Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson takes us into his kitchen and shows off his fridge and takes through his diet staples. Throughout his decades long career, he's been known for his hulking physicality -- one he has maintained all the way through his 70s. Learn how he has modified his workout through the years to keep his body feeling good.
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SportsTranscript
00:00 Hey Ernie Hudson, it's Men's Health.
00:04 Oh, hey guys. Don't tell me, you saw me in the t-shirt, right?
00:09 And you're here to see my gym and fridge. Well, come on. Come on in.
00:17 I ain't afraid of no fridge.
00:19 [music]
00:36 Very cozy house. Let's see that fridge.
00:39 Okay, let's take a look at my fridge.
00:43 [music]
00:50 What staples do you keep in there?
00:52 Hard-boiled eggs. I like hard-boiled eggs.
00:55 Some regular eggs too, because sometimes I eat them scrambled.
00:59 But hard-boiled eggs, that's always the case.
01:02 Favorite, favorite is salmon. Smoked salmon. I love sautéed spinach.
01:07 Oh, and I love soups. My wife makes a great homemade vegetable soup.
01:12 But otherwise we go to U.C. Irwine.
01:15 What would we never see in your fridge?
01:17 Seafood. I have a bad allergy to shellfish. All kinds of shellfish. I don't play with that.
01:22 I was in the military, the Marine Corps. My drill instructor forced me to eat some shrimp.
01:28 I kept saying, "I'm allergic." You couldn't believe that little piece of shrimp would be a problem.
01:34 And I ate it and I had an awful asthma attack and I was eventually discharged from the military.
01:39 My wife loves mushrooms. I hate mushrooms. I hate it. I don't get it.
01:46 How has your diet changed over the course of your career?
01:50 Yeah, I think as I've gotten older, you realize that you're never going to do the things that you know you should do.
01:57 You're never going to eat the way you should. I've done every diet you can imagine.
02:03 At some point you have to just try to be a little bit better.
02:07 I don't eat fast food, even though about every eight or nine months I'll be driving past a McDonald's
02:13 and something will take over my steering wheel and I'll find myself in the drive-thru.
02:18 That only happens rarely. I don't have any rules of "I don't eat."
02:23 When I make a rule, every part of me wants to break it, so I don't make rules.
02:27 There's a price to pay for everything, and unless I want to really pay that price, it's best to just leave it alone.
02:34 What are you eating in a typical day?
02:36 I'm not really a breakfast person, so I don't eat normally before noon.
02:42 At noon, the first thing I eat, I love to eat, is oatmeal.
02:47 This is the one thing I can cook because actually it's one cup of water and a half a cup of oats,
02:54 and it takes 60 seconds to cook it, so I can do that, and I'm really kind of proud.
02:59 And then I do my smoked salmon and my boiled egg, and if I'm really being bad, I'll do some crackers.
03:09 Dinner is usually salmon. There's always vegetables, potatoes.
03:14 If I do eat out, I'll probably order a steak.
03:16 I was at a restaurant recently and I ordered salmon, and the waiter said, "You can get salmon anywhere.
03:22 You can have salmon at home. Why don't you just order our special steak?"
03:27 So I love steak.
03:28 What's the toughest diet you've tried?
03:30 The problem with diets is as soon as you get off, the weight starts to come back.
03:34 But the toughest diet I ever tried was this diet called the Beverly Hills diet.
03:39 Grapefruit, cottage cheese, it was stupid, but we tried it. My wife and I tried it.
03:43 And I never lost any weight on it.
03:45 What does your cheat meal look like?
03:47 My brother, who is no longer with us, passed away a couple years ago, but he lived in south central LA,
03:54 and so we would have breakfast every Monday, and a lot of times I would go to his house,
04:00 and we'd go to a soul food restaurant.
04:02 You know, the greens and the corn, cornbread and short ribs, and just, you know, I just stuff my face.
04:10 When I can't get any more in, I put it on my face. I just smell the food.
04:14 That's a cheat meal for me. I love soul food, but I honestly, I can't eat it very often.
04:20 What's your go-to comfort food?
04:22 Little nuts, especially pecans. You see I got my little nuts display over there,
04:26 but I, and I'll put that in my morning protein drink as well.
04:30 What do you put in your protein shakes?
04:32 I gotta get my magic bullet. Here's some protein powder.
