee Substitute
7. No dessert except:
Fresh fruits Dried fruits Melons Cheese
8. Use saccharine or honey instead of sugar.

9. Two glasses of fluid with each meal. 8 to 12 glasses daily.
69
NINE GROUPS OF FOODS YOU SHOULD NOT EAT
1. Any fried foods.
2. More than three thin slices of bread daily. This refers to
brown, graham, whole wheat, rolls, crackers and Melba
toast.
Ry-Krisp is a good substitute for bread.

3. Cream, butter, cheese (except cottage cheese). May use
butter, cream or cheese in cooking.
No oil dressing or mayonnaise.

4. Sugar, syrups, jams, jellies, preserves or candy.
5. Potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, macaroni, rice, spa-
ghetti, noodles, corn, vermicelli, baked beans, lima
beans, fresh or canned large peas.
6. Cocoa or chocolate of any kind except for flavoring.
7. Cooked cereals, mush, porridge, waffles or hotcakes.
8. Creamed soups and creamed vegetables.
9. Cayenne pepper or other "hot" condiments.
Of course you can eat all these things. You can eat them
three times a day. But then, of course, you would be abandoning
the path to your ideal. They would sprinkle it with too many
lumps of fat.
70
CHAPTER 10 .
Try This Program
If You're Underweight
There are many people in this world who are underweight (I was
myself) and need to build with the "clay" of body tissue to
achieve their ideal. The causes are many. Maybe you are one of
these people — rather than one of the overweights —and wish to
build yourself. Or you wish to help build someone dear to you.
If you're too thin, perhaps you hadn't discovered the proper
foods until you started this book. Maybe hypertension gnaws at
your body. Excessive smoking keeps some people lean. Or an
inability to relax, to get proper sleep, or they're too lazy (or
weary) for proper exercise. Maybe it's that they're digging their
71
.

graves with their teeth in the graveyard foods —hot dogs, white
flour products, white sugar products, cola drinks, fried foods
FOUR SIMPLE STEPS FOR WEIGHT BUILDING
My plan for weight-gaining, of course, assumes that you are

in normally good health. If, by chance, you suffer from functional
or organic ailments, you should consult your physician before
starting my program. As- 1 say, I am the doctors' helper, not the
undertakers'.
There are four simple steps to my weight-building program:
1 Proper nutrition
2. Proper exercise
3. Proper rest
4. Plenty of sleep.
Later in this book, you will find a section devoted entirely to

exercises you can do. Some you can do even while watching
television or driving your car. All are designed for you. Try
them as we go along.
Breakfast:
Upon arising, drink a large glass of orange juice. Wait 10

minutes, then have two bananas, dates and some nuts (walnuts
or almonds are good). Nibble on them while dressing, or while
you're getting breakfast for the family. Follow this with a good
whole grain cereal with pure cream, or half-and-half, and honey.
Now, 2 eggs and a couple of slices of whole wheat toast, buttered.
Then drink one or more glasses of rich, whole milk.
Mid-morning:
One glass of rich, whole milk.

If you carry your lunch, put the following in it: Two whole
If there is a more perfect food for gaining weight than fresh

whole milk I don't know it. Now that the family cow is almost
extinct it's no wonder kids growing up today in our urbanized
society rarely see a live cow, much less milk one.
wheat bread sandwiches such as cheese (any kind), peanut

butter and honey, lettuce and tomato, avocado (eat an avocado
every day, if possible, and you'll surely gain weight), meat (any
kind, if fresh) and raisins with chopped nuts. You should also
have several bananas, a glass of whole milk and some dates.
For Lunch:
Whether you eat out or at home, start off with a large bowl
of thick soup —clam chowder, split pea, bean. Cottage cheese
salad (M> cup cottage cheese, diced tomato, lettuce, celery).
Garnish top of salad with chopped chicken meat, shrimp, prawn
or crab meat. After the salad, eat a cheese sandwich on 100
per cent whole wheat bread. For dessert, eat raisins and nuts.
Mid-afternoon:
One glass of rich, whole milk.
Dinner:
Start with a large combination vegetable salad (use only

fresh vegetables) and follow with a bowl of thick vegetable soup.
Choose several of the following cooked vegetables: asparagus,
artichokes, beets, string beans, squash, spinach or turnips. (Your
meals now should be rich with corn, potatoes, beans of all kinds,
and brown natural rice.) Meat should be eaten every day. The
best meats are lean beef and lamb. Fish, fowl, liver, hearts,
brains and kidneys should also be eaten regularly.

A baked potato and avocado should be eaten every day.
If you like desserts, eat fresh fruit, brown rice with honey and
pure cream, or melons of any kind.
Before Retiring:
One glass of whole milk with a well-beaten egg and one tea-
spoon of honey mixed into it.
SOME MUSTS FOR GAINING WEIGHT
Drink 8 to 10 glasses of water daily between meals. Chew

your food thoroughly. Get at least 8 hours sleep a night, and
daytime naps if you have the time. Avoid too much activity,
other than your regular exercise periods. You should drink at
least one quart of milk a day. Be sure your salt intake is adequate.
FOODS FOR GAINING WEIGHT
100% whole grain products Corn

Brown rice Beans
Whole wheat bread Peas
Whole wheat cereals Butter
Yellow corn meal All kinds of cheese
Avocado Lean meat (all kinds)
Ripe bananas Chicken
Raisins Fish
Dates Milk and dairy products
Figs Honey
Baked potatoes
PART TWO •
Jack LaLannes
Program for
Beauty, Health,
and Nutrition
.^^^^^•^.^.
• CHAPTER 11 •
Our Changing Nutrition
Habits and Our
aFoodless' Foods
Long before the harried hucksters of Madison Avenue took con-

trol of our eating, American mothers handled the job. They
didn't do too badly, either, considering the lack of knowledge
of, and prejudices against, scientific nutrition. For one thing, in
those calmer times, nearly every American home had its own
little plot of ground and family garden. The soil was fresh. God's
busy tillers, the angleworms, could work their blunt noses
through loamy earth uncontaminated by chemical sprays and
fertilizers. Nature's produce, both fruits and vegetables, came
to the table vine fresh and tree ripe.
We were a harder toiling people then. Our homes and offices
76
weren't staffed by mechanical appliances. We didn't take the car

to the corner grocery; we walked. We pitched horseshoes and
played croquet rather than sit as spectators at television and radio
games. We could tolerate heavier foods. Mom knew this intu-
itively, if not from books. Hers was the highest standard we

could cite for pies, doughnuts and home-baked bread. We built
a legacy around the foods "Mother used to make."

Today, much as we love her, Mom is hurting us. Our society
has changed. Machines manufacture the flours and polish the life
out of the grains we buy. They have made life easier for Mom,
no doubt, but I fear we're paying a price in malnutrition. My own
mother was as guilty as any until the untimely death of my father
caused us to take a second look at the food in our home.
Let's look for a moment at the way we came into this society.
Most babies are perfectly healthy at birth. In fact, they may
never be so healthy again in their lives. Baby skin is rightly a
symbol of perfection. The young mother consults her pediatrician

constantly on diet and formula, follows instructions religiously,
and Baby, for the most part, does beautifully. We hear from him
when he needs his diaper changed and when he is hungry.
Otherwise, usually, he lives contentedly in his uncomplicated
little world.
Then comes the day when he outgrows his formula. The
mother gradually makes her own rules for his care and feeding,
calling rarely for the doctor's advice. Now our child has pro-
gressed to the can-opener age. Most of his nourishment, if that it
truly be, comes from tins. Slowly, Mommy weans him into the
traditional family eating habits.

He squirms in his high chair by the table, banging his spoon,
watching Mommy and Daddy stuff themselves with grown-up
food. Naturally he wants to imitate — it's instinctive with tykes
togrow up. He learns to beg before he needs to talk. And soon

he is getting French fries, sugar cookies, the taste of gravy.
Without really thinking about it, we assume that it's natural he
should also pick up the various childhood ailments. (How bliss-
fully we accept the infiltration of illness!) And what does Baby

learn to expect for the very natural function of elimination? A
reward! If, as nature intended, he has a smooth and successful
bowel movement, we coo and exclaim at "what a good little boy"
he is. And give him a piece of candy for "accomplishing."
Now starts the brainwashing of the healthy American child.
Rather than getting out and exercising his fine young body, he
begins to watch the kid programs on television. And why are they
on television? To persuade him to eat this confection and that
dry cereal.
"Tell your Mother to buy Konky Fried Oats," coaxes the
hearty, well-trained announcer, "and I'll send you a secret
whistle to summon the fairies." What a promise! What magic!
Who does the buying in our families? Mom. And how is she
influenced? By the loud, insistent, well-coached voice of her
child demanding in the supermarket: "I want
—
Do sponsors brainwash these American youngsters to demand
ripe, red apples? Raw, crisp cabbage? Honey? Well, I do.
Almost every morning, as I open my television program on exer-
cise and nutrition, I lead my young listeners through a series of
Jumping- Jacks (How they love that exercise!) and tell them to
run and call Mommy.

It works like a charm and without any secret whistles to call
the fairies. Once, in fact, not realizing how trained these TV

tots are, I called out: "Tell Mommy to stop whatever she's doing
and come right now!" My command was taken so literally, one
lady told me later, she thought something terrible was happening
at the television set and left her hot iron plunk in the middle of
her husband's best white shirt. I try to be less urgent now.
Too soon, our baby is a teen-ager. How he (or she) hearkens
to the learned proclamations of his favorite movie star or ball
player. "I drink Sweetycola," say the glamorous actress, (whose

manager would die if she did) "and I am a perfect 36-21-37."
Says the husky young major league home run hitter: "I smoke
Puffos and I'm hitting .388." (A few months later he is selling
testimonials for the magic pill that helped him stop smoking.)
But now your child has added tobacco smoke to his lungs.
Is it any wonder he doesn't have the complexion of a baby
any longer? Is it any wonder parents suffer almost as grievously
as their teen-age offspring over pimples and smoke-tinged skins.
This is not to say, of course, that all youngsters who suffer from
teen-age acne got that way by smoking cigarettes or drinking
their movie star's syrupy cola. Many things are occurring in a
child's body at this time of life. One of the worst, often enough,
is malnutrition. (Not wider-nutrition, but faulty nutrition).
I am thinking of Jackie, the 16-year-old son of a friend of
mine, who came to my conditioning studio last spring. His
father, a professional man who was beginning to see the light,
had started a program of systematic exercise some months earlier.
As usual, I came to know a great deal about his family.

Jackie was arriving at puberty rather violently. He was red-
haired and fair-skinned. Everything he ate seemed to erupt in
pimples over his face, chest, back and shoulders. Naturally he
was embarrassed. Though he yearned secretly to be part of
school dances and parties, he avoided the company of girls. He
could have been a good tumbler, but that would have meant
baring his arms and shoulders. So he cut gym. To compensate for
what he felt were defects, he affected a swagger, rough talk,
cigarettes and a number of other habits that distressed his
parents. His school work was falling from very good to mediocre.
My friend and his wife thought they were doing their best.
They had gone from the family doctor, with his special diets and
antibiotics, to a skin specialist who
more antibiotics, more tried
diets and X-ray treatment. With drugs, it all had cost the parents
several hundred dollars and there was little improvement. The

father finally had brought the boy to the gym to work out with
him in the hope he could, at least, build reassurance.
Jackie had little to say, but he did work out with me. Then
he learned how I, too, had suffered from pimples at his age.
How I thought my life was blighted. How I had overcome it
and had a good body for my efforts. Slowly I won his confidence.
It was the boy himself, one day, who suggested he stop the X-ray
treatments and drugs and try my system.
I recommended menus that changed his whole way of eating.
He went off fried foods, dry cereals, candy and soft drinks. He
learned to eat liver, which he had hated, raw vegetables and
under-cooked vegetables, honey with his whole-grain bread. He
took wheat germ and brewer's yeast with his meals, many of
them mixed in a blender, drank carrot juice and worked his
body until the good new blood fairly coursed through his
arteries. In six weeks the pimples were almost gone and Jackie
was a new boy with a steady girl friend.
THE MAN WHO SAVED MY LIFE
Moms accept as a matter of course, that if their families seem

healthy and happy and don't catch too many serious ailments,
they must be eating pretty well. (Mom's intentions are the best.)
If her little brood catches most of the prevalent illnesses, suffers
repeated colds, needs laxatives or frequent dosages of aspirin,

does it occur to Mom that her menus are to blame?
It didn't occur to my mother, even when I lost six months of
school with one illness. She simply accepted society's off-the-cuff
verdict: "A sickly child."

Being "sickly," I was permitted all manner of "treats." My
allowance went for candy and milkshakes. When the allowance
was spent, I actually stole from Mom's purse to keep buying
these delights. I gorged on pies, cakes and heavy desserts because
my Mom was famous for her "good table." In short, I treated
my pimples lavishly. Their nurture was completed by Dad's big,
starchy meals. Who knew differently? And wasn't I sickly?
Came then an awakening that changed my life as surely as this
book can change yours. A neighbor lady had watched me mope
through my miserable days. One evening she invited us to attend
a lecture. I will never forget that night.
A man named Paul Bragg was speaking at a women's club in
Oakland, California. His subject: Health. No subject on earth

was closer to my heart or for me, seemingly, farther from possi-
bility.
There wasn't an empty seat in the hall when we arrived. I was

about to turn back, terribly disappointed, when the lecturer saw
me. He saw my pimple-blotched skin, as I learned later, my
hunched shoulders and that something in the eyes that identifies
a yearner. He ordered chairs brought onto the stage, and though

I protested, had the ushers bring us there.
Paul Bragg was the most dynamic man, and speaker, I had
ever heard. He soon convinced me that my condition was not
incurable — he'd once been the same way. He spoke of natural
laws and natural foods, and how we disobey God's laws by our
eating habits. My eyes almost popped when he, a man in his
fifties, did handstands across the stage.

In that moment I made my decision. I was not particularly
religious, though Mom had taught us to love God and to
communicate with Him through prayer. I said a little prayer:
"Dear God, give me fortitude to follow this course." That night
I foreswore the very things I craved most — pie, cake, candy,
fried foods, ice cream, macaroni, spaghetti. I began a systematic
program of body-building in our back yard.
This was my conversion. It wasn't, however, an immediate
conversion to proper nutrition. Paul Bragg was a vegetarian,
and for seven years I was to follow that regime. Mom saw my
steady improvement and gladly prepared special meals for me
while Dad went on with the heavy food he preferred. Her con-
version wasn't to come until Dad's sudden and untimely death.
I began to study nutrition. Now I wanted to be a doctor and
cure everyone's ills. Where I'd been only a mediocre student, I
began to excel in physiology, biology, anatomy. Twenty-odd

years have passed since then and I believe I have read —and
tried to put into practice — every word of every book written on
the subject of nutrition. After a while I saw curing sick people
wasn't for me. I wanted to keep people well.
After a time, too, I saw that vegetarianism wasn't the answer.

I learned to balance my meals healthfully with meats and fish.
There are many people, I realize, who prefer to abstain from

flesh foods because of ethical or religious beliefs. I have no
quarrel with them. I say only that avoidance of meats, of itself,
does not assure health for most people.

Most simply, my aim is to add years and abundance to your
life and life to your years.
I think of Francis X. Bushman, the great old movie actor, as I
write this. Five minutes after I met Francis X, we were buddies.

Here was a man in his senior years who still looked magnificent
in his clothes. The handsome profile was, if possible, nobler
than ever. There was a sparkle in his big blue eyes. He told me
that he exercised every morning with me and followed my plan
for eating. And there he was again, admittedly 76 years of age,
commanding the admiration of such beautiful ladies as Ann
Blyth at a cocktail party. A moment later it was Jayne Mansfield
in happy conversation with him. He was having fun. There was
life to his years.
Your life is composed of two chief ingredients: what you
consume and what you believe. In the new life you and I are
framing with this book, I am not concerned so much with what
you do to your body, (assuming you use common sense) as I
am with what you do for it. The thing you must do is provide it
with proper nourishment.
BUILDING OUR TEMPLE
Sacred scripture, regardless of which version of the Bible

you favor, tells us that the bodies God gave us are living temples.
It admonishes us if we treat this temple with care and respect it
will serve us well and faithfully.
Eating can never be a chore to be got through hastily and

washed down with muddy, acid coffee. Eating should be a ritual.
It should be an act of appreciation. The Almighty in His good-

ness and wisdom has provided food in all colors, flavors and
textures. In my belief, a natural green salad can be a physical
prayer.
While I advocate an abundance of raw foods, however, I do
not, as I say, preach vegetarianism. I urge you simply to re-

member the natural foods God gave us are rich and wholesome.
The vitamins and minerals have not been bombarded away
by the mechanical contrivances of our synthetic society. Why
should we make 100 per cent alterations? Why should we trail
after the hucksters into a healthless regime of what I call "food-

less" foods?
Look about you the next time you're in a movie theater.
Notice the lovely stars on the screen, the handsome leading
men. Now as the lights go up notice the people about you.
You do see differences, don't you?
Hollywood stars must observe self -discipline in their eating.
They twinkle in direct relationship to their eating habits. They

climb to success helped by supple bodies. They can't afford,
despite their immense incomes, to eat just anything and every-
thing that may tempt them. Did it ever occur to you that they
have the same digestive systems as you and I?
To those of the stars who consult me on nutrition, I say the
same thing I am telling you in your book. Avoid fried, fatty,
greasy foods, pies, pastries, cereals and candy, chocolates, sun-

daes, syrups, ice cream, jams, jellies, white flour and white rice
products, creamed sauces and relishes, pickles, spiced meat
mixtures. Above all, avoid the "foodless" foods which have been
"processed," spiced, corned, salted and filled with artificial
flavors, fillers, chemicals or preservatives. Does this sound

drastic? Read on.
When I urge you to avoid some foods as detrimental to your
body, I will always offer you something vastly better both in
taste and nutritional value. You will not be deprived of anything
really good for you, but shown a selection of superior products
you should eat in this bright new life you have chosen. To
demonstrate my point, let's take time out for a real treat.
Elaine Doyle, a former TV performer of my acquaintance, is
the pretty young mother of a boy and girl. She has been follow-
ing the program you now are starting. She has her own "re-
birthday" circled on her calendar, which she observes with a

little fun party each year. She also gives many parties for her
youngsters and their friends.
Elaine's ice cream and cookies are the delight of the neigh-
borhood. (It never occurs to the children that their favorite
desserts are composed of "health foods.") Elaine simply takes
everyday recipes and substitutes healthful ingredients for the un-
healthy ones. She makes a wonderful ice cream with fresh
peaches; her cookies melt in your mouth.
Here is just one of her cookie recipes:
Scant X cup of soy oil 1 tsp salt

1 and X cup honey J* cup water (if needed)
1 egg 3 cups oatmeal (uncooked)
1 tsp vanilla )% cup chopped nuts
X
A cup whole wheat flour & cup raisins
Vt cup wheat germ
Pour soy oil into bowl. Use soy oil cup for measuring honey.
(The oil will make the honey pour easily from the cup.) Mix
all ingredients and add water only if batter is too dry. Drop by
teaspoons onto greased cookie sheets (use soya oil to grease
cookie sheets). Bake in 350 degree oven from 12 to 20 minutes.

It's that simple and sweet.
Once you learn to serve these fine wholesome foods, you and
your family will prefer them. You won't ever want to go back
to gooey, soggy, doughy pies or desserts drenched in white sugar.
RESOLVE NOW TO AVOID THESE TWO

MALNUTRITION TRAGEDIES
Thousands of women pick at their meals like birds. They are,
of course, seeking the anemic, toothpick figure of high fashion.

What nonsense! A woman is meant to have a full, stunning and
exciting form. She should be well-filled-out, though never flabby
or obese. These are the women men enjoy and seek for their
wives. You can't get by on a split pea and a glass of water.
Millions of other Americans are in and out of sick beds
because they thought the fun of eating was in consuming highly
touted dishes which brought them only distress. I remember a
time when I was in Miami and stepped out on the balcony of my

hotel to enjoy the view of the sea.
On the next balcony were two middle-aged couples from
California, We got to talking and I asked them: "Isn't it wonder-
ful to be able to be here and enjoy all this?" They glanced at each
other, then looked out to sea and fell silent. It was some time
before I learned the truth — they weren't enjoying themselves!

They They had worked hard all their
didn't feel too well.
lives, skimped and saved money to make their business a
their
success. In the future, always, was a vision of a luxury vacation.

Now they had it, and they weren't enjoying it. They didn't feel
well.
Here are two tragedies of modern America. The young women

who starve themselves to find a standard they don't realize is
making them mm attractive. Successful businessmen too tired and

sick to enjoy the fruits of their toil. You reap what you sow. Bad
eating habits catch up with you inevitably.
Remember, there is nothing complicated, mysterious or fan-
atical about the things I teach. It is all simple, practical and
produces results. When you eat as I teach, you need never fear
about piling on excess weight or dangerous, puffy fat.
CHAPTER 12 .
Jack LaLanne's
Ten Commandments
Of Good Cooking
1. AVOID WHITE FOOD
Color in food usually is a sign of its vitamin value. Whiteness

is the, generally speaking, indication of lower vitamin-mineral
values. (This, of course, does not apply to milk.) Choose brown
sugar over white sugar, brown unpolished rice over white rice,
brown whole wheat over white flour, brown whole rye over gray.
Choose yellow turnips in preference to white; buy sweet potatoes
more frequently.
Do not discard the edible outer green leaves of vegetables
such as cabbage, broccoli or lettuce. Implore your vegetable man
86
not to strip off these leaves which have been kissed by sunlight
and filled with vitamins and minerals. Avoid bleached celery
and bleached endive.
2. AVOID STALE FOODS
Keep your food in the coolest available place, preferably the
refrigerator. Do not stock up on perishable food. (Unless, of

course, you have a freezer. ) Calculate your menus to avoid long
storage of leftovers; try, if possible, to avoid leftovers entirely.
(This not only is good nutrition but will also make you popular
with your family.) Buy the freshest food your market offers
and your budget permits.
3. EAT RAW FOOD
Select and serve raw, once or twice a day, fruits and vege-
tables of which a portion can be left uncooked. Use a plastic,
rather than a steel, knife to cut vegetables and fruits, particularly

for salad use.
4. CHOOSE COOKING METHODS CAREFULLY
Select cooking methods least conducive to vitamin-mineral

losses. In order of preference, we should list pressure-cooking,
waterless cooking, rapid boiling, steaming without pressure,
broiling, baking, simmering or slow boiling. Try to avoid frying
entirely — use broiling instead. Always remember that every

cooking method has its fault and may destroy vitamin value to
a certain extent.
5. UNDERCOOK RATHER THAN OVERCOOK

With the exception of such foods as dried beans and peas, it is
advisable to sacrifice some tenderness to save vitamin content.

A degree of tenderness may be achieved in two ways: First, by
cooking a short time at a high temperature; secondly, by cooking
a longer time at a low temperature. The first method is much less
destructive to vitamins.
6. COOK FOR THE MEAL YOU ARE GOING TO EAT

Serve cooked food promptly after cooking. Do not prepare
food for the next day. Abbreviate the time period which will
elapse between the purchase of food, its preparation and its
consumption. Time, heat and exposure to air are all destructive
to vitamins. If there must be leftovers, use them as promptly as

possible, without cooking them if they are palatable when cold.
7. KEEP AIR AWAY FROM YOUR FOOD

Air destroys some vitamins. It belongs in your lungs, not in
your food. Cook in closed vessels. Avoid whipping air into your
food and refrain from putting hot food through strainers.
8. DO NOT USE SODA WHEN COOKING VEGETABLES

The use of soda to make green vegetables look greener after
cooking is a perfect method for destroying vitamins. You will
not need soda to keep the green color in vegetables if you cook
them quickly enough.
9. DO NOT DISCARD COOKING WATER

Retain all cooking juices and water. Do not pour them down
the drain; don't let them burn down to the bottom of the cooking
utensil. Sometimes there may be more vitamin and mineral
values in these waters than are left in the vegetables themselves
after they have been cooked.
10. USE BUTTER AS YOUR PRINCIPAL COOKING FAT
There are vitamin values in butter which may not be present

in other cooking fats. One of these values helps you digest other
fats.
CHAPTE .13 .
What Lve Learned
In My Kitchen
FOUR QUICK RULES
Cook in Covered Pots.

