I don't know if you've had the chance to watch the show "Biggest Loser" but if you haven't then I highly recommend you do. It comes on NBC every Tuesday night at 8/7c and trust me it will be a great 2 hours! My husband and I have been watching this show almost since it first came on and although the format has changed a bit since the beginning, it's still pretty amazing.
I can remember watching it a few years back and crying at least once during every single episode. Crying you ask? Yes, crying. The changes these contestants make, the sacrifices they endure in order to better themselves and get healthy was unbelievable and inspiring. Contestants would continually drop 5, 10, 15 pounds a week and when they stepped on the scale for their weigh-in each week I would hold my breath and hope with all my might that they did well. When they did well I would scream and clap and cry because my heart would burst with happiness for them. So inspirational, so motivating those people.
I am talking in past tense only because we have noticed the format change some over the last few seasons. It seems to be more about game playing now and less about losing 100+ pounds and changing your life forever. We even stopped watching the show for a while because it seemed to have lost the magic. Good people, real people, who were overweight and obese didn't make for good television apparently. It seemed the producers started picking the overweight and obese people who wanted to win $250,000.00 more than they wanted to lose the weight.
This season, seems to be a good mix of both so we started watching it again. There are still a few contestants left who I'd like to just scream at... "Don't you realize there are people who would give their right arm to be in your shoes! People who can't even get up off their chair and can only watch you whine and complain week after week?" But for the most part most people on this season are committed to making lifestyle changes. As it gets closer and closer to the end of their time on the ranch, their results are already breathtaking. Take Tara for example, a former model. She came to the Biggest Loser ranch weighing 296 pounds... and now she's down to 186. 100 pounds in 12 weeks!?! Amazing.
The show is such an inspiration to those that watch it. Sure we don't all have time to work out 8 hours a day, every day. We don't get the luxury of having our refrigerators stocked with fruits and veggies and chicken and every single low calorie and healthy food imaginable. We don't have 2 world class trainers monitoring our every move and kicking our butt in the gym day in and day out. We also can't all afford the "Body Bugg" that you wear on your arm and it tracks your calories +/-. But you know what we do have? We have our family. We have our jobs, our friends, our kids, our home, our parents, and our significant others whenever we want them. Once you are chosen for the Biggest Loser you have to give up ALL of that for as long as you're on the show. No, they don't get to visit you every week, or call you every night. You are allowed zero contact with them whatsoever, unless the show does the occasionally challenge where you win a phone call with them, or an hour with them in the same room, but that is rare. So yes, losing 100 pounds in 12 weeks seems amazing to us, but they sacrifice A LOT to get there.
Did you know my sister and I tried out for the Biggest Loser? It was about a year and a half ago. They were looking for the next "Biggest Loser Couple" (husband/wife, co-workers, sisters, best friends, etc.) We thought we had a chance... pretty, funny, spunky. We actually made it past the first audition in Las Vegas and received a "call-back" for a 2nd audition in Los Angeles. Well, apparently we either didn't impress the casting directors on the 2nd try or we just weren't "big" enough to be on the Biggest Loser... we like to think it was option #2! Everything happens for a reason though, and look at us both now! I've lost 24 pounds in the past 6 weeks and she has lost 17 pounds. We made our own Biggest Loser ranch at home!
I downloaded the theme song that plays during their opening credits and I even had it as my ring tone for a while. Every time my phone rang and I heard those words it reminded me that I too can be a big loser! Now, I have it on my iPod and it's 1st in my work-out play list that I listen to at the gym. Just the first few notes of the song get me pumped and motivated and seems to start my work out on the right foot every time. I have added this song on my sidebar, so go take a listen if you haven't already. Oh, and start watching the Biggest Loser, you will fall in love with each person and strive to work as hard as they do on a daily basis.
What have you done today, to make you feel proud?
I am so glad to have you as my SIL. I just wish we lived closer! I loved reading about your take on TBL. I have not watched it, mainly because we have too many other TV addictions. But, the commercials always seem inspiring. I didn't know that you and your sister tried out! How fun to have tried. My co-workers think that Jeff and I should go on the Amazing Race. Jeff thinks that would be a bad idea, because our problem solving styles are so different that we would fight through the whole thing and it wouldn't be good for us. I would also LOVE to do survivor, but that whole leaving my family thing, makes it very much not worth it, as you pointed out with TBL.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the hard work!
Reality TV just wouldn't be the same without all the drama, right? As if working your arse off to try and lose weight and succeeding, or failing and getting voted off isn't enough. I loved the first few seasons where everyone became friends and helped each other and the drama was that they had to vote off one of their new close friends every week. I wish they could get back to that. I love watching the challenges and seeing everyone learn to work hard and succeed and seeing how much weight everyone loses and seeing the body transformations. I hate the game and the bickering and the fighting and people getting voted off. Megan suggested that we should do the Amazing Race, too, but i'm sure we'd have the inevitable meltdown, too, and get separated somewhere deep in Siberia.
ReplyDeleteGreat honey, now everyone will know where to come look for you when I come home from the Amazing Race alone...
ReplyDelete