Exposing Secrets of The Biggest Loser: What Really Happened and Where Are They Now?

Biggest loser, where are they now? That's what we're doing today. Happy New Year guys. Over the past decade, we have seen people dump on the biggest loser unrelentingly with a series of criticisms, and I myself have been critical of different aspects of the show. However, that show is number one on NBC for a reason.

It was inspiring. It provided hope to millions of people around the globe. Scared, then fight! Get in there. And I am sick and tired of seeing the incredible transformations my contestants, all speak for myself, my contestants went through and all the good that they continue to do in the world, paying it forward.

There is victory for everyone out there, not just people that go on a reality show and stand under a confetti. So today, you're going to see some of these success stories. You're going to hear from some of your favorite contestants what they went through on the show, their criticisms of the show, what they loved about the show.

I was prepared to know that this was going to be a battle. I tried to quit the show. I tried to leave because it got so real, so fast for me. And the reality of how broken I was and that it was more than just weight. And most importantly, how they have kept the weight off, would it took to lose it and would it took to stay the course? I cannot wait. Let's get into it. Keeping it real with Jillian Michaels.

State your name. State my name. Michelle. Wrong. No. Okay. You don't remember your name? No. I was at five. You were five. I was five. You were five. I mean, you yelled six for a long time. I did. And I was very confused. And then you yelled at me. You're like, get over here. And I'm like, but I'm five. I'm five. That's right. Oh my gosh. Mom, I...

What is your real name? Okay, Michelle, Aguilar, Whitehead, married now, which is kind of crazy, but yeah. For people just tuning in, Michelle was the winner of Biggest Loser Season 6. Season 6, yeah. Wow, I believe it. Feels like a lifetime ago. It was a lifetime ago. It was how many years ago? We're now, I mean, over 15 years now, which is crazy to me, that it's been that long, because there were times where it feels like it was yesterday,

And then it feels like that was a whole other life that I lived and experienced and lived through. It's just wild, but then something will happen or I'll hear something or see something and it'll take me right back as though it was yesterday. Right. You came with your mom. I did.

We were on the family edition, so it was my mom and I, and we were going through a lot during that time. We had been estranged for a number of years prior to going there, and so kind of being thrown into this environment where we were together 24-7 non-stop, and then there's

the addition of all the camera part of it and then just the physical nature of it. It was a lot. It was really intense. And I mean, what an experience. And then to be able to do it with my mom. And now so many years later, people ask me all the time.

like, how are you and your mom? You know, is everything okay? And I'm like, yes, actually, I personally believe, you know, because of the show that we have a better relationship because we spent so much time together kind of in the nitty gritty of life that it really forced us to kind of work through so many things at a pace that probably most people don't get to deal with if you're having a difficult relationship or difficult friendship or whether it be a family issue or a friend issue. If you're together for

all day, every day for months on end. I mean, you really have to confront all those thoughts and all those feelings every single day.

That makes me want to ask you this question, because I have just my standard questions I want to ask you guys and we'll let it all flow. But we've all seen contestants come out of the woodwork and bash the show. I gave my way back. It was the end of the world. And I'm constantly out there saying, hold on a second. We've had a 35% success rate with contestants. So yes, 65% didn't keep the weight off. But first of all, somewhere there for a week, maybe two, maybe three.

Okay. Second of all, there's deeper issues that didn't get resolved. Unfortunately, it was a game show. It had its good parts. It had its bad parts. But a 35% success rate is massive. Most people lose weight and 95% of them gain it back. And one of the key reasons is because the issues that brought them to biggest loser in the first place, that caused them to gain weight in the first place,

didn't get resolved on a game show. So I can help you guys learn calories in, calories out, build the confidence to do it, but ultimately if those things don't get resolved, just like everybody else who gains weight, loses weight, gains weight, loses weight, the demons are not dealt with. Do you think that having your mom there is part of the reason you've continued to do so well because you were able to work through some of those historical demons? Well, you know, I think that for me,

Being on the show with my mom was such a needed thing. I was at a place in my life, and I think at 26 years old, I think is when I started the show. Oh my gosh, Michelle. Six, just a little kid. Oh, okay. Okay, that's not teller age.

But at 26, when I looked at the opportunity to go on a show like The Biggest Loser, there was this like hope of, if I go on there, something will change. Yes, weight will change, but I feel like there's more to it. Because when I would watch as a fan of the show, the inspiration and the motivation that you get because you connect with someone or you connect with their story was as appealing as the weight loss. And if I'm being perfectly honest, this probably, you know, you're going to probably laugh, but I never thought I could win the show.

And you probably were like, yes, I know, Michelle. I was like the most reluctant winner of all time, because I was like, I had no desire to win the show. I was not interested in that part of it. I was like, I just want to go. Let's lose like 50 pounds. I want to make it to a makeover, get my hair done, maybe a new dress. And that would have been good for me. I would have been great with that. And let me tell you, when I walked through the doors of The Biggest Loser,

and realized that my mom and I were on the family edition and that there wasn't going to be a lot of places to hide. If I'm being perfectly honest, I panicked. I was like, hold on. Wait a minute. I thought maybe I could, you know, lay low over here and maybe we wouldn't have to deal with our issues. Maybe I could just kind of fly under the radar, make some other friends. I mean, surely we're not going to be a team in that sense or, you know, we could make friends with other teams. But would

other parents and children, and then other husbands and wives that were there, all these people had these built-in teammates. And yet my mom and I were the only two with such an estranged relationship that it was so difficult. And quite frankly, most people don't remember, I feel like, because this end of the story is so good, but I tried to quit the show. I tried to leave because it got so real, so fast for me. And the reality of how broken I was and that it was more than just weight.

It was more than skin deep. It was more than what the scale said, but that my little life was falling apart. I felt like I couldn't get a hold of it. And so to see something like a TV show and, you know, I'm going to go there and that's going to be what fixes it. The fact that I even had that thought makes me laugh, but for me then to go and then to feel all those feelings. And I remember telling my mom, I was like, you're going to have to go tell Jillian, like you owe me.

Like I pretty much told her she owed me. I'm like, I'm going to go hide in the bathroom and I need you to go tell Jillian, I'm going to quit the show. And then she can come find me in the bathroom. And I thought, I was just like, I remember being in there waiting thinking, oh, we're going to hear her. I'm going to hear her just start screaming and I'm going to be in so much trouble. I was terrified. And I was like, Mom, you have to do this for me. Like you owe me. Like this is what you have to do. And I'll never forget when you walked in and I was there in the bathroom and you're like,

What is wrong? What's the matter? And Jillian, let me tell you, you were so kind and you were so gracious and you were so patient. I know. I don't want to ruin your reputation anymore. But you were so... I mean, just... It was everything I wasn't expecting, but it was everything that I needed.

at that time of my life. I felt like everyone, they were going to quit on me if I didn't do and didn't live a certain way that this doormat lifestyle I was living, I needed to please everyone. And then you came along and you were like,

I'm going to be here for you. I don't want you to quit. I don't want you to give up. I don't want you to fall apart. We can work on these things. And I was like, I don't want to. And it's television. And it took about a week, I think, of convincing. And I had kind of a come to Jesus about it on an internal level and really just kind of said, OK, God, if this is where you want me, I'll do it. Because at one point, you're like, I think you're God wants you to be here. And I was like, whoa.

Whoa, don't use them against me. Hold on. And I was like, God, could you really use a show like this? Could you really use this environment? Is this really a safe place to fall apart and to be broken? Can I trust my trainer, my coach? Can I really trust that when she says she's going to be here for me that she is? And let me tell you, without a doubt,

Without a doubt, you were 100% every bit of what I needed in my life for all that time. And I'm forever grateful because my life was different after that. The way that I viewed trusting people was different after that. There was my life before the biggest loser and my life since. And I don't think that I would have become the person I am had I not experienced all those things and worked on so many issues that had nothing to do with the scale.

You bring up the most important point that I've been trying to make for decades as the show has come under criticism. And listen, I was the first one to critique the show. We all know this. I was not a producer. I hated the temptations. I didn't like the gamification. But I was just some trainer that got plucked

And I made the best out of it. I am very aware it had its limitations. However, there is a classic horse to water analogy here, not to say my contestants were horses, but the point is that the opportunity's there.

And we can take you to it. It's not going to be perfect. But what you make of it is up to you because I'm the same trainer and still 65% of the people I worked with. I can't speak for the other trainers. I can only speak for the people I worked with. And probably 65% of them did not make it because as I've steel manned myself in these arguments where the show constantly comes under fire,

It's like, well, there's Julianne, and there's Terracosta, and there's Seth, and there's this, and there's this, and there's this, and there's this. It's probably around that number. That's where I kind of came up with 35% when 65% fell backwards. So it isn't me, babe.

And that's really what I'm hoping you can impart to everybody listening. Biggest loser, no biggest loser, right? Whatever opportunity presents itself to you, how do you make the most of it? Do you think?

Well, and I would tell you that over these last 15 plus years, I will say that I've still gained and lost, gained and lost, gained and lost. But I look at it now as the scale isn't what defines who I am. The scale is a tool, and that is great. And so I'm a numbers person. I like to get on the scale. I'm one of those every day. I'm going to weigh myself. I'm going to know where I'm at every day.

And I also, I'm old school, so I write it down. But I make notes about like, what's going on in my life? Are there things that have kind of shifted in my life, you know, becoming a mom? I mean, that is physically life-changing, not to mention emotionally and spiritually life-changing, but...

