Marie Osmond is opening up about a decades long journey to health.
While speaking with Fox News Digital, the former child star said she’s been able to maintain her 50LB weight loss (pictured above in September 2022) going on 15 years after a long struggle with body image issues due to working in the media.
“At this stage of my life, I can tell you that weight ages you,” the now 63-year-old explained. “It also takes away the joy out of being active with your children and grandchildren. It takes away your health, even mentally. It’s not healthy for you. And when you hear the world saying, ‘Love me however I am,’ I think you love yourself to be the best version of you… so that you can live your fullest, most beautiful life. That’s why I have continued this.'”
“I would never go back to who I was,” she continued. “Never. I could never have done everything I’ve done. My last album, my current album, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard. I’m 63. That’s stupid, right?… Never could I have done that without the energy I have. And I just got off tour, the best, fun tour I’ve done. I just spent Disney World with my eight grandchildren. My 23-year-old son goes, ‘Mom, let’s shut down the park.’ Never could I have done that with 50 pounds on me.”
Marie says she was at her heaviest in 2007 — 165LB and a size 14. However, in no more than four months she had slimmed down to a size 4 via a program with Nutrisystem.
She previously told Fox that prior to the program she would “literally starve myself for three days before taping,” only drinking lemon water with cayenne pepper and maple syrup.
In the past Osmond was open about yo-yoing on various diets after being told as young as age 15 to lose weight when she was only 103LB at 5’5″ — but the singer said things changed when she hit middle age.
“When I got into my 40s, I think I just kind of said, ‘I’m gonna be my mom,'” Marie recalled. “You just kind of think, ‘That teenage body’s gone. That 20-year-old isn’t there anymore.’ And it’s just not true. Long story short, my son, the oldest, came on behalf of all the kids. I was getting divorced and he goes, ‘Mom, we’re gonna lose you. You’re gonna die. You need to lose weight.’ That’s a really tough one. And women in my family don’t live long because of heart disease and weight. And so, it was kind of a wake-up — a big, scary wake-up call. They said, ‘Mom, you’re all we have.’ So that was kind of my a-ha [moment]. And then it was like, ‘How am I going to do this?'”
“When you hit 55, we’re talking the mean, terrible M – it’s not Marie, it’s menopause,” Marie went on.
“[But] food is not my enemy anymore. That’s the biggest thing it taught me. What is full and what is emotional?.… I’m 63 and I’m living my most fabulous life right now. I know who I am. I’ve been through the crazy stuff, the heartache, the parts where you’re on the floor going, ‘I don’t know how to take my next breaths.’… It’s really nice to be at a place where — look, I don’t have a 20-year-old body, but I certainly don’t have a 63-year-old body. And I believe the more you take care of you, the more your body takes care of you.”
, Entertainment,International, ,