Healthy vs. skinny

(This past Wednesday I wrote this post to my weight loss group , Jilly's Losers, and thought I'd share it here. NOTE:  BIGGEST LOSER FINALE SPOILER ALERT!!!)

Seeing as how I run a weight loss group based off of the show "Biggest Loser", I felt I should address what happened on last night's finale. It honestly upset me to the point that I was having dreams about it last night. 

If you watched, you saw Rachel come out on stage and your mouth dropped open in shock/horror/concern as mine did. The poor girl looked like a skeleton with skin. My heart broke instantly. I had been cheering for Rachel since day one. I loved that she was a competitive swimmer as I was when I was a kid. I loved that she was genuinely kind and honest and she worked VERY hard on the ranch. She was a tough competitor, but she was humble. It was impossible not to like her. During her last week on the ranch, she was already at a pretty healthy weight...and at 19% body fat...which for a woman is close to professional athlete status. She was strong and confident and determined to win. But I don't think ANYONE realized how far she was willing to take it.

Now to be fair, none of us knows whether she just went 150% extreme to win the money and plans to regain some weight now that she's won....or whether she has developed some type of eating disorder and genuinely needs help. When she first walked out on stage, I turned to Nathan and said "Holy crap, she looks anorexic." He stopped me in my tracks and pointed out that me saying that wasn't any different than someone saying I look fat. And he was right. We don't know if she is anorexic. We don't know what her body fat percentage is and we can only go on how she looked on that stage. But I don't comment on it to judge her. I genuinely love and support that girl and it concerns me beyond belief that she would go that far to win money. 

At 5'4" tall, 105 lbs is still considered "underweight". And it wasn't just about her looks. Rachel seemed frail. She fell walking up the stairs to the scale...and after David weighed in and she had won by a landslide, she didn't even realize it until Ali said "Hey, you won!". She seemed disoriented and dehydrated and weak and it scares me to see that Biggest Loser has come to that.

Or have they? The looks on Bob and Jillian's faces told the world that they had NO idea she was in such shape. (In the days following, both of them posted on their social media pages that they were not going to comment on Rachel as they were not her trainers.) They were as worried as the rest of us. But why was it allowed to come to this? Doesn't the show keep tabs on their contestants while they're at home? We've had winners weigh in very thin before, but never quite like this. 

Once Rachel took the stage, all the live feeds on FB and Twitter went silent. Even the Biggest Loser twitter account didn't mention her name or congratulate her. (And they still haven't mentioned her by name on Twitter several days later) It makes me wonder how they are going to address this, if at all.  Millions of people...families...children watch this show. And last night they watched a girl risk her health and her life for $250,000. 

So now let me come to my point. I've said this before and I will never stop saying it. This group is not about losing weight. It is about learning to live a healthy lifestyle. Yes, we weigh in. Yes, our weight counts towards winning a prize...but I truly hope that that is not why any of you are here. If you are here for the money then perhaps you should find another group to try. Our prize pot is no $250K, but I understand that sometimes money can make people do things they might otherwise never do. I don't want that. I don't ever ever want that.

I love this group and I love what it has done for me and for so many others. But it terrifies me to think that it could be the cause of something like what happened on the Biggest Loser last night. When I finally get to my goal weight, will I be able to stop or will I be so obsessed with losing and so scared to gain it all back...that I starve myself? I hope not. I hope that I have learned enough to know where my line is. And I hope the same goes for all of you. Change your lives. Eat healthier. Move more. But know that you are loved and supported AT ANY WEIGHT!!! What is important is how you see yourself and how you feel about yourself...not how the world sees you. Find that sweet spot where you are happy and healthy and living your life....and then stay in it.

Sorry for the novel, but I had to say something. I love you all and I am grateful to have you all in my group and in my life  Stay strong!