Tonight I went and saw Jillian Michaels at her "Maximize Your Life" tour at the Winnipeg Centennial Concert Hall. There were easily over 500 people in the audience and my roommate and I were so excited before the concert began. However, our excitement quickly waned after the first few minutes.
To start the "presentation", I guess you'd call it, we were bombarded with a montage of google images that ranged from obese bum cracks, to nuclear bombs detonating, to large piles of spaghetti and chickens being slaughtered. After a brief period of darkness we were greeted with another set of images played alongside soothing orchestra music. These images consisted of growing embryos, beaches, business men shaking hands, and women twirling around in flowing white dresses. After this chaotic and somewhat confusing powerpoint presentation Jillian Michaels came out to thunderous applause and a standing ovation. She explained her peculiar introduction by saying that the images represented two realities that we have the choice to live in, two real scenarios that co-exist together. I'm not sure what the rest of the audience was thinking but never in my life have I had to choose between obesity and slaughtered animals over unborn babies and walking along the beach.
I was most excited to hear about her fitness tips, tricks and goals but after she assured us that she "hated working out" I was extremely disheartened. (Strange for a personal trainer to hate working out isn't it?). She breezed through her nutritional presentation highlighting the typical "burn more calories than you consume" tip and presented vague information riddled with inaccuracies (I guess if you want to be fed misinformation you shouldn't take your roommate/ dietician to a Jillian Michaels show).
I was sure that the presentation would have helpful information for active fans looking to intensify their workouts and get the most out of their exercises but it was pretty obvious that her show was directed towards a specific audience of overweight, unhappy, middle aged men and women with serious self-help issues.
The vast majority of her show was directed towards self-help and learning to" overcome your issues to get the most out of your life". At one point she pulled a pre-selected audience member onstage to talk about her issues that she had with her alcoholic mother and how those issues were affecting her current relationships with men....ummm I'm not too sure what that issue has to do with health and fitness but ok... It was extremely uncomfortable and after five minutes of awkward conversation between the two women, Jillian informed her that she needed to let go of her past issues in order to move on in her life, gave her a hug and sent her offstage. Hmmm, wonder why the audience member had never thought of that before?
I still really enjoy Jillian's workouts and I feel like she is a great motivator when it comes to FITNESS. I have no idea why she chose to completely ignore the issue of fitness during her show (the aspect of her life that made her wealthy and famous) and instead focus on this new "therapist" approach but I for one was greatly disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to use her videos and follow some of her tips from her book "Slim For Life" (I got WAY more out of the book than I did out of her show), but I'm no longer such a huge fan and I don't have the respect for her that I used to.
To health, happiness, and finding a new fitness guru,
Jordana
