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The Biggest Loser Season 6

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marigold:

The Biggest Loser Contestant Bios

Tom



Tom is married with three children; two boys and one girl. He works very hard trying to keep everyone in the family happy, but would like to spend a lot more time with his wife and kids. Tom has been driving a taxi in Boston for the last sixteen years, and he has let his weight slip out of control. His family and doctor constantly remind him that he needs to lose weight, but because he sits driving all day he does not get to exercise. Plus, as a result of being on the go, he has become a fast food junkie. Tom Sr. wants to break the cycle and give his son an opportunity he never had!

Tom Sr. and Tom Jr. are the father-and-son team who really do not like to lose at anything they do. They are competitive to the end, but they enjoy life and have fun together. Their team motto is: "Play now, pay later!" This team from Massachusetts is ready to show the world how strong a father/son bond is. They will keep us laughing and crying throughout their experience on the show. While they look big and tough, these guys have a sensitive side that they cannot hide.

marigold:

The Biggest Loser Contestant Bios

Tom Jr.



Tom Jr. is very outspoken and likeable. He has two siblings: a brother and sister, both younger. Tom Jr. has been overweight for most of his life. Even though he struggled with being overweight, he was a very active kid, and played a lot of organized sports such as football, baseball and basketball. Since he graduated high school he has put on significant weight. He now drives a taxi part time. He volunteer coaches Pop Warner Football for the kids in his spare time and the amount of time he has to exercise is limited. Tom never quits and will keep trying until the final whistle has blown.

Tom Sr. and Tom Jr. are the father-and-son team who really do not like to lose at anything they do. They are competitive to the end, but they enjoy life and have fun together. Their team motto is: "Play now, pay later!" This team from Massachusetts is ready to show the world how strong a father/son bond is. They will keep us laughing and crying throughout their experience on the show. While they look big and tough, these guys have a sensitive side that they cannot hide

marigold:
An interesting article .... an interview with mother daughter team Renee and Michelle:

The Biggest Loser: Families mother-daughter team Renee Wilson and Michelle Aguilar

If 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

marigold:
An interesting article .... an interview with father daughter team Jerry and Coleen

Ten Minutes With ... a father-daughter team on 'The Biggest Loser'

Family is the team theme for the sixth edition of NBC's weight-loss reality series, "The Biggest Loser." And the eight duos include a father-daughter team from the Cleveland area: Jerry Skeabeck, 51, a police sergeant in the village of Highland Hills, and his daughter, Coleen Skeabeck, 23, a former receptionist at a court recording firm in downtown Cleveland. He lives in Middleburg Heights. She lives in North Royalton. Their competition for the $250,000 grand prize: three other parent-child duos and four husband-wife teams.

The season has been filmed, except for the live finale. So the Skeabecks are back in Northeast Ohio, sworn to secrecy on how much they lost and how far they went in the competition. They shared some thoughts about facing this reality experience recently with Plain Dealer television critic Mark Dawidziak.

Coleen, I get the feeling this was more your idea.

Totally. Once my weight got to the point where it was like, "I gotta do something now," I felt that this show was the answer for me.

How did you persuade your dad to do this with you?

I told him this was the opportunity of a lifetime to change his life and, "We can go and try for this and lose weight together, and be healthy and happy together." And he was all for it, and here we are today.

Was that how it went down, Jerry?

Pretty much. I'm sure you'll relate to this: I'll do whatever I can for my kids. This meant a lot to her and was a big part of her dreams, and all I had to do was say one word, yes, to make this dream come true.

Had you ever watched "The Biggest Loser?"

Jerry: I caught the last four episodes of last season. I'm not much of a television person. I catch the Browns games and that's about it.

Coleen: I'm not a big reality watcher myself. I could just tell, from watching "The Biggest Loser," that it was not like any other reality show. People really cared about each other on the show.

Did you ever stop and think, "What are we getting ourselves into?"

Coleen: There is that moment of, "What am I doing? This is insanity." But then you realize, "This is the most amazing feeling ever. I'm changing my life, and I'm inspiring millions of Americans to do the same."

Jerry: Before I saw those episodes, there was a concern about, does this make fun of the chubby people? And then, of course, you realize how out of shape you are and how much you need to do to get yourself better.

What did you find out about yourselves?

Coleen: I knew I was a goal-oriented person, but I had to wake up and find out what my goals were. And I had to realize I have the potential to reach my goals and not to settle for less.

Jerry: It was a personal reality check, but, in a bigger sense, it was really eye-opening and an awakening about how serious the obesity problem is in this country.

You can't say how much you lost, but what were your starting weights?

Coleen: 218 pounds.

Jerry: And I was at 3,744 ... no, 380 pounds.

Short of knowing whether you're in the running for the $250,000, did you get what you wanted out this experience?

Coleen: We went into this to change our lives together. And the fact that my dad accepted my offer to go on the show meant more than anything in the world. The fact that he wanted to change his life, too, meant everything. The smile from ear to ear on both our faces says everything about how this has changed our lives.

Jerry: Sounds good to me.

Link: http://www.cleveland.com/tv/index.ssf/2008/09/ten_minutes_with_a_fatherdaugh.html

marigold:

Reminder:  :jumpy:

The Biggest Loser Families Season 6 Premieres Tonight 8:00 PM-10:00 PM EST

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