So, the finale. It was pretty uneventful. The ladies looked good, the guys looked good. But the real question was who was going to beat John?
Apparently no one. Boo. John wins the title of The Biggest Loser (I already thought he was one) and Jenn takes the at home prize. DietsInReview.Com sums it up perfectly.
Tune in in a couple of weeks for next season where Santa Claus is coming to town. . .and the ranch!
The finale of season 12 of The Biggest Loser is upon us! I can smell the scale, feel the confetti in my hair, and see Ali in a bandage dress of some kind! I also want to shout out that Jen of @TheBLBlog is going to be actually there as we are actually watching from the comfort of home. So tune into her twitter feed and read her site because she will have the inside scoop.
Me? I'll just be pretending I know it all as usual.
So, the marathon.
Okay, first the contestants went home and they were welcomed as usual by friends and family. They showed montages of them working out and Bob and Dolvett coming to visit everyone. John has his wife in slave labor while he trains. You know, all the good stuff.
Then it is time for the marathon! The four remaining contestants (John, Becky, Antone, and Vinny) are joined by everyone else that has been eliminated so far. Even Bonnie make a guest appearance but is not running the marathon. That's okay, because Crazy Johnny and his straw hat are nutty enough for the both of them.
The marathon feels like a marathon as we watched it stretch on. The winner will get a place in the finale and everyone else will just have sore knees and bragging rights that they ran a marathon on national television.
Ramon and his never ending stream of positivity wins the race, securing him a spot in the finale. Then at a tension filled weigh in, his competition is revealed: John and Antone. I'm sorry to say, Becky and Vinny, you are not the Biggest Losers but you will be in the running for the at home prize.
There is some MAJOR AWESOME trash talk (finally!) between John and Antone about who will win and Ramon is hoping he'll be able to sneak in there and steal it. My money is on Antone.
YOU BETTER WIN ANTONE!!!!! YOU HEAR ME?!?!?!?
Want to know what the delightful Courtney has to say? Here is her review from DietsinReview.Com!
It was all ladies all the time on the season finale of The Biggest Loser!!!
Winners:
1.) Irene beat Jay in America's vote to be apart of the top 3.
2.) Deni (Baby Muscles mom? The one who didn't go to her daughter's wedding?) won the at home prize of $100,000 by losing 125 pounds and 48% of her body weight.
3.) Hannah for looking HOT in her finale dress.
4.) The Oklahoma Twins for shocking everyone and making Bob and Jillian eat a little crow.
5.) Olivia winning the damn thing- we knew she would!
Losers:
1.) Irene's not orange dress.
2.) Cara's baby bump. Or was it?
3.) No montage of Jillian training after 11 seasons of being awesome.
4.) Kaylee gaining 14 pounds and not being eliminated.
5.) Anna Kournikova replacing Jillian on the show. WHAT? I mean, really. Yes, she is pretty. Yes, she is thin. But what does she know about weight loss? Wrong move NBC. Hire a real trainer!!!
It was a long season of The Biggest Loser. I wrote 20 posts! I even skipped last week's episode because it wasn't anything new or anything you and I haven't seen before.
I had a good time watching the finale with some Biggest Loser Twitterphiles (these girls made me look like an amateur BL fan) and some specially placed Wholly Guacamole. Let's make this summer memorable! I will be blogging about the Food Revolution and ABC's new weight loss show, as well as all the goings on in the city. Biggest Loser break until September!
Here's a recap from DietsinReview.com- including an interview with winner Olivia!
A slight spoiler. If you didn't watch this final episode of The Biggest Loser before the finale, let me make a long story short: Ada Wong needs your vote to get into the final three.
How did we get here? What happened to Ada the Terminada? Let's start at the very beginning (I've been told it's a very good place to start.).
Ali sends the Losers home with DVDs to watch and an extra bonus to Frado: Curtis Stone comes to his house to cook a healthy meal for his family. How this "meal" changes into something completely different is a subject for another paragraph.
Elizabeth heads to Lawrence, MA, Ada heads to Gilroy, CA, Frado heads to Staten Island, NY, and Patrick heads to Vicksburg, MS (via steamboat, obviously) to meet with family and friends and have many tearful montages. And this is the point where I got really weirded out by the episode.
When they showed Frado's home, I was surprised. He lives in a lovely, HUGE Staten Island home with an in-ground pool. Do you know how much a home like that runs? Those homes can be in the million dollar range! Then I saw his thin family, his Navajo themed television watching room, his position on many well deserving charities that had a banquet hosted by Frado and cooked by Curtis Stone (paying it forward, they say) with obligatory book signing of Curtis' cook book, and it got me thinking. And I talked about this episode at my job the next day and my co-workers agreed with me.
