Day 107: Raising a Glass (of Carrot Juice) to Jack LaLanne

Well, by now you have all probably heard the sad news that Jack LaLanne, fitness guru, entreprenuer, and fruit and vegetable juicer extraordinare, is dead.  He was 96.  There is a great article about the man here, if you are interested, and if you don't know who the man is, you should read it. 

I was first introduced to Jack LaLanne in the mid-1990s, when he was selling his juicer on TV infomercials.  As a fan of the infomericial (have you seen that one with the Australian for the Magic Bullet, it is awesome, and of course, you all know about Dual Action Cleanse (which, by the way, if you read the post about Dual Action Cleanse, please know that is NOT a picture of me, it is a picture of the guy selling the product--I think there may have been some confusion about that, and I do not want ANY confusion there)), I have always appreciated Jack's dedication to juicing.  In fact, he was so into it, that I think his skin turned a bit orange from all the carrot juice. 

Anyway, look at this picture of him.  At 90, the guy could have beaten me up with one arm tied behind his back:

If you read the article, which is very interesting, you will learn that Jack was a guy that brought fitness to the masses, and he was really the first person to do so.  He revolutionized fitness by encouraging athletes to work out (weight lifting was apparently taboo for jocks before Jack LaLanne) and he also worked with women interested in lifting weights (another tabook in the 1930s and 1940s).  He got started by going to a lecture and hearing a man talk about nutrition, which was something completely new to him.  After talking with the man for an hour-and-a-half after the lecture (Jack was told that he was a "walking trash can"), Jack decided to change his life--and the lives of thousands of other people through his television show, his gyms, and (to a much lesser extent) his juicer.

I am not old enough to have seen his fitness show on television (by the time I was old enough to remember things, Richard Simmons was big--well, actually he wasn't big anymore, he was skinny), but if his juicer (one of which I owned for a while (it wasn't nearly as good as my Breville)) is any indication, Jack is an inspiration to all of us.  I will miss this strong, orange man on the late-night infomercial circuit, but like anyone who inspires others, his spirit will live on in the lives of those he touched.  Who knows, maybe one day even I will look like this!