This week's episode was pretty mellow. Nothing exciting and no major twists - what happened? Maybe the writers were afraid that if there were too many surprises week after week, the contestants would get a heart attack. After all, they aren't in the best of shape. With the Olympics starting this week, it makes sense that the Biggest Loser would have an Olympic-themed week. The workouts, challenges and daily lessons all centered around the Olympics and the centered around a few of the athletes that will be competing.
Everyone was flown out to Colorado for a mini-vacation. They would be spending one week at the Olympic training center getting lessons on how the athletes train for the Olympics and what they ate. The contestants ate a special diet specially prepared for them (insert your own sarcastic remark here - I have none), and lived in luxury. How about I get fat so I can live in luxury as well?
This week's twist was that there would be a red line in addition to the dreaded yellow line. The yellow line doesn't look so terrible now, does it? Whoever falls below the red line automatically goes home and of course, the two that falls under the yellow line will be up for elimination.
After the contestants were introduced to their "haven" for the week, they met with a few athletes that would be competing in the Olympics and trained with them. The Olympian competitors went too easy on them, I think. Bob thought so too. Koli was obviously lacking determination throughout the workouts. It seems that he had a complex about John leaving and Koli deemed himself unworthy enough to continue on. If it were me, I'd be like "aw bummer, but at least I'm still here and my odds of winning went up."
The pop challenge was based on a sport from the Olympics (big shocker), an activity that stimulated speed skating. First three players to slide back and forth to 500 wins an advantage at the next challenge. Another big shocker - Grey and Red were up for 1st place. It was another close race. Melissa started off at the top and stayed at the top throughout the whole time. She made a blooper and tripped over herself, giving Koli the chance to jump ahead and win 1st place. Melissa won second and Sunshine (Yellow) won third. Sunshine sure started off with a bang after coming into the game pretty late. I'm hoping to see good things from her.
The advantage for the next challenge was this: 1st place would have a chance to give 3 shots; 2nd place would give 2 shots; and 3rd place would give 1 shot. This next challenge was based off another Olympic event. The players would run around a track and each time they completed the circle, they would pick up a rifle (armed with lasers, not real ammo) and shoot at a target. Their goal was to shoot at another player's 5 targets to get them out of the game. Of course, Melissa and Sunshine decided to gun (pun intended) for Koli because he was obviously the biggest threat. In return, Koli gave Melissa and Sunshine their shots back. Because Melissa had 2 opportunities, she used them both on Koli and Koli gave two back to Melissa. Sunshine gave one to Koli and he gave one back to her... with lots of love.
Going with the mellow theme they got going here, the prize for this challenge was immunity. Sure - Immunity is great but how about changing things up a little? Immunity has become a little bit boring. Right when the game started, everybody was aiming for Melissa. I guess with three shots out already, people didn't consider Koli a threat (yet). Melissa was the first one out and Koli was the second. Unlike most of the other challenges, this one didn't depend on your determination, strength and drive to win. This one was just whoever hated you the least.
After a short while, it was down to Yellow and Black - both of them dads. It was neck and neck. Both dads had four targets down; they were grunting and struggling to run that last lap. They both made it to their opponent's targets right about the same time, and Yellow took the first shot. Imagine the pressure to take a shot. One of them had to take a shot quicker than the other and there was the added pressure of actually making that shot. If one of them missed, it would have been over for them. Yellow aimed, fired and won. He received immunity and he was thrilled. But wait a second - weren't Yellow supposed to have immunity for two weeks in a row? Did I miss something here? Oh well.
After the challenge, the players went to do a last minute workout. Their workout was with a medalist figure skater and the workout was called "The Boot Camp Workout." I did one of those before - man, that was tough.
Did you hear something? I didn't. Wow - Jillian was quiet this week. No lecturing, no doctoring and definitely no counseling. Wow.
On to the weigh-in. Wouldn't it be funny if both members of a team fell below the red/yellow lines? Hmm, maybe it wouldn't be funny to them.
The numbers were much lower this week - most likely due to the mini-vacation they took. Miggy pulled a higher number than everybody else and this is two weeks after surgery. I'm thinking we'll see her pull out ahead of everybody else from now on. Maybe not.
It was down to Red again versus the others at the end. Melissa needed three to make it above the yellow line and she actually gained a pound. At this point, I wasn't surprised. This automatically forced her down below the red line - bye bye Melissa.
J said that it seemed pretty odd that she was prepped with a long-winded speech. Maybe she was just rambling on, saying whatever was on her mind at the moment, but it DID seem like a well-prepared going-away speech. Did she fall below on purpose? She spoke about missing her kids. For the on-camera interview she said that she knew she wasn't going to make it towards the end, and that she thought she'd at least make it a little bit longer. That would actually make sense - the biggest ones would stay the longest because they had more fat to lose. However, that isn't always true. Helen won the title and she wasn't even the top 4 biggest when her season started. John from this season was one of the biggest (tying with his twin brother for 2nd place) and he went home last week. Michael was the biggest person ever to step on campus and he was in extreme danger of going home (he fell below the yellow line). He would have left if it wasn't for his mother begging everybody to keep him there.
Anyways, after Melissa went home Ali announced that it was time for a twist. Orange (mom) and Black (dad) fell below and one of them has got to go. This time, there would not be an elimination but in staying with the Olympic spirit, there would be an elimination game. Whoever won the game would win the right to stay another week.
The game was that they had to balance a torch pole on their heads to "hold up" their torch. Whoever's torch pole fell first would be eliminated.
Who won? You'll just have to wait until next week to find out just like the rest of us....
Friday, February 12, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 5
This season has certainly not been lacking in drama. While drama may be the way to go (misery loves company), I was actually hoping for less drama this week. My philosophy with drama has always been this: If it doesn’t involve me, go have fun with it. However, with all the extra drama I’ve been hearing about lately, I’ve just about had it. Will this week’s episode grant me the serenity I’m looking for?
Right after the elimination, Miggy ended up in the hospital with stomach pains. Could it be separation anxiety? While she was carted off to the hospital, the remaining players geared up for another week of game-playing and losing weight. First things first, remember the two teams that got eliminated right at the start? Blue and Yellow came back to duke it out for another chance on campus. For those of you who suck at remembering things (like I do), Blue was a Mother/Daughter team and Yellow was a Father/Daughter team. The two teams were reintroduced to the remaining players and then… off to the weigh-in they go, right? Wrong.
For the first time ever (we have welcomed players late into the game before, but never like this), they headed straight to the gym to get their “Rite of Passage” as Bob delicately put it. Every Biggest Loser contestant that has stepped on campus has been subjected to a grueling work-out that is aptly titled “The Last-Chance Workout.” Heaven forbid that either Blue or Yellow would be eliminated again without experiencing anything like that.
Let’s focus on Ali for a little bit. I adore her and I love her character on Days of Our Lives. She’s pretty cute and I like her so much better than the first host… but (yes, there’s always a “but” with me)… what the heck was that outfit?! She looked like she stepped straight out of Starbucks with that black getup and a green apron/skirt thingie. Ali – fire your wardrobe person. Seriously.
This week’s “pop” challenge was actually the weigh-in of the Blue and Yellow teams. I don’t really know why but I felt drawn to the Yellow team and was rooting for them to win. In addition to winning a spot back on campus, there were some pretty heavy prizes. First – they would receive two weeks Immunity to guarantee at least a little chance at spending time on campus. Second – they would receive 100% of the voting power at the next elimination. Hot dang! This would immediately create plenty of room for the team to make enemies and there will certainly be lots of ass-kissing this week.
The weigh in results: Yellow won the weigh-in but not without some impressive results from the Blue team. The daughter lost 39 pounds all on her own at home in just one month while the house average is 45 pounds lost in the same amount of time. How about that? Yellow needed 61 pounds to lose in order to beat out Blue and the father alone lost 51 pounds. They certainly proved that they could do it at home. Will they do even better on campus? You have to love Bob. As soon as it was declared that Yellow won the weigh-in, Bob grinned and stated, “Ooh! Another victim!” Yeah. Have fun with that one, Yellow team.
OK – I cannot go a week without saying anything about Melissa. What happened!? She went from this uber-strong and determined girl to a super crybaby. Was Bob pushing too hard? Maybe – but with all the “unintentional” weight loss/gain issues she’s been having, you’d better know that Bob would do whatever he could to get that straightened out, including work her to death and finding that “niche” to get her body to respond.
After weeks of practically non-existence, Daris’ presence was finally acknowledged by Jillian. Yes, Jillian… and what does she do best? Welcome to another episode of “Dr. Jillian: What the Bleep is Wrong with My Contestants?” She went after poor Daris. She isn’t successful until she makes her “patients” cry and she hasn’t failed…yet.
Well, enough about Jillian. On to the challenge! One person on each team is chosen to hit a rotating tackling dummy 1,000 times. Should be easy, right? Ha! Nothing on the Biggest Loser is easy. The first team that gets to 1,000 wins Immunity (duh) and the last person to get 1,000 gets a 2 pound disadvantage. This was a fun one. I figured that Grey and Red would be the ones to watch. They’ve proven themselves time and time again and they are seriously strong competitors. When the game started, it was no surprise to see Red and Grey shoot up ahead of everybody. Throughout the entire game, they were neck and neck. Insert Mike: Mike is so huge – he didn’t even have to move back and forth like everybody else did. He stood in one place and hit the tackling dummies like they were nothing. He had a bad start… and slowly but surely, he rose to the top and eventually passed Red. Now we’re talking! Grey freaked out but remained strong. Mike eventually overtook Koli and made it to the top. Who’d have thunk it?
Aww, Mike was cute. He shouted out to the camera and said “I did it Mom!” He did a complete 180 – going from being a slacker to a hard-working contestant. He certainly earned his spot this week.
Miggy came back from the hospital after all this and announced that she had surgery. She had her appendix removed. They also found a cyst and some mass. Yikes. She was prohibited from having any heavy exercise. The only thing she could do at this point was walk. They should have kept Migdalia…The first thing Miggy did was wake up at 5:30am to walk. She set a goal to walk 20 miles that day. Mike decided to go along and walk with her for morale and support.
When Mike was walking along the path, he cracked a joke. “Hear that? Nothing. Because the birds are sleeping!” I hear ya, Mike. I wouldn’t be up at 5:30am either if it was my choice!
