John Goodman spent most of his acting career as the fat, loveable, everyman type. Dan Connor’s character on “Roseanne” was the quintessential middle-class, middle-American. Dan Connor loved nothing more than beer, his family, and food. When Goodman left the show in 1997, they wrote out his character by having him die of a heart attack. Of course, they subsequently wrote him back in and eventually fired Roseanne from her own show, but we will ignore that iteration.
Rather than having life imitate art, and since there is no being written back into life after a fatal heart attack, Goodman decided to take matters into his own hands and change his diet and lifestyle. He had previously made a habit of losing massive amounts of weight in preparation for a role but then would fall back into the same poor eating habits and gain all of the weight, and often more back.
It also didn’t help that the now 70-year-old actor was an alcoholic. He said: “In the old days, I would take three months out, lose 60 or 70 pounds, and then reward myself with a six-pack of Bud or whatever and just go back to my old habits.”
Actor John Goodman has lost 200 pounds, and looks like a completely different person.
It's always great to see someone embrace a healthier lifestyle and drop a lot of weight.https://t.co/pHzmhygZ6W
— OutKick (@Outkick) June 21, 2023
Since permanent weight loss requires a lifestyle change as well as a change in diet, Goodman finally became sober in 2007 after 30 years of battling the addiction. He explained one of the simple secrets behind his weight loss: “I just stopped eating all the time. I’d have a handful of food and it’d go to my mouth. I was just eating all the time. I was just eating alcoholically.”
While that sounds reductive, Goodman also began exercising regularly, and he was simply tired of seeing himself in the mirror like he was: “Then this time I wanted to do it slowly, move, exercise. I’m getting to the age where I can’t afford to sit still anymore. And it gives me the energy to work, ‘cause work is very draining. I just got tired, sick and tired of looking at myself. You’re shaving in the mirror and you don’t want to look at yourself. It gets dangerous.”
Since permanent lifestyle change is challenging alone, Goodman hired celebrity health coach Mackie Shilstone to guide his journey. He cut sugar from his diet and exercises reasonably six days a week, and the results are obvious: “I’m breaking a sweat, but I’m not going nuts.”
The changes in lifestyle have led Goodman to something of a career renaissance. He stars in the HBO series “The Righteous Gemstones,” a comedy about a family of televangelists that is extremely popular amongst critics and audiences. The show eschews woke themes and focuses on actual comedy. The third season recently premiered, and Goodman shows no signs of slowing down.
The actor summed it up: “It takes a lot of creative energy to sit on your ass and figure out what you’re going to eat next… I wanted to live better.”
It’s good to see John Goodman take control of his life and his vices. No one wants to go out the way Dan Connor did, and Goodman has made sure he won’t.
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