This morning Suzy and I got the boys up at 5am to drive to Portland to be a part of the taping for the premier episode of The Biggest Loser’s 1oth season.  We were excited to go down and see our friend and Suzy’s trainer Bob Harper and meet a couple of this seasons new contestants.

All was well as we crossed into Portland from Washington.  About a mile into the state of Oregon we were chatting along when WHAM.  We were hit from behind by another vehicle.  I quickly jumped out of the car to check on the boys in the backseat.  We got hit hard and I was worried about them.  They seemed fine.  The guy who hit us wasn’t so lucky, his car was mangled but I think he was fine as well.  His car actually went under us for the most part so we were still able to drive our car.  Needless to say we were a little late to the taping.

When we got to the shoot it started to downpour.  Not the little mist that we are use to here in the Pacific Northwest, but a full on cats and dogs storm.  As we trudged to the shoot site we wondered if maybe this was a sign that we weren’t suppose to come.  When we got to a bridge where people had been waiting all morning we were swarmed by people wanting pictures and autographs.  I have to admit, it was a lot of fun to feel like a celebrity and the boys handled it really well.  Being treated so nice took our minds off the earlier events of the day.

Right when it was time to start rolling cameras the rain subsided and the birds even began to chirp.  We watched as new contestant hopefuls were announced and weighed in and then we went for a walk with a huge group of Biggest Loser fans.

As we were waiting for the walk to begin a lady came up to me to ask a question.  She was a former athlete who was having some struggles and asked me because I too was a former athlete.  We talked about our identity and how we saw ourselves.  I also explained that it can be difficult to change our mindsets from always working hard to earn a championship and transitioning into exercising to live a healthy life.  We talked for several minutes and I have to believe that my brief time with this lady, who was extremely nice, was meaningful.

As we drove home I realized that even when things aren’t going as planned we can still impact others.  Today I learned the value of being able to not sweat the small stuff and appreciate the bigger picture.  Yes our car is wrecked and we will have some doctor visits, but all in all we walked away pretty lucky, as it could have been much worse.

I am so glad that we continued on with our journey for the day and didn’t let a setback hold us back!

Biggest Loser, Bob Harper, life lessons, Matt Hoover

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