Celebrity Health: Jillian Michaels
‘The Biggest Loser’ star might be TV’s toughest trainer, but she’s doing it for your own good.
Tough has become a cliché word when describing celebrity trainer, Jillian Michaels, but it’s a label she’s earned the old-fashioned way: By walking the walk. Michaels, best known for her passionate, in-your-face weight-loss approach on NBC’s hit reality show, “The Biggest Loser”, believes that when you’re trying to get fit, you can’t stop just because it hurts or it’s too hard.
“I get tired of people saying I’m mean. I’m not mean,” says Michaels from her car, driving through Los Angeles en route to a taping of season eight of “Loser.” “I push people because they need to be pushed to succeed. They didn’t get to be 50, 100 pounds overweight by trying hard. They have to learn what it means to try hard in order to reverse the years of stress and damage they’ve placed on their bodies.”
Michaels employs a 3-2-1 circuit training method – repetitions of 3 minutes of strength training followed by 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abdominal training – that doesn’t allow for any rest, not even for water, until the workout is completed.
“Bob, the other trainer on ‘The Biggest Loser,’ and I got in a fight the other day during filming,” she says. “The largest contestant we’ve ever had on the show is on season eight, she’s 476 pounds, and she walked out of the gym because I told her she wasn’t trying her hardest. Bob wanted me to go after her and console her – to get her back in the gym – but he’s never been overweight before. He doesn’t know what it’s like and I do. He doesn’t know the mental change that needs to take place in order for weight loss to succeed because he’s never had to go through it. And I knew she needed to make the decision to come back and finish the workout for herself because if she didn’t come back on her own accord, then she wasn’t ready to make the change.”
Michaels’ past struggles with food make her a far more sympathetic and motivating figure than many trainers – despite her tough demeanor. Her early weight issues arose from spending time with her father while her mother attended night school. Michaels describes her father as an “addict” and together they would devour unhealthy amounts of popcorn, pizza and ice cream in front of the TV. Her mother also would use food as a reward, bringing her home a special treat from the vending machines at work because she knew her daughter missed her. These behaviors led Michaels to develop a strong emotional connection with eating and, ultimately, to binge eat on junk foods.
“Still to this day my mom says, ‘Jillian, you were never that fat!’ And I’m like, ‘Hello, Mom! I was 5 feet tall and 175 pounds!’ I mean, I was obese and she didn’t see it. Sometimes parents are just so blinded by love that they don’t see the truth.”
Following her parents divorce, she began martial arts training, where an intense instructor led her to discover the guiding philosophy of her healthy future: The entire journey to health is about power.
“Once you’ve been obese it’s hard to stop thinking of yourself that way,” Michaels says. “It’s like seeing a ghost of who you used to be. But it’s vital to your success to stop thinking of yourself as a number or a size and start looking at your body as an opportunity to be healthier and stronger. Worry about only what you can change because the rest of it doesn’t matter. You have the power to be stronger and fitter, so do something about it. It feels good.”
In her new book, “Master Your Metabolism” (Crown, 2009), Michaels gives people the tools to take charge of their bodies by figuring out what foods and hormone imbalances could be making it more difficult for them to lose weight.
“Some people do have slower metabolisms than other people,” she says. “I have a really good friend who can eat anything and doesn’t gain a pound. And it’s so frustrating. But it’s not an excuse because if you burn more calories than you bring in on a given day, you will lose weight.”
Common imbalances include having too much or too little estrogen, testosterone, thyroid and insulin. Figuring out what your imbalances are can help you choose foods that will aid your weight loss. But it’s also important to identify your weaknesses and try to correct them – even for Jillian Michaels.
“I still struggle with how fast I eat,” she says. “I’m always the first one done at the table and if there is food sitting in front of me, I’ll eat it. The other night I went out for sushi with a friend and there was one piece left. The waiter offered to take it away, and my friend said, ‘You’ll eat it, won’t you Jillian?’ And even though I was full, I did eat it and I regretted it. But it’s still hard for me to pass up food.”
Despite her job, exercise isn’t something Michaels loves doing. But she understands that good health and a firm body can’t happen without it. And whether or not you enjoy it, she says, the best reason to do it outweighs any downside.
“If the desire to live and live a long healthy life isn’t enough motivation for you to make a change, then you aren’t ready to make a change.” She says that nobody can make someone else take steps to get healthy, but that supporting a loved one can make all of the difference in getting started. That support can come in the form of buying healthier foods at the grocery store, eating healthy foods when you spend time together or inviting them on active excursions, such as walks, bike rides or hiking trips.
Regardless of your fitness level, Michaels says your main goal when exercising should be getting healthier.
“If you are working hard in the gym and striving for a perfect body, you are working out for the wrong reasons,” she says. “Imperfections are what make us unique. Personally, I think scars are the sexiest things on Earth. Besides, nobody is flawless and no one lives forever. Even Brad Pitt is going to get wrinkles, get old and die.”
Matthew M. F. Miller, author of “Maybe Baby: An Infertile Love Story” (HCI, 2008), is a syndicated fatherhood blogger
 |