Use as Little Water as Possible.
Raise the Temperature Quickly.
Avoid Violent Boiling.
Here's a special tip: If you never know precisely when the family
will come home for dinner, pre-cook it until it is nearly done,
then pop it into the refrigerator. When your hungry men finally
arrive, put the meal back on the stove and raise the temperature
89
very rapidly until cooking is completed. There is no validity to
the superstition that hot or warm foods must not be chilled
quickly. It's better for them. You may raise your refrigerator
bill a trifle, but you'll save vitamins and that's what refrigerators
are for.
May I suggest that in this new life of yours you consider the
kitchen —your kitchen — as your real beauty parlor? I assure
you it is where your beauty will begin.
I have never had a conventional kitchen. Never, at least, since
the day I changed my own eating habits. Frankly, I don't need

the impedimenta that clutters up most kitchens. In my houseboat
on San Francisco Bay and my home in the Hollywood hills, I
have worked out all the things I need and live very comfortably
indeed. I offer you herewith some suggestions for your own
"beauty parlor."
MUSTS IN MY KITCHEN
Refrigerator — (I usually can use two refrigerators) — of at
least nine cubic feet.
Stove with broiler.

Tremendous salad bowl.
Electric blender. One- or two-quart capacity will do. I pay
up to $90 for mine, but you can find them priced as low as
$19.95.
Vegetable juicer.
Egg beater (when you don't want to use the blender).

Grater. Even the inexpensive ones are excellent for cutting
beets, say, into shreds or chunks.
Large electric steaming utensil in which I can cook anything

from pancakes (for which my special recipe later) to pot roast.
This is my kitchen's ideal all-around utensil, of stainless steel,
with a vent in the lid for steam.
Several stainless steel pots of one- and two-quart capacity.
I never use aluminum pans which can oxidize and affect the food.
All my life I've been fas-

cinated by the sea, its
countless wonders, its tre-

mendous power and un-
limited recreational pos-
sibilities. My houseboat is
headquarters for many

fishing and water sport ad-
ventures on spectacular
San Francisco Bay. Setting
up exercise bars on the
dock was no trouble and
believe me, that fresh air
is indescribably invigorat-
ing.
)

Stainless steel is a must with me. All my pots come with fitted
lids and the steam vent.
(When I cook vegetables, I turn the burner high until I see

steam escaping from the vent. Then I lower it and let the
vegetables steam in their own juice, plus the teaspoon of water
I put in to get them started. In this way, I effectively retain all
mineral-vitamin qualities and enjoy the real flavor of my

vegetables.)
Good chopping knife. This is vital to my way of cooking.
Any real good butcher knife will do.
A paring knife. (But keep it sharp.)
Good steak knives.
A selection of good oils. Safflower oil, soya oil, seasame seed
oil. I have olive oil for certain purposes, but I don't use a lot
of it.
A herb cabinet. This includes a little of everything from garlic

to rosemary and thyme.
(Garlic, as you probably know, is such a health food someone
has called it "Russian penicillin." Microscopic examination has
actually proved drops of pure garlic can kill bacteria. I eat a lot
of garlic, followed by parsley —which is rich in chlorophyll — to
remove the scent from my breath.

These aren't all the things I have in my kitchen, of course,
but they show you some articles I believe to be vital to good

cookery.
YOU WON'T FIND IN MY KITCHEN

Baking powder.
Coffee or tea. (Sorry, but you'll have to bring your own if you
want them.)
Catsup, mustard or mayonnaise. (What would I do with
them?)
Sugar.
Salt.
A deep fryer.
Any pots without lids. Open pots boil away the minerals and
vitamins and cause oxidation that kills Vitamin C.
A frying pan. It was a Frenchman,
I believe, who said: "The
good God gave everything wonderful in fruits and vegetables to

the Americans, and then the Devil came along and invented
the frying pan."
I believe this.
NATURAL FOODS WILL COST LESS AND GIVE

YOU MORE
I am a frugal man by nature. Perhaps it's my French ancestry.
While I like to live well, to patronize the best restaurants in every
city and country I visit, I do not like to spend money needlessly
or be short-changed on the money I do spend.
Perhaps your budget is tight and you wonder what all these
eating ideas of Jack LaLanne's are going to cost you. My answer
is that you will spend less money on my menus of natural foods
than on the refined, devitalized, demineralized, foodless foods
you have been buying. Furthermore, you will get more than
your money's worth in pep, energy, beauty and well-being.
Here's just one example: in the supermarket nearest my home
the other day, I saw a seven-ounce bag of potato chips on sale
for 49^. To my taste, the great food value of the potato had
been removed when they were skinned, pared and boiled in oil.
You didn't get even a touch of the mineral-rich skins. A few

feet away was a vegetable bin with potatoes, whole, at 10 pounds
for 49^.
I could take just one of these raw potatoes and bake it. Then
I would remove most of the while interior (which I urge you to
do always with baked potatoes) and eat only the skin and that
part of the meat clinging to it. I would get the complete nutri-
tional value of my potato and still have more than nine pounds
of my 49^-purchase. You think we don't save while eating
healthfully?
Later I'll be speaking of the vitamins and food supplements
everyone should take. Perhaps you think of the budget again
and shy away. But I have said we are going to save you money.
Suppose you do find it worthwhile to take $20 a month in
vitamins and supplements. If you follow my program, you'll
cut twice that much from your food budget in the things you
no longer need — sugar, margarine, white flour, shortening and
doughy desserts. Consider the price of the highball you order
for "quick energy," or, if you follow my program to the ultimate,
the cigarettes you won't be buying. Fish, which I eat as often
as once a day, costs on an average one-third the price of meat.
Yes, I promise you can draw up a new lower budget to go
along with your new measurements. Acquiring grace has its
saving graces, as you see.

CHAPTE nl4 •
There Are No
aMiracle 9
Foods
This book would be a fraud if I tried to tell you certain foods, of

themselves, would set off wonderful little explosions in your
body, bringing beauty, sexual virility and long life all at once.
As a nutritionist and physical culturist, I know there is no such
foodstuff on the face of the earth. There is no magic pill labeled
simply "Good Health" which you can buy at the corner grocery
or health food store.

There are, however, several things the good Lord has put on
our earth which fill me with a sense of wonder. Their properties,
95
the things they can do for our bodies, are as impressive to me
as the order of the stars in our heavens. I couldn't speak to you
of the new life you could be entering upon without mentioning
some of them.
Take liver. Once this vital food substance meant nothing to
most people. Not too many years ago the butcher gave it to you
free along with a bone for your dog. Yet here is a meat that
appears to be loaded with anti-stress and anti-fatigue factors.

It is one of our foods highest in protein, rich in iron and the
B Complex vitamins. And today, possibly because nutritionists
and doctors have insisted that liver be included in proper diets,
you pay a good price for it in the shops.
There are properties in liver that haven't even been identified

as yet. Scientists have reason to believe they are there. In a
series of tests with guinea pigs, in fact, they found some amazing
evidence. One group of animals was put on a diet which was
ample in all properties except liver. Then they were placed in a
tank of water and made to swim. The strongest swam for
approximately 13 minutes. Another group of guinea pigs was
given the same diet with desiccated liver added, and put in the
pool. They swam for two hours!
my conditioning studio, I recommend liver in some form to
In
allmy students. Perhaps you are like many people, and dislike
the taste and texture of the meat. And some find it monotonous
day after day. (I confess that I do, too.) Today we have an
answer for this. You can buy desiccated liver in tablet form and
take it without any esthetic pains whatsoever. It's a must in my
way of life.
Several years ago, in fact, I gave it the supreme test as part

of my regular annual birthday celebration. Every year on
September 26, my birthday, I perform some feat of strength and
endurance to prove to myself that I am getting stronger as I grow
older. One year I swam handcuffed from Alcatraz Island, in
San Francisco Bay, to Fisherman's Wharf. Another year I
skimmed a paddleboard from the Farallon Islands, thirty miles

offshore, to the San Francisco beach. On still another birthday,
I performed 1033 pushups on the You-Asked-For-It television
show.
I had been following the liver experiments with guinea pigs
with extra interest. I watched my students in the gym, those
who took liver and those who didn't, and made notes on their
stamina. When the desiccated liver tablets came out, I put
myself on thirty a day. For my birthday stunt that year, I had
decided to try to swim across the mile-wide Golden Gate, a tidal
sluicebox of incredibly cold water, towing a 2500-pound cabin

cruiser. The week before the swim, I upped my liver tablet intake
to 200 a day.
Came the day of the swim and I was glad I had. The news-
papers had asked me to put a popular local disc jockey and Miss
San Francisco aboard the boat for their pictures. We set out on
choppy water, and before I knew it were washed four miles out
to sea. I never wanted to give up so badly in my life. Since I
have no fat on my body to begin with, the exertion in that cold

water soon burned the heat out of me. The one-mile swim became
six and a half miles. Hours later, however, I managed to turn the
boat back and make the crossing. I proved to myself what
wonderful progress nutritional science is making.
Fish. Here is one of my favorite foods. Fish can't be "picked
green," sprayed or otherwise mistreated as we do so many of
our natural foods. The sea, so far, has remained bigger than
man's effort to contaminate it —though, if we give him time, he
will manage this, too, with an H-bomb or something. Down to
the sea come the minerals washed off the land. Here, too, is
iodine, vital to the body the thyroid —
though our minimal —
needs are small. I try to eat some fish every day, or every other
day, being careful of course not to ruin it by overcooking. I
like them all, wherever in the world I may be, except the
scavengers. I don't eat much shellfish, however, because it's
quite acid and it is a scavenger. (Crabs, as you may know, are

caught by using dead fish as bait.) Given a choice, I much prefer
the gamey trout or salmon over, say, catfish. There's a zest about
trout and salmon that I like to capture for my own body.
Brown Rice. Here is a natural food, rich in Vitamin B and
protein, with which man hasn't tampered. White rice, as you
know, has been polished for eye appeal. The husks are gone,
and with them all the properties of the food. You could live
your whole life, if need be, on rice and water. Orientals in their
own lands virtually do. (Their freedom from heart disease con-
tinues to intrigue the medical profession.) Wild rice is another
delicacy, though expensive for many budgets.
Bananas. Some people like bananas "because they have no
bones." I like them because they are delicious, rich in calcium
and phosphorus and high in natural fruit sugar. There's hardly
a time of year or store in the world where you can't buy them
relatively cheaply. They are quite low in calories. An average
size banana contains a little less than 100 calories as a rule,
about the same as an apple, an orange, a pear, potato or cup of
rice. I always choose bananas a little over-ripe because they are
tastier and digest more easily.
Avocado. Here is a delicious salad ingredient which doctors

believe to be loaded with Vitamin E. Certainly avocadoes offer
all the unsaturated oils you would want. I often sit down to a
quick lunch of one large avocado spooned out of the shell. I
can't recommend this to everyone, however, because a good

avocado will run to 250 or 300 calories. I get away with it
because I "earn it" — I exercise hard every day.

Eggs. Whether they or the chicken came first is of no matter
to the nutritionist. Eggs are one of the world's great all-around
foods. They are a tremendous source of protein, which is the
body's tissue builder. I would not, however, urge anyone to eat
them raw, and this despite the tales we've all heard about raw
eggs' regenerative powers. Egg white carries avedin, a protein
scavenger. (This action is inhibited when the egg is cooked.)
In the past, eggs have been blamed as a contributor to
cholesterol, the blood vessel dogger. I don't worry about that

so long as I eat the yellows, which are rich in choline. Choline,
most reputable authorities agree, works to inhibit cholesterol.
Soy Beans. Here is a source of protein higher even than eggs

and meat. Soy beans also are the source of lecithin which, with
its ability to fight cholesterol, should be in every diet. You may
have to go to Chinese stores to buy your soy beans, but that can
be an adventure in shopping. Buy some soy bean sprouts while
you're there.Bean sprouts help to make a salad magnificent.
I recommend soya bean powder (available at all health food
stores) to everyone with an electric blender, and later in the
book I will give you recipes for using it. It is a vital ingredient of
the Jack LaLanne Breakfast I gave you earlier. This meal was
a sensation when I introduced it in California.
I remember one young man in particular. He was trying to
hold down two jobs to make ends meet. Days he ran the parking
lot near my studio. When he spoke to me about his diet, he was
simply exhausted. I gave him the recipe for the LaLanne Break-
fast and suggested he try it next day. He did. The day after that,
he said, he had all the energy he needed and didn't even feel
like eating lunch. The secret, of course, was the high quantity
of protein and Vitamin B in the breakfast.
Another case comes tomind immediately. A lady had been
working out in the women's department of our studio and
complained of weakness and dizziness. On questioning her,
we found she had gone all day with almost no protein in her
diet. She, too, tried the LaLanne Breakfast and made it a daily
must. Months later, in fact, she was trying to convince us that
our program of nutrition and exercise was certainly potent.
She had a son, 17, and now she was going to have a baby. So,
of course, we had to outline a program of exercise for her to
do during her pregnancy.
Honey. Honey is one of my favorite foods. It has been man's
nutritional friend since Biblical days. If you get nothing more
from our meeting in this book, I hope you start to buy honey,
keep it in your kitchen and use it daily. Your sweet tooth is
throbbing? Take some honey. You have a little touch of the

listless, morning-after blues? Take honey. Quick blood sugar
for energy? Eat some honey. Many, many days in the heat of
Southern California, when I might be tempted to forego lunch,
I go to the refrigerator for half a ripe cantaloupe (and what a
wonderful scent it does have when it's sun ripe!) and some low
calorie cottage cheese. I put several scoops of the cottage cheese
in the hollow of the cantaloupe and then pour in honey and
mix it well. On one plate then, I have ample calories for the
afternoon —a pleasant taste in my mouth —and the quick, get-
up-and-go of that wonderful honey. Even if I didn't feel as I
do about white sugar, I should certainly use it sparingly if I
could substitute honey. I don't for a moment mean to imply that

a spoonful of honey gives you a sudden charge of electricity. I
do insist, though, that it will give your body a lift you can
notice and never a letdown.
Here, then, are just a few common foods you should add to
your menus. There are many others. Papayas give us excellent
properties when they're in season and not too expensive. I never
go to Mexico without eating my fill of this delicious fruit and
drinking glass after glass of papaya juice. The potato is a
marvelous food when we use it properly. You will see others as
we go along.
CHAPTE ,15 .
There's A Science
To Shopping
^^^^^^^^^^-^-^^^^^^^^^^^•^^^^^^^^^^^^.
Do you go to market in a mood? Preoccupied with cares of home

or business? Do you stand before the bins of fresh fruits and
vegetables as if they were adverse witnesses you must examine?
Trying to remember your grocery list and hating the chore?
Selecting your purchases with the dumb acceptance of a horse
plodding to its hay? Let me hasten to assure you this isn't the
LaLanne way.
Just as we've embarked on new lives with an ideal in mind,
we should shop for our food with a mental picture of the good
things we want. Picture ripe, thumpy watermelon or crisp green
101
—

lettuce and that's what your eye will find. Finding it, you
actually will take it with affection. And why shouldn't you? Isn't
this good thing provided by the Great Gardener? Isn't it to go
into your body? For your health and beauty?
This is an attitude we should bring to marketing. There also
are some little tips I'd like to give you to make your shopping
and your eating — successful. I will make them an important
part of this important book of yours.
Make it a rule always to buy the freshest, most nourishing of
mineral-rich foods. Buying "cheap," simply to save pennies, is
poor economy. (Balanced against dollars you might thereby

have to spend for seltzers and laxatives.) The best is none too
good in nutrition and this healthy, prosperous new life you've
chosen. Food is the "clay" we use to build and repair body
tissues. The quality of your blood, your brain and your tissues
will be in direct relation to the quality of the foods you eat.
By now, you know what I think of dry, devitalized cereals.

The gee-gaws and paper cutouts they offer won't do much for
the ideal measurements you've set for yourself. They are foolish
economy in my plan. You are smart and thrifty when you select
the most nutritious foods available.
Think of it a moment. Just down the street from your grocery
store are the offices of doctors, dentists, druggists and clinics.
Their bills run into hundreds of dollars, and much of their

patronage results from the ignorance or indifference of people
as they select and eat food.
American families actually save by learning and practicing
the ABC's of nutrition. (Always Be Conscientious.) You can't
be efficient, attentive, happy and healthy, and always have your

wits about you, if you cling to sterile meals. Sending a pooped-
out body off to work with a piece of toast and cup of coffee is an
invitation to failure.
Right feeding, proper nutrition, makes for well-fed, happy
families. An end to jittery, touchy nerves. Proper nutrition leads
to inner harmony. It starts at the store where you shop.
The kitchen is the most important room in my home. In addition to the

hours of fun I've had devising some potent concoctions and succulent
salads, I've learned many lessons about using the kitchen efficiently, get-
ting more out of the food dollar as well as retaining the natural values
in the foods we eat. You'll find the best of these ideas in this section.
HOW TO BUY VEGETABLES

Most markets today make a lavish display of their produce.
They accentuate color, freshness, offering a variety of invitations
to your palate — chicory, romaine, endive, watercress, celery,
lettuce, radishes, leeks, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, peppers,
parsley, carrots, raw peas, spinach leaves, avocadoes. From
such an abundance, surely, you need never stint yourself or
your family. These are essential body-building salad foods for
our "living temple." Choose as many of them as you can eat raw.
Chew them well.
Fruits and vegetables should always be bought fresh each

day. Ideally, you would get to market as early in the day as
possible, when you and the produce both are fresh. Always select
the brightest, freshest colors. Pick the tender young carrots with
the deep golden hues; celery that is green rather than bleached.
(You want all the mineral-vitamin properties, don't you?) Pick
root vegetables, such as turnips and beets, with good green tops.
Never let the grocer cut off the tops. You and I will use them
and save the properties the good Lord put into them.
If you know of a market in your locality that features organi-
cally grown vegetables, by all means use them in preference to
others. They've been grown by nature's methods, without chem-

ical sprays or fertilizers. While fruits and vegetables may all
look the same to the untrained eye, there is a vast difference in

the food mineral content and the results obtained when eaten.
In some cities, health food stores carry organically grown foods.
It will be worth your while —and a long step upward from the
habits of your old life — to investigate.
TIPS ON BUYING FRUIT
As with vegetables, get to the market early so you will have

the choice of the Great Gardener's choicest produce. In making
your selection of fruits, do so with attention to eye appeal, general
appearance, firmness, ripeness, variety of taste, as well as their
nutritional value. We who live in semi-tropical climates, of

course, have a greater selection throughout the year. But there
is no place in this great land that doesn't have its season and its
fruits which are better than any other.
I think of the Pacific Northwest as rainy and often chilly, but

my mouth waters now at thought of the hard, crisp, juicy
apples to be had there in season. We don't begin to get the pears

you do in another state, or the watermelon, peaches or table

grapes. As I have said, there's no time or place in America
when you can't get bananas or good oranges.
It always seems senseless to me, in fact, for Mom to spend
hours fussing over a hot stove making elaborate pies and fancy
cakes. I believe it's a culinary crime to waste good fresh fruit
in a pie. I further believe it adds to the general "pooped-out-itis"
of America. Many men demand pie only because they expect
their wife to preserve the eating-habit rut grooved by their Mom.
Natural fruits, grapes, berries, melons in season are the best
nutritional dessert there is. Period. Buy them with all the loving
attention you would otherwise put into a pie.
THE REAL VALUES AVAILABLE ONLY IN HEALTH

FOOD STORES
I have spoken already of health food stores. Like nutrition

itself (the vitamin was only discovered in our lifetime) they are
comparatively new on the scene. I recommend that you look
into them, but only with your eyes wide open.
Do not be misled by that word "health." I said before that it
can't be bought (though it can be earned). Some health food

stores are operated by super salesmen whose only background in
nutrition is a cursory reading of publications put out by the

manufacturers of the products they hawk. These unscrupulous
hucksters may seem to imply that they have the magic pill or
formula for every ache and pain of mankind. They don't.
They do, however, have many items not to be found any-
where else. Drug stores, for instance, will offer you a variety of
vitamins. For the most part, these are synthetic vitamins. I will
not attempt to criticize them here. I will only say I prefer to

buy the natural vitamins I find in health food stores. That is also
where I get my brewers yeast, safflower and sesame seed oil, my

mint and alfalfa teas and bone meal. Frequently, too, while
shopping, I will pause at the counter and have a cool fresh glass
of carrot juice. This nectar, guaranteed to quench a thirst, seems
to me almost the manna of which the Good Book speaks.
Recently, replenishing my home shelves after I had been
away on a trip, I spent $53 at one time in one health food store.
I knew exactly what I wanted and what I was getting. I didn't
even glance at the stocks of "health food pastries," candies or

food preparations which, to me, are just so many calories
wrapped in "health" packages. I have seen unwary people,
many of them clearly unhappy, unhealthy and filled with false
hopes, spend far more than $53 for items that might do them
no harm, but couldn't possibly do them much good. That is why
I urge you to know what you need and to keep your eyes open.
If this seems to be a blanket criticism of health food stores, I
don't mean it so. I am trying sincerely to help you plan your new
life wisely and economically. As I have said, a good part of
my food budget is earmarked for things I can get only in health
food stores. But I shop there as carefully and frugally as I do

in supermarkets.
TRY THIS AFTER-SHOPPING REVITALIZER
Too many people, I am afraid, come home from marketing in
a worse state than they started. Perhaps they've put it off until
just before time to start the next meal. They come in huffing
and puffing, dump their groceries on the kitchen table and flop
with a cigarette or cup of coffee. If this is the case with you,

and if you have just exercised all the care and attention I out-
lined for buying your groceries, you are about to undo all your
good work.
Let's concoct a little ritual for an after-shopping-pickup. First,
set your groceries down on the table or sink gently. Don't smash
or bruise those fruits and vegetables you've been so careful to
select. Now, for a moment, let's walk away from them.
You're weary? Sit down on a straight chair and take a Magic
3 as I taught you early in this book. Remember? This is the way
it goes. Sit well forward with your feet planted in front of you,
arms dangling at your sides, stomach in and shoulders squared.
Now lean forward quickly between your legs as if to touch your

forehead to the floor. Now come back up. All the way and on
back, eyes to the ceiling, arching your shoulders as if to grip a
pencil between your shoulder blades. This is taking time? I prom-
ise you will more than make it up in the efficiency with which
you go back to your work. And in the sense of well-being it
brings you.
Now I recommend a quick shower. Start the water warm so
that it soothes your whole body. Just when you feel you could
stand there forever, luxuriating in that warm stream, turn it
quickly to cold. All cold. Now you're coming alive again. Don't
stay too long. You needn't freeze to enjoy a cold shower. Just a
few seconds over all your body, then out. Now dry briskly with
your towel. Of course you feel peppier. You are.
Let's get a little quick energy, too. Look into that sack of
fruit you've bought. Aren't you glad now you chose this fruit
for its eye appeal? Try a plum or a nectarine. A fresh apple. In
a few moments you'll turn to the next task with a briskness you
forgot you had.
SUBSTITUTION IS THE KEY FOR THESE FOODS

YOU SHOULD AVOID
Some people, without really investigating, think that follow-
ing the plan of a physical culturist or nutritionist means a bleak
and spartan existence. By now you know this isn't true. I have
promised, and am demonstrating, that I never take fun from your
life — I add to it.
You will continue to have cocktails and wines, if you enjoy

them. You simply will learn to "earn" them by consuming fewer
calories next day and exercising a little harder. (If I could fill
your life with dancing all night and an attentive army of the
opposite sex, I would consider this book a great success.)

