The Biggest Loser, now in its 15th season, is an absolute hit on NBC. Seven million viewers tune in to watch this show weekly. Naturally, I was super excited when The Clay Center in Charleston, WV announced that Jillian Michaels was coming to town.
I had just returned to town from the PHA Summit and seriously contemplated whether I had the time to go. I debated the entire day, but something inside of me told me to be there, so I purchased my ticket. I went solo and I went to learn (note taking and all).
Jillian hit the stage and was just as expected. Raw, truthful, and there to inspire! After working with thousands, and impacting millions throughout her career, she delivered a message that was so simple and easy to digest. Healthy eating doesn’t have to be expensive, but she noted a few areas where the extra expense is important.
She talked about avoiding artificial sweeteners or “obesagins” as she calls them. Diet sodas and prepackaged foods touting sugar free or reduced sugar should be avoided like the plague.
She talked about buying organic but not feeling pressured to buy everything organic. She sticks to the Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen rule.
And finally she stressed the importance of buying grass-fed meats and wild caught fish. Did you know that grass fed cows take 5 years to get to slaughter but a hormone fed cow takes only 6 months? She urged the crowd to steer clear of animals fed a hormone-laced diet and to stick with high quality, grass fed, meats and wild caught fish.
Jillian doesn’t get caught up in Paleo or Vegan…she just eats real food and picks a handful of important areas in which to spend a little more money- like grassfed meats and wild caught fish.
She went on to give another round of equally informative tips on exercise. She talked about how to easily track calories, how many calories each person should consume to lose weight (it differs for each person), and how to calculate peak heart rates.
It was great information, but come mid-show her message shifted.
The day before Jillian’s show, I listened to a podcast from my mentor, JB Glossinger. His podcast featured an interview with Dr. Wayne Dyer and it blew my mind (check out the podcast here). The message was so timely. It was as if Dr. Dyer was talking right to me. I had so much to do that day, but felt compelled to put all of that to the side and read his new book “I Can See Clearly Now.” For the next 8 hours I consumed myself in his message. I literally finished his book 1 hour before Jillian’s show started.
I went to the Jillian Michaels show expecting to hear weight loss stories and behind the scenes events at the Biggest Loser. Certainly some of that was covered, but the majority of her show was much more emotional. It was about finding your “why” in what you do. It was about surrounding yourself with people who believe in you, not people who will pull you down. It was about overcoming the mental conditioning that you are destined to be unhealthy, unwealthy and unfulfilled.
I couldn’t believe it. It nearly brought tears to my eyes. It was as if I were still reading Dr Dyer’s book.
Dr. Dyer said “when the student is ready, the teachers will appear.” Well that happened that night. I didn’t expect to hear such a consistent message from two completely different teachers but that’s exactly what happened. And for the last hour of her show, I stopped taking notes and totally emerged myself in the message.
Jillian said “if you have a ‘why’ you can tolerate any ‘how’.”
It wasn’t until I had kids that I truly had a “why” for healthy eating and a “why” for starting Healthy Kids Inc. My husband and I felt an obligation to bust through the norms and the stereotypes and give our children more. My mom suffered in pain for over 20 years before finally finding her “why” for healthy eating. She changed her diet and it changed her life and eliminated her pain.
When your “why” is strong enough, you figure out the “how.” You figure out how to do it working 60 hours a week, or how to eat healthy with picky eaters, or how to eat healthy on a limited budget, or how to eat healthy as a single parent, or how to eat healthy when you don’t know how to cook. You-Just-Figure-It-Out!
The show closed with a gentleman approaching the stage thanking Jillian for helping he and his daughter lose over 100 pounds. He said it has truly changed, and extended, his life. She told him that she really had nothing to do with it and that he was the one that did all of the work. The older gentleman quickly replied, “No Jillian. Don’t underestimate the impact you had. You gave me my “why.”
We all have different reasons for wanting to live a healthier lifestyle. For some it’s weight, for some it’s health, for some it’s trendy, and for some it just won’t hit their radar until it’s too late. If there is one lesson I learned from Dr. Dyer and Jillian Michaels that weekend, it’s that we all have limitless potential.
Our bodies weren’t designed to be sick and overweight. Our bodies are sick and overweight because we let excuses get in our way of “why.”
We aren’t destined for this lifestyle. We are destined for greatness! Once you believe that, you will soon find your “why,”and once you find your “why,” the Universe will work with you to figure out the “how.” It always does!
“To be nobody- but yourself- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”~E.E. Cummings (as featured in “I Can See Clearly Now”)