Eminem Opens Up About His Addiction

For better or worse, Eminem is an addict.

The 42-year-old rapper, who has been open about his drug abuse and alcoholism in the past, says he has overcome the binge drinking and pill popping, which caused him to overdose on Vicodin and Valium in 2007, but he's now traded "one addiction for another."

"Unless I was blitzed out of my mind, I had trouble sleeping," Eminem told Men's Journal. "So I started running."

In order to avoid constant stomach aches due to the coating of the pills creating a hole in his stomach, the "Monster" rapper began "eating badly" and at one point was pushing the scale at approximately 230 pounds.

While he started running post-rehab to lose the weight and focus on staying sober, he quickly found that his "addict's brain" liked the natural endorphin high he was getting, a lot.

"I became a f---ing hamster," he told the mag. "Seventeen miles a day on the treadmill. I would get up in the morning, and before I went to the studio, I would run eight and a half miles in about an hour. Then I'd come home and run another eight and a half."

He admitted he "got a little carried away" and aside from the compulsive running he became obsessed with calorie counting, "making sure I burned 2,000 every day."

Soon he whittled down to about 149 pounds and ran so much he started injuring his hip flexors from the constant pounding on his feet.

Em's workout insanity on the treadmill had to stop and he found comfort in at-home DVD workouts.

"One of the first ones was Shaun T's Insanity workout," he said, adding that while the DVD workout gurus were considered a little kooky by some, "I need someone on the TV yelling to motivate me. Besides, some of this s--t is entertaining."

He eventually gave up the running altogether before mixing it up with a variety of DVD workouts that also included P90X.

"I still do that ab workout because it's the most challenging," he said.

But his current go-to workout is Body Beast and he said that "it helps that the … dude is over-the-top."

Still, he had to find a healthy balance.

"The first time I did the legs, I couldn't walk for two days," he revealed, but he eventually found a way to work out without overdoing it and risking injury "and I'm still functioning throughout the day."

Eminem knows that being addicted to working out is much better for him than popping pills and drinking, but it's an addiction nonetheless and too much of anything can be bad for you.

"I'm pretty compulsive working out. I feel like if I step away from it for too long, if I have a crazy week and take a five-day break, it'll be like starting over," Eminem told the men's magazine. "I'm afraid that if it goes beyond that, I might lose the motivation."

Eminem's slimmer physique was easily visible at a surprise appearance alongside "Southpaw" star Jake Gyllenhaal, who bulked up by training in and out of the ring for six months to play the junior middleweight boxing champion, Billy (The Great) Hope, in the film.

"It's an honor to be even next to him," the 34-year-old actor said to a cheering crowd at the movie's premiere in Eminem's hometown of Detroit in July.

The rapper, who contributed songs to the boxing film's soundtrack, was actually screenwriter Kurt Sutter's first choice for the lead role. In fact, the original script was supposed to be somewhat of a follow-up to "8 Mile," the 2002 film about Eminem's life.

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