Posts Tagged Erik Chopin

I don’t want to count calories!  I don’t like to count calories!  I have to count calories!  It has finally sunken in that I am not blessed with a body that allows me to work out and then eat anything I want.  It is no secret that I have struggled with my weight since winning The Biggest Loser.  I want to talk about it today.

With all the controversy as of late about The Biggest Loser I have decided to give my two cents.   Many people who follow the Biggest Loser also tuned in to see the Discovery channel special on Erik Chopin, the winner of season 3, who has put back on a good chunk of his weight that he lost on the show.  After reading some of the comments that people were writing about his episode I felt it necessary to talk about a few things.

One of the things that I saw over and over was a pretty nasty comment about how he wasted his opportunity and it was especially disgraceful since he won money.  First, he didn’t waste his opportunity.  He won the show!  I want people to understand that being on The Biggest Loser and losing weight in that environment is completely different than doing it in the real world.

People, including myself, get the results they do because the only thing they have to do is work on losing weight.  They don’t have to go to work, or take care of their kids, they only have one thing to do and that is lose weight.  When I was on the ranch there was no television, no internet, no magazines, no phone calls, in essence no distractions.  ANY person in that environment can lose that kind of weight.

Here is the thing about being on the show.  I have never been to prison, but I imagine that coming home from BL is a little like being released from prison.  Although one may go through a serious transformation and may see the error of their ways, the minute they leave that structured and regimented environment, they are faced with many of the same temptations they faced before they went in.  Even though the individual may have undergone a significant transformation both physically and mentally while away, they are returning home to people who may not have done any changing. 

The thing about being on the show is that after you come home you are still working toward the goal of winning the cash prize at the finale.  To use the prison analogy, you are on probation upon release.  But what happens when you get off probation, in effect step on the scale for the last time?  Many criminals tend to go back to their old ways.  On The Biggest Loser, many begin to think that their struggle with weight is over, that they are rehabilitated.  I did!

There is certain euphoria that comes with winning a reality show and all of the sudden becoming a “celebrity”.  For a while that euphoria seems to be enough to help you want to stay on track, you are eager to show people how great you are doing since being on the show.  After a while the cameras fade and real life sets in.  It is at that time that a few past winners began to lose focus.

For me, the thinking was like this.  “At least I’ve kept off 120 pounds… at least I’ve kept off 110… at least I’ve kept off…”  It is a vicious pattern because after losing so much weight I kind of felt like I deserved to gain a little weight.  That right there was a problem in my thinking.  I was setting myself up to gain weight again and I did.

I am going to spend the rest of this week sharing my thoughts on this and what life is like for a “weight loss celebrity”

See you tomorrow!