An Exclusive Interview with Marilu Henner, Part 2

By Mike Bundrant

  Please enjoy part two of our interview with Marilu.  Part one can be found in the October/November issue of Healthy Times.  You can also read it online at www.healthytimesonline.com.

HT:  What motivated you to get into health?

  Marilu: I became motivated to get into health after my parents died in their fifties.  I was a typical teenage dieter.  I grew up with a typical mid-western diet – a lot of junk food and a lot of dairy, meat and sugar.  I was a “50-cents-an-hour-and-all-I-can-eat” babysitter.  I was addicted to bad food.  I had typical teenage acne.  I was called “Braille-face” by age 14.  And I also started putting on weight. 

My father died when I was 17 years old – he died of a heart attack at age 52.  He died at a Christmas party we were having at our house.  I found myself eating my feelings and putting on more weight.  The summer between high school and college I put on 25 pounds working as a waitress at a resort in Wisconsin .  I worked like a horse and I ate like one.  When I was in college I got up to 174 pounds.  And I tried all kinds of stupid diets – sometimes I would take off and then put on 20 pounds in a week – really stupid, ridiculous diets. 

  Then, my mother got sick.  She passed away when she was 58 of arthritis.  I would watch her as they plugged more and more machines into her – they had 13 machines hooked up to her at one time.  She ended up having her leg amputated – and my mother was a dancing instructor.  We had a dancing school as our family business.

  So, after she died I said. “Ok…instead of eating my feelings like I did when my father died, this time I’m going to eat up information.”  So, I started reading a lot about arthritis and heart disease.  The more I read, the more I discovered that every disease has to do with lifestyle habits and lifestyle changes.  It was more about treating the patient rather than the disease.

I’d go to libraries to look at medical journals.I talked to doctors and nutritionists.I went to health food stores.I took a human anatomy class.I just kept learning and reading and learning and reading. I always tested everything I learned on myself. The whole journey turned into the ten steps I talk about in my first book, Total Health Makeover– these are the main things I did to change my life. It took me about eight years to put it all together, but ever since then I’ve been living this lifestyle without ever looking back.

As a result, I am healthier and stronger than I’ve ever been.  My weight is always within the same 4-pound range.  I’m 5’7”, weigh 120 pounds – I’m strong and healthy.  I had my two boys in my 40’s and they are healthy and strong – we never get sick.

I started writing Total Health Makeover, 8 years ago.  I’m now working on my 8^th book.  I teach classes on line at Marilu.com.  I’ve done a big infomercial called “Body Victory” that’s coming out next month everywhere.  This is what I love to do.  I travel the country speaking as a lecturer….I spoke to cancer survivors last month…I spoke about people’s tendency when they get sick to say, “I’ll just do this special diet for a time and then when things get better I’ll get back to normal”.  I’m always saying that it is not enough to change for a short time and then go back to normal.  Maybe normal is what got you into trouble in the first place.  If you think of your body as this “field” of soil and you sprout a weed – it is not enough to just cut out the weed.  You have to change the soil.  You have to fertilize it differently, shift it around and put other nutrients in it or those weeds will come back

In my online class today a woman was sharing how she goes on diets temporarily, loses weight, goes back to her normal food, but then has to diet again.  I told it’s because she thinks the way she’s been living is normal – and that maybe her “normal” needs to be looked at.

This is really my passion.  I mean, I love acting and singing and performing on Broadway and all that – but health is my true passion.  I think it’s because it keeps me connected to my parents in a way, and helps me use what I’ve learned from them and from their passing.

I always feel if I can help save someone else’s life or help them save their parents’ lives, then it’s all worth it.

Healthy Times:  I hear in your story that you became healthier to the degree that you gained knowledge – to the degree that you researched and educated yourself.

Marilu:  Yes.  I think the problem is that most people think there is too much information out there and that it’s hard to discern what’s best to do.  And I think what happens is that people don’t really understand the intrinsic power of food.  They understand the emotional power but not the chemical power. People blame themselves.  I tell the women on my site that it might be your fault because you’ve taken the first bite – but once you’ve taken that bite – the food has its own agenda.  Poor quality food is designed to make you keep eating it.  If there’s not a nutrient in there, your body will crave more food.  I always say that people are stuffing their faces but starving their bodies…. they’re eating thousands and thousands of calories but the food has no nutritional value – so they keep wanting to cram more of it down their throats.

