Lee describes herself as having “no athletic background whatsoever,” and says she has struggled with her weight her entire life. She weighed 170 pounds when she got married, and continued to gain weight during both of her pregnancies, eventually reaching 200 pounds after the birth of her second child.
Why is she famous?
Jennifer is the new beauty icon for women of the future: Someone with a career, children, who is sexy, fun, happy, and fit. Crowned Ms. Bikini America 2004, Jennifer Nicole Lee (also known as JNL) brings the term M.I.L.F. to a whole new level. With swimsuit calendars, workout DVDs, magazine covers, a swimsuit line, endorsement deals, and her own book, JNL has clearly transformed herself from an overweight mom to a bodacious, international sex goddess.
Quick Bio
After giving birth to her second child, JNL decided to enlist herself in a bikini competition. She sculpted her body from overweight to overwhelmingly beautiful, losing a shocking 70 pounds and winning the bikini competition in 2004. “I wanted to prove the point that you can be a mother and still be sexy and fit,” she says. And that she did: Today, she is the one of the world’s most sought-after fitness models, and has posed for? Maxim, FHM? and? Body Fitness International. We sat down to chat with her about her new hot body, some fitness and diet tips, and the qualities she thinks make a man attractive.
Interview
What is your best asset?
I have to say it’s my smile because it’s something that’s carried me through thick and thin — literally. Even when I was heavier people would say, “Oh, you have such a nice smile”; it’s authentic and it’s genuine and it’s something that comes naturally to me. Everyone says, “Oh you smile so much,” but I’ve just always been very smiley.
How did a change in your physique affect your everyday life and what things can you do now that you couldn’t do before?
It just catapulted other areas of my life in the right direction. I knew that with the victory of losing weight I could do anything else, and that went into my family life, my career, my personal relationships, my professional relationships… and that was just like the first stepping stone on the right path. Knowing that I was successful in losing the weight [meant] that I could do anything else, so it really just helped me in other areas.
So now, in anything that I do in my life — professional, business, all my projects I’m working on — I have so much more confidence knowing that I can do it, that there is a way to accomplish it. Because, just through my weight-loss success story, I was able to do it. It didn’t happen over night, but it? did? happen, and now I’m onto my DVD series, my book, my swimwear line, my activewear line… just with those projects, I have more confidence, energy, stamina, endurance… all from having that inspirational weight-loss success story behind me. It just really helps in all areas of my life.
Could you name three things you had to give up in order to get where you are?
I love that… I had to give up unhealthy, negative people in my life — which really was a blessing. Number two, I had to give up crying and playing the victim — like a lot of people do, which is really [what] I had to [do to] become more self-accountable. And number three, I had to also give up a big idea that everyone lives by, which is that we will have the rest of our lives to do something. I had to shed that imaginary concept that, “Oh I will always have tomorrow,” because we really don’t have tomorrow, all we have is today. So I really worked on that mindset. I gave that mindset up.
What qualities do you think the man of the future should have?
Men need to understand that, sometimes being submissive to their female counterpartner can be very sexy — to kind of dilute the testosterone from, you know, the big 1980s machismo, macho icon — and that it’s not really appealing. You know what I mean? Men really believe the bigger and the badder I am, the more she’ll like me, but it’s really a front and we can smell it a mile away. We really like someone that is more intimate, that we can talk to, and I think that’s what they need to understand. Also that women find intelligence highly sexy; it’s not always about being in the sports bar or drinking and being with our buddies and downing our beers. That intelligence — having meaningful conversations — can lead you to the bedroom in no time, right? (Laughs)