Go Big Purple!
Side Note: Tomorrow is my birthday and part of my gift to myself is an attempt to compile my old dream log all in one place. Because it will be very confusing when I plunk down 50 pages of dreaming from my other site, I’m hiding them here at the end of the month.
Every few months we have the same discussion–whether or not we can tolerate watching another series of The Biggest Loser. Each episode is increasingly grating. More commercials are added. And by commercials, I mean the “let’s pretend we’re having a conversation about health” version where they’re really pushing a product. Each time, these people are more and more on the show’s Kool-Aid about caring for one another, sacrificing, all about how they know best for everyone else, blah, blah, blah. I’m completely ill from all of the fake love these people drool all over one another.
We were rooting for Coach Mo until he failed to support Tracey this week. Mo, how dare you. You should step up, even when the others are too stupid, shortsighted, self-involved to do so. If anyone could make it a week without a coach, it should be you. We will still back you, despite this short lapse on our part.
We cheer Tracey for the spirit she showed in trying so full on, all out max in the first challenge that she hospitalized herself for a week. That is determination. Tracey kicks ass. Tracey made the show worth watching.
Trainer Bob, you need to find another place to practice your techniques if playing a game is so repulsive to you, because–WAKE UP!!! YOU ARE ON THE BIGGEST LOSER! If you want to go work some fat people out in obscurity in some random gym, be our guest. You don’t have to be there. But since you are there, realize that there is more to the show than your regimen.
And Bob, you should be ashamed of yourself for only almost clapping at Tracey’s weight loss. Were you afraid Jillian would gnaw your hands off? We saw you go to clap, then decide you’ll just tuck those hands quietly into your pockets. Come on! You and the contestants. That woman just BY HERSELF beat every single other player in BOTH the game and weigh in.
Jillian…are your steroids affecting your personality? You may climb these people like they’re your own chubby mountains and you may be able to tweak their diets down to the calorie, but they are still PEOPLE and are able to have their own thoughts and feelings–yes, even ones you haven’t personally sanctioned. If Tracey wants to make a decision in the game, it is not up to you to bitch her out three or four times in a show, to have a tirade every time she opens her mouth. How about either building her up or shutting yourself up?
Did you see that weigh in, Jillian? She just lost ELEVEN POUNDS IN HER WEEK TWO without your constant supervision. She ought to work out without your help next week, too. Spare us your overwrought drama. Jesus.
Yeah, Jillian, you “knew it” that she’d pick certain people because you have access to all of their information. First, it was 50/50 she’d pick either person on the team. And she didn’t go with the obvious choice each time. Even picking the blonde on the pink team (Amanda) was a risk. She could have finally had her good week. Tracey, you did right. Pink won’t give you an equal guarantee, they don’t get a say in your decision. Great thinking and great game play all around. You Rock.
I think the way people on these shows will demonize a person, call her crazy, over what happens over the period of a few days is completely telling about their personalities. Contestants: IT IS A GAME. You are almost *all* going home at some point. Why are you whining and winging one week about it potentially being the fattest girl on her way out when week one you sent Alexandra home without a second thought? You’re all just scared you’re next. All Tracey made you do is have to stand or fall on your personal weight–who she chose should not matter a whit. If you did your work, you wouldn’t need to worry about the weigh in.
This show obviously selects for people who have deep mental issues. You can be fat without those issues, but they make for far less drama. No opportunity for Jillian to grossly invade their personal space and boundaries. No chance for Bob to overplay the caring card. No chance for the network to drag someone’s dead family out three times per show.
It appears this is Jillian’s season to show her ass, whereas Bob is laying low since the games he allowed to be played during the last series, the ones where contestants whined and complained about who they’d allow to train them. Where were the speeches like Tracey endured then? These trainers need some serious reflection time and therapy of their own. I stress this, lest anyone forget Jillian’s comments out of nowhere about offing herself if she suffered a death in her family. Guh?? Can she buy some couch time with her mom, please?
Frankly, we happen to believe that there is still a lot of funny business going on with the show’s numbers in many cases. The contestants are absolutely not running an 8.5 and higher on the treadmill when they claim they are. Unless those are special treadmills, offering an 8.5 lower than any other machine, possibly with speeds measured in some other dimension.
We are only amazed that they don’t seriously injure or kill more contestants than they do. Nowhere on earth does any trainer or fitness program suggest that people go from a dead stop for all exercise to fast forward, hard training. And screw off Jillian, if someone’s body says quit, they need to quit. I have trained hard, too, and I have come to understand and respect those signals the body sends that damage is about to happen or is happening. When you push people to continue who are too weak to sustain their form, who can’t breathe or are vomiting, I’m sorry, that is BAD ADVICE. You may not kill a contestant. You may very well kill an audience member taking that crap to heart.