Wednesday, March 27, 2013
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK
Jillian Michaels orders two eggs over easy with a smidgeon of oil and two slices of dry toast.
And coffee.
Coffee?! “Two strong cups, 400 milligrams, fights pancreatic cancer,” she says, “plus Alzheimer’s, Type 2 diabetes and improves cognitive functions.”
Not that Michaels is a health-nut goodie-goodie.
“I still drink a little bit of alcohol,” she confides. “And I haven’t been to the gym in five days!”
No wonder. There’s this grueling book tour on top of an always-heavy workload, plus the routine demands of parenting a 3-year-old daughter and an 11-month-old son who, along with her partner, Heidi Rhoades, have come with her on this recent New York visit.
But all is never lost, says Michaels, in the battle to lose weight and be healthy. “Even if you’re just standing while you’re talking on the phone,” she offers, “you can burn up to 300 calories in a day.”
That’s the sort of forgiving advice found in her latest book, “Slim for Life: My Insider Secrets to Simple, Fast and Lasting Weight Loss” (Harmony Books).
“It’s my softest approach to weight loss,” says Michaels, a wellness coach to whom the word “soft” is seldom applied.
After all, she is famous as the drill-sergeant trainer on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” a 5-foot-2-inch force of nature who doesn’t hesitate to throw her tautly muscled weight around.
But during this recent breakfast she seems different from her “Loser” persona. Clad in jeans, sweat shirt and Ugg boots, her hair pulled under a newsboy’s cap, she could pass for half her 39 years. She is animated, high-rev. But no way overbearing.
“I wanted to write a book where you felt like I was sitting right there with you,” she says, a vision of reassurance seated across the table, “providing a simple solution for every problem or complaint I’ve ever heard.”
Fitness is too time-consuming, complicated, costly, inconvenient, plus I’m hungry all the time — Michaels has heard every excuse from the audience for her website, weekly podcast and speaking engagements.
“I wanted to integrate the answers and knock down the myths and the fad diets,” she says. “For every possible dieting dilemma that you could ever have, I provide umpteen amount of solutions. Pick one!”
In her book, every strategy comes with a point system scored from 1 (a “bonus” tip) to 3 (most effective and important). Totaling the strategies you’re able to adopt can help predict your rate of weight loss, she says.
If some of this stuff gets a little technical (she prescribes workouts complete with calories-per-minute burned for each exercise), Michaels also packs the book with simple no-brainers: Eat before you head to the party so you’re less tempted by those fatty hors d’oeuvres. Nix foods tagged with “danger words” like smothered, loaded, tender, deep-fried and creamy. At the supermarket, avoid the center aisles (high-trafficked destinations for junk food, she warns) in favor of the store perimeter, where fresh foods are likely to be stocked.
For imbibers who aren’t satisfied with the occasional red wine (pretty healthy in moderation), she even offers recipes for low-cal cocktails.
“I’m going to show you exactly what you need to understand, exactly what never to do, and what it looks like in your life,” she says. “This is never going to be easy. But it’s never gonna be easier than this.”