Later on at the weigh-in, we found out that she walked 13 miles one day after the surgery. She’s nuts! Actually, I probably wouldn’t blame her for being so determined. She had a post-surgery meeting and found out that they pumped about 8 to 9 pounds of fluid into her. That would certainly destroy her chances at making it through the weigh in. Talk about a potential death sentence of your time on campus.
This was a weird week. White had Immunity, Pink gained 2 pounds and Green went off to surgery. This week was truly an original week. Here’s another thing that’s weird. We usually see Jillian tackle one contestant per week. She probably has tried to take on more than one patient at once, but right now I don’t really remember if she has. Shortly after going after Daris, she went after Ashley. Welcome to Episode #2 - “Dr Jillian: What’s got Ashley all wound up?” Gag. Enough is enough.
The last-chance workout was pretty uneventful. It was kind of boring, even. I’m really starting to like Purple (but for the life of me, can’t remember her name). She was very positive and encouraging. She took up a leadership role and led some of the players on a particular workout. There’s always one or two of those each season. Last season was Coach Mo. He was awesome.
We have made it through the episode thus far without too much drama. So far, so good. Let’s see how the weigh-in went. With Yellow having the only vote, this weigh-in was particularly scary for all the other contestants. Yellow could be objective with their vote – not really knowing anybody and not having any grudges (yet). However, Dad said that he’ll vote whichever way that’ll help him in the long run. A self-proclaimed game player. Ouch. Wonder how that will turn out?
Highlights of the weigh-in:
Pink did well despite the 2 pound disadvantage. They lost 15 (not counting the 2 pounds). Will this be enough?
Red didn’t do so hot this week. Melissa lost 5 and Lance only lost 4. Melissa was not shy to admit that she was disappointed in Lance. What? Where was her support for her spouse? Did we see Lance say he was disappointed in Melissa when she only lost 1 pound? When she gained 1 pound? Please.
Red started to drop lower and lower on the board after more people weighed in. Will they finally be under the yellow line? My initial guess was that they would make it because Green had a bad week. I had no faith in Miggy losing enough to stay on campus another week. She had surgery, 8 or 9 pounds were added and then she couldn’t really work out. Making it another week would be impossible.
It was down to Red, Green and Brown (John). Who would stay and who would go? I was shocked to see that Miggy had lost 5 pounds. She was able to get rid of the surgery weight and plowed through the week by just walking. I have a renewed respect for Miggy now. Let’s hope she doesn’t mess it up again. Green’s success meant that Red would be on the bottom. Now it was truly down to Red and Brown.
I could imagine what Yellow was thinking. It might be better to have Brown to go under so they wouldn’t be faced with the task of eliminating either Melissa or Lance. Who knows? They might have gained lots of alliances by booting Melissa off.
It turned out that it was unnecessary to give Yellow 100% voting power. There was no need for an elimination because Brown didn’t lose enough. He needed more than 7 and only lost 6. Bummer.
It was sad to see him go, but I’m already looking forward to the next episode. John – you can do it. Come back and amaze us at the finale!
Right after the elimination, Miggy ended up in the hospital with stomach pains. Could it be separation anxiety? While she was carted off to the hospital, the remaining players geared up for another week of game-playing and losing weight. First things first, remember the two teams that got eliminated right at the start? Blue and Yellow came back to duke it out for another chance on campus. For those of you who suck at remembering things (like I do), Blue was a Mother/Daughter team and Yellow was a Father/Daughter team. The two teams were reintroduced to the remaining players and then… off to the weigh-in they go, right? Wrong.
For the first time ever (we have welcomed players late into the game before, but never like this), they headed straight to the gym to get their “Rite of Passage” as Bob delicately put it. Every Biggest Loser contestant that has stepped on campus has been subjected to a grueling work-out that is aptly titled “The Last-Chance Workout.” Heaven forbid that either Blue or Yellow would be eliminated again without experiencing anything like that.
Let’s focus on Ali for a little bit. I adore her and I love her character on Days of Our Lives. She’s pretty cute and I like her so much better than the first host… but (yes, there’s always a “but” with me)… what the heck was that outfit?! She looked like she stepped straight out of Starbucks with that black getup and a green apron/skirt thingie. Ali – fire your wardrobe person. Seriously.
This week’s “pop” challenge was actually the weigh-in of the Blue and Yellow teams. I don’t really know why but I felt drawn to the Yellow team and was rooting for them to win. In addition to winning a spot back on campus, there were some pretty heavy prizes. First – they would receive two weeks Immunity to guarantee at least a little chance at spending time on campus. Second – they would receive 100% of the voting power at the next elimination. Hot dang! This would immediately create plenty of room for the team to make enemies and there will certainly be lots of ass-kissing this week.
The weigh in results: Yellow won the weigh-in but not without some impressive results from the Blue team. The daughter lost 39 pounds all on her own at home in just one month while the house average is 45 pounds lost in the same amount of time. How about that? Yellow needed 61 pounds to lose in order to beat out Blue and the father alone lost 51 pounds. They certainly proved that they could do it at home. Will they do even better on campus? You have to love Bob. As soon as it was declared that Yellow won the weigh-in, Bob grinned and stated, “Ooh! Another victim!” Yeah. Have fun with that one, Yellow team.
OK – I cannot go a week without saying anything about Melissa. What happened!? She went from this uber-strong and determined girl to a super crybaby. Was Bob pushing too hard? Maybe – but with all the “unintentional” weight loss/gain issues she’s been having, you’d better know that Bob would do whatever he could to get that straightened out, including work her to death and finding that “niche” to get her body to respond.
After weeks of practically non-existence, Daris’ presence was finally acknowledged by Jillian. Yes, Jillian… and what does she do best? Welcome to another episode of “Dr. Jillian: What the Bleep is Wrong with My Contestants?” She went after poor Daris. She isn’t successful until she makes her “patients” cry and she hasn’t failed…yet.
Well, enough about Jillian. On to the challenge! One person on each team is chosen to hit a rotating tackling dummy 1,000 times. Should be easy, right? Ha! Nothing on the Biggest Loser is easy. The first team that gets to 1,000 wins Immunity (duh) and the last person to get 1,000 gets a 2 pound disadvantage. This was a fun one. I figured that Grey and Red would be the ones to watch. They’ve proven themselves time and time again and they are seriously strong competitors. When the game started, it was no surprise to see Red and Grey shoot up ahead of everybody. Throughout the entire game, they were neck and neck. Insert Mike: Mike is so huge – he didn’t even have to move back and forth like everybody else did. He stood in one place and hit the tackling dummies like they were nothing. He had a bad start… and slowly but surely, he rose to the top and eventually passed Red. Now we’re talking! Grey freaked out but remained strong. Mike eventually overtook Koli and made it to the top. Who’d have thunk it?
Aww, Mike was cute. He shouted out to the camera and said “I did it Mom!” He did a complete 180 – going from being a slacker to a hard-working contestant. He certainly earned his spot this week.
Miggy came back from the hospital after all this and announced that she had surgery. She had her appendix removed. They also found a cyst and some mass. Yikes. She was prohibited from having any heavy exercise. The only thing she could do at this point was walk. They should have kept Migdalia…The first thing Miggy did was wake up at 5:30am to walk. She set a goal to walk 20 miles that day. Mike decided to go along and walk with her for morale and support.
When Mike was walking along the path, he cracked a joke. “Hear that? Nothing. Because the birds are sleeping!” I hear ya, Mike. I wouldn’t be up at 5:30am either if it was my choice!
Later on at the weigh-in, we found out that she walked 13 miles one day after the surgery. She’s nuts! Actually, I probably wouldn’t blame her for being so determined. She had a post-surgery meeting and found out that they pumped about 8 to 9 pounds of fluid into her. That would certainly destroy her chances at making it through the weigh in. Talk about a potential death sentence of your time on campus.
This was a weird week. White had Immunity, Pink gained 2 pounds and Green went off to surgery. This week was truly an original week. Here’s another thing that’s weird. We usually see Jillian tackle one contestant per week. She probably has tried to take on more than one patient at once, but right now I don’t really remember if she has. Shortly after going after Daris, she went after Ashley. Welcome to Episode #2 - “Dr Jillian: What’s got Ashley all wound up?” Gag. Enough is enough.
The last-chance workout was pretty uneventful. It was kind of boring, even. I’m really starting to like Purple (but for the life of me, can’t remember her name). She was very positive and encouraging. She took up a leadership role and led some of the players on a particular workout. There’s always one or two of those each season. Last season was Coach Mo. He was awesome.
We have made it through the episode thus far without too much drama. So far, so good. Let’s see how the weigh-in went. With Yellow having the only vote, this weigh-in was particularly scary for all the other contestants. Yellow could be objective with their vote – not really knowing anybody and not having any grudges (yet). However, Dad said that he’ll vote whichever way that’ll help him in the long run. A self-proclaimed game player. Ouch. Wonder how that will turn out?
Highlights of the weigh-in:
Pink did well despite the 2 pound disadvantage. They lost 15 (not counting the 2 pounds). Will this be enough?
Red didn’t do so hot this week. Melissa lost 5 and Lance only lost 4. Melissa was not shy to admit that she was disappointed in Lance. What? Where was her support for her spouse? Did we see Lance say he was disappointed in Melissa when she only lost 1 pound? When she gained 1 pound? Please.
Red started to drop lower and lower on the board after more people weighed in. Will they finally be under the yellow line? My initial guess was that they would make it because Green had a bad week. I had no faith in Miggy losing enough to stay on campus another week. She had surgery, 8 or 9 pounds were added and then she couldn’t really work out. Making it another week would be impossible.
It was down to Red, Green and Brown (John). Who would stay and who would go? I was shocked to see that Miggy had lost 5 pounds. She was able to get rid of the surgery weight and plowed through the week by just walking. I have a renewed respect for Miggy now. Let’s hope she doesn’t mess it up again. Green’s success meant that Red would be on the bottom. Now it was truly down to Red and Brown.
I could imagine what Yellow was thinking. It might be better to have Brown to go under so they wouldn’t be faced with the task of eliminating either Melissa or Lance. Who knows? They might have gained lots of alliances by booting Melissa off.
It turned out that it was unnecessary to give Yellow 100% voting power. There was no need for an elimination because Brown didn’t lose enough. He needed more than 7 and only lost 6. Bummer.
