Aretha Franklin, says she’s back at “150 percent.” Following her December 2010 surgery, she’s been working on improving her health through diet and fitness changes – as well as maintaining an overall healthier attitude.
One of the main things she’s doing? Trying to lose more weight – she’s already noticeably slimmer since her surgery, and she plans to keep it going.
“I want to not only maintain the weight I am at now, but better it, by one dress size,” the Queen of Soul said.
Last year, word spread that her health situation was dire, and she received a multitude of prayers and well wishes from fans. Since her surgery, Franklin has been working out and walking on a track three times a week for at least a mile.
But she said her biggest health change has been in her diet: She’s given up her beloved chitterlings, pigs’ feet and ham hocks in favor of a Whole Foods-type diet, and she hopes to get down to a size 16.
“They’re off my diet. They just really don’t fit with Whole Foods,” she said. “I had it for enough years that I don’t miss it. You can’t continue to eat things that are not good for you.”
In addition to maintaining the positive changes she’s made to her health, she is also planning to return to the stage in May 2011 for her first post-surgery performance, in addition to releasing an album later this year. Franklin acknowledges that after she resumes performing, it’ll be hard to eat diet foods.
“When you come off (a high-energy concert), a carrot or some celery just isn’t going to work,” she said. “I’ve gotta do a fresh fruit thing … and come up with some tasty and satisfying recipes that are going to work for me after concerts.”
Franklin, who canceled several performances last year because of illness, has set her first concert since surgery on May 28, 2011 at the Seneca Niagara Casino in Buffalo, N.Y., and is set to release her long-awaited album, “Aretha: A Woman Falling Out of Love,” the first week of May 2011.
When asked how her health is now, and whether she’d need follow-up for her surgery, Franklin said: “You have to just maintain good health from here.”
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