From Biggest Loser 5 winner Ali Vincent in a special to BiggestLoserclub.com

Can I just start by saying "thank you, thank you" to all the people who love The Biggest Loser and watch the show. It’s because of all of you that I had the opportunity to rediscover my greatness within and live the life I love.

I know it was hard for Michelle and Renee to see Coleen leave the ranch. It’s never easy, particularly when you believe a choice was made due to alliances. I know Amy voted the way she felt she needed to, to prove to her team that she was “loyal." I would have hated to be in her position and don’t know what I would have chosen. We can sit at home and pass judgment, as I have found myself doing several times this season. However I know that it is sometimes overwhelming when you actually have to make the decision to send someone home. Everyone wants to be there, every additional moment on the ranch is priceless, so I guess you just take a deep breath and make the decision that feels right to you in the moment. I do not believe, however, that Vicky will do Amy any favors in the future.

I was surprised how vocal Renee and Michelle were during their interviews, which leads me to believe there must be a lot of tension on the ranch. I think they are right, though, that Vicky is game playing and only shows her strength when she has to. I can’t fault her for that. You don’t start a marathon with a sprint.

Thanksgiving Week
I loved how excited Vicky was with the NFL challenge. I did find it unimpressive the way she attacked the combined course first go-round, only to realize that she had it in her mind that the challenge was going to have a twist. It makes sense that Steve Young and Jerry Rice would want to encourage the contestants to work on bettering themselves. I know that they were only able to succeed the way they did by continuously pushing themselves to the next level. Is it bettering yourself though if you don’t give it everything you have every single time? Vicky may have won in the challenge but the other contestants who gave it their all the first time and beat their own personal best were the real winners to me.

When I was home in between being eliminated and returning to ranch, I did quite a bit of what would be considered football training. Both of my brothers have and do play football, and they were constantly doing drills with me. It’s a great way to burn a lot of calories without doing the same old thing in the gym. Go get a speed ladder you’ll be surprised how your heart rate jumps.

Can we say "Rocco"? I know as well as America does that Amy can! I think it’s important to spend the holidays with family and friends but you have to find ways to do that without putting your goals on hold. Keep in mind that you are still at Thanksgiving dinner even though you may not be going for your third slice of grandma's traditional pecan pie. I find that it helps for me to bring dishes that I, as well as my family, can enjoy and still stay with in my calorie budget. Rocco's recipes were full of great ways to save calories.

What About That Challenge?
Did you think the challenge was fair? Though the contestants wearing blue shirts took out those in black, remember there are no longer teams; everyone is supposedly competing as individuals. When it came down to the last two players on the field, Heba and Vicky, I wish the footballs had come at them faster, so there would have been more of a chance to change the outcome. I wonder when Heba realized that Vicky was was going to win? Either way I think out of all of them Vicky seemed to be the one most excited about the reward. Aloha, Brady!

And it's probably the first time I have been disappointed in a last chance workout. I didn't like that those in blue were working out and finding strength in “beating” Michelle and Renee. You can’t let your driving force to move forward be about “beating” anyone else, I don’t care what the arena is. You may win a weigh-in with that kind of attitude but you ONLY change your life by being the best that you can be and continually pushing yourself to do more than you did previously.

As for the weigh-in, can I say "yay, yay and yay!"? Michelle and Renee killed it! How? Because they controlled what they could -- themselves. I see in them real changes that will last a lifetime, not game playing. I was not surprised in the least that the votes went down the way they did, regardless of the recent tension between Amy and Vicky. There was an alliance from the beginning that doesn’t take a genius to notice. But when it’s all said and done, everything happens the way it should.

Enjoy your families and your friends and remember, you can only give love by first loving and taking care of yourself. Thanks again for all your support.

