I admit it, I watch the Biggest Loser.  Sometimes I dream about living on the ranch for a month to shed the remaining 20-40 pounds to reach a healthy weight.  In the past I have cried at least once an episode as the contestants undergo life changing experiences.  However, this season I don’t think that I have cried once.  I am watching episode 8 right now and I literally want to smack everyone.  They are just about the whiniest bunch of contestants yet.

I’ve heard more than one contestant say they are tired or exhausted.  Hmmm all they have to do is work out.  I would give my right eye ball to have all day to just work out.  One woman keeps saying that her desire to stay on the ranch vs. going home is 60/40.  It should be 100%.  I understand that it must be trying to be away from your family.  This is a once in a life time opportunity to not only lose weight but to increase your odds of living a longer, healthier life.  At least give it your all while you have the chance.  Besides the obvious health benefits there is a lot of money at stake.

The show doesn’t really shed any light on what day to day life is like for the players.  You get to see them exercising and competing in challenges, but you really never get to observe their eating habits while on the ranch.  Occasionally they will learn something about nutrition or they will make a meal with a famous chef.  I just wonder how much they are learning about strategies to make better food choices.  It would seem impossible to continue working out for hours and hours a day once the contestants return home.  At some point they will have to evaluate what they are eating.

I actually stopped weighing myself a few weeks into half marathon training. I lost a little then gained it back.  The scale fluctuated and it frustrated me.  I wanted to focus on the running.  My eating habits have changed quite a bit over the last year.  I felt confident that I could at the very least maintain weight.  Within a couple of months the weight loss was noticeable.  I could not only see that I had lost weight, but I could feel it in my clothing.  I hadn’t obsessed about weight loss.  I made better choices and I moved more.  I’m not insinuating that it was easy or effortless.  I worked hard and I continue to work hard.  I feel better than ever before.  I have absolutely no desire to go backwards.

The weight loss definitely tapered during the last month of half marathon training, but it was not accompanied by a weight gain.  I am looking to spark the weight loss again.  I don’t plan on bringing back the scale, but I’m contemplating the return of the food journal perhaps in blog form?  I haven’t decided yet.

If I have learned anything over the last couple of years it is that weight loss requires a commitment to living a healthy life, making the best decisions possible, and moving whenever possible.  Life happens, Halloween candy infiltrates the house, people celebrate birthdays, holidays come and go…I intend to live and enjoy life, but I refuse to let food rule me anymore.