Biggest Loser.

So I am totally fascinated with this television program, The Biggest Loser (yes, thank you, I'm aware that I'm like four years behind the rest of the country.)  I'm not a huge TV watcher, and to be honest I've never watched a reality show aside from four episodes of the one where they were trying to find a new band member for INXS (I loved Jordis Unga then lost interest.)

I'm kind of working through my own theory of how some of the contestants on this show got to the point in their lives where they'd qualify for something like The Biggest Loser.  I mean, on the most basic level they're just eating too much and not exercising enough.  But there are some pretty intense family stories - divorce which found the mother taking two of her kids with her and the daughter that was left behind with the father felt she'd somehow done something wrong so she pretty much ate herself numb.  Or the woman who admitted that before her son was diagnosed with autism she weighed 135 but had fallen into a pattern of taking care of him then ending the day collapsing on the couch and eating whatever she could find.

Story after story, I just started thinking that for these people it happens to be eating.  And that eating brings about a very obvious result - gaining weight.  But many of them eat to deal with other issues, just like many alcoholics drink to forget their problems and many drug addicts are looking for escape.  Only for alcoholics and drug addicts it's easier to hide the tell-tale signs when they're not in action.  For people who eat, you can't "hide" the weight.  And no matter what you say, there is a certain shame to being seriously overweight in our culture.  

So I'm sitting here watching my laptop and crying like an idiot for these people who are so desperate for someone to help them.  The weight loss part is great.  But the connections they make with each other just shows how desperate many of them are to be accepted regardless of their weights.  

After two episodes I'm finding this show to be more a social experiment than a reality game show.  Though I did enjoy the slip 'n slide challenge they did (dude.  That just looked fun.)  I'm cheering for the pink team and the daughter Michelle specifically.  She's a beautiful girl but also seems to be really grounded and willing to figure out how to work her way out of the physical and emotional mess she's in.  Though being level-headed and calm probably means you'll get the boot for not generating more drama, eh?

And the two trainers make me laugh.  They're so mean when they yell at their teams but they almost seem apologetic when the talk about it later, explaining their motivation and feelings behind it.  No matter what she says, I'd probably pee myself if I ran into Jillian while eating a piece of cheesecake in a dark alley (me eating the cheesecake.  She apparently only eats steel and rocks.)(And not that I eat cheesecake in dark alleys.  I'm just sayin'.)

So that's my TV endorsement for the week.  Oh!  That and last week's Myth Busters where they put the phone books together page by page and it took two tanks to tear them apart (does that count as reality TV?)