One of the things that people say to me when they find out that I'm participating in Augusta's Biggest Loser is, "Oh, it's so cool that they are providing you all that stuff for free!" Well... that's not really the whole story. Bottom line, ABL is a marketing promotion between NBC Augusta, Omni Heath & Fitness, PHC Weight Loss Centers, and Pidcock Chiropractic. That means that until this competition is over, our image, likeness, and time pretty much belong to those entities. Part of that commitment is that on Wednesdays and Fridays, NBC Augusta airs interviews with the trainers, nutritionists, and contestants. This piece of business used to be done live on the air, but since channel 6 has taken over operations at channel 26, these segments are now videotaped on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I did my first one the day after I hit the halfway-to-goal point, and I've been on twice since then with our trainer and our entire team.
At Monday night's weigh-in, it was discovered that a scheduling conflict prevented the scheduled contestant from appearing the next morning. Scrambling for a replacement, Donna asked Nandy if she could go on in Bronnie's place. Nandy is usually working during that time, but her job has allowed her to re-arrange her schedule when necessary. Well, I received an email on my way out the door, asking me if I would be willing to go on with her. I said that I would; so instead of a segment featuring Bronnie Spinks and her weight loss as a busy single mom, we did a segment with the two leaders.
A little backstory is necessary at this point. As I was perusing through the clothing racks at Goodwill (the only way we can really afford to dress ourselves during this weight-loss!), I found a suitcoat Saturday that was in my old size, a 56L. Early on, it did not occur to me to save any of my "big clothes", but when I found this coat, it hit me that it might make a great visual for sometime later on in the contest, possibly at the finale, or in a commercial after we're done. The line was too long Saturday at the store, and I made a mental note to return on Monday and pick it up. I stopped by before weigh-in; the coat was still there, and no waiting to checkout this time. I told Donna about the jacket and how it swallowed me up, and she thought it would be good to show it on TV.
Tuesday morning I reported to the studio (on time, I might add) with jacket in tow. I slipped it on to show Nandy, because the jacket wasn't just big - it was jaw-droppingly huge! Nandy had brought an old pair of pants with her, and they easily slid over her clothes, with plenty of room to spare. It was just a terrific morning of great fun, seeing how far we had come. She is about 24 pounds from her goal at this point, and I am around 28 pounds from my stated goal of losing 140 pounds. After we shot the segment with Jay Jefferies (twice, because the cameraman got in the way, Jay couldn't see his cues, and he got tickled), Nandy and I each did our "mid-point" interviews with Mariah Gardener, the promotions manager at NBC Augusta. We also got new Biggest Loser T-shirts - a medium for Nandy, and a plain old large for me.
Tuesday evening we had our group session at PHC; I suspect these are supposed to be instructional and motivational (and they are), but they usually evolve into something else. Does anyone remember the old Bob Newhart Show? Not Bob as innkeeper, but Bob as a psychologist. He would hold these group sessions with several of his patients, and those segments were always a lot of fun as they disintegrated into something other than what Bob intended. Our PHC sessions are somewhat like that! Donna had us all measured Tuesday evening because of some new research that shows a correlation between the ratio of waist to hip circumference and risk of serious disease or illness. I fell into the "low risk" range, which was good news. It wasn't all good news, though... they also did my BMI and my body fat percentage, and those numbers still aren't great. I don't remember my starting body fat percentage, but it's currently at 23%; my BMI, which was 44 when we started, is 31. For those of you who are concerned about me losing too much weight, be patient. The plan is for me to drop all the body fat I can, and then to build some of that bulk back up with muscle. That BMI number needs to get down under 25 for me to get into the "normal" range.
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