It was sad to see him go, but I’m already looking forward to the next episode. John – you can do it. Come back and amaze us at the finale!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 4
When someone's health (and game) is on the line, you would think that they'd do whatever they needed to, right? Last week we saw two teams playing a dangerous game of risk, a game that might have meant the end for them. It wasn't much of a surprise to see Red (namely Melissa) play the game and succeed. Michael took a shot at playing, but he didn't do so well. He assumed he was safe from being weighed in so he slacked off. As a result, he lost his mother. Not only he lost his mother, he probably hurt himself a little bit in the process. When it comes to your health, you shouldn't be playing games. Did he wake up? We'll find out soon enough.
There was a pop challenge right off the bat and again, immunity was at stake. Immunity is always a highly coveted prize but I think that especially after the last few weeks, the contestants would want to make sure that Melissa didn't get immunity again. The contestants walked around a one-mile loop and each time they went around, they collected a card. That card would be inserted into a machine at the end of every trip and the contestants would either get a green checkmark or a red X. The goal was to receive three checkmarks. They would each have to walk at least three miles before they could complete the challenge.
My early prediction was that Red would receive immunity. Who else? Red seems to be the "Tara" of this season, although their track record isn't as great as hers yet. Sure enough, Red won the challenge, and they were given an additional prize. This was probably the meanest prize that has existed on the show so far (or that I remember). Red had the power to give out three things: a 2 pound disadvantage, no access to the gym, and no voting power at the elimination. They could give one to three different teams or give two to one particular team or even give all three to one team. Wow. This would certainly make some enemies for Red team.
After the recent drama, Red was redeemed (in my opinion) by giving out the disadvantages as fairly as possible. The no gym access was given to John because the vast majority of his workouts are in the pool anyway. Due to his bad knees and poor health, he is not able to work out much on the heavy-duty equipment. Mike lost his voting power for the next elimination, which also made sense. Right after losing his mother, he received lectures from almost everybody else about how he shouldn't be playing games when his health is on the line. Red felt that Mike might be holding grudges over the next week and that would get in the way of him voting wisely at the next elimination. No surprise here – Red gave the 2 pound disadvantage to the Green team. Green was NOT happy about it, but really, who would be happy about getting that disadvantage? Red explained that since Green didn't do so hot the previous week, they had great potential to lose additional weight at the next weigh in. Red was confident that Green would do well enough to overcome the disadvantage. From their perspective, that was feasible and a pretty good excuse, but it had to be personal too. How could it not?
This episode has been nothing but drama! Jillian sure knows how to make enemies. It’s ok to have strong opinions about things and I certainly wouldn't want to be treated like I’m stupid but again, I believe Jillian came on too strong. Ever hear of just agreeing to disagree, Jillian? She was so adamant about getting Melissa to tell the truth. Actually, she wanted to Melissa admit to the truth that Jillian believed was the truth. Forget whether Melissa was lying or not, the point is that Jillian should have just let things be. It got to the point where Lance didn't want to work with her anymore. I probably would have felt the same way, but I think that Lance is hurting himself in the process. Jillian has a proven track record of getting these people to lose weight successfully. 7 out of 8 seasons so far, the contestants that won the title were trained by her. That has to count for something. This isn’t the first time a contestant walked away from her. Season 7’s Sione and Filipe walked away when they lost respect for her. She went after Filipe and she went after him hard. She probably means well but she should tone it down.
After the big confrontation between Melissa and Jillian, Melissa wanted to talk about it. She casually told Lance “put your book down, I want to talk about it” and like an obedient husband, he promptly put his book down and focused 100% of his attention on her. Wow. She trained him well.
Next, there was another challenge and the prize this time was phone calls home. Not only that, the winning team would have the power to give out phone calls to three teams. When that was announced, everybody assumed that if another team won, they wouldn’t be one of the three to get the prize. I’m guessing that none of them have any real allies. I haven’t seen any real bonding between any of the contestants. They’ve all just mainly stuck with their own partner and ignored everybody else. Needless to say, when the challenge started, everybody started off with a bang, giving their all so that they could win that phone call home. The challenge was that they had to use their strength to pull themselves up to the top of a big pulley. At this point, I didn’t have any predictions on who was going to win. This was all brute strength and the will to win. I believed that everybody had the will to win. When there’s a will, there’s a way.
Sam & Koli ended up winning the challenge (and it was such a close race!), so they were given the opportunity to make some allies. If they chose wisely, they’d be setting themselves up to become friends with people that would help them later on in the game. So far, this is the fairest group of contestants that I’ve seen. Sam & Koli handed out the prizes according to whom they felt needed it the most. I have to say that I agree with their choices (for the most part). The three prizes went to Red, Green and John. Red because they have 2 kids at home, Green because Migdalia has kids at home and a husband that was leaving for Afghanistan and John because he lost his brother the first week.
Bob came in and announced that everybody should fill up their water bottles because they were going on a trip. Immediately, I knew that he would be taking everybody to Subway. Bob has become predicable in many ways, one of which he’d take everybody to Subway and give them tips on how to eat healthy when they’re out of the house. After a nice meal, Bob announced that they would be doing their last minute workout on a huge hill. I wonder if Bob had John in mind since John didn’t have access to the gym that week. It was nice to see John be able to participate in that workout. After they were done, Jillian found them and announced that she had a workout of her own. Yikes. TWO last chance workouts. Not fun.
Finally, it was time for the weigh in. At this point, it just wouldn’t make sense to NOT keep track of Melissa’s weight loss. This time around she lost 11 and Lance lost 6. That would have been impressive, but we have to remember that over the last two weeks, Melissa has lost zero. She was due for some weight loss. Melissa HAD to lose some weight because if she didn’t, no doubt everybody would know 100% for sure that she was up to something. After all, she had immunity again. Why bother losing weight if it didn’t count, right? What everybody probably didn’t notice was that Lance only lost 6. He has done exceptionally well so far. Of course, weight loss can be unpredictable. We’ve seen people lose weight in the double digits for several weeks in a row only to be slapped in the face with just a weight loss of 2 pounds. It’s my thinking that since everybody’s attention is on Melissa and her weight loss pattern, people probably wouldn’t give much thought to Lance. What if Melissa set it up to where she’d lose enough weight to throw attention off of herself and have Lance “save” some of his weight loss for next week? It would be his weight loss next that that would save them. Could it be?
I want to see Daris make it to makeover week. I want to see him get rid of that mess on his head that’s called hair.
We haven’t seen much of Black, Orange and Purple this week. It isn’t really all that surprising because the camera goes where the drama is, but I’m wondering just when they’ll get their 15 minutes of fame. The quiet ones deserve some attention too.
The weigh in all came down to Pink and Green battling it out for that last slot right above the yellow line. Honestly, at this point, I didn’t care who went below because I wouldn’t miss either one of these 4 contestants. I certainly wouldn’t miss Green’s attitudes.
Green ended up being down below the yellow line with 4 pounds under what was needed. Green gave Red a pretty hard time about the 2 pound disadvantage and at the end, that 2 pound didn’t matter. Even without the 2 pounds, they would have still been under the yellow line. That didn’t stop them from cussing Red out and exhibiting some pretty nasty attitudes. Man, I thought Tracey was bad.
I actually wonder what Ali thinks about all this. She works on a soap opera, which is pretty hilarious to me.
I was hoping that Miggy would be the one to go home. Everybody could do without her attitude and without her prodding her daughter to “stay strong.” During the weigh in, Migdalia became emotional because she knew that either she or her mom would be going home. Miggy kept telling her “don’t cry.” Why!? What’s wrong with showing sadness? I guess it's a part of their culture. A culture where women are one of the "boys" or where women are expected to be strong. Strong women are admirable but come on! Or maybe women are so oppressed in their culture that they feel that they have to be overly strong to...whatever. At this point - I don't care. They've got to go.
I truly believe that Migdalia would do well on the ranch with her mother gone. Maybe not at first – she would (for sure) exhibit bitterness and give everybody a hard time – but eventually, she would soften up (I hope) and improve while on the ranch.
She ended up telling everybody that she wanted to go home and that they please vote her off. Like the obedient robots they are, everybody listened. When will they actually think for themselves for once?
Stay tuned!
There was a pop challenge right off the bat and again, immunity was at stake. Immunity is always a highly coveted prize but I think that especially after the last few weeks, the contestants would want to make sure that Melissa didn't get immunity again. The contestants walked around a one-mile loop and each time they went around, they collected a card. That card would be inserted into a machine at the end of every trip and the contestants would either get a green checkmark or a red X. The goal was to receive three checkmarks. They would each have to walk at least three miles before they could complete the challenge.
My early prediction was that Red would receive immunity. Who else? Red seems to be the "Tara" of this season, although their track record isn't as great as hers yet. Sure enough, Red won the challenge, and they were given an additional prize. This was probably the meanest prize that has existed on the show so far (or that I remember). Red had the power to give out three things: a 2 pound disadvantage, no access to the gym, and no voting power at the elimination. They could give one to three different teams or give two to one particular team or even give all three to one team. Wow. This would certainly make some enemies for Red team.
After the recent drama, Red was redeemed (in my opinion) by giving out the disadvantages as fairly as possible. The no gym access was given to John because the vast majority of his workouts are in the pool anyway. Due to his bad knees and poor health, he is not able to work out much on the heavy-duty equipment. Mike lost his voting power for the next elimination, which also made sense. Right after losing his mother, he received lectures from almost everybody else about how he shouldn't be playing games when his health is on the line. Red felt that Mike might be holding grudges over the next week and that would get in the way of him voting wisely at the next elimination. No surprise here – Red gave the 2 pound disadvantage to the Green team. Green was NOT happy about it, but really, who would be happy about getting that disadvantage? Red explained that since Green didn't do so hot the previous week, they had great potential to lose additional weight at the next weigh in. Red was confident that Green would do well enough to overcome the disadvantage. From their perspective, that was feasible and a pretty good excuse, but it had to be personal too. How could it not?
This episode has been nothing but drama! Jillian sure knows how to make enemies. It’s ok to have strong opinions about things and I certainly wouldn't want to be treated like I’m stupid but again, I believe Jillian came on too strong. Ever hear of just agreeing to disagree, Jillian? She was so adamant about getting Melissa to tell the truth. Actually, she wanted to Melissa admit to the truth that Jillian believed was the truth. Forget whether Melissa was lying or not, the point is that Jillian should have just let things be. It got to the point where Lance didn't want to work with her anymore. I probably would have felt the same way, but I think that Lance is hurting himself in the process. Jillian has a proven track record of getting these people to lose weight successfully. 7 out of 8 seasons so far, the contestants that won the title were trained by her. That has to count for something. This isn’t the first time a contestant walked away from her. Season 7’s Sione and Filipe walked away when they lost respect for her. She went after Filipe and she went after him hard. She probably means well but she should tone it down.
