Posted by Trish Milburn Feb 8 2012, 12:01 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn
This week’s excuse being tackled on The Biggest Loser (or as I am jokingly calling it The Biggest Whiner) was “I can’t lost weight on my own.” Those of you who regularly read posts here at The Healthy Writer know this isn’t true but is an oft-used excuse.
Let me just start off with this week’s instance of the pot calling the kettle black. This is what Conda said about Adrian: “Adrian has caused nothing but drama and chaos, and we don’t need that.” Now while she is correct that the show has been way dramatic since Adrian returned, I could not help a bit of a mouth-dropping-open moment. Conda calling out someone else for causing drama. Wow.
In this week’s challenge, the teams had to hold on to ropes holding up a weight that I believe weighed 240 pounds. Meanwhile, Bob and Dolvett were suspended several feet in the air over a pool filled with frigid water. I felt sorry for Bob who is famously afraid of heights. Whichever team dropped their weight first sent their trainer into the pool and lose that trainer for the entire week until the last-chance workout. That unfortunate trainer was Dolvett, so the red team were on their own. But Kim stepped into the spot of team leader and designed cardio and weight-training workouts for her teammates. What the red team didn’t know was that Dolvett was monitoring them via video feed. So he saw everything, right down to his list of 13 times Conda complained about something.
This week’s “trainer talks to an individual contestant about their feelings” moment was between Bob and Megan. He found out that Megan trains horses but is too big to ride them now. She’s always wanted to be a rodeo star, and she sees herself as ugly. Is Megan overweight? Yes. Is she ugly? No. But it showed how our negative perceptions of ourselves can keep us from realizing our dreams. Negative self-talk is extremely damaging to our self-esteem.
Bob took the black team on an intense hike and workout at one of the big parks in Los Angeles County. Daphne was feeling bad because she was coming in last and asked Bob what she could do to do better and prove to her teammates that she wasn’t slacking. He told her and the other members of her team that she needed to keep doing what she was doing, talk to her teammates about the support she needs, and just work hard. I really like how the black team seems to be embracing and accepting Daphne much more so than the red team was with Adrian. Granted, she is not a loudmouth and rubbing people the wrong way like him.
As a reward for their hard work, Bob sent his team off with nutritionist Rachel Heller. She gave them a lesson in how to make healthful choices when dining out. She began by asking each person what they would have ordered before coming to the ranch. Everyone was shocked by the astounding amount of calories those dishes added up to. Rachel said that when you open a menu, look for the things you need (vegetables, healthy fats, complex carbs, proteins) and eliminate the rest. Also, don’t be afraid to make changes to things on the menu. For instance, when ordering an omelet ask for it to be cooked dry, meaning that the cook uses a spray instead of butter to coat the pan. This will save you about 200 calories. As Cassandra said, the experience was “a complete eye-opener.”
At the weigh-in, the highest numbers went to Chism (13), Jeremy (12), Buddy (9) and Adrian (9). The black team won the weigh-in, sending the red team to the elimination room again. Since Conda had the highest percentage of weight loss, she was immune from the vote. I really thought it would be nearly a clean sweep for voting out Adrian, but a couple of people did vote for Mark (Adrian and Roy, who thought Mark had the fewest health problems to deal with). But no one really seemed to like Adrian, and I have to admit that he sort of dug his own grave. Even when it was obvious that the better course might have been to sit back and not say so much, he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He was defensive with everyone and confrontational. Even Dolvett pointed out to him that the way he was approaching his teammates was not the best way. But Adrian didn’t go quietly. As Buddy pointed out, he made a lot of excuses. He even tossed the fact that Mark is a youth pastor in Mark’s face, as if to say that he wasn’t acting very Christian-like. When Mark tried to walk out with him and talk to him, Adrian responded with “I don’t have anything to say to you.” It was one of the ugliest exits I’ve seen on the show.
All that said, I’m glad that Adrian has found success at home. No matter how someone acts on the show, I don’t wish for them to fail and continue to live an unhealthy life. So far he has lost 100 pounds, and he’s determined to win the at-home prize and lose more than the eventual winner of the Biggest Loser title.
It looks like next week is going to start off with some more confrontations between Daphne and her brother’s former team. I really hope it doesn’t go far though and doesn’t sour her own team on her. I think she works hard and seems to be trying harder to fit in well with her teammates.
As of six weeks in, my top players are Cassandra, Chism, Jeremy. Most of the others I like fine. Bottom of my list is, no surprise, Conda. Again, I do wish them all success though. This isn’t just a competition. It’s about changing their lives for the better so that they add years to those lives.
What did you think of last night’s episode?
Posted by Trish Milburn Feb 1 2012, 12:07 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn
I couldn’t decide whether to call last night’s episode of The Biggest Loser “The Drama” or “The Whining.” It begin the moment the aqua team came back and lost more than 50 combined pounds to make it onto the ranch. So many contestants were whining about it. No surprise, Conda was the front of the [...]
Posted by Trish Milburn Jan 25 2012, 12:01 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn
In a season where The Biggest Loser is making an attempt to tackle all the excuses people make to not take care of themselves, this week’s was the “I don’t have a gym membership” one. The aim of the episode was to show that you don’t have to have a gym membership to lose weight. [...]
Posted by Trish Milburn Jan 18 2012, 12:05 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn, weight loss
This week’s episode of The Biggest Loser tackled the excuse of “I don’t have time to eat healthy.” So of course they had a food temptation. Contestants were faced with a Chinese buffet. (Interesting tidbit: There are more than 41,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., more than McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King combined.) Whomever at [...]
Posted by Trish Milburn Jan 11 2012, 12:01 am in eating healthy, The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn, weight loss
I’m doing bullet points this week because I’m in crazy deadline mode this month, and my hair is on fire. * Alison told players that whoever has highest percentage of weight loss this week on the winning team gets to give immunity to someone on the losing team. * Alison asked for two volunteers from [...]
Posted by Trish Milburn Jan 4 2012, 12:01 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn
No Excuses. That’s the theme of the new season of The Biggest Loser, which started last night. And I think it’s a great one for all of us to adopt for this new year. Stop making excuses why you can’t work out. Stop making excuses why you can’t eat healthily. Stop making excuses why you [...]
Posted by Trish Milburn Dec 15 2011, 12:01 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn, weight loss
On Tuesday night, The Biggest Loser held its live finale for the season, a final battle that came down to Ramon, Antone and John. But first we checked in with the other contestants to see what their final loss numbers were and who would be competing for the at-home prize. This time around, they did [...]
Posted by Trish Milburn Dec 7 2011, 12:01 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn
Most of us can’t even fathom running a marathon, let alone people who were morbidly obese mere months ago. But that’s exactly what the contestants on The Biggest Loser did in last night’s episode. But before they got to that, we saw the the final four (Vinny, Antone, Becky and John) at home with their [...]
Posted by Trish Milburn Dec 6 2011, 12:01 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn
The week of Thanksgiving, I wasn’t able to watch the special episode they had of The Biggest Loser. It was a bit of a reunion show filled with visits with former favorite players, chats with the trainers, useful tips and insights, as well as some funny bloopers. But I kept the show on my TiVo [...]
Posted by Trish Milburn Nov 30 2011, 12:01 am in The Biggest Loser, Trish Milburn
The week on The Biggest Loser, we were down to the final five contestants in their final week on campus. So of course we had the “put the weight back on” challenge, which is always enlightening for the contestants. They realize how much harder it was to move, to breathe, to do simple things. As [...]
