From LOSING IT! With Jillian Michaels
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The Biggest Loser: Season 8, Episode 7
It's Week 7 and the contestants are halfway through the Season 8 competition! The bonds of friendship are increasingly being tested with each week — and each elimination. The Blue Team's anguish over losing their former partners (and friends) shows as the Black Team's Amanda starts off the show by explaining that they sent Dina home largely to preserve the friendship between her, Abby, Shay, and Daniel. Luckily, there's nothing like a good face-off week to help everyone get their frustrations out!
Bob and Weave: This week, Alison Sweeney explains that each contestant will go head to head against someone from the opposite team. They will face-off at the weigh-in, and the one who loses the most will score a point for their team. The team with the most points wins. To determine who would face-off against whom, the teams competed in a challenge to see who could "bob and weave" the best. One player from each team had to "bob" under a bar, touch their team's disc, then "weave" back to the other side and touch another disc in a race to see which team would be the first to touch it 500 times. The pressure was really on the Black Team, which hasn't won a competition yet, and Tracey, who was finally medically cleared to compete in a challenge. She started off strong for her team, and her teammates fought hard to maintain their lead. Black's Amanda was determined to close the growing gap between them — and it looked like her efforts might help her team earn its first win — but Daniel just couldn't pull out a victory over Blue's Rebecca in the final moments. With the Blue Team as the winners, they had control over the game by being able to choose who they wanted to face-off with at the final weigh-in. The match-ups were: Blue's Allen vs. Black's Danny; Rebecca vs. Amanda; Rudy vs. Shay; Tracey vs. Abby; and Liz vs. Daniel.
Champion-size Challenge: Decked out in baseball uniforms (with the number of pounds they've lost so far on their jerseys), the teams were brought to a baseball stadium for a challenge. New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter appeared on the giant screen to tell them the rules and motivate them. He explained that to reach their goals, they would need to work as a team. They had to pick up the 2,535 balls scattered on the field — one for every hit he'd accumulated in his first 13 seasons in the Major League — and throw them at the life-size targets that were created of each contestant. Their goal was to pick up as many balls as they could carry and throw them at the targets until each was hit by 316 balls — Jeter's career batting average — and then that person was "out" and had to leave the game. The Black Team's strategy was to get the Blue Team's powerhouses, Allen and Rebecca, out of the game by having all of their players focus on hitting those targets first so they could no longer compete. The strategy paid off and Black scored their first challenge win! They won a healthy and delicious lunch prepared poolside by Chef Curtis Stone and a two-pound advantage at the weigh-in!
Facing Their Fears: Not only did the teams face-off with each other, but this week some of the members of my Black team faced off against their toughest opponents — themselves. At the last-chance workout Abby and Shay reaffirmed to me that, despite the painful experiences they've had in their lives, they are survivors who are committed to changing their lives. Amanda apologized to me for a breakdown she had at an earlier workout session that had led her to walk out. She explained that she is wrestling with leaving her "fat girl" issues and stepping up to be a leader on her team. Time will tell if she accepts my advice to make the choice to change her life and to not be afraid of failure, but to learn from it.
Record-breaking Weigh-in: At the weigh-in, the Black Team gave their two-pound advantage to Amanda. She lost four pounds, so the extra two pounds got her six; Blue's Rebecca, however, lost nine pounds and won their face-off. Abby wasn't pleased with her three-pound loss compared to Tracey's five pounds. The Black Team's Danny lost 12 pounds to Allen's eight pounds. Daniel was disappointed in his five-pound loss when he faced off with Liz, who lost seven. But the night's main event was when the Blue Team's Rudy stepped on the scale. He was just 13 pounds away from setting a new Biggest Loser record for losing 100 pounds in just seven weeks. He lost an amazing 14 pounds and was congratulated by the team and Season 7's Dane, who previously held that record. Not only did Rudy's win secure the record, but it secured a win for the Blue Team and kept them safe from elimination for another week.
Saying Goodbye: The Black team's Abby approached her teammates and asked them to send her home. She felt that she could finally love again after losing her family in a fatal car crash. She tearfully convinced them that she could triumph over tragedy and succeed at home and they agreed by eliminating her from the Ranch. Now at home, she's lost 80 pounds total and is working as a motivational speaker.