It was a tearful phone call from a client that proved to Jillian Michaels she was on the right path. Because they weren’t tears of sadness. Instead, the client had called Michaels — an unknown Los Angeles personal trainer at the time — crying when, after two children and years of trying, she had finally lost enough weight to see her own hip bone. “She’s crying and the next thing I know, I’m crying,” Michaels remembers. “And for the first time in forever, I’m like, ‘I was meant to do this. I always was. This is what I’m supposed to do.’”
Prior to working as a physical therapy aide (before advancing to personal training), Michaels had a short-lived stint at the Hollywood agency ICM. Her job at the agency didn’t pan out, but the connections she made helped boost her clientele when she eventually opened her own sports medicine and training facility. “I got a few high-profile clients because of my time at ICM,” she explains. “And then one of the agents comes into my gym one day and tells me, ‘Hey, you know, there’s this new show on NBC. You should go in.’”
The rest is TV history. Debuting in 2004, “The Biggest Loser,” not only became a top-rated and wildly controversial reality transformation series, it catapulted Michaels to instant stardom as one of two coaches who, each week, coaxed and coached competitors to lose stunning amounts of weight in record time. In total, Michaels starred in 12 seasons of the show (she quit and rejoined several times), before finally exiting for good in 2014. Over the years, “The Biggest Loser” has received its share of criticism and Michaels herself has expressed regret over the elimination aspect of the competition. Still, she’s proud whenever someone tells her “The Biggest Loser” helped kick-start their own weight loss journey. “The people who come up to me on the street and say, ‘I was inspired and I lost 100 pounds and kept it off,’ that’s rad. There’s nothing better than that.”
“The Biggest Loser” introduced a toned, tough love-talking Michaels to the world as a diet and fitness authority who exuded the kind of self-confidence she tried to encourage in contestants. But she will be the first to tell you that wasn’t always the case. Born and raised in Los Angeles, her parents divorced when she was 12 years old. “I was an overweight kid,” she states plainly. “I was picked on.” Her mom enrolled her in martial arts classes, which helped Michaels lose the extra weight while also sparking her interest in exercise and nutrition and her awareness for its effect on one’s overall well-being. “You know, it’s funny,” she says. “Most people think I don’t identify with the underdog, but I do. I come from a place of empathy, which comes from my own experience. When you feel stronger physically, you feel stronger in every facet of your life.”
“Look, I get it, it’s hard, but you can do it,” she continues. “So let’s stop making excuses and get it done.”
Her no nonsense, no excuses approach to weight loss hasn’t wavered over the nearly two decades she’s been in the public eye. Neither has her number one piece of advice when it comes to doing it in a sustainable way that nourishes the body. “The only thing people need to know to be successful in their weight loss, weight management and overall health and well-being is ‘don’t eat too much, move your body consistently and use common sense with your food choices.’ You need all three macronutrients and you want them in their most idyllic forms. Whole foods, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, lean protein, wild caught fish, grass fed beef, wild meat in moderation. Look at the blue zones, 65% carbohydrates. Plant-based. All whole foods. There’s a theme, it’s obvious. We know it already.”
Don’t get her started on trends or deprivation-based diets like keto. Although there are cases in which keto is done under a doctor’s supervision to address specific medical conditions, she says, for the rest of us, “it’s not a way of life. There are a host of issues. There is a reason it was voted one of the most unhealthy diets in the world. It’s just Atkins for millennials. The list goes on and on. It’s all bullsh-t. It just is.”
She’s produced best-selling books and DVDs, but her followers now have closer access to her coaching than ever with the launch of her app. “The Fitness App” by Jillian Michaels provides workouts, nutrition plans and wellness tips that can be modified to accommodate each user’s preferences, lifestyle and personal objectives. “The app allows you to show up and say to me, ‘Okay, these are my fitness goals, this is my fitness level. These are the foods that I like, these are the foods that I don’t like. I want to be outside, I want to be at the gym, I want to be home. This is the equipment I have, this is the equipment I don’t have. That workout was too hard, that workout was too easy.’ There’s almost nothing I can’t create,” she explains. “It’s all custom everything. I can suggest a program to you and if it’s too difficult, it automatically defaults to the modifications. You can go through it move by move and I’m there with you. So that’s just awesome. And it gives you a full solution that includes meditation, sleep support, self-care, community. They ask questions and I answer them every week. It’s as close to being someone’s personal trainer without the luxury of being there with them. That kind of tech is just fantastic.”
The best part: it allows Michaels, 48, to stay connected from her own home base in Coconut Grove where she resides with fiancée DeShanna Marie Minuto and her two children from a prior relationship, son Phoenix and daughter Lukensia.
Even in her free time, Michaels enjoys being active. “We’re lucky to be in South Florida,” she notes. “We have Jetsurfs and Jet Skis and a little boat. We’re always on the water. We do the little bike trails off Key Biscayne. We’re outdoors a lot because it’s beautiful all the time.”
And when it comes to household snacks, she’s a bigger softie that you’d imagine. “Look, they’re kids. So, I’m like, ‘let’s not eat Cheetos.’ But there are organic Cheetos. Is it good for you? No! but it doesn’t have all the chemicals and pesticides and genetically modified corn. If they want the chips, let’s go organic so there’s not all this dangerous garbage that’s in the non-organic version of these foods. And let’s do it in moderation. Let’s not do fries with the burger. Let’s have water with the burger and get a side salad. Or if you’re going to do the fries, let’s do one small scoop. I’ve always been an advocate of balance. Otherwise, all they’re going to do is go to a friend’s house and have Fruit Loops the minute you turn around.”
Current events put Michaels and Minuto’s plans for a summer wedding in Venice, Italy on hold, so they’ve amended the itinerary to legally tie the knot this July and throw the reception in 2023. “With everything going on in the world right now, we moved our July dates to June of next year,” she says. “But we’re going to get married in a courthouse in New York, because that’s where we met and take our honeymoon in Namibia, because that’s paid for and booked already. June of next year will be the celebration with family and friends. It’s something to look forward to this year and then that part will be the bonus.”
Those looking to kick-start a way to get in shape for their own summer plans should choose an approach that best suits their personality, Michaels recommends. “There are some people that love a 30-day challenge. It’s quantifiable and it has an end date. If you’re a person who does not do well with that, make it simple. Pick one thing and be meticulous about it. Give up soda. Stop drinking your calories in general. Or be consistent in your workouts and do four half-hours. And then when you adapt to it, pick another. Maybe then you focus on sleep, getting 7-8 hours a night. I’d rather you plot the steps in terms of your long-term goals and know your personality. Like, I said, if you’re balls to the wall, follow those guidelines. If you’re not, pick one of those things and go.”
Photos by Don Flood