Mike Pompeo Reveals How He Lost 90 Lbs. in 6 Months — but Says It's Not About a Presidential Run
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Mike Pompeo is ringing in the new year with a healthier lifestyle.
The 58-year-old former Secretary of State revealed he lost 90 lbs. in six months, in a recent interview with The New York Post.
Pompeo said he hit a tipping point in June 2021 after stepping on the scale and seeing his weight had crept close to 300 lbs. for the first time in his life.
Realizing he needed to take action, he told his wife Susan the next morning, "Today is the day."
From there, the former White House official set up a home gym in his basement with dumbbells and an elliptical.
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"I started exercising, not every day, but nearly every day, and eating right and the weight just started to come off," he told the Post. "I tried to get down there five, six times a week and stay at it for a half-hour or so. And that was nothing scientific. There was no trainer, there was no dietician. It was just me."
The former Kansas Congressman said he started gaining weight when he was first elected to public office in 2010, and the pounds piled on when he was appointed director of the CIA, and later, Secretary of State, under former President Donald Trump.
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The pressures of the job and its nonstop schedule made it easy to reach for cheeseburgers and sweet treats, as he worked around the clock and flew all over the world.
"He isn't the first person who goes into politics and, because of the demands of the job, gained weight. He's traveling all over the world, flying 13, 14 hours at different places, different time zones," Pompeo's West Point classmate David Urban told the paper. "It's incredibly difficult to keep any type of routine, let alone an exercise regimen. You kind of put yourself behind the job."
Determined to make a change, Pompeo kept up his weight-loss efforts and is proud to have dropped nearly 100 lbs. since setting his goal.
Pompeo also shrugged off the idea that he was making changes in preparation for a future political run. Instead, he told the Post with a laugh, he wanted to have a long, full life with his family.
"The truth is, I'm really getting ready for 2044 and hoping I'll be around in 2054," he said.
Grateful for his family's support on his weight loss journey, the Fox News contributor said that he hasn't thrown away every tradition when it comes to gathering around the table.
IHOP is still a favorite, but Pompeo has traded his old go-to – pumpkin pancakes with syrup – for a lighter bite.
"We still go there as a family — it's important to not take those traditions away. Now we get egg whites and turkey bacon," he said.