04:36 Spoonfuls of that in there. Don't know what it is, but my son says it's good, and he's really healthy.
04:42 Collagen peptides. I put that in there, and I put my nuts in there.
04:47 Usually walnuts, I have some walnuts. Put it in there with my banana, mix it all up, and that's it.
04:55 What's your snack strategy?
04:57 I'll get up in the morning, and I will, I'll eat one of these fiber thins,
05:05 because they say fiber is good for you, so I'll eat one of these with coffee,
05:10 and also popcorn, pre-measured, so I know I don't go too far with it.
05:15 Oh, and I love these things too, these little string cheese things.
05:19 You know, I kind of tear them apart. This will take me about a half hour to eat.
05:22 I feel like, "Oh, I have a lot to eat here." I'll just strip, and I kind of, so I might grab one of those.
05:27 What are you reaching for from the fridge at 2 a.m.?
05:30 It's not natural for me to stop eating at 7.
05:33 Mr. Jiggles, who's come to live with me, and he talks to me.
05:36 When the sun goes down, he gets very noisy and wants me to eat all this stuff,
05:41 so that's a harder thing, but I do try to be disciplined enough to not eat at 7.
05:46 Do you take any supplements?
05:47 I don't know why I do. I don't know what these things do.
05:49 They probably do nothing, but, you know, the Super C and the vitamin B12 and the apple cider vinegar.
05:56 I saw this online. It's CoQ10. Oh, and this is for my immune system.
06:02 I don't know, nobody ever said I need it, but it must work pretty good.
06:05 Fiber gummies, immune gummies, some morning mues, oh, and fish oil. I got to get some of that, too.
06:12 And biscuits, this is really good for something.
06:15 Men's 50+. That's me. I got to get some of those.
06:19 Oh, and then, of course, cannot forget your hair, skin, and nails.
06:24 That's a Jim and Fridge record for most supplements in a cabinet.
06:26 I don't even know why I take it. My wife doesn't take any of it.
06:29 She's like, "You know what? We're eating good. You have all you need."
06:32 I'm not taking any chances. You know, I don't want my nails falling out.
06:35 You've heard about all my secrets of eating, but it's time to get my workout on.
06:41 I just feel like I'm shrinking, and I really need to get to the gym.
06:44 So, you guys want to come? It's going to be fun. You're going to learn something.
06:49 Hey, welcome to Studio G. This is where I come to get the burn on.
06:59 You know, I'm not the kind of guy who can get motivated to work out on my own.
07:03 I need someone to tell me what to do.
07:05 For 25 years, Mr. G has been the man to kind of keep me in shape, so I'm excited. Come on.
07:12 How often do you work out?
07:13 At seven, eight years old, I'm at a point where I have to do something, but I'm not a gym rat.
07:19 I'm not going to be going to the gym every day.
07:21 So, I'd say three times a week, never more than an hour.
07:24 I try to keep my heart rate down to not much above 130, and I think at a certain stage in life, it's just common sense stuff.
07:32 I don't want to break anything. I don't want to over-push anything.
07:35 What does a week of training look like for you?
07:38 On Monday, I go to a gym, and there's a trainer who works with me on balance.
07:44 Notice as I get older, balance becomes really important.
07:47 A lot of friends have died because they really just lost their coordination.
07:51 So, we work on that for about an hour.
07:54 On Wednesday, there's latis, and we just work on the stretching because that's another thing as you get older.
07:59 You just begin to lose flexibility.
08:02 And on Friday, Mr. G has time. I'll see him, and we'll just work overall with strength training.
08:08 And on the off days, I will walk to 10,000 steps at least.
08:12 I get about 20 minutes getting the heart rate up.
08:15 How has your exercise regimen changed over time?
08:18 I've been acting now for close to 60 years.
08:20 When I was younger, I would go to a gym.
08:23 I'd see a trainer who looked worse than I did, so I'm like, "I don't need this. I'm an actor.
08:27 I just have to look like I'm in shape."
08:30 I was told when I hit my 50s, things would change.
08:33 Nothing changed. 60s, nothing changed. 70s, things changed.
08:38 I had a visitor. Mr. Jiggles came to live at the bottom of my stomach here.
08:42 So, I have to get to a gym, but it's changed a bit too because my body naturally bulks up.
08:48 Size is not my friend.
08:50 Even now at 78, I can't be Grandpa looking like the Hulk.
