I'm a Fan

... a fan of Jillian Michaels!

After hearing she has a podcast The Jillian Michaels Show (free on iTunes) I have been listening to her talk about many subjects.  She has been doing a podcast for a couple of years now so I have been catching up on the older ones too.  I have learned so much and I like her more with each show.

She is smart, funny, environmentally conscious and level headed.  A much more complex person than the one I got know by watching the Biggest Loser.  I liked her then, but thought she yelled a lot.  I guess they edited the show to highlight the personality they wanted her  to portray. She does get worked up, but only because she is passionate about what she does.

Okay, so after writing this I sound like I have a crush on her...maybe I do, but not in a stalker kind of way.  Although I would love to meet her!

She has so much knowledge to share and I have been interested in almost every show topic except  for a few like  how to eat if you want to get pregnant (I'm not in the market for more children) and pregnancy fitness for the same reason.

I have learned about, healthy eating, supplements, staying motivated, how to break through plateaus, managing stress, etc... Of course I have not implemented all I have learned, or I would look like her and I don't, but I have been making changes...

One big change I have made is to increase the amount of whole foods I eat instead of processed foods.  I am not a big "Diet Food" kind of eater but I occasionally buy lite or low fat  or reduced calorie foods.

One item in particular is the orange juice my husband drinks every day and I drink on occasion.  We have been buying Trop50. Tropicana's reduced calorie OJ.

Sounds like good stuff - Right?  Well, a closer look gave me a different answer.  Last week I mistakenly picked up the regular Tropicana OJ at the store and was going to take it back when I compared the labels.  This is what I found.

Tropicana Pure Premium

Trop50

I know the print is small so here are the highlights:

	Trop50	Tropicana Pure Premium
Calories	50	110
Sodium	10mg	0mg
Carbohydrates	13g	26g
Ingredients	Filtered water, not from concentrate pasteurized orange juice, modified food starch, citric acid, malic acid, natural flavors and Reb A (Pure Via)	Florida Orange Juice
	42% juice	100% juice

The Trop50 isn't orange juice, its 58% water/chemicals and 42% juice.  I was shocked! That's not what I thought I was buying nor what I wanted.  I thought I was good about reading labels, but I was duped by  savvy marketing. They told me what I wanted to hear and I believed them instead of reading it closely for myself.

What's in your food?
Saving a few calories is less important to me than eating/drinking real food.
Our bodies were made to process real food not chemicals.  As I learned in Jillian Michaels' book Master Your Metabolism many of the chemicals in our food, environment and beauty products are actually making our bodies less efficient (slowing down our metabolism).  I expected this book to be about exercise, but it was all about identifying and avoiding the toxins in our lives.  Really interesting stuff!

Sticking with the real thing!

Needless to say, we kept the real orange juice and will not be buying the low calorie version anymore. This experience has taught me a lot and all because  I bought the wrong orange juice.   Knowledge is power!

I  just picked up Jillian's new book Unlimited from the library and can't wait to get reading.