’90s fitness guru loses multimillion-dollar empire to Uber Eats in ‘desperation’

Susan Power lost her multi-million dollar fitness empire due to mismanagement of its finances.

The ’90s fitness guru said she turned to food delivery for GrubHub and Uber Eats to make ends meet.

“I knew despair,” Powter told People magazine. “Desperation is returning from the Social Security office. It’s a shock: “From there, now I’m here? How, in the name of God?”

According to the publication, Power, 66, lives in a low-income senior community and receives free meals twice a week.

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In the 90s, Power sold her fitness program called “Stop the madness!” for $79.80.

The program included audio cassettes, recipes, etc. tips for losing weight. Selling $50 million a year in products, Power filed for bankruptcy in 1995.

At that time, she still had money, but she did not know that it was being mismanaged.

“Someone else was doing it. I never checked the balance,” Powter told the publication. “I should have wondered. I fully admit this. I made a mistake.

“I knew how much control I had lost,” she added. “I didn’t know what and where they were paying, but I had no property. There is no money left for my children.

“I didn’t think there would ever be another book or video. I’ve never worked. I never thought that I wouldn’t be able to earn a living. But try getting a job as a 60-year-old woman. “

By 2018, Powter’s life had become “scary as shit.” She started driving for Uber Eats and GrubHub, hoping to earn at least $80 a day to pay bills and rent.

“It’s so hard. This is terribly shocking,” she told People magazine. “If sadness could kill you, I would be dead.”

Despite Power’s financial problems, she hid it from her family. However, she wrote about it in her book “And Then They Died… Stop the Madness! Memoirs”.

“My sons read my book and said, ‘Mom, we didn’t know.’

Before her financial collapse, Power had a syndicated television show.

The show was “total crap,” she said. “They put me in pearls. They made me into “me.” These fragments – I can’t even watch them now.”

She eventually left the fitness empire.

“I taught in the basement of an elementary school, photographed home births underwater, drove my little Volkswagen Bug with my baby, just being a mother,” she said. “I’m a very simple hippie girl.”

In 2023, Power developed health problems that led her to contact Social Security.

“That $1,500 check shocked the hell out of me,” she told People magazine. “Whoever said money can’t buy happiness lied. Liar. It was not happiness. It was more than happiness. I took a deep breath. And it’s not just ‘you used to have millions and now you don’t.’ It’s a very real story that many, many women go through.”

She began saving “obsessively.”

“I don’t spend money. I don’t go anywhere. I don’t eat out,” she explained. “These are sweatpants that I wear all the time. Seven dollars on Amazon.”

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