You will continue to smoke, if that is your pleasure. You
simply will take steps to reduce the harmful effects of cigarettes.
And you will eat. Specifically, you will enjoy eating. If you are
Since the virtues of good fresh fruit have been known for hun-
dreds of years, it amazes me how few people today enjoy the
delicious ones widely available to us. Their shelves may be full
of quick this and instant that but a rich, juicy apple such as the
one I'm eating can't be found. In addition to recapturing the
joys of eating fresh ripe fruit most of us knew in childhood, my
theory of substitution discussed in this chapter will be of par-
ticular value in weight control.
an overeater, you will learn to cut back when you choose, or

avoid those things which complicate your problem and your life.
I am trying to add a big portion of zest to your living. When

I say this or that is bad, I substitute something actually more
tasty, and better for you. I have good reason for urging you to
avoid, or cut down, some foodstuffs of our society.
White Sugar. All my colleagues in this field agree that white
sugar is a bane of the American diet. Ripe fruits and berries
need no sugar sprinkled over them. They are filled by nature with
beneficial sugars. Coffee needn't be thickened with spoonfuls of
sugar. Those who really enjoy coffee, I am told, much prefer it
black, not loaded with calories. (Did you ever count the calories
you consume in half a dozen cups of coffee a day?) Cooked
cereals, the key to many a hot breakfast, actually taste better
with honey. Honey, in fact, should be used wherever sweetening
is desired.
White Flour. The wheat kernel is, of itself, a perfectly
balanced food. It supplies things our bodies require. Unfortu-
nately, in so many of the white flour products to be found on
grocery shelves, we don't get everything that was in that whole
wheat kernel at the outset. Modern milling and processing have
robbed grains of their very life forces; chemicals have been added
to prevent "mould" and to bleach the flour to make it appear
whiter.
The life forces, similarly, are taken from many of our widely-
advertised breakfast cereals. They are, as I say, foodless foods.
Certainly we should eat fewer of them.

am not against bread. The fact is I manufacture a bread
I
under my own name in Northern California. But look at the

ingredients of my bread: stone ground wheat, water, honey, milk,
non-hydrogenated soya oil, salt, yeast, wheat germ and yeast
nutrients. I do not attempt to ship this bread long distances or
expect it to remain long on grocers' shelves. I do not, therefore,
add chemical properties to "embalm" it.
Egg White. Later, discussing eggs, I shall stress use of the
yolk only and discarding the white. Some people find that the
whites of eggs help form mucus in their bodies. More important,
I find egg whites too often used with devitalized companions in
the making of frostings for cakes, in sherbet sauces, for me-

ringues, glazing cookies, Hollandaise sauce. Beautiful though
these tasty concoctions appear, you would be better off without
them. Why spend the time, fuss and money on minerally-

deficient foods when there are so many nourishing things to be
had?
Oils and Shortening. There seem to be times when someone
about us simply has an overwhelming desire for French fried
potatoes. It does seem hard to resist them all the time. They are,
of course, fried in deep fat — very often from an accumulation of

cooking fats saved in a coffee can in the refrigerator. Healthy
persons with sound digestive systems can "get away with" them
once in a while, to be sure. They are, however, loaded with the
stuff that puts inner tubes on our waists. And they can quickly
become habit-forming.
If and when you feel you must have such a tidbit, cook it in
pure peanut oil, odorless, smokeless and tasteless. It costs far

less than olive oil.
Again, if you prepare salads which must have a little oil,
use peanut oil. Don't use vinegar in these salads; substitute lemon
juice for white salt, and more lemon juice in place of the vinegar.
(Vinegar has its use — it's excellent for cleaning windows.) I
urge my friends not only to avoid vinegar, but catsup, salt and
pepper.
Right here, I suppose, I had better give you my recipe for
mayonnaise you can make at home and use safely. Take three
egg yolks, one cut of peanut oil, the juice of one lemon, one tea-
spoon of vegetable salt or powdered kelp. Beat egg yolks and salt
(or kelp) together. Add lemon juice and beat slowly into the
cup of oil. If not quite thick enough, slowly add more oil.
I recommend that lard not be used in any cooking and that

you be extremely sparing with vegetable shortenings. People
drift into the shortening habit, and the foods requiring it, and
before they realize it, are searching for a crash diet.
If you feel you simply can't get along without oils, then use
them sparingly and at very rare intervals. Return, I implore you,

to this book and oil-free dishes that really make your taste buds
dance. Eating, like life, should be fun.
CHAPTE ,16 .
Lets Talk About I
Eating Habits
And Digestion
Perhaps you think it presumptuous for me to suggest to you how

actually to chew your foods. I believe it just as important as
showing you how to shop.
If you are on a reducing diet, for instance, do you wolf down
the calorie-limited fare you are given? You are making it harder
on yourself if you do. My experience is that the more you chew
each mouthful of food, the less food you will need to eat. You
feel satisfied sooner. Try it at your very next meal.
Has it been your habit to take a bite of meat and perhaps a
bite of potato and chew them together? Later do you notice
111
gas, digestive discomfort? I tell my friends to take their mouthful
of potato or other vegetable by itself and chew thoroughly. Why?
The digestion of starches begins in the mouth with the salivary
juices. Meat is digested in the stomach. If I ever am guilty of
gulping my food, it would be the meat. I hurry it right along
to the stomach.
This, I believe, is important for older people to remember.
Particularly those with dentures. Too often, as they grow older
and experience trouble chewing, men and women avoid the pro-
tein foods they need. Particularly meats, and most particularly
rare meats. I suggest that most of our senior citizens would feel
peppier and take vastly more enjoyment from their sunset years
if only they would eat more rare meat every day. They could do
this if they would only remember they don't have to chew that
meat as they do vegetables.
I'm not original when I repeat that Americans comprise the
most over-fed, but undernourished, nation on earth. Look at
any crowd. Look at the silhouettes of the men and women who
could, if They just don't push
they would, be slim and attractive.
themselves back from the table soon enough. They over-eat.
What is over-eating? It is, most simply, taking in more calories
than your body needs for your daily activities. The calories must
go somewhere and they do into fat. It's like making big —
deposits at the bank three times a day with only a few small
withdrawals. The result is a surplus.
You have seen by now, as we try to change your own surplus,
how many foods arouse my enthusiasm. Juicy fruits and berries,
colorful greens, protein-rich lean meats, mineral-heavy fish,
nutritious nuts, egg yolks, honey, dates, figs and raisins.
There is a reason for this, entirely aside from the fact I enjoy
all these foods. When you eat enough of them, you are not
likely to over-eat.
Fat people too often gravitate to foods lacking in natural food

properties. They eat and eat, but still have a craving; to satisfy
it, they keep on eating (as my Dad did) until they "feel full."
Seemingly, they can't leave the table until they actually feel
TO VIBRANT GOOD HEALTH 1 1
abdominal discomfort. (How often we see this after Thanksgiving

dinner. The turkey was stuffed, and so are we.)
I shall have something to say later about the mind as an instru-
ment of self-control. For now, I ask: "Why advertise to the world
that you have no control over your appetite?" Don't you realize
flabby fat can never be hidden completely by corsets or girdles?
(I've never seen a corset for double chins.)
"Hidden hunger" is, in great part, habit. It is not satisfied
but only fed —by day-long nibbling. If you come home tired and
droopy, remember my suggestions for your return from market-
ing. Do a quick Magic 3, take a cold shower and eat some fresh
fruit.
We have compulsive eaters as certainly as we have compulsive

drinkers. As a matter of fact, we probably have more of them.
We don't devote special hospital wards to them, as we do for
alcoholics. They turn up in all wards of our hospitals.
Sadly enough, our way of life encourages compulsory nibbling,

particularly between meals. Ladies meet for bridge parties or
sewing sessions and compete with each other at preparing gooey
snacks. The coffee break offers between-meals opportunity to
stoke up on more calories. Drive-in restaurants are convenient
stops for added fodder. Evenings of television, with cookies or
candy handy, invite the nibbler to indulge himself.
Bad as the habit is, it would be less deadly if only nibblers

would substitute good things for bad. At times I actually find
between-meals snacks helpful to men and women trying to lose
weight. (Who would, if not watched, skimp on breakfast and

lunch, and then, starved, pile in 3000 calories of dinner.) I
recommend they have a bite between meals —an apple, half a
cup of yogurt, an orange, or perhaps a glass of skimmed milk.

These help to keep up blood sugar and fight off the pangs of
hunger.
I never eat between meals myself however, and I hope in this
new life you're molding you practice forbearance. There will be

a reward for us: We will not take the edge off meals we propose
to enjoy.
MAKE THE ELECTRIC BLENDER—NUTRITION'S

MIRACLE TOOL WORK FOR YOU
Every home, as I have told you, should be equipped with an

electric blender or liquefier. This should be as much a fixture
of your new life as your ideal measurements. Just standing there
in your kitchen, it will be an invitation to make beverages packed
with nourishment and quick energy.
You will find fascinating fun concocting your own fresh drinks
from combinations of fruits, berries, melons, and salads with
nuts and herbs to excite your taste buds. These juices will all
play their important part in building the tissues you are sculpting.
There will also be days —we all have them —when it seems
much
just too effort to prepare a good meal with all the foods
you know you should have. How easy then to drop a few of these
foods into the liquifier together, flick the switch and, a few
moments later, produce a health cocktail that will be absorbed
quickly into the blood stream.
Children should be encouraged to drink the blender bever-
ages. I'm sure your pediatrician would agree that a glass of rich,
sweet carrot juice each day is far better than the soda fountain
habit and its resultant damage to teeth, complexion and digestion.

(Older folks, too, should be urged to drink these juice cocktails.)
Here is one I have found popular with people of all ages : Drop
into your blender some orange juice, a few dates, raisins, figs,
some almonds, a bit of parsley, an egg yolk including the shell
(but not the white), a piece of raw carrot, a ripe banana. Flick
the switch. A moment later you have one of earth's finest elixirs.
Here is concentrated nourishment. The orange juice provides
the liquid necessary to start your liquefier and gives vitamins.
Your body takes quick energy from the almonds, egg yolk,
parsley, raisins, dates and figs. The banana helps to build muscle
cells. If you wish, you may sweeten the beverage with a spoonful
of honey.
When blackberries, raspberries or strawberries are out of
season, buy the quick-frozen packages for use in your liquefier.

Or you might cut up fresh young beets and blend them with the
beet leaves, well washed (rich in natural iron) along with other
diced vegetables, salad greens, some pineapple or apple juice;
tomato or carrot juice with sticks of celery dropped in, and per-
haps some raisins and honey. You'll soon find half the fun of the
blender is in the improvisations it suggests.
Don't cling to old notions in this new life of yours. Particularly
the notion you must cook vegetables every day. Simplify meal-
time preparations by using the blender. You might use fresh,
sweet, peas from the pod, raw, washed spinach, tender young
carrots, sticks of celery, lettuce, an onion ring, a piece of cauli-
flower, slice of green bell pepper, a sprig of parsley. Add apple

juice, orange or tomato juice, a few raisins with honey and a
black mission fig. Here are all the vegetables you would need for
any meal, and you wouldn't be pouring off their potent juices.
Now here are two sets of Magic 3 drinks you can make in your
blender, either for losing or gaining weight.
FOR LOSING WEIGHT
Vitamin C Cool
6 oz fresh grapefruit juice
Juice of 1 lemon
2 pieces of lemon rind
1 tsp honey
All Vitamin
8 oz. skim milk
1 tblsp wheat germ
1 tsp brewers yeast
1 tsp black strap molasses
1 tsp honey
Liquid Apple
6 oz water
1 apple Add pinch of nutmeg to flavor.
1 tsp honey
FOR GAINING WEIGHT
Vitamin B Cocktail
8 oz half and half milk
1 tsp brewers yeast
1 tblsp wheat germ
1 egg Add pinch of cinnamon to flavor.
1 tblsp honey
Hl-VlTAMIN
8 oz orange or pineapple juice

1 tblsp black strap molasses
1 tblsp raw sugar
1 tblsp wheat germ
1 egg
My Islander
8 oz orange juice
A avocado
l
1 banana
1 egg
1 tblsp honey Add pinch of cinnamon to flavor.
CHAPTE «/7
Try Eating Out
The Jack LaLanne Way
Perhaps you are one who enjoys eating out. You are remember-
ing wonderful restaurants you've learned to like, long menus
loaded with things you love, the luxury of tasting the handiwork
of a fine chef. Perhaps a small voice in you is wailing: "But how
can I ever enjoy those evenings again if I follow the LaLanne
way of life?"
I've got news for you. Drop into any top restaurant from San
Francisco to Manhattan or abroad and you well may find Jack
LaLanne eating there. No one appreciates fine restaurants more
than I. The better the restaurant, in fact, the easier I find it to
order my kind of meal.
All it takes is thought and a little practice. Food comes to
117
restaurant kitchens, after all, the same as it does to your own.
You merely order the things you want and tell the waiter, or
cook, how you like them. I do this almost daily, and so do my
students.
Not long ago, for instance, one of my newer students and I
stopped for dinner at Musso and Frank Grill, a well-known

eating place on Hollywood Boulevard. My student friend needed
to lose some pounds, which he was to do by curbing his eating
and taking directed daily exercise. Having tried many diets be-
fore, he was under the impression he could only eat as he needed
to at home. We soon corrected that.
"We'll start with a salad," I said, knowing that the restaurant

would have more vegetables in its big kitchen than my friend
normally would have at home. "Put together as many raw
vegetables as you have," I told the waiter. "And for dressing just
some lemon juice."
You should have seen that salad! Lettuce, of course, and

tomato. Some diced raw onion. A little bell pepper. Zucchini
raw (this can be better than cucumber), but here was cucumber,
too. Asparagus tips (not raw, exactly, but mighty tasty). Radish.
Celery. Raw mushrooms commend them to you). And,
(I
sprinkled over the top, some bean sprouts. "Chew slowly," I

counseled my friend. He did, and I watched him wolf down the
first few bites, only to slow down and look about before he had
finished, convinced he was going to have plenty to eat.
Soup? On a calorie-cutting plan? Of course. I suggested a

clear broth, as I usually do. Clam broth, chicken broth or con-
somme. It so happened, however, that they were serving no
broths that day. Noodle soup was the soup du jour. "Fine," I
said. "Just leave out the noodles." Vegetable soup would have
been all right, as a matter of fact, even though it usually has a
few more things in it than I recommend. Soup is particularly good
for dieters. (It fills space and there isn't the craving later for
dessert to pad out the crannies.)
Now we came to the main course and I saw the resigned look
in my friend's eyes. He was prepared to starve it out. He almost
leaped off his seat when I suggested a steak. Either top round or
sirloin. Both are inexpensive and have a minimum of fat. When
my friend made his choice, I asked the waiter not to spread
butter over the steak, as some restaurants do.
There wasn't much we could do about the vegetables that day.
They were cooked already. (In good restaurants, if you care to
pay a little extra, you may have your vegetables cooked to order.
When you do, always request them undercooked.) Rather than

take unnecessary calories in the creamed cauliflower, I sug-
gested that my friend have the baked potato. (Without butter or
cream sauce.) Then I showed him how to scoop out the white
meat and set it aside, eating only the mineral-rich skin. He was
getting pretty full by that time.
However, his system was accustomed to a jam-packed meal.
He thought he wanted dessert. Fresh fruit didn't seem to tempt
him, though a day or so later that was all he would want. So we
had a dish of stewed prunes with a little milk (not cream) poured
over them. He might have taken the baked apple, or he might
even have had jello. (Though it does contain some sugar and
artificial coloring.)
Later, when his weight was down, my friend had a hankering

for bread with his meals. That is permissible. One or two pieces
of rye or whole wheat bread, toasted, is good for digestion. If
you must have butter with your toast, see how thin you can spread
it. Actually, I don't take butter away from students who don't
have a weight problem. It is a natural fat containing Vitamin A
and you need some fat. You should, however, use only enough to
get the taste. I should say the maximum you should have with a
meal is a pat. (Try to use only half of one pat.)
Earlier I said I would show you how to get a healthy lunch
even at the corner hamburger stand. Let's try that now. Start
with a salad. Every hamburger Stand I ever saw had lettuce and
tomato. Ask the counterman for half a head of the crispest let-
tuce he has, and have him slice his best tomato for you. Most
stands and smaller restaurants have roast beef. Order several
slices. Here will be your protein. It also will fill the void that
causes hunger pangs. Or you might order one, two, even four
hard-boiled eggs. But so long as you're at a hamburger stand,
why not have a hamburger? Have the man cook a patty rare. Mix
it with a scoop of cottage cheese (or have a scoop on the side)
and eat this with the lettuce and tomato. For your beverage,
have a large glass of tomato juice. Satisfied? You will be able to
do more work and better work than if you'd gone for doughnuts
and coffee.
Breakfasts should be easier to eat in restaurants than at home.

(Simply stay away from the hotcakes and waffles. I will give you
my recipe for Jack Flaps later.) For breakfast in a restaurant,
start with fresh fruit or juice. Then have meat —ground round
or a small steak —or eggs as you like them. A small piece of dark
toast, but only that film of butter.
Restaurant desserts are, of course, designed for the sweetest
of sweet teeth and not mine. I usually order fruit. Then again,
remembering the continental way of breakfast, I may call for a
piece of cheese (I love Monterey Jack) and an apple. Take a

bite of cheese and apple in the same mouthful and you have
my impression of manna.
This has only been a sampling, of course. You can eat in
restaurants every day of your life and follow a perfectly healthy
regimen. Your own ingenuity will help you. In time you will find
that waiters and chefs actually respect you for the high regard in
which you hold food.
THE FUN OF ORIENTAL COOKERY
Perhaps it's because I have lived so much along the Pacific

Coast, Gateway to the Orient, and traveled so often to Hawaii
and the South Seas that I have come to admire and take delight
in foods of the Far East. Whatever the reason, as a nutritionist,
I have, like the medical profession, been much impressed by the

physical energy and stamina of the Chinese, the alert creative
drive of the Japanese, the strong bodies and sunny natures of the
true South Sea Islanders. I can't help but wonder what crippling
diseases would beset these peoples if, suddenly, they were to rely
on the devitalized, store-bought, manhandled diets of Americans.
The Islanders are, of course, children of the sea. Fish is their
great protein food and they've learned to cook all fishes they
catch simply and tastefully. The Japanese bring the same care
and effort to their delightful dishes that they devote to delicate
flower arrangements. From the Chinese, who seem to take end-
less physical endurance from rice, soy beans, fish and vegetables,
we can learn much.
I love to go to the markets in San Francisco's Chinatown and
buy soy beans (cook them as you would any dry bean), Chinese
peas in the pod, and vegetables I don't even know the names of.
In Chinatown, for $ 1 , you can buy enough good food to feed a

family of four for several days. I always pick up some bean
sprouts, which are high in protein, minerals and vitamins.
Sometimes I cook them; other times I simply mix them in salads.
There is something about the sprouts — living things just springing
into being — that tickles the palate and imagination.

Occidentals think of a Chinese market as a jumble of con-
fusion, strange smells and strange sounds. They aren't. The
Chinese grocer may know nothing academically about nutrition;
he may not even realize that it's probably the lecithin in his
soy beans which may have helped prevent heart disease in him-
self and his ancestors. Probably no one has told him the scientific
facts about minerals and vitamins in the tops of his vegetables.

But does he cut them off and throw them away? He does not!
The Chinese throws away nothing that is edible. He may not

know the science of nutrition, but he is an age-old expert on
nourishment.
It was from the Chinese I learned one of my favorite methods
for cooking fish. You may use it with any kind of fish, bass to
sole or halibut, salmon or trout. Using my electric steamer pan,
I put in about one inch of water, and bring it to a vigorous boil.
Then I set in a metal rack, on which I put my fish so it won't

touch the water. I will have prepared my seasoning already, a
sauce of garlic, onion and soya sauce. Now I spread it on the
fish with a brush. I put the lid on the pot and let it boil for two
to three minutes. In that short space of time, the fish is cooked
through and permeated with the seasoning. It is simply delicious,
and you can see for yourself how little fat I have taken in my
main dish.
I love to take friends to world-famous restaurants like Trader

Vic's and Don the Beachcomber's. Both serve wonderful Chinese
dishes prepared to American tastes. My mouth almost waters
now at thought of their roast chicken, duck and squab, which I
offer even to friends on reducing diets. And their vegetables! I
ask for mine just a little undercooked to get the fullest flavor
(and mineral content).

In San Francisco, I often take friends to the several sukiyaki
houses, particularly Yamato. Here, as you know, each dish is
prepared individually at your table by beautiful little Japanese

girls. I have yet to hear anyone who didn't exclaim at the tender
raw vegetables — the bamboo shoots, celery, crisp lettuce chilled
to perfection. Nowhere will you find such meat as the tender

strips of beef cooked at your table. Cooking like this takes a
little effort, to be sure, but it's so tasty and so sparing in calories.
Perhaps you're ready to protest that the recipe for sukiyaki
calls for sugar. It does indeed, but I bring my honey. In fact, I
keep a little store of my own foods at Yamato so I can make

substitutions. George Mardikian, the famous Armenian restaura-
teur, has been kind enough to provide me with stores of brown
rice (I never eat the polished white rice) and cracked wheat. I
keep a supply at the restaurant and simply telephone 15 minutes

before I plan to arrive with my party.
Some of your greatest adventures in eating can come with
eating at exotic places. Once you have the basic principles of
good nutrition in mind, you can eat anywhere and have fun. I
urge you to try it. All of the good things on this globe aren't
native to America, by any means. We've merely perfected the
foodless food.
• CHAPTER _IO •
Keeping Life In
Your Food
In the beginning of our book, I asked you to measure yourself

for the new life you hoped to achieve and suggested you establish
an ideal of what you want to be. Then I showed you how to regu-
late your calories and start the re-proportioning of your body.
In recent pages I have been discussing the measurement of foods
themselves. Now it is time to set up some ideals of the foods you
will wish to follow for health, vitality, beauty and well-being.
A healthy, happy mind, we are now agreed, must come as a
result of health in a well-nourished body. You believe this and
123
probably you have shopped for groceries as wisely as you knew
how. You believe in well-balanced meals and I have no doubt
you are a better cook than you think.
As with most people, however, there are days when you
simply don't feel vibrant and buoyant. (There will be more of
these days, I suspect, though never so many as in the old life.)
This always is true when we embark on self-improvement pro-
grams in this hectic, distracting world of ours.
Consistency is at the heart of my program. Consistency can be
developed and maintained. I know, from the thousands of stu-
dents who have tried and persisted and gained the ideal they
sought. (And maintain it to this day.) It requires continuing

guideposts, and these I propose to give you.
Let us look now at our meals. Specifically the several com-
ponents of salads (and salad dressings), soups, eggs, meat
dishes, meat substitutes, vegetables, desserts and bakery goods.
Then we will explore vitamins and food supplements. It would
take a cook book (which I propose to write on another day) to
answer all your questions. For the moment, let's discuss these
components in a general way and pick up some sample menus to
illustrate my thinking.
SALADS FOR NEW BEAUTY

The health, energy and splendid physique I enjoy, as I say,
comes from daily exercise and scientific nutrition. Salads com-

prise a vital part of my diet. They will benefit you just as they
have me.
I have shown you how to shop for vegetables and how to
prepare them for storage until the moment you want them. They
are in the refrigerator now. Let's work with some.
The salad suggestions which follow are several of my long-
time favorites. I trust they will become permanent favorites of
yours. I shall give you three samples each —another Magic 3
series — of vegetable and fruit salads.
to vibrant good health 125
Clear Skin Salad

1 cup carrots, finely shredded
8 tbsp pineapple juice
1 cup celery, finely chopped
1 cup cabbage, finely shredded
% cup red apples diced
Saturate the ingredients with pineapple juice. When cold, arrange on

and garnish with sprigs of watercress.
crisp leaves of lettuce or escarole
Clear-Eye Salad
Select very young green turnip leaves, wash and chill. Serve on a plate
with stuffed egg, a slice of raw tomato and olive oil dressing.
Vitamin Special Salad

1 head romaine lettuce Radishes
1 cucumber, sliced Ripe olives
3 tomatoes, sliced Sour cream dressing
2 cups bean sprouts
Place romaine leaves on salad plates. Place a layer of bean

sprouts on the leaves. Slice alternate layers of cucumber and
tomato over them, tapering to a peak. The last layer should
be cucumber. Garnish with ripe olives and radishes. Serve with
sour cream dressing.
Summer Salad
Equal parts of:
Diced apples
Oranges
Pineapple
Blue grapes
Celery
Nut dressing
Orange cups, served individually
Dice apples, oranges, pineapple and celery into large mixing

bowl. Add blue grapes and mix with nut dressing. For individual
salads serve in orange cups made by hollowing out oranges with
a spoon.
High Energy Salad
6 bananas
'2 cup finely chopped nuts
/2 cup orange juice
Lettuce leaves to garnish
Peel bananas and dip into orange juice, then into chopped
nuts. Serve on lettuce leaves.
Tangerine Salad
1 head shredded lettuce
6 tangerines, in sections
Red and green pepper strips
1 Number 2 can, or 2 cups fresh pineapple sticks
Avocado dressing
On beds of shredded lettuce place pineapple sticks in standing

position. In the center place tangerine sections and garnish well
with strips of red and green pepper. Serve with Avocado
Dressing.
Salad Dressings
Honey and Lemon Dressing

