'90s Fitness Icon Faced Hardships, Worked for Uber Eats and GrubHub to Make Ends Meet.

Former '90s fitness guru Susan Powter, known for her "Stop the Insanity!" program, revealed she turned to delivering food for GrubHub and Uber Eats to get by during financial hardships.

"I’ve known desperation," Powter, 66, shared with People magazine. "Desperation is walking back from the welfare office. It’s the shock of, ‘From there, now I’m here? How in God’s name?’" Powter now lives in a low-income senior community, receiving two free meals weekly.

In her heyday, Powter’s $79.80 fitness program, which included cassettes and weight-loss tips, generated $50 million in annual sales. However, financial troubles emerged in 1995, leading her to declare bankruptcy. Reflecting on those times, Powter admitted, “I should have questioned. I fully acknowledge that. I made a mistake,” revealing she had entrusted her finances to others without close oversight.

Her financial reality took a drastic turn by 2018, leading her to work as a delivery driver to make about $80 a day. "It's so hard. It's horrifyingly shocking," she said. "If sadness could kill you, I'd be dead." Powter kept her financial struggles private from her family until she wrote about them in her memoir, And Then Em Died... Stop the Insanity! Her sons were unaware of the full extent of her struggles until reading her book.

Reflecting on her journey, she described her previous TV show as “complete crap,” saying producers crafted a version of her that didn’t feel authentic. Ultimately, Powter stepped back from the limelight, focusing on simpler pursuits and her family.

After a health scare in 2023, she began receiving Social Security, a $1,500 check that brought significant relief. "Whoever said money can't buy happiness lied. Liar. It wasn't happiness. It was bigger than happiness," she said, emphasizing that her story is one that resonates with many women facing similar financial challenges.

Powter has since adopted a minimalist lifestyle, saving “obsessively” and sticking to basics, like her $7 Amazon sweatpants.