When our beloved Jillian Michaels announced she was leaving The Biggest Loser at the end of the eleventh season we were heartbroken. How could our love affair with The Biggest Loser continue without America’s Toughest Trainer (her words, not ours)?

 

Well, the answer was far simpler than expected: Anna Kournikova.

 

The tennis superstar made an appearance in Jillian’s final season of The Biggest Loser, so her addition to the cast wasn’t entirely surprising. While her tennis play may not have always been the greatest, she’s proven a worthy replacement on the hit television show.

 

“When I was a competitive tennis player, I worked with the best nutritionists, coaches and sports psychologists,” Kournikova told Marquee earlier in the year. “I was always being told what to do, but now I tell people what to do. It brought me back to the discipline and organisation I had when I was a player, and you need that discipline to live a better, healthier life.

 

“I didn’t want to do Biggest Loser to be famous or be on a magazine cover, because I’ve already been through that. I wanted to live and breathe exercise and nutrition.  I wanted to play a role in helping people change their lives for the better.”

 

 

 

And change their lives she has. Despite being lumped with the older, slower folk this season, Anna’s done a great job thus far, keeping them injury-free as they continue to make mental and physical breakthroughs each week.

 

She doesn’t have the brutality our beloved Jillian brought to the show, but she’s been able to push her contestants to the limit week after week.

 

Women’s Health‘s November issue features Kournikova on the cover, and she shared three important tips for setting up a work out plan and sticking to it:

1. Envision the end game (“Think about how much stronger and healthier you’re going to be, how much more energy you’ll have… Get inspired.”);

2. Start slow (“Setting smaller, more realistic goals will give you a sense of accomplishment.”);

3. Get in the habit (“It makes you feel good about yourself.”).

 

Read more from Anna Kournikova (and download her free work out) over at the Women’s Health website.

 

Watch Anna Kournikova behind the scenes at her Women’s Health cover shoot:

 

Images via NBC and Women’s Health magazine