Maximize Your Life

When my friend Jessica asked me if I wanted to see Jillian Michaels with her this week, of course I said yes right away. I've been a huge Jillian fan ever since first seeing her on The Biggest Loser, and her 30 Day Shred DVD is one of the best workouts I've ever done. Plus I just love her positive attitude and hard core motivation techniques.

Since my knee injury I've really been struggling with my fitness goals and I've felt pretty depressed about that. But my physical therapist recently cleared me for some light cardio, so I'm ready to really get back on track now, and a motivational speech from Jillian was the perfect jump start.

For almost three hours, Jillian Michaels showed us how to harness our potential, kick-start our goals and live an exceptional life by sharing her keys to health, success and happiness. She focused on seven main aspects:

• Lose weight and get in the best shape of your life: Learn what, when and how to eat so you maximize your metabolism and ignite your fat-burning potential. Comprehend the most cutting-edge fitness techniques to create dramatic transformation at an accelerated pace.
• Live in your truth: Cultivate your passions and embrace your uniqueness to create a purpose-filled life — on your own terms.
• Redefine your self-image and dramatically improve your confidence and self worth: Believe in the FACT that you are entitled to and deserving of happiness. Eliminate negative self-talk, attack inhibitions, and unleash your potential.
• Create a winning attitude: Gain awareness, overcome fear, utilize failures, work through worry, and erase shame to blast through obstacles.
• Establish Support: Channel your communication skills to get what you want by setting boundaries and articulating your needs in ways that work for you.
• Build will power: Gear your environment for success and engage in behavioral exercises that manage impulsivity, gain emotional control, squash destructive actions and coping mechanisms.
• Maximize Productivity: Create a roadmap for success that systematically and strategically facilitates the achievement of your goals.

I really liked Jillians no-bullsh*t approach... She acknowledged that we're not morons and that at this point everyone knows how to lose weight and get in shape — Eat Less... Move More. But Jillian still went over some helpful tips and tricks, as well as explaining how she incorporates health and fitness into her own daily life. She focused a lot on the benefits of clean/organic eating, which is always a helpful reminder for me.

After a quick touch on the most effective forms of exercise, Jillian launched into the main part of her presentation — how to maximize your life by changing your habits and attitudes. This portion of the program got a little too self-helpish for me and I found my thoughts drifting a bit, but overall I really enjoyed seeing Jillian in person and hearing her speak about her passions. And now I'm really motivated to get back at it!

Imagine. Believe. Achieve.