Life is a classroom where we all must observe and learn and become better people. There is no better way to learn than to learn from the practical experience of others.
Elvis Presley is a legend. A great singer who opened many paths. However, the cause of his death is not yet conclusively known. Was it the drugs he was taking? Or the massive food intake from him that ultimately killed him? The situation is further complicated by the fact that it is believed that he was taking some of the drugs to try to control his weight.
Did Elvis Presley’s diet kill him?
We all need a minimum of 1,500 to 1,800 calories a day to stay alive. People who do heavy work and therefore burn a lot of calories need even more calories, up to about 10,000 per day.
Elvis consumed more than 85,000 calories a day and sat around doing nothing more strenuous than stretching to change the channels on his television. 85,000 calories is more than enough to keep an elephant alive. Presley’s favorite daily diet was a 12-inch-long muffin filled with bacon, peanut butter, and strawberry jam. Each had around 42,000 calories. Elvis ate two every day along with other snacks like hamburgers and fried white bread.
The answer to our question is, yes, Elvis, who conquered the fickle and fiercely competitive music industry, was not up to the alluring smell and taste of food. He just ate himself to death.
Why do most celebrities have weight problems?
The Elvis era ushered in a new era of super-rich celebrities. The new medium of television helped create a new generation of super-rich entertainers. Elvis with his good looks and his suggestive dance was especially suited to it. Since then, two issues have been consistently and regularly associated with super-rich celebrities. Drugs and weight problems. For the purposes of this article, we will concentrate on weight problems.
It’s helpful to keep in mind that many of these big stars were literally starved and strapped for cash right before their big jump to celebrity status. Just like Elvis.
Suddenly they find themselves in a situation where they don’t have to worry about money. Situations where they don’t have to hold down a nine-to-five job to put food on the table. That’s where all the trouble seems to start.
Most of us seem to end up in a similar situation when we get comfortable jobs that we enjoy. A moderately successful young executive or entrepreneur is bound to have a problem with obesity, no wonder it’s a national crisis.
What we can learn from Elvis
It is clear that if Elvis had exercised even a little, he would have lived much longer. Had he lived in this information age, he too would have had many other “less painful” ways to control his weight.
But the real danger zone, if we are to learn anything from Elvis, is in the mind. Presley had reached a situation where there was nothing left to accomplish. There was no new challenge, not even on the horizon, that interested him. That was the really dangerous point and that’s the really deadly place for anybody. It happens to many celebrities these days with devastating consequences.
The lesson is that no matter how successful you are, you need a constant supply of new challenges and formidable new ventures and tasks to take on all the time. It seems to be true that when the mind goes to sleep, the body does the same with devastating consequences.
