BIGGEST LOSER 3--WEEK ONE

Well, our Biggest Loser “3” is fully underway, and wow, what a group! We now have 57 people registered and participating in what has become a community wide event. People are working out at the Y, Curves, Tom’s, at work, and at home. I’ve even heard from others that are following along on their own!

All the contestants came together for the Friday night weigh-in and boot camp ready for action, and I knew they’d be putting up some good numbers. Their assignments were to walk at least a mile every morning (20 minutes), and then do another more intense cardio or strength workout later that day.

This is certainly the time of year when people are the most resolute, and it sure showed in the gym. All week I watched them sweating, smiling (mostly), and getting it done each day, and I could barely keep up with towels!

This time around, we’re going to do the weekly winners and the grand prize like the show, based on percentage of weight lost. We also picked up a special sponsor, Dimond Brothers Insurance, who will be providing weekly prizes along the way!

One other change is that we’re not publishing the weights each week. I think it might help keep people motivated, but many of the contestants didn’t want it. We’ll see how they do this time around. And so far, it doesn’t seem to have been a factor!

As they started stepping on the scale, I knew we were in for something special. Weight loss of 1 to 1 ½ lbs a week is normal, 2 lbs is excellent, and anything over that is extraordinary.

Of the 57 contestants, 41 people lost at least a pound. Of those 41 people, 33 lost at least 2 pounds; and 22 of them lost at least 3 pounds. As a group, they lost a combined total of 150.5 pounds, and that’s just in Week One!

The Biggest Loser male this week was Joe Stidham, who works out at the YMCA and our place. That should tell you something. He’s working out at two gyms! Joe lost the most amount of weight (-9.6 lbs), and had the highest percent of weight loss by far (-4.1%).

The Biggest Loser female this week was a very surprised Sherree Hutchings (-5.2 lbs) who just squeezed by Penny Spinner (-4.9 lbs). Both Sherree and Penny had a higher percent of weight loss than anyone else (-2.8) except Joe.

Joe and Sherree both received a special $20 Walmart Gift Card from Dimond Brothers. I gave Penny a copy of my latest Nashville CD “Leaving Egypt”. I’m pretty sure Joe and Sherree got the better deal—they can use their gift cards to buy some fresh fruits and vegetables!

I was also amazed by the Redmon family who put up some awesome numbers. The Dad (Chris) lost 9.2 lbs, while Mom (Cheryl) lost 4.6 lbs, and their son Cody lost 8.0 lbs. That’s a total of 21.8 lbs in one week for one family. This family is serious, and they showed it in the gym. I’m gonna give em CD’s too. If nothing else, they make good coffee coasters.

There were many other great losers too, like Donnie Bartos and Bill Lewis (-7.8 lbs), and Steve Johnson and Mike Slaven (-6.8 lbs). Jim York (-6.2 lbs), Robert Sanders (-5.6 lbs) and Becky Slaven and James Motley (-4.2 lbs). Rick Akerman, Tony Haupt and Carrie Whitmer (-4.0 lbs) and Jeff Archibald and Lauwana Wallace (-3.0 lbs).

Like I mentioned earlier, quite a few others lost more between 2 and 3 lbs, and many more lost at least a pound. For those that lost less than a pound, many of them had difficulty getting their morning walk in, due to scheduling problems and the like. They’ll have to figure that out, because the best results always come from working out twice a day.

After the weigh-in we had a pretty grueling boot camp workout (if I do say so myself). It would have been tougher, but I was nursing a slight neck sprain from my own workout that morning and had to tone it down.

Still, they did quite a few sets of pushups, planks, jumping jacks, squats, lunges, crunches galore, running the dots, crab walks and an introduction to kick boxing before cooling down with some stretching at the end. It was pretty crazy with over 50 people in the room doing it all at the same time!

For many of them, it was the hardest workout they’ve done in years. It will quickly get easier though. In 4 weeks, they’ll look back and wonder what the big deal was. I’ll have to push them harder. In 12 weeks, they’ll laugh about it.

You see people often think that just because things are the way they are now, that they always have to be that way. This just isn’t true.

As our contestants are already learning, things can change. They can get stronger. They can start to lose inches, pounds, and fat. They’ll also gain confidence in their ability to accomplish new things—and that’s where the real power is.

Next week the contestants are supposed to step it up. They’re supposed to take 15 seconds off their one mile time (each week), and do at least one more pushup in a minute. They’re supposed to do two circuits on the weight machines instead of just one, and increase the weights when they can.

They’re also supposed to start looking at how much food they’re eating by starting to keep a daily food diary. Most of the guys will find out they’re overeating. Nine out of ten of the women will learn they’re not eating enough. We’ll be looking at that next week. After that, we’ll start talking about the quality of what they’re eating. For now, what about your New Year’s Resolution?