08:54 What keeps you motivated to stay fit?
08:56 When I was a kid, I prayed to God that I just let me live to be 30.
09:01 Now I'm realizing I might be around, and if I am around, I'm going to be in this body.
09:06 You only get one body.
09:07 So, it's very important for me to keep it as functional as possible.
09:11 Also, I've been married close to 50 years, and I don't want my wife pretending that I'm attractive.
09:17 I want to at least have a smile when I take off my shirt.
09:20 What do you consider an intense workout?
09:22 An intense workout for me is when I've committed that hour to working out.
09:27 Time is almost up, and Mr. G says, "Okay, now climb stairs."
09:32 Or he'll put me on a treadmill and have me run for another 10 minutes.
09:36 When I really—I was done a long time ago.
09:39 You know, "Can you do this?" And of course, you can't say no.
09:41 It's like, "Of course I can!"
09:43 That's when it gets intense.
09:44 I love when we're talking, and I can lift a weight, and I can get through that,
09:48 but it's that aerobic push at the end that just—I dread.
09:55 What exercise have you done since you started working out?
09:58 The exercise I've done since I was in grade school is push-ups.
10:03 When I can't get to a gym, I will do at least 100 a day.
10:08 I won't say how many times it takes me to get to 100, but at least 100 push-ups.
10:12 What exercise have you stopped since turning 78?
10:15 The only thing that I've stopped doing since I turned 70 is I've stopped running for long distances.
10:21 I'll run two or three minutes, but I'm not going to run for 45 minutes straight.
10:27 Favorite exercise of all time?
10:29 I like bench presses.
10:30 I love that pump that you get at the end of exercise when you've been pushed a little weight,
10:34 and you can feel the arms, you can feel the chest.
10:37 Everything probably has changed, but you feel like, "Ugh," you know?
10:42 I like that feeling that you have.
10:44 What are your fitness goals?
10:46 To look good at 100.
10:48 Well, actually, I'd like to look good at 120.
10:51 We never know what the future holds.
10:54 I've had two bouts of cancer already, so we can't say what's going to happen,
10:58 but as best I can, I'd like to just be in decent shape.
11:03 How do you keep your mind fit?
11:05 Feeling good and being positive about life
11:08 and never really giving myself too much credit for being too smart.
11:13 There's a verse in the Bible that says, "Vengeance is mine, so leave it up to the universe to settle scores."
11:19 I just want to feel good and find ways to love.
11:22 What kind of music do you listen to when you work out?
11:24 My playlist is all of those old R&B songs, blues songs, doo-wop,
11:30 all the songs about not being able to get a girlfriend.
11:32 I had the hardest time getting a girlfriend.
11:34 I just want somebody to like me.
11:36 My wife and I, we've been together for a long time.
11:38 Our relationship and the reason I wanted to marry her is because she liked me.
11:42 Over my life, a lot of women who said they loved me, but I'm like,
11:45 "I don't think you like me very much."
11:47 So I just want somebody to like me.
11:49 You love me, you might want to kill me, but like me,
11:52 and you'll understand some of the stupid stuff I do.
11:54 Even though we like you, Ernie, we're still putting you through the rapid-fire questions.
12:02 Workout time, 7 a.m. or 7 p.m.?
12:04 10 a.m.
12:05 Squat or deadlift?
12:07 Deadlift.
12:08 Favorite song on your workout playlist?
12:10 "I Need to Belong" by Jerry Butler.
12:12 Crossfit, yay or nay?
12:14 No.
12:15 Pull-ups or chin-ups?
12:16 Pull-ups.
12:17 Dumbbells or kettlebells?
12:19 Dumbbells.
12:20 Run on the treadmill or the great outdoors?
12:22 Treadmill.
12:23 Cardio or weights?
12:24 Weight.
12:25 Big legs or big arms?
12:27 Big arms.
12:28 The biggest compliment, jacked, ripped, swole, or cut?
12:31 Ripped.
12:32 If you could work out with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?
12:36 Bruce Lee.
12:37 Get out of here, men's health.
12:41 I've got to get my workout on.
12:43 Come on, Mr. G.
12:44 Are you ready?
12:45 Are you ready?
12:46 Let's go, let's go.
12:47 Let's go, Mr. G.
12:50 (upbeat music)
12:52 (upbeat music)