Jillian Michaels Hates Running

So, yes. You already know Jillian Michaels kicked my butt last weekend in Atlantic City. What you don’t know is that afterward I got to sit down with her (okay, with about 20 other reporters, BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT) to pick her brain about all things health and fitness. Here are the six things I learned about her.

1. Jillian Michaels Hates Running

This will come as a comfort to those of you who don’t understand how anyone could think possibly think it’s fun to run 20 miles on a Saturday morning—Jillian Michaels complete agrees with you. “I’m not built for it,” she said. “I forced myself to run for years. I would run three miles and wish I was dead the entire time.”

2. Jillian Michaels Hasn’t Done Yoga in Months

Not because she hates yoga as much as running—she seems to like it a lot, actually—but because life as a mom of two has made getting to the studio for classes a bit of a challenge. She says she and partner Heidi Rhoades take turns with the kiddos so one can sneak in a workout while the other babysits. Or, she takes the kids along with her: “I put a life vest on my daughter and took her on the paddle board with me when we were on vacation.” Smart!

3. Jillian Michaels Is Not a Morning Person

Okay, okay, but if she really wanted to go to yoga, she’d go in the wee hours of the morning when the kids are asleep, right? Wrong. “I don’t get up at 5:30 a.m. I’m so not a morning person,” she said. (Phew. Makes me feel like less of a lazy bum for sleeping in most mornings.)

4. Jillian Michaels Loves Planking

Aha! I knew it! “Planks work all your muscle groups in one swoop,” she said, so they’re super efficient. She also likes combination movements (you know this if you’ve ever done any of her workouts), such as squatting while doing rows—works the quads, glutes and back at the same time. “That way, you get more out of your workouts,” she explained.

5. Jillian Michaels Eats Clean

This probably isn’t a huge shocker, but Michaels said she stays away from processed, chemical-laden food: “I don’t eat chemicals. Ever.” She does allow herself 200 calories a day for treats. But if she eats a candy bar, it has to be an organic one, like an Unreal bar, which is what she called “cleaner junk food”; they’re made with ingredients you recognize, like real sugar and milk, and don’t include artificial preservatives, hormones or GMOs. What I found most interesting was the extent to which she goes to eat as clean as possible, and how she’s passing those habits on to her kids. Best example: When she and Rhoades were preschool shopping for their daughter, Lukensia, Michaels said they opted for one school over another because it served all organic food. “I’m a bitch with the kids and the whole for thing,” she said. “It’s a big deal to me.”

6. Jillian Michaels Has an Inner Fat Kid

Don’t we all? Michaels said she was heavy as a kid, and while she’s slimmed down on the outside, she still has all the mental urges to chow Cheetos like it’s her job. Well, maybe not Cheetos, exactly—she said if she had one last meal, she’d eat sweet potato fries, a spicy tuna roll on crispy rice from Nobu, and a peanut butter chocolate pie. Attagirl.