You know, there's definitely been seasons where I have put myself back on the back burner and in these last 15 years. But it's when I go to start again or I go to refocus or to re-prioritize my health because I look at my children and say, I need to be better.

for them. I need to make sure that I'm the mom that they need today so that I show up for them in a healthy and positive way. And when I think back to the lessons that were learned there, one of the things you would tell us all the time is, I can't do it for you. I can't want this for you. Like I said, reluctant to

to be there and reluctant to, you know, make it to the end. And you're like, Michelle, you've got to want this for you. And those are the words and those are the phrases and those are the things that I keep with me. It's not a certain exercise. It's not a certain amount of steps. It's not however many calories are you eating. It's, Michelle, do you want this for you? Do you want to see your life better? Because you are capable. You are more than able. And

that encouragement back then. And when I look back, all of us can look back on our lives and see where we worked hard and we were able to come through a difficult situation. At least I hope for most people that they can. For me, some of those times we're on television and there's video evidence of it. But I'm often reminded that I'm much stronger than I give myself credit for. And so many of us are, if we would just focus on that part of ourselves,

that hopeful part that says, I can do it. If that person can do it, I can do it. And I think the biggest loser in general was something that I felt gave hope to people because they saw inspiration. I mean, my even wanting to be on the show was another coworker of mine saying she was applying. And I thought, well, if she's going to apply, then

Maybe I could do it. I mean, if she's willing to do it, maybe I should be willing to do it. And so much of it is the conversations that we have in our head and the things that we think about ourselves and whether or not we think we can do it makes all the difference. And I think that was a key element to being on the show and to learning and growing. And it's something that I now teach my children. I'm like, well, of course,

Of course, you can do it. You're learning, or this is the first time you've done that. It's okay if you make a mistake, but you've got to keep getting back up every day and doing it. And those lessons, I mean, there was plenty of times where you're like, Michelle, if it was just about weight, if I could just help you to get thin and we didn't have to deal with all of the knitting gritty, then I would do it.

But the reality is they go hand in hand. You can't take one away from the other. She's like, because you will just be a mess. Those are the things that I hear. Those are the things I remember is that, Michelle, you have to deal with the fact that you are upset or there is something going on. And so you can't leave that alone and still think you're going to physically see different results in the end.

God, as you're talking, I really feel the gravity of my age. And I say that simply because those were things that were said to me when I was a kid in martial arts. Then I went on to say them to you guys. It's like, if you picked up what I laid down, you did. I remember my martial arts instructors saying that to me. You can pick up what I'm laying down or not. It falls on your shoulders.

you gotta make that choice for yourself. And now you're saying it to your kids and it's passing that down. You know, we talk about multi-generational trauma of your parents or hurt people, hurt people, but at the same time, helped people, helped people. That's right. It goes both ways. Do you, for people, everybody listening, because that's my true goal with this episode is it's the new year.

People are gonna make that change, right? They're ready to, they're gonna catalyze on this fresh start, which is wonderful. I wanna provide them with something to hold on to.

the way the show is too. So first question is, why do you think you ended up on the biggest dessert? Not like, oh my co-worker, I'm saying, what do you think made you utilize food in the first place to make you overweight? What got you there, do you think?

I can look back at my life and I know that food has always been there. Food has been a part of celebrations, food's a part of, you know, birthday parties and gatherings. Coming from a big family, like you get together for a dinner or something. And so initially, I think it starts off in a very healthy and positive celebratory way. But the things that you love

In those moments, when you are sad and depressed and hurting, you want that feeling again. You want something that is comforting. So when people say comfort food, for me, it became that. It became something that I just don't want to be left alone with my thoughts. And so if I'm doing something else, if I'm keeping myself busy, then I'll turn to a snack or I'm not mindful of it.

For most of it, it's probably just a mindfulness that it just wasn't that big of a deal or it wasn't a huge issue and then it began to snowball as you get older and as your lifestyle begins to change, you go from an active kid to then a teenager who maybe has different interests and then as you become an adult and we become sedentary, if those things are not ingrained in you or you're not disciplined in that physical nature already, I've never been somebody who enjoys sweating.

ever. I have no desire to do it today. If it's hot outside, I'm like, that's a pass for me. I'd rather be someplace, you know, with a nice cool breeze. And so I wasn't an athlete before the show. And I'm, you know, to no one's surprise, I'm not an athlete today. But I recognize they are good.

There's things I need to do in order to stay healthy. These hands are not just, or my arms, I don't just need them to be toned to be toned, but when my kids are a little, these arms need to be able to pick up your kids. You have to be able to hug your friends and hold your friends and pull them along with you. The bodies we have are a gift, and every single day with them, we have a choice. Okay, let's have a little fun with this.

worst moment with me. Gosh, worst moment with you. Oh, there's so many. No, I don't know. I mean...

I remember, okay, there was a moment where I wanted to confront you. So we'd gotten past, and we had built some trust in the Michelle's quitting, Michelle's leaving, and you had really proven yourself to be this just amazing person to me. But then I remember you would yell at me all the time when we would do these workouts, and when the cameras were around, and I was like... And from me, too, in all transparency, the screaming of the last chance workout was totally staged. Well, however...

When I would scream for real, you would know it. And I absolutely would. There would be a bag of tools, and I would try different ones. If I felt some resistance, I would try this one, I'd try that one, I'd try this one, and when it didn't work, I would get out the sledgehammer. Oh, I got it. And you guys would get...

Wow. And so, and I would just, I remember thinking like, this is not, I don't like this. I don't like the way it makes me feel. And people ask me all the time, like, you know, as chilly and really as mean as you sing. And I'm like, guys, she is terrifying when she's yelling in your face. And they're like, oh, I just, I would love it if she yelled at me. I'm like, I promise you, it's not that much fun. I go. And so I finally reached a point where I was like, I'm going to talk to her mom, but I had been so upset because, you know, I'm not a confrontational person. I'm like,

I'll just let it go. It'll be fine. And I was like, no, I need to do this. And I remember I'd been kind of crying about it. And so it shows on my face. If I cry for one minute or 10, it shows on my face. And I remember I kind of came up to you and I was just like,

And you're like, what? And we had finished working out and all the things. And you're like, what? What is it? And I was like, I don't want you to yell at me anymore. And you're like, OK, OK. And then you're like, what's wrong with your face? I was like, what's wrong with my face? Like, have you been crying about it? I'm like, I just wanted to tell you. And you're like,

OK. And from there on, it was so different. But I also watched you not only say yes in that moment, but then every moment after that, every opportunity where you could have yelled and you could have gotten upset, you didn't. And when we would do last chance workouts after that, you would come to me like, OK, just so you know, I'm like, I know.

I know, and I think probably half of those after that point, I'm probably looking like I'm upset, but I'm probably keeping from laughing. It's so funny. You're like, I'm gonna yell at you. I'm like, okay, it's gonna be fine. God, you know what? Here's, I remember that actually now that you bring it up very clearly because the goal was for you to take a stand and you did.

And then I was going to reward that. Right. So it took a lot of courage. You stepped up to the plate, you defended yourself, you spoke your truth, and you're like, I hate when you yell at me and I'm like, all right. And then the key was to make sure that that effort was rewarded to reinforce it. Right.

But it depended on the contestant. When that technique was used, the worst one I think ever, I'll never forget was Shay. And I think that was season seven. And for anybody who's familiar with the show, Shay was the biggest female ever on the show, like 500 pounds. And I could not even get her to get on the step mill for 15 seconds and it was week one. And the percentages were against her because it's percentage of body weight.

And man, I almost threw her through a wall. It was the end of that first day and, you know, Bob wanted to run in and like, virtue signal. And I tossed that woman through the wall and I was like, I swear I got it. I will kill you, kisses. But she ended up doing it. And she, you know, the next morning, she's like, I want you to know I got back on the stairs that night. And I, you know, I did 10 more. However, like I said, it doesn't always work out.

I wasn't the right trainer for everybody. A percentage of people did not succeed. And the show was imperfect. So let's stick into that as well. I wanna know, looking back, because I could easily out one of the things I didn't like about it. For you.

What do you wish had been different about the show? One of the things I feel like that would have probably been helpful even for my mom and I and our relationship is probably more of a counseling opportunity. A little more therapy, a little bit more just commonality. I think that you can kind of get separated into your teams and your trainer and things like that. And I wish there would have been a little more let's come together because

what I've learned in talking to the hundreds and thousands of people that I've been so blessed to meet through the years for various reasons is that we're more alike than we are different. And the things that make us more relatable are what connects us. And when you realize that you're not the only one going through something, it's like, I have that same thought and you do too. It makes it so much less scary and so much less intimidating. And so even

as two teams go, I wish there would have been more opportunity to really come together and say, how did you get here? What are you going through? Oh, you think that same way too. And I think it would have just even given us just maybe more compassion amongst each other, not that there weren't. Not that there weren't compassion. It wasn't meant to fight. It was a reality TV show. But I wish there would have been. You guys did amazing in spite of it and you're 100% right. And that's why they wrap so much recovery around community. It's a massive tool.

Absolutely. You're spot on. I mean, AA, you have a sponsor, you have a community, OA, same concept. And it, again,

The show was designed to be a game show. Absolutely. It was meant to... First, it was. Without question, it was meant to embarrass people who were overweight, the biggest loser. And I remember having arguments with the network and the producers, I said, no one about the name. They were like, who the fuck are you? You're nobody. You're like a 30-year-old trainer. Get out of here. Right.

I remember flipping over, this is before you. I think I had gotten rid of most of those temptations by the time you came along, but I can't recall. And they brought them back later, right when I ended up leaving the show. Okay. But...

They wanted those temptations there to fuck with people. That's why they were there. And I would, like, spit in them and flip them over. I mean, I was 30. It was quite some time ago. And I'll never forget that one of the producers who was gone by the time you got there came out of the control room. And he's like, you're never going to work again. And I remember saying to him, you know, calling every soccer mom in Los Angeles.

What are you going to do now? God, I had a really intense Kentankers relationship with production and the network for a long time, for a lot of reasons. That was also a huge issue. And the show was designed to make people fight, including the trainers, including the trainers, to pit us against each other. And Bob and I fought to work as a team.

I think we got there right around season seven, and that was when the show ironically did its absolute best. Wow. Is when we were allowed to work as a team.

