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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

EM:WLE: Tiny White Guy Meets Big Black Girl

I managed to watch the latest installment of EM:WLE last night and it the process, got my husband interested too. He pointed out something a little strange though. If Chris lives with the fatestants for 90 days, how can he do more than four of these amazing transformations in one year? Curious, right? But rather than dwell on it, let's get to LaRhonda's amazing transformation. When we meet LaRhonda, she's a large, unhappy woman, with some sort of secret that has led her to be fat for her whole life. She coaches some sort of flag waving team (my high school didn't have a band or anything, so I'm not really very knowledgable about these things) and that's what she's doing when Chris enters the gym with a drum - my guess? Chris was definitely a band geek in high school! LaRhonda tackles Chris and they head to California for boot camp. We see LaRhonda's first weigh-in - on the loading dock as usual since the scales inside the Health and Longevity Center aren't really big enough. It seem like kind of a weak excuse to me, since they could have put a scale like the one on the loading dock inside, but I guess it serves its purpose of shaming the fatestants. This time, we don't see any cooking classes, just some medical testing and the first workout where Chris kicks LaRhonda's ass until he thinks she might quit, but she tells him she won't, after telling him that she was molested when she was 8 and never told anyone and that's why she's fat. And then we're back in Oklahoma. Chris moves in and they go grocery shopping together. Chris explains the important of eating breakfast as well as the need to eat the colors of the rainbow when eating veggies, to which LaRhonda replies "taste the rainbow", which is the Skittles tag line, if I am remembering correctly. At the 90 weigh in, if LaRhonda loses 100 pounds, her phase one goal, she gets, a new car! (insert Bob Barker intonation here). And, after the usual commercial break, we learn that at 333 pounds, she has lost exactly 100 pounds and the new car is all hers!

Chris leaves, which usually cues all sorts of drama, but LaRhonda's lapse doesn't seem to have hurt her very much, because at the 180 day weigh-in, with a phase 2 goal of 60 pounds, LaRhonda loses...60 pounds. Really? Twice in a row she's lost exactly the right amount? Not much happens before the 270 day weigh-in, where we learn that LaRhonda must lose about 50% of her original body weight to qualify for the skin removal surgery. This time, she gets to weigh in inside the California facility. And with over 47% of her original body weight lost, she's a candidate, woohoo! She meets with the plastic surgeon who shows us that she has about 5 inches on skin that can be removed (ewww!) and with that, LaRhonda gets to say goodbye to Bertha - yes, she named her stomach.

On Day 365, in front of her friends and family, we find out that LaRhonda has lost 202 pounds. You go girl!

So, I learned a few things this week. First, Chris explained that for the first 90 days of the program, they took her out of work and made exercise and eating right her full-time job. So, that's why it seems like none of the fatestants ever work. Aha! Second, Chris Powell will sleep anywhere and uses a guitar as an alarm clock - that's how he wakes LaRhonda up for her workout at 6am.

This will be my last post for a while as I am about to be on maternity leave for a while. Hopefully, Chris Powell will be my motivation to get rid of all this baby weight, either than or my office's Biggest Loser competition. But either way, I will be back in August and will likely start recapping again then. If I have a chance in the midst of baby-craziness, I'll try to do some blogging about Royal Pains! If not, see you all on the other side.

1 comment:

  1. Dear SB, I take umbrage at the tone of your remarks directed towards Colorguard (or "flag waving team") and marching band "geeks". We are cool, we are awesome and our moms love us very much! I would still walk around with a drum strapped to me ... if Mrs. The TV Watcher permitted it. She does not.

    By the way, I am 100% behind shaming the fatestants with loading dock scales!

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