Posts Tagged Suzy Hoover

What a great way to spend a Wednesday morning… Sitting in a Starbucks parking lot using their Wi-Fi while talking to Jay Jacobs from Season 11 of The Biggest Loser. Some of you may be thinking “Jay…Jay… who was he?” Well, I was just like you. In fact, until the last few episodes, Jay said he laid low on purpose so that he wouldn’t make any waves and make it as far as possible in the game.
His plan worked perfectly and he made it all the way to the final four where unfortunately for him, America voted for Irene to go to the final weigh in so that there would be an all girl finale. What has caught my attention about Jay was not his actual time on the show, but his time afterward.
I began following Jay about four months ago on Twitter. I have been impressed by his openness and honesty and thought, “I have to talk to this guy.” So here it is my first blog interview with Jay Jacobs from Season 11 of TBL.
As a former contestant myself, I remember all the thoughts I had at that final weigh-in so I was dying to hear what he went through. Much to my surprise, his experience was different than mine. You see, everything leading up to the final weigh-in when you are on the show, 9 months in my case, is dedicated to getting the best results you can for that one moment. I was nervous, anxious, self conscious, and frankly in a lot of pain.
Jay, on the other hand, told me that he felt great and had a sense of complete accomplishment. In fact, he remembers the show doctor, Dr. Huizenga, telling him that he was at his perfect healthy weight for himself. It was refreshing to hear that he hadn’t gone through the same mental anguish that I had.
Life after the finale for Jay was a whole different story than the months that led up to that night. Jay and his family took a two week vacation. Not only did Jay take a vacation from work, he also took a vacation from working out and counting calories. They went to Disneyland and Carmel. I remember seeing his tweets from this two week period and thinking “I can’t wait to hear about this.”
I was actually proud of Jay for doing this. He made a conscious choice for two weeks to give his body rest and freedom from the strict “NO” way of living that you go through when you are on the show. After two weeks of total freedom from the BL life, Jay said that he noticed he could “feel his skin in his pants” again, meaning they were getting tight!
You see, this was the first time in his life that he didn’t have to shop at the “Big and Tall” stores and he was loving it. After his vacation, Jay jumped up to 241 pounds from his finale weight of 219. He gained 22 pounds on vacation.
Now let me give you all the inside scoop. Pretty much everyone gains 5-15 pounds after the finale in just water weight. Jay’s gain isn’t super shocking, but it was enough to get him going again. After the vacation Jay new that he needed constant accountability so he began tweeting his weekly weight.
I was baffled the first time I saw an actual picture of his scale at home. That takes a tone of courage! For Jay, this was his guarantee that the number on the scale would go down instead of up. He has continued to do pictures and the scale has continued to go down. As of this morning, Jay weighed in at 230.2 pounds. That is only 11 pounds from his finale weight.
Another thing that has kept Jay accountable is that he has signed up for the ING New York Marathon which he will run this November. Jay, along with a handful of other “Losers”, are all running for various charities.
“Where will you be in five years?” I asked Jay. He told me he has plans to write books and develop product in order to continue to spread the message about health and wellness with others.
I think the best thing I heard from Jay today was that he has nothing better to do but to enjoy the rest of his life. Right on Jay!
If you would like to follow Jay’s progress, and his journey along with me, you can follow him on Twitter at @JLynnJacobs or on his Facebook at Jay Jacobs.