And another massive shortfall, unfortunately two-fold was the elimination component, but it's a game show, so there's no stakes, right? And who gets eliminated when they're working their ass off? It's like, oh, you're working the hardest, you're gone. That's not real life. That your body didn't respond today. Sorry, you worked so hard that you held some water, you're out of here because you're the biggest threat. And conversely,

The other part, it's like the cash prize. I don't know if that was the best. But again, who am I to, you know, the gamification piece, it should be enough the long-term part. And those would be my top issues. But this is where I say,

It was more good than bad. And everybody here today is poof of that. Which leads me to bringing another contestant from another season. Next up, Hannah Curly. Did you ever meet Hannah? I have never met Hannah in person. So this will be great. I'm excited. Yeah, excited. Okay. Hannah! Oh my gosh, hello. Hi sweetie. Hi. You've never met Michelle?

Never. We've never met. I was on season six, and so I think as the years kind of kept going, you know, I came back less and less, you know, but it's so good to see you. I'm telling you, we've heard about your report. Oh, I'm glad it terrifies me. Hannah, what season was yours? I don't even remember. So I was season 11. Oh my gosh, wow. Wow. And I just had a double turn. Oh, wait, that was me and Bob, right? Together?

Yes, and against Brett and Cara. Oh, you guys got such a tough season. I feel so bad for you. I don't, I don't, I disagree. Really? It was correct. Yes, absolutely. Oh my goodness. Okay, this is bizarre simply because it's like having children from different marriages and they've never met.

Right. Okay, sweetheart, first of all, catch everybody up. How many kids do you have now? This is another thing. These were single girls. When I met these two, single and carefree. Now married babies, share, swap mommy stories here.

Yes, so I'm 45. And when I met Gillian, obviously, I was swinging single, flirting with all the production guys, shamelessly. But I have two kids. I have an eight-year-old and a new baby, actually, that I had this year.

Yeah, no, that would have ever happened if I wouldn't have done the show, which is incredible, that we're able to have babies in our mid-40s, right? So, and I'm married to a 25-year personal trainer, which is crazy. I don't think it is crazy, though, because

You sought out people who were like-minded after leaving the show, which I think is really important in being successful. And one of the things that I would always note as part of the problem, and I've often wondered, I swear to God, guys, I don't know how to find it, but Austin and Ken. Austin was not on your season, was he, Mama? He wasn't, right? No, he was. He was. Okay. But he was, wasn't he on the other team?

He was on the other team until the end, remember, and he was in the final five. Okay, so you work with him, where's the end? I remember working with him and I remember he had done so well, right? And I remember the story and I tell it all the time about how you guys went home for the holidays, but we wouldn't just pretend like, I don't know, because nobody knew what time of the year was when we were taping. You guys would go home and see your family and whatever. I can't remember the excuse you made up to the audience. Nevertheless, he goes home

And he and his dad can see his mom and she starts sobbing and they weren't tears of joy. She was really threatened by the fact that they had both lost so much weight and she became depressed and she emotionally withdrew and he not only stopped losing weight while he was at home, but I think he put on something like five or seven pounds. Remember that, Hannah?

Yes. Okay. And when I sat down with him and I was like, walk me through it and I was a complete bitch about it. As always, you know, I was like, what happened? Don't, don't tell me it's because you had confined food at the airport. He was like, dug in his head. It was obviously this primal connection with his mom who had withdrawn

After seeing how much weight he'd lost and feeling like they broke the contract, we were all doing this together, you broke the contract. And in fact, it's one of the top reasons people cite for giving up on a weight loss regimen is that the husband or the friends or the family are not on board and not maliciously, but unconsciously out of their own insecurities, they sabotage it. But you did the opposite, Anna. So tell me about when you left the show, what happened for you.

So when I left the show and you've had so many moments with contestants, but you gave me a piece of advice that I literally, I know you're probably nervous that I repeat to myself every day. It has carried me so far is one of the things you said in the beginning to me and in the end, as you said, when are you going to stop breaking promises that you make to yourself?

And I realized that I promised myself so many times I was going to do this. I was going to lose weight. I was going to go farther in my career. I was going to make more money. And I was always breaking those promises. So when I left the show, my first goal was you have to make some promises that you're going to keep.

And we knew that keeping the white-off was going to be hard. I felt completely prepared. We talked about going home every day. We talked about this on, I'm sure, Michelle, you guys did too. We talked about, so has it been hard? Of course. You have children, you know, you're a female, you have hormones, but I really did feel

prepared to fight a battle. And so every day I wake up, you know, I do a lot of the same things we do. I'm obviously, I still, I'm a food logger. And I know some people think that's crazy that I've done that for so many years, but I ride on like a piece of paper. I like to see what my day looks like. I eat normal everyday food. I don't cut out any food groups. I work out five days a week. I mean, I just do a lot of the things that we were taught to do now.

This has been hard having two children at an older age going through I think that that's been the hardest thing for me is going through like

you know, postpartum and then into premenopause has been also. But I mean, not to my horn, but I'm really proud of what I've been able to do. I'm proud of where my body is. My body has worked so hard. And I think I've kind of gotten to another place of it's not so much about, it was so much about vanity in the beginning. Like we're getting in jeans, we're getting in bathing suits. Like all these things are happening, but it's become more about how strong can I get? How long can I live? I'm an older mom. I'm 45. I have a baby, right? Like I gotta, I'm gonna be,

at the high school graduation with the oxygen tank, like I'm I'm older. So like, I have to keep this really going. It's true. I cannot be. I cannot be. I cannot be. I cannot be. I cannot. Yeah, I can't be the oldie Goldie at all of my kids events, you know. Oh my God. I live in the house. A lot of the parents are 20. You know what I mean? I was trying to explain this to Jill earlier. I was like, I feel like I'm the oldest mom.

with a first grader. I go, I look around and none of the other moms, I live in Texas. And so I'm like, none of the other moms are my age. They're all much older than me. I feel very old walking in with my, you know, first grader, like, hi, you know, but yeah, absolutely. In the South, yes. Yes.

Yeah. Wow. Okay. For sure. Well, I think for sure. All right. Keep going. Keep going. Keep telling me. I think. And I think also, when I first got off the show, I mean, Jillian knows this, but I had never seen an episode. I had never seen an episode of the show before. I think I was kind of in the minority. I mean, Jillian will tell you, I thanked it for the cameras, even came on. I was like, we're going to have to do what? We're going to have to wear what? I didn't know about taking your shirt off. I mean, there were a lot of things happening on that night one.

And I probably, to be honest, would have said no, if I knew. I mean, now, like, looking back, I'd say, yes, 100 times this being on the show and doing what we did and getting all the help that I really needed. I mean, Jillian, I was clearly depressed, had no idea, completely anxious, a ball of stress and

You know, I took everything that they gave me. I took a advantage of every opportunity. I met with a therapist. Of course, I had extra time with Jill and Bob because we went far, which was great. And I just have input all the things that I feel like I've learned. And I've also learned more about my specific body, which was something you encouraged us to do. And so I've spent the last 13 years

In research and I, you know, I, I didn't think I was going to change my whole career into the weight loss industry because the weight loss industry is tough, but that's kind of where we ended up, or I ended up after the show. And so, you know, being able to help other people is great, but being able to help yourself is even better. And so.

My husband has his own business of course and but I also work with people that are morbidly obese and right now we are in a major crisis obviously in the United States of course and it keeps me accountable and keeps me going and I just work really hard and you know I'm like I said there's ups and downs with anyone that's lost 100 pounds or more we know that

But I do feel like I was prepared to know that this was going to be a battle. And so I just pick up my sword in my armor every day. And some days I win, some days I don't, but I just do all the things, probably just like Michelle does, you know,

So good. And I feel like, you know, I was telling Jill this too, especially as women, our bodies go through so much. And so, yes, these young 20-something girls leave in the show, you know, there was still so much life left to live. And there's still so many things to experience in the vanity, things that were a success in those early years. Don't motivate you. It's the same when you're

you know, trying to take off baby weight or you are dealing with postpartum or you've got, you know, new anxieties now that you have children. I mean, I know for me, that was a huge thing of just, you know, now I've got other people that are counting on me and they're looking to me to, you know, help, you know, them grow up and to learn things. And so, you know, we really do our bodies go through so much. And I think people oftentimes think, well, it's either a pass fail.

But really, it's like you've got to stay in the game. I love that you still ride it down. I told Jill, I write my weight down every single day. I like to pen and paper it. I want to see it. I want to go back. I need to touch it and feel it because it holds me accountable. It's those little things. It's those little daily things.

that are done over time that are habits that I think are what give the longevity of success. And that keep your mindset of, you know, a bad day doesn't have to be a bad week or a bad month or a bad decade. You know, you can have a bad day and you can pick up and you can move forward. You guys are talking about combating this on several different fronts. One, behavioral.

which, you know, BCT, behavioral cognitive therapy, I've often referred to it as a band-aid in that, you know, you remove the bad food, you get on the scale, you track your weight, you change the habits that does go a long way. Where it will fail you is if you still refuse to do the deeper work.

And each and every one of you had a story, a story that was relatable to the tens of millions of people around the world that watched the show. And each and every one of you who kept it off did the deeper work. And then to take it a step further, many of you became coaches, wellness experts,

went into the world and paid it forward, which is exactly my story. It was the overweight kid. I had a martial arts teacher. He helped me. I went into the world. I said, okay, guys, these are the tools. You guys went into the world, paid it forward. But for everybody listening, you have to attack this.

on multiple fronts, you've got to get real, you've got to deal with your shit, no matter how you need to do it, whether it's a community, whether it's a therapist, you've got to remove the negative influences in your life, surround yourself. You married a personal trainer. Micah couldn't be more loving and supportive. You're going to hear those themes, people divorcing from bad marriages, abusive relationships, and then tackling it in a very everyday real way of removing bad food from the environment, getting on the scale, staying accountable.

Hannah, the people watching this right now who are struggling with that first step. Actually, what best advice? Speak to them right now. H, you go first. Five, you go next.

