I just know that this year is going to be a great year and let me tell you why. My favorite number is 3 so this year I get 2 of my favorite numbers by turning 33, which means twice the luck, right? Well maybe not but humor me anyway. The best things I have to look forward to this year is getting married and hopefully starting a family. Then there is my 10 year anniversary at SLU and some other random thing but those don’t take the cake. I’ve only been 33 for 4 days now and I already got 2 good pieces of news to share. One, Larry passed his CDL test and will have his own route at work starting next week. And two, we just saved $640 on our honeymoon package! I am friends with our resort on Facebook (Secrets Carpi) and they posted a fall promotion. I called our travel agent and lucky for us, we bought the price protection plan when we booked and got in on the deal – cha ching! I just have a feeling there are plenty more good things coming my/our way and I’ll be sure to share them as it happens.
On a wedding note, the invitations are signed, sealed and delivered. Well, delivered to the post office as of noon today so be sure to watch for yours in the mail very soon. And if you are reading this and didn’t happen to get one, it’s probably lost in the mail, doh! Just kidding – we invited over 300 guests so I’m sure you are one of them.
On the agenda this weekend is boot camp, working at Circa, then either the Guns N Hoses softball game to benefit Backstoppers, or the stock car races with my sister and Timmy. It's junior fan club week week at the races so the kiddos get special treatment and I wanted to be there to see Timmy race for nickels on the race track. He loves his racing so I’m sure he will be in heaven. Then Sunday is a birthday party for my BFF’s son, Austin. He’s turning 9 and I just can’t believe it. Seems like just yester-year when they brought him home. Anyway, hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy this absolutely beautiful weather!
Peace out, girl scout!
Friday, August 27, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Biggest Loser – Louisville Style
My friend, Michelle, has said for a while that she wanted to be on the Biggest Loser reality show so she finally filled out the application and submitted a video. Then she found out that the show was hosting a casting call in Louisville and thought that would help increase her chances so she asked me to go along. Sure thing, I’m always up for an adventure – especially when it’s for a good cause of supporting her. We left Friday after work and made it to Louisville about 10pm, their time. Funny story there. I had no idea there was a time difference between KY and IL so when we got stopped in traffic and I checked my phone, I realized the time did not match the clock in the car. She said it was right when we left home and she’s right, it was. It took a minute of being confused before we realized what happened then we were pissed that we lost an hour of sleep. We were already planning on getting up at 4am to get in line (the casting directors only see 500 people and she was worried that there would be more people there). So, we get over the time difference, get to our room and all is good. I set the alarm for 4:00 but silly me; I set it for PM instead of AM, whoops. Luckily I woke up at 5 so we weren’t that much off schedule. When we got to the convention center, the line was about a half a block long, not too bad, so we set up our chairs and mingled. Here is the line before us at 6am:
Being curious, we walked to the front of the line to see what time the first people got there. The first group in line got there at 11pm on Friday and camped overnight. The next person got there at midnight. Now I get wanting to get in line early but damn, camping overnight for this? No thank you! Here are a few pics of the first people in line:
While we were waiting, we met some people in line behind and in front of us. Turns out the person behind us, Susan, is from Millstadt, IL and knows one of the groomsmen in our wedding – small world! The group in front of us, Frank and company, was from further south in KY and were super nice. Michelle and I both liked Frank a lot and really hoped he made it on the show. He is extremely overweight and ready to make a lifestyle change, he just needs some help getting started. Here’s Frank with his support group:
And this is Susan with Michelle:
About 9am, the casting crew came around and handed out another application that had to be completed prior to the interview so here is Michelle and the others working on their application:
When the crew started lining up people for their interviews, the “supporters” such as myself, had to wait on the other side. Here is a pic of Michelle in line, note the nervous look on her face :) She said she almost cried when I had to leave her, aw, I feel the love!
They took 8 people at a time into a conference room and sat them at a U shaped table. Each person got a chance to speak and the director asked specific questions of them. It only took about 15 minutes for the entire thing and she was out in no time. In the meantime, a few previous contestants showed up to meet and greet the crowd. To me, this was the best part of the trip (and I think Michelle would agree). We met Coach Mo and Tracy (the purple team) and Alex & Abby (the green team) from season 8, Colleen from season 6 (I think). We talked to Coach Mo briefly and managed to get a pic with him:
Coach Mo also talked with Frank for quite some time and get this – Mo gave Frank his personal phone number to call for support, advice, or anything. Now that is super cool! Michelle also got a pic with Tracy but that is on her camera and I don’t have it to post yet, sorry. Tracy has lost a total of 125lbs and let me tell you, she looks AH-MAZING! She showed us a before and after pic she has on her phone and wow, doesn’t even look like the same person. She talked about how she got sick on the show and how the doctor made her slow down before she seriously injured herself. She made it to week 10 of the 14 weeks – go Tracy!
