Actress Marilu Henner certainly looks the part of celebrity spokeswoman for a new diet and exercise book.
She's 46, but looks much younger. Her figure is fabulous and her skin looks flawless. She daintily eats grilled salmon on a bed of lettuce while sipping bottled water at an elegant hotel restaurant. She's stopped for lunch between appearances on TV talk shows to promote her new book.As Henner leaves the restaurant, a group of well-dressed women stop her and tell her just how great she looks.
But Henner isn't playing a role. She lives the life she promotes in "The 30-Day Total Health Makeover" (Regan Books, $30), and has been living that way for 20 years.
Her first book, "Marilu Henner's Total Health Makeover," was a best-seller. But what touched Henner -- and prompted her to write the follow-up -- was the response she got from readers who stopped her on the street and sent her e-mail via her Web site.
"People asked me over and over again, 'How do you actually live day to day?' The first book was filled with a lot of information, but this book actually lays out a 30-day plan, with recipes, tips and the tricks I use."
However, Henner stresses, her book is more than a diet book. It is a cookbook, a beauty book and a get-your-life-organized book.
"People will definitely lose weight and change their bodies. But I not only want to clear the junk from their bodies, I want to clear the junk from their lives. I try to look at the whole picture."
Henner tackled the book with an enthusiasm reflected in the detail, even down to what she keeps in her kitchen pantry. She combines nutritional and dietary information with very personal stories.
Readers are urged to give up dairy products, meat, sugar and processed foods and to group foods by category -- proteins for one meal and starch for another.
1. Were you always conscious of your health?
Henner: When I first started 'Taxi,' I was smoking and eating meat. But my parents both died in their 50s. My dad died of a heart attack at 52, and my mom died of arthritis complications at 58. After she died, I realized it's not about the teenage dieting anymore, it's not about my weight; it's about my health. If I've been dealt this genetic hand, I better figure something out.
2. How can you follow your plan when you are traveling?
Henner: Twenty years ago when I started this, it was a lot harder. But the world has really grown up a lot when it comes to healthy eating. Most places have on their menus great pieces of grilled fish and great pasta dishes that don't necessarily have cheese or cream.
3. What about exercise?
Henner: For exercise, I'll jump around my hotel room if I have to. I'll have a Walkman on and just dance around the room, pretending I'm at a wedding or something. And you can always walk.
4. Do you ever feel like you are missing out on something because of the strict dietary rules you've set for yourself?
Henner: If someone said the world was going to end tomorrow, I wouldn't go out and eat a pizza. I'm only depriving myself of my bad habits and bad health.
5. Was it difficult opening yourself, your family and your home to a book that shares your daily life -- even going inside your pantries and closets?
Henner: My second child was born on "We're Having a Baby," a show about women going through pregnancy. When my water broke, I called my doctor and the documentary film guy. I don't think there are any privacy issues left. I did the documentary because I thought if I could take some of the myth and mystery out of giving birth, women wouldn't be so fearful.