Posts Tagged health

I seriously just erased an entire blog because I didn’t like the way it sounded when I read it.  I want to talk about some of the realities of being a contestant on The Biggest Loser but I don’t want to bash the show.  I want to talk about what life is like after but don’t want to sound like I am making excuses.  Here is what I am going to do.  I am going to type what I am thinking and not worry about what others say and here’s why.

I WAS THERE!  I was actually on the show and know what it has been like for me.  I can only speak for myself and what I have experienced.  There have been 7 seasons since I was on the show.  Things may or may not have changed and just like any other experience in life, people who have been in the same situation can have dramatically different experiences.

I want to talk about the big topic of discussion that I have been reading a lot about lately.  In a recent magazine article, I read about the type of support available to contestants after leaving the show.  Back when I won there wasn’t a whole lot.  Please remember that I was on in the infancy stage of BL.  Before the show was as big as it is today.  None of us, especially the producers, could have ever imagined what BL was to become.

That being said, I don’t think anyone could have imagined the impact being on the show would have on an individual and their life after being on the show.  I have talked to recent contestants and am glad to hear that they have access to support.  I am lucky in that I met my wife on the show and we could lean on each other.  I can’t imagine going home to a spouse who had no idea what kind of transformation I had just gone through.  Many people have had to do just that.  They have had to go home and explain why they “seem different” or why they choose to no longer do some of the things they use to.  Some people lose friends and some even spouses. 

One of the great things about being on BL is that you learn to rely on yourself.  One of the bad things about being on BL is that sometimes you start to rely on yourself too much.  Rather than seek out help, which seems to be available now, we (I) just assume that it was up to us to fix it.  After all, I lost the weight I can deal with this, whatever “this” may be.

I was bitter for a long time toward Jillian after the show because I didn’t feel like I got any support from her after the show.  The reason being  is that after the finale, I never talked to her again.  I don’t know why or if I did something to upset her, we just have never connected again.  It was dissapointing to me.  When I gained weight I got embarrassed and thought maybe that is why we haven’t talked.

Just this past week we appeared on the Joy Behar show which Jillian was also on.  I was nervous and thought “How is this gonna go?”  We still didn’t get a chance to talk.  During the show she said something that the casual viewer would have not picked up on.  It was a simple comment about me completing the Ironman World Championship triathlon.  When we left the building I told my wife that I wasn’t angry anymore.  In fact, after she said what she said I realized something.  I had been acting immature.

Let me use yet another analogy.  Yesterday it was prison, today it’s highschool.

Almost every highschool team has a senior star.  The kid who the coaches have spent hours, even years, developing and coaching.  The reason this athlete has gotten to the level of being the star is because they listened to their coaches and worked hard.  Let’s say this kid leads his team to a state title in their sport. 

They go home and give a speech to the fans in their hometown.  The people who have watched them progress into the athlete they have become are all there.  The kid more than likely thanks the fans, their parents, and lastly their coaches.  Everyone in the gym quietly wonders what is going to be like next year without this athlete on the team.

Guess what, a new kid will step into the old stars place!  Want to know why?  Because a good coach knows that they have a job to do.  They can’t sit around worrying about whether or not the star that just graduated is going to make it on their own.  A good coach prepares their athletes to live well after their time on the team has concluded.  Of course from time to time they may think about some of the kids they coached in the past, but they have a job to do and a new group of kids to focus on.  It is up to the athlete to implement the lessons they learned from their coach.

If you are having a tough time trying to figure out how this relates to BL and specifically my and Jillian’s relationship or lack thereof, let me break it down for you.

Jillian has a job to do.  Her job is to train the contestants and get them to lose the most amount of weight possible while they are working with her.  I know she genuinely cares about the contestants but she has now trained hundreds of contestants.  It isn’t an option for her to personally check in on all of us.  As much as I wish she could, it isn’t feasable and to tell the truth is a little selfish on my part.  That day, after the show, I realized that even though Jillian and I haven’t talked since the finale of my season, she still cares enough to keep tabs on what I have been doing.  Hearing her make that brief statement on Joy’s show was freeing.

Jillian taught me a lot, but just as the coach of any successful team she has to focus on the team she has currently.  What I have to do now is implement the lessons I learned from her and take care of myself like a big boy. 

See you tomorrow!