Whether I like Frado and his game isn't in question. I wasn't crazy about how he ran the game, however, I don't feel someone in his financial position should be given the same opportunities as say a Patrick who is unemployed and desperately needs the money or an Elizabeth that lives in a tiny apartment. Everyone who suffers from the disease of obesity or diabetes should be able to get the help they need, and for some, The Biggest Loser MAY be their only hope (although we have seen plenty of people getting healthy at home on their own). Frado is surrounded by many creature comforts and a family who supports him. He doesn't come from an obese family. From the looks of it, Frado was the anomaly in his family. Couldn't he have hired a nutritionist and a personal trainer and left the grand prize to Patrick or inner city school teacher Brendon? Why does Frado even need to be on the show? According to NBC's website, Frado is a futures commodities trader. Looking into what this job pays, I found this quote on about.com: "The excellent salesmen and very good traders tend to make in excess of $100,000 a year. A small percentage of them make well into six figures and sometimes seven figures."
Should NBC allow contestants that have their own means to lose weight compete on this show? In my opinion, I say no. And would the other players have chosen differently if they were fully aware of his financial status? The common ground is that they are all heavy and haven't been able to do what they need to lose the weight. Frado seems to have all the necessary tools. The other contestants? No support at home, no self esteem, no job or money: Those seem like pretty big obstacles to weight loss.
Maybe it was sour grapes the rest of the episode, but I was not terribly interested in the marathon. I would love for the show to shake it up and try a new challenge, like a triathlon or mountain climbing or something that would be more fun to watch! I decided just to touch on my favorite highlights of the episode. That impassioned Frado speech took a lot out of me!!!
Ada's confrontation with her parents after they watched her DVD may have been one of my favorite moments on this show EVER. That s#&t was REAL.
Patrick cleaning the house with his kids. Super adorbz.
Jillian almost hitting Ada with her SUV when she came to visit.
Elizabeth getting SCHOOLED by Jillian for not working out and moving in with her boyfriend instead of focusing on herself.
Bob's cue card placement on his trainer tip--what was that cue card guy thinking?
Elizabeth's Jenny-O turkey bacon plug. AWFUL.
Ada's six minute potty break during the marathon.
Jillian's porno, I mean, commercial for GoDaddy.com.
Ada beating Tara Costa's marathon time- 4 hours and 38 minutes is amazing!
Ali's Falcon Crest blouse at the final weigh in. It was. . .very leopardy.
At the almost final weigh in, the results were a little surprising. After six weeks at home, how did the Losers fare?
Patrick: From 279 lbs to 244 lbs- 35 lbs lost- 12.54% BW
Frado: From 248 lbs to 221 lbs- 27 lbs lost- 10.89% BW YELLOW LINE
Elizabeth: From 192 lbs to 177 lbs- 15 lbs lost- 7.81% BW
Ada: From 179 lbs to 167 lbs- 12 lbs lost- 6.70% BW
Italian Stallion Mike is the new Biggest Loser! He went from over 500 pounds to a little over 200 pounds. He won my heart over the season with his charm and humor, and he was a good game player when the time was right (hear that, Koli and Melissa?) His decision to pack the Blue team with heavy hitters and all the ladies and Sam on the Black team kept him in the competition for weeks longer, giving him the time it took to catch up with the other smaller players.
The at home winner WAS Koli, but the contest for America's vote was won by my fellow Oklahoman Daris, who looked adorable and NOW has a girlfriend. Mission Accomplished!
Ashley looked amazing and actually beat Daris, and her mom Sherry almost beat every competitor for the at home prize. Everyone looked great- here's hoping that everyone keeps it off and we don't see Koli on a very special episode of the Biggest Loser two seasons from now. . .
I had always been interested in working out and being fit, but never could stick with it. I rode bikes and did martial arts and dance as a kid, but always opted for the more creative choices when I got older, instead of the active choices. NO organized sports for this kid!
I was the newspaper editor and drama queen in high school, and my love of the arts took me to college as a Musical Theatre Major, and that led me to living in New York City. All the while, I was the chubby one, the funny best friend and side kick. I wanted to lose weight, but never really knew what to do about it.
After September 11, I moved back to my home state of Oklahoma to help take care of my older sister who was suffering from kidney failure. The defeat I felt in moving home only added to my weight problems. My sister had me weigh myself at her doctor appointment one day, and I weighed over 200 pounds. I refused to believe it, and blamed the fact that I was wearing clothes for the extra 50 pounds.
Then everything changed: my sister passed away in September of 2002. I was lost and confused, and was medicating myself with food and drinks. One morning in November of 2002, I woke up and was tired of feeling bad. I needed to change. I started my fitness journey that morning by putting on an old pair of sneakers and I never looked back.
I have lost over 60 pounds on my own through diet and exercise. No fancy tricks, but lots of sweat and hard work. I am amazed when people can change their lives by doing the same thing. I'm an ACE certified personal trainer, personal trainer at Equinox Sports Club West LA, licensed Zumba instructor, and intenSati leader (with more to come!!!), and am happy for the chance to touch people with my enthusiasm for fitness everyday.
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