Twenty years ago, when Arnie Zaslow first went to the Pritikin Longevity Center®, he weighed 206 pounds. He lost 45 pounds. Today, he’s still a lean, feisty 161 pounds.

That’s no small accomplishment for anyone, particularly someone who never thought of himself as anything but fat. “No need to sugar-coat it with words like robust, stout, or portly. Since childhood I was plain old fat,” says the owner of a prosperous 200-employee family business that has been supplying textiles, furniture, and other goods to government agencies and businesses since 1931.

A Fat Kid

When he was 16, Arnie was 5’4” and 192 pounds. “When you’re a fat kid, and later, a fat adult, it does something to you. Our society judges people, often very harshly, by their appearance.”

So he’ll never forget how he felt when he first lost his weight at Pritikin. “For the first time, I felt human. People began treating me as if I were normal. I remember thinking: ‘What a wonderful way to live!’ For the first time ever, I stopped being conscious of my appearance. What a marvelous feeling!”

Cover Boy

He’s looking so good, in fact, that recently he was a cover boy. Forbes Magazine’s December 2001 feature story was “Family, Inc., Smart Strategies for Multigeneration Investing,” and on its cover was fit, debonair Arnie embracing his radiant daughter and gorgeous doe-eyed great niece, his eyes twinkling with pride.

“I love life,” says the 73-year-old businessman who’s at the office every weekday from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. yet insists he’s retired because “when you’re doing what you WANT to do, you’re retired. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve never worked a day in my life. I’ve been very lucky that way. I’ve got a great family. I’ve worked harmoniously with two brothers. And we now have 11 family members in the firm, and so far,” he chuckles, “not a bum in the bunch!”

Cholesterol of 107

Even more important than the weight loss, Arnie knows, is what Pritikin has meant for his health. When he arrived at Pritikin 20 years ago, his cholesterol was 280. Today it’s 107. Two decades ago, his blood sugar was over 300. Now it’s 105. “ALL my numbers are down. You know all those diseases like hypertension and heart disease that people think they have to spend the rest of their life with? Well, that’s baloney. It’s just not true. I love being free of all that. I love being healthy.”

Pritikin Tune-ups

Arnie’s the first to admit it hasn’t been a straight path upwards. He’s had his missteps, but not for long, because he puts himself right back on a plane to Pritikin. Each time he returns, “I do a little better.”

And now, when he compares himself with where he was 20 years ago, “I’ve done a great deal better. If you keep chipping away and chipping away, you’re going to make wonderful progress. And my Pritikin mentors have always known just what to do to get me to the next level, particularly Dr. Blum and dietitian Jeff Novick (whom I like to call GOD because I feel he’s saved my life! Thank you, Jeff!)

“I want to live a long time and have a good quality of life, and although I enjoy eating very much, I like LIVING better. I feel real good, and when you feel good, there’s nothing better.”

Broccoli or chocolate sundaes?

If you think Arnie doesn’t enjoy a five-course feast at a five-star restaurant, you’re mistaken. And you’ll never convince him that broccoli tastes like chocolate nut sundaes. “No way in the world. But I eat my broccoli and other vegetables because when I do I feel so much better. You’ve got to forget the short-term gratification of ‘How does it taste?’ You’ve got to think of the long-term gratification and ask yourself: ‘How do I look? How do I feel?’ That’s one of the many things that Pritikin has taught me.

“I feel so energetic. I’m 73 years old, but so what? That number means nothing. Remember the baseball player Satchel Paige? He wasn’t well educated and his grammar wasn’t the greatest, but he was very wise. He asked: ‘How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was?’ To answer that question, you can only go by how you feel. Well, I feel 35. Does it get any better? To be 73 but feel 35?

“I feel like the richest guy in the world. I truly do.”