Posts Tagged ‘Biggest Loser’

I actually have a list of ideas for these 11 things posts, but none of those themes seem to fit right now. So I’ve decided to be completely random this month. COMPLETELY.

1. It drives me nuts to see the many spellings of the Libya leader’s name. So much so that I’m not even typing it. This article gives a good explanation of why there are so many variations.

2. If Donald Trump is going to run for president in 2012, why wait to announce it until June?

3. I have a blog entry in my head about “The Biggest Loser.” I’m just trying to find the right way to say what I want to say without being too negative since I do like the show.

4. Did you know there is a Smurfs movie coming out this summer?

5. My birthday is June 24. In Atlantic City that weekend there is something very special going on related to the Dave Matthews Band. Who’s buying me tickets? Click here for information (and to buy me tickets).

6. If you work for me and I give you a deadline, don’t miss the deadline.

7. As a NASCAR fan, I like being able to explain the new points systems to people. I’m finding it hard, though, to encourage people to still watch races that are 500 miles or 500 laps. The races are too long and the final 20 laps are so are the best to watch. Otherwise, I’m getting some good Sunday naps in.

8. I haven’t had Frosted Flakes in a while.

9. If you’re an NFL fan, you really should be paying attention to what’s going on right now with the labor issues. I’m a big NFL fan, but when millionaires (and billionaires) can’t see eye to eye on things, I question how much I care about whether a season happens or not.

10. I’ve never heard the term “SuperMoon” until this week. Apparently the moon will be the closest to earth in many years, thus causing some people to freak out. It will also make for a very big full moon next week. Read the story here.

11. Speaking of freaking out, I read another interesting story this week about the End Times coming this year. Apparently judgment day is coming May 21. Not my words — these people’s words.

Image: Exsodus / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In the course of a bunch of 11s being thrown around today, I thought of a post — how about 11 things you may not know about me? Then I took the idea another step — how about an “11 things” post every month this year on the 11th of the month in this year of 2011 (my initial thoughts are this will make a year go by even quicker).

It’s just 11 things on my mind — maybe it’ll have a theme like this one, maybe not. Maybe I’ll forget a month from now and this whole thing will be ruined. (I want to give a quick shout-out to Steena who posted something similar today.)

Anyway, I’m in the mood for a non-running post, so here it goes.

1. I’m a huge Dave Matthews Band fan. 19 full band shows and two Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds shows since winter 1997. Those numbers are actually somewhat small compared to some people out there.

2. Speaking of concerts, my first-ever concert was Bryan Adams when I was in 7th grade during the “Everything I Do” hype.

3. My grandma used to live on a farm and some guy used to keep cows there. My sister and I got to name two of them once. Pete and Itchy. Why Itchy? Because he was scratching himself.

4. I spent 3 weeks taking a theater class in London in the summer of 1999 when I was in college. That trip included a weekend in Scotland and a 10-day tour to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

5. I have to sneak a running thing in here … I’ve mentioned before that I ran track in high school, but I’m pretty sure I never mentioned the time that I fell for no reason at all in a parking lot. The coach made me sit out of the rest of practice. You see, I was falling then too.

6. I’m watching the Biggest Loser right now. I still despise the “marathon episode” at the end, but I still really enjoy watching the show.

7. First job: Winn-Dixie grocery bagger. Length of first job: 6 hours.

8. My first car was a light blue 1990 Ford Escort. I still have weird dreams about said car.

9. I know at least five people who I have worked with at two different jobs. It’s possible one of those people will be a co-worker for a third time. That just seems weird to me, but life is often about who you know.

10. To continue to show you my music variety, I’ve seen Vince Gill in concert three times.

11. I secretly would rather play tennis and be decent at it than ever run a marathon again for a really long time. (Not such a secret now I guess.)

I’ve already stated that I’m not doing a year in review — my highlights can be found in the 1,000-mile journey post. In fact I’m done talking about running in 2010 (I’m at 1,008 miles; I might shoot for 1,010 tonight), except for this one final thing.

