Jillian Michaels

This week, I went to Jillian Michaels Maximise Your Life tour.  I booked the tickets weeks ago, saw the advert ages ago, tried to recruit at least one of two sisters, failed and thought, stuff it, I'm going to the theatre anyway.  I booked half a day off work, headed home, did a food shop, showered, blasted head dry, had lunch, set sat nav and headed off into the unknown.

So I take my seat and I'm sandwiched between a multi-generational couple, (not a problem with that,) the problem I did have was that from the moment the couple sat down, the female, sitting next to me, whipped out her iPad to scroll through pictures... of herself.... for twenty five minutes.  Do this couple talk?  Ever?  Dozens and dozens of pictures of her, whizzed around like a demented slot machine.  To the right of me were two sisters, we got chatting briefly, one sister had come to support the other, nice work sister.

I was interested to hear what Jillian Michaels had to say.  On 'The Biggest Loser', she came across like a bit of a demon, a demon that melts fat but still.... a screamer.  Then there are the sidebars, someone has a meltdown, a particular meltdown and they have this one to one were St Jillian speaks softly and calmly identifies the problem.

So, I didn't know what to expect, I didn't care, I was just interested to listen.  Jillian Michaels is a dream.  She's normal, she is incredibly funny, she's passionate, down to earth.  She made the effort too.  We're still predominately imperial here and she made the effort to use the language that we understand, (not that we can't convert,) but she used stones and half a stones instead of lbs.  She also used 'crisps' instead of  'chips'.  To me, this means, someone cares about going that extra mile.

Jillian splits her talk into three sections, she covers diet and exercise and then moves on to 'self'.  I love anything that makes me stop and think.  Jillian mentions that we can so easily sleep walk through life, and that is me, for sure.

There was a lot of information to take in and I should really have been talking notes but I didn't want to miss anything by diverting my eyes.

130 minutes later and it was time to head home, I got the feeling that JM could have talked for another 130 minutes however, the show was over and I ran back to the car to get ahead of the queue to get out, it was already well past my bedtime and I still had one more day in work to go.

Did I learn anything?  I did, I learned some things about diet, (I thought I knew quite a bit,) a lot about exercise, I laughed a lot and then I learned to engage my brain and think about me.

I think I'll be on a voyage of discovery until the day I die, and even then, I still won't have truly got to know myself.

I haven't worked out seriously for weeks now but I find myself inspired by Jillian and I have to say, intrigued.  A few days later, I attempt level one of 'shred it with weights', one of Jillian's workouts.  I loved it, I know I didn't give it 100% but I kept it at a level that I knew I could manage, without injuring myself, and I was still 'sore' the next day.  I liked this workout because just when you're starting to think, 'I can't do this for much longer', she changes the move and you start again, 25 minutes flew by.  I also love the idea that I can increase my effort and increase the weight of kettlebell I use as I gain strength.

My mojo is still on the fritz, but I'm working on it.