Juice of one lemon diluted in a little water with one table-
spoon of honey. Pour into a small jar and shake well.
Lemon and Oil Dressing
Juice of one lemon, one tablespoon oil, a small quantity of

chopped onion or onion juice, chopped parsley. Add a little
water and shake well.
A vocado Dressing
1 Avocado
Juice of 1 orange or lemon
Beat the pulp of the avocado to the consistency of whipped

cream. Add orange or lemon juice to season. The juice should
be added slowly. Whip with a rotary beater (Remember, avo-

cado is heavy with calories.)
I see that I recommended sour cream dressing for several

salads. Here, then, is my recipe:
1 cup sour cream

JS cup lemon juice
Mix together. May be used either with fruit or vegetable

salad.
SOUPS: REDISCOVER A LOST ART
Time was, Grandma had a pot of soup stock simmering on

the old cook-stoveall the time. I remember my own boyhood on
a ranch when we always had soup for lunch and again at the
evening meal. Today I don't consider my chief meal complete
unless I have some type of appetizing soup.
With so many good canned soups available in the stores, of
course, home-made soup has become almost a lost art. The
secret is the preparation, including both the stock ingredients
and flavorful herbs. Intense heat destroys vitamin content of the
vegetables, so start yours in cold water and gradually bring them

to a simmer. Avoid over-cooking.
Serve different soups several times a week. Even when you
buy canned soups, mix several varieties with harmonizing flavors
—clam chowder with chicken gumbo, oyster soup with cream of
mushroom, equal parts of tomato soup with vegetable, corn
chowder with onion soup, mushroom with chicken (topped
with parsley), tomato soup and green pea in equal parts.
A MAGIC 3 OF SOUPS
Green Pea Broth

2 lbs fresh green peas and pods
Vegetable broth powder
Shelland wash both the peas and the pods. Cover pods with
water, simmer for half an hour and strain. Steam peas until
tender enough to mash with a fork. Add the liquor from pea
pods, season with butter and broth powder, and serve.
Vegetable Bean Soup

1 cup fresh shelled peas
1 cup fresh shelled lima beans
2 carrots
1 parsnip
1 small can tomato juice
1 large onion
2 turnips
1 cup okra
2 cups celery
1 cup parsley
1 small clove garlic
Cut or chop all vegetables into small pieces. Cover with water
and simmer for about three-quarters of an hour. Add finely
chopped parsley and chopped garlic and simmer five more

minutes. Season with Savita and celery salt and serve.
Sea Food Chowder
2 lbs cod or haddock (whole or fileted)

3 tbsps vegetable shortening
1 cup diced onion
2 cups cubed unpeeled potatoes
1 cup consomme
1 qt rich milk
2 tbsps butter
1/2 tsps vegetable salt
Ja tsp paprika
Vz tsp thyme or caraway seed (if desired)
If using whole fish, simmer it in a little water until the flesh
will part easily from the bones. The trick of fish chowder is to
get the fish flavor thoroughly into the milk without cooking fish
to shreds. It would be easier if you used fileted fish.
Melt vegetable shortening in a heavy skillet and brown the

onion in it. Meanwhile parboil the cubed potatoes for 10
minutes, drain and add to onion. When the potatoes are slightly
brown, pour consomme into the frying pan to cover the vege-
tables. (If you have used whole fish, use the water in which it
was cooked.) Cover and simmer gently until vegetables are

nearly done.
Meanwhile put the milk in a large kettle with butter and
seasonings. Heat milk slowly, but do not let it boil. If you have
cooked your fish, cut it into sizeable chunks, removing skin and
bones. If using fileted fish, lay it over top of the cooking vege-
tables. In a few minutes it will steam through.
Now break it into chunks with a fork. This is much easier than
trying to chop up fish raw —and far easier to clean up after.
When vegetables and fish are done, add them to the hot milk.
Cover and allow to heat through without boiling. Ten more
minutes over the flame should do it nicely.
SOME LOW CALORIE SOUPS
Vitamin Broth
1 onion, minced
4 seven-inch celery stalks

& lb cabbage, finely shredded
2 cups boiling water
2 cups tomato juice
1 cup grapefruit juice
1 tsp vegetable salt
Place onion, celery and cabbage in boiling water, cover pan

and boil six to eight minutes, until cabbage is almost tender.
Add tomato juice, grapefruit juice, salt and continue cooking
five minutes longer. Serve at once in heated individual bowls.
Green Chicken Broth

3 cups chicken broth, defatted
/4 lb spinach, cut in two-inch p eces J
1 small (four-ounce) zucchini or yellow-neck squash. (1 cup

thinly sliced)
Be sure chicken broth is thoroughly defatted. The simplest

way to do this is to place cooled broth in refrigerator. When it
is chilled, a hardened layer of fat forms on the surface. When
ready to use, loosen fat from sides of bowl with knife and care-
fully lift off hardened layer. Be careful to remove any bits of
fat which break off. Heat defatted chicken broth to boiling.

Add cut spinach and sliced squash. Cover pan and cook about
10 minutes. Serve immediately.
Oxtail Soup
1 large oxtail (about 2 pounds)

1 tablespoon fat or oil
6 cups cold water
1 tspn vegetable salt
1 leek, diced
/2 cup onion, minced

/2 cup celery, diced
1 cup carrot, diced

& cup turnip, diced
2 cups canned tomatoes
Have butcher cut oxtail in 2-inch pieces. Wash and drain.

Heat fat or oil in deep kettle, add oxtails and brown well on all
sides. Add water and salt, cover and bring to boil.
Lower heat and simmer, covered, about 3 hours or until meat

is tender (soft enough to away from bone). Remove meat
fall
from stock, let it cool enough to handle, then cut or pick meat
from the bone. Return oxtail meat to stock and chill soup until
fat solidifies. When ready to use, remove layer of fat from top of
soup. Bring soup to a boil, add vegetables and simmer, covered,

about 20 to 30 minutes, until vegetables are cooked.
SEAFOOD SECRETS
With the U. S. Navy in World War II, I made many ports of

call in the South Pacific and had an opportunity to observe how
the natives thrived on the fresh fish they caught. I found the
people of the Fiji Islands, for example, among the sturdiest and
healthiest specimens I ever have seen. Their diet consisted
almost entirely of fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and fresh-caught
seafood.
Not only is fish a marvelous natural source of protein. It
abounds in minerals and vitamins. It must, however, be fresh,

and here are some things to look for in determining freshness in
fish:
1. It looks "alive." The eyes are clear; not sunken or wrinkled.

2. The scales adhere strongly.
3. The gills are red.
4. The flesh is firm and elastic.
5. The body is rigid.
6. Skin and colors are bright.
The eyes of stale fish usually are cloudy, sunken and wrinkled.
The skin looks dull, spotted, slimey or bleached. The gills may
be yellowish, grey or brown. The flesh is flabby soft; finger im-
pressions remain. There is a sour, stale or strong smell, par-
ticularly at the gills. The body is flabby and limp, scales are loose.
Since fish decomposes much faster than meat, it should be
cleaned and cooked as soon as possible. Eat fish as soon as it is
cooked. Handle it with a broad spatula to avoid breaking

connective tissues.
The method I prefer for cooking fish is broiling. If it is a
large fish, make a few incisions on the side as far up as the back-
bone; this facilitates cooking and helps prevent shriveling. If
seasoning is added, place on broiler which has been preheated

to avoid scorching.
Let me point out here that fresh fish roe is a marvelous food.
Eat it whenever you have the opportunity. All types of fresh
you may enjoy (though I do not eat
shellfish offer selections
many of them myself). Also, canned salmon and sardines are

good foods when it is impossible to get fresh food. If perchance
you cook more of the fish than you can eat, keep it in the
refrigerator. Serve cold at your next opportunity.

Here is just one of my recipes for baking fish:
(Enough for 6 servings)

Three to four pounds of fish
1 tsp of vegetable salt

1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion juice
l
A cup melted butter or olive oil
6 lemon quarters
Watercress
Have fish split and cleaned. Wash it thoroughly. Place in

greased shallow baking pan. Mix salt, paprika and onion juice
with butter or salad oil and brush over fish. Bake, skin side down,
in moderately hot oven (425 degrees F) for 30 to 40 minutes,
until fish is well browned and flakes from bone when tried with
fork. Garnish with quartered lemon and watercress and serve.

If you have a plank or oven-proof platter, arrange fish in
center of plank and bake as directed. After fish has baked 25

minutes, surround with 12 halved, buttered, quick-cooked car-
rots, 12 buttered mushroom caps, thick halves of fresh tomatoes
and 3 cups mashed potatoes (for border, use parsley). Continue
baking another 10 minutes.
WHAT ABOUT EGGS?

Fresh eggs, as I have said, are an excellent source of nutrition.
(In referring to eggs in nutrition, I mean hen's eggs because they

are the most popular and most easily obtainable.) I urge my
students to eat at least one egg a day, pointing out it isn't good
just to serve them fried with bacon.
Remember, you can soft-boil eggs, pan-fry them, shir them,

make an omelet, poach them, scramble or serve them hard-
boiled in salads, or as stuffed eggs, deviled eggs, egg nog, curried
or mixed in your liquefier.
Dietetically, the egg is a complete food. The white of the egg,
albumen, contains growth elements in the form of protein,
similar to the protein in milk. The yolk, however, has properties
not to be found in cow's milk. It contains more food iron than
milk, and lecithin as well. It's a good source of Vitamins A and
B, plus some D, calcium, magnesium and potassium.
Again, common sense must be used. Some body builders,
eager to pack on muscular tissue fast, are under the delusion

they can speed muscle growth by eating six eggs a day. Your
system may rebel at such excess added to three meals a day.

Let's concentrate on ways to get our egg intake sensibly.
Fruit Omelet
4 eggs, well beaten
1 cup shredded raw apple
l
A cup tomato juice
2 tblsps thick cream
1 tblsp vegetable salt
Beat eggs until light, then beat in the other ingredients. Pour
into a well-oiled baking dish and bake in a moderate oven (375
degrees F) about 15 minutes or until brown.
Eggs Oriental
(For 4 servings)
3 tblsps vegetable oil
2 medium sized onions, cut in thin wedges
5 large stalks celery, cut in one-inch pieces
1 large green pepper, cut in squares
1 four-egg omelet, well browned on both sides and cut into cubes
% can tomato soup
Heat the oil in a covered skillet. Saute the onion and celery in
oil for 15 to 20 minutes, adding a little water as needed to keep
them from burning. Five minutes before they would be soft, add
green pepper. When vegetables are done, add the omelet and
tomato soup and vegetable salt. Stir over low heat until done
through. Serve in ring of hot, mashed summer squash or other
cooked vegetable, well seasoned.
Mushroom Omelet
4 eggs
1 cup cooked mushrooms, finely cut
cup raw, sweet cream
)'z
Vi tsp vegetable salt

Parsley to garnish
Beat yolks and whites of eggs separately. Add mushrooms,

cream, and salt to yolks. Fold in stiffly beaten whites. Pour into
oiled, iron frying pan. Bake in oven 25 minutes. Serve garnished
with the parsley.
VEGETABLES
I urge my students to aim for a variety of different vegetables

each day. Each kind offers food properties the others may lack.
Also select a variety of colors. A dinner plate, for example, with
white onions, white potatoes and white cauliflower is pretty blah.
How much more appealing to have attractive green Brussels
sprouts, golden squash or steam-cooked carrots with the cooked
onions.
Here are three sample vegetable dishes I like:
Stuffed Zucchini
2 lbs zucchini
1 large green pepper
3 tblsps chopped parsley
2 tsps vegetable broth powder
?2 cup grated cheese, Parmesan
Yi cup tomato juice
Cut squash lengthwise and scoop out inside. Combine scooped-

out portion with green pepper, parsley, broth powder and
cheese. Place mixture in squash "boats" and pour tomato juice
over all. Bake about 20 minutes in moderate oven.
Spinach and Mushrooms
2 bunches cooked spinach

1 cup mushrooms, cooked
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 egg
1 cup milk
Chop spinach very fine or put through grinder. Combine with

finely chopped mushrooms, onion and salt. To this add beaten
egg and milk. Mix well. Make into small patties and bake on
oiled baking sheet in moderate oven 30 minutes.
Pepper and Corn

4 medium sized peppers
2 cups cooked corn kernels
1 tsp vegetable broth powder
2 egg yolks beaten
/2 cup cream
1 tsp sweet butter
1 tblsp grated cheese
Scoop out centers of pepper and soak in hot water for 10

minutes. Remove and dry. Fill with corn mixture. Bake in
moderate oven about 2 minutes. Remove from oven and top
with sweet butter and cheese.
MEAT DISHES: KEY TO VITALITY
Let one of my Mr. America friends from Santa Monica's

"Muscle Beach" sit down to a meatless meal and you'd have a
puzzled man. He would inquire where the food is. To a greater
or lesser degree, we all feel the same.
Meat, because of its protein, helps build sound tissue. It also
is a source of iron, phosphorus, sulphur, sodium and contains

Vitamins A, B, C, D and G. When I think of meat, I picture
lithe, active carnivores like the tiger, as compared to phlegmatic
herbivores like the tapir.
As I told you, for seven long years I ate no meat. During that
time, I noticed no appreciable benefits. Since I've been eating

fresh lean meats, including the "organ" meats, I know I have
more energy, more endurance, strength, vitality and drive. Peo-
ple who know me, in fact, associate my whole personality with

boundless drive.
I believe we should try a different kind of meat with each day
of the week. Steaks, roast beef, roast leg of lamb, lean chops,
stew, chuck, organ meats, roast chicken, turkey (hot or sliced
cold). With meat, you may eat until you have literally had
enough.
Don't, however, over-cook. Roast or broil. Abstain from deep
fat frying. Include the organ meats — heart, liver, brains — in
your menus. Remember, too, that inexpensive cuts can be just
as nutritious as fancy steaks when you learn to cook and flavor

them properly.
My idea of great steak, for instance, is top round or sirloin.
I deliberately pass up t-bones, New York cuts and filets. Using

an ice pick, I inject chopped garlic all through my steak and
sprinkle it with celery or garlic powder. I like it blood rare, so
I put it under the broiler flame until it just starts to brown, then
flip it over. When the other side has a brownish tinge, that steak
is for me.
I am a frugal man by nature, but I have never told my
stomach I am poor. If I buy ground round in preference to
t-bones, my stomach doesn't know. But by the same token, if I
paid anything for my steak I don't want to waste the money. So

I wouldn't think of burning up that steak's nutrition by over-
cooking. I commend some of this thinking to you.
Let's look at the menus now for three meat dishes I might try
in one week.
Roast Chicken
(serves 4)
3-lb dressed roasting chicken

Garlic powder or pressed garlic cloves
/2 tsp paprika
/4 tsp powder ginger

/2 cup pineapple, orange, pomegranate or grapefruit juice
or consomme
Vegetable salt and pepper to taste
Whichever stuffing you prefer
Rub chicken inside and out with seasoning and spices to

taste. Fill with stuffing and place in roaster over dripping pan.
Pour the juice or consomme over chicken. Brown in uncovered
roaster in oven(400 degrees F). Baste and turn frequently.
When brown, reduce heat to 350, cover and roast until tender.
Baste from time to time. Add water and juice as needed to
avoid burning. Allow half an hour per pound for roasting.
Spiced Heart
(Serves 4)
IX lbs beef, calf or lamb heart

1 onion, minced
X cup shredded celery leaves (or celery)
2 whole cloves
3 peppercorns
1 small bay leaf (optional)
2 tsps vegetable salt
Be sure heart is absolutely fresh. Have dealer remove arteries,

veins and heavy layers of fat. Wash meat well in cold water. If
veal or lamb heart is used, cut in half; if beef heart, cut into
several two to three-inch slices. Place meat in saucepan with
just enough water to cover it (perhaps four to six cups). Add
spices, celery leaves and onion. Cover pan and let meat simmer
about 30 minutes, then add salt. Continue simmering until
meat is tender; about 45 minutes to one hour for veal or lamb

heart; one to one and a half hours for beef hearts. Do not let
water boil actively. When heart is tender, drain and remove any
gristle. Serve only lean meat cut into quarter-inch slices.
Beef Stew
(Recipe serves 5)
2 lbs lean beef, chuck, rump or round

1 tblsp fat
4 cups boiling water
& cup celery leaves
2 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
X tsp pepper
6 small onions, peeled
6 small potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 small carrots, cut in strips
1 cup fresh or canned green lima beans
3 tblsps minced parsley
Have beef cut in one-inch pieces for stewing. Melt fat in

large heavy kettle brown on all sides. Add
and saute beef until
water, celery leaves, herbs and seasoning and simmer over low
heat IV2 hours. Add potatoes and onions and simmer 15
minutes. (If beans are canned or quick-frozen, they need not
be added until last 7 minutes of cooking time.) In complete
cooking time of 2 hours, all ingredients will be done. Sprinkle
with minced parsley and serve.
MEAT SUBSTITUTES
There are many good people in this world who, for ethical
or religious reasons, prefer to abstain from the use of all flesh
foods. I will not quarrel with them. (Positives, I promised;

not negatives.) I shunned all meat, myself, for seven years and
I know many non-meat dishes that are delicious. Perhaps you
would like a Magic 3 sampling of them, say for the Lenten
Season.
Vegetarian Stew
3 turnips
3 potatoes
1 parsnip
1 cup celery
1 small green pepper
3 carrots
/2 cup green peas
2 onions
Pare potatoes very thin and cut in large pieces; also the
turnips, parsnip, celery, carrots and onion. Cut green pepper
in small pieces. Put all vegetables in casserole and add one cup
of water. Bake in closed dish, in hot oven, one hour. Add a
small can of vegetarian cutlets one-half hour before serving.
Baked Spanish Rice

(Serves approximately 4)
/4 cup finely chopped nut meats

2 cups hot vegetable broth
/4 cup brown rice
1 cup drained cooked tomato pulp
3 tblsps minced green pepper
1 large onion, minced
% tsp vegetable salt
32 tsp paprika
1 tbsp butter
Placed chopped nuts in casserole and gradually stir in the hot

broth, mixing it thoroughly to make a milk. Add the rice, vege-
tables and seasoning. Mix thoroughly and cover. Place over
heat and bring to the boiling point, then transfer to oven (400
degrees F) and bake until rice is done. About 35 minutes.
Five minutes before rice is done, remove cover, sprinkle the
top generously with paprika and dot with butter. Return to
oven, uncovered, to dry out top and brown it.
Lentil Loaf
(Serves 4)
& cup finely shredded onion

1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup finely shredded raw beet
Rind 1 small lemon, finely shredded
& cup chopped parsley
1/2 cups cooked lentils, seasoned

X tsp crushed thyme
2 eggs, well beaten
2 tblsps melted butter
Combine ingredients in the order listed and mix thoroughly.

Pack into a loaf pan, well buttered and floured. Bake in
moderate oven (350 degrees F) for about 30 minutes until
brown on bottom and firm enough to be turned out of the pan.

Serve with lemon and butter.
DESSERTS: YOUR HAPPY ENDINGS
Desserts serve as a glad aloha to a nourishing meal. To com-

plete a good meal happily, the dessert must be in harmony with
that meal. Thousands of men and women follow dishes spiced
with relishes, sauces and hot condiments with cold desserts
like ice cream. (They wonder why their stomach complains!)
If the other courses have been light, then a heavier dessert
generally is permissible. If the dinner courses have been rich
and heavy, however, the dessert should be light. It's as logical
as health. Many of your desserts should consist of glamorous

fruit salads artistically served to make
more exciting.
their taste
Or you might try your own health confections. Use raisins,

dates, figs, carob (St. John's Bread), chopped nuts, honey, put
through a food or meat grinder twice, and roll or press into

appealing shapes. Ice creams can be made from fresh fruits
and berries mixed and blended in a liquefier and sweetened, if
necessary, with a little honey, then placed in a freezer tray in

your refrigerator until they solidify.
I often have baked apples and pears, stuffed apples or rice

with raisins and nuts. But here are three desserts you may like:
LaLanne Custard
1 cup milk
2 tblsps raw honey

1 tsp vanilla
1 egg (or 5 eggs to 1 quart)
k tsp cinnamon
x
& tsp nutmeg
Use fewer eggs when a thin, softer, delicate custard is desired.
For most custards, 1 egg to 1 cup of milk is a satisfactory

proportion. When 2 egg yolks are substituted for 1 egg, it makes
a smoother, finer-grained custard and is better for you.
Scald the milk. Beat eggs just enough to mix (too much
beating makes the custard porous). Add honey and vanilla.
Pour milk gradually over egg mixture, stirring constantly.
Sprinkle spices on top. Set baking dish in a pan of hot water.

Bake at low temperature, about 300 degrees F. Be sure water
around custard does not boil. Bake until firm or until a silver
knife comes out clean. Remove immediately from oven. Avoid

overcooking.
Banana Whip
3 mashed bananas
1 tblsp honey
1 cup whipped cream
Mix mashed bananas with honey. Fold whipped cream into

bananas, chill and serve.
Date Pudding
(Serves 4)
?2 tsp cream of tartar

/2 cup natural brown sugar
Vi cup chopped dates
/s tsp vanilla
1 egg yolk
2 egg whites
Pinch of vegetable salt
2 tblsps chopped nuts
Mix the cream of tartar and sugar in a bowl, then thoroughly

mix in the chopped dates. Beat in the vanilla and egg yolks.
Beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff but not dry and fold
into date mixture. Transfer to a buttered baking dish and
sprinkle with chopped nuts. Bake in a moderate oven (350
degrees F) until center is firm (about 20 minutes). Serve hot
or cold with cream or custard sauce.
BAKERY GOODS
Most Americans grow up in the tradition of eating far too
much starchy food. Devitalized food, at that. In your new life
you will want to cut down considerably on breads, pastries,

even waffles and pancakes with which you probably have started
many a Sunday morning.
When you have the urge for "bakery goods," remember what
I told you about the whole wheat kernel. It's a self-contained
food. Get real 100 per cent whole wheat bread or whole rye
bread. Substitute natural brown rice and soy flour, or flour
made from sunflower seeds, which is obtainable at most health
food stores. Learn to make your own bakery goods. Don't try
to live on juices alone. Get your quota of natural starches and
carbohydrates, and here are three of my recipes:
142 the jack lalanne way
Jack LaLanne Jack Flaps

Vi cup wheat germ (raw)
& cup rice polishings or 100% whole wheat flour
J2 cup non-fat milk solids
2 eggs, well beaten

1 tsp monosodium glutamate (Accent)
1 tbsp soy oil
Non-fat milk
Mix wheat germ, rice polishings, non-fat milk solids and

monosodium glutamate together. Then add two well-beaten
eggs, soy oil and enough non-fat milk to make the consistency
you desire. (Note: this recipe is very rich in protein and all
the B vitamins. Do not cook too much and kill the vitamins.)
Elaine's Wheat Germ Muffins

1 cup raw wheat germ
% cup milk
1 egg
5* cup soy. oil
1 cup whole wheat flour (sifted)
2M tsp baking powder
X
A cup honey
l
A cup raisins
Sift whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt together and
then add other ingredients. Mix together. Bake in moderate
oven (400 degrees) about 25 minutes.
Soy Bean Bread
3 cups soy bean flour

2 baking powder
tsp
x
k tsp soda
1 egg
VA cups milk
Sift all dry ingredients together. Drop in beaten egg, then

add milk and stir to a smooth dough. Bake in loaf pan in
moderate oven about one hour. One-half cup each of raisins
and nuts may be added if desired.