I work with people all the time who ask me how to give up junk foods – because people crave it and it’s so hard to give up.  And it is hard.  That’s the whole thing about getting healthy.  The further you are from it, the harder it seems to be…but the closer you get to it, the easier it becomes.  No question about it. 

If you improve the quality of your food, the quantity takes care of itself.  But sometimes you have to change your palate.  It’s not about measuring, weighing and counting the carbs, grams, calories, points, etc…of the same old crappy foods.  It isn’t.  No matter how you cut up that stuff it is still bad food. That’s why you have to learn how to change your palate so that your mouth, your brain and your desire want that good, healthy food.  I always say to the members on my site, “You have to learn to love the food that loves you.”

Healthy Times:  So, you can arrive at a place where the good foods are the foods you love….

Marilu:  Absolutely. Healthy foods become your comfort foods.  And you feel good.  I have more energy now than I ever did in my 20’s and 30’s.  I look better.  My clothes fit better.  Everything is better.  Healthy is my state of being.  I don’t have time not to feel good.

At one point I looked at myself in the mirror at 174 pounds with bad skin and no energy and I knew that something was wrong.  I knew I wasn’t doing the right things for myself and that my body was in touch with how I was treating it.  My body was telling me, “You’ve got the condition you deserve because of the food you’re eating.”  That’s the connection!  That’s it!  When we understand that, we can move forward.

People allow themselves to stay stuck in a rut sometimes because they don’t know any better.  And they’ve become comfortable there – at least they know they can survive it.  As if moving in any other direction might kill them.

Healthy Times:  Maybe staying stuck in a rut is a way to avoid taking responsibility for our lives….

Marilu:  It’s funny.  I’m doing a whole thing on self-sabotage starting next week in my online class.  It’s like people tell themselves that if they get to a certain point weight-wise, then they’ll have to turn into the fabulous person they promised themselves they would be one day if they got in shape.  So they just get to the edge of where they want, and then run in the other direction.

People ask me what made me finally take responsibility and stop self-sabotaging.  I tell them that based on what I was learning I got tired of having the same old problems – having nothing to wear that fits, feeling too fat, missing work because I didn’t feel good, etc.  The more I learned about health and continued to play the stupid weight game, the more selfish I began to feel.  It’s a selfish game we play with ourselves.  It really is. 

I was saying to someone the other day that I know so many people in Hollywood who are rich and powerful – who have everything they’ve ever wanted, but they don’t have their health – or the health of a family member.  And they would trade all of it just to feel better.

It takes responsibility for each of us to become as fabulous as we think we should be.  And it can be terrifying.  With women, there is also a sexual responsibility.  We talk a lot in self-sabotage class about “body armor”.  We keep ourselves protected with body armor.  Because what if we looked the way we really want to look?  Not only would we find ourselves more attractive, but men would also find us more attractive.  And maybe our sisters, mothers or friends won’t like us as much.  And maybe our husbands will be threatened.  So we keep ourselves in the rut because it is safe.

And the solution is so simple.  I can’t even tell you.  My food is simple.  My work is simple.  My clothes are simple.  My life was so much harder and more complicated when I was battling those 20-30 pounds up and down.  I tell people on my website that we all have this little toy box of feelings that we take out and play with – it’s familiar, comfortable.  We know how to do that.  We know how to gain and lose those 20 pounds over and over again.  But you have to ask yourself, if you weren’t playing with that toy box, what other toys would you be playing with?  What is it that you are trying to avoid?

It comes down to this:  people don’t want to flex that “discipline muscle”.  We are so overindulged.  We’re such a “baby” society!  We’re constantly throwing a temper tantrum.  And what’s the temper tantrum about?  It’s called, “I’ll show me”.  And it’s so silly. 

Healthy Times:  Tell me about Marilu.com

Marilu:  Marilu.com is a website that I created at the start of writing my books because people wanted more information.  We have message boards, archives, chat rooms….we teach specific classes online – this month we have a beginner’s class as well as a “Sayonara Self-Sabotage” class.  Next month we have a New Year’s class that is always a hit and a whole seminar about healthy families and relationships.

Every month there is a different theme and there are different classes.  I’m in there all the time and know so many people personally – and I have 30 coaches and we have guest speakers.  Every year we throw a big “Spa Weekend” for members – it’s an amazing community.

Marilu Henner is an actress with a long list of television, movie and Broadway credits.  She is the author of 7 books as well as the founder of Marilu.com.