Jillian Michaels: The Real Reveal

February 18th, 2010. By AbiK

[Remember this little tidbit as you read this: Jillian Michaels’ father was a personal injury lawyer. Got it?]

So I’m trolling the net for some background on personal trainer and weight-loss-guru-turned-PR-quandry, Jillian Michaels. Most of the buzz is about her diet pills and the—surprise!—contention that no, perhaps they really don’t work weight loss wonders and are now the focus of a lawsuit…or two…or three.

But I’m over the Maximum Strength Calorie Control diet pill thing. Deceptive advertising? Looking like it. Lack of integrity? Uh, yeah. Potentially putting greed ahead of realistically attainable results at the expense of the emotional and physical struggles of her weight-challenged following? Well, that’s for others—and Jillian—to figure out.

As with a number of marketing efforts that rely on celebrity or boastful claims, what’s out there in print may undoubtedly come back to haunt you. So let’s take a little gander and look at some recent quotes from Jillian—her recent Ladies’ Home Journal interview is a good place to start—and it’s only from last month. Are you still remembering what I asked you to remember at the beginning? Then these quotes really need no explanation. Read on:

Jillian Michaels LHJ quote #1:

“There was this time when my parents were going through some s— and I was sparring with my instructor, and he kept kicking me. I thought he’d stop if I cried, but the more I cried, the harder he kicked. And he was like, ‘I don’t give a f—, if you don’t fight your way out of this corner I will kill you.’ And so I fought my way out of the corner.”

And this, Michaels believes, is the approach that’s necessary for people who have been making excuses for their behavior all their lives, who have a “negative dialogue” going on in their heads with respect to the things they think they can’t do. “You can circumvent the negative thinking with fear,” Michaels says. “Just the way a mother can lift a car off a child — it’s like, fear makes you live in the moment. Sometimes I need to intimidate a person, and then they do what I ask, and when they see they can be successful it is the most amazing experience for them. I can use the techniques they have used to program themselves for destruction and program them for success.”

Jillian Michaels LHJ quote #2:

Michaels is not only concerned about the overblown drama but about the contestants themselves. They are, of course, screened and under medical supervision. But when I mention that I’m sure at some point something horrible will happen, she looks at me grimly. “You’re the fifth person to say that to me this week. And you’re not wrong. The contestants keep getting bigger and bigger.”

The producers of the show do not disagree. “We all worry,” says executive producer Todd A. Nelson. “You’re setting yourself up for failure if you don’t.” On the other hand, Nelson believes that every year they learn more about how to monitor and manage the medical conditions of the heaviest contestants, “and this allows us to fine-tune the process and reach out to a heavier population.”

Still, last season two people told to run a mile on their first day wound up in a hospital with heat exhaustion. And the season before that a woman who wasn’t prepared ran a half marathon and got a stress fracture. “As the trainers we have no say over the challenges,” says Michaels. “We worry about them, too.”

Now, I’m not saying the tough love approach isn’t for some. And, indeed, there are some out there who’ve apparently been through Jillian’s technique and are testimonial-providing converts. But the irony here is interesting: personal injury lawyer’s daughter walks a bit of a line with personal training techniques—no? And what’s disturbing is the admission in the LHJ article that quotes the exec producer of the show as saying “We all worry”. Yeah, that ought to make contestants feel pretty good as they’re undoubtedly signing waivers and feeling their hearts pounding as they’re running a mile they’ve probably not run in like…ever.

The issue, sadly, isn’t just about Jillian. It’s reflective of a reality t.v.-watching audience that’s come to accept “reality” as twisted and laden with drama at its best; harmful at its worst. And that audience is just too easy prey to make a buck on with ancillary product endorsements.

Tags: diet pills, Jillian Michaels, weight loss

This was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 10:53 am and is filed under Defective Products, Emerging Issues, lawsuits . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.