The Biggest Loser

This morning I watched this season's finale of The Biggest Loser. While I fully recognize that this show needs ratings and thus they put an emphasis on drama, they also really try to motivate and show the contestants the flaws in their lifestyles in an effort to get them to change for the better. I was pretty excited because my favorite won the big prize, but on top of that, a recurring theme throughout the finale (and throughout the series) is how happy the contestants are with the changes they have made in their life. Over and over again, the contestants reiterate how they have their life back, how they have a second chance. It is amazing how much the transformation is necessary on the inside as well as the outside and how hindering one can hinder the other in a never ending cycle, just as the opposite is true.

This season, my favorite trainer, Jillian Michaels was speaking with a contestant and she told her, in reference to the contestant not wanting to work out, that "It's got to be because the desire to change is outweighing the pain and the fear. You just have to dig deep and make a choice. And right now it's gonna be as simple as 'hand/foot/hand/foot'." I love this quote. It is so important for us to keep this in mind in order to get to that place where we want to be...that so often we are crippled by fear and the big picture when we really need to focus on the smallest little steps in getting us started in moving towards our goal. We focus too much on the desire end result without taking time to look and see where we could be at this moment and what we could be doing at this moment. We are so fearful of not making it to our goal that we miss out on the opportunity to change our life and see where things go. While making it to the end of the show and the chance to win the big money is these contestants goal, each one of them focuses on something small, making it one more week on the ranch, powering through a "last minute workout" with the trainers, or simply jogging for 90 continuous seconds. I think this is something I need to work on keeping in mind, the end result and the little steps, looking at both things together, to make the changes I want in my life and to work towards the things we want or need.