SUSAN POWTER HAS EXCL SURVIVED THE 'INSANITY'

POWTER MADE MILLIONS IN THE '90S WITH HER 'STOP THE INSANITY!' FITNESS PROGRAM. BY 2018 SHE WAS DELIVERING GRUBHUB TO MAKE ENDS MEET. AT 66, STILL FIT AND FIERY, SHE'S READY FOR HER COMEBACK

- EILEEN FINAN

On a two-hour Zoom call from her Las Vegas kitchen, Susan Powter never sits down—she’s in constant motion. In a black shrug and tank top that show off her tattoos and slim frame, she gestures excitedly, her long polished nails flickering, her voice booming as she extols the virtues of exercise, breathing and...cauliflower. “I make the best cauliflower on earth,” she insists.

Three decades after the ’90s “diet deity” (so dubbed by People at the time) first burst onto American TV screens with her platinum crew cut and in-your-face “Stop the Insanity!” fitness infomercial, Powter, now 66, states the obvious: “My energy’s still here!” Despite that vigor, the former fitness mogul who once sold $50 million in products annually reveals that for the past six years, she’s been struggling. “I’ve known desperation,” admits Powter, who lives in a low-income senior community where twice weekly a local charity hands out free meals. “Desperation is walking back from the welfare office. It’s the shock of, ‘From there, now I’m here? How in God’s name?’”

At her peak Powter was a cultural icon, with her thundering voice and frenetic vibe. She was spoofed by Saturday Night Live