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Tavis: Donna Richardson is a long-time and very successful fitness expert, who's now out with her latest workout video "Sweating in the Spirit," a gospel-themed regimen that includes great music from people like Kirk Franklin, Yolanda Adams, Shirley Murdock. Donna has also partnered with McDonald's to raise fitness and nutrition awareness, specifically among African-Americans and women, at that. Donna, nice to see you.

Donna Richardson: Good to see you, and you're looking good. I must commend you on your weight loss.

Tavis: Thank you very much. Well...

Donna: Ha ha ha!

Tavis: I'm working at it. I'm working at it. It was tough, though.

Donna: Yeah, but what was the deciding factor for you?

Tavis: Running through airports and getting tired of carrying them bags and sweating like a pig. That's what it was. My back was starting to hurt--no. Actually I had, as you know, had an Achilles injury, ruptured--completely ruptured my Achilles, and in the process gained, like, 70-some pounds that I had to get off, because it really was starting to cause me some chronic problems. I mean, like, my back was hurting.

Donna: You couldn't keep doing what you were doing.

Tavis: I couldn't keep what I was doing without having lost the weight. Do you find, though, that it actually takes something like that to get people's attention?

Donna: For a lot of people, yes. Sometimes they just wait until the illness happens, when we know that they should be practicing prevention. Because when you look at the statistics, 65% of Americans are overweight. Over 50% of African-American women are obese, and the studies show that if you have overweight children, they will most likely be overweight adults. We have a health concern, but I really think of it as a health crisis. We have got to start moving our minds, our bodies and our spirits. And even for me, I look at my community, I look at my family. That challenged me to do something because even my dad, he's had 2 strokes, and he heard from the doctor in May, you know, "You may not have a third chance." He waited 2 years and then it got worse and he decided, "OK, I'm going to do something about it." Yes, he started eating a little healthier, he started walking. I remember one day I was driving through the neighborhood and I saw my dad walking and so I'm blowing the horn, I pull over, jump out the car to give my dad a high five, my dad is power walking and smoking a cigarette at the same time.

Tavis: Whoa! Hey!

Donna: I'm like, "Wait a minute, dad! You know, I love you, but..."

Tavis: He was power walking and puffing at the same time.

Donna: At the same time. The good news is he's still here.

Tavis: Yeah.

Donna: We're just helping him to make better, healthier choices.

Tavis: But how do you get folk to get motivated before they hit that wall, before something catastrophic happens?

Donna: It's a choice. Just like you make a commitment to Christ you make a commitment to take care of your temple. I can't help you with that decision. You have to make the decision just like you made it, and then you have to have that program that will help you to focus in on getting your temple strong and healthy. It really is about being healthy from the inside out. We kind of judge each other by how we look, and the focus should be on "Do you have your blood pressure down?" "Is your heart and lungs working?" "Are your muscles strong?" I mean, I'm out every weekend and I hear people whispering, going, "She's out at every event or every conference. She should be working on her husband," you know? And I hear them talk and I'm like, "Wait a minute. Let me just set the record straight." You know, my husband was unhealthy. Now his blood pressure's down, he's not at risk for diabetes, he doesn't have back and knee problems, he has lost weight and kept it off. So, yes, he happens to be a little round, but he's healthy and he's full of love and that's what matters.

Tavis: And your husband, for those who don't know, is Tom Joyner of the Fly Jocks. For those who didn't know that Donna Richardson-Joyner is married--

Donna: You know what it is? It's about practicing some prevention. Why wait when you know there are things that you can do that may improve your life but it may even save your life.

Tavis: You were--you were teasing me earlier off-camera, um, about a dinner you had with my...

Donna: Bishop Noel Jones.

Tavis: With my pastor, so I might as well tell this story, since I know you're gonna tell it anyway.

Donna: Well, I wasn't gonna tell. I just wanted to know what inspired you to make the choice.

Tavis: You were gonna tell us--I'm gonna tell this story. I'm gonna tell it before you try to out me this way. So it wasn't just that my back was hurting, it wasn't just that my--

Donna: Could have been a basketball game? Maybe you didn't have as much game.

