Jillian Michaels: It’s Really Simple to Lose Weight

All of a sudden it was Jillian Michaels, Fat Shames Lizzo, and I'm looking back to my career on Biggest Loser when I was like the obese person's savior and now all of a sudden I'm like the devil fat shamer. My name is Jillian Michaels and this is my story. I'm a well-known fitness expert, I'm a health advocate and ultimately I'm an entrepreneur who somehow stumbled into politics. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, I'm literally a valley girl. I was not spoiled, I was not entitled, I worked since I was 14. My dad was a lawyer, he had money, he didn't give it to me. I was always the kid that it was like hey all I owe you is you know a roof over your head and food on your plate but I was very fortunate to not grow up worrying about that. I was an only child, parents got divorced when I was 12 and oddly I remember feeling just completely upended. I did not see it coming. My dad did struggle with addiction and food was one of his addictions and food was one of the ways that I learned to relate to my father. So I began to gain weight as a little kid and by the time I was around 13 I was about 170 pounds and I utilized food for comfort and a sense of control, something to look forward to. I was also a bit of an outcast in school, I was bullied, the kids could kind of sense there's something weird about that one, she's not quite like us and my mom had the foresight to get me into martial arts. In this community I ended up finding leadership, support, friendship and one day I showed up with a bag of Cheetos I think to my lesson. I must have been 14 and a half. My instructor he said to me I have a finite amount of time and I want to put my energy and my effort where I think I can have the most impact and until you're ready to pick up what I'm laying down you can go home. So now you've got a question right what's worth more the Cheetos or the environment and it was the supportive environment and that's the choice that I made. You know if you have a why to live for you can tolerate the how, that place was my why. Having a place to go where I felt I belonged was my why and this was really the beginning of how I formed my philosophy around health and wellness. By the time I was 17 I had lost the weight, I was training for my black belt and I'm having a real hard time in college and I end up dropping out and my parents were like if you drop out that's it which is fair and I had a huge falling out with my dad and my stepmother and I had been living with them at this time and I end up leaving my dad's and I took I stole my car and then I ended up like living out of the back of that car couch surfing staying with friends and I had nothing. It was so it was a wild experience but I just figured it out along the way like I parked cars, I delivered pizza and barbecue, I started as a hostess like I kind of found my way over the course of like 17 and a half to 18 and a half. I'm like well this isn't so bad I can handle this and I'm at the gym still training for my black belt and someone came up to me and said how much do you charge and at first I remember thinking like for what and thankfully I realized very quickly that people thought I was a trainer. I thought well this is cool I could do that too and I started training people and I was talking to someone who trained at the gym and a job on The Biggest Loser came up and then the agent said to me you should really do this it's NBC you should go in on it. Okay I got convinced and they told me the name of the show and I really decided like I don't want to do it I don't think this is right you know this isn't this isn't up my alley and of course I got the job and I'm exceptionally grateful I wouldn't be sitting here with you today had I not. Biggest Loser had you know the good and the bad and I loved working with the contestants and it didn't end up being the gym that became the brand it ended up becoming me but the gamification of weight loss was always a struggle because when you when you gamify it bad things happen and one of the contestants came out for the finale looking dangerously unhealthily thin and I had no idea and I got into a huge fight with the chairman of the network and he basically said like if you don't get in line and you don't shut up about this because I was like this is awful this is wrong and I said it publicly I'm like this was not right he said we're gonna sue you we're gonna go after you and I said look I didn't work with this girl had I that would never have allowed that to happen and I quit never looked back after I left the Biggest Loser the world inverted probably in 2019 this was the moment you know you started to see the messaging of like healthy at any size I thought we don't really believe this right and I had said I think I women's health you know I'm a little concerned about some of this messaging becoming so politically correct that it's compromising people's health and I was asked about Lizzo specifically like pushing me prodding me about like whether or not I celebrate Lizzo I'm like I think she's a brilliant artist and they're just like you but do you celebrate her body I was like if you're asking me whether or not I celebrate the fact that she's obese the answer is no because if you truly value her you don't want her to die 30 years earlier than she would otherwise you don't want heart disease and cancer and diabetes for her like because you value her right all of a sudden it was Jillian Michaels fat shames Lizzo and I'm looking back to my career on Biggest Loser when I was like the obese person's savior you're being canonized you're put on a pedestal and now all of a sudden I'm like the devil fat shamer and that's really where it began it's the denial of fundamental truths you're not healthy at any size like there is such a thing as a biological male and a biological female it is unfair for boys to compete in women's sports and it just got worse and worse and worse so the democrats just became unrecognizable I was a democrat because yes of course I grew up in California I'm gay I have a mixed race family but when you start to take this movement and it gets co-opted by big pharma you have to say something you you have to do it and I thought I gotta go in I gotta get in the game I have to Glenn Beck told me this he said I hate politics he's like I love principles and he was spot on you put yourself out there to fight bad ideas it doesn't matter where they're coming from there just happened to be some very scary ideas on the left that made me lean into this arena and you pay a price and I'm not sorry about that except it does it does take a toll on your family it's hard on the kids for sure but a lot of times when I go out there and I fight these fights it's for a world I want to exist when my kids are my age part of me just thinks maybe the kids are learning the world is not always a nice place this is how you take your legs this is how you you kind of you toughen up kids do that to you they make you want to be a better person I'm not afraid of cancellation and that's that's an exceptional freedom I'd rather have my soul intact the reality is it's really simple to lose weight what you need to teach people to do you got to meet them where they're at so if they're at the crawl you got to teach them how to stand so when you lie to them and you tell them things like no calories don't count it's carbs no it's it's it's this kind of fat no no no it's go vegan like all of this this fad diet stuff is doing nobody any favors if you can add and you can subtract you can lose weight you just have to eat less food you've got to move a little bit more it is a calorie equation so then the question becomes why is it so hard to eat less food 74 of American adults are obese or overweight big food sets it up this way you know the system's rigged the food's addictive you're surrounded by it it's that part's rigged but when it comes to individuals that couple that dynamic of food designed to addict along with an emotional vulnerability it's a bit of a powder keg so when you're working with people who have a large amount of weight to lose you're not up against a person that just likes twinkies you know you're up against usually deep-rooted psychological trauma and the food is providing them with something they desperately cling to for their psychological survival how do you get them to give up that defense structure you have to show them the ways in which it's devastating their lives so if it's more painful to continue with destructive behaviors than the work associated with changing it you're gonna move if you're empowered to move and you're shown that you're capable of moving and you've got these small successes as you begin to stretch your emotional fabric you're going to be encouraged to continue i was given all of those different elements the rock bottom moment the roadmap to success the bigger picture why and i made it out alive clearly i can't make it easy it is worth it and i can make it simple but you really have to determine that why is the individual why do you want to go on that diet why are you wishing you'd showed up to the gym what's the whole point of this really dig into what's going to improve what's going to be better why is it worth it to make these sacrifices and all of a sudden work that has purpose becomes passion but work without purpose is just punishment thank you so much for watching to help prager you keep their videos free please consider making a tax deductible donation