Jillian Michaels

I don't know about you but I love to work out. However, I don't always have the time to go to a gym or a fitness class. So, one day I had the idea of looking through the Internet to find a video online that I could do real quick to move a little. The videos of the fitness trainer Jillian Michaels caught my attention most. First of all, she is not blond, like the majority of the female undernourished trainers I found online, and secondly, she really kicked my butt. Her workouts are a mixture betweencardio, strength and abs - one circuit includes these taking 3, 2 and 1 minutes respectively. While this concept of 3-2-1 itself is relatively short, it repeats throughout the workouts, which range from 20mins to an hour and a half. Exercises are only done once, which really makes me get my head in the game as I want to work my entire body, not just parts of it. Apart from all that, what I liked most about Jillian Michaels is how she motivates me during the workout and afterwards. She points out multiply times that her workouts are not just about fitness and exercising. They are about effort and inner strength - ultimately about stepping out of your own comfort zone. See how perfectly I have memorized that, it works! And honestly, I really does work. I don't know if I should feel embarrassed for exercising at home and feeling great about it, but I couldn't care less - because it works. As I found out later, Jillian Michaels is actually a popular trainer in the US. She can be seen on NBC's The Biggest Loser, where she trains contestants to loose the most amount of weight to win the show, and on Losing it with Jillian, where she focuses on one family to find out what caused their overweight and help them to turn their lives around. On these shows, in her videos and her books, she repeatedly mentions that it's not about fitness. Her philosophy is to use the tool of fitness to push people to their limits and show them that they can be so much more than they think they can be. It's about believing in yourself, she says. And apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks that it works. She has been a very successful personal trainer since she is 17 and turns everything she touches into gold, like her books and TV-shows. Ok, I understand you might argue now that there are many successful trainers from Hollywood who claim to know the fastest way to loose weight. Our magazines are all stuffed with diet plans of celebrities' trainers anyway, so why do we need another one to tells us how to eat and workout? What's so special about this one? Because Jillian Michaels is authentic, that's why. She couldn't care less about magazines, the media or celebrities. She doesn't do commercials or ads. As I said before, for her it's all about being the best version of yourself and in focusing on that you will eat healthier, work out, and eventually loose weight. Reaching your own personal limits will help you to extend them and make more of your life. One way to reach limits is with fitness. Oh boy. When she is in the gym, she turns into a wild animal. She screams, throws things around and challenges people, to say the least. By screaming at people, she says, she intimidates and pushes them to their maximum. She doesn't yell unreasonably, though. Furthermore, she can relate to people's stories as she was an overweight child herself. She got picked on, struggled with loosing weight and had a very unstable personality.  Later, her mother got her into martial arts and she ended up being a personal trainer. Having ADAHD and being openly bisexual makes her a real person and not just another perfect

fitness dimwit. She recently adopted a toddler while having a baby with her partner Heidi Rhoades. As you can see, I'm quite a fan of hers and I really recommend checking out her videos and her book Master your Metabolism. This book discusses the issue of why certain people can eat anything without gaining weight, and others just need to look at food to put pounds on. The issue is about hormones. Your whole body is controlled by hormones; every little action is. Cosmetics, uncontrollable plastic intake, exercise, stress, family situation and a lot more influences our hormones, our fertility and our metabolism. This book is about being healthy, not about another diet. Other books by Jillian Michaels are Unlimited, Winning by Losing and Making the Cut. She has released over 15 DVDs including Body Revolution, Extreme Shred, Killer Abs and Ripped in 30.

'Unless you puke, faint or die, keep running'

In the end, they all thank her. 
Because sometimes you just need somebody to push you. 
Julia