A Note to The Biggest Loser: Season 9

As promised, here’s some substance:

Dear Producers of The Biggest Loser,

One of your contestants completed your crazy “get ready for a marathon in 30 days” challenge in 4 hours and 2 minutes. He admitted to focusing on marathon training instead of losing weight. In my mind, that’s a smart choice since, you know, he’s about to run a marathon.

While training, he gained 2lbs (again, this is just over 30 days). Fact: you need to eat more when you’re training intensely. At the weigh-in, the trainers proceeded to act “confused” and be upset with him for gaining 2lbs. He is suddenly wrought with self-doubt, even after shattering the previous marathon record. And uh, I’d expect Bob and Jillian to be more understanding in the case of 26.2 miles. Bob with his “how did you gain weight, all you did was run!” statement was juuuust a tad frustrating.

I know that shows are all about the ratings… but come on, give the kid a break. Gaining weight while marathon training is not uncommon. And if you’re going to give the contestants a challenge that requires increased caloric intake (not to mention 2-3 days of carbo-loading while in the final days of the taper… aka hardly running at all), then inform the uninformed public about how common something like that is. Wow, Daris gained weight after eating at least 1000g of carbs in 3 days? SHOCKING. But he seemed well-fueled and had energy to pick it up at the finish. His late-night snacking probably didn’t help, but I honestly don’t think this is anything to sneeze at. (Forgive me for ending sentences with prepositions.)

But I forgot, this show is all about the numbers. We’ll just forget about Sam taking the at-home prize, because he’s already reached his goal weight and won’t continue to shrink in the name of winning a fat check. In reality, he probably really deserves the prize. The winners of the show aren’t determined based on physical fitness or body fat percentage, it’s based on overall percentage of weight lost. One too many contestants have shown up to the Finale looking almost sickly thin. What happened to the message of being healthy?

I love what the show does and what it inspires others to do in the overall scheme of things. But let’s start focusing on the people and their health instead of percentages, last-minute marathons, and product placements, mmmmkay?

-Kera

TBL Finale

I made a smart move and started watching this well after it started (my DVR was recording it). Recording = fast forward through commercials and all the other filler crap they show.

Initially, I was going to do a full rundown of each contestant along with before/after shots. But the after shots aren’t up on NBC’s site yet, and to be honest, I don’t remember much about the contestants from the first half of the season. So instead, I’ll just talk about what everyone else noticed: Tracey’s tiny figure. At first I didn’t recognize her and I thought she looked fantastic. I was happy for her, despite her craptastic behavior during the season. Then… then she smiled and she looked like a skeleton. As Cher from Clueless said,

“She’s a full-on Monet. It’s like a painting, see? From far away, it’s OK, but up close, it’s a big old mess.”

And that’s Tracey. From far away she rocked, and up close you were like OH GOD WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER. She looked sickeningly thin. I wouldn’t be surprised if she used some kind of fad diet/not eat at all in order to win the $100,000 at-home prize. And she almost had it! But then Rebecca happened.

Check out that pretty lady! I’m so glad she took home the prize. And I really hope she doesn’t revert to her comfort food of pizza and ranch dressing. Although she could stand to go back to her darker hair color. Blonde doesn’t work as well for her.

I think everyone knew that Amanda wasn’t going to win this thing. I was shocked she even made it to the final three with the low numbers she pulled all season. Granted, she was one of the lightest contestants there, but c’maaaaan. Danny totally deserved his win. I would have been happy with either Rudy or Danny, but after all the other records Rudy set, I’m glad Danny got the big win. The dude started out at 430 pounds and ended at 191. Now that’s something.

There was more I wanted to say, but this weather has me in perma-mental-block mode. It’s seriously disgusting outside. Let’s bring back that random 70° day, shall we?

HBBC Points for this week:
Monday: 0 (ahaha lazy)
Tuesday: 5 (3 miles, 30 minutes strength training, fruits/veggies)
Wednesday: 3.5 (projected- 30 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes strength, fruits/veggies)

4 miles. 39:35. Bliss.

You guys, I can’t even tell you how happy I am. I know that for some of you, this pace is like a walk in the park. But for me? I can’t even begin to tell you how thrilled I was with my 9:53 pace.

I really didn’t want to run tonight. I was tired, my muscles still somewhat sore from my step class mistake this weekend… but I had yesterday off, so it was time to run. I stepped on one treadmill at the gym and things felt totally off; my knees hurt and the incline felt wonky. Ugh. Time to switch. I moved to a different brand of treadmill and felt the same way. Okay, so it’s just me. Awesome start, Kera. In my head I whined and moaned for the first quarter mile or so. Then my WWJD (What Would Jillian Do) kicked in and I realized that if I keep on hating my run, it’s going to be a very long 3.75 miles to go. Zone in on what’s going on in my body, adjust my pace, don’t worry about finishing fast, just finish strong.

When the last 0.4 miles or so arrived, “Untouched” by The Veronicas started playing and I gradually kicked my speed up to 7.0. Once I hit the 4 mile mark, I slowed it on down to a walk and realized that I could totally keep going. But I shouldn’t. No no no, I have cross-training tomorrow. Don’t want to have dead legs. But I finished strong. And for me, I finished fast.

Okay totally new topic here… I’m not watching BL tonight because I know for a fact that I’ll pass out way before it’s over… so NO ONE SAY WHAT HAPPENS or I’ll be a sad panda. Ok thank you :)