First off, great show.
I mean to see extremely to severely overweight people shed hundreds of pounds is nothing short of inspiring. They were like sculptures and after burning off layers and layers of fat what emerged what awesome. That's why I think people who make fun of or discriminate against fat people are lame. It's like the corny saying goes, "I can always lose weight but you will always be ugly".
All the losers looked beautiful and radiant, especially my Suzy, yes she's mine I claimed her.
Onto my observations. Keep in mind, by nature I consider myself to be a social critic, in that I observe my surroundings w/a fairly critical eye, I don't pick on things to be a whiny complainer nor are my standards so high I'm never satisfied. I guess if I had a newspaper job, I'd be on the opinion page, b/c I'm full of it. Opinions I mean. You knew that already.
Let's get to it:
- I was @ the movies when I first saw ads for the show. Matt was the one that got me to watch the show. He tugged my heart strings the most b/c he looked the most miserable and he cried. I felt he would win the show.
- While Sabrina the Teenaged Witch's (StTW) aunt eventually grew on me, she is no Jeff Probst. She said some things that made me want to jab her in the eyes. If she said the word tiny one. more. time. I would've guzzled enough gallons of ice cream to gain enough weight to get on the show to become a finalist all so I could belt her w/a thesaurus and tell her cut it out.
Or
I could've just switched the channels, whichever was easier and all.
- I wonder what was the deal w/the no show? Did he not lose weight? Must google him.
- And the woman who had hurt herself and was like the 2nd or 3rd to go, I believe it was Kathryn, when she came out...I dunno...she didn't look peppy. Either she missed her cue or the audience didn't see her b/c when she stepped out, I heard crickets. Then she sorta shrugged her shoulders like, "I'm here" and then looked a bit annoyed. Plus most of the women had on sexy dresses, I think she wore all black and was covered up. I sensed she didn't have as spectacular a weight loss as her buddies. I found out later, I was right.
She'd only (I hate saying only b/c it takes away from the bigger picture) lost 16lbs, nothing to sneeze @ of course, but compared to the rest, I felt she was way disappointed. Hey, @ least she showed up.
- During the commercial break they previewed a new show w/4 men doing...something nothing...and lo and behold the first slew of jokes were fat jokes. Hey NBC...inappropriate much?
Yeesh.
One joke was about a pair of panties that were sooooooooo huge they could be used to sail the world. Fuh nee. Y'all must enjoy being in 3rd place.
The next preview had one of the guys turning another guys name into fat names like if his name was Jason, he called him Jay-Ton. The biggest zinger was being Carnie Wilson in grade school. Yea I'm sure she liked her name being used like that. 
- Big YAY to Pete who was downright unrecognizable, and bigger YAY!! to his wife 70lbs?!?! Amazing. Now go birth y'allselves some babies. *sniff*
- I get that they judged them by losing the biggest %tage vs. scale weight b/c that's as fair as it could be, but I think they should do something else b/c the largest person will always win vs. those w/less weight to lose.
Take Pete for example, He was over 300, and Andrea who was in the 220's. (StTW) aunt made an absurd comment that for Andrea to beat him, she'd need to have lost 102lbs. The woman would've had to weigh in @ 118lbs to "win" yet she looked fabulous @ her current weight, which was 130-140-something. In that respect, it wasn't very fair and pretty unrealistic. I sensed when Andrea heard her weight and the total she lost vs. what was expected, she was a bit let down.
- While I'm glad Pete won 100gs and all, it just occurred to me, he won more money than that final 2. Granted, they got prize money they weren't originally gonna get, but damn, he went home did it on his own for longer than they did and still beat them @ the end. Both weight wise and money wise.
- Even the (StTW) aunt acknowledged what a sweetie Dr. Jeff was. When she introduced him and showed his backstory, that pesky lump came back.
- Note to NBC...please do away w/the banner they have to burst through...rather....do like Oprah. What she does is super impose the person's before picture onto a curtain. That way the person can walk through the curtain w/grace. My Suzy had to scramble too hard to get to the other side. She almost lost her balance when she struck her pose...
- Poor Seth, he obviously practiced a victory dance and the stupid camera person stayed on his knees for so long we missed it...oh wait...that may be a good thing....
- I like how they showed the final 3 in their downfall settings. Seth was an emotional eater, Suzy was pressured to fit in and Matt was a changed person trying to hang w/the same friends and how they kept seeing him as the old Matt.
- I compared Suzy in the restaurant getting stressed & feeling deprived to Seth who was being a competitor about it and saw picking healthy food and being active as positive things. If Suzy always felt like going out to eat w/her friends would be a hassle, instead of an opportunity, after a while, her resolve will fail. She may feel, "Why bother...this is too hard, I just want to eat like them."
Which begs to think, is she going out to eat or enjoy the company of friends? I s'pose it's all in how you look @ it. And not to say she had to eat crackers while her friends had plate full of pasta, but even eating a modest salad and soup could give her room to splurge on a decadent dessert later.
My point is, 99% of it is one's mental outlook. If you go out to eat and look @ all that you can't have or you look @ what your skinny friends eat and feel resentment that you can only have low calorie boring food...that is a recipe for danger.
- @ the gratuitous shot of Jell-O in Suzy's home, could they be more obvious??. I've said it for 2 weeks now but I really LOVE Suzy, her issues, the whole pushing away people, staying in her head is totally me . Plus she's a cat person. *hug* for the kitty on the lap...love her.
I was cracking up @ her str8 from the dryer loose fitting jeans, I don't know if men get how big that is, but it's huge. Go Suzy! But um I could've done w/o the gangsta strut & semi rap skit...
- Whoa! Mark freaking RAN up stadium stairs. One time I remember feeling all cocky that I was going to create a new routine using the stairs. Shiiiiiit by the time I ran up once, to the 3rd floor, I just about passed out. I got dizzy and light headed. A fellow blogger pointed out that stairs are very strenuous and really works the large muscles in the lower body. My ♥ rate monitor was in the redline reading. I learned my lesson.
- I really like that how (StTW) aunt kept emphasizing they all lost weight through diet and exercise. All in all, the show had much more positives than negatives. The negatives were mostly reinforcing unrealistic thinking and expectations in subtle ways, but it wasn't enough to turn me off. By and large it was a pretty cool show even though it lost some of the tearing up factor being live.
- I doubt* I'll watch the local losers show, where they pit smaller groups of people working w/their own trainers against each other. I'll just wait for Season 3.
*I say this now but all it'll take is 1 or 2 shows & a few tears shed to get me hooked.