• CHAPTER 19 •
Nutritional Research
And Your Health
Millions of words have been written on the subject of vitamins,

minerals and food supplements. Hardly a month passes but
some new discovery of the work of vitamins in preserving our
health is reported by the press. Next, I predict, it will be
enzymes.
I don't propose to add another million words to confuse you.
If you wish to know the specific assistance given by Vitamin A,
the B Complex, Vitamin C, D and E, as well as the minerals
(some sixteen of them) which aid our bodies' work, I suggest
143
you go to the library and ask for the best available work.* I
find that trying to condense this scientific data to terse — easy-

to-read statements leads only to inaccuracies and false hopes.
Suffice it here that I would not eat one meal without supple-
menting it with natural vitamins. I would not plan one meal
without all the natural minerals I could pack into it, and I still
would not be satisfied.
Twenty years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued

a bulletin which stated: "The chief fault of many American
diets is that they provide too little of the essential minerals and
vitamins. This is due largely to the fact that refined foods are
consumed in such amounts that intake of minerals and vitamins
— rich natural foods — is lower than it should be" That was
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and I still am saying the
same thing 20 years later.
Go back to my story of Moms and their babies. When the

tot is tiny, the young mother goes to her doctor and asks for
a properly rounded diet to get this new little human being
started correctly. The doctor's formula is planned carefully to
include every mineral and vitamin this baby will need. But it's
only a matter of months before the baby, without further con-

sultation with the doctor, is weaned over to foodless foods
which fail to provide adequate protein, vitamins and essential
minerals.
My own studies over two decades lead me to an inescapable

conclusion: robust health and vitality for a long and active life
are all but impossible without vitamin-mineral supplements.

Sure I hear people say: "You don't need extra minerals and
vitamins if
— " (If you would plan carefully every mouthful of
food you take and get only the best of foods.) These people are
absolutely correct. But it's like saying: "The high cost of living
* Most books on this subject are highly technical. One of the best brief
discussions for the average reader is in Chapter Five of The Low-Fat Way to
Health and Longer Life by Dr. Lester M. Morrison (Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey, Prentice-Hall, Inc.).
isn't too bad if you're earning $1,000 a day." Who's earning a

thousand a day?
Even with my careful shopping and knowledge of nutrition,
I supplement every meal I eat. Every single day of my life, I
take bone meal tablets, multi-mineral-vitamin tablets, Vitamin

C and Vitamin E, one tablespoon of wheat germ, one table-
spoon of brewer's yeast and two tablespoons of soy powder. I
can't urge you strongly enough to consult your own doctor
and find which — if not all — these supplements you should be
taking. As I have shown you earlier, the cost will be more than
offset by savings you can make in other areas of your food
budget.
I'm not the first one to liken the potent little vitamin pill
to the small spark plug which makes your car motor purr as it
should. (No spark plug, no purr.) Only the other day I was
reading a Sunday supplement article which investigated how
certain older professional athletes are able to keep going as
stars year after year. How do they maintain the lightning-fast
reflexes? The sharpness of eye, speed of foot and smooth co-

ordination? These questions were put to men like Ted Williams
and Stan Musial of baseball, Archie Moore, the incredible
champion of boxing, Gardner Mulloy, the tennis player, and
Sammy Snead, the famous golfer. To a man, they testified that
vitamins were included in their carefully developed health

programs.
Most of us don't have championships to compete for and
prove how well we are, of course. Most of us accept life pretty
much as it comes, a little headache here, a letdown there and

some glorious days when we know we feel first rate. It's
difficult, living within one body as we do, really to realize how

well we don't feel. We have to be dragging from chronic
"pooped-out-itis" before we begin to think of tonics. I'm pretty
sure most of us would feel better within a few days, and know
it, if only we would heed what the U.S. Department of Agri-
culture said 20 years ago, and get ourselves on the proper food
supplements.
ORGANIC FOODS: NUTRITION'S NEXT

BREAKTHROUGH?
In this connection, I want to speak to you for a moment about
organic foods, which may well be the backbone of the land in
years to come. One reason our meals could stand supplement-
ing is that the foods we buy simply don't seem to have the punch
they once did.
When our ancestors came to America, the earth here was
fresh. You could plant a corn seed, as Iowans still like to say,
and jump back so the growing stalk wouldn't hit you on the
chin. Today, seeds of all kinds are encapsuled with their own
individual coating of fertilizer so they will get a strong start.
Why? Because the land is tired. The soil has been used and
re-used until our crops need every kind of stimulant to grow.
In the high Sierras, where I sometimes go for trout, I know
of an old apple orchard. It's pretty craggy now and the fruit is
scrawny. Time was, the natives tell me, you couldn't find better
apples in the West than these. "But how did you spray them?"
I inquired of an old woman who had lived there since child-
hood. "How did you save your fruit when you didn't have spray
guns and store-bought preparations?"
She glanced down over the orchard and looked back a good
many years. "We never sprayed those trees once," she said.
"One of my jobs every spring was to find a bee tree. The men-
folk would cut it and my brothers and I would fill little
cannisters with the wild honey. Then we'd hang the cannisters in
the apple trees. Whatever insects there were would be drawn
to the sweet honey, would stick and stay there." (What a waste
of good honey, I how much better than spraying
thought, but
the fruit with chemical mixtures. You needed only to polish one
of those apples on your sleeve and you had a treat unknown
to many Americans in this Twentieth Century.)
Farmers of the earlier day in America were experts with
compost. They didn't waste vegetable matter. They plowed it
under to decompose and make richer loam for next year's

crops. Some of the most wonderful vegetables in this land of
ours were grown in little backyard garden plots where the wet
garbage from the kitchen was spaded in to help the soil. Here
was the forerunner of organic gardening.
It went out of practice for a few years. The demands of mass
markets called for speedup farming, picking produce green and

shooting it to market. Perhaps this is good enough for people
who haven't tasted better. It isn't good enough for those of us
who have tasted better. (Louis Bromfield, the great author
who wrote The Rains Came and Malabar Farm, among many
others, gave this organic gardening idea a great boost before
his untimely death.)
Now numbers of farms across the country are growing fruit
and vegetables organically. You should see the beef cattle they
raise on meadows so green you wonder if they dye them. (They

don't, of course. The grass simply isgrown organically.) These
farms supply a few markets — the number is growing —and a
few restaurants which I certainly patronize.
One of the great success stories I know involves a young
man named Jim Baker and his discovery of organic products.
I first met Jim during the latter days of World War II when I
was stationed at the Navy's rehabilitation center at Sun Valley,

Idaho. Jim, a big, handsome, lanky Marine sergeant, was in
from the island war zones. He had been injured in an engage-
ment for which he was to be recommended for the Marine
Corps' top medal for heroism. But he didn't care to talk of that.
As worked with him, helping rebuild his body, we talked of

I
exercise, nutrition and health. We became fast friends there and,
subsequently, when Jim went home to Ohio, he wrote for

photos of my conditioning studio in California. He built a
duplicate gym in Cincinnati and used the proceeds to go back
to college, where he took advanced degrees in nutrition and
public health.
The next thing I knew, he was in Hollywood. He had dis-
covered the theory of organic gardening and was sold on it.
In Hollywood he opened a restaurant, The Aware Inn, for

—
people who wanted only health food, only vegetables grown by
organic methods and meat from animals which had been fed
the same way. Today Jim's restaurant on the glittering Sunset
Strip is never empty. His clientele? People who are aware
who want to eat right. They range from Marlon Brando to

Red Buttons to Jack LaLanne and all my friends.
I foresee a future when millions of Americans will be aware
of the need for the best foods that can be grown on God's green
earth. On that day, Aware Inns will have sprung up from coast
to coast. A healthier nation will be building from the ground
up.
• PART THREE •
Jack LaLanne's
System of
Physical Culture-
In Your Home
.^.^•^•^.^^^^^^^^^•^•^^'^^^•^^•^^^^•^^•^•^•^^^^^-'^^^^^^^^'^^^^^^^^.
CHAPTER 20 .
Let's Plan A Miracle
Together
When we book of ours, we agreed that you wished

started this
to be reborn. You wanted to shuck off that neglected old body
of yours, to take on physical grace, vibrant health, a new look
and new outlook. I promised you it was entirely possible.
We have come a long way already toward the ideal I asked

you to picture in the opening pages. Look again at your Com-
ing-in measurements. Consult your mirror, frankly and honestly
as you did in the beginning. You are improving. A new YOU
is taking shape.
Something still troubles you? You can't quite throw yourself
into some of the exercises I have suggested? Perhaps you're
149
favoring some part of your body. An old back injury? Some
tender area from an operation you once had? Probably your
mind tells you that everything I have written here is logical
but you're not quite sure your body understands.
"It would take a miracle," you say, "to make my body do
everything my mind knows is right for it."
Or, you think, a miracle would have to be passed before
that old ailment of yours could be corrected. Well, as I have
said so often, I am a nutritionist and physical culturist, not a
doctor. But I have seen the human mind and body work to-
gether to perform miracles on themselves.

I am thinking now of a wealthy California businessman who
came to my conditioning studio several years ago. He was then
in his mid-fifties and had everything this world could offer,
except health. He was the glummest man I had met in days.
Why? He couldn't play softball any more.

Not that he was terribly sick or had an incurable ailment.
He simply had sacroiliac trouble. It had bothered him for years
and now was a recurrent agony. At least once a year he had to
go into the hospital for traction to stretch his aching back.
Softball, of course, was only the symbol of things he missed.

He had been a good athlete. He stood before me with a bulging
paunch, flabby jowls pulling down at his cheeks and the stooped
shoulders of an old, old man. I knew what he was missing. He
said softball, but he meant he had lost the ability to enjoy life,
to stand off old age, to play. I listened sympathetically for I
know how men and women with lower back trouble do suffer.
Little wonder he thought what I promised him was a miracle.

But we accomplished it. First he went on a calorie-cutting
program like the ones we've just outlined. Getting rid of that
heavy paunch on the front of his body naturally took the strain
off his back. He was feeling better and looking better to himself
within ten days. I gave him a special program of exercises for

the lower back. Slowly we rebuilt strength in the muscular
girdle there. This man became so enthusiastic over the results
of regular exercise he went on to build a body capable of doing
things I have rarely seen younger men duplicate. Of course he

is playing Softball again. Life itself is play to him, with never
a visit to the hospital for traction. He really doesn't think it a
miracle that his body does anything his mind asks of it. The
reason he doesn't, I am sure, is because he did it himself.
I am thinking, too, of the pretty blonde young lady who
came our way when she decided she caught colds too easily.
Her doctors could find nothing basically wrong with her. I did, I
suppose, because I have such strong convictions in some things.
She was the mother of two children and her attitude said plainly
she expected to lose a certain amount of health and tone. Wasn't
she, after all, a young matron? She lit another cigarette as she
spoke of her diet. She didn't need to tell me of a growing in-
dulgence in pastries. I could see it in her fair skin, heavily
daubed with cosmetics to conceal a tendency to blotching.
Her mind told her it was normal to have a let-down after two
children. Her body told her, by the repeated colds, that she was
surrendering health. Vanity was the link that brought mind and
body together that day in my office. Thanks to feminine vanity,
I was able to "sell" her on nutrition and exercise. She took on
17 attractive pounds and added three and a half inches to her
bustline alone. She soon forgot all about the colds she used to
catch. The miracle to her was how she became a "glamour girl"
after the birth of her babies.
I remember still another who signed herself "Myrtle." Her

pathetic little letter came to the television studio one day. In it,
she poured out her heart. She had three children and a consum-
ing appetite. Probably the appetite stemmed from emotion,
although she knew nothing of proper nutrition until she hap-
pened, by chance, to tune in my program. She was 5 feet 4
inches tall, I noted, and weighed 175 pounds. She was tired,
nervous and irritable, and at that moment fearful of losing her
husband.
I could visualize the situation —having seen it repeated a
thousand times —but I was never to see Myrtle. She remained
my student by television only. How often I thought of her in the
next few weeks as I spoke of diets and demonstrated special
exercises for remolding the body clay. Two months later,
Myrtle wrote again. She had, she said, lost 50 pounds and
drawn in her proportions by a total of 50 inches — ten off the
hips, five off the thighs, two off the arms, and so on. She was,
she wrote me, "a new woman." Knowing what I do of nutrition
and exercise, the only miracle I see in this is the miracle of
television, which brought us together and changed her way of
life.
More and more, I am convinced, it's the mind that plays

tricks on us. The body is as obedient as an automobile to the
hand of the driver. Our minds delude even the best of us at times.
You think, for example, you are generally healthy. You
follow most of the common rules, from fresh air to fresh fruit.
And you accept a few aches and pains as part of the game.
Unless we are hypochondriacs, our minds don't suggest to us
that our bodies may be badly out of tune.
Yet along comes science with some facts. One study says
60 per cent of our population is chronically afflicted with some
ailment or other. The University of Michigan Hospital examines
500 seemingly healthy businessmen and finds 41 per cent of
them with physical ailments they didn't know they had. Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania scientists study 1000 Americans and
find only 13 per cent of them entirely free of ailments. In still
another test, 60 per cent of 50 men under study complain of

And we think of ourselves as a healthy nation!
chronic fatigue.
From my own observation, three groups of Americans are
notoriously neglectful of their health. Our housewives, un-
fortunately, constitute one group. Women by rights should be
our most health-conscious since they buy and prepare most of

the food served in our homes. Mental workers come next,
motivated as they are by the mind to the exclusion of the body,
and they should know better. (Anyone engaged in mental
pursuits should realize the mind isfar more receptive when the
body feels good.) Businessmen are the third and worst group
of all.
The classic picture of the man in trouble shows the average

American businessman standing before his doctor for the
verdict. Nine out of ten times he is overweight, out of condition
and beginning to notice difficulties with his heart. Too often his
diagnosis is confirmed.
Quite clearly, if there isn't major heart damage, guided
exercise is called for. But your American businessman is con-
cerned with his financial investments, not with the most pre-
cious investment he has, himself. Unless his condition shocks
him into a radical reappraisal of life, he goes home glumly,
keeps the full import of his condition from his wife and tells
himself in a vague sort of way he'll start something tomorrow.

Very often, if he does anything, it is to take up golf.
Now I like to play golf. In fact I am thinking of writing a

book that will do wonderful things for every man's (and
woman's) golf game. But I suspect hundreds of American
males are in hospitals or have suffered coronaries because
they tried to substitute golf for regular exercise. Do they stroll
over the links as casually as if they were in the park for a restful
Sunday? (Thereby gaining nothing but a little fresh air.) Or
do they stride briskly from hole to hole, shoulders back and
stomach in, taking deep breaths of that good clean air? You
know the answer as well as I.
You also know about the 19th hole and the 70-odd calories
per drink which undo all the good done out in the open. And
the caddies they hire to take the extra steps for them. (Imagine!
They're out for a workout and they hire someone to do it for
them!) Or they ride about on an electric cart, the newest
substitute for exercise in our gadgety society. Next they'll be
hiring a boy to hit the ball for them. No, golf as we know it
isn't the miracle game we need to improve our health. Simply

living to work isn't the answer, either.
One of the most miraculous changes in a person I have ever
seen was that made by my friend Bob S. It is what I like to
consider a real success story miraculously concocted out of

failure.
Bob went to work for a meat-packing corporation when he
was 19. He had ability, but he also had a terrible inferiority
complex. He could think of a dozen reasons why he could not
do something, why he could not sell someone something they
needed, and why he could not expect others to do what he in-
structed them to. Despite all this, he succeeded after a fashion
and the years went on. Sixteen years passed, in fact. Bob was
now 35, miserable, half -sick and fearful for his future. Com-
pletely introspective, he couldn't even unburden himself by
telling others his problems and fears.
I it was his wife, watching him grown wan and thin,

suppose
who him anything in life was better than what he was
told
doing. Somehow she got him to come to my gym. The physical
problem of building up his body was nothing. I could write out
an exercise program to accomplish that while taking calls on
two telephones. The big job was to convince Bob, to reach his
mind and make him believe he could do anything he set out

to do with those inanimate weights.
I did that by standing alongside him and goading him to try
just a little more. He would lift 25-pound weights eight times
and quit, though the program called for ten lifts. "I can't push
them up again," he would say. "My arms are caving in."
"Push them!" I would order, as if commanding a child.
And he'd push. Of course they went up. I have long since
learned that the great human heart, when it must, can always
give that extra effort. Itwas the same with Bob in every exer-
cise he tried. I had to make him prove to himself he could,
slowly increasing his weights and the number of repetitions,
until one day I found him going at it alone. I watched from a
distance, and he didn't shirk either in weights or repeats. He
had found that he could —perhaps the greatest discovery a
person ever makes about himself.

"You made me quit thinking negative," he told me the other
day, "long enough to bring about positive results."

Bob quit the job he had had for 16 years. He took courses
in self-improvement and public speaking — still working on that
stubbornly resistant mind of his —and went into business for

himself. He sells real estate now. Last year he netted more than
$15,000. His step is bouncy and so is his manner. Body, mind
and spirit have become one optimistic entity.
Why I put all this in your book? Because you can't sep-
do
arate your mind from your body. I want you to have a hand-
some new body with your rebirth. I want you to grow mentally
and spiritually to fill that body temple as it should be. If I were
asked to set up an ideal conditioning studio for all of humanity,
I would reserve one important position on my staff for Dr.
Norman Vincent whose book, The Power of Positive
Peale,
Thinking has done so much to show people they can do what
they will to do.* With that thought in our consciousness, there
is nothing we cannot do for our bodies.
THERAPEUTICALLY YOURS
There is little these body slaves of ours won't do for us when

we encourage them. They will work for us, change shape to
meet our bad habits (or the good ones), and even heal them-
selves of illness. Feed your body all the medicine the prescrip-
tions may call for, but it is the body itself that will do the
healing when you give it a chance.
Like the good Lord, Mother Nature forgives us when we stop
breaking her rules.
One of her rules of health, of course, is tied hard and fast
to the food we eat. I am reminded of a statement made several

years ago before the American Medical Association by Dr.
Tom Douglas Spies, then Director of the Hillman Clinic in
Birmingham, Alabama. "All diseases," said Dr. Spies, "are
caused by chemicals, and all diseases can be cured by chem-
icals. All the chemicals used by the body, except for oxygen
* I have just read an advance copy of Dr. Peale's latest book, The Amazing
Results of Positive Thinking and cannot recommend it too highly. It shows
how many thousands have found new satisfactions in life through the same
principles I have tried to put into this book.
which we breathe and water we drink, are taken through food**
Nature's second rule for the health of our bodies is exercise.
She says we simply must use the various mechanical parts of
our bodies or, like metal hinges, they will lose their capacity
for work. This is true of the heart as it is of the hands.
Intellectually, we all understand this. In practice, however,
what do we do? My experience over 20 years has been that,
in our increasingly mechanical society, we break Nature's
rule of exercise as brazenly as we ignore her commands to
eat healthy food.
"I should getmore exercise," confesses the tired businessman
to his housebound spouse. "I should, too," she admits, though
neither quite understands why they are victims of "pooped-
out-itis," candidates for disease. They are letting health go by
default.
There's a special peril in this in our hydrogen-atomic age.

Who will survive should an enemy, God forbid, drop the big
bombs on us? Which of us would come through the fall-out
alive? The weak or the strong?
Lest you think I'm suggesting miracles for those who follow
my teachings, I want to let you in on a little secret. Many
months ago, doctors associated with atomic energy research
contacted the manager of my studio in Northern California
and asked for volunteers from the muscle men who work out
there. A number of men were selected to go through a series
of tests which would show their ability to withstand radiation.
The final results haven't been announced, but I am told that
the men who were in the best condition — in this case the most
muscular, the most exercised —demonstrated a clearcut superi-
ority, in throwing off the effects of radiation. To me, the impli-
cation is clear: Build a bomb shelter if that's what seems to be
indicated, but also rebuild that body of yours.

Before I outline a detailed program of exercises for you to do
in your own home or office, I want to discuss this wonderful
body a little further. Let's look together at some of the key
parts and see exactly what exercise does for them.
EVERY LITTLE MOVEMENT (AND HABIT)

HAS A MEANING
Anyone who knows me will tell you I am never still, except

possibly when I sleep. In part this is my disposition. My body
feels good, my heart is light and I seem to be bursting with
energy. Not long ago, I recall, I had luncheon with some digni-
fied gentlemen in Manhattan and afterward, feeling great, I
skipped off down Madison Avenue like a child on his way

home from school. I know they paused to stare grown men —
simply don't go skipping down the crowded sidewalks of
Manhattan. But I felt just that good.
In part, too, this comes from my knowledge of the body and
its need for exercise. There's a reason behind everything I do,
even when it's wiggling my fingers. (Wiggling your fingers
makes your heart work a little more.) Let's look for a moment
at the heart and its place in modern society.
The heart is, of course, a muscle. It is the most durable

muscle in your entire body. It works for you from the start of
your life to the end, hour in and hour out, by day and night, in
sickness, health, sadness or elation. It was made to work.

Every exercise you perform strengthens the heart and no
exercise you might do can injure it. I made this remark once on
a discussion panel with athletic coaches and doctors, fully ex-
pecting an argument. There was none. The doctors nodded
agreement. The coaches recalled instances of great swimmers,
distance runners and wrestlers who seemed to have pushed their
bodies (and hearts) beyond all reasonable limits of endurance
—you've seen news photos of their agonized faces as they
swept to victory —with no damage to their hearts.
These athletes drive themselves until they literally pass out
from exertion. Nature built them so they could. As physical
culturists know, the external muscles give out before the heart
is exhausted. I am speaking, of course, of a normally healthy
heart.
We take this into consideration when a man or woman comes
to our studios to start exercise programs. We start them on
exercises that work only the small muscle groups, thereby
least taxing the out-of-condition heart. Gradually, as they are
able, we add exercises of strenuous jumps and leg splits for the
large muscle groups such as the thighs and hips. By then, of
course, the heart is conditioned to its work of pumping the
blood to these areas.
President Dwight Eisenhower's unexpected heart attack in
his first term of office introduced the American public to Dr.
Paul Dudley White, the eminent heart specialist, and his
philosophies. "Never walk when you can run," Dr. White told
us, and I smiled. That was my theory, too, only I couldn't speak
with his authority. Then this wonderful man demonstrated
how, in his seventies, he kept his heart fit by climbing stairs,
rather than take the elevator, by riding bicycles, by working

his heart muscle constantly.
Over the years, I have worked with many heart patients.
They come to me directly from the doctor's office oftentimes,
still subdued by the warning they are one heartbeat away from
eternity, or from sickbeds where they've been recovering from
a coronary and praying for another chance to live. They want
hope and help and I thank God I am able to give it to them.
Perhaps I tell them of Chuck, one of our local businessmen,
or point him out in the gym. Chuck let himself go for years,
motivated only by making his business prosper, until a sudden
attack one day put him in the hospital. He saw there how
quickly a business can become only the major item of a last
will and testament. He recovered, as most heart patients do,
but the fun was gone from his life. He was almost afraid to cross
his legs. The doctors sent Chuck to us for directed exercise.
We went to work on that big muscle in his chest, building it as
it should be, and today Chuck's consuming hobby is to hike
through the mountains hunting deer. He's afraid of nothing

except lazy habits.
Of course, we're dealing with human nature, and there's
another side to this coin. I am thinking now of a man in the

women's apparel business who had been in bed a year after his
heart attack. He was so weak when he came to the gym he

could hardly make it up the stairs. I sealed off the elevator
long ago. We had him back in shape in six months and watched
him go confidently back to his $60,000 annual net. One day I
met him on the street.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, after we'd exchanged greet-
ings.
"Fine," he said. "Just fine."

