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| Richard Simmons - The Pied Piper Of Fitness --by Joan Price ©Joan Price. May not be reprinted without permission. Richard Simmons: Who else has changed the look of fitness and showed the world that exercise is a right and a joy for people of all shapes and sizes? Richard must be the most frequently videotaped exercise leader on earth, with shopping mall appearances, infomercials, workout videos, and guest shots on TV -- daytime and nighttime.
Underneath the comical exterior is also a fat kid who weighed 200 pounds in seventh grade and 300 pounds in high school. No matter what fame and fortune Richard may have achieved, no day goes by that he doesn't feel that fat kid inside him. Maybe that's why he can listen to, cry with, and sincerely feel the pain of the many people who come to him in desperation. One of the highlights of the 1997 IDEA convention--an international gathering of exercise professionals--was Richard Simmons' appearance to accept IDEA's 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award for being "a one-man fitness revolution." He said it was difficult for him to receive the IDEA award because he felt like the "black sheep of the fitness industry." Even after losing 137 pounds, he still felt that 300-pound teenager within him. "Exercising has helped me keep my sanity," says Simmons. Although I have had several phone and letter exchanges with Richard (who wrote a glowing endorsement of my book, Joan Price Says, Yes, You CAN Get in Shape!), this was my first time meeting him (and getting a hug and kiss!). I was moved, along with the thousands of fitness pros in attendance, to hear him plead with us to help reach out to the people who are not in our exercise classes -- the people who are too overweight or underfit to keep up, who don't feel entitled to be there, who feel that the instructor doesn't understand their experience, who experience rejection from the lean and gorgeous, who can't find exercise clothing to fit, or who can't stand to look at themselves in the mirror. Or all of these. "I have very, very sad days," Richard told us. "I get 10,000 letters a month from overweight teenagers, children and adults. I have seen things get worse. From my perspective, we have to work so much harder than we're working now." In order to help people more, Richard has enrolled in medical school. "I try very hard to be able to spell the course before I actually take it!" He is also "sweatin' on the Net" with his own web site at http://www.richardsimmons.com. Richard says, "Where we have missed the boat is the tapestry of motivation, eating and exercise. People ask me, how many days do you exercise? I ask them, how many days do you eat?"
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Richard
prances around in his pink tank top and shorts, a spectacle
of hype and humor. But underneath is an inspiring fitness leader,
a Pied Piper guiding people to make lifestyle changes. He's
the advocate of people who feel the fitness industry would rather
not see them: the "morbidly obese," as doctors brand them (a
term that may be accurate, but is distressing and far from motivating).
He makes 50 to 100 phone calls a day to people who have written
him in great despair, ready to give up. For a decade he has
been transporting by helicopter people who do not fit in airplane
seats to the two hospitals that will take them.