Number one, you need to get emotional help because having weight on your body is also an emotional symptom of trauma, and we all know that. You have to get that emotional help. This is kind of controversial. A lot of coaches don't agree with this, but you don't have to start going a hundred miles an hour. We know that's not going to last. Our situation was very different. Very. But can't you just start with cleaning out your pantry? Can't you start with taking a walk? Like I always tell people all the time, you don't have to run a marathon your first month of losing weight. Like that's

Because they're intimidated. It's overwhelming. So intimidated. And I also want to say everybody's weight loss looks different. You cannot compare your weight loss to someone you see on Instagram or someone that you see on TV. You have to take your own journey and you have to take responsibility for that.

not only that take credit for when the scale stays put for holding ground, people don't understand that they were gradually putting it on. So the fact that they're unable to work out four hours a day and have somebody pick out their calories meticulously and lose five, six, seven pounds a week, if you hold your ground, that means you've made massive changes because you're not putting on

Two pounds a month, 24 pounds a year, 50 pounds in two years, even if it's a pound a month, guys. 100 extra calories a day is roughly a pound a month. 12 pounds a year, two years, we're 25 pounds in. I mean, it's like perspective is key.

Vish? Okay. So, you know, I think for me, I would say to someone, because I think I've been just really blessed to meet so many people who have watched the show. And many of them, I will be honest with you, have never struggled with weight. And I find that to be absolutely fascinating.

But when you say, you know, they related to the stories and our lives and the things about us, like I am blown away by that. And so I feel like it is equally as important if you're struggling with weight and you're looking for where to start. Yes, like you've got to start moving. You've got to start doing those things. But I also need people to look at like.

What is your why? Why would you want to make a change? What is it you're wanting to do that you can't do today or that you think you can't do today? Because if you could start with that, then you can start to build on that. You really need something you can work towards in my writing, my way down every day. One of the things I do is I'm like, what does a non-scale victory look like for me this month?

And I'm like, I need something other, because the scale over time, you look at the numbers and they all kind of just run together. That point to loss here and there just kind of is a blur, but it's like, is there a non-scale victory for me that will motivate me a little bit more?

much in a vanity sense. I mean, I flew down here and it's never lost on me when that seat belt buckles and you don't need an extender or you feel comfortable and you feel normal. Little things like that will be those motivators when the scale isn't moving, when the scale isn't giving you what you want. You still need something that keeps inching you forward and if you can keep yourself accountable in that way. I've told people when they come to me and they're like, oh, I lost this much weight.

I did it. It took me like two years or what. I'm like, that's great. I'm like, the easiest thing to do is to lose weight on the biggest loser. I'm like, you know, you got a camera in your face, a trainer yelling at you, someone's buying your food. Like if you don't lose weight there, you're probably, you know, doing something wrong. But I was like, and if you have taken two, three, four years to take off a hundred pounds or 50 pounds, I'm like, that's success, guys. Like that is success. And they should be proud. They should be proud that it takes time and that they've stayed committed to it for

all of that because their life is better on the other side and they're living healthier, happier lives because of it. Let's get, let's get. Journey here for a second. I don't want this to be a glowing reflection of the show because the show had a host of imperfections. I've spoken about them very publicly. Why?

Do you see, what are your initial feelings, by the way, every time you see, and the truth of the matter is, it's like a handful of the same people that continue to come out like Kai, I never even met Kai. Ryan Benson, season one, 20 years ago, and like a handful of other people that are disgruntled, I remember it was like Daniel and Rebecca, if I recall correctly, there were hundreds of contestants on this show around the world.

So when you see that, and I'm not trying to discredit it, what comes up for you? When you see people just bash it, and they're like, what are your thoughts? Why do you think? And what's real for you there?

I have a really hard time with this, and I've spoken about it a couple times. And with a lot of alumni, there's a lot of mixed feelings about people that go on the show. I think my biggest thing is we're all adults. We start to show it 18 years old. So in a lot of contestants, which I didn't understand this until I got on the show have tried out for.

multiples, 10 seasons, 12 seasons, right? They, they meet previous contestants before they go on the show. They learn about, you know, the game part of it. Like Olivia and I showed up with our tiny little waters. We just didn't know a lot about what was going on. So my biggest thing is we also, and I know Michelle probably did too. We've, we've been to multiple finales after our season because you get to come back and watch, which was really incredible. Everyone's happy at their finale.

I've never met a contestant that is not happy at their finale. Not one and I have met. I have probably met over a hundred contestants at this point. And here's the thing. Anyone that's lost a hundred pounds or more is going to struggle later on. We know that. We know that. It's in the science. It's in the research. That's part of the human body experience. So to leave the show and think that your life is just going to be back to normal and you're just going to keep the weight off without changing everything.

Not everything in like a crazy, controlling way, but you do have to make significant changes. Everything. I think everything. Mindset, environment, relationships. I'm with you. It's okay. You can say it. Your emotional support, your emotional support, your community. Like, and I, to be honest, we talked about this. So, I mean, I get really heated talking about this. No, I want you to.

Do it. We talked about this every single day. Jillian would say, when you go home, it's going to be so hard. Your friends are not going to be as supportive as you think. You're going to have to figure out your community. You've got to talk to your parents. You're going to have to sit down with people. Before I got engaged, I had to sit down with my husband and say, I don't know if my body's going to look like this in 20 years.

We had to have this weird conversation. I mean, he was, of course, completely supportive and amazing. And it had been like, I don't know, eight years since the show when we got married or whatever, something like that. And he was like, well, I've never seen you ever wait. And I said, doesn't mean that you might not. Like, I have this footprint in my background. And I'm not ashamed of it. It's where I was. It's

It's before I knew better. Also, you know, I think Sione said this one time to us when we met him years ago, is he said, biggest loser gives us a conscience. So now we know better.

And we have to do better. And that is such a huge, I think about these little nuggets that people have said to me over the years and I'm like, wow, that is so true. That is so true. And my thing is, do I want to be, you know, Finn forever? Who doesn't? But I want to feel good in my body. I want to feel healthy. I want to have clear skin. I want to be able to, you know, climb a mountain if I want to. I want to be able to do life. I don't want to sit down the rest of my life in a chair because my body hurts.

Yeah. And these people, I just, and I also feel like you can lose weight at any time. Anyone can, can, there's no starting over. You're starting from experience. We all got the same education on the show. So I have such a hard time when people are so disgruntled. I understand was production perfect. No. I mean, my season was great because we all really loved each other. We didn't really have a lot of like villainous. Well, you definitely had the very unfortunate part of like the, the network.

you

trying to make the, oh my God, the trainers hate each other. That was a nightmare. That was like, it was a constant of like stirring up drama between the contestants, stirring up drama between the trainers until Bob and I finally were like, enough of this. We do the same job. We have the same agenda. We're not gonna fight with each other. It's not gonna happen. And then the minute, you know, and they got behind it and then they changed guard. And then they tried to make us go to war with Brett and Kara. It was just always.

That's my personal, my little soapbox. It was like, fuck, can we just have some harmony? My God. It's enough every week that we have an elimination. We all know I have my problems with it, but I want to take responsibility also for benefiting off of a platform that wasn't perfect. I own it. I left the show after Rachel came out looking dangerously unhealthy and it had its flaws.

But again, what I want people to look towards is the fact that it can be done. The part that disturbs me is the dialogue that, oh, this is a disease and you'll never break free from it. So you need medicalization or...

Don't worry about it. We're healthy at any size. That's the bad narrative and we know it. To fact, they pay for it. They pay off nutritionists and dieticians to sit on social. If you don't believe me, there's a great article about it in The Washington Post. And then the bad narrative is you're totally effed. You need drugs. So you don't even bother to try. And in case you remember things like Biggest Loser, they're all effed. So don't forget it. And that's

why, for me, it's so important that people hear from you guys. Oh, because it's like, where does hope come into anything? Bingo! I am nearing the age, and this is frightening to say, and my mother's gonna love this, but my mom and I did the show together, and I am nearing her age that she went on the show, and I'm like,

Like, oh, wait. Well, how could I be so old? No. But I looked at it and my mom made it to final five. She sure did. And at her age, and it sounded so old at, you know. I don't remember how old Helen was, but she win.

Yes. You guys remember that she was in her 60s. She either won the home or she won the first I can't even recall. To me, it's a thing of, I look at that, you know, as her daughter, but also saying she started over at 46 and started from there and went forward and is doing well. And it's a thing of, like you said, at any age, you can choose to

say no more. Today is the last day that I'm gonna just accept that, you know, my body is going to be this way or that I'm not gonna ever look this way. Like you can start at any point and move forward. And I think when you remove the biggest loser element, when the show is now off the air and these other narratives have kind of risen up, I feel like, where's the hope? Where's the inspiration? Where's the, if you can do it, I can do it. Where's the, we're all in this together. And, you know, that inspiration is, it feels like it is fizzled a little bit.

And at least when the show was on, I felt like you gave yourself the opportunity to see yourself in somebody else's story and somebody else's journey and go, man, I am encouraged by that. I am motivated by that. And I want to do something today. I'm going to get up and I'm going to do something today. And then tomorrow I'm going to keep going and I'm going to keep moving because they're doing it.

you know, there were plenty of times at the gym, you know, watching the show and watching people work out. And I would see them and they wouldn't realize like they're watching me on the show and I'm still training because our show was airing while I was still home before the finale. And I'd watch them and I'm like, do they know that I'm right here? Like, no idea. But it was, and I wouldn't see them and they, and like the show would end and like they would work harder. And I'm like, people are inspired and they were varying fitness levels. And I feel like with, you know, the show no longer being on the air that

that we're missing something. We're missing some part of this story. It's not just food and it's not just bodies, but that there is, the human spirit is kind of fizzled in it and that our ownness and our, you know, that we got to own up to, these are our bodies and we're going to do something with them today and we've got to move them today and we've got to be healthy today for our children, for our families. You know, I'm not just, I'm not just Michelle, I'm a sister and

I've been stripped away. And then to diminish it, what's so disturbing is that you take the inspiration that all of you provided away from not just the people who watched it, but any possible hope for future generations. They could have gone back and watched those shows they're evergreen and they're available. And followed everyone's stories. And your stories catalyzed a global change for millions.

Absolutely. Hannah, where do they find you? Where do they get more from? Because I got to bring your sister on next. Y'all will look. So I'm getting ready to change all this, but I'm still below 11. Hannah, on Instagram, which is awesome. Annoying, because Hannah Young's take is like everybody's name, Hannah Young, so I can't. That's going to change that. And I'm habit Hannah on TikTok.

