The Biggest Loser

I only recently started watching "The Biggest Loser."  And by recently, I mean I think I  started watching season 7.  I didn't watch the first few seasons mostly because I didn't understand the point of the show and I really didn't like the name. I can't believe the show is starting a new season already, or I guess, more accurately, started a new season last night.  As we sit here watching, I am hit by the same emotions I seem to always be hit me as I watch this show.  I am sad that so many people have such hard lives, and have been hiding behind the numbers on the scale and the pounds on their body.  I'm also motivated to see how lives can be changed and how people can overcome the scale and what they see as their own limitations to make such positive changes.

The other thing I feel, overwhelmingly, as I watch this show, is guilt.  Guilt for my own weight, and the fact that I sit on my butt for two hours every week and watch a show about weight loss instead of getting off my butt and doing something.  If there is something that this show proves to me every time I watch it, it is that it is possible.  Now, I know that I can't quit my job for a few months and hire a professional trainer to work me out six or seven hours a day. I can't hire a professional chef to make my meals (of only the food I enjoy, of course). :)  So I can't do it like they do it on the show, but I know I can do it.  Or, I guess I think I can do it.  There is still a part of me, somewhere inside, that wonders if I really can do it.  Can I really be skinny?  Can I really change everything about my life?  I want to believe yes, but part of me says no.

When I get really discouraged about it, I look to my friend David.  He used to be a lot heavier than he is now, and seeing how he's changed is a huge inspiration to me.  It took him awhile to get there, and he didn't need to quit his job or hire an expensive trainer...he just had to work hard and work hard and work harder...and then work some more.  He truly is my inspiration.  I look at him and the way he lives his life now, and know that he's happier and stronger and healthier than he ever was.  And, I want to be just like him when I grow up.  I need to remember that he didn't make the change he made overnight, either. 

So, in summary, the Biggest Loser is one of my favorite shows, but it always makes me cry and feel encouraged and discouraged at the same time!