Fitness

Never mind that she’s my favorite fitness trainer—if I’m every doing a workout DVD at home, it is hers. And they work. And they hurt like hell. And I love her for it.

But Jillian Michaels is also one of my favorite interviews—and this was the fourth or fifth time I’ve gotten to chat with her for a magazine. This time we talked for the cover of Health magazine’s March 2013 issue, in her dressing room on The Biggest Loser ranch (if you’re a fan of the show, like me, how cool is that?!). She talked about how to stay slim for good, in honor of her upcoming new book, Slim for Life. (I’ve already had the chance to read an early printing of it, and I devoured it. So check it out!)

She’s a total hoot. She calls everyone “Bud,” curses like a sailor, and even dragged in Bob Harper from his dressing room to explain something to me in person. And most important, she was full of intelligent tips and fun health ideas—she’s like a fitness and nutrition savant, this one. Also fun? I was featured as a contributor in this month’s issue of Health.

Here’s my bit a little closer-up so you can read it:

Love Health. Love Jillian. Life is good.

—Amy

Get Healthy

I am officially obsessed with The Biggest Loser. Which made it especially fun for me to do the cover interview with the show’s host Alison Sweeney for the September 2012 issue of Health magazine.

We met for lunch at La Scala in Beverly Hills (where she encouraged me to try my first chopped salad and, hello, it was delicious.) While we ate, she offered a huge slew of tips for a great 30-Day Body Makeover. You can read my whole story with Alison Sweeney here. She was super nice—and, remember, she’s learning her fitness tips from the best: the show’s trainers Jillian Michaels, Bob Harper and Dolvett Quince!

Try a few of your favorites for yourself!

—Amy

Health

This past winter, I worked on an amazing project over the course of a few months: I created some advertorials for Good Housekeeping magazine, providing information for how families who are dealing with Alzheimer’s. I did four pieces over the course of a few months, and this is one of them:

It was incredible to speak with experts in the field (like Dr. Amy D’Aprix, above) as well as actress and former Coach star Shelley Fabares about the painful challenges of handling loved ones who have Alzheimer’s, and how to best handle it. If you suspect a family member, parent or friend may be showing signs of the illness, look into the Alzheimer’s Association and find out more.

—Amy

Living on the Coast

In honor of the summer Olympics (as usual, obsessed), I got to chat with five amazing Olympic athletes for the July/August issue of Coastal Living.

Man, talk about inspiring! It still makes me check myself when I’m feeling too lazy to get off the couch, let alone work out for 8 hours a day like they sometimes do.

You can read my fun interviews with four of them—swimmer Dara Torres, beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh, and sailors Zach and Paige Railey—on the Coastal Living site.

—Amy

It’s happiness time!

I had a blast writing this feature for Health magazine’s July/August 2012 issue about how to pinpoint your passion—by which I mean your non-work, deep in your soul, smile on your face in your free time, kind of passion.

The story features great advice from people I look up to who I was lucky enough to interview, including Martha Beck, my psychology crush Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., positive psychology guru Christopher Peterson, Ph.D. and life coach Cheryl Richardson.

You can read the full story on How to Find Your Passion here on Health.com.

—Amy

Summer 2012

Grab a copy of the July/August Summer 2012 issue of Health magazine, and you’ll see two of my latest features. First off, my cover chat with actress Rebecca Romijn, who shares her super fun collection of happy life tips.

This is the third time I’ve interviewed Rebecca, and she continues to be one of my favorite people to chat with—she’s so down to earth and funny and laid back, it doesn’t even feel like work (shhh, don’t tell my editors that!). She gave tips on everything from how to make the perfect soft-boiled egg (I tried it, it works), why riding a tandem bicycle is great for her relationship with husband Jerry O’Connell, how to make a cranberry fat flush, and how to make their couple signature summer drink, the “Coco Oco.” Mmmm.

You can read all of her great life tips here in the full story on Health.com.

—Amy

Oh, Samoa, how I loved that trip.

After an amazing trip I took to the country of Samoa, I started thinking about how naturally healthy so much of their diet is (and Samoa gets the prize for being the first time I actually liked papaya, after getting to eat one I picked off of a tree). That turned into this fun story I wrote for the July 2012 issue of First for Women magazine, about all the health benefits that tropical vacation spots have to offer.

If we can’t visit paradise, at least we can bring paradise to us…

—Amy

On this month’s cover of Redbook? Brooke Burke, from Dancing with the Stars. Brooke and I met for lunch at one of her favorite places in Malibu with a killer view of the ocean, and she shared just how she balances her job, four kids, marriage and body. The story is an “As Told To” from Brooke to me to you.

Read Brooke’s whole story on Redbook.com, but here’s the opener to give you an idea of what you’ll be getting.

—Amy

Sometimes it’s hard to know when technology is helping our relationships (“Let’s meet 4 coffee in 15. C U soon!”) or hurting them (“Uh, sweetie? Can you put the iPhone down and come to bed?”). So, in the interest of making sure you use your tech with love and for love, I wrote this piece in this month’s Self magazine. The best part? It’s a quiz! (Take the quiz on Self.com now and find out where you stand—or sit—while you type.)

Enjoy and treat your friends and favorite gadgets well,

—Amy

I got to work on a really fun piece for the April 2011 issue of Real Simple magazine. The premise: How to stop procrastinating. (Gosh, how I love working on stories that help me personally, too.)

It seems simple, really: Those things on your To Do list? Just do them. But we all know something more is going on there, because somehow we just…can’t.

Which is why, for this piece, I got to delve a little deeper and talked to some procrastination experts—psychologists, brain experts, stress and time management specialists and a life coach—about what’s really behind why we put off for tomorrow what we know we should and can do today.

Check out the full story in this month’s issue of Real Simple. Start with this utterly fascinating start: The Science Behind Procrastination.

Then check out the 7 Strategies for Getting Things Done.

I hope you find some good stuff in here! I, for one, have gotten more productive having worked on the piece, so I hope the same happens to you from reading it!

—Amy