14 DAY TRIAL // Janet Jackson has lost a lot of weight with Nutrisystem but it wasn’t just for aesthetic reasons. In her new interview with Prevention magazine, the singer reveals that her weight had actually put her good health at risk.
She’s struggled with her weight for most of her adult life, but even Janet was startled when her nutritionist warned her that she was in danger of developing diabetes and heart disease.
This was when she was at her heaviest, back in 2005.
“Health was always a concern. When I gained weight in 2005, my nutritionist was very worried. I was close to having diabetes. Even when I lost it [and] then gained quite a bit back, there was always the thought of heart disease,” the singer says in the interview.
Since then, Janet has come to an understanding with her friends, who must always tell her when she goes overboard, either with the weight gain or the weight loss.
“Knowing I have these problems with body image, I ask my friends and family to tell me when I’ve lost too much. Because I will continue to pick on myself like all other woman do, and say, ‘You need to [lose] more here, more there’,” she says.
Even though she’s now on the program and that means she has all meals and snacks delivered to her door, Janet admits she has many guilty pleasures she can’t resist.
They include chocolate and caramel apples and, whenever she indulges in a treat of the kind, Janet makes sure she compensates with a more intense work.
She doesn’t like to work out, by the way, but she knows it’s essential both for her health and her career as an artist.
“I don’t like to work out, and I get bored easily. [My trainer] Tony Martinez is great. When I’m getting ready for a tour, I’ll work out with the dancers. He’ll put us in teams and we’ll do all sorts of drills and races,” Janet explains.
In the same interview, the diva also says that her niece, Michael Jackson’s daughter, Paris came to her for advice on a career in the spotlight.
Paris wants to be an actress but Janet told her to focus on her life first and only go into the industry when she’s older because, as she puts it, “you’re only a child once.”