And I just want to say one more thing before you bring out the over one of my favorite things about the show. And I had a great experience. Was it hard? Absolutely. Were there a tough things about it? Sure. But to be able to see what your body can do is as an obese person is.

incredible. It was my greatest honor to push myself in that way. And at the time where I was physically, emotionally, you know, clinically depressed, I wasn't able to do that without that community and without the help of you, of course, and Bob. But at the same time, I mean, to watch a 500 pound man jog on a treadmill.

Arthur, I know you remember that moment. That was like day 10 or something. He was sobbing. He collapsed into yours. So whoever's watching this, I know you all know this because everybody loves shilling and we know that. But what your body is capable of as an obese person is unbelievable. The human body is unbelievable. And that's what I hold on to every single day.

It was those moments in particular for myself included because, again, nobody saw me as that overweight kid. Nobody saw me when I was standing in your shoes when you were on Biggest Loser. But it was my martial arts instructor beating the shit out of me. And I was like, I've told this to a million times. There's the time when I broke the two words with a sidekick. I thought I couldn't do it. There's the time he kicked me through the wall of the studio and was like, I swear to God, get up and fight out of that corner. I will break.

every rib in your body. And I got up and I fought my way out of the corner. There's the time you had everybody in the studio kick my ass. And the reality is that you survive it. This is life. Life does not stop punching you. So you can sit there and you can cry and you can be a victim about it. Or you can figure out how to get up and get out of the corner. And I would beat your asses. I would beat your asses in the hopes.

that even in the moment, if you're like, she's victimizing me, ultimately you would be left with the holy shit, I just ran a mile. Oh my God, I just ran a half marathon. Oh my God, it is those moments that shatter that defeating

prison of identity, I'm weak, I'm lazy, I'm fat, I'm this, I'm not, I was picked last, I can't do it, I'm incapable. And when you open up that possibility of wow, look what I'm capable of, none of this story I told about myself is true, it opens up the, what else is possible?

Yeah. Exactly. That's the most powerful tool you're spot on, Hannah. Thank you for bringing us back to that, because you're spot on. Absolutely. I love you madly. All right. I love you too. Michelle, it was so nice to meet you. It's gonna stop with the anti-aging. I know, it's not fair. It's not fair. And I'm in person. It's not fair. She looks the size. Exactly.

But I love you, boys. That's the same. Same exact same, Miss. I had a baby at 45, which is purpose in the pudding, guys. It is just about being fit. It is about being vital. All right, right. More from Hannah, we're gonna link to it in the show notes. And now, Olivia Ward, here we go.

Oh my God! You gorgeous! Holy mother of God! See, I've seen Hannah more. Because I haven't seen, I haven't got a chance to see you in a while. Ultra-inspirancy, Olivia was, we were like a family and you know how like one parent kind of takes ownership of one child. Bob definitely took ownership of Olivia. So I was like, all right, I took ownership of Hannah.

And then we were allowed to like cross train, but God forbid you want to be so careful. Because if you, if like Olivia had a bad week and I had trained her, oh yeah, that'd be the end. It'd be the end. How are you, Angel? You look, oh my God, you look gorgeous.

Thank you i'm great really and truly so good um I mean life has been just all over the place in the best way and I feel like especially since base loser like it's just.

We got to press play on our lives and I know I speak for myself and for Hannah, I'm sure as you heard, we did not waste that opportunity and we owe so much of that to you and Bob of course, but you, I mean your words are still in my head.

daily and in my heart, of course, but daily, really and truly. Listen, I love the credit. You guys always knew I'm willing to take it, but at the end of the day, I've said this a million times, there's 65% of the contestants in my rough estimation, because I've done the math in steel manning myself for the onslaught of attacks.

Regarding Biggest Loser, I'd say about 35% of you guys have crushed it and 65% have not. And I'm looking at my contestants, right? The people I've worked with. So it goes without saying there's something in the people that chose to continue and that the ones who struggle and have not gotten there yet are kept it off.

just were not able to accomplish as of this moment in time, point being it has nothing to do with me. I said the same stuff to all of you. Now, some of you guys went home sooner and that's very unfortunate. It sucked. I didn't like that about the show. That's a criticism that I have. Nevertheless, there were people that were also there for just a few weeks that ended up doing amazing. I remember contestants who had only been there three weeks showing up at the finale looking phenomenal. So that's not it.

Let's, I've got my little, my little standard questions I was asking all of you guys, but to be honest, like, just tell me girl, tell me your, don't tell me, hang on. Tell everybody listening, your story will brought you to BL. And what happened after?

to get you where you are now and do what you do best, which is lift them up, motivate them, give them that hope that they so desperately need that each and every one of you gave them when the show was on. The very best parts of the show is you guys, period. So we can shit on it all day long and we can talk about its problems, but you guys were the actual show and you guys were the show's magic. And I want you to give people a little taste of that for me right now.

I mean, I think you just like hit it exactly on the head and how I feel like I'm in such agreement with everything that you said. I think I was so much like everybody else and

And I think there's a part of me that still really understands just how obesity in America and how we all feel we feel so hopeless. We have been given every quick fix and failed at every attempt. And what I have loved so much and what I've learned at Biggest Loser was that there is a lot at the end of the tunnel. There is hope. What I very much learned at Biggest Loser is that way loss is not a straight line, that it is difficult and it's a

lifetime commitment. And I think for me personally, it was the first time in my life that I realized that my hard work, given guidance and instruction and expertise, that it weeded me in the direction of the light. I think for so long, I just felt like just, it was just darkness everywhere. I couldn't even, and I'll never forget, you may not remember this, but you had us on a stair masters.

And I just remember when it was the very beginning and I was so, I was just so lost. I still, like it was within that first week. And you came over to my Stairmaster and you said, I get it. I see you. You cannot believe it for yourself. So until you can, I'll believe it for you. And that was the first time somebody looked at me and was like,

Basically, I'll stand for you until you can stand for yourself. And but what it said to me was not just lean on me. I'll it said you are going to get to that place where you believe it for yourself. And that's what I found there is I found the belief in myself. And listen, I don't I it has been hard. You know, it's I kept my weight off.

I would say 98% of the time, the only time I've gained weight in since biggest loser has been with my two children, as you should, like, you know, to all the more. Yes, you should. And postpartum was really hard. It really tested what I've learned there and has been really difficult. But I think

It also gives you that hope that I know what I'm capable of now. And that is everyone's birthright, to know health and wellness, and to know that with consistency and wash rinse repeat and knowing that this is a lifelong commitment you're making to yourself, that there is victory for everyone out there.

not just people that go on a reality show and stand under a confetti. Like, I'm so thankful for that. I told people all the time, I won the weight loss lottery in a major way. And I wouldn't trade that experience for anything, for all of its problems. But what I learned there is

not special or you meet to me or any contestant on The Biggest Loser that that hope and that victory is out there and available to anyone that is listening or not listening, it's available to everybody. And I believe that that health and wellness, it's made to feel like a luxury.

and it is a necessity at a birthright. And until we, those of us who are chronically obese, I have a disease, I believe that, but I know that if I continue to stand up and advocate for myself in all stages of my life, that I'll continue to be successful, even if it's not a straight line.

It very much is, it's an addiction and it is a demon that we simply learn to do battle with more effectively. And it's like, okay, it's a matter of attrition as well. Again, you fail, reassess, where did you go wrong, what sabotaged you, course correct, approach again. And in fact, I've interviewed addiction specialists on the show and it could be smoking, it could be drugs, it could be food. And the reality is that

People fail, but their chances of success increase exponentially with every successive try.

And that's so important that you bring that up is prepare for failure. And if you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough. Wrap your head around the fact that it won't be easy. Love it. There's no quick fix. Love it. You're going to have setbacks expecting and then get back up and try again and don't beat yourself up along the way because it goes with the territory. Oh, if you, if you had to give people

I hate this. I hate the three things. They used to piss me off, right? Because I was like, geez, you speak to a heart surgeon and say, okay, you've got one tool. Do a quantum in my past. You're like, well, that patient would die. But right. If there was some practical advice, now you've left the show. And then I think it goes without saying we've talked about this now with Pete, Michelle, your sister Hannah,

I've had this conversation with many other contestants throughout the years. What brought you to Big East Loser?

will continue to exist and has to be dealt with. And the reason that these contestants slid back, please correct me if you disagree, is because those issues reared their ugly head and whatever the food was providing was simply too big of a loss. So if for Austin, it provided a connection with his mother, he's not willing to give that up yet. He's not willing to deal with those issues with his mom yet. It's too painful.

It's not just about giving up the food, it's about giving up what the food provided you. So how, as somebody listening, or what did you do to keep it off after leaving the show, what changes did you make? Like, I know your husband got involved and changed with you. Yes. What did you do that other people might be able to grab onto and change in their own lives?

I think like my biggest thing, and listen, I mean, I think Jillian, you and I are like this a lot. I'm like a straight shooter in a lot of ways. And I think in my life, sometimes that can make me unpopular at moments, but it's just how I know.

Um, but I always tell people like Hannah's like the cruise director like who doesn't love Hannah like, you know, I'm a little more of like a spacious why her and I are the perfect yin and yang and why she is like my best friend and all the things. Um, but one of the things that I have said over and over and even like, you know, in.

people that we work with and counterbalance and other things that we do. The one thing that I learned and that I stand by and I use this word very

specifically and intentionally is I learned to be extremely selfish with my help and with the time that I spend investing in my health. And people go selfish, you know, I mean, like before I'd gone to Biggest Loser, you know, my whole life was always like, you know, you serve others before you serve yourself. And you make sure that everybody has what they need on the oldest of four kids. Like, so I that's inherently just downloaded in my DNA anyways, as I like a

someone who likes to take care of people. But what I realized was that selfish doesn't have to be negative. It has to be, there has to be a rigidity to it in the sense that I have to take care of myself first. I will be a terrible mother, a terrible friend, a terrible colleague, a terrible wife, a terrible version of myself.

