40-year-old trainer says even she falls off the wagon, offers tips to get right back on it

Jan 21, 2014 19:26 GMT  ·  By
Even Jillian Michaels hates working out, but that’s no excuse for not doing it at all
   Even Jillian Michaels hates working out, but that’s no excuse for not doing it at all

You look at Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels and perhaps the first thing popping up in your mind is “man, she must really love working out.” However, the reality is different, she admits in a new interview with People magazine: working out sucks even for her and she too has days when she cheats.

Ironically, the 40-year-old trainer makes the revelation on the occasion of the launch of her new 30-minute interval class at Curves gyms, but the point of it isn’t to make her look bad but rather to make regular women and men out there understand that getting the right amount of exercise is the ideal thing to do even if they hate every second of it.

If one were to sum up Jillian’s comments on the topic in just a few words, those would be, whenever you feel like you hate it so much you just want to stop, think of the benefits.

“I really dislike working out. No matter what I’m doing, whether it’s yoga or spinning or even my Curves circuit class, I’m like, ‘Mother of God!’ It’s hard. And there’s never a moment where it’s hard and I’m going, ‘Oh, I just love this!’ Everything hurts,” Jillian says.

What keeps her going is her love for her kids and her idea of a perfect body.

“I tell myself that I love my skinny jeans. I love playing with my kids. And I don’t mean watching them play, I mean playing with them,” she explains.

Everyone can fall off the wagon and, let’s be honest for a second, to us regular people, this happens more times than we’d like to admit. Now nearing the end of January, many of us must have already ditched our New Year’s resolution of sticking with that gym subscription.

Still, Michaels points out, if you get a flat tire you don’t just abandon the car or go out and slash the other remaining four: you get out and fix the flat tire and move on. That’s the best thing to do if you also miss out on a day at the gym.

By the way, Michaels recommends working out 4 days a week for at least 30 minutes. If you miss one session, don’t beat yourself up too much but don’t go overboard either.

“So you missed [a workout] today. Control your diet a little bit better and go tomorrow. It’s that simple. If you know, ‘I’m not making it to the gym today,’ well, don’t have a bottle of wine with your buddy and go out for Italian food that night. You just mitigate it and you jump back on the wagon,” she says.

Michaels has even managed to get her young daughter to understand the importance of getting plenty of exercise and eating healthy. She says she uses her kid’s love of Katy Perry to trick her into eating stuff she believes she wouldn’t like, saying things like “[Katy] roars better with kale!” or “she hates pizza, honey.”