February 2009 Archives

Reality sets in for everyone except the Pink and Brown Teams, that they will not have access to the gym this week.  Immediately after losing the Pop-Challenge, Sione comforts himself by saying, "You know what though, when I was at home I would go hiking every single say and it burns so many more calories...and it's not like being on a stupid treadmill." Meanwhile, Mandi fully admits that she is going to miss her spin bike, and Kristin shows her remorse as she sarcastically says, "Keys to the gym week, next it should be a gym lock-in."

The week proceeds, and as Mike, Helen and Shanon make their way to the gym, Sione and Filipe show some bitterness. Filipe tells Mike, "Hey Mike don't lose your key, have fun running on the treadmill, we will be running with the deer and antelope, frolicking with them." Then Sione goes on to tell Shanon, "Have fun Shanon, I hope you fall on the treadmill," and Filipe continues with, "I hope the Stairmaster eats you alive." Helen, however still has some unfinished business to take care of outside before she hits the gym. She goes out to steal a sixth chair along with some pillows for her "lounge" in the gym, however Sione and Filipe are not going to give their chair up without a fight. Helen tugs the chair from the Blue Team, and as she struggles says, "I am taking the chair, I am decorating, get off my chair... I want to go back to the gym, now get the hell of my chair." But the Blue Team will not budge. Filipe goes as far as sitting on the chair, and while Helen tries to get him off, Sione pulls her off! In the end, Helen manages to throw him off, and Filipe says to her, "You can have it, but remember your fate lies in our vote." Amongst Sione and Filipe's ticking and tackling, Helen finally gets her chair and the pillows to match! Filipe and Sione then join in the kitchen to find Aubrey, Mandi, Tara, Laura, and Kristin playing musical chairs. It's a battle between these girls, each of them fighting for a chair like it's their life. So Filipe and Sione decide to partake in the game, not as competitors, but as their DJ! As the Biggest Loser theme song plays in the background, and Filipe and Sione sing along, the girls battle it out. In the end, it's Aubrey's game, as she bumps Laura off the final chair and gains victory!

The Purple, Green, Yellow, Blue and Black teams try to find other forms of exercise without the use of them gym as well.  Aubrey tries to teach them the Cancan dance, but that doesn't work too well, especially with the boys. So, they all head outside for some good old American football, burning some calories before they see what other kinds of outdoor exercise their trainers have in store.

The contestants try to shake things up in the gym. Aubrey, Mandi, Dane, Tara, Laura, and Shanon play volleyball in the gym with the huge yoga ball! It's obvious they are struggling with their technique, but the game in and of itself seems to be working well for them, both fun and a decent form of exercise. Thereafter, Aubrey still wants to play! She gathers Mandi, Laura, Shanon, and Tara to play some jump rope. The girls start off with two ropes, and try playing "Double Dutch," but after many failed attempts, they soon realize they aren't little girls anymore and those days are long gone. So, the girls switch back to the traditional one rope and take turns holding the rope and jumping, laughing, goofing around and reminiscing their youth, all while getting a workout. Meanwhile, Blaine and Sione joke together about going home as Blaine says, "I will only get fatter with my family so I don't want to go home." But Sione tries to convince him otherwise while also making him understand this time he is here for good as he replies, "Yeah, so you should go. I already went and I didn't gain weight... I am not leaving until February."

With the arrival of Mandi's husband and kids, Helen and Aubrey's maternal instincts come out. Helen makes healthy strawberry shakes for Remington and Dawson, while Aubrey enjoys the opportunity to see her nephews. Aubrey watches after the kids as Mandi cooks and jokes around with them when asking, "Who is tougher, Auntie Aubrey or your daddy?" Of course, the boys say their dad, who is like Superman for them, leaving Aubrey to give scenarios where she was stronger, such as fixing their bikes and toys and letting them know that if she really wanted to she could beat their Dad up, especially with the training Jillian has been giving her. Meanwhile, Tara reassures Rusty of how much fun he is going to have on the ranch, and how he will get to see the swan they have in the lake, the amenities of the gym, and even meet the notorious Jillian Michaels. After Mandi enjoys her family, it's back to the gym. Following some discussion with Aubrey about Rusty's stay, she hears Jillian about to come into the gym and tells her sister, "I am going to start jogging because I don't want to get my butt kicked."

At-home partners, Aubrey, Carla, Sione, Shanon, and Cathy are back on the ranch this week and ready to prove that they can compete with everyone else. However, it's much harder than they imagined and at the end of the day, the question everyone is asking their partners is, "Does it get easier?" Tara helps Laura get through the workouts by saying, "Toughen up cupcake," and later explains, "It's my little phrase, cause she's my little cupcake." Cathy on the other hand gives herself encouragement as she says, "Some of the small things that he had me do again made me feel like Wonder Woman. Just walking out of the gym and surviving it...makes you feel wonderful." Aside from the workouts, Shanon and Helen ease their stress by doing cartwheels and round-offs outside. But while Shanon is a professional at them, it is obvious Helen is scared and after numerous attempts tells her daughter, "I'll practice in the pool."

