Biggest Loser Trainer Jillian Michaels
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| Mon, 09-12-2005 - 12:15pm |
Biggest Loser Trainer Jillian Michaels
Learn the TV experts weight loss secrets
by Tanya Edwards Mancini
Last year we tuned in to The Biggest Loser with a lot of reservations, only to be thrilled by the show's positive attitude toward weight loss and body image. We rooted the teams on each week, inspired by their shrinking waistlines and growing camaraderie. Back this fall for another season of blockbuster weight loss, we sat down with Red Team trainer and coach Jillian Michaels to discuss her new book, Winning by Losing, how she got where she is today and what's next on The Biggest Loser.
I got into martial arts. And when I was 17 years old, I graduated high school early and started out on my own. In order to make money, I was training people, and I trained people from about 17 to 23, all the way through school. Of course, being in Los Angeles, your natural inclination is to get into the entertainment industry. I became a motion picture literary agent at ICM, which is a big talent agent which happens to represent me now, ironically.
I was miserable for about four years. From 23 to the end of 26, I just felt like I had no meaning, I had no passion and I was depressed every day. A friend of mine ‑- who I had actually gotten out of the business and into fitness ‑- was running a sports medicine facility in Beverly Hills. I quit the business but, at the end of the day, you know I needed to pay my bills. And she was like, well, why don't you come over here and be a physical therapy aid for me. All of the sudden, I would wake up in the morning and love going to work. I just felt so fulfilled, and I would get these calls from 55-year-old women in tears, telling me, "Oh my gosh, you know I felt my hip bone today for the first time in eight years." They'd be crying, and I'd be crying, and I was like, Okay, this is rewarding for me.
My now business partner and I opened up our own space in Beverly Hills, which is called Sky Sport and Spa. It's a private training facility and also a sports medicine clinic. One of our clients was an agent at ICM, and I knew him back from my ICM days. He encouraged me to go out for the show Biggest Loser. At first I was like, oh no, I don't like reality TV, and what the hell is The Biggest Loser? No way. He forced me: "You don't understand, you gotta go." So, I went on the audition, and it was then that I sort of understood what the show was about. They said, you know, Look, we're going to give you six people, and they're yours. Run wild.
I just wrapped the second season of the show, which will air this September to coincide with the release of the book and my DVD, which reflects the exercise section of the book. And that's called the The Biggest Winner. I still hate the Biggest Loser title. There's also going to be a family show, which I'm actually shooting right now. It's a spin-off of The Biggest Loser and will air in January.
Can't wait to see the family show. That sounds really cool, how does it differ from the original?
It's a very different animal. The family show reflects the self-help section of my book. You don't have people for three months so you're dealing with educating them. Helping them recognize their emotional triggers. Helping them set goals, helping them prioritize their weight loss and the pros and cons of getting healthy, getting in shape and doing psychological work. You're dealing with that family dynamic and all of the dysfunction that goes along with it: enabling each other, sabotaging each other. Much more of the internal side of my book is reflected in the family show. Whereas in The Biggest Loser, even though that work is going on, you see less of it. You see a lot more of how I individualize the diets with each contestant and how I exercise them into obscene weight loss. So, they're very different shows.
Personally, what's been your favorite thing about doing The Biggest Loser?
Oh my God, it's so rewarding. It is so rewarding. One, you're saving someone's life. You're literally saving somebody's life. I can't tell how you how rewarded and how validated I feel as a human being, existing on this planet, to be able to say that I did that. And, you know what, these people are going into the world, and they're educating others. They're spreading the word, man. They're paying it forward. I feel like we're making a difference. I feel like the show is making a difference.
And then from a selfish point of view, these people teach me about myself. Sometimes I forget what I'm capable of, and when I see them do the things that I make them do, I remember what I'm capable of. They teach me so much about myself in every way. This season, I had a team of seven boys, they teach me a lot about my own issues ‑- not only physical but psychological. I become so attached to them. And it's allowing myself to be vulnerable enough to fall in love with them, and then, you know, I lose them throughout the show. It's really, really hard. But they've taught me so much about myself, and they've helped me become so much braver of an individual in every way.

