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)
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