I'm No Jillian

The Biggest Loser new season debut was this week and yes, I have gotten lots of questions from clients about what I thought. I do not watch a lot of tv, but I did start watching this program a few seasons back because many of my clients did and I wanted to answer their questions. I got sucked into it. Like most things, there is good and there is bad.

Good would be the participants and hearing their stories and seeing how you can relate in some way to what they are saying or going through. Of course, I love to see the before and afters like everyone else.

Bad because of bad training and unrealistic weight losses and contests and game play. And this is from a competitive person. Duh. I think I won one of those contests about 8 years ago. When someone loses 28 lbs in a week and my client sits in front of me with a 8 lb loss over a month and thinks that's bad, that's what disturbs me.

I don't dislike Jillian, I'm just no Jillian, to the dismay of my husband. She's beautiful. She's tone. In some ways, she is a good trainer when she talks about getting inside to find out what the real block is to losing weight, or when she talks about the nutritional component to weight loss and how important it is. But, just in case you were wondering, here is why I'm no Jillian...

• I never swear at my clients.
• I do not use the 'F' word when speaking to my clients to motivate them. A funny story about that, my son knows we do not use the 'F' word around here, but the 'F' word to him is 'Fat'. He knows I don't like that word, so he replaces it with a proper term like 'Obese'.
• I do not grab my clients by their shirts and drag them around. I don't push them or shove them.
• When I see signs of struggle or overuse in a client, I help them stop, get their heart rate back down into a safe zone.
• My clients do not spend a week in the hospital after our first workout. No really, they don't.
• I do not scream in my client's faces or make them cry.
• I do not ask my clients to squat while I stand on their quads.
And finally...
• I do not make my clients carry me on their back while they work out.

But the results! It must work, right? Remember that these people are taken out of their life, they are put in a ranch where their job is to lose weight. They work out several times a day for hours. All of their food and drink is prepared for them, no sodas or junk food. I would love it if I could stop every client from eating soda and junk food, but my clients live in the real world. I have to teach them how to resist it and how to make healthy choices.

And it is a show. They need drama to keep interested viewers. They need to go to the extremes and make people mad or sad. This week's show was a real tear jerker with the stories. The lady whose family was killed was amazing, I don't know how she gets up every day. And they must love Jillian because they all hug her at the end, right? Duh! They're afraid she's going to kill them! And what is the percentage of participants that keep the weight off? The real story? I don't know.

I just know that I want more for my clients. I want more than reaching a goal once and then fading into oblivion. I want them to live healthy lives and live out their dreams. Don't get me wrong, there are a few very successful people from the show. I love Ali! She is my girl! She is one of few though. She has a great attitude, has kept the weight off and is a very good example to those around her.

I just know I'm no Jillian...