If you haven’t seen this week’s Biggest Loser episode, then don’t read this until you do. I’m annoyed at several of the contestants this season. Why? Because they basically quit. I’m referring to Dan, Don (twins – black team), and Irene (orange team). Both Dan and Don were missing home and missing their families. I can understand that, but you signed up for the show for a reason. You were chosen to go to the Biggest Loser ranch out of millions of contestants. I’m not sure how long the contestants are on the ranch from the first week to the last, but I think it’s about 4 months. Yes, that’s a long time to be away from your family. But again, you signed up to do it. If you’re not sure you can handle being away from home that long, think twice about applying.
A few weeks ago, Dan and Don had enough (it was only week 3 at the time), and decided (in my opinion) to sabotage themselves. They both gained 9 pounds at that week’s weigh in. My jaw dropped at that, and I could not believe it. Nine pounds…each. I’ve seen contestants gain before, but 9 pounds? My first question was how. How can anyone gain 9 pounds in one week? One pound is equal to 3,500 calories. To gain 9 pounds, they’d have to consume 31,500 calories. Each. How do you do that? The cameras never showed them eating, but they had to have eaten a ton of food when no one was around.
Here’s my problem with Dan and Don (I’ll get to Irene in a minute). If you’re that homesick, why not just walk away? Why wait to be eliminated? Why waste everyone’s time? My husband gave me that answer. They waited to be eliminated so they could still participate in the “at home” challenge. This made me even more annoyed. If you sabotage yourself (and I have no doubt they did), you should be disqualified for the at home portion of the competition. It’s the same thing with the show Survivor. Last season, two contestants on Survivor quit, but were still a part of the jury. I am so glad that Survivor put a new rule stating that if a person quits from now on, they will not be on the jury (I was angry last season about the two being allowed to stay). Anyway, back to The Biggest Loser. If you gain weight on purpose, you should be out, gone, and not allowed to come back. It may sound harsh, but that type of B.S. gets on my last nerve.
Now, onto Irene. Since Irene’s partner went home the first week, and one of the twins left, Irene and the other twin got paired up to be a team for the week. Fine. Fast forward to the weigh in. Not only did the twin (keep forgetting which one) gain 6 pounds, but Irene gained 6 also. What?!?!?!? Why did she agree to gain weight? I don’t get it. Again, if you want to go home, go home. Just leave. Don’t bring someone in on your plan to be eliminated. Why did Irene agree to gain weight? I have no clue. It makes no sense to me. I want her gone soon.
I understand this is just a show, but for a lot of the contestants it’s more than just winning $250,000 at the end. It’s about learning a healthy way of living. They want to learn how to eat right and exercise to maintain a healthy weight. Obviously Dan, Don and Irene blew the healthy eating (even if they didn’t show it, I believe they ate a lot), part of the lifestyle change. I keep thinking about all the other people out there who would love to have been chosen for the opportunity to train with Bob, Jillian, Cara, and Bret. Even Bob said that a few weeks ago when Dan and Don gained 9 pounds. He said he couldn’t help but think two other people could have been there instead.
So, that’s my rant. It bugs the heck out of me that these three people just blew it like that. I want them to lose the weight and be healthy, don’t get me wrong. Both Dan and Don continued to lose weight, and are looking good. But, it just irks me to no end that they pulled that stunt.
I don’t have a favorite contestant this season yet. I am sad that this will be the last season with Jillian Michaels in it. I’ll miss her on future seasons, but understand her reasons for leaving. I need to get used to Cara and Bret. I need to see more of how they train people. Right now, it seems to be only boxing workouts. I’m glad Bob Harper is staying (as far as I know). I always flip flop on who I would choose to train with if I had the opportunity. Bob or Jillian. It’s hard to choose.
How do you all feel about what happened on the show? Are you annoyed?
Still moving along the virtual walk. Took a couple days off last week because I was tired and a little sore. Back at it though. Just posting the pictures really quick this morning, and then I’ll be doing 1.1 mile afterward. I also plan to rant about The Biggest Loser in another post.
Mile 223
Mile 223.6
Mile 224.8
Mile 225.4
Mile 226.6
I’ve been pretty consistent the last week with my elliptical (and strength training). I didn’t take as many days off as I have been. I did take Tuesday off because I was a little sore. I added five minutes to my elliptical workout on Sunday, and I needed the break. It’s funny how just five minutes can make you sore and tired. I am estimating my distance, and I’m no longer trying to beat my one mile time. The display screen just won’t cooperate. The springs in the battery compartment are smushed. That’s OK though, the important thing is, I’m moving. I’ve been tracking my fitness consistently on SparkPeople for the last four yeas (four years in the beginning of March actually), so I know about how far I go depending on how long I‘m on. I’m doing about 1.1 miles (a little more I think, but but not quite 1.2) in 40 minutes. I burn about 370 calories in that amount of time, so that’s not too shabby. Eventually, and this is still a long ways off, I’d like to do a full hour on the elliptical. I’m slowly getting there. I’ll do 40 minutes for a few weeks and see if I want to try for 45.
I’ve had no issues for a while either. Such as blisters, ankle problems, foot problems, or anything. I do occasionally get muscle knots in my lower legs, but they’re not bothering me too much. Since my last post, I’ve gone about 9 miles. I just passed through Rockfish Gap, VA, and am now on my way to Vesvius, VA in Nelson County. Here are my current stats from the virtual walk site:
222 miles since 4/28/08
31.97 miles to Vesvius, VA, Nelson County
About 32 miles until the next town. That will take me a while. At least a month. I actually like to watch the distance shrink as I’m heading to the next town. And of course, I love the pictures along the route. Speaking of pictures, here are the nine photos for the last nine miles.
