Abundant Gratitude

As if to smack me in the head and remind me its Thursday, my favorite of all the days, I walked outside with Blaze this morning only to find a mamma duck teaching her babies to swim in the canal.  Because a picture is worth a thousand words, I ran for my camera in hopes of taking the snapshot that would force me to get busy figuring out how to get it up on the site, but they were a few houses down by the time I got back out there.  Good job, mamma, those babies are all top notch swimmers! I am grateful for the moments I had watching them, reminded that mother nature gives us endless gifts if we just open our eyes to them.

Speaking of gifts from  mother nature, yesterday Mitch went to the Boys, the market place I blogged about some months back.  Just 17 dollars later, he came home with a symphony of yummy fruits and veggies.  Strawberries (to die for) that were basically gobbled up upon washing, pineapple, plums (I haven't had one, but Mitch did and said when you bite into it, it's exactly how you want a plum to look and taste--a rarity) humongous lemons, avocado, fresh squeezed (how can it be so sweet?) grapefruit juice, a head of romaine lettuce that looked like it was on steroids, and I am sure some other goodies that I am forgetting.  Thanks again to mom nature!

So by now most of you have heard, seen or read about the season 3 Biggest Loser contestant, Kai Hibbard, who is out there exposing some truths about the show.  I was NOT at all shocked.  Those of us that watch always wonder how some of it can possibly be true.  Kai, who lost well over 100 pounds on the show, clued us in to how she was taught to think coffee is a meal, dehydrate before weigh ins (I figured this from day one) and workout even when injured or sick.  She claims that the producers call all the shots and they are told NOT to listen to the nutritionists, but instead the trainers, regarding what and what not to eat.  She also says that if the contestants protested, they were made to look like whiny, bitchy, uncooperative or lazy.  I can actually see how they might have done that with Melissa of this past season.  She is a lawyer, obviously bright and free thinking.  I am sure the producers HATED that.  Editing one week into 2 hours (actually an hour and half if you consider commercials) would give them producers the ability to edit the show into basically whatever they want.

While I HATE to hear anyone is ever treated inhumanely, I am not at all surprised to read or see any of this!  Mitch has been reminding me for years, week after week, that "It's a TV show."  Period.  No different than any of the other reality shows on the air, it is just a TV show.  As Kai so brilliantly said (not quoting, just recalling) its not a weight loss camp that's being filmed, it's a tv show about a weight loss camp.  That really does sum it all up!  As a trainer, I KNOW that dehydrating is dangerous, that eating 1200 calories a day and working out 6-8 hours is dangerous, that walking miles the day after abdominal surgery is dangerous and absurd, that taking off double digits, week after week is NOT healthy.  Kai claims her hair was falling out and her family needed to have an intervention with her while she was home, but before the finale.  I also know that SEVERELY OBESE people are at risk of death every time they move or breathe.

Extreme circumstances DO require extreme measures. I am sad that the show isn't perfect and we have to learn the dirty little secrets but it doesn't surprise me at all.  I am pretty sure if I were in her shoes, I would do just what Kai is doing.  She just wants people to know that 17 pounds don't just  pour off most people  in a week.  Maybe it was really 2 weeks and became 1 week in the editors room.  It sure would make for boring tv if we watched these people each lose a healthy 2.5 pounds a week.  Would I still  watch?  Me, probably, because it's my business and my passion.  Would others watch?  Probably not. Reality TV people, take it or leave it.  It still serves to inspire people, of that I have NO doubts...and when its all said and done, the contestants signed contracts and they have to know they are rendering control and entering the "twilight zone."

On a final note, I did feel the effects of my Physique 57 workout from Tuesday.  I did much of it again in class that night, so I was sore in some new spots yesterday.  I am going to try to do that muscle overload work about once or twice a week.  Maybe I felt the couple of minutes of swimming, too.  Today, its back in the pool...and maybe some of the P90X yoga video.  Though I desperately want to do that video once a week, my 52 year old body is saying "hey, can you give me a break here."  I work too much, but that is not something to complain about, it's definitely something to be grateful for.

I am happy to say, that I found so many things to be grateful for already this morning.  Practicing gratitude is one of the easiest and best ways to achieve inner peace.  I hope that you will find things many things to be grateful for as you travel through this day.