After the big confrontation between Melissa and Jillian, Melissa wanted to talk about it. She casually told Lance “put your book down, I want to talk about it” and like an obedient husband, he promptly put his book down and focused 100% of his attention on her. Wow. She trained him well.
Next, there was another challenge and the prize this time was phone calls home. Not only that, the winning team would have the power to give out phone calls to three teams. When that was announced, everybody assumed that if another team won, they wouldn’t be one of the three to get the prize. I’m guessing that none of them have any real allies. I haven’t seen any real bonding between any of the contestants. They’ve all just mainly stuck with their own partner and ignored everybody else. Needless to say, when the challenge started, everybody started off with a bang, giving their all so that they could win that phone call home. The challenge was that they had to use their strength to pull themselves up to the top of a big pulley. At this point, I didn’t have any predictions on who was going to win. This was all brute strength and the will to win. I believed that everybody had the will to win. When there’s a will, there’s a way.
Sam & Koli ended up winning the challenge (and it was such a close race!), so they were given the opportunity to make some allies. If they chose wisely, they’d be setting themselves up to become friends with people that would help them later on in the game. So far, this is the fairest group of contestants that I’ve seen. Sam & Koli handed out the prizes according to whom they felt needed it the most. I have to say that I agree with their choices (for the most part). The three prizes went to Red, Green and John. Red because they have 2 kids at home, Green because Migdalia has kids at home and a husband that was leaving for Afghanistan and John because he lost his brother the first week.
Bob came in and announced that everybody should fill up their water bottles because they were going on a trip. Immediately, I knew that he would be taking everybody to Subway. Bob has become predicable in many ways, one of which he’d take everybody to Subway and give them tips on how to eat healthy when they’re out of the house. After a nice meal, Bob announced that they would be doing their last minute workout on a huge hill. I wonder if Bob had John in mind since John didn’t have access to the gym that week. It was nice to see John be able to participate in that workout. After they were done, Jillian found them and announced that she had a workout of her own. Yikes. TWO last chance workouts. Not fun.
Finally, it was time for the weigh in. At this point, it just wouldn’t make sense to NOT keep track of Melissa’s weight loss. This time around she lost 11 and Lance lost 6. That would have been impressive, but we have to remember that over the last two weeks, Melissa has lost zero. She was due for some weight loss. Melissa HAD to lose some weight because if she didn’t, no doubt everybody would know 100% for sure that she was up to something. After all, she had immunity again. Why bother losing weight if it didn’t count, right? What everybody probably didn’t notice was that Lance only lost 6. He has done exceptionally well so far. Of course, weight loss can be unpredictable. We’ve seen people lose weight in the double digits for several weeks in a row only to be slapped in the face with just a weight loss of 2 pounds. It’s my thinking that since everybody’s attention is on Melissa and her weight loss pattern, people probably wouldn’t give much thought to Lance. What if Melissa set it up to where she’d lose enough weight to throw attention off of herself and have Lance “save” some of his weight loss for next week? It would be his weight loss next that that would save them. Could it be?
I want to see Daris make it to makeover week. I want to see him get rid of that mess on his head that’s called hair.
We haven’t seen much of Black, Orange and Purple this week. It isn’t really all that surprising because the camera goes where the drama is, but I’m wondering just when they’ll get their 15 minutes of fame. The quiet ones deserve some attention too.
The weigh in all came down to Pink and Green battling it out for that last slot right above the yellow line. Honestly, at this point, I didn’t care who went below because I wouldn’t miss either one of these 4 contestants. I certainly wouldn’t miss Green’s attitudes.
Green ended up being down below the yellow line with 4 pounds under what was needed. Green gave Red a pretty hard time about the 2 pound disadvantage and at the end, that 2 pound didn’t matter. Even without the 2 pounds, they would have still been under the yellow line. That didn’t stop them from cussing Red out and exhibiting some pretty nasty attitudes. Man, I thought Tracey was bad.
I actually wonder what Ali thinks about all this. She works on a soap opera, which is pretty hilarious to me.
I was hoping that Miggy would be the one to go home. Everybody could do without her attitude and without her prodding her daughter to “stay strong.” During the weigh in, Migdalia became emotional because she knew that either she or her mom would be going home. Miggy kept telling her “don’t cry.” Why!? What’s wrong with showing sadness? I guess it's a part of their culture. A culture where women are one of the "boys" or where women are expected to be strong. Strong women are admirable but come on! Or maybe women are so oppressed in their culture that they feel that they have to be overly strong to...whatever. At this point - I don't care. They've got to go.
I truly believe that Migdalia would do well on the ranch with her mother gone. Maybe not at first – she would (for sure) exhibit bitterness and give everybody a hard time – but eventually, she would soften up (I hope) and improve while on the ranch.
She ended up telling everybody that she wanted to go home and that they please vote her off. Like the obedient robots they are, everybody listened. When will they actually think for themselves for once?
Stay tuned!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 3
Just when I thought The Biggest Loser was losing its touch, I was pleasantly proved wrong. Tuesday is the longest day of the week for me, but that's ok. It's actually one of my favorite days because I have something excellent to look forward to at the end of the day. I wake up at 5:45am (if I can) so I can get to work at 7am. I work until 5pm then I have an hour to drive over to LBDCC for my GED class. Most times I either forget my dinner or don't have time to eat. I teach English and Math until about 8pm then I rush home to catch The Biggest Loser on DVR. Last night was no different, except for one thing...
P kept texting me and telling me that the show was really interesting. The first time she texted me, I thought "ok, cool." Then when I was driving home, she texted me again and said that the show was really good! That's when I got excited. Earlier, I decided to stop at Panda Express because I haven't had any dinner, so it looked like I was going to have an excellent meal to accompany an excellent episode. Awesome!
The show opened typically to some people going about their usual routine. The first big thing they did was a temptation challenge. What's a Biggest Loser show without any temptations? I look forward to these challenges every season. It's hilarious watching everybody turn against the person who won (because whoever wins ALWAYS gets a really nice prize) and the trainers go nuts when they hear how much food everybody's eaten. So anyway, the temptation was to eat a piece of candy at 5 calories each during each round. The rounds would continue until one person was left standing. The prize was this: the power to choose the teacher/student roles for each team. Before the game, everybody was informed that for each team, one person would be the teacher and the other would be the student. The teachers would be working with the trainers, learning everything they need to teach their students. The students would not be allowed to talk to or see the trainers at all. They would receive all their training and education from their teachers. AND only the students would be weighing in this week. How cool is that? Very unique.
Immediately, almost everyone bowed out of the game. Everyone except Pink and White. I was disappointed because I wanted to see a good game. I was left with wondering how long Pink and White would last. Would one quit almost right away or would they go head to head forever? During commercial, I wondered who might be more fair with assigning roles. Would Michael be compassionate? I was thinking that Michael looked nicer than the Pink team - but I could be wrong.
The challenge was over in two rounds - probably the quickest challenge to date. Pink won the challenge with only 10 calories eaten. TEN! Michael gave up too easily in my opinion, but he had an extremely good point. He didn't want to be saddled with the responsibility of making everybody mad at him. Remember Tracey? I think Pink did well with the assigning of the roles. I didn't agree with some of their decisions (picking mostly men to weigh in), but I commend them on not making everybody too pissed off at them. It was especially fun to see Bob and Jillian miss out on an opportunity to yell at everybody for making dumb decisions during the temptation challenge. They actually laughed and said they can't get mad at 10 calories. 10 calories is nothing.
Speaking of being pissed off, Migdalia had a huge chip on her shoulder. She didn't agree with Pink's decision to put her mother on the scale. She was stomping around and pouting like a big baby. Jillian noticed this (like she misses anything) and decided to make it her personal goal to set Migdalia off. Jillian told Bob that she KNOWS that Migdalia would walk right out of the gym if she was pushed too far, but she decided to go on ahead and see if she could push Midgalia's buttons. Her goal was to make Migdalia show her emotions (in other words, cry like a baby) and she did it well.
The first thing she did was tell Migdalia that her daughter would be fat just like her. That was a low blow, even for Jillian. What a shame. It was apparent that Migdalia didn't want to talk about her personal issues on national television but Jillian was immune to that. She kept pushing and pushing until Migdalia finally cracked. Feel better, Jillian? Honestly, she needs to give up playing Dr. Jillian and stop assuming that everybody has a deep psychological reason for being fat. Maybe a lot of them do, but maybe not everybody. Maybe Migdalia just likes food.
When Migdalia finally cracked, she said she was quitting the game (big shocker). Jillian panicked and sent Bob in to "close the deal" - i.e. to fix Jillian's mistakes. Being the savvy, soft-spoken person he is, he convinced Migdalia to stay and to give the ranch another chance. No surprise there.
Things cooled down and another challenge made its way onto campus. This one was a fun one! The objective was to wind 1,000 feet worth of ribbon all around a children's playground. The teacher on each team would be doing the winding and each had to make it as complicated as possible. Michael was crafty - he wound his white ribbon all around the other color ribbons, causing them to make complicated knots. When it came to complicated - he was the man! The prize for this fun game was immunity (Really? Again? You'd think that after 2 immunities in a row, there would be a different prize this time). Here's the clincher... the team that won immunity would also win the power to flip the teacher/student role for one team. This is great - more twists and turns. If it was me playing, I would have swapped out the Pink team just for fun - because they're the ones who intially decided who would be the teacher and the student for their team.
Think that the twists and turns were over now? Not yet! After all the teams aggressively wound up all their ribbons, Ali announced (ha ha - I LOVE this!) that each team would be unwinding their own ribbon! The students would have to unwind what their teacher did. Maria looked at her son and goes "backfire, boom!" That was hilarious!
Right before the game was coming to an end, the show cut to commercial and previews showed Bob yelling at a hidden contestant and saying "This is NOT a joke!" Immediately, my roommate and I guessed that the Red team won the challenge and got immunity again. As a result, Melissa would throw the weigh-in again to save her weight loss for when it really mattered. So - after commercials, the game continued and the Gray team (Sam and Koli) ended up winning. They remind me SO much of Sione and Filipe. I immediately guessed that Sam & Koli would choose to switch the white team. Earlier in the episode - Sam and Koli was disgusted that Michael seemed to be floating around the gym, not working his butt off because he wasn't going to be weighed in this week. Sure enough, at the weigh-in, Sam & Koli chose the White team to switch roles. Michael - one word for you: Backfire!
