The Biggest Loser

So you know that show ‘The Biggest Loser’?  I’m sure you have heard of it, the one where overweight people have the opportunity to go live on a ranch for up to four months and workout with personal trainers and lost 100’s of pounds of weight.  It’s a reality show, but it is inspiring people all across the continent.  Well I was watching it the other night, it’s close to the end of their weightloss journey, and something struck me.

 

 

Now now, it is not a requirement to be overweight to go on the World Race.  Don’t be silly.  I’m talking about the emotional, internal journey of becoming a new person.  In both instances you are removed from your everyday surroundings for months at a time.  In both instances you are thrown into a community of people you would have never otherwise met, and forced to live with and get along with them (although The Biggest Loser does force you to vote out one of your own each week).  In both instances you work hard to change your lifestyle, change the way you view the world, and to become a new person- whether spiritually, through self confidence and esteem, or with a major weight loss and physical difference.  Finally, in both instances when it is over you return to the life you left and have to figure out how to live this new life in your old surroundings.

 

Just this past episode, two winners of previous seasons returned to the ranch to speak with and encourage the new contestants.  One winner, Helen, had managed to keep the weight off, and learned how to live a balanced lifestyle at home.  The other, Erik, had gone home- reveling in his success, but not understanding how to translate his new life into the setting of his previous self.  He gained weight- back up to 370 lbs- and was now working hard for the second time to lose all the weight.  For World Racers it can be the same.  As much as the Barnes’s and the Hindes’ and the Shearman’s and your coaches try to prepare you, they can’t go home with you.  Chances are you don’t live near your squadmates, or any World Racers for that matter.  And as much as they try, other people just can not understand.  It is up to you to seek out what you need- a new community, scheduling time to make World Race habits into becoming practices at home- whatever it takes to keep your new self, and keep your old self dead.  It easy to slip back into your old life (or your old eating habits in the case of the Biggest Loser).  It has to be a priority to keep your new way of living.