Jillian Michaels's Top Tips for Diet and Fitness Beginners

• Educate yourself about yourself. You need to know about you and your individual psychology. In other words, why are you eating so much? You need to know how to do the work. In other words, recognizing the emotional triggers, modeling the behavior, understanding what sabotages you and learning how to deal with it. So, first of all, get to know yourself.
• Educate yourself about diet. And buy a book. (Buy my book.) That's what I did. I have read every book on the market. What I try to do with my book is say to people, "Okay, listen to me: There is no one-size-fits-all approach to weight loss."
• Educate yourself about carbohydrates. There are good carbs, and there are bad carbs. Know which are which and eat the good ones. For instance, whole grain breads are better than those made with white flour. And you have got to know what your DMR is. What's your active metabolic rate? How many calories are you burning from your exercise routine?
• Find a middle ground. Don't be super, super good because ultimately, you're going to fall off the wagon and go to the opposite extreme. Let go of the word diet, and build a lifestyle that fits you ‑- metabolically, biochemically (meaning what kind of food you need) and psychologically (meaning what kind of food you're not going to give up) ‑- and build it on middle ground. I'm not going to give up chocolate. I love it. And for me, psychologically, I need to give myself 200 calories every day of a treat, and I work it into my calories. Is it the ideal fuel source for me? No, but I'm damn healthy and I eat my Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, I'll tell you that right now.