Eminem is cleanin’ out his closet. The Grammy winner, 42, opened up in a new interview with Men’s Journal, spilling to the magazine about his past history of drug addiction and his renewed commitment to his health.
Marshall Mathers focused on his fitness routine in the interview, and traced his habits back through various stages in his life. He explains that he started running to keep his lungs healthy and was willing to try various workouts before he picked up boxing a few years back.
The “Stan” performer trained with big-name boxers and tried to motivate himself, but “wasn’t taking it too seriously” while he was still using drugs.
“In 2007, I overdosed on pills, and I went into the hospital,” the Detroit rapper revealed. “I was close to 230 pounds. I’m not sure how I got so big, but I have ideas. The coating on the Vicodin and the Valium I’d been taking for years leaves a hole in your stomach, so to avoid a stomachache, I was constantly eating — and eating badly.”
“When I got out of rehab, I needed to lose weight, but I also needed to figure out a way to function sober,” he continued. “Unless I was blitzed out of my mind, I had trouble sleeping. So I started running. It gave me a natural endorphin high, but it also helped me sleep, so it was perfect. It’s easy to understand how people replace addiction with exercise. One addiction for another but one that’s good for them. I got an addict’s brain, and when it came to running, I think I got a little carried away. I became a f–king hamster. Seventeen miles a day on a treadmill. I would get up in the morning, and before I went to the studio, I would run eight and a half miles in about an hour. Then I’d come home and run another eight and a half. I started getting OCD about the calories, making sure I burned 2,000 every day. In the end I got down to about 149 pounds. I ran to the point where I started to get injured. All the constant pounding from the running began to tear up my hip flexors.”
Eminem indeed looked shockingly thin late last year. He stepped out for an event in New York City in November 2014, and made headlines with his gaunt appearance. In recent days, Slim Shady has looked happier and healthier, and he credits his change to an entirely different workout.
“When I was starting to dial back on the treadmill, I tried out some of those workout DVDs you do at home,” he dished, revealing that he uses Beach Body’s Body Beast and Insanity tapes. “I know a lot of these DVD guys are wacky, but I’m alone in my gym; I need someone on the TV yelling to motivate me… I guess I’m pretty compulsive working out. I feel like if I step away from it for too long, if I have a crazy week and take a five-day break, it’ll be like starting over. I’m afraid that if it goes beyond that, I might lose the motivation. Once you’re at a place where you’ve made progress and you’ve got some time invested in it, you don’t wanna quit and give up what you started.”