"Why don't we see you at the gym any more?" I inquired,
knowing full well what the answer would be.
"No time, Jack," he said. "I'm just so darned busy I don't
have time for that."
Maybe he did feel fine, made me sick.

but it
I remembered the young man who used to handle my in-
surance. As my business grew, he constantly was adding bigger

policies, public liability, coverage on the equipment, policies
on my life. One day I asked him: "Ed, how have you insured
yourself?"
"Oh," he said breezily, "I'm blanketed with life insurance."
"But what insurance do you have for living?" I persisted.
He knew what I meant. Everyone in town knew what a "nut"

I was on exercise as a preventative. Ed by then was enjoying
the sociable three-hour lunch with drinks, the endless cigarettes
and evenings of highballs, canapes and burnt barbecued steaks.
He might even have stood off their ravages if he had worked

out regularly. Instead, he was dead at 39, victim of his own
heart.
If any muscle there be in our bodies which needs more

exercise constantly, it's the heart. You can do something about
yours, even if you only wiggle your fingers briskly.
CHAPTER 21 .
Take This Guided Tour
For New Glamour
HANDS UP
There is no part of the human body that is seen more, and

neglected more, than the hands. Perhaps I'm extra conscious
of this because of my French extraction. I would be speechless
if I couldn't use my hands. So, I suspect, would most people, no
matter what their heritage. These handy fellows are constantly
on display.
We shake hands a dozen times a day. We signal with them.
We express ourselves with gestures. We stroke our chin and

rub our cheeks. Most people have almost a repertoire of
160
nervous little habits shown by their hands. Yet, outside of the
lotions used by housewives after dishwashing, what do most

of us do about our hands?
Little wonder the hands are one of the first places we tip
off our age. We're so busy worrying about the wrinkles coming
at the corners of our eyes, or the jowls forming under our jaws,
we fail to see what everyone else does. Our strong, enduring
little old "pinkies" are telling everyone we're well past 34.
Here's the hinge again. Use it and it's bright and shiny. Give
it only minimum use and it stiffens. Very often it's in the hands
that arthritis starts. Certainly the hands become gnarled and
wrinkled before their time. We think we use them whereas
actually they're dangling in a half curl at the ends of our arms
a good deal of the time.
How can exercise change the appearance of hands? Easily.
It sends the blood circulating through them, firms the flesh and
smooths away the wrinkles that make them look old. Children's
hands are smooth and firm because children never stop working
them. Look closely at the hands of an old violinist or piano
player; they appear to be permanently youthful. It's a shame
most of these musicians don't exercise the rest of their bodies
as faithfully.
There are many simple little exercises you can give your
hands. Do them while watching television, while telephoning,
or simply when you pause to think through the task you're
One of the best hand exercises, of course, is to
going to do next.
crumple up paper. Try it. Take a sheet of old paper in each
hand and crumple it up as tight as you can. Feel the muscles
work all the way up your arm? When a muscle tells you it's
working, you're exercising it.
Open the palm of your left hand before you. With the right
hand, press back each finger, making them resist as you go.
Change hands and press the resisting fingers of the other hand.
You can do this by the half-hour, destroying wrinkles while
watching your TV serials. Or you might stand before the
diningroom table with the fingertips of both hands on the
—

table. Now press down; put your weight into it. Repeat three
times (Remember our Magic 3?) You're pressing the years out
of those mitts, my friend.
Here's a fine exercise the ladies who follow my television

shows seem to get a big kick out of. Stretch your arms out be-
fore you with the hands palm down. Now open and close your
hands as fast as you can —keep going —more— don't stop
faster. All right — stop. Your hands are so tired they almost
cramp? Excellent. Turn the palms down and repeat it. As fast
as you can. They're exhausted, you say? Wonderful. Now turn

them back to back so the knuckles are together and do it again.
Open and close, open and close, faster. Faster. Faster. You've
really had it this time? All right. Just let your hands dangle
limp, fingers spread, and shake them good. You've got the blood
in your hands now and those wrinkles should be screaming for
mercy.
FANCY FOOTWORK
Man, with all his ingenuity, could never build anything quite
so wonderful as a foot. Because of his ingenuity, however, par-
ticularly in the construction of women's shoes, man often takes
most of the pleasure out of feet. Can you think of anything
that makes you more tired or miserable than aching feet? Ask
any chic young lady who has worked all day or danced all
evening with her Size 5 feet squeezed into Size 4 shoes.

Striving for style, we're too prone to put our feet into shoes
which break down the arches, displace the bones and pinch
the nerves. I call it "pedicide." There's only one solution:
Common sense and exercise.

There is, as you can see, a certain similarity between feet
and hands. Both are hinges of a sort. Both have gripping mem-
bers (toes and fingers). Both can be improved by simple
exercises which restore full circulation.
You would be doing your feet a great big favor, for instance,
if you would stand for just five minutes each evening and pick
up pencils with your toes. Or marbles. Either way, you'll bend

those digits and make them work until the muscles protest. Or,
while lying on the sofa watching television, make a habit of
wiggling your toes. Wiggle until they're weary.
An exercise similar to ones we do in the gym would be this:
Stand behind a kitchen chair (using its back for balance) and
slowly rise on your toes, then slowly let yourself down. Do this
in sets of Magic 3's. Up on your toes slowly, now slowly down.

(The slower you do more you cause those foot muscles to
it, the
resist, and thereby to benefit.) Once more Up-up-up-, stretch- —
ing your feet. And down-down-down, stretching. The blood is
in your feet now so lie down on the floor and put your heels
up on the seat of the chair. Just lie there two or three minutes
and let the blood drain back. When you get up, you'll think you
have wings on your feet.
One more little tip for those hard-working tootsies of yours.

Take them out of their cells every chance you get. The moment
you come home, kick off your shoes and go about your chores
in your stocking feet. Your feet will benefit by it and so will
your sense of well-being.
BEST FACE FORWARD
The 55 muscles of your face tell the story of your life. They
tell it for everyone to see, forming the smiles or frowns your
mind directs. As you work these muscles, or neglect to work
them, so are the lines of your face set. In smiles or frowns, in
sagging folds or in firmness. No cosmetic made can cover it up.
Perhaps that's why children need no cosmetics. They are
using their face muscles constantly. It's child nature, in fact, to
turn quickly from tears to smiles and his face muscles accom-
plish the turns. His skin is smooth, his face firm.
As he grows and learns more of life's vicissitudes, he also
learns to mask his emotions. No longer do the smile and laugh
muscles work so hard. He grows still a little older, no longer a
child, and begins to take on weight. It shows first in his face
and now the muscles' big job is to hold up sags. Middle age
is announcing its approach.
#
For some it comes as early as the thirties, an age when we
all still are trying to make our best possible appearance. Vanity
tells us we're going to need a face-lifting, perhaps by surgery
if we can afford it, to cover up the ravages of neglect. Surgery?
This book of yours will bring you all the "surgery" you'll need.
Remember our sculptor who shapes beautiful forms from
clay? Remember how you and I agreed we could reshape the
tissues of your body? Already you've done a lot of it. Now let's
work on your face.
The way to lift your face is by "making faces." I'm serious.

I am going to give you a series of exercises that will have you
grimacing before your mirror like a person in terrible distress.
Just as we contort our abdomens through bending routines to

strengthen the stomach muscles, so will we twist and turn our
faces to tone up the 55 muscles. We will induce circulation,
grind off the fat we've made our poor skins support, and erase
lines you've no business wearing.
Here, then, is a Magic 3 of special exercises for your face.
(Do them before a mirror, by all means, so you'll get a chuckle

from them.)
1. Open your mouth as wide as possible — so wide you feel
it tugging at your neck muscles and your eyes are pressed al-
most shut. Now close your mouth so quickly your teeth click.
Repeat. Open your mouth as if to let out a great silent scream
and close quickly. Purse your lips as tight as possible when they
close. Repeat this exercise five times the first day. Add one
repetition each day until you are doing the exercise 10 times.
Repeat 10 times a day for two weeks, then double to 20 times

a day. I guarantee you will see changes in your face. Those
youthful lines will come back and you'll not spend a cent for
plastic surgery.
This is a fine exercise to do while watching television, by the

way. I do it everywhere I go. Once at a stop signal in Holly-
wood, in fact, I looked across to the next car and saw a woman
staring at me in terror. Unconsciously, I'd been doing my

grimacing.
Exercise Number 2. Standing before the mirror, suck in your
cheeks as tight as possible. Now puff them out as full as you
can. Suck in — puff out. Suck in — puff out. Feel the cheek
muscles work? They haven't been used like this in a long time.
Repeat the exercise five times the first day, then increase by one
until you are doing it 10 times on the tenth day. Then double
the exercise to 20 times a day.
Exercise Number 3. Clench fist under your chin and press
firmly upward while forcing your mouth open. Do not move
your head. Simply use your jaw muscles to force your mouth
open while resisting with your clenched fist. Repeat five times
the first day. Increase by one each day until on the tenth day
you are doing the exercise 10 times. Repeat this for two weeks,
then double the exercise to 20 times a day.
After completing this Magic 3 each day, we have one more
little ritual. Be seated in a chair, bend your head forward, and
gently but rapidly pat your face all over.
It doesn't take long, once your general well-being improves,
for a happy mind to begin dictating a radiant story of life to
the muscles behind your face.
BE KIND TO YOUR JOINTS
I am forced to confess that our bodies, no matter how much

we improve their appearance, are still only bags of bones held
together by muscles. Your book would do you a disservice if
it let you forget that. The hidden key to lithe movements,
buoyancy, youthful bounce lies, of course, in the remarkable

joints of our skeletal framework. There are both ball-and-
socket and hinge joints and, like the hinge, they all get stiff
with disuse.
Later I will detail exercises planned to keep all our joints
fluid and flexible. At the moment I should like to make just one
comment on these vital parts of the body. More injury is done
to the joints unnecessarily by carelessness than to any other
part of the body. Weekend athletes trying stunts they used to
do twenty years ago and housewives launching into physical

tasks without a warmup constantly are pulling ligaments,
muscles and tendons.
Whether it's a game you're playing or just another chore
around the house, if you are going to put strain on any of the
vital joints, prepare yourself for it. It takes only a moment or
two of gentle flexing or stretching — the knees, shoulders, elbows
or lower back — to get the blood circulating and lubricating.
Then you're ready to go to work. I assure you the tasks will be

more pleasant and the injuries less frequent if you just take the
time to do this.
DO YOUR EYES HAVE IT?
I have promised you both a new look and outlook with this
book. I couldn't possibly deliver if I overlooked your eyes.

Don't protest that you use your eyes so much you couldn't be
failing to work them enough. Didn't you think that about your
hands, too?
Once more observe a child. You speak to him from across the
room and off to one side; he doesn't turn his head, but looks
at you from the corners of his eyes. Now observe the older
person. Address him and he turns his head, or his whole body,
to see you. With time, the muscles controlling our eyes grow
weaker. We do nothing to strengthen them. We have to turn
our heads or our bodies to see something —an immediate tip-
off of age.
Much of this is occupational, I suppose. And a lot of it
results from the many, many kinds of artificial illumination we

confront in our electrical-neon age. The fact remains that
we don't use our eye muscles as much as we should and we do
suffer needlessly from "tired eyes."
Last fall I was hunting in the Rockies with a professional

guide. As we hiked along, he kept pointing out things to me; a
tiny bird in a treetop, a special fern in a dark cranny, a doe

motionless in the brush. I have 20/20 vision, but I couldn't spot
these things. The guide could because his eyes were developed
to do so through steady use. We both had 20/20 vision, in fact,
but his eyes were better than mine.

When I was 15, I wore glasses. Very likely I wasn't getting
the proper minerals and vitamins and my general health was

poor. As my overall condition became stronger, my vision
seemed improved. I got rid of the glasses and have never worn
them since. For all of us, though, I recommend regular eye
exercises. Strengthen these muscles along with all the others in
your body.
Eddie Cantor made a trademark of the best eye exercise I
know. He simply stood and rolled them around and around.

Play that you're Eddie Cantor once or twice a day —even sing
// You Knew Susie Like I Know Susie — while you clap your
hands and roll your eyes. You will make yourself very happy.
For another good exercise, hold your hands just out from
your shoulders and about 30 inches apart, index fingers point-
ing upward. Now, without moving your head, look at your
right finger until you have a clear image. Quickly turn your
eyes (but not your head) and establish a clear image of your
left index finger. Repeat 10 times slowly. Try to do this several
times a day. You will discover your eye muscles respond

quickly to the exercise.
Here's still another good exercise for the eyes. Hold your
left hand about eight inches above and diagonally out from the
top of your head, index finger pointing. Hold your right hand
about six inches out from your waist, index finger pointed.
Now, without moving your head, look at your right finger until
you have an image, then turn to your left. Down-up; up-down.
And don't let your head move. Repeat until your eye muscles
ache from the exertion.
After all eye exercises, sit down and bend your head forward
until it is lower than your heart. Now blink as rapidly as you
can. Count to twenty, blinking faster than you can count. Tired
eyes? Cover them with hot packs, then packs that are icy cold.
You'll seen restore circulation and the bleary feeling will be
gone.
THE NECK, A CASE OF NEGLECT
One of the strongest parts of our body, and certainly one of

the most neglected, is the neck. So tired you can hardly hold
your head up? It's your neck that's too tired for the job. And
what have you done to strengthen it lately?
The lady could pass for thirty, you say, except for the tell-tale
"crepe" on her neck? What do you suppose she has done for that
neck skin of late?
How many necks, as a matter of fact, do you see that are

firm and solid and handsome? It seems to me as I look around
in crowds that most necks either are fat-flabby or bone-
skinny and there aren't many in-betweens.
You hear a big burly father say to his son: "Johnny,
straighten up." How can the poor kid straighten up? Balancing
a ten-pound head on a skinny little chicken neck?
I learned long ago from a tumbling coach about the im-
portance of the neck. When you want to do a back flip, you
first tilt your head back. For a front flip, you first aim the
head forward; the body tends to follow. The head is the key to
all posture and the necks is the head's pillar.
Therapeutically, a lot of headaches could be cured by
"curing" first the neck. That's where nervous tension centers.
Once you get the blood flowing through the neck as it should,
you eliminate many problems. You bring a beauty treatment to
the hair and complexion, help to the eyes and ears, a refreshing
draught to the brain. They all rely on the neck.

The moment I awaken each morning I start several exercises
for my neck. First, without even leaving the bed, I perform a

series of what wrestlers call "bridges." on my back and rigid,
with my weight on the back of my head and heels, I arch my

body off the bed half a dozen times. The principal strain, of
course, is on my neck, but it's quite equal to it. Wrestlers learn

to bridge off their necks even with another man's body on top
of them.
The other thing I do, usually while I'm bridging, is to clench
my teeth and strain with my mouth open until the muscles in
my neck are taut. Why? To tighten up that neck skin, repel
any fat that might want to lodge there, and destroy any vestige
of "crepe" before it forms.
For you I have a Magic 3 set of neck exercises you can do
on your bed before arising. Learn them and make them part
of the daily routine of this new life you're forming.
1. Lie across the bed face-up with your head just over the
edge. Let your head loll back then raise it and touch your chin
on your chest. Do this as slowly as you can to make each muscle
resist. Repeat 10 times. As they become easier, clench your
teeth and grimace as you do them.
2. Lie across the bed as before, face up and head just over
the edge . . . Now turn your head to the right as far as it will
go, until the muscles on the back of your neck are tugging at
your scalp. Turn slowly to the left as far as your head will go.
Now right, now left; slowly. Repeat 10 times.

3. Lie on the bed face-down, head just over the edge. Now
raise your head until you are looking at the ceiling. Of course
it's a strain, but that's what muscles build on. Now turn your
head slowly from right to left 10 times. Keep your eyes on the
ceiling at all times and your head as far back as you possibly
can. You'll feel the good pull clear down in your chest when
you're doing it correctly.
THE UPPER BACK
Ladies constantly write to ask what they can do to beautify

their shoulers so they can wear low-cut dresses and bathing
suits. From the tone of their letters, I gather they think it im-
possible. But of course it's possible.
Getting round-shouldered or stoop-shouldered, often a sign
that youth is back there somewhere, has its cause and effect.
It starts from bad posture and continues until the chest muscles
shorten and the back muscles grow longer to accommodate the
stoop. (I told you this body was your slave.) The cure is good
posture.
Let me outline just one exercise to start with. Take two
books — this one and another about the same size —and hold
one in each hand. Stand with your feet well enough apart for
balance, be sure to bend your knees slightly because we're going
to put a little strain on your back. Now bend forward from the
waist until your upper body is parallel to the floor. Hold the
two books at arm's length from your shoulders and slowly
bring them together until you can touch them in front of you.
Don't bang the books together like cymbals. Bring them around
slowly so every muscle works smoothly. Try this five times the
first day, then increase it by one each day until you are doing
10. Then double it to 20. Remember to keep your knees bent
a little and you won't put the wrong strain on muscles lower
down.
AVOIDING LOWER BACK TROUBLES
Most men over 40, I suspect, as well as a lot of women, suffer

chronically from sacroiliac or lower back pains. There is
nothing that can take the joy out of life more completely. I
speak from experience.
Some years ago, before I had learned as much about the body
as I now know, I was doing a rowing exercise in my gym. It was
somewhat similar, to the exercise with books I've just given
you except I was using a 105-pound dumbbell in each hand and

was pulling them in to my chest.
I was straining so hard to control the heavy weights, I didn't
realize two things were wrong. I didn't have my head braced

on something in front of me and my knees were stiff. The re-
sult was I pulled harder on one hand than the other and
suddenly felt a snap.
It was down where the hip and spine come together, the
usual site of sacroiliac troubles.The muscle on one side
spasmed taut. The other muscle went limp. The sciatic nerve
pinched and I was hurting badly.
I went to a doctor and then to an osteopath. But I kept
re-injuring myself. All I needed was to twist in my sleep and
my back was out again. Before long it seemed I was spending
half my time seeking professional help and never really out
of pain. Finally I told myself: "You know the muscles of the
body, Jack. You know what happened. Figure the cure."
The vital thing, clearly, was to stretch the ligament which
holds this spine-hip connection. (I won't attempt the medical
terms as I try to make it clear for you.) I needed an exercise
which would work both sides of my lower back equally. The
one came up with has proved a Godsend to back-sufferers ever

I
since. It gave me immediate relief. Soon I could go dancing or
do anything I wished in the gym.

The exercise known as a Dead Lift. You might use a flat
is
iron in your home; we in the gym may use any weight dumbbell
from 25 pounds up. Hold the weight (or iron) in your right
hand as you face your mirror, at arm's length and resting lightly
on your thigh. Now bend slowly forward, lowering the weight
down the front of your leg to the top of your foot (bending
your knee as you go down.) Bring it back up all the way and
bend backward and slightly to the left as the weight comes up
your thigh. Now down again slowly and back. Repeat 10 times,
then shift the weight to the left hand and repeat up and down
the left leg.
Every man over 40 and every woman should learn to do

this dead lift. Those who have done it daily over a period of
years are the ones who escape sacroiliac difficulties. Those who
have had lower back troubles should learn it and build a strong
muscle girdle over the problem spot.
All of these exercises, whether aimed at the lower back, the
eyes or the hands, are of course, performing still another vital
service. They are flexing veins and artieries throughout the

body, and there's the key to total health. Like a garden hose
which lies rigidly kinked and unused, the body's blood vessels
also become stiff and clogged with time. (What an invitation to
cholesterol!) By exercise, we can flex them and keep them
pliable, in my opinion unquestionably adding mileage —perhaps
years — to the service we may expect from these wonderful
bodies we own.
Time after time, through the years, my attention has been
called to this fact by men who have come to my conditioning
studios. Many come directly from their doctor's office with a
verdict of high blood pressure; some must lower their blood

pressure in order to get insurance. Through carefully directed
exercise, building the heart and expanding the blood vessels,
we have been able to bring down the pressure in a highly

gratifying number of cases.
One other phenomenon I have noticed. Many, many women
write that they have tried unsuccessfully to become pregnant.
For some it has continued for years, their doctors as puzzled as
they. Then suddenly, usually after two or three months of the
diets and exercises I present on television, they are realizing
their dream. At long last, they are going to have a baby.
I don't pretend to know what happened. Perhaps something
was tipped; perhaps there was something the woman wasn't
eating that she should have been. Perhaps her failure to become
pregnant was simply part of her general health picture. The
important thing is that it happened. With all the letters I receive
reporting the same thing, I can only believe anything is possible
when the body is in top, vigorous health.
CHAPTER 22 .
Irs Fun to Keep Ahead
Of Your Years
Time does march on. Some has elapsed since we started this
book together. Chronologically you are minutes or hours or
days older than you were when you took your Coming-in
measurements. Actually, if you've been using the book faith-
fully, you should look somewhat younger than you did when
you turned the first page. Ask your mirror if it isn't true.
My constant theme is: Reverse the aging process. Get old
age on the run. How? By building a sound body for a sound
and positive-thinking mind.
Maybe you remember the old ad for liniment. It showed an
old man on crutches, bearded and decrepit, bemoaning his
173
aches and pains. (Rheumatism, I believe it was.) Later, pre-
sumably after using the liniment, he is shown running, his
beard trailing behind him and the crutches swinging loose

under his arms. I like the idea of throwing away crutches,
but I don't believe liniment is the answer. (Again I ask: If you
have a tack in your shoe, do you take an aspirin or use lini-
ment? Or do you remove the tack?)

What makes people appear prematurely old? First, I would
say, theirmental attitude does. They aren't standing up to life,
using their intelligence to make their body do for them what
it should be doing. Next comes faulty diet, which we have
examined in the middle part of this book. The final cause, of
course —and probably the chief cause of premature aging — is
insufficient exercise. Feeling old, accepting and talking about it,
people slothfully curtail physical activity.
The simple formula for turning back age is, obviously, better
eating and exercise.
TATTLE-TALES
Our bodies, remember, are walking billboards. Try though

you may to conceal it, everyone about you sees graying hair,
dull eyes, dry and crepey skin, the slouch of a spine no longer
flexible. You proclaim, whether you like to or not, how a
sluggish system forces you to laxative addiction. You know,
whether others do or not, if you are losing sexual drive. (And
whatever happened to the honeymoon?)
Your mental attitude, as I've said, is the first tip-off. People
who accept the limitations of years, whatever the number of
those years may be, lost their zest for living first of all. Melan-
cholia, talk of the "good old days," negative thinking are tell-
tale signs. The old-thinking man or woman avoids imagination,

confidence, enthusiasm. He's accepting the terms of uncondi-
tional surrender.
I refuse to dwell in the good old days. They're gone like old
ten-dollar bills. I live for today, using it both for my pleasure

and to improve my tomorrow. Use your todays zestfully, I
contend, and they will take care of tomorrows. I'm writing this
book for you now because I know something can be done to
stand off the years.
Graying hair? My former Berkeley neighbor, the late Dr.
Agnes Faye Morgan of the University of California, banished

the bugaboo of premature gray hair some years ago. If it is
truly premature, she found in scientific studies, if it is not

hereditary or natural to your body, there is a strong indication
that certain vitamin deficiencies could be one of the causes.
Ask your doctor to advise you as to which supplements that
may help restore the natural life and color of your hair. If the
graying is not premature, then probably nothing on earth can

change it. Get the most attractive tint you can from the beauty
parlor and exercise yourself back to a buoyant, youthful figure
that belies the color of your hair.
I have discussed skin texture repeatedly through this book of
ours. A child's skin would wrinkle and dry if he didn't eat
properly and keep active. I have shown you exercises (with
more to follow) which should help you remove almost every
surface wrinkle from your body. I have also given you nutrition
tips to induce the beauty that can only start from within.
Teeth? Certainly the person who has lost his must have a
good dentist or he will look old immediately. I don't however,
understand why our truly senior citizens accept the wrinkled
webs around their mouths that shout their teeth are gone. They
shouldn't surrender to old age like that, surviving on baby foods
and declaring to themselves that wrinkles are the honest badge
of seniority.They could be getting more protein in a dozen
ways, more fruit juices and more raw vegetables mixed in a
blender. They could be making faces at themselves in a mirror,
getting a chuckle out of life as they firm up the muscles and
smooth out wrinkles. They could, of course, but they've got to
take their mental attitude in hand first and defy age.
I don't have one filling in my mouth now, but there was a
time when it appeared I would be toothless by 25. I was a sickly
—

baby, as I've said, and a constant crier. The nurse my mother
left me with couldn't stand the crying. She would fill a piece
of cheesecloth with cornstarch and sugar and jam it in my
mouth every time I whimpered. Perhaps that's where I de-
veloped my sweet tooth. At any rate, my baby teeth all decayed
and turned black. My second teeth came in stained yellow. No
one was more relieved than my mother when our sudden
change in nutrition habits, after the death of my father, brought
a complete change in my teeth and gums. There's nothing wrong
with them now.
I like to believe some of this is because I try to exercise my
jaws and gums as much as I do my biceps. Many of the exer-
cises I practice regularly are directed toward getting good
blood circulating into my head and mouth. It helps. So does a
little after-dinner habit I've fallen into.
Perhaps we're having a bottle of wine with dinner in a good
restaurant. I find myself reaching for the cork. As I listen to
the table talk, I chew on the cork, stimulating my gums and

working my jaws. Try it yourself. Get a cork from the kitchen
a rubber cork would be fine —and chew hard all around. Do it
once or twice a day and see if you don't notice an improvement

in your gums. Also a firming up of your jaw-line. Maybe I'll
work up a special rubber exerciser for this purpose. We could

give it several pleasant flavors and devise a whole series of
exercises for the mouth.
THAT LAXATIVE HABIT
No one on this earth knows more about laxative addiction

than I. During the first 15 years of my life, not one day went by
without castor oil, mineral oil or some sort of physic. I must
have taken salts by the gallon and submitted to enemas at least
once a week. It was years, in fact, before I could again drink

orange juice, so much castor oil had been concealed in it when
I got it as a child.
When I changed my eating habits I needed no more laxa-
tives. Or maybe it was just the exercise I started to take. Ab-

dominal exercises, stimulating as they do the spleen, liver and
pancreas, promote regularity by their very kneading action.
Leg-raise exercises are good for this; sit-ups are great.