The weigh-in was a very interesting end to a very interesting episode. P - you weren't wrong! :) The weigh-in itself for each team wasn't so surprising. Everybody lost considerably less weight than the first two weeks, but that was expected. There wasn't much excitement until Red stepped on the scale. Remember how I said I liked the Red team? There's just something about them - they are strong competitors and probably well-liked by people they've come across. However, now I think I may like them less. Sure enough, Melissa didn't lose weight. Actually - she lost one pound but that is to make up for the 1 pound she GAINED last week. Why did she only lose one pound? Because her weight didn't count this week. It was her husband, Lance, would be weighing in for their team. Lance did well - way to go - but Melissa was just pathetic.
Melissa stood there and expressed disappointment in the inability to lose weight. The first week was awesome but the second and third week were mundane. Gee - I wonder why!? Ali started to speak but Jillian was pretty pissed off. She interrupted and said that Melissa is just shitting everybody. I definitely agree with Jillian on this one. I personally think that Melissa was insane. With the knowledge that Sam & Koli could choose ANY team to switch roles - she still slacked off. She was extremely lucky. If Sam & Koli had chosen the Red team to switch roles, they would have been below the yellow line - no question. Jillian and Bob were yelling at Melissa but decided to stop - what was the point? Melissa does what Melissa wants to do. After all this, Red still got the top spot on the weigh-in board. Wow.
Michael was last to weigh in. He needed 13 to win but only got 10. That'll teach everybody not to float around when you think you're safe from being weighed in. Treat each week as if your life depended on it. Actually, Michael's life does depend on it. Guess he doesn't really realize that.
So - the Pink team chose everybody's roles as well as roles for themselves. Did they choose right? Will they prevail? They only needed to lose 8 and lost 12. That put them at the top of the list - they did good.
This means that White lost the weigh-in and that one of them would go home. The obvious choice was Michael because over the past few weeks, he has failed to prove that he wanted to be on campus and that he even cared about losing weight. It made sense to keep Maria - but as a typical mother, she begged everybody to keep Michael and to let her go. Eventually, everybody respected Maria's wishes and kept Michael....
Did Sam and Koli's tactic work? Did they scare Michael enough into becoming serious about losing weight and staying above the yellow line? We'll see...
Stay tuned!
P kept texting me and telling me that the show was really interesting. The first time she texted me, I thought "ok, cool." Then when I was driving home, she texted me again and said that the show was really good! That's when I got excited. Earlier, I decided to stop at Panda Express because I haven't had any dinner, so it looked like I was going to have an excellent meal to accompany an excellent episode. Awesome!
The show opened typically to some people going about their usual routine. The first big thing they did was a temptation challenge. What's a Biggest Loser show without any temptations? I look forward to these challenges every season. It's hilarious watching everybody turn against the person who won (because whoever wins ALWAYS gets a really nice prize) and the trainers go nuts when they hear how much food everybody's eaten. So anyway, the temptation was to eat a piece of candy at 5 calories each during each round. The rounds would continue until one person was left standing. The prize was this: the power to choose the teacher/student roles for each team. Before the game, everybody was informed that for each team, one person would be the teacher and the other would be the student. The teachers would be working with the trainers, learning everything they need to teach their students. The students would not be allowed to talk to or see the trainers at all. They would receive all their training and education from their teachers. AND only the students would be weighing in this week. How cool is that? Very unique.
Immediately, almost everyone bowed out of the game. Everyone except Pink and White. I was disappointed because I wanted to see a good game. I was left with wondering how long Pink and White would last. Would one quit almost right away or would they go head to head forever? During commercial, I wondered who might be more fair with assigning roles. Would Michael be compassionate? I was thinking that Michael looked nicer than the Pink team - but I could be wrong.
The challenge was over in two rounds - probably the quickest challenge to date. Pink won the challenge with only 10 calories eaten. TEN! Michael gave up too easily in my opinion, but he had an extremely good point. He didn't want to be saddled with the responsibility of making everybody mad at him. Remember Tracey? I think Pink did well with the assigning of the roles. I didn't agree with some of their decisions (picking mostly men to weigh in), but I commend them on not making everybody too pissed off at them. It was especially fun to see Bob and Jillian miss out on an opportunity to yell at everybody for making dumb decisions during the temptation challenge. They actually laughed and said they can't get mad at 10 calories. 10 calories is nothing.
Speaking of being pissed off, Migdalia had a huge chip on her shoulder. She didn't agree with Pink's decision to put her mother on the scale. She was stomping around and pouting like a big baby. Jillian noticed this (like she misses anything) and decided to make it her personal goal to set Migdalia off. Jillian told Bob that she KNOWS that Migdalia would walk right out of the gym if she was pushed too far, but she decided to go on ahead and see if she could push Midgalia's buttons. Her goal was to make Migdalia show her emotions (in other words, cry like a baby) and she did it well.
The first thing she did was tell Migdalia that her daughter would be fat just like her. That was a low blow, even for Jillian. What a shame. It was apparent that Migdalia didn't want to talk about her personal issues on national television but Jillian was immune to that. She kept pushing and pushing until Migdalia finally cracked. Feel better, Jillian? Honestly, she needs to give up playing Dr. Jillian and stop assuming that everybody has a deep psychological reason for being fat. Maybe a lot of them do, but maybe not everybody. Maybe Migdalia just likes food.
When Migdalia finally cracked, she said she was quitting the game (big shocker). Jillian panicked and sent Bob in to "close the deal" - i.e. to fix Jillian's mistakes. Being the savvy, soft-spoken person he is, he convinced Migdalia to stay and to give the ranch another chance. No surprise there.
Things cooled down and another challenge made its way onto campus. This one was a fun one! The objective was to wind 1,000 feet worth of ribbon all around a children's playground. The teacher on each team would be doing the winding and each had to make it as complicated as possible. Michael was crafty - he wound his white ribbon all around the other color ribbons, causing them to make complicated knots. When it came to complicated - he was the man! The prize for this fun game was immunity (Really? Again? You'd think that after 2 immunities in a row, there would be a different prize this time). Here's the clincher... the team that won immunity would also win the power to flip the teacher/student role for one team. This is great - more twists and turns. If it was me playing, I would have swapped out the Pink team just for fun - because they're the ones who intially decided who would be the teacher and the student for their team.
Think that the twists and turns were over now? Not yet! After all the teams aggressively wound up all their ribbons, Ali announced (ha ha - I LOVE this!) that each team would be unwinding their own ribbon! The students would have to unwind what their teacher did. Maria looked at her son and goes "backfire, boom!" That was hilarious!
Right before the game was coming to an end, the show cut to commercial and previews showed Bob yelling at a hidden contestant and saying "This is NOT a joke!" Immediately, my roommate and I guessed that the Red team won the challenge and got immunity again. As a result, Melissa would throw the weigh-in again to save her weight loss for when it really mattered. So - after commercials, the game continued and the Gray team (Sam and Koli) ended up winning. They remind me SO much of Sione and Filipe. I immediately guessed that Sam & Koli would choose to switch the white team. Earlier in the episode - Sam and Koli was disgusted that Michael seemed to be floating around the gym, not working his butt off because he wasn't going to be weighed in this week. Sure enough, at the weigh-in, Sam & Koli chose the White team to switch roles. Michael - one word for you: Backfire!
The weigh-in was a very interesting end to a very interesting episode. P - you weren't wrong! :) The weigh-in itself for each team wasn't so surprising. Everybody lost considerably less weight than the first two weeks, but that was expected. There wasn't much excitement until Red stepped on the scale. Remember how I said I liked the Red team? There's just something about them - they are strong competitors and probably well-liked by people they've come across. However, now I think I may like them less. Sure enough, Melissa didn't lose weight. Actually - she lost one pound but that is to make up for the 1 pound she GAINED last week. Why did she only lose one pound? Because her weight didn't count this week. It was her husband, Lance, would be weighing in for their team. Lance did well - way to go - but Melissa was just pathetic.
Melissa stood there and expressed disappointment in the inability to lose weight. The first week was awesome but the second and third week were mundane. Gee - I wonder why!? Ali started to speak but Jillian was pretty pissed off. She interrupted and said that Melissa is just shitting everybody. I definitely agree with Jillian on this one. I personally think that Melissa was insane. With the knowledge that Sam & Koli could choose ANY team to switch roles - she still slacked off. She was extremely lucky. If Sam & Koli had chosen the Red team to switch roles, they would have been below the yellow line - no question. Jillian and Bob were yelling at Melissa but decided to stop - what was the point? Melissa does what Melissa wants to do. After all this, Red still got the top spot on the weigh-in board. Wow.
Michael was last to weigh in. He needed 13 to win but only got 10. That'll teach everybody not to float around when you think you're safe from being weighed in. Treat each week as if your life depended on it. Actually, Michael's life does depend on it. Guess he doesn't really realize that.
So - the Pink team chose everybody's roles as well as roles for themselves. Did they choose right? Will they prevail? They only needed to lose 8 and lost 12. That put them at the top of the list - they did good.
This means that White lost the weigh-in and that one of them would go home. The obvious choice was Michael because over the past few weeks, he has failed to prove that he wanted to be on campus and that he even cared about losing weight. It made sense to keep Maria - but as a typical mother, she begged everybody to keep Michael and to let her go. Eventually, everybody respected Maria's wishes and kept Michael....
Did Sam and Koli's tactic work? Did they scare Michael enough into becoming serious about losing weight and staying above the yellow line? We'll see...
Stay tuned!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Trash Hunting - Is it offensive?
One morning when I was rushing off to work, I saw a couple of men getting out of their white van (the type that you see in movies whenever they kidnap somebody - the van with no windows) wearing coveralls all covered with paint. Ok - obviously they were painters. However, they didn't get out of the van because they were at a client's house. They got out of the van to go through several people's trash cans.
It was trash day and trash cans were out all over the place. They were stopping at each of the trash cans (I saw them look/skim through trash cans at three different houses) to see what was inside. Weird? Definitely.
Sure - I understand that whatever you place outside your house is there for reason. You have no need for the stuff and you want to get rid of it. The moment that you place it outside for it to be picked up, does it become public property and is it up for grabs? One might think so - but I just find it disturbing.