--Ali

From Biggest Loser 5 winner Ali Vincent in a special to BiggestLoserclub.com

After my elimination in week four of Season 5, I can’t even begin to explain to you the absolute elation I felt when I got the phone call weeks later that I might have the opportunity to return to ranch! I had been at the gym for a couple hours, after that, I went swimming for an hour without checking my phone. When I got back to the locker room I had three missed phone calls from the BL production team and ten from my mother! I didn’t even bother to check my voicemail; I immediately called my mom. She answered the phone saying, “you’re going back Buba, you really are going to be the First Female Biggest Loser." I was like ”what?”

Now of course, pretty true to form, that wasn’t quite the case. Mom was just excited. But what was true was that all the eliminated contestants were going to have the opportunity to win a spot back on the ranch, and we had a week till we would return.

I was out of my mind, this was it…. I knew it with every part of who I was. The camera crew had just been out to film the “where are they now?” and something just felt different. Of course when you are eliminated from the ranch you have no clue if you will ever be returning. People always assume, “well, you knew you would be coming back, right?” and the answer is "NO".

Why I Kept Going
I think they ask me over and over again because I had made such an amazing change that people find it hard to believe that I would continue without knowing that I might be going back to ranch. For me it didn’t make a difference. Yes, I wanted to become the first woman Biggest Loser, but I wanted more than anything to change my life and feel good about myself again, so when I was eliminated in week 4 I kept on my path.

When we all flew in the next week, and I got to see everyone, I was amazed. In fact I didn’t even recognized Mark when he came out of the elevator, I thought he was some young hoodlum! We still didn’t know how they were going to choose to return to the ranch, so the energy was all over the place.
Everyone wanted it.

In preparation, I had taken running classes in case it was some type of challenge, since I knew that wasn’t a strong point of mine, but we were all on edge with excitement. We thought, well, maybe they will choose the person who lost the most weight or maybe it would be the person who lost the least amount or maybe it would be a challenge. Either way we were all going to do whatever we could with in our power to get back on ranch.

Kudos to Stacey
For this season, it was fun to be able to see all of this seasons eliminated contestants, I think I was most surprised by the green team, Stacey in particular. With all the tension in the house, I think that Stacey was right on when she had such an emotional reaction to it. It made the fact that Stacey gave it her all during the challenge that more impressive. I was also impressed that she went for it with all that she had, even though she wasn’t sure she even wanted to be back on ranch. I wonder how the season would’ve played out if Stacey had been the one to return?

I love Ed and I thought he did an amazing job to earn his spot back on ranch, I just hope he has enough courage to be his own man and not fall into the “pack” mentality that seems to come with wearing the color blue. I get that it is important to have alliances and the support of a team but at what cost?

The Challenge of Challenges
The challenges were the part of the ranch that I liked the least :)
Even though, I was a competitive athlete growing up, I realized that I no longer had the desire to “beat” anyone. I now had the desire to be the best that I could be and the challenges just felt like I was taking away from someone else, I know that’s weird to some but to me it just made sense. And then one day it didn’t. I realized at home that by choosing me and going for my dreams, it didn’t mean that the person next to me couldn’t have theirs. As long as we all played with integrity and in alignment with who we were, competition was good and allowed ourselves to push further than we thought we were capable of.

I remember when I was brought back on ranch there were so many questions from all the contestants who hadn’t left at that point. I think there was a lot of thoughts of how it would be when they eventually went home, so I was extremely excited to be able to go to ranch and talk to the contestants this season and be able to bring with me Cynthia Sass from Prevention magazine, which everyone knows at this point is probably my favorite magazine. We just wanted the opportunity to give a few pointers and suggestions of how they could set themselves up to win when they got home as well as ways to give back and include their families in their journeys. I about fell out of my chair when Prevention gave each of the contestants $5000 worth of groceries.

I was glad that Shellay and Amy had the time to talk privately and reflect on their experience. I think it gave Amy the courage to vote the way she did in the elimination room. I’m glad that she realized that individuals are truly individuals and that she had make the move that will give her the best chance of going all the way and having the two married couples on a team didn’t leave her a lot of room to have much voting power, plus when given the chance you have to eliminate your biggest threats. Brady could have won the Biggest Loser…
Now he’ll just have to win at home!

