By JEN MURPHY
Anyone who thinks the Rev. Al Sharpton is a loud public presence can blame his weight loss. “I can speak much more easily now that I’ve lost weight,” says the activist and host of MSNBC’s PoliticsNation and the nationally syndicated radio show “Keepin’ It Real with Al Sharpton.”
“I’m not reaching for words. I don’t get out of breath at the high point of a sermon,” he says. “I’m gliding rather than struggling.”
Rev. Sharpton, 57 years old, says he weighed more than 300 pounds from the late ’80s through the ’90s. He lost 30 pounds in 2001 while jailed for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing exercises on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, and fasted nearly 40 days, he says.
Rev. Al Sharpton works out seven days each week. At the NBC Studios gym in New York, he uses a stationary bike.
“That isn’t a healthy way to lose weight, but I liked the way I looked,” he says.
His weight ballooned back up and in 2005, after much needling from his daughters, he changed his diet, giving up meat and only occasionally eating fish. He hired a personal trainer to help him get into a workout routine. In six months, he lost 15 pounds, five inches off his waist and 6% of his body fat. Nearly six years later, he’s down to 176 pounds. “I remember seeing Bill Clinton when I first lost weight and he told me, ‘Al, you will feel better and you won’t need as much sleep.’ He was right. I used to need six or seven hours and now I need four or five and am much more mentally alert.”
The Workout
“You live seven days a week, that means you should exercise seven days a week,” says Rev. Sharpton. “My trainer helped me get on track. Now I’m my own police.”
He has a gym in his Upper West Side apartment building, where he’s usually the only one working out when he arrives around 6:00 a.m. Most mornings he warms up for 10 minutes on a stationary bike and jogs 30 minutes on a treadmill. “If I feel adventurous, I jog in Central Park, but too often people recognize me,” he says. “I don’t like to not speak and engage with people.”
Rev. Sharpton finishes his workout by stretching on a stability ball and performing a few sets of crunches on the ball. On days he can’t get in his morning workout, he uses the gym at NBC Studios. He travels to two to three cities per week and says he makes his staff call ahead to ensure the hotel has a gym.
The Diet
Rev. Sharpton credits his weight loss and ability to keep off the extra pounds largely to a major diet makeover. “I was on a fried-chicken-three-times-a-day diet. I’d start the day with fried chicken and eggs,” he says. Now, he eats fish at most twice a week. He cut out fried foods and most starch.
A normal day for him includes a breakfast of one or two hard-boiled eggs, orange juice and coffee. Lunch is a salad of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions with balsamic vinegar dressing from a deli. He usually has a mid-afternoon low-fat venti mocha from Starbucks sweetened with three Stevia, hold the whipped cream. “You can’t have a low fat drink with the whipped cream,” he jokes.
Rev. Sharpton’s habits can be a trial for people who travel with him. “I find myself sneaking away for nourishment. Because of his strict diet and eating schedule he may stop for about 15 minutes once per day for a salad,” says Tamika Mallory, executive director of the National Action Network, which Rev. Sharpton founded.
Rev. Sharpton has largely cut out evening meals. If he’s at home he has a small salad or eggs. At work events he abstains. “I don’t even do salad,” he says. “People are always telling me it’s OK to cheat just once but I just don’t,” he says.
President Barack Obama recently urged Rev. Sharpton to “go ahead and let loose a bit on Thanksgiving,” Rev. Sharpton says. His response: “I will not break my diet even with a presidential pardon.”
Gear
“I usually wear an old track suit and Nikes. It’s so early no one sees me. Russell Simmons [founder of clothing line Phat Farm and co-founder of Def Jam Recordings] sent me some sneakers, but other than that my workout gear is unremarkable.”
The Playlist
Most mornings Rev. Sharpton watches MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” a show on which he’s a regular guest, while working out. He says host Joe Scarborough is his morning inspiration. “He just hits my spot and gets me so angry and ready to go to work. While I’m on the bike or running I think of my counter arguments to his conservative ones,” he says.
When the TV isn’t on, Rev. Sharpton listens to gospel music or whatever his daughters put on his iPod. “My youngest downloaded ‘Jesus Walks’ by Kanye West. When I met him he was shocked that I knew the song.”
Motivational Words for Taking Off the Weight
Rev. Al Sharpton’s diet and fitness advice:
On goal setting:
“I tell people to practice visualization. See yourself as your best person physically and then chisel yourself into that person. You have to be your own sculptor.”
On cravings:
“The hardest part is conquering your appetite. Once you give things like starches and fried foods up, you find you won’t be tempted by them any more. You forget them.”
“I changed my diet cold turkey, but I suggest people change their diet incrementally… Maybe cut out the ice cream or the pizza or the fried chicken. Try to do without it for two weeks. Then challenge yourself to take out other things.”
On eating out:
“When I’m at restaurants or events I have the waiters or the chefs asking me to try their food and I’m not trying to offend them, but I just say no.”
On the sweet tooth:
“Sometimes substitutes work. I need some sweetness so I put Stevia in my lattes.”
On discipline:
“Vanity can be a good thing. I remember how I’d feel when people would cartoon my weight or make fun of my weight. I’d use those memories to help me stay on track.”
Write to Jen Murphy at workout@wsj.com
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