It when I let, I make terrible is probably a strong word, but it's everything falls apart and starts to crack with me. And that's what got me the biggest loser is that I put everything in front of me thinking I was being the best version of me because I was just giving it all everything instead of saying, listen, I need time every day to invest in my food, in my spirit, in my mind, in my

movement, like those things have to be first. And if you think about it, that's maybe 10% of my day. I have 90% of my day to give myself to all the other things, my passions, my family, my work, all the things. But I think we really feel like as people, there

There's this guilt thing about, well, if I go and have a workout after work, I'm taking time away from my family or, you know, if I'm, you know, saying, you know, maybe we cook at home tonight and we don't go to the fast food restaurant or whatever, you're somehow robbing people of their lives when intentionally by doing that, you're really creating a space to make you very successful and still filled and whole from the inside out so that you can be the best.

for the world and others and your relationships. Do you guys think that the selflessness piece is, if you're not everything to everyone, then you're not lovable? Yes, absolutely some of that for sure.

definitely. And especially I think for people like me who tend to have, I have a very strong personality and I'm very driven and I take pride in those things. I think growing up and just coming into the world and being a woman, you know, I don't want to

I could really go on this tangent, but I think there was a part of me that was really scared that I wouldn't be lovable and that I wouldn't be deemed worthy of people's time if I didn't just give and give and give and give.

And what it did is it backed me into a corner of not taking care of myself at all. And in turn, then self-medicating that feeling of being so out of control in that area that I just self-medicated with food all the time. I wasn't necessarily a binge eater like that type of thing, but I did, at the end of the day, go home. And it was my way of kind of

relinquishing control a little bit and feeling love in that one. Even though, like I said, I had lots of people in my life who loved me, but it's just a different dynamic. And I've learned now that's a big thing. I have to keep in front of me at all times because I know that I can very easily go back to that place. And it's something that I have to continue to work on throughout the rest of my life. It wasn't a one and done and biggest loser. I have to keep these things in front of me because if they get behind me, they're running me over.

Hands down. Yep. I knew exactly what you're talking about. And when I started to make a little bit of money, it was easy for me to just pay for everything. So I had more time to help myself because I was like, that's okay, I'll throw money at it. I'll pay for the problem. I'll pay to fix it. I'll pay to fix your life. But I still wasn't dealing with the fact that I inherently felt, because without the money,

I wasn't good enough. And it's very hard to contend with those feelings and show up. And the issue is that when you act to avoid the things that you're the most afraid of, you will inevitably create it. So the more you neglect yourself, the less able you actually are going to be.

to facilitate other people's happiness in health. You can't be there for them because you're now sick, you're now depleted, you're now tired. And the universe, I hate to quote Oprah, but listen, she was Oprah for a reason. There's some things she's done recently.

of, like, profiteering off of his epic. Nevertheless, I remember she had said the universe speaks to you in a whisper, you know, and it elevates volume until an entire wall will come down upon you. It's like, okay, now you're overweight. Well, now you're fatigued in overweight. Well, now you're actually getting chemotherapy because you have cancer and you literally cannot be there for anyone. Point being,

It's almost like, Jill, if you won't stop finding your value paying for everybody, I'm just gonna make sure you lose all of your money. So you're just faced with who you are stripped down to your naked personality without being able to turn yourself inside out. If you don't, my long story is if you don't start facing those demons, I swear to God, God or the universe or whatever you call it will bring you to your knees anyway.

Anyway, I've been there, you've been there, you've been there. And it kind of brings people up to that edge of having no choice. You kind of have to start to take that leap of faith of taking care of yourself because we won't be able to take care of them anyway when you're sick, when you're broke, when you're totally depleted. Honey, when you see, if you looked back and I like, if, okay, let me reword this.

Looking back on the show, what would you change? Oh, that is such a good question. I think for me,

Okay, this is what I think. And I've been really like exploring this idea and I heard someone say this the other day and I was like, that's really, I wish I would have thought about the exit strategy at the beginning. In the sense that I do think it took me a while after Biggest Loser to really understand

the concepts I learned there that they were for my life, not just like to compartmentalize weight loss, like I lose weight and then I go live my life. That's when I learned that it was setting me up for life. So I heard someone say, they said, if you want to start a weight loss journey before you even start, you need to think of your exit strategy in the sense that everything that you are consuming and learning is for when you get to maintenance because it's not going to be that different.

And do I work out eight to 10 hours a day? No, I don't do that anymore. And I don't need to. So I was able to find the balance leaving. But that was a process. And I think that's also

when a lot of contestants have issues or if they haven't been able to figure it out after the show, I think it's because they've really compartmentalized what they learned in the show and that it wasn't supposed to be firm the rest of the life, if that makes any sense. It makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense. Where can everyone find you right now?

I'm on Instagram the most. It's at the Obird, which Obird O and Bird in the Sky was like, is my nickname as Joanna? But I'm at the Obird on Instagram. And like I said, Hannah and I have a business called Counterbalance that where we have used the things that we have learned to, it's a private coaching group and it has been the privilege of my life to be. Why do we find it? Because it's, this is New Year's.

Yes, yes. Well, if you are wanting to make a change and have, go from victory to victory, because that's what we believe in. It's at mycounterbalance.com. Perfect. Thank you, Angel. I really appreciate it. You're fantastic. And you look smashing. Oh, my God. Thank you. Seriously. I can't thank you enough. I know I've done this a million times, but really like truly what you did and what you continue to do for us and for

obese people in general is so important and it is so appreciated because you know for so many years I mean we all feel very overlooked I'm thankful that I had an opportunity to showcase my own struggles but that you're continuing to have the conversation it is so important and I am so thankful so and of course I love you so much as always so well guys I'm

I kind of don't have words. It's such a weird feeling like I'm so sad. I've mentioned so sad talking to you, not because I just think that the world needs more of this in it. It needs your voices. It needs your stories. It needs more of this beauty and this honesty and this authenticity and this hope.

I am extremely grateful to you guys for showing up and being here and talking to people. And we have to find a way to continue doing more of this. Let's think on it. But in the meantime, you know where to find Olivia guys. Hi!

I'm good Pete, so good to see you.

you as well return my phone off because I've got important people. Oh my god, but what? Oh my god. Good to see you all. Good to see you. Oh my god. It looks like you're in some deep conversation. What was it tonight? What did I hit the runner?

You didn't interrupt anything. You're joining. We were talking about how Michelle was saying, there's a, actually I'll let you tell them. Well, I was telling, you know, I was very hands off kind of like, I wanted to keep everyone at arms distance before the biggest loser because I was just, I felt like I was just so full of sadness. And if you came up and you're a hugger and you hugged me, I felt like you're gonna know, you're gonna know I'm so sad. And I remember Jill when I said something to her one day like, oh, I'm not a hugger. You know, I don't really like people touching me and she was like, what?

But I'm going to touch you. But I've just learned that you've got when there's a safe place and there's someone you can trust that you can share your feelings and that they don't have to be so scary. So that's kind of what we were talking about. Wow. So Julian, so you mean that you had to have more than just wait with us contestants? Is that what had to go on? There were other issues. You hadn't really saw other issues besides just our wait. Wow.

But I didn't, and that's the point. We were sort of discussing, not sort of, we were discussing a bit earlier how the calories in, calories out part, it works, it's physics, but the deeper stuff

is what brings people to that place. And the deeper stuff is what pulls them back if it doesn't get resolved. Everybody that I have on the show today has dealt with the deeper stuff. So, Pete, can you start out by saying what's easing you are on, what brought you to BL, and how you've managed to be so successful for what's now almost 20 years.

That's right. Well, first of all, thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm sure. And I'm glad to join in right in the second. You know, Julian, as you mentioned, you know, there was a lot coming into the show. I was on season two, which happened to be the way back in 2005. And just prior to that, you know, when I came out to California, I was at 460 pounds at my largest. And then while we were in the hotel, while we were supported, I started starving myself. I thought that was how we were supposed to lose weight.

stepped on the show at 401 pounds and then you, of course, didn't inform me that, no, that's not how the moves went, not by starving yourself, right? But more importantly than how I started was what brought me to the show as you mentioned. You know, and this is something that you and I didn't delve into a lot, but I had been through 13 different foster homes by the time I was 13 years old. The vast majority of that time that I bounced around when I was young,

was because of my mom's mental health. She struggled with paranoia and psychosis. And I had to live in homeless. I'd done all of those things. And what happens is when you go through difficulties or you go through these traumatic experiences, you have to find a way to medicate just to make it through the day. So my medication was food, right? Other people you may medicate with drugs or alcohol or et cetera, right? But my medication was food. And so it's always surprising to me

when people are critical of the show, right? Because we came in with so much baggage, right? So many of us came in with so much baggage. And this is the one thing we needed. We needed to find success in one area, in just one area. And if you found success in that one area, then you could go back and deal with those

other areas that you had been unsuccessful with dealing with. And that's what the show provide. That's what Gillian's old crazy tale provides, right? An opportunity to be successful in this one, just this one particular, and by the way, this is the biggest area, right? Because I'm huge. And every time I'm around someone, they can see that I wear my trauma on my bones. They don't know why.

They assume it's because he's big and he can't push the plate away. No, that's true. I can't. And the reason why is because I remember one particular time, right? My mom, we were living in DC at the time. And my mom says, well, honey, we're going to go on a fast. I'm like, OK, that sounds nice. That's spiritual. Now mind you, I'm about.

10 or 11 years old, right? And we'd go for a week with no food. I don't realize until later, oh, the reason we did that is because we had no food. We just had no food at all. So here's the question that I ask people. I said, can you imagine living a part of your young life, your formative years, the early formative years, not having food? Now, when food becomes available, how do you eat?

