Randy Jackson.Photo: fox
“I hate the word diet. I don’t use that anymore. Anybody that’s lost weight, you lose it and then you start eating and drinking more and it all starts coming back. That’s what started happening to me,” he says. “I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to spend my life going through this.”
For more on Randy Jackson and his life now, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
Five years ago, Jackson began taking a more holistic approach towards his health, focusing on his gut and the “behavioral psychology” behind his eating.
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“Eating’s all emotional. I needed to really get it together so I could keep it off,” says the star, who co-founded a nutrition company,Unify Health, that offers science-backed supplements in hopes of helping others struggling to reach their goals.
To avoid binge eating, Jackson maps out five meals a day — “fish, some sort of veggie and maybe a little handful of rice or potato” for lunch or dinner, he says — and snacks on bananas, apples, cheese or protein bars and shakes.
But that doesn’t mean he’s sworn off sweets. “If I really feel like I need to have a piece of candy, I have a small piece so that in my mind, I’m not saying, ‘No, no, no,'” he says of finding balance. “The more you deny yourself, the more you’re going to go on a bender and have 18 candy bars without stopping at some point.”
But the star, who starts his day with Pilates or spinning, says he feels healthier — mentally and physically — now than in his 20s or 30s.
“I think if I had not figured it all out, I would’ve gained at least half, if not more, of that weight back,” says Jackson, who weighed more than 350 lbs. during his time onIdol. “And I’m proud to know that we did something that helps me, that helps everyone else, and takes the guesswork out of it for everybody.”
source: people.com
