Beverly Johnson was the definition of fierce gracing magazine covers and stalking down catwalks at the top of the modeling game 30 years ago. Who would have guessed that during that time, Johnson, 55, subscribed to the "don't eat work out," she says. "I love modeling. It gave me my start. It made me who I am and it's lucrative. But the money that the models get, they deserve every penny and more. The discipline it takes is unbelievable. I'm talking about literally eating a bowl of brown rice and two eggs a week."
Now 140 pounds at 5'9", the original and still working supermodel
spent the height of her career weighing between 103 and 117 pounds, battling
anorexia and bulimia. "I was starving brain cells and organs, doing years of
damage. It took years to gain weight," says Johnson, the first African-American
cover model of American Vogue. "I've just, in the
last year or two, recognized when I was hungry, because I suppressed that for
so many years."
Johnson built her dream home on a golf course in the LaQuinta,
California, and is an avid participant in the sport. While she was learning to
play golf she recognized how important the core is for maintaining a strong=0
Aback and a sense of balance as you
mature. "Golf takes an awful lot of core strength for the swing so I began
working out with a trainer four times a week doing golf-specific exercises,
like working with a heavy ball and 10 pound weights," she says.
Johnson was really enjoying the golf training and playing daily
when she accepted the offer to be a judge on "She's Got the Look," a reality
show on TVLand that finds supermodels models older than 35. "Muscle is heavier
than fat and I got very bulky," says Johnson, who desired a more svelte-look
for the show. "I started doing a lot of cardiovascular. In the morning I would
walk to where I worked up a sweat--about 45 minutes, which is about 3-1/2 miles
for me. And then I'd do it again in the evening."
Johnson swears by portion control and eating five tiny meals a
day. Breakfast might be a protein shake, granola with milk, or scrambled eggs
and piece of toast. For lunch and dinner, she'll have a tuna fish sandwich and
an apple, or chicken, vegetables and rice.
Johnson says sugar has always been her big weakness, especially
butter and shortbread cookies. She controls her cravings by keeping temptations
out of her home and soothing her sweet tooth with dried fruit and licorice.
"You have to know what your body is doing," says Johnson, who
wants to engage a nutritionist and a chef. "I can eat cheese or dairy and still
loose weight. I can eat a teaspoon of peanut butter and it's okay. My
girlfriend can't."
Johnson is pleased that the world of modeling has changed. "There are young models that have a
much more healthy regime than we had, and they have a burden of responsibility
that I didn't have--this whole epidemic of young women growing up dangerously
obsessing about being really, really thin. The secret is out. It's no longer
true, the whole 'I'm a model, I'm naturally thin, I can eat anything I want.'
The jig is up, part
icularly when you are growing older."
--Joyce E. Davis
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