Eminem made the wise decision to switch his addiction to drugs to an addiction to exercise. Even though it is a healthy habit, the rapper admitted that he may have taken things to an injurious level.
Entertainment Tonight reports that the 42-year-old was at the unhealthiest stage of his life in 2007.
He was addicted to pills and weighed close to 230 pounds leading him to be hospitalized. Eminem explained that the coating on the pills he was taking created holes in his stomach and for some reason, eating took away that pain.
The rapper told Men’s Journal that when he got out rehab, he know that he had to figure out a way to live sober.
“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.”
Although Eminem was happy he found something to keep his mind off drugs, he said that he had an “addicts brain” and got carried away.
“I became a f**king hamster. Seventeen miles a day on a treadmill.”
Eminem started to obsessively count his calories and would get depressed if he didn’t burn 2,000 every day. He got down to 149 pounds, but would get injured along the way due to the endless amount of running.
He knew that he needed to ease off the treadmill, so he decided to use workout tapes and surprisingly he loved them.
“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.”
Eminem has learned to control his addiction to exercise, but stills relies on it to keep him clean.
“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.”
Eminem released a new single in July that features singer Gwen Stefani.
Credit: Kristin Callahan/ACE/INFphoto.com