Of course, you're going to eat like it's never coming back again, right? And so even when that normalizes, right, when that normalizes, you still have this internal, this internal thinking, this internal mindset is you better. Well, I'll tell you this. One person told me that the way that they were raised, because they were raised in poverty, is that whenever they were around a buffet or anything,

Take all you want, but eat all you take, right? And that's kind of how we were. If I see food, I had better eat it, I'd better consume as much as possible, because I'm not gonna be able, I'm not gonna get another meal, or I don't know when the next meal is coming. So, let me say this off the top, because I just ran, I just ran it, I'm sorry. Jillian. Well, I want you to, this is for people listening, they need to hear these stories. Please, rant, tell your story. So let me just say this.

Let me just say, thank you, Julia. Thank you for being a meanie, for traumatizing me to stay on the treadmill. Thank you for penalizing me when I didn't want to run up the mountain or the hill. Oh, my God. The stories, the stories, Michelle, that we have.

Go on, so on, so on, so on. Oh my God. So, Michelle, I can remember, of course, in season two, we were working out four hours a day. And on the off days, our off day, Julie says, oh, for the off day, take a hike into the mountain. Take a hike into the mountain. First of all, I'm from Michigan. We don't know what a mountain is. And I've got a, this is an off day. Like, you know, in fact, when do I get a chance to rest? And I can remember going up this mountain and I'm starting to hallucinate. I swear.

The person in front of me is changing colors, right? Well, this is my roommate Seth. He was getting sunburned and he was turning red. And all I could think of, oh my God, he's starting colors. So we worked out like you would not imagine. I like to say, Jillian, Jillian beat the fat off of us, right? But the great thing is that it gave you an opportunity to then go back and deal with the other weight. Because it really, it was not about what we were eating.

that made us large. It was about what was eating us. And you gave us an opportunity to tackle those problems. Okay, I have to say, this was not a normal hike. This was one of those California mountains. It had no trail. Oh my God. And they had to send the fire department to come find us, do you remember? Because we don't walk. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. Oh my God. I don't know what I was thinking. It was only like 31 at the time.

And it wasn't supposed to be unsafe because we all had walkie-talkies. But we're hiking so far away and into the mountains that the dog on Hall's walkie-talkies lose connections. And just we're working. So Michelle, we come back. We're up there and we don't know when to stop. Because Gillian's a meanie. She just said, go, just go. We're just going to dare argue with her.

Oh, we're not gonna argue. We're not gonna argue. And so, but this is, this was the power of the show and what the show put together. God, this makes me almost sad. I'm not gonna lie, sitting with you guys. Like, I miss, this was, I look at my life now and it's almost like a entrepreneur. Like, I do a lot of this and business or whatever.

And I had initially gotten into this line of work because of people like you. And it makes me a little sad and a little in a good way, sad and a good way. But I'm shocked at how much I miss it just listening to you talk. I didn't think.

I just thought it was a phase like, oh, you know, and then you grow up when you move on and you evolve into something else. And it's like, it breaks my heart. I think that was probably the happiest I've ever been. Completely was working with you guys. Yeah. Yeah. And Michelle, you'll know this during our season, she was, she was there all the time, right? She was, it felt like, I felt like Jillian was living with us because she was establishing

not only her methodologies and her protocols and doing dumb stuff like measuring the sweat in our shirts to figure out if we needed extra, extra electrolytes and all of that crazy stuff, right? But she was living with us and I can remember. Now, again, I want to go back to something you mentioned just earlier, right? And so for those who don't know how the show is set up, you come out and you're sequestered for a period of time. There's an interview process before you're finally accepted to go on the show.

Now for me the time that i was in the hotel was another difficult period of my life i've never met my father ever in my entire life and so i had just spent the prior six months trying to find my father and i tell you this is a weird thing to call around the country to strangers who have your birth name.

and try to start a conversation to see if they're your father. I can remember calling a lady in Texas and calling a house in Texas. The wife picks up the phone and I'm saying, hey,

Do you happen to, as your husband home, is his name so-and-so, and she's like, yes, and who is this? And what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to align and figure out if her husband was in Michigan State at the same time that my mom was there. But how do you have that conversation with someone's potential wife? And at some point, I just hang up the phone. And so now I made a couple of those phone calls in the hotel room.

including one to my aunt in LA who lived there. And she said, well, babe, everything that we know, everything that we know says that your dad might be dead. So this is what I'm dealing with in the hotel room three days before I go on the show. And this is what I did. I got on the floor next to the bed and I prayed. I said, Lord,

I have no idea what I'm getting myself into. This has been a rough week. And this was the critical piece I said, I'm going to do whatever these people on this show tell me to do.

Just don't let me die. And of course I get the lady who was ready to kill me if I did not work out. He gave me the perfect person. I had to tell one more story. I got to tell one more story. Speaking about speaking of dying of dying.

The amazing thing, Michelle, and you know this, the amazing thing about Gillian is she was a savant or is a savant in this space. What I mean in this space is not just weight loss, but it's taking people who are overweight and working them out in such a such a way that they can reach their capacity, right? And I'm early, I'm on season two, right?

And so she would work us out incredibly hard, but not so much that we would get injured or we couldn't come back another way. And if there was one of those and mistake, okay, that's all right. Sit yourself down on a, on a, on a recumbent bike and just bike forever. You know what I mean? She's going to figure it out. So she was a just a sub bot with all of that. And I can just remember some of the, the tense workouts and I can remember.

early on, right? I tell people this story, the very first day we were scheduled to do a four hour workout. And I'm like, four hours, I'm thinking in my mind, I'm like, oh, that means we're gonna walk around the ponds and we're gonna watch the lilies grow, right? This is where, no.

We're doing all kinds of dumb stuff. We're doing a hundred squats, a hundred push-ups. I'm exaggerating slightly, but it was like... Oh my God, no, I don't think it worked. I'm like, I called it the hundreds. You're not actually exaggerating slightly. Yeah, no, they're the hundreds. Exactly. It was crazy. And but here at the end... I had discussed that with Holy Pass or not, though. I'll have you know. So I had to get salted with my peers. And Harley was like, you know, you should do. Do the hundreds. And I was like, that's a great idea.

You can't do that. I did. I did. It's true. Pete, from everything you're saying, I'm really, really grateful. I think maybe it was just God's grace on my life that I was on season six and not two. Because I mean, I think I needed her to get better or something. Oh my God. I mean, I did start with another and not a name, but you know. Because she would have these like, you'd have, oh my God, you guys would have the challenges or whatever, right? And you wouldn't be able to work out. I would sometimes go

at like one two in the morning to get our workouts in. And oh my God. Okay, so hold on. Okay, so go ahead for our workouts. I was gonna say, so that speaks of a couple of things. One, the ingenious part of the show, right? Putting you in teams. But the other side of it is just the Savant, how much of a Savant Jillian was because of the layouts of the workout, the layout of the workouts, the programming is what the fancy folks call it and all of that.

But I remember one particular time, we had a challenge. Now, for those who don't know, the challenge was separate from the workouts. And the people who designed the challenges, they did not get input, at least on my season early on, from Jillian in doing the workout. It was actually a huge problem. Wow. Many, many angry emails from me to production about those damage. Because that's actually where you guys would end up getting hurt. Right. That's right. The challenges. They look good.

Hey, look, I used to get so angry. That's right. Oh, my God. Let me take this particular one. This particular one, we're on a train, right? An old style train with a locomotive engine, and we have to run from one end of the actual keyboard, one end of the train to the other end and carry these balls back and forth, right? Now, the problem is, is to make it look good for TV, the doors have to be wide open. Okay, have to be wide open, and they have to, they're filming this.

Now, mind you, Gillian did not have us running at this point. So I'm running back and forth and back and forth, and I can't breathe. I'm struggling, but I can't lose this dog on challenge because, again, from the challenge side of it, they were going to give us these letters from home. This was a big thing for us. We win. I almost collapsed, almost passed out, and it was determined that I needed to go to the doctor, right? I need to go to hospital right away. So they stopped the train.

They take me to, they, and as soon as I get in the ambulance and they start giving me some oxygen, I start improving, right? But this was season two. So they weren't sure what was going on. So they send me over to Cedar Sinai and they spent a whole day giving all these tests, Michelle. I mean, I've got the, this lady comes in with a lead at best, right? And they give me this iodine injection to test to make sure that blood goes to every part of my heart that I'm okay. I'm okay. I come back to the ranch, Michelle.

And they say, oh my god, he's OK. My team is excited for me. Do you know what Gillian says? I'm not lying. I wrote it down. I'm not. She's all be. You're good. No, I can kill you.

That feels familiar. That feels familiar. Oh, it does. It does. It does. So, again, thank you for being who you are. I can remember the time, the one real time that I thought I was going to die, right? And I wasn't. We were running. We were running, right?

You know, we're running with Detroit. Oh my gosh, I would take you guys to run in the canyon in Los Angeles. Oh, we were running down here. We would run running, right? All of us back folks, all the spat fellows, right? We're running running and I can remember leaning on one tree. Oh my gosh, man. Do I know you're not because you're talking to God? Oh, that's true. I guess that means I can read right back.

But it was just life changing. It was life transformational. And what I mean by that is it allowed me to then go back and deal with the other issues in my life. And I've got something for you. You want to hear something? You want to hear something? I'm ready. I'm going to tell you something.

Okay, I mentioned how I grew up in foster care and all of this stuff. So my sister and I, we were in a foster home at, when I was eight and she was five, my mom left the house one day and said she'd be back in two weeks, well in two weeks, the food had run out and I had to take my little sister out the back door in the middle of the winter and go knocking on doors for food. Cause literally we had no food in house.

We go into the foster care system, we go to group homes, and we end up on a street called St. Alban in Detroit, right, together. She's about three, I'm about eight. My mom shows up to the school and abducts me from the foster home, right, and leaves my sister behind. I hadn't talked to my sister for 48 years until May 3rd of this year.

So I was reunited with her for the first time in my life because of that. Now, my question is, and I'm always thinking about life and all of that. If I hadn't gone on the biggest lose, I was four, 16, 20 years ago. Would I even be here today to reunite with my sister? Right? And so again, Julia, thank you just for the opportunity to live. Pete, but here's the thing we all know.

