Credit: Jillian Michaels
Download the Fitness by Jillian Michaels on iphone or android and keep up with her at @jillianmichaels.
Photo credit: Don Flood
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jillian Michaels. Committed to helping people to be the best versions of themselves and live their happiest and healthiest lives, Jillian Michaels has dominated the health and wellness space in every realm of media – apps, podcasting, streaming, television, print, publishing, and social media with a collective community of over 100 million strong. The Fitness App created by Jillian is the top-rated diet and exercise app for women, having won best-of awards from both Google and Apple. Jillian is an Emmy nominated television talent having starred in multiple hit TV shows and regularly contributes to E! News, Access, Insider, Wendy Williams and more. Her extensively successful fitness DVDs are the highest grossing, best-selling home workouts in history. She is the author of 8 New York Times best-selling books, and host of the Apple award-winning podcast The Jillian Michaels Show. Jillian is also a world renowned public speaker, having successfully completed two sold out global speaking tours and participated regularly in iconic events like Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference and OZY Fest. Furthering her commitment to help as many people as possible, Michaels is an avid activist who works closely with a variety of charities including the UNHCR to help raise awareness and funds for refugees around the globe. She’s also involved with the NFL’s Play 60, Stand Up to Cancer, Hope for Haiti, and Dress for Success. Jillian also devotes time to animal welfare causes, and is a PETA ambassador. Most importantly, Jillian is the mom to two young kids, Phoenix (8) and Lukensia (10).
Can you tell us how you got to where you are today? (Laughs). That’s a bit of a long answer, but I’ll try and sum it up. My passion for what I do got me to where I am today. That is all I needed to be successful. My passion enabled me to work hard, to be authentic with my message, and to persevere through the hard times.
What drives you? What drives me is playing a role–no matter how large or how small- in someone’s journey to living a happier, healthier life. That brings me so much meaning.
What are some choices you’ve made that made you who you are? I’ve always stood my ground, told the truth, and never sold out. No matter how unpopular the truth may be or how much money I can make by NOT telling it. And I think that is really what has allowed me to have longevity in my career.
What is something you believe in? Do you have a personal story? Growing up, I was overweight. I know how it feels to be unhealthy. I’ve lived it, and I understand the pains-both physical and emotional- that comes with it. But through my own journey with health and fitness, I’ve learned one critical thing–physical fitness is transcendental. When we feel strong physically, that sense of empowerment and strength translates into all facets of our lives. It empowers us in our relationship, our work and our goals.
It is important to separate health from a sense of worth. You are beautiful, smart, funny, valuable and deserving–but health is based on empirical data. It isn’t personal. Obesity is flat out deadly. I truly believe that to live a healthy, high quality, long life, one has to become healthy through eating well and working out.
What is something that you are working on that you are excited about? I’m incredibly excited to be working on The Fitness App. The Fitness App offers the most comprehensive and customizable fitness, nutrition, and mindfulness features all in one single, seamless platform.
Fitness Our fitness options boast highly customized personalized workout programs to help you meet and achieve and conquer any goals. You can train anywhere–at home, in the gym, or outside without equipment, and choose from yoga, kickboxing, HIIT, 5K training, pre and post natal programs, bridal bootcamps, and more.
Nutrition Our advanced meal planner is highly individualized and can customize your meal plans with hundreds of recipes from top registered dieticians. The meal plans fit a wide variety of dietary preferences–from Vegan, Paleo, Keto, Omnivore or Pescatarian. You can ban ingredients you don’t like, favorite and save the recipes you love, customize the servings in each recipe, choose the day or the meals you want to eat on or off the plan, and even shop off a tailored grocery list created just for you. The planner makes meals easy, healthy, and delicious.
Mindfulness We have a wide variety of meditations and mindfulness practices aimed to help you conquer stress and sleep better. The app has a large community, and you can make friends, find support, and find that accountability buddy. Best of all– you can train and play your own tunes, and track your progress–from your achievements, workout history, activity, and even document you amazing post-workout selfies.
Is there something you want our readers to know? Yes! Download the Fitness by Jillian Michaels and connect with me at @jillianmichaels. I look forward to seeing you there!