It's understandable that people might be offended by other people going through their trash. There might be private things inside such as important documents (that you should have shredded), maxi-pads or tampons from the ladies (ew!) or even used condoms. Point is - who wants to go through the trash and see all that crap? However, when it's just big, old furniture sitting out there - would it still be offensive if somebody came by and snatched it up? Maybe not.
Anyway, these men were just glancing inside each of the bins and rifling through some of the stuff just briefly. There was an open box sitting outside with some junk waiting to be picked up. Guess the owners didn't feel like having a garage sale. They never took anything from any of the trash cans they looked through but I was offended. It wasn't even my trash and I was offended.
Do I have reason to be bothered by that or am I just overreacting? Hmmm......
It was trash day and trash cans were out all over the place. They were stopping at each of the trash cans (I saw them look/skim through trash cans at three different houses) to see what was inside. Weird? Definitely.
Sure - I understand that whatever you place outside your house is there for reason. You have no need for the stuff and you want to get rid of it. The moment that you place it outside for it to be picked up, does it become public property and is it up for grabs? One might think so - but I just find it disturbing.
It's understandable that people might be offended by other people going through their trash. There might be private things inside such as important documents (that you should have shredded), maxi-pads or tampons from the ladies (ew!) or even used condoms. Point is - who wants to go through the trash and see all that crap? However, when it's just big, old furniture sitting out there - would it still be offensive if somebody came by and snatched it up? Maybe not.
Anyway, these men were just glancing inside each of the bins and rifling through some of the stuff just briefly. There was an open box sitting outside with some junk waiting to be picked up. Guess the owners didn't feel like having a garage sale. They never took anything from any of the trash cans they looked through but I was offended. It wasn't even my trash and I was offended.
Do I have reason to be bothered by that or am I just overreacting? Hmmm......
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 2
This week's episode was a little bit tame. I've gotten spoiled by last season's drastic twists and shocking weigh-ins. Not to say that this episode sucked, but there weren't any huge surprises. This episode was somber eye-opener for many of the contestants, and I'm sure also for the millions of obese fans that were watching the show.
Every episode opens the same way. People closest to the person who was just eliminated gets camera-time to capture what they're feeling and what they're saying. John had to come to terms with having his twin brother gone. He realized that the rest of his journey rests entirely on himself and whatever happens also affects his entire family. Next came the workout. With Jillian and Bob working side-by-side this season, they took turns having fun with the contestants. It was interesting to watch Jillian and Bob play tag with human beings. They stood there and decided which ones they wanted to crush. Pretty amusing.
Eventually, it came to the point where Jillian picked John and Bob picked Michael. Jillian took John outside to have a little talk to find out why he was obese. Ok, yeah - everyone has a story to explain why they got fat. Family problems, low self-esteem, blah blah blah. In John's case - he blamed deaths of 3 family members that were all 3 months apart. Wow. Pretty tough to survive having your father, grandmother and sister die all within 6 months of each other. That story made me think of Abby, the woman from Season 8, who lost her husband and two kids in a car accident.
Anyway, it kind of makes sense that Jillian would want to have "counseling" sessions with the contestants she works with. Finding a deeper reason that might have caused the weight gain and finding a solution for that issue is beneficial to keeping the weight off once it's all off, but I have to say that I'm getting a bit tired of seeing Jillian play a psychiatrist. Leave the counseling to a professional and just focus on exercising them to death. It's what she does best.
As I mentioned before, this episode was an eye-opener. This is when all the contestants get the raw truth about how unhealthy they are. Michael and Bob's task was to meet up with some people to find out how much excess fat Michael was carrying around. It came up to be 303 pounds and guess what - 303 pounds worth of weights were placed on Bob to give Bob an idea of how much it would feel to walk around with all that fat on you. Bob was pretty shocked. He seems like a tough guy but even he couldn't handle all that weight.
Patti was informed that her diabetes is really horrible and something has got to be done about it. She said that she knew she had it and that she'd been living with it for 20 years but never did anything about it. Why? Because it didn't really interfere with her daily life enough to the point where she needed insulin or anything (in her opinion). Really? 20 years with diabetes and she didn't feel the need to seek medication or do anything about it? Pitiful, just pitiful. My mother was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago and she decided to change what she was eating right then and there. She went from being on medication to nothing at all. As long as she eats right, she'll never have take insulin or any pills. How do people not want to stop taking medication?
The red team was informed that because Lance lost his job due to his weight, they'd be missing out on 3 million dollars over the course of their lives. 3 MILLION! Hot dang! This sure motivated Lance to lose weight so he can get back to his old job. The next part was funny. Jillian had to eat whatever food that the orange team ate in a day. Jillian was pissed and cursing when she was eating nachos, burgers, pizzas and whatever. Ew. I like those but in one day? Ew.
Next came the challenge. No surprises there - the top prize was immunity and the last team got a 2-pound disadvantage. Because Patti was a severe diabetic, she couldn't feel her feet/ankles and had a tough time crossing the beam. Not interfering with your life? Yeah right. Eventually, the red team won (I had them pegged as strong competitors) and we had to watch the rest suffer. Maria had a terrible fear of water and as a result, she panicked and chose to fall on the concrete instead of in the water. Because of her fear, she ended up hurting herself way more than she ever had to. She banged her nose and it bled out profusely. It resulted in a black eye and she couldn't work out very much over the next few days. Her fear might have just cost Michael his time on campus.
Everybody went back for more medical analyses. Sam (gray team) found out that his sleep apnea is so severe that he moves at least 100+ times in an hour. Gee whiz... 100+ times? I wonder if his wife has been sleeping with him and putting up with that. I know I couldn't. Ashley (pink) discovered that her 27 year old body is, in fact, 57. By being obese, she has lost 30 years of her life. I don't know about you but 30 years is a lot to me.
Now comes my favorite part - the weigh-in. Earlier in the episode, Melissa commented to Lance that maybe they don't need to work as hard because they should save all their weight loss for the next week, when they aren't immune. I was thinking "oh, smart move but come on, really?" Sure enough, Melissa gains a pound and didn't even care! She actually looked happy because it worked out just like she hoped. She's betting that she's going to lose so much weight next week and that'll be enough to keep them both on campus. Yes, I admit - that's pretty crafty and good game play but really, people should be there because they care about their weight and health, not because they want money (the money sure is nice, though).
Michael had another excellent weigh-in. He has lost 46 pounds in two weeks! The current record is 100 pounds in 7 weeks. After just 2 weeks, he's already there. I wonder how much he'll lose next week. I like him - I hope he does well and I hope he stays until the end. I'd almost bet all my money and say that he'll be one of the last 4.
Even with Melissa trying to outplay everybody, I still like the red team. I was glad that they got more time in front of the camera as well as Michael/Maria (white). Everybody else just seemed to fade into the background. We didn't see much of gray, yellow, pink, purple and even green. We barely saw green at all. How come?
Stay tuned!
Every episode opens the same way. People closest to the person who was just eliminated gets camera-time to capture what they're feeling and what they're saying. John had to come to terms with having his twin brother gone. He realized that the rest of his journey rests entirely on himself and whatever happens also affects his entire family. Next came the workout. With Jillian and Bob working side-by-side this season, they took turns having fun with the contestants. It was interesting to watch Jillian and Bob play tag with human beings. They stood there and decided which ones they wanted to crush. Pretty amusing.
Eventually, it came to the point where Jillian picked John and Bob picked Michael. Jillian took John outside to have a little talk to find out why he was obese. Ok, yeah - everyone has a story to explain why they got fat. Family problems, low self-esteem, blah blah blah. In John's case - he blamed deaths of 3 family members that were all 3 months apart. Wow. Pretty tough to survive having your father, grandmother and sister die all within 6 months of each other. That story made me think of Abby, the woman from Season 8, who lost her husband and two kids in a car accident.
Anyway, it kind of makes sense that Jillian would want to have "counseling" sessions with the contestants she works with. Finding a deeper reason that might have caused the weight gain and finding a solution for that issue is beneficial to keeping the weight off once it's all off, but I have to say that I'm getting a bit tired of seeing Jillian play a psychiatrist. Leave the counseling to a professional and just focus on exercising them to death. It's what she does best.
As I mentioned before, this episode was an eye-opener. This is when all the contestants get the raw truth about how unhealthy they are. Michael and Bob's task was to meet up with some people to find out how much excess fat Michael was carrying around. It came up to be 303 pounds and guess what - 303 pounds worth of weights were placed on Bob to give Bob an idea of how much it would feel to walk around with all that fat on you. Bob was pretty shocked. He seems like a tough guy but even he couldn't handle all that weight.
Patti was informed that her diabetes is really horrible and something has got to be done about it. She said that she knew she had it and that she'd been living with it for 20 years but never did anything about it. Why? Because it didn't really interfere with her daily life enough to the point where she needed insulin or anything (in her opinion). Really? 20 years with diabetes and she didn't feel the need to seek medication or do anything about it? Pitiful, just pitiful. My mother was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago and she decided to change what she was eating right then and there. She went from being on medication to nothing at all. As long as she eats right, she'll never have take insulin or any pills. How do people not want to stop taking medication?
The red team was informed that because Lance lost his job due to his weight, they'd be missing out on 3 million dollars over the course of their lives. 3 MILLION! Hot dang! This sure motivated Lance to lose weight so he can get back to his old job. The next part was funny. Jillian had to eat whatever food that the orange team ate in a day. Jillian was pissed and cursing when she was eating nachos, burgers, pizzas and whatever. Ew. I like those but in one day? Ew.
Next came the challenge. No surprises there - the top prize was immunity and the last team got a 2-pound disadvantage. Because Patti was a severe diabetic, she couldn't feel her feet/ankles and had a tough time crossing the beam. Not interfering with your life? Yeah right. Eventually, the red team won (I had them pegged as strong competitors) and we had to watch the rest suffer. Maria had a terrible fear of water and as a result, she panicked and chose to fall on the concrete instead of in the water. Because of her fear, she ended up hurting herself way more than she ever had to. She banged her nose and it bled out profusely. It resulted in a black eye and she couldn't work out very much over the next few days. Her fear might have just cost Michael his time on campus.
Everybody went back for more medical analyses. Sam (gray team) found out that his sleep apnea is so severe that he moves at least 100+ times in an hour. Gee whiz... 100+ times? I wonder if his wife has been sleeping with him and putting up with that. I know I couldn't. Ashley (pink) discovered that her 27 year old body is, in fact, 57. By being obese, she has lost 30 years of her life. I don't know about you but 30 years is a lot to me.
