On Writing and Wellness, or An Ode to Jillian Michaels

By: Javacia Harris Bowser

In December 2012 I added a fitness component to See Jane Write Birmingham, the networking organization for women writers from which this magazine was born. I called this new component See Jane Move and my justification for it was simple: “You can’t write a great American masterpiece if you’re dead.”

And I could use this same reasoning to explain why I decided to include fitness and food articles in this magazine.

But celebrity fitness trainer Jillian Michaels has helped me realize that a commitment to eat right and exercise regularly is about much more than simply staying alive.

Last month I took on Jillian’s infamous 30-Day Shred DVD; the month before that I tried her Six-Week Six Pack workout. I refer to Jillian by first name because once a person is in your living room every day making you sweat so much that your yoga pants look as if you peed on yourself, you start to feel close.

And someone listening outside my apartment door would have thought she was really in my living room, not just on my television, because we had conversations. When she would say “I know this is hard, even I’m dying right now” I would yell “You liar!” And when she would say “I know you’re tired, I know you just want to stop and shut off this DVD. Don’t even think about it!” I would scream, “Shut up! I hate you!”

But that’s simply not true. I don’t hate Jillian Michaels. I love her and here’s why.

In level two of 30-Day Shred, Jillian says, “When you see how strong you are physically, it’s going to transcend into every other facet of your life.”

I didn’t pay much attention to this statement at first. It’s hard to concentrate on words of encouragement when you feel like you’re going to vomit up your heart. But one day when the moves started to get a tiny bit easier and my arms started to feel a tiny bit stronger, I realized she was right.

When you complete a challenging workout, when you lift more weight than you ever thought you could, when you run your first marathon, something inside you changes, and not just your cholesterol. You stare at that exercise DVD, or those weights, or that finisher’s medal and you think, “If I can do that, I can do anything.”

If you can finish that marathon, you can finish writing that book. If you can stick with that Insanity DVD for 60 days, you can stick with your blog. If you can bench press all that weight, you can press send on that pitch letter to your favorite magazine.

You can do it.

Jillian Michaels said so.