The Incredible Shrinking People

At this point of the Biggest Loser season, I would still love it even if we only got to watch the weigh ins.  They blow me away.  At 13 weeks into the competition the before and after images are UNBELIEVABLE!  But last night, the challenges were also great.  The pop-challenge of holding up the quarters was a great lesson in how heavy something can feel after holding it up for a while.  Similarly it’s what I like about training with light weights and LOTS of repetitions.  It makes sense that a heavy weight gets hard to lift, but when a light one gets hard to lift, you KNOW that your muscles must truly be fatigued.  Last night, with Suze Orman on the show, it was a lesson in how money has the potential to become hard to manage.  While Michael won the challenge and ended up with a $2.000 prize, I was happy that level-headed Sunshine was given a second place prize, as well.

On this action-packed episode we also saw the return of previous season winner, Danny Cahill, who came to give the remaining contestants some motivation and inspiration.  He looked fantastic and has obviously maintained his incredible weight loss.  We also saw Suze predict this season’s winner, once again.  (Last year she predicted Danny’s win, based on his financial responsibility.)  This year, she predicts Sunshine.  Though I wish Sam could win, earlier in the day I predicted Sunshine, too, while my client/friend Jane, think Koli can pull it off.

The second challenge was both physically challenging and incredibly rewarding.  Huge balloons with a string of car keys awaited the contestants.  One by one they would get a key, run it back to the 2010 Mazda 3s and keep going until the 2 keys that started the cars were found.  Andrea found one first.  When Oneal found the second one, he quickly let Sunshine know that car was hers!  Wow.

And we can’t forget the mud wrestling.  I didn’t really get how that happened, but they sure got both Bob and Jillian pretty good!  Jillian was pulling that mud out of her pants after they managed to cover her from head to toe in it.  But alas, pay back is a b*tch and mud slinging was followed by the dreaded last chance workout. That was a killer workout.  Victoria ran 35 one-minute sprints!  Michael who never ran a mile before, ran 5 of them.  These people are completely reinvented after just 13 weeks.

The weigh in was tense.   Sunshine weighed in first and with only a 3 pound weight loss, she cried each time someone weighed in and moved her down the line.  She cried a little too much for someone who did not end up below the yellow line.   I worry about Sam’s ability to lose enough weight to stay above the line now that he is looking so lean.  Last night my fears proved to be founded as he lost zero pounds!  He fell below the yellow line with Andrea, who by the way, never really made herself too much of a key figure in this game.  Mitch commented earlier in the show about how he didn’t even know who she was.  Though she would end up the eliminated player (thankfully they didn’t vote my boy off) she did get to go home in her new Mazda 3!

Of all the things that impressed me the most last night, I woke up saying “Michael lost 165 pounds in 13 weeks.”  That is what this show is all about.  Turning the impossible into reality.  165 pounds in 13 weeks.  Say it aloud and try to wrap your mind around that.  If that doesn’t inspire viewers, I don’t know what could.

The human body is INCREDIBLE.  I hope you will treat yours like the temple it is!