The contestants thus travel to Dr. H's office to discover their new "Real Age," one that will hopefully be much more satisfying, along with any other progresses they have made. Mandy learns she no longer suffers from arrhythmia, and is down to age 30, far from her first visit to Dr. H in which her "real age" was 43. Aubrey has also improved, dropping from a real age of 41 to 37 since her last visit. In addition, Mandy has dropped 28% of her excess fat and Aubrey has dropped 21%. As far as the real age of the other contestants, Carla now has a real age of 46, down two years from her first calculated age, while Joelle went from age 54 to 50. Tara's real age decreased from age 37 to 30, and Laura's age is now 36, down from a previous 40 years old. Kristin showed major improvement as well, going from a real age of 47 to 41, while Cathy's adds a few years to her life, improving from a real age of 57 to a new real age of 54. After 5 weeks on the ranch, Helen goes from being 60 to 55, and her daughter Shanon benefits from the diet and excess she had at home, changing her initial real age of 44 to 40 years old. The males also make some major improvements, as Dane decreases his real age of 43 to a much lesser 36 years old, and Blaine decreases his from 47 to 39! The Blue team makes some progress as well, while Sione shrinks down from a real age of 43 to 37, and Filipe does even better, going from a real age of 43 to 36. The youngest player in the competition, Mike, was originally estimated to be 41 years old and in a mere five weeks he improve his age to 34. Lastly, Ron, who was estimated to have a real age of 62 years old, added a few more years to his life as well, and is now a real age of 59.

Dr. H tells the there are four components in losing weight: diet, exercise, psychology AND sleep optimization. Dr. H shows Kristin the charts from when her sleep was monitored and after seeing how severe her sleep apnea is and the lack of sleep she is actually getting, Kristin swears to wear her mask. Dr. H also shows Carla and Joelle their sleep charts and at one point, Carla did not breathe for 33 seconds! She stopped breathing completely 15 times an hour because of her sleep apnea!! The Blue Team is up next, and it's discovered that Sione has, as Dr. H puts it, "a life threatening condition" because of his sleep apnea, having 140 episodes per hour and periods where he would stop breathing for up to 40 seconds. Filipe and Sione are stunned, and while Dr. H gives them praise for all the progresses they have made in their weigh-loss and health, it is all bittersweet. The Black Team is last to see Dr. H, learning about their younger "real age," decreased body mass, decreased excess body fat, along with the progress Dane and Blaine have made in their health, but also reveals some bad news with the dangers associated with their sleep apnea. Once again, the news is bittersweet, especially for Dane, as Dr. H tells him he has gained 13 pounds of muscle in five weeks, but that the lack of oxygen to his brain 79 times per hour could have taken his life if he hadn't decided to make a change in it.
The week ends on a lighter note with some girly fun before the weigh-in, for both the girls and the guys. After Carla does Kristin's make-up, Kristin and Carla decide Filipe needs to look pretty as well. Thus, Kristin applies lip-gloss on Filipe as Carla does the rest of his make-up, leaving Filipe to say, "Whatever you do, make sure I look pretty, because this is the first and last time."

With the absence of Blaine who went home this week to see his new baby, Dane takes some time out to help Dan in the kitchen. Although Dan was lucky to have won the Pop-Challenge, it seems he struggles with cooking himself. When he has trouble cutting some butternut squash, Dane comes over and does the honors, only to make a joke out of it singing, "Give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece of butter nut squash." Another first for Dan this week, he learns how to skip! After doing some football drills and sprints outside, Jillian teaches Dan how to skip, something he had never really attempted before. During the week, there are other kinds of singing and dancing going on as well, like when Filipe does a cultural Tongan song and dance for some of the Biggest Loser crew. The crew is so amazed at this that they ask him to do it over and over again.

Blaine returns as the father of a new 8-pound, healthy baby boy. However, he still has his work cut out for him at the ranch, and while Blaine can say, "I wish my wife's weight loss this week counted for me," wishes don't always come true. Thus, he is back at the ranch for some of Jillian's amazing workouts, leaving him to say afterwards, "It's like the marathon day of Jillian workouts." Apparently the workouts on Bob's side of the gym were just as strenuous since when Kristin asks Mike if he had any favorite exercises this week, Mike states he had one, "When he made us take the 20-pound weights and squat with a lot of reps." But sure enough there is a reason that was his favorite exercise, as Kristin quickly responds in laughter, "Yeah, because that was the easiest thing to do... it was a vacation from the lunges."

The day of the weigh-in, Filipe and Blaine pass their time playing dominos, as Joelle and Dane intently watch. Others such as Tara and Mandy spend the afternoon putting nail polish on one another's toes, trying to calm themselves on such a nerve-racking day. Meanwhile, others like Mike and Kristin take a different approach by being comical. First, Kristin tells Mike hat she has a magical ring that helps her win weigh-ins and then goes on to try and convince him to wear a dress at the weigh-in, as she says "If you fall below the yellow line, I will not vote you home if you promise to wear a brown dress... you will look so good in it!" Although it is a tempting offer, Mike chooses not to accept and sticks with his brown Biggest Loser t-shirt. Perhaps that is his good luck charm, since the Brown team was not sent home this week.