The Biggest Loser is Back and So is Jillian!!

[heckles]

The best PE program I know of in the U.S. is one that the Colorado mountain schools have. They let their kids out at 12:30 every day in the winter to go skiing for the rest of the afternoon. How frickin awesome is that?!!!

Some of the school districts in Colorado operate year-round so that the students choose which three months they want off, so some of them take winters off to ski. Skiing and other individual sports can be great for many introverts, including those on the Autism spectrum.

[taf2002]

I watched a season of BL & I was appalled at its methods. When you have a mountain of donuts & make someone "take one for the team" stuffing their face, what kind of message are you sending? Healthy, nutritious food can be delicious - why not promote that instead of implying that nothing will live up to donuts but you must deny yourself forever? And the intense exercise without proper warm-ups made me hurt. I got shin-splits just watching.

As for PE, I am not built for sports. I was mediocre at most sports & the worst in foot races. I usually came in last in any race. But I don't ever remember dreading PE. It was a time to hang out with my friends & have fun & give my brain a rest for 45 mins. It never bothered me to come in last. Someone has to...maybe if I had been bullied for it, it would have bothered me, but thinking back I just accepted it as the way things were & there was nothing I could do about it. (Maybe my unconcern about it kept me from being bullied - I don't know.)

ETA: I did do Pres Kennedy's fitness program in high school & I was the sit-up champion my senior year. My one physical claim to fame.

[AragornElessar]

You know, the other times we've had thread for BL, it's always been positive and how the show has inspired the posters to get healthy and lose weight themselves.

If I'd known starting the thread would turn it into what I've read in the last few days, I never would have.

I'm done. Enjoy your sniping.

[jamesy]

I'm pretty sure we spent the last thread posting about how much we all hated Conda.

[manhn]

Well, this thread has inspired me to reconsider square dancing. But I still hate the javelin.

I'm pretty sure we spent the last thread posting about how much we all hated Conda.

Yep. Not a very inspiring last season.

I think Jillian's Biggest Loser persona is probably not how she truly trains folks. She comes off different in articles and radio interviews and podcasts. Generally, if you've motivated yourself and spent the money on a trainer, you tend to do what they order you to do. If you don't like the trainer, you just stop going--you don't go back and whine your way through a session. So, Jillian probably doesn't meet too many people who are reluctant (or outright refuse) to perform the tasks she asks of them. But regardless, I don't have that much sympathy for the contestants as they should know at this point what they're getting into.

[heckles]

I think Jillian's Biggest Loser persona is probably not how she truly trains folks. She comes off different in articles and radio interviews and podcasts. Generally, if you've motivated yourself and spent the money on a trainer, you tend to do what they order you to do.

I suspect that Jillian benefits from the somewhat captive audience she has on the show. Although, those "urban boot camps" are pretty popular right now, so apparently some people do like that type of training. If you want a sweet-and-sensitive trainer, you buy a Richard Simmons DVD.

[Habs]

You know, the other times we've had thread for BL, it's always been positive and how the show has inspired the posters to get healthy and lose weight themselves.

If I'd known starting the thread would turn it into what I've read in the last few days, I never would have.

I'm done. Enjoy your sniping.

You do know that discussions about a topic/show won't always be positive, right?

[michiruwater]

Apparently not

[Prancer]

You know, the other times we've had thread for BL, it's always been positive and how the show has inspired the posters to get healthy and lose weight themselves.

If I'd known starting the thread would turn it into what I've read in the last few days, I never would have.

I'm done. Enjoy your sniping.

taking the thread over w/their own little dramas.

I must say that I had no idea anyone would be so offended by a discussion that has largely focused on PE classes, but there you are.

[my little pony]

well, heckles did say upthread that PE was a source of stress for many people

[genevieve]

You know, the other times we've had thread for BL, it's always been positive and how the show has inspired the posters to get healthy and lose weight themselves.

that's some mighty revisionist history there or perhaps just selective memory.

I missed the first couple weeks. Did they have Jillian arrive at the ranch on a motorcycle, like the last time she returned after taking a season or two off?

Re: the kinder, gentler approach in the intervening seasons - I think TPTB were just angling for a guaranteed win for poor Bob.

I was terrible at sports but didn't have strong feelings about PE, but the highschool I went to for grades 10-12 did not ahve PE and we had to do sports after school. In 10th grade, 2 or the 3 trimesters HAD to be competitive sports The payoff was getting to take "Senior Tennis" in 12th grade, which was completely unsupervised and meant that seniors would just buddy up and head to the tennis courts across the street from the main campus and sit around and talk...and stuff

[taf2002]

You know, the other times we've had thread for BL, it's always been positive and how the show has inspired the posters to get healthy and lose weight themselves.

If I'd known starting the thread would turn it into what I've read in the last few days, I never would have.

