Letters from home and the threat of going home were emotional wedges in last night’s Loser. The episode made me very teary, and not just because the Couples stories are moving, but also because I’m reliving a lot of the feelings I experienced this time 12 months ago.
I could really relate to the mums who are away from their kids – Jodi, Jeda and Amanda – as you experience such an immense feeling of guilt for being away from the day-to-day. It takes time to realise that, in the scheme of things, the sacrifice is quite small for such an enormous gain. What you learn about yourself and for your family on this journey, is so important… it’s such a precious gift.
That said, people don’t realise the sacrifice you make to be part of The Biggest Loser. Like Cameron who missed out on his daughter’s wedding, I missed out on three children’s birthdays, on my daughter’s first day of school, on helping my husband through a difficult work decision.
On top of that, when you’re in the house the feelings of loss are amplified because you don’t get phone calls home; you can’t just call up and say hi. You spend day and night focusing on weight loss and training and worrying about how your babies are surviving without you.
Several of the contestants last night mentioned “Taking care of yourself” or “Putting yourself first” – they’re such hard lessons to learn. We live in a society that asks us to give everything we’ve got to our families, or our work. But we don’t realise that it’s very hard to be a good mother/friend/spouse if you’re not giving something to yourself.
Although the time away from my children was incredibly painful, it taught me – and hopefully them – that it’s OK to allow yourself to come first. If you don’t, you end up having nothing left to give.
Everyone had lots to give on the scales last night, though – the scores were really fantastic! Although my heart goes out to Jodi and Jeda as I know what it’s like to have a week where you don’t understand your weight loss. I had a similar week in the house where I worked so hard, did everything right, was feeling very confident but only lost 1.5kg after expecting at least a 3kg loss. I was shattered, let me tell you!
But it was also a good turning point because it was when I decided that there were essentially two paths I could take – 1) I could let disappointment beat me; or 2) I could just keep going and work a little harder, reminding myself that it was a solid weight loss after all.
Be sure to tune in tonight at 7PM for a heartbreaking Biggest Loser elimination between the best-friend mums, Jodi and Jeda, and mother and daughter, Meaghan and Julie. It's going to be an emotional one for sure.
Episode 13 highlights
If you missed last night’s show, you can catch the entire episode at The Biggest Loser TV show website.
Below I’ve shared my favourite segment – Amanda returns! It’s a good idea to watch the last-chance training scenes closely – they have lots of good lessons from Shannan and Michelle on staying positive and ‘attacking’ your training.