Daily News Wire Services
Updated: 10/27/2009 11:40:56 AM PDT

Jack LaLanne, the 95-year-old "Godfather of Fitness," was honored Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in recognition of his lifetime of work promoting healthy living.
LaLanne, who was addicted to sugar and junk food as a child, heard a nutritionist speak when he was 15 and changed his life, dedicating it to the art of fitness.

He designed one of the world's first fitness machines and brought weightlifting, virtually unheard of in the 1930s, to prominence.

He starred in the nationally syndicated "The Jack LaLanne Show" for 34 years and authored numerous books and recordings about staying fit. LaLanne continues to work out for two hours each day -- working with weights for 90 minutes and swimming for a half-hour, said Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who proposed declaring Tuesday "Jack LaLanne Day."

"Time to start your carrot juice and celery juice and get in shape," Antonovich said during the presentation, referencing a juicer branded by LaLanne.

LaLanne walked slowly to the podium, wearing a black suit and turtleneck, and Antonovich said the bodybuilder had recently injured his back.

The exercise and nutritional expert, with a grin on his still-boyish face, at first claimed, "I'm speechless." But then he told a joke about a philanderer in his 90s who gets his wife pregnant, meant to illustrate, he said, that "anything in life is possible."

A few of his female fans, dressed in exercise gear, stood in the gallery of the county board room

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and did 95 jumping jacks in honor of the fitness guru's birthday.
LaLanne and his wife Elaine thanked the board and left each supervisor with a copy of LaLanne's new book "Live Young Forever -- 12 Steps to Health, Fitness and Longevity" and a Jack LaLanne juicer.

"We want to keep the Board of Supervisors healthy," Elaine said, smiling.

"From the bottom of my athletic heart, thank you," LaLanne said.