The Biggest Loser

From its first season until now, I have always been a fairly casual observer of NBC's The Biggest Loser. I have seen probably 8 seasons in their entirety and seen bits and pieces of most of the other seasons. For those of you who do not know what it is, The Biggest Loser is a reality based contest show. The goal? To be the person who loses the most weight, pure and simple. Every season obese people come on the show and work out with renowned trainers and learn how to be healthy. They get weighed at the end of each episode and the team who loses has to send someone home. For 13 seasons, The Biggest Loser has been a staple of NBC programming.

I remember when I first heard about this show, I was hesitant. Then the first season started and it had the catch phrase "Time to trim the fat" and I felt like it was a show that was not taking the idea of obesity seriously. That catchphrase went away quickly, thankfully, but every year as I watched the show, something about it always felt off for me. I have been obese for most of my life. At my heaviest (early 20's), I was over 350 lbs. I know what it is like to be obese and I know what obese people go through. I always felt The Biggest Loser gave people a false idea of how weight loss worked. It made it seem like dropping 9-15 lbs a week was not only doable, but expected. It sets people up for failure by giving them unrealistic expectations. it does not show the viewer how to lose weigh at home when you work 8 hours a day, come home to a family and have 50 things going on. These are not excuses. Let me make that clear. This last year has shown me how possible it is to lose weight, once you figure it out, but The Biggest Loser takes a group of obese people away from their lives and tells them, "Lose the most weight and win $1000,000.00." It is your only focus when you are on that show and when you only have one focus, it is easier to spend all day in the gym. When stocks your fridge with healthy things, it is easier to eat them. I am not saying the show is bad, but it has always felt like the show sets people up for failure if they think the weight loss results on the show are realistic.

Every year I have watched this show with an attitude of "I wish I could do the things they are doing." I always watch it and think about how I should maybe just try and get on the show and that would fix my issues, which is another dangerous idea the show kind of plants in your head. It is shocking to me how many of the contestants say that they have been trying to get on the show for years. "Well if I cannot get on the show, I guess I just cannot lose the weight." Let me be clear, I think the show has great ideas and it is compelling television. It reduces me to tears on a weekly basis as I watch these people fight to get their lives back, but I have always watched it with the idea that you need that avenue to lose the weight. it has always been an unhealthy relationship for me.

Last year when I started to figure out how to get my life back, I thought about the show and how the contestants motivate themselves. I realized, they do not typically motivate themselves, the trainers help them breakdown their issues and motivate them. It is only after they confront the mental and emotional blocks that they have any success. Instead of wondering where my personal 24/7 trainer was, I realized that I could get myself through the emotional and mental roadblocks. I have detailed my internal struggles repeatedly on this blog, so I am not going to talk at length about them, but The Biggest Loser showed me that losing weight is, at most, a 70% physical thing. That 30% of mental/emotional is just as important. I did not have a trainer yelling at me, pushing me and telling me I deserved better. I had to do it myself. When you start to dissect your choices, you realize how much you have been holding yourself back.

Once I stopped thinking only about "I wish I could do that" and started saying "I can do that" or "I will be able to do that" so much opened up for me. Yes, the workouts on The Biggest Loser are a big part of the show, but in my life, I cannot replicate those. I do not have the access they do. I do not have entire days to give to just focusing on my health. I have the stress of daily life looming. I have to find a job, or pay bills, deal with car trouble, or whatever other issues come up in a day. But, I have understood what The Biggest Loser teaches about the mental hurdles. The trainers are therapists as well as trainers. The contestants break down and cry and feel worthless and then they build themselves up as they realize what they are capable of doing. This is the shows biggest asset. It shows us what we are capable of when we stop making excuses.

This year the show is focusing on childhood obesity and they have three young ambassadors to help show the struggle of young obese people. These three people are incredibly brave. When I was 13, I would have never gone on a national television show for being obese. I was too scared. The young boy representative looks too much like me when I was that age. I cannot imagine what he is going through when Bob Harper comes to visit him, but every week I just hope this kid can figure it out. There is nothing I want more than for young people to not go through what I went through at that age. No one deserves that. The show is doing a great thing with these kids though. They never put the kids on a scale. They are just trying to teach an active lifestyle and a healthier diet. it is really tough for me to watch, but also it fills me with hope because if these 12-16 year old kids can put themselves out there to try and end the cycle of obesity, so can I.

These last few weeks I have found myself hitting big milestones. Yesterday I reached a new one by running for 10 minutes nonstop. I am pretty sure I have never done that before. I am doing things I was sure I was not capable of doing. Of course, I never tried them, but look at me. I am too obese to run nonstop for 10 minutes. NO I AM NOT!! When I finished my workout, I went outside and just became overwhelmed with emotion. I could not even cry, that is how full of emotion I was. I thought to myself that anything the people on The Biggest Loser can do, I can do. In the last few weeks I have done a 15 minute mile, I have done a few sit-ups, and now I have run nonstop for 10 minutes. I watch The Biggest Loser with a different perspective now. I no longer say I wish I could do those things, I say that I know I can do those things. I know that 9-15 lbs of weight loss a week is unrealistic, but I do know that if I work out daily and eat better, that the weight will come off in time. The Biggest Loser is a sprint, but my life, my experience, is a marathon. 2013 has already thrown me a serious life curve ball, but I am strong enough to stay up. I will figure this out and now I will conquer the ever elusive 12 minute mile!