Thanks to TweetStats, I have access to some useless information about how I’ve spend my year on Twitter. For those who don’t “get” Twitter, that’s fine. I’m not going to try and convince you to even get on it. However, I love it. I’ve connected with so many runners, had some great conversations, gotten free advice, launched #runchat and even had several healthy arguments debates. While my Twitter profile shows that I’ve been tweeting since March 2010, that is in fact not true. It’s taken a couple of accounts to get to where I am now, but I’ve been on Twitter since September 2008, which includes about 4 months worth of tweeting at my former job.

ANYWAY, what does TweetStats say about my year?

• I average 17 tweets a day. That’s a bit skewed as I somehow found time in October to tweet 735 times, far and away the highest month of the year.
• 781 of my nearly 5,000 tweets have been about #runchat.
• The next closest word is “run” at 418 tweets.
• At one point, I tweeted a lot about the “Biggest Loser” — #BL9 had 241 tweets; #BL10 had just 85.
• Despite #runchat having a regular 2nd/4th Sunday schedule, it’s actually the second fewest tweeted day of the week: 566 tweets. Saturday is the lowest tweeted day at 470 tweets.
• Tuesday is the highest day with 1,081 tweets. Combine “Biggest Loser” night with a night that my wife usually isn’t home and you get a bunch of tweets.
• I talk to @bklynrunner a lot. 264 @ replies to her. Michelle was my first guest blogger on here last year and one of the nicest people I’ve never officially met.
• I retweet #runchat co-moderator @iRunnerblog the most: 61 times.
• Awesome: 160 times tweeted.
• #beer: Just 1 tweet.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

No, not everyone can decide they’re going to run a marathon and five months later do it. For the third straight season, the finalists of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” ran a marathon as the final challenge of the season. Back in December I wrote about this and how it sends the wrong message. My feelings were enraged even more last night.

While I still agree with my post from then, last night I thought I was going to have to de-friend half of my Twitter followers who thought this was so great. I don’t want to take anything away from the accomplishments – what they did was outstanding. It’s the message that the show sends as they run a marathon … like, did the contestants drink any water? Sure, but you never saw that. I guess the Brita bottles weren’t available and it wouldn’t be very “green” to show them using a few cups. What did the contestants eat the day before, or were they so focused on losing weight that they didn’t worry about properly fueling themselves for a 4 to 6 hour journey?

Just pile these things on top of my previous post and the wrong messages this episode send continue to build.

As for the opening comment, one of the contestants last night said that “anyone” can be sitting on their couch one day and then run a marathon five months later. I’m sorry, but those who are on the show aren’t just “anyone.” Regular everyday out-of-shape people don’t have hours to spend at a gym for four straight months. I’m not trying to dampen anyone’s hopes, but don’t take advice from producer-driven comments. Can anyone run (or walk) a marathon? Yes, but there are much better ways to go about it than what the show portrays.

Speaking of the show and marathons, did you hear about the marathon finisher who didn’t really finish a marathon? I missed that last year when the news came out that it wasn’t true. Read more about it here.

I love watching the “Biggest Loser” on NBC, but for the second season in a row I am upset at the fact that the contestants final “challenge” is running a marathon. When they go home for the final test they’re told 60 days before they come back that they’re going to run a marathon. 60 days!!

Sure, these contestants are in superb shape after being at the “ranch” for three months or so, but many of them are not in good running shape. They do so much to lose unbelievable amounts of weight, but they don’t run that much. At least not enough to run a marathon. They need more than 60 days to do this.

My biggest issue with the way this is handled is the way NBC makes it look like you can train for a marathon in 60 days. All of a sudden these contestants are running … a lot. It’s like they were at the ranch learning different exercises and ways to lose weight, then they get thrown into having to run and nothing else. Many of these people have suffered injuries that make doing a marathon nearly impossible.

I have the greatest respect for the contestants though — they all finished it proudly. I know how that feels. I also know what that weight-loss journey is all about. But I seriously hope that the producers of this show come up with another way to end this show. It just doesn’t work for me …