I'm a very insecure and emotional person still looking to be loved by everyone else.
I try to be the clown and court jester and make people laugh. At the same time, you have people in the hospital who have had gastric bypass or lap-band surgery and they still have to work out. If you don't work out and eat healthy, you'll look like a melted candle.
For 40 years, my formula has been to love yourself, move your body and to watch portion size. But the No. 1 thing is to love and value yourself, no matter what you've been through.
I'm 64, but I act like I'm still 12. I go to schools. At colleges, they come out in droves, they almost scare me. I think it's just to see if I'm still alive. After I work them out - and it's not easy - I sit them down and we have a serious talk. Are they eating? Working on their body? I can say things parents won't say. No matter where I go, I talk to each one individually after I teach. They tell me things like, 'I'm starving, guys like girls thinner.' I give them concrete advice about self-image and self-worth.
Stop trying to find something in food that will make you feel better. I used to have eating disorders; I'd binge and purge all the time: fried oysters, po' boys, muffulettas, beignets, coffee and doughnuts. I tried to medicate myself with food when people made fun of me or hit me with a bat in school. I'd always turn to food. Knowing what I now know, I'd turn to me.
Truthfully, everyone knows how to eat right. They know the difference between oatmeal and a jelly cream doughnut. They know how to walk. Everyone has this in their brain. When I started, we didn't have all this knowledge. Forty years ago, I lost my weight, but only by watching what I was eating.
Everyone's under pressure and you just have to learn how to deal with it. And I deal with it through prayer and staying busy.
People need the court jester, so I keep that smile on and keep going out there to do what I do.
My life is just a never-ending work in progress.
You can say anything you want to say about me. But don't you dare address overweight people with terrible names and ugly remarks. That is what upsets me.
I just strive to do better. Every time I meet somebody, I ask myself, "How can I help this person?"
No one can make fun of overweight people in front of me!
Being successful is something that's sometimes hard to deal with.
I never say anything negative about anyone, because that won't get you anywhere.
If people confront me with certain questions, if they are not right, I will not answer them.
I sort of think of myself as part priest, part clown.
I just want people to get off the back burner of their life and start to take better care of themselves and their children.
If you want to get the body you've always dreamed of, you have to earn it.
There is no magic milkshake or workout machine. I think the real machine is your body. I do love treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, free weights.
I never sold any of those "lose 10 pounds every week" scams. I've not changed my tune in all these years. I've seen everything pass by me, and I've been offered millions of dollars to put my name on products that were just lies. And I never did it.
I've been offered big money to promote machines. And high-protein diets, when that was really popular. There was always some new powder or diet plan that somebody wanted to put my name on.
I give people permission to be kids again.
I've never swayed from who I am. People have seen me on television, and they know what I'm like and they know what I do and they respect me for what I do. They know that I'm huggy and kissy.
I really created my career out of my own compulsion. Because I knew if I owned an exercise studio and I had to teach my classes there, I wasn't going to gain my weight back.
I'm like a stuffed toy. You've never met me, but if you did, you'd just want to take me home and put me in your child's room.
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