213.6
214.6
215.6
216.6
217.6
218.6
219.8
220.8
222
I didn’t see too much activity in Rockfish Gap, but I pretty much blew through it. Yesterday (the 220.8 picture) I had about .16 miles to go until I hit town. Then today, I went a little over a mile, so I think I’m past in now. Or just about past it. Looked like I went by a motel.
I’ll keep moving along and see where I end up next. Thirty two miles until the next town. I just hope there’s a little activity before that. Cars, people, buildings, something. We’ll see. Keep on moving!
I know, I know, I’m slacking again. Hope everyone had a good holiday and a great New Years. I don’t intend on making any new year’s resolutions. I tend to make goals every month (even if I don’t post them), rather than look at the entire year. One month at a time is good for me. Basically, my goal is to just keep moving.
Good news is, we discovered what is wrong with the elliptical display screen. Bad news is, it doesn’t stay fixed for long. What the problem is this. The springs in the battery compartment are squished too much, and the batteries are bouncing around. When they bounce around too much, the display resets. My husband stretched the coils, and that seemed to help for about a day. It’s back to resetting every 30 seconds again. I’ll have him stretch the coils again soon. But in the meantime, I’m estimating my distance. I’m going one mile in 35 minutes. I’m probably going a little over a mile, but not much.
So, on to the photos from the virtual walk. I’ve gone five miles since my last post. Now that the weather is clear again, I should be able to get in more consecutive days, and stop taking days off for one reason or another. I’m aiming for about 6 miles a week.
Mile 208.8
Mile 209.8
Mile 210.8
Mile 211.8
Mile 212.8
Still looks nice an sunny on the VA roads. I’m about 8 miles away from Rockfish, VA in Charlottesville County. Hopefully, I can post more than once every week from now on. Bets? Keep on moving!
I’ve been slacking with the posts again, I know. My walk across the country is still going. I’ve had no more blister issues (so far) since I switched socks. I’m up to doing a full mile again with no problems. I haven’t been doing my elliptical every day, but I am doing it. I’ve had several unintentional days off due to people coming over, or my husband has the day off (due to rain), but I am still moving. Monday was one of those days off. Southern CA is getting hit by a storm coming up from the south. When storms move in from the south, that’s when we get a LOT of rain. Streets flood, people forget how to drive, it’s nuts.
Monday was the first day of the rain, so it wasn’t too bad yet. People were still somewhat sane on the roads. We ended up going to see the movie Tron: Legacy. I actually sort of snoozed off and on during the movie. Oops. It was OK, but rather blah. Not boring really, just not very exciting in my opinion. And definitely NOT worth the 3D priced movie tickets. Most of the movie was in 2D. If I had known that ahead of time, I would have pushed to see the normal 2D version. Paying 3D prices to see only half of the movie IN 3D is a rip off.
Tuesday I did get on the elliptical and did my mile. After I was done, the last of my calluses came off. I had one left on my big toe, and it popped off. I‘m taking today off, because I’m feeling kind of blah. I have some thoughts on that, which I’ll write about tomorrow. But today’s post is to get you all caught up on my virtual walk pictures.
I’m up to 207.8 miles and have reached the town of Whitehall, VA. I’ve not got 13.19 miles until I hit the town of Rockfish Gap, VA. There’s some pretty strange names in the state of VA. Here are the pictures from miles 203.6 to 207.8.
203.6
204.6
205.2
205.8
206.8
207.8
I’ll try not to be such a slacker with posting these pictures from now on. I may skip a day here and there, then post two pictures, but I’ll try not to skip THIS many. I plan on getting into my workouts steadily again starting tomorrow. This rain has thrown everything out of whack. I love the rain, but it causes unintentional days off because my husband can’t really work on rainy days. It’s “supposed” to be sunny again tomorrow.
Well, I was right when I saw myself having to deal with blisters. I first had a regular blister (after I did a mile on November 24), which popped on it’s own. And then I ended up with a blood blister (a few days later), which I had to pop and drain. I’m thinking the socks that I wear are too thin. Strange since I’ve worn them before and have had no problems. This was before the calluses got soft and came off. Anyway, yesterday I wore a pair of new (old, just not really ever worn) socks, and they seem to be OK. I also had a band-aid over the blister area. All was well. I managed .7 mile and spent 25 minutes on the elliptical yesterday.
I haven’t uploaded any of the pictures from the virtual walk site for a while. I got lazy and kept telling myself “I’ll post it later”. Well, you know what “later” means? You won’t do it. When you say “later”, things just end up piling up and then your list of things you’ll do “later” gets longer and longer, and you procrastinate even more. Then you get overwhelmed, and nothing gets accomplished. Time to buckle down and get it done. I get dangerously close to doing this with writing assignments also. I’ve got 8 articles to write by the end of the week. One I can technically extend by sending it back into the queue and claiming it again (giving me 7 more days). Five I can ask the client for more time (he’s the best client ever and is very flexible), and two I have to do by a certain date or my “rating” goes down. So after I post this, I need to get busy. Time to break out the egg timer and set a specific time to write. Once the timer goes off, I’ll give myself a five or ten minute break and then get back to it.
Here are the last several pictures from the virtual walk site.
Mile 201
Mile 202
Mile 202.6 (I went .7, but it registered as .6)
Looks like it’s nice and sunny on the tour. Don’t know if I’ll do any exercise or not today. We’ll see how much I get done the rest of the morning.
I’ve gone a total of 202.6 miles. I’m 3.24 miles from Whitehall, VA Charlottesville City County.
Hope you all have a great week. Don’t procrastinate! Get it done. But remember to take breaks so you don’t burn out.
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