I can’t believe it!  That amazing thin exercise guy, Jack LaLanne, who I used to watch on TV when I was home sick in bed (and not exercising) is gone.

Jack Lalanne died at the age of 96 of respiratory failure and pneumonia, at his home is California over this past weekend.  “I can’t die,” he most famously liked to say. “It would ruin my image.”  No way!

He will always be that really happy guy with his dog, Happy, bouncing up and down, arms and legs flailing, pulling on stretchbands, doing situps all the while chit-chatting with us.

He was at times really fun and like a friend, other times annoying and off-putting to a fat kid who ultimately blew up to 400 pounds at the age of 16.

Yet, his image lives on in me.  He was truly inspiring.  He made exercise personal and fun.  God bless him. I’m going to the gym today to celebrate him.

Here’s his obit in the New York Times.