Simply lie on your back on the floor. Clasp your hands be-
hind your head and raise yourself to a sitting position. Repeat
this 10 times, up and down, up and back. As your stomach
muscles grow stronger, you'll find it easier to do. Now increase
the resistance in the exercise. From the prone position, sit up
and bend forward until your chest touches your thighs. Then
back to the floor. Up and back 10 times. When you've made
this movement a part of your daily routine you shouldn't need
laxatives again.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HONEYMOON?

Marriages can "get old" just as the man and woman joined
in them do. Again, I suspect, it's a case of mental attitude
coupled with the physical condition of the partners. Sex and
"pooped-out-itis" simply aren't mates. Who looks attractive
to you when your own eye is dull?

The true passion that ennobles a marriage rises only when
two people love each other deeply and are physically drawn
to one another. During courtship, each works his hardest to
appeal to the other. After the honeymoon, too often, there is a
let-down, a taking for granted.
It isn't aging. It's attitude and conditioning. The wife who
is weary after her day of housework doesn't come to the
marriage-bed with the zest she did as a bride. How can she
when she scarcely has the energy to drag through the day? The
man who is physically and emotionally tired from his day at
the office could hardly expect to be a romantic partner.

There's the matter of appearance, too. Is there anything at-
tractive about an overweight woman struggling out of her

girdle and releasing cascades of flesh? Is there anything ro-
mantic about a man hobbling about with his paunch as he tries
to get out of his trousers? Two months in a conditioning studio,
with a little practical nutrition, would do more for these two
partners than all the non-existent aphrodisiacs man has sought
from the times of the ancients.
It's as simple as good health and a walk down Hollywood
Boulevard. Try it for yourself. See who gets the glances.
One more symptom of the aging process I will mention here.
Cholesterol, the fatty dogger of old arteries. (And many not
so old.) I contend it can be dispersed as readily as bad posture,
loss of virility and wrinkles. If one segment of the medical pro-
fession says diet is the answer to cholesterol and another seg-
ment says exercise should flex the blood vessels and dislodge
the plugger, I say bully for them both. As you have seen by
now, I advocate both a sensible diet and plenty of exercise.
Stand with your back against a wall. Press until you feel your
heels, the back of your legs, hips and shoulders against that
wall. Try to touch the small of your back there and you'll feel
your hips tuck under you. Now draw in your stomach and step
off with your head tilted back.
That's the way a youthful person walks.
Believe that this day is going to bring you fun and adventure.
That's the way a youthful person thinks.
Already you are reversing the aging process.
CHAPTE r 2i3 •
Goals, Guidance, and Work
Equal New Beauty and
New Vitality
We come now to the section of our book where you must add
works to my faith in you. You have learned how you can re-
arrange your body as you would the furniture in your rooms.

You have learned how to purchase and prepare the foods that
can help improve your health. By now we have come a long
way together.
We know each other pretty well. But I wonder if it isn't
time to take another inventory. Are you one who has looked on
exercise as a dull, exhausting process? Or are you a "used-ta"
179
constantly recalling how "I used-to do this or that?" Mentally
shutting the doors on what you should do and will do?
Only you can answer. Once more, I urge you, slip off to the
privacy of your own room and your own heart. Look again at
your Coming-in measurements on the chart and the Ideal you

set for yourself in the beginning. Look at yourself in the mirror.
Satisfied? Isn't there some more to be done?

Perhaps it is time to talk to yourself again. As we go into
the program of exercises I am prescribing for you, in fact, it
would be well if you practiced talking to yourself. Concentrate

on the muscles with which we will be working, just as the Yogas
do. Think "into" each muscle group as we work. Shut out all
other distractions, with each exercise, and center your mind
on the stomach or the bustline or the thighs, whichever one
we're working.
We still are not taking things from your life, remember. We
are adding to it. We are working together toward that complete
rebirth you yearned for. We won't be satisfied until your friends,
on meeting you, exclaim: "Is it really you?"
And you will reply: "It really is, the new me."
If you had the do-nothing habit at the beginning, it is time
now to develop new habits. In this new life of yours they should
be youthful habits, buoyant habits, get-up-and-go habits. You
could have danced all night? Why don't you?
The secret is to earn what you like. Instead of taking the
elevator, run or walk briskly up a flight of stairs. (Not for
heart patients, obviously, but fine for the new and healthy you.)
Think of the calories you burn! You will be earning half of
that cocktail or a piece of that garlic bread you love.
Think of this luxury of your new life! You still can treat
yourself to most of the things you enjoy if you will earn them.
Instead of taking the bus or your car on those two-or-three-
block errands, walk. Use your legs and those wonderful feet.
Walk briskly, though. Better yet, skip. If you don't quite have
the nerve to skip down busy streets as I did in Manhattan, go
out in the evening when you think no one will see you and try
it for a block or two. Running, remember, is the basic condi-

tioner for all athletes.
That's much
still too for you? Then do it right in the privacy
of your home. Run in place before your mirror, as I showed
you at the outset of this book. (To get results from this, you
must really get your knees high, as near to your chest as you
can.) Or march. Head and shoulders back, arms swinging,
march in front of your mirror. Do this some time during every
day and you will work off at least some of the calories that built
fat-the-killer in your old life.
Let me repeat my own secret formula. If I have gone to a

party and had a few cocktails or food not necessarily in my
program, I make a mental note of it. I try to estimate the
calories I've taken in so I can burn them up next day. Consult-
ing my mental calorie counter, I plan my eating for the day
so it will be less than normal (except in protein), and I work
my body just a little harder and longer. Last night's pleasures
are gone. Why should they put a burden on today's fun?
A businessman friend of mine and his wife have been follow-
ing this system successfully for several years. He was grossly
overweight when he first came to my gym; he took off the ex-
cess fat and worked out until he had built himself back to the
trim physique he had when he married. His wife began to follow
my program on television at the same time. (She was far from
the girl she had been at the altar.) Just as you are, they built
new lives for themselves. They still entertain and enjoy San
Francisco's night life as they did.
Now, however, they have the trimnastic habit. Each morn-
ing and evening, no matter what, he does ten minutes of sit-ups
to keep his middle thin and she does the exercises I TV.
lead on
Both watch the scales. Should so much as a pound gain show
there, they double up on the exercises and hold back on the
extra calorie foods until their weight is stabilized. No more
crash diets for them.
Most of my students look forward to vacations as a special
time to revel in their handsome bodies. They know, as you must,
that you can't have fun when you don't feel good. You can
leave the bills at home, but not the body. Early every spring,
my studio fills up with old students back to work on the special
exercises they know will give them pep, energy and vitality, and
make them look their best in bathing suits. Actually, it's just
a tune-up time for those with the exercise habit. They've kept
themselves in good shape at home throughout the year, as I
now will teach you to do, and come to the studio merely for
the polish of perfection.
My home Trimnastics Program —known internationally as
the LaLanne System of Physical Culture — is exactly what I've
been aiming for over the past twenty years.
THE GYM IN EVERY HOME
I promised you in the beginning that every piece of gym-

nasium equipment you would need for my exercises could be
found in your home. It can be. You will need only a towel, two
books, a straight chair and, occasionally, an open doorway.
But, you protest, that isn't the fancy equipment you see ad-
vertised by the big conditioning gyms. No dumbbells, rowing
machines, vibrators, bar-bells, tilt-boards or such. They're all
here, I assure you, once you know the secret.
It took me years to learn, of course. I spent those years in-

vestigating the mechanical workings of each part of the body
and devising equipment to reach each muscle group. Basically,
the object of any exercise make specific muscles resist and
is to
develop themselves by resistance. By Pearl Harbor day I had

thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of equipment in
my gym.
Then, suddenly, hundreds of my students were called to the
colors. They were accustomed to working out in an elaborate
gym and now they would be scattered to the far corners of the
earth. Some would be foot soldiers, some sailors aboard ships
and some would be flying planes. They wanted to keep up their
physical tone more than ever before.

The complex body building equipment in my conditioning gym

costs many thousands of dollars. Knowing that not everyone I
wanted to reach could take advantage of this, I have developed
over a period of years a simple system that allows a conscientious
student to obtain good results with items available in every house-
hold. A bath towel, for instance, is all you need to work on the
same area developed by all the hardware above.
Their letters came in a deluge just as I was preparing to

leave for duty with the Navy. They pleaded for simple exercises
to be taken wherever they might be, with a minimum of equip-
ment, or no equipment at all. As I packed my duffel bags, I
thought it through, remembering the basic objective of exer-
cise. I came up with my system of "Set-O-Matics," whereby the
individual would do sets — usually of 10 exercises each — for
whichever area of the body he needed to work.
The results were excellent. Later, aboard ship and at the
Navy rehabilitation center at Sun Valley, I continued to crystal-
lize my thinking. With peace, I could see, there would be
thousands of men and women conditioned to daily exercise
and unable to visit gyms. It all boiled down to the towel, two
books, straight chairs and doorway. These constitute my own
"gym" when I travel. I've never missed a day's workout even
when traveling in foreign lands.
Then my old friend Paul Bragg bobbed up in my life again.

He was the health lecturer, you who started me on
will recall,
this course so many, many years ago when I turned up, a sickly,
pimply boy, at his lecture at the Woman's Club.
Paul had been ofT on another of his world jaunts. Pausing on
the Riviera, he was struck by the exceptional beauty of one
group of younger women's bodies. (No wonder they wear the
Bikini there!) All of the ladies looked tan and healthy, but the
one group held his eye. Their development seemed so unusually
close to perfection Paul began to ask questions. He learned
that a Hindu had visited the Riviera the year before and demon-
strated exercises to be done with a piece of rubber about 30
inches long and no thicker than your finger. It wasn't a fancy
device, certainly, but the results it got were fantastic. Paul Bragg
knew what I was trying to accomplish with exercise and picked
up one of the rubber cords for me.
"You're trying to help people through television," he said.

"Obviously, they can't have a lot of fancy gym equipment in
their homes. With your knowledge of the body, Jack, you may
be able to do something with this." That was four years ago.
I worked with that length of rubber for weeks, practically
driving my friends crazy as I came up with new exercises. "I've
got a new one," I'd announce. "Now try this!" Before long, I
had found more than 100 good exercises to be done with the
rubber cord.
It wasn't quite right, though. The ends tended to slip through
my hands. There were important parts of the body I couldn't
quite reach with it. What it needed, I saw, was a loop on each
end; not only to hold it, but to permit the user to hook it over
his feet or over a doorknob for more advanced movements.
Now I had it — a completegymnasium in one piece of rubber,
30 inches long. I condensed more than 100 exercises into less
than 30. I drew up a set of instructions for men and for women
—His and Hers—simply doubling-up the rubber for the men's
to make it harder. (I have an easier one coming out now for
youngsters.) I got factories to experiment until we had a rubber

that would last a lifetime or we'd give the money back. I called
it my "Glamour Stretcher" (that's exactly what it does) and sold
200,000 of them the first year. The importance of the Stretcher
is it reaches places calisthenics never would, places where fat
has found a spot to rest happily. (Fat accumulates where there
is least activity, as on the insides of the thighs and lower ab-
domen).
I personally believe that every man, woman and child on
earth could improve his appearance with the Glamour Stretcher.
It's the easiest way to exercise I've been able to find in twenty-
odd years. It's convenient to carry; salesmen, tourists, airplane
pilots could easily drop one into their toiletry bags. It's effective;
I intend in another book to show golfers how it would improve

their games. It's successful; other manufacturers have paid it
the highest compliment by attempting to imitate it.
I tell you all of this, not so you will buy a Glamour Stretcher.
You and I still will do everything we need to do with the "gym"
in your home, just our towel, two books, straight chair and
doorway. I tell you this, rather, so you will see how simple ex-
ercise can be and how you can and should do some exercise
every day.
Don't overdo it —but do it.
ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT EXERCISE
Since I can't be with you in person to direct your exercise,

there are some last-minute instructions I want to give you. I
believe I have come to know you well enough by now to an-
ticipate your questions. (Students over the years have been
asking the same questions.) Here, then, are the things to re-
member:
How Many Times Should I Do The Exercise?
The number of repetitions and sets I am giving you for each

exercise is your ultimate goal. I don't expect you to perform
them all for quite some time.
When you can do all the sets and repetitions for each exercise,
then you are ready to make them more difficult. You do this by
performing each movement very slowly. The slower it is done,
the harder it is and the greater its benefit to you.
I would like for you to do the movements fairly fast at first.
As the exercise becomes easier, slow down and concentrate on

each muscle being worked.
If you are underweight, don't do the hip or stomach muscle
exercises until your weight is where you want to stabilize it.
It's a good idea to keep a record of your progress. You might

do an exercise two reps the first time, four reps the second
workout, and so on. Keep an accurate chart on your reps with
each workout. You will be amazed how your strength and
endurance improves.
If you are overweight, do all exercises fairly fast until your
weight stabilizes. Then you may do them more slowly. Be sure
to adhere to the dietary suggestions I've given you. Remember,
your waistline may be your lifeline.
One more thing I would repeat: The important part our

minds play in developing our bodies. Everything our muscles
do must be ordered by the mind; the more you concentrate on
the muscles being worked the faster the results.
You should strive to do an exercise until the muscles at the

completion of each set are aching and actually swollen. When
we exercise a muscle we tear down tissue. Blood rushes to the
muscle to carry off the waste materials, rebuild and nourish the
tired part we've exercised. (Hence the temporary swelling.)
When you experience an aching, swollen feeling in the muscle

you've worked, that's great. It shows you are doing the move-
ment correctly.
How About My Breathing?
One of the important life-giving elements is oxygen. We

could live for days without food or water; we would die quickly
without oxygen. When we inhale, the oxygen entering our lungs
goes on to the bloodstream to give life and energy. When we
exhale, we get rid of the carbon dioxide and waste matter
which filters from the bloodstream. Deep breathing brings more
oxygen into our bloodstream more rapidly, gets rid of poisonous
waste, develops our diaphragm and enlarges our rib cage while
building muscles connected with breathing.
One of the "must nots" in my system of exercising is holding
the breath. I have developed a system of "double breathing"
which works as follows. You are doing a push-up, we'll say. As
you bend your arms, inhale through your nose. When you
reach the bottom, exhale through your mouth explosively. Then
as you push back up, inhale; as you reach the top of the push,
exhale. In other words, take two breaths for each movement.
Thus you never are holding your breath.
The Best Time To Exercise?
There's really no set time; it will vary with the individual and
his routine. Never, however, exercise sooner than an hour after
meals. Be your own judge otherwise. Try early mornings for
a week, then afternoon, then evening. You'll find which time
best suits you.
How Do Set-O-Matics Work?
The term "Set-O-Matic" means merely that when you do an

exercise 10 times and repeat it three times, you are doing 3
sets. Doing exercises in sets seems to give the best results. Let
us say your course calls for an exercise of 10 repetitions (re-
peating one movement) and 3 sets. This means you will do the
exercise 10 times, then rest, do it 10 more times, rest again
and do it another 10 times. When you have done this, you will
have performed 3 sets of the same exercise. Rest between sets
for the same length of time as it takes you to do the set.
How Fast Should I Progress?
In life we learn to crawl, then to walk and then to run. Follow

the same rule in developing your body. I don't want you to get
stiff, sore or overly tired at first. With every workout, increase
a little. Before you know it, you'll be doing the hardest exercises
with ease.
SUMMARY
1. If an exercise calls for 10 repetitions, 3 sets, do 5 repeti-
tions, 1 set. In your next workout, increase to 8 repetitions,
1 set. Next workout, do the full 10 reps. Next workout, 2 sets,
and so on.
2. Take ample rest between sets at first. After a couple of
weeks, rest only as long as it took you to do 1 set.
3. Be sure to do movements fully and completely. For ex-

ample: For a push-up on 2 chairs, go all the way down when
you lower your body. Next, be sure to straighten the arms to
their maximum when you raise your body.
4. Exercise with windows open to provide ample fresh air.
5. Work out in front of a mirror, if possible, so you will
concentrate on the muscle being worked. In this way, too, you

will observe the manner in which you perform each movement.
This is important.
6. Keep a record of your progress by getting a cloth tape
measure and measuring yourself before 70U start to work. Then
measure after each 9th workout. Check your weight once each
week.
7. Posture is of the utmost importance. Stand tall. Keep your

stomach drawn in at all times. Shoulders back, head up.
8. How often to work out? Best results are obtained by doing
your course 3 times weekly. The ideal system is to do it on
alternate days, such as Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Tues-
day, Thursday, Saturday.
9. Sleep is important. This is when the body rebuilds energy
and replaces wornout tissue. Eight hours is probably the mini-
mum for a healthy adult (though growing children should
get more).
10. Breathing should be free at all times. Never hold your
breath.
CHAPTER 24 .
Jack LaLanne Directs
Your Complete Family
Exercise Program
'^^•^^^^^^^^-^^^^^^^^•^•^^^^•^•^•^^^^^•^^^•^•^^^^^^^^^.
Exercise is good for everyone, as I've said so often, but some

exercises are better than others and some are better for men
than women and vice versa. A man, for instance, wants to build
his body into the general shape of a wedge, shoulders broad and
hips narrow; he wants bulging biceps and leg muscles. The ideal
woman's figure, on the other hand, presents hips and bust about
the same (an inch more or less on one or the other is all right)
and a small waist.
Directed exercises, right there in the gym in your home, will
build or reduce your figure as you like. If a woman has a small

bust and large hips, for instance, we can build the bust and take
190
down the hips. Or we can build the hips and reduce the bust.
Over the years, my students in the studio and on television
have told me over and over what they want. I have kept a record
of their queries. The exercises I shall give you now are in
answer to these same, recurring questions. We'll have 10 of

"HERS" and 10 of "HIS" as well as 10 that men and women
both can do.
Refresh your memory on the general instructions I gave you
in the last chapter about sets, breathing and repetitions. Pre-
tend that I am watching over your shoulder just as I would in

my studio. Do every exercise to the best of your ability, knowing
you will improve with each one you accomplish. Take a deep
breath now and let's go!
TEN FOR HER
These are the exercises most often requested by women and the
parts of the body they are designed to improve.
1 . Chin and Neck

Neck (Front). Lie on edge of chair as shown in first illus-
tration,head low. Now lift head as in Illustration 2, trying
to touch your chin to your chest, and continue exercise for
desired number of repetitions. Note: Keep front neck
muscles and muscles of face taut throughout entire move-
ment. Clench your teeth to tighten these muscles.
Neck (Sides). Lying on side on chair as in Illustration 1, proceed

to second position, return to first, and continue exercise for
desired number of repetitions. Note: Keep side muscles taut
throughout entire movement.
:
2. Hips
I like to refer to this as "the old back porch" which needs so

much attention. You will use that straight chair for this one.
Assume Position 1, legs

and arms rigid. Lift leg
and head to Position 2.
Return immediately to Po-
sition 1 and continue ex-
ercise for desired number
of repetitions. Continue
with other leg and perform
the exercise in the same
manner. Note: Keep the
leg you're lifting rigid
throughout the exercise
also the arms. The leg
you're standing on may be
bent slightly.
3. Waistline
Assume Position 1, legs

rigid, head up. Pull
knees into chest, tuck-
ing up into a tight ball
as in Position 2 and
continue exercise for
desired number of rep-
Note: Feet and
etitions.
legs should not touch
the floor at any time
throughout this move-
ment. The chin must
be kept on the chest at
all times.
4. Ankles
We need no illustration to describe this exercise, which I guar-

antee to reduce bulky ankles. Sit on the straight chair (or even
a sofa while you're watching television). Right leg rigid be-
fore you, describe a circle with your foot. Keeping your leg
rigid, do the foot circle in a clockwise motion. Start with 10

circles of the ankle. Then rest and raise your left leg. Describe
the same circle with your left foot, moving counter-clockwise.
Ten turns, then reverse; clockwise for the left foot and counter-
clockwise for the right. You should work up to 25 repetitions
per set and really trim down your ankles.
5. Thighs
This exercise should knock contented fat off the places it looks
worst.
Flat-footed squat. Assume

Position then proceed
1,
to Position 2. Return im-

mediately to Position 1.
Continue exercise for de-
sired number of repeti-
tions. Note: Heels must
be on floor throughout en-
tire movement; feet spread
about 1 6 inches apart, toes
pointed slightly outward.
Body must be erect at all
times. To work the outer
thigh, turn the knees
slightly outward. To work
inner thighs, set feet par-
allel to each other and
squeeze knees together
while squatting. To make
the exercise do more work,
clasp book between knees
and squat.
6. Bust
I suppose more women ask for bust exercises than any other.
Here is the best one I know. Lie on the floor on your back. Hold
this book in one hand and a similar-size book in the other hand.
Extend arms out from sides. Now lift the books up and across
chest, still with arms extended. Lock arms and return to floor.
Repeat and gradually do the exercise more slowly. As you grow
stronger in this exercise you will improve upon it if you lie across
a bench (as you did with a chair in the neck exercise). In that
way you will start with your arms lower than your body and will
require more effort to lift the books.