Now comes my favorite part - the weigh-in. Earlier in the episode, Melissa commented to Lance that maybe they don't need to work as hard because they should save all their weight loss for the next week, when they aren't immune. I was thinking "oh, smart move but come on, really?" Sure enough, Melissa gains a pound and didn't even care! She actually looked happy because it worked out just like she hoped. She's betting that she's going to lose so much weight next week and that'll be enough to keep them both on campus. Yes, I admit - that's pretty crafty and good game play but really, people should be there because they care about their weight and health, not because they want money (the money sure is nice, though).
Michael had another excellent weigh-in. He has lost 46 pounds in two weeks! The current record is 100 pounds in 7 weeks. After just 2 weeks, he's already there. I wonder how much he'll lose next week. I like him - I hope he does well and I hope he stays until the end. I'd almost bet all my money and say that he'll be one of the last 4.
Even with Melissa trying to outplay everybody, I still like the red team. I was glad that they got more time in front of the camera as well as Michael/Maria (white). Everybody else just seemed to fade into the background. We didn't see much of gray, yellow, pink, purple and even green. We barely saw green at all. How come?
Stay tuned!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 1
Prelude
I've always been a fan of The Biggest Loser. I was an avid watcher the first few seasons until life got in the way. I started skipping a few episodes and then I skipped a whole season. Dumb. Well, I've been back since Season 7 and haven't missed an episode since then. Thus far, my favorite seasons are 7 and 8 - let's see if 9 can make that list.
Every season, I look back and try to remember what I originally thought of the cast members, how my feelings evolved throughout the season and who I related to the most. With the start of a new season, I thought this would be an excellent time to keep track of what's been happening.
Season 9
What can I say? Prior to the start of each season, I always ask myself "What are they gonna do to top last season?" and here it is. They brought forth the biggest people we've seen on the show and probably the most number of people (11 couples to start with).
The show opened with Bob and Jillian (America's favorite trainers) personally calling each of the contestants to let them know that they're going to be on the show. They were all given their very first challenge - to do their first weigh-in in front of their friends, family and general public. Scary.
Some contestants got immediate camera-time (hint that they'll stick around a while?) while others remained in the background. Let's start with Michael - the Italian-American guy who weighed 526 pounds before stepping foot on the Biggest Loser campus. He was coupled with his mother, who blamed herself for his weight gain. He got the title of being the biggest person ever to step on campus. Another that comes to mind is Daris - who weighed in at 326 pounds and at 25 years old. He's never had a girlfriend, boo-hoo. All others have typical fat-kid stories where problems in their lives caused them to turn to food. Either that or food has such a strong presence in their heritage that they know nothing better but to eat (and eat and eat).
Remember Sione and Filipe? Tongan cousins that claimed their weight gain was encouraged by their Tongan community and that food was a huge essence to who they were. You had to love them (even though Sione acted pretty stupid and babyish a couple times). This season we were awarded (or maybe not) with another Tongan couple. This time, we have another set of Tongan cousins (Sam and Koli) who also say that food and their community's traditions contributed to their weights. Will they stick around as long as Sione and Filipe did?
After all the weigh-ins, they went to the campus to prepare for a new chapter of their lives. They were greeted by Ali and were given their first challenge on campus. All teams had to bike a marathon. Whoever finished first got immunity and the 2 teams that finished last had to leave campus. Now we're talking.... This was our first shot at getting to know the contestants and make guesses at who might last and who might fail early on in the game. There were some surprises and some were too obvious.
What surprised me was that a spicy team of Peurto Rican mother/daughter and proved themselves to be strong-willed and competitive. They won first place (way ahead of the others) and received the most-prized award you could ever receive - Immunity. The other teams finished their race in steady streams, one by one. Michael struggled right from the beginning - mostly due to his large size and being uncomfortable on the bike seat. However, he stayed with it and made it to the end. Way to go. The last two teams were both African-Americans. Tough luck. The blue team (mother/daughter) didn't make it because the mother had difficulty keeping up. She suffered through most of the race with a nasty pain but kept on going. Eventually, when it got to be too much, the doctors had to pull her off. True to her heritage, she threw a fit. I admire her will to keep going but come on, don't overreact.
Now - we had to say goodbye to two teams at once. When they were kicked off the ranch, I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for a "but." Commercial came on and the "but" never came. I was disappointed. By now, I thought I had gotten to know the producers and knew a little bit of what to expect. Ah-ha, the producers surprised me again. The "but" came on AFTER commercial. Crafty, eh? Both teams were given a second chance. They were sent home to work out on their own for 30 days. They'd both come back and do a weigh-in. The team that loses the most percentage of their weight gets to come back on the show. I'm rooting for Yellow Father/Daughter team. No particular reason. I just decided I might like them better than the Blue mother/daughter team. We never got to know them, so how do you choose?
Cue in the next morning - the trainers woke up everybody with a fire alarm blaring in the house. You'd think that they'd be scrambling to get out of the house, huh? Nope - they took their sweet time. Figures. The players met the trainers and their first work-out began. Man, they struggled and they struggled bad. Later on, they do some bonding and share weepy "why I'm fat" stories. Ok - I'm sad for them, but after hearing Abby's story from last season, I doubt I'll hear anything as heart-wrenching. They go do their last-chance workout (I love those, and hope to God I never have to experience one) and bite their nails over whether they lost enough weight to stay on campus another week.
Let's focus on the players. As I said before, some got a lot of face time and some stayed in the background. Is that a clue as to whether who will be leaving early on in the show? We'll see. I have some immediate favorites and some of them, I felt no tugs at my heartstrings. Will I become attached to them later? We'll see.
Pink Team (Sherry and Ashley) didn't get a lot of camera time. I'm not disappointed about that, I wouldn't really care if they left early. I kind of like Sam and Koli - mostly because I want to compare them to Sione and Filipe. One of the boys said "I'm gonna do better than Sione and Filipe did." Yeah? I'll hold you to it, I'll be watching you. Another team that didn't get a lot of attention was Purple (Patti and Stephanie). I'm hoping they'll emerge later on, but who knows? Lance and Melissa (Red team), a husband and wife team from a small town in Texas, is my immediate favorite. I don't know why - I just like them. I'm rooting for them to stay for quite a while. The last team that didn't grace my TV screen often was the Black team (Darrell and Andrea). I wonder why. Oh well. I laughed at Cheryl, a member of the Orange team. Like Jillian said - she was a small, shy and timid woman that was just waiting to come out. During a work-out, Cheryl came out and she was insane! Will she become crazier as the season goes on? Her son has weird hair - I hope they cut it all off if he makes it to the makeover episode.
Now - on to the week's weigh-in. All teams did fantastically well. Everyone has lost at least 13 pounds apiece. The ladies all lost weight in the teens while men lost weight in the twenties. Awesome! Michael broke a record at the very first weigh in by losing 34 pounds in a week. He said that he was embarrassed of holding the title of the biggest person ever on campus. Now he's proud to have made a record he can show off - losing such an amazing amount of weight in just a week. Well - what did you expect? Someone who weighs 526 pounds definitely has a lot of weight to lose. Even with that much weight, he was still in danger of falling below the yellow line. They barely made it (just a spot right above the yellow line) when the Brown team didn't lose enough.
Now - here's something really funny (and cool) about the Brown team. They are twin brothers who claimed that they were ALWAYS within 5 to 10 pounds of each other. They gained weight together and lost weight together. When they weighed in, they were only one pound apart from each other. At the weigh-in, I said to my roommate "Watch - they're gonna lose the exact same weight apiece." I was right! They both lost the exact same weight! How cool (and weird) is that!? They both lost 23 pounds, however, it wasn't enough given that when put together, they both weighed almost half a ton. That's heavy.
When elimination time came - the brothers both sacrificed each other to keep the other brother there. James made a compelling point. He didn't have a baby at home (like John did) and he could afford to leave his job and focus on himself 24/7 to lose weight. He also has a very bad knee and is very limited as to what he can do. He said "I can only do the pool and I have a pool at home." It was almost an unanimous decision and James was sent home.
In the "Transformation" scene, James showed that he lost 100 pounds in two months at home. Awesome! I know that everybody made the right decision by kicking him off. John had a much better chance of staying on. Frankly, I'm surprised that the contestants didn't try to play a game and kick John off first. Eventually, James would lose again (how long can he keep losing enough weight in just the pool and on weights to stay above the yellow line?) and would be sent home. He'd be an easy pin to knock down when the competition gets fierce. Of course, at the beginning of every season, everybody thinks about who needs to be there the most. It isn't until mid-way through the season when everybody starts thinking about who the biggest competition is.
When leaving, James said "I'm gonna win the at-home prize." Yeah? He's definitely proven thus far that he can do it at home. We'll see.
I've always been a fan of The Biggest Loser. I was an avid watcher the first few seasons until life got in the way. I started skipping a few episodes and then I skipped a whole season. Dumb. Well, I've been back since Season 7 and haven't missed an episode since then. Thus far, my favorite seasons are 7 and 8 - let's see if 9 can make that list.
Every season, I look back and try to remember what I originally thought of the cast members, how my feelings evolved throughout the season and who I related to the most. With the start of a new season, I thought this would be an excellent time to keep track of what's been happening.
Season 9
What can I say? Prior to the start of each season, I always ask myself "What are they gonna do to top last season?" and here it is. They brought forth the biggest people we've seen on the show and probably the most number of people (11 couples to start with).
The show opened with Bob and Jillian (America's favorite trainers) personally calling each of the contestants to let them know that they're going to be on the show. They were all given their very first challenge - to do their first weigh-in in front of their friends, family and general public. Scary.
Some contestants got immediate camera-time (hint that they'll stick around a while?) while others remained in the background. Let's start with Michael - the Italian-American guy who weighed 526 pounds before stepping foot on the Biggest Loser campus. He was coupled with his mother, who blamed herself for his weight gain. He got the title of being the biggest person ever to step on campus. Another that comes to mind is Daris - who weighed in at 326 pounds and at 25 years old. He's never had a girlfriend, boo-hoo. All others have typical fat-kid stories where problems in their lives caused them to turn to food. Either that or food has such a strong presence in their heritage that they know nothing better but to eat (and eat and eat).