I'm done. Enjoy your sniping.

[leesaleesa]

I may have been drunk at the time, but I swear the last I watched BL that Anna what's her tennis playing name was one of the trainers.

It seems pretty insane to take morbidly obese people and put them on a treadmill, running at that. I do like watching the contestants getting healthier and transforming. The method is just too extreme for good health, maintaining the weight loss, and never mind the havoc rapid and extreme weight loss plays on the elasticity of the skin.

[jamesy]

Good thing they've already been pushing the "you may not be my team but I'm still going to train you" angle because it doesn't look very good for Jillian now. Poor Sunny is in for a surprise the next time the kids get back to the ranch.

[Karina1974]

I think school should just stick with keeping out vending machines, serve healthy lunches and provide education on what it means to live a healthy lifestyle.

Part of living a "healthy lifestyle" is getting regular physical exercise. You can eat the "healthiest" food in the world, but if you don't get up off your duff on a regular basis, you will gain weight. And inches. And exercise, keeping the body fit, also generates the spirit and the mind; in fact, you have to strengthen the mind/spirit before you get to the body. It's only when you get to the point where exercise is just part of the daily routine of life, rather than the torturous hardship that too many people make it out to be, that you are rewarded with the body getting in shape. And the focus you bring to that endeavor just naturally spills over into the rest of your life.

That's been my own experience, anyway. I've been a cyclist for the past 3 years, and have ridden 2577 miles since March 2011 (when I first started measuring my rides). Have there been times I have had to *force* myself to get out on that trail? Yup... but I am a much better person for having gotten out there instead of caving. And I have a level of focus in regards to the rest of my life now that I wish I had had when I was younger!

[Karina1974]

It seems pretty insane to take morbidly obese people and put them on a treadmill, running at that. The method is just too extreme for good health, maintaining the weight loss, and never mind the havoc rapid and extreme weight loss plays on the elasticity of the skin.

ITA totally with this. I view losing weight/getting into better shape to be a marathon, not a sprint. The goal in reality should be a complete and total lifestyle change, and exercise should be incorporated into routine on a permanent basis, not something to be dropped once you reach some "goal weight." Going from nothing to pounding away on a treadmill is the wrong way to go about it. Too much risk for injury to feet and legs - "spinning" on a stationary bike would be a lot better. Even rapid walking (like race-walking) would be better.

[Karina1974]

I never, ever understood why they taught us square dancing. I mean, we lived in Massachusetts, for goodness sake. When was I ever going to use square dancing?

I still remember that the PE teachers looked just as uncomfortable teaching us square dance as we did doing it.

Too bad they didn't bring in experts on folk dancing, you'd have enjoyed it a lot more. The first things a dance caller must learn is how to break down the dances, explain the calls and the moves that correspond to them, and make any newcomers feel that they CAN DO IT!

And FYI, Massachusetts just happens to be a MECCA for "traditional" music and dance, like square dancing - New England-style, NOT Western which requires you to take classes before being allowed to participate. Square dancing actually originated in the New England region of the US. Contra dancing is also very popular in Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. You've obviously never heard of NEFFA, either, one of the country's biggest, most popular folk festivals.

Contras and squares are EXCELLENT forms of exercise, not to mention provide a social outlet as well. I dance no less than 3-4 times a month, and LENOX, MA is one of the places I go to. There is a contra dance in Greenfield, MA just about every single weekend.

Also, FYI, at one time, square dancing was included in PE curriculums the country over by national mandate. I found this out last year at a music/dance festival I attend each February in Saratoga Springs, NY (LOTS of people from New England come over for that festival!).

Um... where did you say you were from, again?

[MacMadame]

You can eat the "healthiest" food in the world, but if you don't get up off your duff on a regular basis, you will gain weight.

Not everyone who doesn't exercise is fat, at least on the outside just like not everyone who exercises is thin. Exercise is about health, not weight.

[Rob]

My favorite thing we did in PE was archery. I was awful, but I loved it.

Oh yeah, I liked archery too. Only it was camp, not school. I don't think they had bows and arrows at elementary school. And I liked gymnastics because ours was after school, and there was a trampoline - we learned to do flips with a belt (no uneven bars. balance beam, or vault in elementary school). No arrows at school, but a trampoline is ok. Doh!

I saw both the Conda season and the Vicky/Heba season. They were all bullies/game players, but Conda had such a bad attitude toward her workouts. I think she takes the prize for eye rolling, pouting, and negative attitude in the gym. For that reason, I found her less tolerable than Heba and Vicky.

[overedge]

Too bad they didn't bring in experts on folk dancing, you'd have enjoyed it a lot more.

This is not a realistic option for most schools.

At my school, the PE teacher had a master's in dance, which included curriculum on folk dancing. And we all still hated square dancing anyway.