An interesting article .... an interview with mother daughter team Renee and Michelle:
The Biggest Loser: Families mother-daughter team Renee Wilson and Michelle AguilarIf you tune in late to this week’s premiere of The Biggest Loser: Families on NBC, you might not be able to tell that Fort Worth’s Renee Wilson and her daughter, Michelle Aguilar, were estranged for several years. They seem to get along well in the weight-loss competition, which features two types of teams this season: husband-wife and parent-child. Wilson, 46, is the executive assistant in the senior pastor’s office at her church, and Aguilar, 26, is a former assistant TV director. In separate telephone interviews that are edited together below, we quizzed them about the experience.
1Your story is a little different from the other contestants’. What’s the background there?
Aguilar: When my parents divorced, I decided that for me, at the age of, like, 20, that it was better that I not talk to my mom. It was too painful, too hard. My mom would make small attempts to get in touch with me at holidays, birthdays, things like that, with a card or with a gift. . . . And then, a year ago, on my birthday, she actually showed up at the television network that I worked at, and she brought me a gift, and that was the first step in her really making a solid effort toward opening up our lives of communication. About five or six years had gone by at this point.
Wilson: I just felt like, "Enough’s enough. I’m just going to show up at her work and see what she does." . . . It was very awkward, but she didn’t say "Go away," and I vowed from that point on to keep on inviting her and calling her. She’d take my calls and come to dinner, so we were just taking baby steps. All along I kept praying and believing that we were one day going to reconcile our lives. Probably about four months after that, she called me and said, "You’re never going to believe this, and I understand if you don’t want to do it, but would you like to try out with me for Biggest Loser?" And me, being the mom who’d do anything to reconcile with her daughter, said, "Sure."
2In the premiere episode, at least, y’all don’t seem to have as many conflicts as some of the other teams.
Aguilar: It’s funny — the other teams, we noticed right away, would come in as families. A lot of these people, it’s their enablers that are coming with them. It’s the people they love the most. For my mom and I, we were almost walking in as strangers. Granted, of course, we’re bound by blood, but we didn’t know a lot about each other during the past six years, so I think we were able to both walk in with a "fresh start" mentality.
Wilson: It worked to our advantage, in a way, because we just felt like we were going to give it everything we had. We didn’t have much conflict at first. It was just kind of more a quietness and learning to open up to one another and learning to trust one another through challenges and working together and being together 24/7. . . . It was definitely a life-changing event.
3How did you feel physically after the first day of working out? [The show’s trainers, Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels, put the teams through especially rigorous, hours-long workout routines.]
Aguilar: I wanted to die. [Laughs] I am not the athletic kind of girl. Never have been. Never thought of myself that way. So that first day was a rude awakening, and it was a rude awakening because I didn’t realize how unhealthy I was. I [realized], "I’ve got to change. Because this is so painful, I want this pain to stop, and the only way this pain can stop is if I keep at it."
Wilson: I thought, "What have I done?" [Laughs] Obviously, I weighed a whole bunch and I was living a pretty sedentary lifestyle. I really did think, "What have I done? Oh, my gosh. This is the first day. It’s just not going to get easier from here." But I’m not a quitter, and I vowed that I was going to do my best. I wanted to look back, so whether I was there for a week or for three months, I would have no regrets.
4What was your biggest reality check?
Aguilar: That I was so unhealthy. I think I thought if I dressed a certain way and I camouflaged my body just so, that people wouldn’t notice that I’d slowly gained weight over the years. Being on the show, having to put on spandex and a sports bra, is a reality check. You can’t hide who you are anymore. . . . Especially for women, this is a big huge deal: "Oh, this is what I weigh. And I’m going to tell the world."
Wilson: I knew I was in poor health and I knew I had to change my life, and this was the way I was going to do it. When Jillian would yell at us and scream, I’d cry, but then I’d tell myself, "You know what? She cannot kill me! She can yell at me all day long, but she cannot kill me! So just keep working!" And it worked.
5It’s lunchtime here, and I’m considering having a burger and fries or a tuna-salad sandwich. Which one should I have?
Aguilar: Don’t have either. Tuna [salad] has too much mayonnaise in it, so you don’t want that. You could do the burger, but take off the bun and leave all the tomato and lettuce on it. Don’t get the fries. You could get a fruit cup instead.
Wilson: I’d say maybe tuna salad, no mayonnaise. . . . Or how about burger and a salad?
[Reporter’s note: Aguilar and Wilson have continued their workout regimens. I, meanwhile, had the burger and didn’t take their advice. My loss.]
Link: http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/story/903013.html
