Exclusive

Jillian Michaels Shares Her Tips for Staying Home and Staying Sane

Exclusive! Jillian Michaels gives you the motivation you need to come out the other side of the coronavirus crisis with your waistline, wallet and sanity intact.

By Billy Nilles, Amanda Williams Apr 04, 2020 7:00 PMTags
Watch: Jillian Michaels' Top 10 Must-Haves

Anyone else starting to feel the social distancing malaise?

As we remain hunkered down at home amid continued calls for extreme social distancing throughout this global coronavirus pandemic, we know we can't be the only ones who are battling the urge to just flop down on the couch and eat all the snack food in sight as we binge Tiger King for the 677235th time. With the days all beginning to blur into one another, finding the motivation to do just about anything else is becoming tougher and tougher. (Not that there's anything wrong with having the inclination or giving in to it every once in a while. These are remarkable times, and self-care is paramount. Be kind to yourself and take a break when you need one.)

But for those of us who are looking for the kick in the butt we need to make sure that we come out the other side of this crisis with our waistlines, our wallets and our sanity intact, we've got your back. In fact, we turned to Jillian Michaels, the queen of motivation herself, who shared all the tips and tricks you need to keep yourself on track.

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Jillian Michaels' Inspiring Quotes

"First of all, I would say the most important thing is to control what you can control," the famed fitness guru and founder of the Jillian Michaels Fitness app told E! News exclusively. "99 percent of this is out of our control, but what we can do is give this a meaning. So, when really horrible things happen, it's like, 'Alright this is happening but I'm going to take this time to focus on...' Maybe it's, 'I've always wanted to work on writing a book,' maybe it's 'I need to lose 10 pounds and know I can, and I can't go drinking with my friends, so I'm focusing on losing that ten pounds cause I'm stuck in the house.' Right? Or if it's like 'I'm gonna focus on saving money,' I mean, if you can...So, what is it that you can do to make your life better during this time?"

With that in mind, Michaels shared her thoughts on some areas in our lives that could benefit from some extra attention during this time.

Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

Get Active:

"Obviously, you know I'm self-care. That's my line of work," she said. "Right now, we're stuck at home. If you have kids, they're stuck at home. We're all stuck at home, so there is kind of no excuse for 20 minutes in your living room. Now I would prefer 30 minutes if you've got the time. If you don't, on my app, there's daily free seven minute workouts that change every day...It's totally free, there's no reason not to do it. Download it and do seven minutes. Now beyond that, this is, I hope, that you'll want to do more, and that's why we literally slashed the price to $69 bucks for an entire year...If you want more, there are limitless workouts...In the app, you've got kickboxing, you've got yoga, you've got resistance training, you've got HIIT workouts, you've got body parts specific training. There's workouts for beginners, there's workouts for people who are advanced. There are 10 minute workouts. There are hour workouts. No matter who you are, I can wrap the program around you...There's a reason the app has 1,000 different exercises, because that's what I do."

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Don't Be Afraid to Diversify:

"Now, I mean there are other people that do the exact same, so by all means explore," Michaels said. "Go have fun, look around, try new things, like Debbie Allen gave a dance class live the other day. Awesome. You know what I mean? Explore and enjoy and take the time to expose yourself to new things."

Find a (Virtual) Community:

"One of the things again that I focus on is, I think it's important for people to have a sense of community. So find a community. My app has a sense of community because it has forums where people can find each other and do programs together. You don't have to use me. If you don't like me I don't give a f--k. Go find another forum. Find a forum," Michaels encouraged. "Go and find an online community where you can connect with people that are like minded. You can agree to do something together."

Set a Goal:

"We know we've got around 30 days of this, so start a 30-day program. And it's like, 'In 30 days, I'm going come out of this quarantine 10 pounds lighter.' Or who cares? Maybe you don't have weight to lose. Maybe it's like, like for me, I don't have weight to lose, I hate running. I hate it so f--king much. I'm a terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible runner. My girlfriend runs like the wind, and she's like, 'Babe, you know what? Come running with me.' And I was like, 'You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna do the 5k running program in my app.' I'm going to run. I was like, 'I can be better at this.I'm gonna get outside and I'm gonna focus on maybe becoming a runner.' I doubt it, but I'm gonna try. How can I be better when all of this is said and done?"

Make Time for Mental Health:

"Another thing that I've been struggling with for years is meditation. It's so good for you, like physically and psychologically good for you. There are numerous things that show the absolute benefits. Just start with five minutes," she added. "The Calm app made a lot of their stuff free online right now. Do a five minute app, five minute medication with Calm. There's tons on YouTube. Do five minutes of that."

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Find the Kitchen Silver Linings:

"Here's the good news: a lot of that 'bad for you' s--t is not there," Michaels noted about the grocery store shelves. "This really is forcing people to save money, spare calories. Because you're at home, you're not going add tons of oil, butter, and salt like they do at restaurants. And guess what's available? As you're all running around being like, "There's nothing available,' believe me I got a shrimp, I got a salmon, I got vegetables. That's all there. It's all there. What's not available is all the frozen pizzas, the frozen s--t, the frozen crap cereal. Yeah, that's not available. So, take advantage. Fruits and vegetables, I'm seeing tons of it. Zero issues with that. Yeah, we're experiencing all the same empty shelves, but for processed carbs, processed grains, processed sugars. I don't mean to toot my own horn, because there's a lot of free recipes online, but one of the things that we also have in the app is hundreds of recipes of all different kinds. Whether you're gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, omnivore, keto, every single dietary type, we have hundreds of different recipes that are created by chefs and registered dietitians. So, it just makes it that much easier...I'm saving calories, I'm saving money, and I eat more vegetables than I normally would. You've got to find or create a silver lining. That's how we gain a sense of control over this, so that we come out the other end of this better."

Invite the Kids Into Your Workout:

"My kids do the workout with me and when they do it they'll just stop and watch me. They'll do it. They'll do burpees and push-ups and lunges. They do it terribly, but they're still doing it," Michaels said, offering advice for parents juggling keeping their kids occupied while trying to get through their own day. "Get them to exercise with you."

Embrace the Outdoors, Safely and Responsibly:

"God willing, you have an outside. My ex has a trampoline, they've been using that, and I live very fortunately by the water, so they've been outside playing in the tidepools and stuff," the mother of two with ex-fiancée Heidi Rhoades noted of the other activities she's relied on to keep her kids busy. "But get them outside. Give them active projects that they can work on, like 'Hey create grandma's birthday card.' I'm certainly no parenting expert, but this is just what we've been doing with mine."

For the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic and for tips on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19, please visit The Center for Disease Control and Prevention at https://www.cdc.gov. To plan your vaccine, head to NBC's Plan Your Vaccine site at PlanYourVaccine.com.