Jillian Michaels might have sold out with her line of diet pills for GNC, but she’s still my girl. I still get no small thrill from watching her scream at “Biggest Loser” contestants and hearing her tough-love encouragement on “The 30-Day Shred.” My only real problem with her is now she’s saying she wants to replace Oprah, and that’s my goal.
Anyway.
Jillian is under fire for some comments she made to Women’s Health magazine in an interview for the upcoming issue. She says if she decides to become a parent, she will adopt. She will not give birth to her own children because she “can’t handle doing that to her body.”
I get where you’re coming from, girl. Jillian was obese as a teenager, which is one reason I love her — she actually knows what it’s like to have been overweight and does not look like that by accident.
Several psychology experts quoted in the online articles said that given Jillian’s position as a fitness guru, she shouldn’t be telling the masses that babies ruin bodies. It’s not good for women’s self esteem, they say.
Ask anyone who has lost a significant amount of weight and most will tell you that they fear pregnancy weight gain; a fellow health blogger articulated her thoughts really well earlier this week. It’s not about self esteem, and it’s not about vanity. It’s because once you’ve successfully lost weight, you don’t ever, ever want to regress, no matter what the reason.
My other theory is that Jillian is 36 years old, which makes her a senior citizen, reproductively speaking. I’d say if you were still childless at that stage of the game and hoping for a family, you probably wouldn’t want to go on record talking about how desperately you want to be a mother, just in case it doesn’t happen for you. This way, if she “has” to adopt, it’ll look like that’s been her plan all along.
Fashionably Fit 
10 comments
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April 23, 2010 at 5:41 am
MelissaNibbles
I saw this on Jezebel today and I’ll repeat what I commented there by saying that the freedom of choice for women extends to the choice NOT to have children period. I’m scared as hell as to what it’ll do to my body. My sister had to have a hip replacement after childbirth and it was hell for her. My boyfriend and I simply don’t want kids and people give us hell for it because we’re both over 30 and “should have kids by now.” People should mind their own business and stay out of women’s vaginas.
April 23, 2010 at 5:47 am
Naomi (onefitfoodie)
very nice post! wow I can’t believe she said that, sure I get that she has a fear of pregnancy weiight gain, but its a natural process and your body HAS to gain soem weight, you are feeding and providing for another HUMAN!
that kinda threw me off that she said that! however, if she doesn’t want kids b/c she doesn’t want kids thats a different stor completely. I think the fact that if she DOES want to have kids and she is not b/c of what it will do to her body, thats where I have an issue with her comments
April 23, 2010 at 6:38 am
Emily
I’m a pretty new reader but you seriously ALWAYS have the most sensible things to say. I wasn’t that offended by the comment in general. However, at 36 it basically is NOT a good thing for her to be pregnant, weight gain aside.
April 23, 2010 at 7:53 am
Anna
I don’t think that the fear of pregnancy weight gain applies only to people who have lost weight– I’m worried about it too!!! But I think that fear is natural– I mean, who WANTS to gain 40-50 pounds and have no say about it? I do think that because she’s such a public “authority” on health and even female empowerment, it was stupid of her to make that comment– she should have known that she was going to take major flak for it. And I think it’s a little sad…even if you hate the weight gain (which I think most women inevitably do…except for the boobs part, which I am psyched about), pregnancy is something to celebrate.
April 23, 2010 at 7:55 am
Yasmin
I love Jillian also and hate that she always gets so much criticism. I think her interview has been blown way out of proportion. We have to remember they cut and edit the context for articles. I support her for her personal decisions.
April 23, 2010 at 8:39 am
Dawn Hutchins
Hey girlie! We missed you yesterday at Lemongrass. Another great article.
As far as baby weight gain…after my first one (long story but went full term and had complications) I actually was thinner and in the best shape I had ever been in with the help of weight watchers and lifting weights. My second I had a CSection and I lost all the weight again intially but slacked off a little. I’m back on weight watchers and on my way back down to the same size!
As for Jillian…..that’s totally her decison but she sure is missing out!
April 23, 2010 at 9:35 am
Leah
As someone who does not know if she wants to have kids or not yet, and is candidly scared of not losing baby weight afterwards… I can see where she is coming from. (naturally I do realize losing baby weight or not losing it would be totally up to me) I, too, was heavier for most of my life up until now as I’m feeling healthy and fantastic. For me, it’s mostly about self-esteem. I realize that may not be a “PC” reason, but it is what it is.
I think adoption is a wonderful thing (I’m adopted myself) regardless of your reason.
Having said all this, perhaps Jillian just did not convey her thoughts in the best way possible… but how often do we all say things that come off the wrong way? I agree that it may seem like she is saying babies do horrible, irreparable things to a woman’s body (if you read it out of context), but I doubt that is what she meant.
*Sorry that was way longer than I intended. haha.
April 23, 2010 at 10:10 am
Angela @ A Healthy Fit
Love it! I was going to post on this topic as well. I don’t think Jillian conveyed her thoughts well at all. Even when she twittered about it the comments were not explanatory enough. I’m not sure I want kids and one of the reasons is the weight gain. I wasn’t an overweight kid, but I have issues with food and my body.
April 27, 2010 at 9:45 am
dianacheung
if you’ve truely changed your lifestyle then you shouldn’t be scared of pregnancy weight gain!! You technicially should only gain like 20 lbs with a pregnancy so if you were healthy before, you can bounce back in no time!
April 28, 2010 at 10:03 am
Christina
I think it’s unfortunate that the only focal point of her comment is the negative side about what she said about her body. I haven’t heard one media outlet praise her for the wonderful things she said about adoption and how selfless an act it is, regardless of the added benefit of keeping her body. There are children everywhere that need a stable and loging home. Jillian Michaels has the ability to provide children in need with an amazing quality of life, yet all society seems to care about is the fact that she doesn’t want to be pregnant. Whatever happened to the motto “to each their own”? These are our bodies to do with what we please, and even though she’s a public figure, she still gets that choice. I think what she said was great and could possibly inspire some folks to consider adoption who weren’t before…what’s so bad about that?