By Buzz Byrne
Now that Team Red has been sent packing with the elimination of Bryan, the show’s dirty little out-in-the-open secret can be spoken: Kim, the Red Team trainer, just isn’t that good at her job. There is no doubt she can make people drop weight and gain muscle but she just can’t get her teams to win. So not only has her team been eliminated from the show but so has she. After a quick video goodbye from Bryan and no one left to train, Kim was booted from BIGGEST LOSER campus.
The two remaining trainers, Bob and Crazy Jillian, tried to prepare there troops for a rocky reentry into their lives. As difficult as it is to lose weight, it only takes three little things: healthy eating, exercise and the will to do both. As part of this preparation the contestants were sent off to “work” for eight hours to give them a feel for what life will be like off-camera and back in civilization. They were not told where they were going to work. They just had to pack a healthy lunch and snacks, squeeze in a morning workout and be ready for the day.
“I hope it’s a desk job,” Isabeau said. “Not childcare or a food situation.”
What’s reality TV without a little sadism? They sent them to work in a pizzeria. And Neil had to do dishes. As Colonel Kurtz says in APOCOLYPSE NOW, “The horror…The horror!” When they all got back to campus, after working a full eight hours, they were made to have another workout. And Julie got something to complain and whine about. Listening to Julie complain and whine must be someone’s idea of compelling TV. To me it seems more like a cure for a terrible TV addiction.
The challenge this week had a boxing component so the trainers incorporated the sweet science into the workouts. This may come as a shock but Julie had some complaints.
The challenge turned out to be a speedbag suspended over a trampoline. There were six of these rigs and each player had to climb in and jump and punch the bag as many times as they could in three minute heats with the person with the least hits in each heat eliminated. Neil’s observation was, “Fat people and trampolines don’t work out well.” Oh, Neil. You are so wrong buddy. Hollie and Bill were instantly worried about success because they both were nursing injuries- Bill a bum knee and Hollie had a balky ankle. The prize was a one pound bonus for the weigh in. This was a huge prize.
Nicole was eliminated in the first heat and Neil went in the second (Go Team Blue!). Bill was next followed by Julie and Isabeau. Hollie won the one pound.
When it came to the weigh in Hollie didn’t need the extra pound taken off. She lost five pounds this week and that was enough to keep her safe. Bill and the bad knee continued to amaze by dropping another nine pounds and he couldn’t even do cardio work. Neil was back in the double digits with a ten pound loss and Isabeau stayed safe losing five pounds. Julie had a lot to complain about but even with all that yapping she only dropped three pounds. The shocking moment of the night came when Nicole took to the scales and had only lost a single pound. She said she was “Shocked and disgusted,” with that number. It was heartbreaking to see, really. And going up against a Black Team member when they have controlling votes, she knew she was headed home.
Trainer Bob took some time with her in the wardrobe department, making her try on the clothes she came to the show in. She was swimming in them and the pain of losing faded as the dawn of what she has accomplished began to burn through her.
She was voted off but since her time on the show she has lost 91 pounds and is a smaller size now than she was when she was thirteen years old. Maybe the fourth component to weight loss is having someone like Bob around who can put a setback in the proper perspective.
That’s an amazing job, Nicole. Keep on working.