It didn't all turn out like this. Why do you think? And I'll give you another example. And this one kind of breaks my heart because it's not a secret. I'll be honest, I had favorites. It is what it is. We all know this. You know who you are. It's okay. I mean, there were hundreds of contestants. And I would say that there were probably two from each season that just touched your soul. And you will, you know, you were meant to, you're meant to me. You will love forever. You will take it to your grave.

You know, there's Julie Haden. There's Abby Reiki. There's Shay. There's Danny Allen, right? There's everybody on this show. I love Shay. She's got my heart. Very similar story. Very similar story. And I don't want to put her on blast. I love her so much. But, you know, we're not there. We're still not there. And the demons are just too powerful, I think.

Why do you think, and she was there for a while, so I can't use the one week, two week. Why do you think 65% or so of the contestants weren't able to take that ball and continue running? Michelle, do you want me to try me? You can start.

I think it's because, so if we were to say that they were failing with the show, right? The failing with the show is that they didn't send somebody home with you to live with you for the rest of your life. Oh wow, what a surprise, this is real life, right? And so what has to happen is you have to assess how you got to that place in the first place, right? And I can remember, you know, we would have the big room, there was one big bedroom in the ranch and the guys would sit around

at the end of a workday when we were completely exhausted, right? It felt like a workday when we were completely exhausted. And we would talk about different things. So this is a little form of talk therapy before, you know, we had anybody else to engage with, a little form of that, right? But it's interestingly, like this happens regularly in different environments, but for there, we're starting to talk about these things. Here's the big issue. When you get back to your normal home environment,

Are you dealing with the things that got you to the show in the first place? For example, one of the things that people would say, especially coming off the biggest losers, oh my God, I need to lose, you know, I need to lose 30 pounds in a month, right? And I, you know, my answer to that was always, well, it took you two years to put it on. Can we at least take a year to get it off?

That's the same way to think about all of the traumas and all the traumatic experiences you've gone through in your life. Just because you've gotten the weight off, now you realize what success looks like. Now put in the work, even if it takes a year or two, a decade or two or three to deal with those issues, right? And so, and that's the thing that I did. The first thing was, okay, I'm capitalizing on this success, right? I'm going home.

And I'm studying everything I can about the psychology of success, about weight loss, and about personal training, about physical ability, right? Because I want to study all this. Why? Because I'm the primary subject, right? I need to figure this out for me. So I was intentional about certain things. Number one, I did not go get a personal training certification. I'm not giving my time to you to help you lose weight until I know that I can keep it all first.

So the very first thing that I did was I signed up to this thing called a pub crawler. So a pub crawler, what doctors use, they go out and get all the abstracts of recent studies, right? And it drops it straight into their inbox. I would do that. So every Sunday, I'd spend two hours every Sunday reviewing all the abstracts about weight loss and obesity, reading them to understand the experience that I had gone through and how that plays in with all of the research, right?

And then that's just strict weight loss. And then there's a psychology of change. And I started thinking through what happened to me. And then I came across this, right? There's something called ACEs, adverse childhood experiences.

This is just the most phenomenal study. It's set in stone, right? Kaiser Permanente did a nationwide study of 100,000 people, and ACEs is well known. If you grew up with any kind of traumatic experiences, your life expectancy is lessened, right? All of these different things, because I pulled some of it up there, right? If you grew up with ACEs, in other words, adverse childhood experiences, and it's a simple 10 question test,

you're four times more likely to have experienced four or more, you're four times more likely to end up in jail, right? Children with ACEs are three times more likely to repeat a grade. So what do you know, Jillian? There's science about our struggle, about our struggle. And then I'm not just because when I was on the show,

Jillian, she taught me, right? It wasn't just her telling me, but she taught me about exercise science. So then what I decided to do was, well, where did this ACEs stuff come from? Well, what do you know? The guy's name is Vincent Folidi. You know where all of this adverse childhood experience stuff came from? It came from an obesity clinic.

He's working in an obesity clinic in the 80s and 50% of the people who are a part of his clinic, they're losing weight, but then at some point they just stop and they jump out of the program. And so I'm diving into this. And what happened was I never met the guy, but I'm reading up on his stuff, right? And this should resonate.

What ends up happening is he starts researching and asking questions of all the people who had dropped out of the program. And he made this one critical mistake. He's asking this one young lady. He meant to ask her, how old were you when you were first sexually active? That's what he meant to ask her. But instead, he asks her, how much did you weigh when you were first sexually active? Her response was 40 pounds.

I'm gonna find out she was a victim of sexual abuse by her father, right? And so then a light bulb goes off and he says, wait a minute, is this a common thing, right? And he brings in somebody else to study this. And yes, it's a common thing and it's in the research.

that 90% of folks who are grossly overweight, like we were, experience some type of sexual trauma. That wasn't my case, but the traumas are there. And then for instance, this one, he interviewed one young lady who was 23 years old.

She was sexually assaulted at 23. She was raped. You know what happened to Barry next year? She gained 105 pounds because what he finds is weight becomes a defense when you're a child. And there are these words that are set to you when you're being violated, words such as, you know, the only reason I do this to you is because your sister is fat.

Well, that tells a child if I eat and gain weight, then I won't get assaulted, right? So that's the long way of answering your question. It really comes down to this. You have to do the work on you. Nobody's coming to your house. Nobody is going to send you letters and tell you to do it. Now, the blessing for some of us is if you happen to have won some money from the show, well, now you add money to go figure out the rest of your life.

Right? But for those who did not win anything, who did not win anything, you can still pick up a book. You can still ask those who have gone before you, such as Michelle and myself, who are successful. You can be inquisitive and try to figure your life out. It was designed to do one thing, show you what success looked like in that short timeframe. The rest is on you, baby. The part that's been frustrating for me, and I'm going to be completely transparent, is there's no question

that bashing the biggest loser has become a narrative of b***h. And I'm not, I'm not tin-hatting this. If you remember Fatima Cody Stanford, who's a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, that makes Ozambic paid for a big commercial on 60 Minutes with Leslie Stahl right after New Year's, a couple years ago, and the first thing

she did was bash the biggest loser and talk about how diet and exercise don't work. You can never lose weight and keep it off. It's a physical disease of the brain. I don't mean trauma. I mean, oh, you just can't stop eating. And all by the way, parenting research paid for by Novo Nordisk. And then Michelle reaches out to me a couple months ago and she's like,

I don't want to say the name of the magazine because they've been so kind to me. But a huge magazine, she's like, is come fishing around trying to get dirt on Biggest Loser. I didn't give them any, but I found it really odd. So they didn't print anything she talked about, anything into the other contestants who told me they went to her, talked about. And they talked about Ryan Benson, who was a contestant from 20 years ago, season one.

And I thought, okay, who is going out of their way right now to go 20 years into the first... And he didn't really say anything that bad. He's like, I think the show wanted us to fail. And I struggled to keep my weight off.

But for me, that's a dangerous narrative because if anybody's gonna point to something outside of pharmaceuticals that they remember from their lifetime, it's gonna be the biggest loser. So if you immediately say, not only did they, they all gained it back, they were far worse off, and what about these horrible studies? And I'm saying they're going, that's an absolute lie.

35% of them kept it up. That percentage is bananas. And I was like, that's it. We're going to hear from them, period. That's it. So that's where we are. And I think you guys are glowing examples. And we've got two more that we're going to bring in today. And I could bring in all the others, but we'd be here for a day. So, Pete, I love you, Madley. I can't say thank you enough. And where can people find you? Simple as Place is LinkedIn, right? LinkedIn.com and then D.P. Thomas. Website will point you over there as well.

Thank you, baby. I'll talk to you soon. Good to see you, Pete. Appreciate you both. Love you both. God bless you. Love you more. Thank you. Any parting words, I'm gonna give you the last one. You know, I was thinking about, you know, when I did have to go home from the ranch. And we, for the show purposes, we went up to the top of the hill. It wasn't quite the hike that you took Pete and them on, but, you know, we had a hill on our season as well. And you gave me this necklace.

this. It's on a different chain, but you gave it to me then, and I've probably worn it nearly every day for 15 years. And wasn't so much the things that you said on that mountain, but the entirety of our time together. And I'll never forget our final conversation at the bottom of the hill when production had wrapped and we were getting ready to go.

And you knew that it was probably the last time you would see me, you would see me probably until the finale. And you said, Michelle, promise me one thing. Promise me that when you look back, because when you get home, the show is gonna start airing and you're gonna see the beginning, and you're gonna get to watch it all the way through, and then you're gonna come back for a live finale. Promise me that when you see yourself in the beginning, that you won't be disgusted, that you won't be disappointed, that you won't look negatively at where you started. And Jill, when I tell you, that is stuck with me.

Because there have been times where I've had to restart or felt like I needed a restart. And when I look back and it wasn't because you're like, this person has worth. She's like, that person decided to change. That person took the first step. That starting spot that you were in with all the mess and all the things was strong enough to say, I need to do something today. And I'm willing to go on a reality TV show to do it.

You're like, so don't be disgusted. Don't be disappointed. Don't be upset. But love that you did it. Because you're like, we don't know what you're going to do in this new body. We don't know what you'll become. We don't know if you'll be a success. And here I am 15 years later. And I'm grateful for those words. And oftentimes we'll think back on so many of the things that you've said.

that you've done. And so I'm grateful. I'm not a squeaky wheel. And so, you know, maybe people don't hear some of my story all the time because of that. So I'm grateful that you would ask me to come and be on today and just, you know, to be able to let you know much like you've heard from the other contestants, just to thank you. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for the passion you have to not leave people the way you found them, but to leave people better. I will forever be grateful that you are a part of my story.

Why do you have to do this? I gotta be honest, I'm like, I miss, I miss you guys a lot. But you know, I know, I like knowing you guys are out there, just killing it. It brings me so much peace every day. It's like, you reach one, you teach one, you reach one, you teach one, you pay it forward.

You've launched us like arrows into the world. Those are all really special to me. It's so special on me. I want you to go home. We're going to be done. We're done. We're done. Because I am a professional. Keep it together, guys. This shows over. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed the podcast, please like, comment, subscribe, and share. And make sure to let me know what guests you want to see on in the future.