A Meeting with Jenny Craig, Legendary Weight Loss Entrepreneur

Jenny Craig: Thank you, thank you, thank you! I didn’t come prepared to say anything. But I just want to say that I am so deeply honoured and touched by this whole procedure. I mean, I’m just overwhelmed. And I wanted to thank each and every one of you for coming, especially in this weather. I truly appreciate it. And I want you to know that this award stands for everything that I believe in: inner peace and helping each person to be the very best that they can be, and all of us working together to make the world a little better place. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Sri Chinmoy gave Ms. Craig a copy of the song, as well as his book The Garland of Nation-Souls, collecting his talks delivered at the United Nations. He then invited members of the audience to ask her questions.

Jenny Craig: I have a question. Sri Chinmoy, how do you learn to do this? Lots of years of practice, right?

Sri Chinmoy: It is said that man proposes, God disposes. There was a time when I disliked vehemently weightlifting. I happened to be a champion athlete in my youth. According to Indian standards, I was something, a champion runner and sprinter. I thought weightlifting was meant only for others.

Only twice in my athletic career I lifted a 20-pound dumbbell, and I thought it was not meant for me, it would ruin my speed. But here in the West my Inner Pilot commanded me to enter into weightlifting. I am a man of prayers. He wanted me to be of service to mankind, specially to those who have been inspiring the whole world in various walks of life. So I am trying to be an obedient student of my Inner Pilot. Otherwise, there was a time when I vehemently disliked weightlifting.

Jenny Craig: It doesn’t show.

Sri Chinmoy: We have to surrender to God’s Will, if God wants us to like something. So in the last 18, 19 years I have been lifting very, very heavy weights, and also I have completed lifting over 7,000 people. Your number is 7,006. Also, I have not only lifted human beings. Last year I was in New Zealand, and I was inspired to lift 1,000 lambs, because lambs were so affectionate to the Saviour Jesus Christ. Also, according to our Indian mythology, cows are very significant. They are very, very sacred. So in New Zealand I lifted 100 very, very heavy cows as well. The cows and the lambs also play a significant role in God’s creation.

Whoever inspires humanity deserves our appreciation, admiration and encouragement. You have done so much for physical fitness. We feel physical fitness is of paramount importance. Physical fitness and the inner life of prayer and meditation go together. If I am physically unfit, I will not be inspired to get up early in the morning to pray and meditate. Physical fitness helps us tremendously in acquiring peace of mind. You have this motto, and your philosophy and our philosophy go together. It is never too late, you have said.

Jenny Craig: I absolutely believe that.

Sri Chinmoy: So you see, now I will be completing 73 years, and I started this weightlifting on the wrong side of 50. I was 55 or 56 at that time. Specially as an Indian, for us 50 years is really the old generation. Many, many things in my life I started seriously and sincerely after the age of 50, and your philosophy is never too late. If something is good, it is never too late, and always to continue. If something is good, continue, continue. And there is no such thing as impossibility. This is also our philosophy.

Jenny Craig: I agree!

Sri Chinmoy: According to our philosophy, impossibility is only a dictionary word. But in reality, impossibility does not exist. I have lifted many, many heavy objects – airplanes, helicopters, elephants and many others. If you live in the mind, impossibility appears. If you live in the heart, there is no such thing as impossibility. A child is not afraid of anything. He identifies himself with the object, with the person, whereas when we develop the mind, we create divi-sion, separativity. Then it is very difficult for us to accomplish something great for the betterment of mankind.

Now please share with us some of your thoughts and ideas.

Jenny Craig: It’s interesting because while you were talking, I was thinking about the analogy to business, and even to the beginning of self-improvement. The analogy I make in my memoir, The Jenny Craig Story,¹ is that advancing in business and in self-improvement is very much like lifting weights. You don’t start out lifting 100 pounds. You start with small increments, and the story you just told is exactly that same philosophy. You start with one cow, one lamb, and you build up until you can reach 100, and I think this is what happens in business and in self-improvement. You start with small things, and you gradually build up until you are the best that you can be.

Sri Chinmoy (to the audience): Please ask questions, sensible questions (laughter). May I know how long you take exercise every day: half an hour or an hour?

Jenny Craig: Usually an hour or an hour and a half. I’m fortunate in that I have a house on the beach. I walk four miles very vigorously. I used to run, but my knees started bothering me. So now I walk very fast on soft sand, and that is really very good cardio. And when I’m not at that house, because we’re there all summer, I have a gym in my other home and a tread-mill, and I put the treadmill at a very high position, like uphill, and work on that.

In answering a question about how many pounds her clients might have lost collectively: We have four and a half million clients, with an average loss of 30 pounds each, so 135 million pounds – more than you can lift, Sri Chinmoy!

While answering another question: I’ve always had very high energy and inner peace. I think that comes from Above. There’s nothing I take other than everyday vitamins, no kind of mood enhancements or anything. My husband, when we first got married, paid me a compliment, but at the time I thought it was an insult. He said, “You know, you’re just like a dog.” And I said, “What?!” He said, “You wake up happy every morning.” So he was really trying to pay a compliment.

I have always been very confident and very optimistic. I really believe that it comes from inner peace. I truly, truly believe there are no limits to what the mind and the body can accomplish, and Sri Chinmoy is living proof that that’s true.

Sri Chinmoy: Thank you!

Following is a song composed by Sri Chinmoy in honour of Jenny Craig.