--Ali

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From Biggest Loser 5 winner Ali Vincent in a special to BiggestLoserclub.com

Hey BL Clubbers, let’s talk a little about this and a little about that :)

I don’t know if any of you out there have seen the book featured during the episode this week "Eat this, Not That" by Dave Zinczenko, but it is really a fun book to check out. Although the best options are always the ones that you prepare at home, you don’t always have the luxury to do so, plus sometimes you just want to meet you girlfriends out for dinner.

Since being on the show myself, I have been crazy busy travel and doing different things for Biggest Loser and 24-Hour Fitness, so I have had to figure out the best way for me to stay with in my calorie budget.

When I’m at home I typically eat food that I get delivered from the Biggest Loser meal plan, which you will be able to see on Oprah this Thursday, it’s really GOOD. In fact most of my friends come over just so I will make them a meal. Dinner parties at my house are like being in a restaurant because everyone gets to choose exactly what they want.

There are also times though when we want to grab something real quick after a morning workout or hike. I usually need a refill on my coffee at that point so we will head to Starbucks. I know a lot of people out there might think that the whole grain bagel w/ light cream cheese is a better option than a breakfast sandwich but it’s not. (Did you notice how Brady tried to throw Phil off by asking if it was “light” cream cheese?) I usually opt for the fruit and almonds. Or another mistake people make is thinking that the better choice is a salad when a lot of times the salads and dressing are loaded with calories. I typically like to choose the grilled chicken option with steamed veggies.

40 Extra Pounds in Mid-Air
I’m sure that the black team would have loved to have known the better choice between this and that when they realized what that 40 pounds was going to feel like suspended high in the air on top of there own weight. I love how they always add the mental aspect to challenges. I like that this challenge in particular had the mental aspect of being suspended and the team aspect of needing the support of every member to really hold and process and deal with it.

I know that in the real world support systems are essential to have the success that the blue team had during this challenge. You need people to encourage you when every part of you wants to give up. Now you have to be the one to do it but you need your friends and family.

I know that the black team would have really loved the opportunity to choose a member of the blue team to not weigh in. I think that Jillian took the right approach after she found out the results of the challenge. Which was do what they went to the ranch to do, LOSE weight. You never know how other people are going to play the game so all you can do is control what you have control of and that is what you put into your body and what you burn off your body.

It wasn’t until week 4 of my season that I really realized that I didn’t need to be worrying about who was in alliance with who, I just needed to remember that I could what ever I put my mind to, my body was getting stronger by the day. I was realizing I am an athlete, that a sport doesn’t make someone an athlete, it’s the will of the spirit within that is an athlete.

I think I personally would have died in week 7 if Bob made us run 10 miles, I remember they would make us run but never straight through; we got to walk for time frames in between.

Scary Weigh-In
The weigh-in was scary. First of all, I was surprised they chose Michelle not to weigh in. But the way the black team weighed in, I guess it wouldn’t have made a difference. I give kudos to Brady for losing 13 pounds, but I wasn’t surprised and am not completely convinced that some of Bob’s suspicions of game play aren’t going on.

I will say that they need to open up to Bob. You do not want either trainer feeling like you are not being completely honest with them. They are there to help the contestants lose weight but understand the game play aspect of it, however you need to let both of them know if something is going on. They do not like to feel like they are in the dark or not know why the scale is saying what it is saying.

As far as numbers, Bob and Jillian and ALL of us from the show know how to gauge weight loss and crunch the numbers. There may not be personal scales on the ranch, but we have our Body Bugg’s which tracks our calories burned. We track our intake, so you take your deficit everyday add them together then divide by 3500 and there you have it your weight loss for the week, for the most part.

I think Phil was the obvious choice for the girls to eliminate. Renee and Michelle will probably be the biggest loser for their team each week. I just don’t think Coleen can pull the numbers they can, she doesn’t have the weight and with Phil gone they have guaranteed themselves the last two spots on their team. I guess we will probably see individuals come back real soon!

--Ali

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