Jillian Michaels on Getting Older: ‘People Believe Aging Is Slow Descent into Decrepitude — That’s Not True’

Jillian Michaels doesn’t mind getting older — in fact, she says she is in better shape at 42 than she was in her 20s.

“I care more, and when you care more you train harder and eat better,” the fitness guru tells Redbook in the February issue, on newsstands Jan. 3. “People believe that aging is this slow descent into decrepitude. That’s not true. When people say, ‘Oh, I’m 40 now, and this is happening to me and that’s happening to me,’ it’s the cumulative effect of years of neglect, which—by the way—can still be turned around.”

Michaels stays committed to working out and being healthy because that’s what helps her maintain the lifestyle that she wants to live.

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“I still like skinny jeans,” she says. “I still prefer a two-piece instead of a one-piece. Now I have two young kids, so I want to be skiing down the mountain alongside my kids instead of waiting at the bottom for them. I want to see their children graduate from college. I want to meet my grandchildren’s children. These are my whys.”

Michaels also told the magazine that women need to worry less about losing weight after having children.

Jeff Lipsky

“I was just talking to someone who was breastfeeding and already on a diet. I was like, ‘Dude, you’ve got to chill. If you start dropping more than two pounds a week, you’re going to compromise your milk supply,’ ” she says. “The reality is that you can bounce back better than ever, but time frames vary for everyone. Every body and every pregnancy is different. If it takes you a year, who cares?”