OK this is my second post on NBC’s show The Biggest Loser. But I’m a quick study so I think I’m pretty much up to speed.
The big deal this week is that two, not one person, will be eliminated from the show! Here’s the deal. One person would be eliminated the regular way. The team that lost the weigh in would have to vote someone off. But a second person would also be eliminated from the show. That would be the person who lost the least amount of weight. The Biggest Loser people called this “falling below the red line”.
No were talking! This is the show I’ve been waiting for. It make so much sense to me that the person who performs the worst should be eliminated. But there were two things that resulted from this, one annoyed me and the other really kind of pissed me off!
The first thing that annoyed me (and it might have annoyed you too), was the “red line”. It seems obvious that no one wanted to get voted off, so the trainers used “the red line” for motivation throughout the week. The end result was that for about 45 minutes the trainers on the show seemed incapable of saying any thing other than, “there’s a red line this week” or “don’t fall below the red line” or “are you going to fall below the red line?” and the succinct “red line”. Anyway they all said “red line” more times in 45 minutes that you would think would be humanly possible. It was distracting and annoying.
Now for what pissed me off!
Disclaimer: I don’t have children.
Clearly the “red line” was intended to motivate the contestants to put forth their best effort that week to avoid elimination. And that is exactly what I thought was going to happen. But it didn’t. If you remember from my post last week, this season is The Biggest Loser, couples. Most of the couple are parent/children. It turns out that three of the parents sabotaged their own success to ensure that their child would remain on the show.
It was emotional and somewhat inspiring to see parents sacrifice for their children, I’m sure it is instinctive behavior for all parents. (Remember my disclaimer), But it totally pissed me off!
There are several reasons why.
In this episode, not putting forth your best effort was rewarded, and that should never be the case.
If you don’t take care of yourself, you are not going to be capable of caring for others. Sure, in the short run you’ll be able to care for your kids, but once your health fails you, you’ll no longer be able to care for anyone.
The reason that the children(on this show they are all adult children) in the show are overweight, is because they followed the example of their parents. The parents need to change their behavior, lose weight, and improve their health every bit as much as their children.
Nothing will have a more positive effect on others than leading by example. Putting forth less than your best effort is a horrible example!
The good news is that two of the three parents that sabotaged their results are off the show, as they deserve to be.
Now for the quotes of the week (actually paraphrases, I tweaked them a little so they make sense and are a little more motivational).
“You can do whatever you want to do, the key is you have to want to do it”
“You’ve got control of right now”
“Get out of your own way and accept that you can do it”
“You health is worth fighting for”
“Regardless of what’s in front of you, give everything you’ve got”
“You are not in this battle alone”
“I want to be happy”
Even though I was a little disappointed on some aspects of the show, it does provide for some great quotes. The next episode the contestants go home and are back in the real world again. I’m really looking forward to next weeks episode, because the “real world” is where you live. We’ll see how they do.
See you next week.
