Friday, March 20, 2009

Relating To The Biggest Loser

The Biggest Loser did not disappoint this week. The contestants went home and participated in a half marathon with $10,000 dollars going to the person with the fastest time.

A tin of sugar cookies was delivered to every one's home. Eating one cookie (370 calories) would shave five minutes off the time of a selected player.

Tara and Sione finished neck and neck. Tara's marathon time was 2:24:19 and Sione, impeded by a hamstring, finished at 2:25:57. Unfortunately for Tara, Helen ate a sugar cookie and it had her name on it. I like what Tara had to say when she finished the race.

I feel so accomplished. I did it. I did it. At 200 pounds, I ran a half marathon.
When Mike and Ron went home, I wept with Max, son of Ron and brother of Mike. He was sad that he was now the biggest person in his home and his father now weighs 337 pounds after losing 93.

I identified with Mike when he and his father went out to their favorite restaurant. The owner gave free pizza and beer to their party. Mike was like do you know where we've been? Mike had his hands clasped together and I could see the agony of trying to decided whether or not to indulge. In the end, Mike decided not to eat pizza.

Helen, the cookie-eater, was tempted by Polish food, including cake and bread.

Sione went to a restaurant and asked if they had whole wheat pasta. He also asked what kind of rice they served. I related to the attempts to find options. Sione selected salmon without butter and salt and doubled up on the vegetables.

Aubrey had a sobering visit with her father who used to be considerably smaller but now weighs over 500 pounds. Her father was having hash browns with lots of cheese plus ham fried in a grease pile for breakfast. Aubrey told her father I want you back but realized that he has to want a healthier life for himself.

At the weigh-in, wonder woman Tara only lost two pounds and started bawling again. Her trainer, Jillian, said that as the weeks went by, Tara was becoming more manic, over training, over thinking, overtaxing her body and not sleeping which resulted in her body putting on the brakes.

The Blue Team lost the weigh-in again. There was another selfless act though. I thought Aubrey was a goner for sure since she was not a part of the original Blue Team. Cathy, who only lost one pound, said that she could never vote for her daughter, Shannon, and that Aubrey had become like a daughter. So, she asked to be voted off. Wow. I'm glad that Cathy sacrificied herself for Aubrey who has five kids and precious little time to exercise when at home.

Sione and Filipe, who are still training with their not trainer Bob, only lost minimal amounts of weight. Jillian made a good point that something must not be working out for them with their not trainer. On previous seasons, Bob has had the stronger team but Jillian still managed to have The Biggest Loser emerge from her black tribe. So, it will be interesting to see if Bob's underdog team will emerge victorious.

Cathy said that the woman who came to The Biggest Loser campus thought exercising consisted of 15 minutes on the elliptical trainer and one mile on the treadmill; she had no idea of what she was in for. I'm sure that she didn't since it's reported The Biggest Loser contestants exercise about six hours a day.

Check out Cathy's new addiction:

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