7. To Offset High Heels

American women constantly are telling me their legs and feet
suffer from the hours they spend on high heels. (Of course they
do since high heels tend to foreshorten the muscles in the backs
of the legs and, I suspect, the pelvis is constantly tilted off
shape.) One exercise to correct this would be to walk around
the house as much as possible in stocking feet and on your
heels. The exercise I prescribe in your book requires one chair
and the book itself.
Lower leg. Assume Position 1. Rise on toes until Position 2 has

been reached, then proceed back to Position 1. Continue exercise
for desired number of repetitions and continue to work on opposite
leg in the same manner. Note: Keep leg rigid at all times, body well
over back of the chair. Be sure your heel is dropped until it touches
the floor as in Position 1. Rise as high as possible in Position 2.
8. For Expectant Mothers
More and more I am asked for exercises expectant mothers may

do to preserve their figures and tone their bodies. All such exer-
cises should, of course, be done only with your doctor's ap-
proval. Everything being normal, I believe a woman should
exercise all parts of her body, except of course the abdomen, as
long as she possibly can.
Too often women neglect their chest muscles while carrying
their baby. Heavy maternity brassieres do too much of the work,
permitting the chest muscles to weaken. Certainly a woman
should exercise her back during pregnancy, her hips and her
face and neck.
9. After the Baby

Just as soon as she possibly can, the new mother should exer-
cise every part of her body thoroughly and daily. She certainly
should do we did for the waistline, and leg raises.
sit-ups, as
The new mother should make every effort to keep her stomach
tucked in, remembering that abdominal muscles have been
stretched and must be trained back. She should get by without
her girdle as much as possible. If I were the obstetrician, in
fact, I think I would order my patients to throw away all girdles
and never buy another one.
10. After Surgery

It would take another book to describe all the exercises that
might be done after all the various types of surgery. As a matter

of fact, I hope my students stay so healthy they won't even need
to visit a hospital. Women, however, have written many requests
for exercises they might do to speed recovery, particularly after
hysterectomies. First, I remind you: Make haste slowly. Then
try this exercise: Sit on the forward edge of a straight chair. Now
bring the right knee up to the chest, then the left knee. Repeat
5 times the first day, and gradually increase. As abdominal
muscles grow stronger, try both knees at the same time. Then
go on to leg raises and sit-ups.
TEN FOR HIM

You often hear a curious thing when American men talk of
their physical condition. Every one of them who was in the
armed forces recalls those bleak morning setting-up exercises

and how he hated them. Yet, looking back, every man admits:
"I never felt better in my life." (Nor looked better, either.)
In the pages that follow, I shall offer 10 exercises any man

can do in his home. I will show the few things he needs at home
along with the complicated equipment I have in my studio to
accomplish the same thing (no more, no less). If you don't
mind, I'll get in a workout by posing for these illustrations
myself.
1 . Shoulders and Arms
Assume position (1) feet on chair, keeping legs rigid, and place hands
on floor as close to chair as possible. Bend arms head touches floor
until
(Figure 2). When position (2) is reached, push back up to original posi-
tion number ( 1 ) . Continue exercise until desired number of reps, are
reached.
2. Arms (Broad of Back)
Assume position number (1). Arms and body rigid. Pull up until stick
touches chest [see position (2)]. After position number (2) has been
reached, return to position number ( 1 ) and continue exercise until desired
number of reps, have been reached.
Note: Keep body rigid at all times.
3. Shoulders
Assume position (1), grasping door

knobs firmly with both hands. Lower
body to position (2), keeping arms
rigid. A steady resistance must be
maintained and a definite pull also
must be felt in the Latisamus Muscles
(large fan-shaped muscles under
arms). Also the feet must be kept
close together and against the door
at all times. After position (2) has
been reached (lower position), re-
turn slowly and resisting at the same
time to position (1).
Note: A stretching exercise.
4. Chest-Triceps
Assume position ( 1 ) , body and arms Bend arms and lower body to
rigid.
position (2). Immediately straighten arms and return to position (1).
Continue exercise.
Note: Body should be kept rigid at all times. Place the two chairs where
the hands are resting ... a few inches wider than shoulder width.
5. Chest-Triceps
Assume position (1). Bend

arms and lower body down
to position (2) and im-
mediately return to posi-
tion (1). Continue with
exercise.
Note: Bend knees to
keep feet off floor . . .
dip down between chairs

as low as possible to ob
tain full stretch.
6. Arms-Triceps
Assume position (1). Bend arms, keeping legs rigid, and lower down to
position (2). After position (2) has been reached, return immediately to
position (1). Continue exercise.
Note: Keep legs rigid at all times throughout the exercise and lower
body as far as possible in position (2). Place chairs a few inches wider
than shoulder width.
7. Arms-Triceps
Assume position (1). Grasp towel firmly in

both hands. With left arm bent and behind
back, resist with right arm against towel and
pull down with left arm until position (2) has
been reached. After left arm has been exer-
cised, proceed to right arm and exercise the
same as you did the left arm.
Note: At the completion of each up and

downward movement, make sure that the
arms are fully extended.
8. Thighs-Hips (One Leg Squat)
Assume position ( 1 ) Bend .
leg and lower body until posi-

tion (2) has been reached.
After position (2) has been
reached, return immediately
to position (1). Proceed un-
til the desired number of
reps, have been reached for
the left leg, and then exercise
the right leg in the same man-
ner.
Note: Body must be kept
erect atall times throughout
the exercise. It is suggested

that you assist yourself and
maintain your balance by
grasping the back of the
chair.
9. Stomach
Assume position (1), arms and legs rigid. Proceed to position (2). Im-
mediately return to position (1). Continue exercise.
Note: Arms must be kept rigid throughout this movement . . . also

exhale as you are sitting up to your feet inhale as you lower
. . .
down
to position (1).
10. Forearms-Lower Arm
Assume position (1). Grasp stick in both hands, palms down, iron or
weight on Then by keeping arms and body rigid, roll rope on stick
floor.
until position (2) is reached. Do not let weight down by slipping through
hands . .roll it down as you rolled it up. You do 2 sets with palms
.
down and 2 sets with palms up.
Note: This is one of the finest forearm exercises there is. It will not
only give you a shapely lower arm, but powerful wrists and a tremendous
grip.
TEN TOGETHER
Now permit me to demonstrate exercises we can all do to-
gether. Again I shall show you how to use equipment you have
in your "Gym at Home" to accomplish the very same things I
do with elaborate equipment in my gym.
1. Shoulders and Upper Back
(Towel) Assume position (1). Grasp towel in both hands

shoulder width apart, pull forcefully against towel with
right arm and at the same time resist with left arm, and
proceed to position (2). When position (2) is reached, im-
mediately proceed to position (3), pulling with left arm
and resist with right arm. When position (3) is reached,
return to position (2) immediately. (Continue thusly until
desired number of reps, are reached.)
Note A constant
: pull against the towel
must be maintained at all times through-
out the exercise producing the desired re-
sistance and exercise for the shoulder
muscles.
2. Shoulders
Lie face down on chair or small bench

. . . see Position (1). Grasp two books
(medium size) one in each hand, keep-
ing the arms straight and horizontal to
the floor, proceed to position number (2),
after position (2) has been reached, im-
mediately return to position ( 1 ) and con-
tinue until desired number of reps, have
been reached.
Note: Keep arms rigid and as high as
possible from the floor throughout the en-
tire exercise. Use heavier books every 12
workouts.
3. Broad of Back
Towel exercise for upper back. Assume position ( 1 ) . Arms

rigid, towel over head . . . towel
resist forcefully against
with right arm and pull with left arm until position (2) has
been reached and proceed immediately to position (3), re-
sisting with left arm and pulling with right arm. Continue
exercise.
Note: Arms must be kept rigid and

locked at all times and well back be-
hind the head.
4. Chest
Assume position (1), arms approximately one foot wider than

shoulder width. Push with left arm and resist with right arm until
position (2) is reached. After position (2) has been reached, push
right arm and resist with left arm and continue to position (3)
again. Continue exercise.
Note: Arms must be kept rigid at all times. Do not move the
upper body from side to side. Move the arm across the chest in a
horizontal plane, keeping a constant pressure against the stick as
though trying to bend the stick in the middle.
5. Biceps
Assume position (1). Resist
against stick with left arm and
pull with right arm
to position
(2). After position (2) has been
reached, pull stick down with left
arm and resist with right arm un-
til position ( 1 ) has been reached.
Continue exercise.
Note: After right arm has been exercised, proceed

to leftarm and continue to exercise left arm in the
same manner as you did the right arm.
A constant resistance must be maintained at all
times throughout the exercise, and a definite contrac-
tion must be felt in the bicep muscles at all times
throughout the exercise.
6. Thighs-Hips
Assume position (1) (hands

on hips). Lunge forward on
the left leg, extending the
right leg to the rear until posi-
tion (2) has been reached.
After position (2) has been
reached return to position
(1), and lunge forward on
the right leg until position
(3) has been reached and re-
turn immediately to position
(1) and continue exercise.
Note: Upper body must be straight up and down throughout the exer-
cise (do not lean forward if possible). To receive maximum benefit from
this exercise, you must split as low as possible.
7. Calf-Lower Leg
Assume position (1). Rise up on toes

until position has been reached.
(2)
After position (2) has been reached,
proceed to position (1); repeat until
the desired number of reps, have been
reached, and continue to work the op-
posite leg in the same manner.
Note: Keep leg rigid at all times
. . . and body well over the back of
the chair at all times throughout the
exercise. Be sure your heel is dropped
well down toward the floor as in posi-
tion (1) and rise as high as possible
as in position (2).
'
/
8. Lower Back
Assume position ( 1 ) arms and legs
,
rigid. Arch back by lifting arms and

legs until position (2) is reached.
After position (2) is reached, re-
turn to position (1). Continue ex-
ercise.
Note: Arms and legs must be
kept rigid at all times throughout
this movement.
/
THE JACK LALANNE WAY
Assume position (1), legs and arms rigid. Lift leg and head to position
(2). Immediately return to position (1) until desired number of reps,
have been reached and continue to opposite leg and perform the exercise
in the same manner as you did for the other side.
Note: Keep leg that is being lifted rigid throughout the exercise. . .
also keep the arms rigid. The leg that you are standing on may be bent
slightly.
10. Stomach
Assume position ( 1 ) , legs rigid . . . head up . pull knees into

. .
chest, tucking up into a tight ball, position (2). Proceed to posi-

tion ( 1 ) and continue exercise until desired number of reps, have
been reached.
Note: The feet and legs should not touch the floor at any time
throughout this movement. The chin must be kept on the chest at
all times throughout the exercise.
HAPPY ENDINGS
I see I've come smack against the back cover of this book
we've been writing together. Time now for the Going-Out tape,
to see how you stack up with the Ideal you've set for yourself.
Let's turn back to the day you circled on the calendar, when
you began to rebuild your body for vibrant health, physical
grace, a new look and outlook. It was a big day in your life,
wasn't it?
I've been looking backward myself, which isn't easy for me,
for all the positives I have learned in more than two decades.
They're all yours now. I have written them here and put you
smack in the middle of them. Remember? I said you'd find your-
self all through book of ours. (And no negatives.)
this
Aren't you different from what you were? Don't you feel you
know that body of yours better than you ever did? And haven't
you discovered it is worth working for? That slave that works
for you night and day? Compare your Coming-in measurements
with those you've just taken and enter them on the chart beside
your Ideal.
I want more than anything to help you feel and look better,
as I said at the outset. The job is never done. So long as we live,
we must work on ourselves.

Right now I find a few loose letters left over on my typewriter
— s-n-e-s-t-i-k-c-t-i-o-t-s. Let's unscramble them and see what
they spell when we put them together right.
word and the key. Stick to it
"Stick-to-it-iveness." That's the
365 days a year, all your years, and you can't fail. Keep faith in
yourself. Keep believing in your mind and body. Keep working.
Remember all the essential vitamins I have outlined for you.
Remember the two most essential of all, F and G. Faith in God.
I am with you all the way. And may the good Lord bless and
keep you.
220
1
Index
Adolescents, eating habits of, 78-80 Breathing:
Advertising and advertisers, 46-48 correct method for, 11-12
Age, no bar to reproportioning body, exaggerated deep breaths, 1
32-34 inhaling through the nose, 11-12
Aging process, reversing, 173-179 techniques, 187
Alcoholics Anonymous, 27 Brewers yeast, 49, 50, 80, 145
Alcoholic drinks, 49 Bromfield, Louis, 147
hangover breakfast, 49-50 Budget, food, 93-94, 102
Amazing Results of Positive Think- Bushman, Francis X., 82
ing, The (Peale), 155 Business men, neglect their health,
American Medical Association, 155 152-153
Ankles, exercises for, 195 Bustline, exercises to develop, 39, 196
Appetite, controlling, 55-56 Butter, use of, 88, 119
Arms, exercises for, 200-201, 205-206, Buying food, 100-101
209, 214
Arthritis, exercises for, 34 Calories, determining number needed,
Avocados, use of, 98 57, 181
Cells in the body, rebuilt every 90
Back: days, 30
avoiding lower back troubles, 170- Cereals, breakfast, 46, 49, 102
172 Chest, exercises for, 202-204, 213
exercises for lower, 170-172, 217 Chewing food, 111-112
exercises for shoulders and upper, Children, eating habits, 77-78
210 Chin and neckline, exercises for, 42-
exercises for the upper, 169-170 43, 164-165, 192-193
Baker, Jim, 147-148 Cholesterol, 27, 178
Bakery goods, 141-142 Choline, 98
Bananas, 98 Chorus girls kicks, 38-39
Beauty, nature's recipe for, 12-13 Chowders, 128
Benefits of the program, 13-14 Coffee, drinking, 50
Beverages, 115-116 stimulant for nervous people, 50
made in the electric blender, 114 Coffee break, 113
Biceps, exercises for, 214 Compulsive eating, 113
Blood pressure, exercise to bring Conditioning studio, 33
down, 172 Cook ware, stainless steel, 91-92
Blood sugar for energy, 52-53, 99-100 Cookie recipes, 84
Body: Cooking methods recommended, 87-
building a healthy, 29 88
care of, 28
cells rebuilt every 90 days, 30
need daily directed activity, 36, 44 Davis, Bette, 20
program of reproportioning, 14, 32- Desserts, 13
33, 81 recipes, 139-141
Bone meal tablets, 145 Diets and dieting:
Bragg, Paul, 80-81, 184 appetite and hunger, 55
Bread and muffins, 109, 142 avoiding fried foods, 15
Breakfasts: avoid skipping meals, 12
at restaurants, 120 danger in crash diets, 46
cereals, 46, 49, 102 desserts, 13
getting blood sugar up for the day, low-fat, 27
52-53 luncheon, 12-13
hangover, 49-50 nine day menus, 66-67
Jack LaLanne Breakfast, 99 seven day menus, 60-66
key meal of the day, 51-53 Doyle, Elaine, 83-84
221
:
Drinking, 49-50 Fertilizers, 146-147

hangover breakfast, 49-50 Fish, 97, 130-132
Eating habits, 25, 45-46, 76-85 oriental method of cooking, 121-122
changing, 31-32 recipes, 128, 131-132
malnutrition due to poor, 84-85 shellfish, 131-132
nibbling between meals, 113 Flour, use of white, 86-87, 109
results of poor, 84-85 Foods
self-discipline is necessary, 83 cooking methods for, 87-88
substitutions for foods which should detrimental to the body, 70, 83
be avoided, 107-108 eating raw food, 82-83, 87
Edison, Thomas, 51 for gaining weight, 75
list of recommended, 69, 94-100
Eggs, 98 natural, 76, 93-94
nutritional content, 132 use of, 82-83
recipes for, 132-134 organic, 146-148
whites, 109 should not be exposed to air, 88
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 158 stale foods should be avoided, 87
Electric blender, use of, 114-116 white foods should be avoided, 86-
Enzymes, 143 87, 109
Exercises: Food supplements, 143-145
balancing book on head, 41 French dressing, 62
best time for, 187 Fried foods, 110
body needs daily directed activity, Fruit:
36, 44 desserts, 119, 120
breathing techniques, 187 served with every meal, 13
changing habits, 31-32 tips on buying, 102-104
chorus girl kicks, 38-39
De-pooper, 9-10 Garlic, 92
developing the habit, 181-182 Glamour Stretcher, use of, 185
first the warmup, 37 Golf, playing, 153
for heart patients, 158-159 Grace:
for men, 200-209, 210-219 developing physical, 2, 149
for the eyes, 166-168 nature's recipe for, 12-13
for women, 192-199, 210-219 Gymnasium equipment, 182-184
hop to it, 37-38
let's run a little, 37 Habits, changing eating and exercis-
Magic 3 's, 9-11 *
ing, 31-32
need for, 156-157 Hair, care of, 13
number of sets and repetitions, 186- gray, 175
188 Hands, exercises for, 160-162
programs, 158 Hangover breakfast, 49-50
rules for, 188-189 Happiness, achieving, 1-2, 27
Set-O-Matics, 187-188 Headaches, curing, 168
some jumping jacks, 38 Health:
stimulation of, 12 number of persons afflicted with
to improve the bust line, 39, 196 illnesses, 152
trimnastics, 41-44 rules of, 15, 29, 155-156
use of the Glamour Stretcher, 185 Health food stores, 25-26, 29, 105-106
value of regular, 153 Heart, every exercise strengthens, 157
walking, skipping and running, 180- Heart attacks, 158
181 exercises for heart patients, 158-159
Expectant mothers, exercises for, 198 Heredity of bad family habits, 35
Eyes, exercises for, 166-168 Hips, exercises for, 41-42, 194, 207,
215
Face, exercises for, 163-165 Hollywood movie colony, 16-17
Fat, danger of excess, 22 eating habits, 83
Feet, exercises for, 162-163, 197 Honey, use of, 80, 99-100
222
:
Housewives neglect their health, 40, Mental workers neglect their health,
152 152
*
Menus, reducing:
Ideal, visualizing your, 5-6 nine-day, 66-67
Infants, care of, 77-78 seven day, 60-66
Iyer, Professor K.V., 5 Middle-age, 15-16
overcoming signs of, 164
Joints, care of, 33, 165-166
Minerals and vitamins:
need for, 144
Kitchen equipment, 91-92
use of, 40
stainless steel cook ware, 91-92
Morgan, Agnes Faye, 175
Morrison, Lester M., 22, 144
LaLanne, John, 21
Murray, Ken, 20
LaLanne, Norman, 19
Laxative habit, 176-177
Natural foods, 93-94
Lecithin, 121
use of, 82-83
Lee, Bill, 28
Neck:
Legs, exercises for, 42, 197, 216
a case of neglect, 168-169
Life span, 45
exercises for, 160-169, 192-193
Liquefler, use of, 114-116
Negative thinking, overcoming, 154-
Liver, nutritional value, 50, 96-97
155
desiccated liver tablets, 97
Nibbling between meals, 113
Low-fat diets, 27
Nutrition
Low-Fat Way Health and Longer
to
avoid stale foods, 87
Life, The, 22, 144
avoid using soda with vegetables, 88
Luncheon:
avoid white food, 86-87, 109
preparing, 12-13
choosing cooking methods carefully,
recipes, 119-120
87-88
eat raw food, 87
Magic 3's, 9-11, 106
foods for gaining weight, 75
Malnutrition, 79
foods to avoid, 70, 83, 86-87
due to poor eating habits, 84-85
keep air away from food, 88
Mardikian, George, 122
kitchen equipment, 91-92
Mayonnaise, 110
natural foods, 93-94
recipe for, 62, 110
use of, 82-83
Measurements:
organic foods, 146-148
coming-in tape, 3
raw foods, 82-83, 87
for men, 4-5
recommended foods, 69, 94-100
for women, 4
retain cooking water, 88
recording, 4-5
study of, 81
taking actual, 3
use of gutter, 88, 119
Meat:
Oils and shortening, 110
key to 135-136
vitality,
Organic foods, 146-148
nutritional content, 135
Oriental cookery, 120-122
recipes, 136-138
Over-eating, 112-113
substitutes, 138
dangers of, 21, 25
use of rare, 112
Overweight, problem of, 25
Men:
exercises for, 200-209, 210-219
Paunch, exercises for, 41, 150-151
exercises for getting rid of paunch,
Peace of mind, 20
150-151
Peale, Norman Vincent, 155
taking measurements, 4-5
Peanut oil, 110
Mental attitude, 114
Physical culture, 20, 182
healthy, well-nourished body and,
123-124 Physical grace, developing, 2, 149
improving, 175 Physical well-being, achieving, 27
power over body, 152, 154 "Pooped-out-itis," 9, 15, 145
223
: : :
Posture, improving, 14, 178, 189 Sugar, white, 108-109

Potatoes, preparing, 23-24 using honey instead of, 100, 108-
Power of Positive Thinking, The 109
(Peale), 155 Surgery, exercises after, 198-199
Pregnancy, 172
Teen-agers, eating habits, 78-80
Radiation, ability to throw off the Teeth, care of, 175-176
effects, 156 Television program, 151-152
Reducing plans, 53-67
12, Hollywood stars follow, 20
determining number of calories results of, 40-41
needed each day, 57 Thighs, exercises for, 41-42, 196, 207,
importance of breakfast, 51-53 215
nine-day menu, 66-67 Tired feeling, 16
proper chewing of food, 111-112 Tissue, building healthy new, 15
self-control, 113 Trimnastics, 41-44, 181-182
seven day menu, 60-66 for chin and neckline, 42-43
use of vitamins and minerals, 56 for legs, 42
Restaurants, eating in, 117-122 for thigh and hips, 41-42
oriental, 121-122 to trim paunch, 41
Rice, use of, 98, 138
Rubber cord, use of, 184-185 Underweight, 71-75
four steps for weight building, 72-
74
Sacroiliac trouble, 150-151, 170-171
exercise for, 171 Vegetables
Salads, 12, 124-126 buying and preparing, 12, 103-104
dressings, 62, 110, 126-127 cooking, 88, 92
luncheon, 12-13 recipes, 134-135, 138-139
recipes, 125-126 tips on buying, 103-104
using peanut oil in dressings, 110 Vegetarianism, 81-82
vegetable, 12 Visualizing your ideal, 5-6
Self-appraisal, 2 Vitamins, 143-145
Shoulders and arms, exercises for, B Vitamin, 50
200-201, 205-206, 210-211 natural, 105, 144
Showers, stimulating effect of, 43, 50, need for, 144-145
107 use of, 40, 93-94
Skin, 13
improving tone of, 175
Sleep: Waistline, exercises for, 195
nap habit, 50-51 Walking, excellent exercise, 179-180
proper method of arising from, 51 Weight:
value of, 50-51 beverages for losing or gaining
Smiling, value of, 43-44 weight, 115-116
Smoking, effects on body, 48 foods for gaining, 75
Soups, 118, 127-130 four simple steps for building, 72-74
low calorie, 129-130 ideal weight charts, 58-59
recipes for, 127-130 redistribution of, 14
Soy beans, 98-99, 121 tables for height and weight, 58-59
Soy powder, 145 Wheat germ, use of, 49, 80, 145
Spies, Tom Douglas, 155 White, Dr. Paul Dudley, 158
Stomach Women
exercises for, 208, 219 exercises for, 192-199, 210-219
functions of, 28-29 taking measurements, 4
224
.w

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© I960 by Jack LaLanne

All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this

Copyright under International and Pan-

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 60-7656

Printed in the United States of America

A Personal Message from Jack LaLanne vii

1. I'm All For You 1

2. My Magic Three: Your First Steps to New

3. Some Personal History 18

4. Fat Is the Killer 23

5. The Greatest Ninety Day Wonder of All 31

6. Now Show You the Fun of Exercising

7. The Great Madison Avenue Brainwash —

8. Planning Our Sculpturing for New Beauty 54

9. Replace Life-shortening with Life-giving

10. Try This Program If You're Underweight 71

11. Our Changing Nutrition Habits and Our

12. Jack LaLanne's Ten Commandments of Good

13. What I've Learned in My Kitchen 89

14. There Are No "Miracle" Foods 95

15. There's A Science to Shopping 101

16. Let's Talk About Eating Habits and Diges-

17. Try Eating Out the Jack LaLanne Way 1 17

18. Keeping Life in Your Food 123

19. Nutritional Research and your Health 143

20. Let's Plan A Miracle Together 149

21. Take This Guided Tour for New Glamour 160

22. It's Fun to Keep Ahead of Your Years 173

23. Goals, Guidance, and Work Equal New

24. Jack LaLanne Directs Your Complete Fam-

Happy Endings and Bright Tomorrows

From Jack LaLanne

sick man and woman who comes hopefully to me for help. As if

I had some magic pill! I don't. I am not a doctor — certainly not

to work successfully with him.

however, I obviously couldn't reach all who want help. So I

helping me put my ideas on paper. I hope it will be read

am mindful of my mother's admonition and the $500,000,000

Jack LaLanne Way

I'M All for You.'

yourself all through it.

From this moment, really, it's your book. It is in your hands,

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL

We will begin with an appraisal of you. This is vitally im-

I want you to look at yourself. (Naked we came into this world

Happiness doesn't come by that route. That way leads only

me Jack) have faced your problem with thousands of men and

HONESTLY NOW, HOW DO YOU STACK UP?

Since mirrors help us to kid ourselves, and you want to know

Arms (Extend and measure largest part of upper arm) Inches

Hips (Measure around largest circumference) Inches

Calf (largest part) Inches

Ankle (at smallest part) Inches

Weight (without clothing, upon arising) Pounds

Hips (at largest point) Inches

Weight (without clothing, upon arising) Pounds

VISUALIZING YOUR IDEAL

had to make my own program. I soon saw I would need an ideal.

I found it, happily, in the person of Professor K. V. Iyer, a

Professor Iyer was known for his physical perfection, rather

I tacked Professor Iyer's photograph to the wall by my bed.

Who embodies your ideal? A movie star? A striking fashion