Remember Sione and Filipe? Tongan cousins that claimed their weight gain was encouraged by their Tongan community and that food was a huge essence to who they were. You had to love them (even though Sione acted pretty stupid and babyish a couple times). This season we were awarded (or maybe not) with another Tongan couple. This time, we have another set of Tongan cousins (Sam and Koli) who also say that food and their community's traditions contributed to their weights. Will they stick around as long as Sione and Filipe did?
After all the weigh-ins, they went to the campus to prepare for a new chapter of their lives. They were greeted by Ali and were given their first challenge on campus. All teams had to bike a marathon. Whoever finished first got immunity and the 2 teams that finished last had to leave campus. Now we're talking.... This was our first shot at getting to know the contestants and make guesses at who might last and who might fail early on in the game. There were some surprises and some were too obvious.
What surprised me was that a spicy team of Peurto Rican mother/daughter and proved themselves to be strong-willed and competitive. They won first place (way ahead of the others) and received the most-prized award you could ever receive - Immunity. The other teams finished their race in steady streams, one by one. Michael struggled right from the beginning - mostly due to his large size and being uncomfortable on the bike seat. However, he stayed with it and made it to the end. Way to go. The last two teams were both African-Americans. Tough luck. The blue team (mother/daughter) didn't make it because the mother had difficulty keeping up. She suffered through most of the race with a nasty pain but kept on going. Eventually, when it got to be too much, the doctors had to pull her off. True to her heritage, she threw a fit. I admire her will to keep going but come on, don't overreact.
Now - we had to say goodbye to two teams at once. When they were kicked off the ranch, I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for a "but." Commercial came on and the "but" never came. I was disappointed. By now, I thought I had gotten to know the producers and knew a little bit of what to expect. Ah-ha, the producers surprised me again. The "but" came on AFTER commercial. Crafty, eh? Both teams were given a second chance. They were sent home to work out on their own for 30 days. They'd both come back and do a weigh-in. The team that loses the most percentage of their weight gets to come back on the show. I'm rooting for Yellow Father/Daughter team. No particular reason. I just decided I might like them better than the Blue mother/daughter team. We never got to know them, so how do you choose?
Cue in the next morning - the trainers woke up everybody with a fire alarm blaring in the house. You'd think that they'd be scrambling to get out of the house, huh? Nope - they took their sweet time. Figures. The players met the trainers and their first work-out began. Man, they struggled and they struggled bad. Later on, they do some bonding and share weepy "why I'm fat" stories. Ok - I'm sad for them, but after hearing Abby's story from last season, I doubt I'll hear anything as heart-wrenching. They go do their last-chance workout (I love those, and hope to God I never have to experience one) and bite their nails over whether they lost enough weight to stay on campus another week.
Let's focus on the players. As I said before, some got a lot of face time and some stayed in the background. Is that a clue as to whether who will be leaving early on in the show? We'll see. I have some immediate favorites and some of them, I felt no tugs at my heartstrings. Will I become attached to them later? We'll see.
Pink Team (Sherry and Ashley) didn't get a lot of camera time. I'm not disappointed about that, I wouldn't really care if they left early. I kind of like Sam and Koli - mostly because I want to compare them to Sione and Filipe. One of the boys said "I'm gonna do better than Sione and Filipe did." Yeah? I'll hold you to it, I'll be watching you. Another team that didn't get a lot of attention was Purple (Patti and Stephanie). I'm hoping they'll emerge later on, but who knows? Lance and Melissa (Red team), a husband and wife team from a small town in Texas, is my immediate favorite. I don't know why - I just like them. I'm rooting for them to stay for quite a while. The last team that didn't grace my TV screen often was the Black team (Darrell and Andrea). I wonder why. Oh well. I laughed at Cheryl, a member of the Orange team. Like Jillian said - she was a small, shy and timid woman that was just waiting to come out. During a work-out, Cheryl came out and she was insane! Will she become crazier as the season goes on? Her son has weird hair - I hope they cut it all off if he makes it to the makeover episode.
Now - on to the week's weigh-in. All teams did fantastically well. Everyone has lost at least 13 pounds apiece. The ladies all lost weight in the teens while men lost weight in the twenties. Awesome! Michael broke a record at the very first weigh in by losing 34 pounds in a week. He said that he was embarrassed of holding the title of the biggest person ever on campus. Now he's proud to have made a record he can show off - losing such an amazing amount of weight in just a week. Well - what did you expect? Someone who weighs 526 pounds definitely has a lot of weight to lose. Even with that much weight, he was still in danger of falling below the yellow line. They barely made it (just a spot right above the yellow line) when the Brown team didn't lose enough.
Now - here's something really funny (and cool) about the Brown team. They are twin brothers who claimed that they were ALWAYS within 5 to 10 pounds of each other. They gained weight together and lost weight together. When they weighed in, they were only one pound apart from each other. At the weigh-in, I said to my roommate "Watch - they're gonna lose the exact same weight apiece." I was right! They both lost the exact same weight! How cool (and weird) is that!? They both lost 23 pounds, however, it wasn't enough given that when put together, they both weighed almost half a ton. That's heavy.
When elimination time came - the brothers both sacrificed each other to keep the other brother there. James made a compelling point. He didn't have a baby at home (like John did) and he could afford to leave his job and focus on himself 24/7 to lose weight. He also has a very bad knee and is very limited as to what he can do. He said "I can only do the pool and I have a pool at home." It was almost an unanimous decision and James was sent home.
In the "Transformation" scene, James showed that he lost 100 pounds in two months at home. Awesome! I know that everybody made the right decision by kicking him off. John had a much better chance of staying on. Frankly, I'm surprised that the contestants didn't try to play a game and kick John off first. Eventually, James would lose again (how long can he keep losing enough weight in just the pool and on weights to stay above the yellow line?) and would be sent home. He'd be an easy pin to knock down when the competition gets fierce. Of course, at the beginning of every season, everybody thinks about who needs to be there the most. It isn't until mid-way through the season when everybody starts thinking about who the biggest competition is.
When leaving, James said "I'm gonna win the at-home prize." Yeah? He's definitely proven thus far that he can do it at home. We'll see.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Starting a new day, week, month, year and decade
Starting a new day can be scary sometimes. Starting a new week (especially when you have to work) isn't always fun - mostly because it meant that the weekend was behind you. Try starting a brand new day, week, month, year and decade all at the same time.
Ok - maybe January 1st wasn't on a Sunday (or does your week start on Monday?), but it was close enough to the end of the week for me for it to count. I told myself I wouldn't write about this, but here I am typing away at the keyboard. Guess I have something to get off my chest....
I went to a party (of course), and naturally the topic of "What's your New Year's Resolution?" came up. One of the guys did the asking and my roommate responded with "What's yours?" He said "My resolution is to not make a resolution." Didn't he just do that? Ha ha, funny, right? I disregarded the conversation and then it came up again today at work. What's your new year's resolution? Mine? I have none (cue in a "why!?" from a co-worker). I'll tell you why.
In the many years I DID make a resolution, I've never stuck to it (when has anybody ever done that?)... so by now I have learned that there isn't really any point. Making a resolution because it's traditional or because everybody else is making one doesn't mean that you mean what you're saying and that you'll stick to it.
I wasn't armed with a resolution by the stroke of midnight, so is my year doomed? I think not.
My roommate said something once that always stuck with me (but shh, don't tell him that - he'll think I actually listen to him, haha, ok - maybe I do sometimes). He was complaining about someone we both know and about how this certain person was waiting until the new year to start working out. I think it was about October or November when this person decided he'd start beefing up. My roommate said "If you really mean to keep that commitment, why are you waiting until Jan 1st? Why not start NOW?" I think that's very true.
Who said you had to make a resolution for the 1st? Who said you had to wait until the 1st? If it's truly life-changing and you mean to keep your goals, do it for yourself and not because it's an American tradition.
Here are the top resolutions I can think of that many people have made and broken:
Just for laughs, I thought I'd look up the stupidest/funniest resolutions I could find online. Why? I don't know - I just felt like it.
Ok - maybe January 1st wasn't on a Sunday (or does your week start on Monday?), but it was close enough to the end of the week for me for it to count. I told myself I wouldn't write about this, but here I am typing away at the keyboard. Guess I have something to get off my chest....
I went to a party (of course), and naturally the topic of "What's your New Year's Resolution?" came up. One of the guys did the asking and my roommate responded with "What's yours?" He said "My resolution is to not make a resolution." Didn't he just do that? Ha ha, funny, right? I disregarded the conversation and then it came up again today at work. What's your new year's resolution? Mine? I have none (cue in a "why!?" from a co-worker). I'll tell you why.
In the many years I DID make a resolution, I've never stuck to it (when has anybody ever done that?)... so by now I have learned that there isn't really any point. Making a resolution because it's traditional or because everybody else is making one doesn't mean that you mean what you're saying and that you'll stick to it.
I wasn't armed with a resolution by the stroke of midnight, so is my year doomed? I think not.
My roommate said something once that always stuck with me (but shh, don't tell him that - he'll think I actually listen to him, haha, ok - maybe I do sometimes). He was complaining about someone we both know and about how this certain person was waiting until the new year to start working out. I think it was about October or November when this person decided he'd start beefing up. My roommate said "If you really mean to keep that commitment, why are you waiting until Jan 1st? Why not start NOW?" I think that's very true.
Who said you had to make a resolution for the 1st? Who said you had to wait until the 1st? If it's truly life-changing and you mean to keep your goals, do it for yourself and not because it's an American tradition.
Here are the top resolutions I can think of that many people have made and broken:
- Lose weight/work out more
- Spend more time with family/loved ones
- Take more vacations
- Enjoy life more
- Stop Drinking/Smoking
- Eat healthier
- Get a better job
- Insert your own failed resolution
Just for laughs, I thought I'd look up the stupidest/funniest resolutions I could find online. Why? I don't know - I just felt like it.
- I will not look at boys - 13 year old girl
- I will quack like a duck first thing in the morning and last thing at night - Donald Duck Fan
- I will do less laundry and use more deodorant - Lazy and Smart Fellow
- With that cloned cow having given birth and everything, I resolve to pay more attention to where my food comes from this next year - Organic Eater
- I will not puff my entire body to twice its size and screech in her ear after my human has finished watching a horror movie. - Pet Cat
- I will not bite the children of lawyers, no matter how much they chase me or how hard they pull my tail.- Pet Dog
- I will not hang around girls - they think you love them and that sucks - Tween boy
- I will not let lose my bodily functions right when somebody is walking underneath - Crow on the top branch of the tree
- I will never squat again with my spurs on - Cowboy
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