Tavis: Let me tell you--hold on, hold the phone, hold the phone, 'cause you getting it all messed up now. Let me tell the story. So, you know, the brothers play pick-up basketball, right? So we have pick-up basketball game one night, we're at the gym. So my minister's Bishop Noel Jones, who's like 53-54 but has a six-pack, perfect shape. So anyway, we were playing basketball and I'm guarding Bishop Jones. At the moment Bishop Jones is guarding me. I've got the ball, I'm on offense. My minister the Bishop is checking me, he gets in my face like this and does like this and he's checking me, and he leans over while I'm bouncing the ball, grabs my belly with both hands and says, "Uh, Tavis, when's the due date?"

Donna: That was the moment. Oh, yeah! Ha ha ha ha!

Tavis: That got me out off the basketball court and into the gym. I said, "My 55-year-old bishop is not gonna talk about me like that, in front of a gym full of people."

Donna: And just think about it. You have to change more than you want to stay the same. That's what it comes down to.

Tavis: Well, speaking of Bishop and speaking of church and faith, this DVD is called "Sweating in the Spirit." You got real creative on this, going to the thing that certainly African-Americans love and get motivated by gospel music, and you reached out to Yolanda Adams and Kirk Franklin, Shirley Murdoch. You really found a way, I think, to get the attention of folk who are of faith, at least.

Donna: We got thousands moving. And I just really combine music and movement. And what better way than gospel music? When you're sweating in the spirit, it's not your typical class, let's face it. You're not thinking about "How many calories am I burning?" or "My thigh's getting tight" and "When is this gonna be over?" You are in the moment. You're moving your mind, your body, your spirit. It almost ushers you into a place of dance and giving praise to God. And you come out leaving with a high. You know, you're a runner, right? There's the runner's high. This is a spiritual high. I don't even like to call it a workout. I like to call it, like, a party with a purpose, 'cause the goal was to combine faith, fellowship, fitness, and fun, because if you don't enjoy it, you're not gonna continue to do it. So I have this program where you have aerobics, you have pilates, you have stretch, but you've got that beautiful gospel music playing and this is the first time ever, on a videotape, where you have live performances of music. And you know we like music. We got good music, we're gonna get up and move. And then I thought about instead of me asking people to come out to conferences and events with me, why don't I take the program to the church? There's no excuse then. I'm right there. And I think that's how you create change. It's not about that one time, come see me, check me out. It really is about having a program, having follow-through, and that's where you can make a difference.

Tavis: I read a story the other day about a church back east, maybe the D.C. Area, where the members are so overweight, which is not atypical of most churches, you see a lot of overweight people in church, but this minister and his congregation built a new church, a brand-new facility, and on the campus of the new facility they built a gym. They built their own gym on their facility, trying to get people to be healthier.

Donna: And that's important. You see that in a lot of churches, but you also have to have some programming that people are gonna enjoy doing. And that's what it has to be. It has to be a part of your lifestyle, and think about it--you look around in our community, you look around in the churches, there's some unhealthy temples. Let's put it this way, how are you gonna carry out God's plans if your temple is broke down, Tavis? So we have to change the mindset. We have to get people to make better choices when they're eating, better choices when they're working, better choices just in their life in general.

Tavis: So much of it, though, as you well know, you've discussed this a thousand times, so much of it, though, certainly with people of color--not just black people, but brown people as well--is--it's culture. It's the stuff that we like to eat, that we have historically eaten, and you got a real hard, almost impossible task to get us to stop eating stuff that we like to eat.

Donna: I know, and it's OK to have what you like to eat, just don't have as much of it and don't have it all the time. And then add a little movement. Everything we do is centered around food, food, food. I like food, too. I mean, my nickname is Little Miss Piggy. But you gotta incorporate being active, too. So that's where the balance comes in. And yes, I can show you how to cook that soul food a little bit healthier. And yes, there's people at the church, they can't even walk up the steps without being out of breath. But if you give them a pedometer, get them out walking, they're gonna feel better and that's what it's all about. It's not just about looking better. It's about feeling better, it's about living better.

Tavis: Well, Tom is healthier, and I feel healthier, and I'm glad you have us all sweating in the spirit. But if you really want to impress me, get Tom to push away right now from that plate of cookies I know he's eating. 'Cause Tom, you're Miss Piggy but Tom is the cookie monster, as you well know. That Negro eats some cookies.

Donna: Well, Tavis, it runs in the family, and it's all good, OK? In moderation anything is good.

Tavis: Tom, push back from that plate of cookies right now. Right now. Donna, nice to see you.

Donna: Thank you so much, Tavis.

Tavis: That's our show for tonight. As always you can catch me on the radio on NPR. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, thanks for watching. Good night from Los Angeles, and keep the faith.