We tried to talk to Alex and Abby but they were too busy with other people and I didn’t think to get pictures of them. I will say that Abby has put on some of the weight she lost but Alex still looked great. Then we met Colleen, and let me tell you, she was the sweetest, most adorable thing ever. She is only 23 years old and lost 70lbs. She still wants to lose more but I think she looks great like she is. Here is Michelle with her:
She spent a good 10-15 minutes talking to us about the ranch, what she went through, and what it was like as a contestant. She said they work out approximately 8 hours a day – could you imagine? She said the hardest part for her was not being able to contact her family during her stay. Once you are at the ranch, you have NO outside contact with anyone – no emails, no phone calls, nothing. I asked if she ever wanted to quit and she said “No, I wanted it that bad.” She told us that while it’s fun and exciting to be on the ranch, it’s not reality. No matter what happened on the show, it all has to continue at home. She said home is reality and that really hit home with both Michelle and I. If I told you every detail of these conversations, my blog would be 10 pages long so I won’t go into much more detail.
After talking with these people and seeing where they started and where they are now, there is no reason on earth why I can’t drop these last 10-15lbs. So now, I’m extremely motivated, ready to take the bull by the horns and get this show on the road! On Sunday, I got up early and went for a 3 mile walk then came back and hit the weights. I was sore on Monday and that is a good indication of how much I’ve slacked. I joined the recreation center at SLU and have a plan for making sure I find time for my workouts and for getting healthier. Michelle is super motivated too and may even check out my bootcamp that she has been afraid of. I know we can do this – and I know we WILL do this.
While Michelle may not get on the show, it was an awesome experience – very inspiring and ever so motivating. If you ever lose motivation or need an extra push, go online and Google any biggest loser contestant. Some of them even have blogs so read that or their success story and I’m sure it will be enough to get you over the hump!
PS - Just got the pic of Michelle with Tracy that I mentioned earlier:
Being curious, we walked to the front of the line to see what time the first people got there. The first group in line got there at 11pm on Friday and camped overnight. The next person got there at midnight. Now I get wanting to get in line early but damn, camping overnight for this? No thank you! Here are a few pics of the first people in line:
While we were waiting, we met some people in line behind and in front of us. Turns out the person behind us, Susan, is from Millstadt, IL and knows one of the groomsmen in our wedding – small world! The group in front of us, Frank and company, was from further south in KY and were super nice. Michelle and I both liked Frank a lot and really hoped he made it on the show. He is extremely overweight and ready to make a lifestyle change, he just needs some help getting started. Here’s Frank with his support group:
And this is Susan with Michelle:
About 9am, the casting crew came around and handed out another application that had to be completed prior to the interview so here is Michelle and the others working on their application:
When the crew started lining up people for their interviews, the “supporters” such as myself, had to wait on the other side. Here is a pic of Michelle in line, note the nervous look on her face :) She said she almost cried when I had to leave her, aw, I feel the love!
They took 8 people at a time into a conference room and sat them at a U shaped table. Each person got a chance to speak and the director asked specific questions of them. It only took about 15 minutes for the entire thing and she was out in no time. In the meantime, a few previous contestants showed up to meet and greet the crowd. To me, this was the best part of the trip (and I think Michelle would agree). We met Coach Mo and Tracy (the purple team) and Alex & Abby (the green team) from season 8, Colleen from season 6 (I think). We talked to Coach Mo briefly and managed to get a pic with him:
Coach Mo also talked with Frank for quite some time and get this – Mo gave Frank his personal phone number to call for support, advice, or anything. Now that is super cool! Michelle also got a pic with Tracy but that is on her camera and I don’t have it to post yet, sorry. Tracy has lost a total of 125lbs and let me tell you, she looks AH-MAZING! She showed us a before and after pic she has on her phone and wow, doesn’t even look like the same person. She talked about how she got sick on the show and how the doctor made her slow down before she seriously injured herself. She made it to week 10 of the 14 weeks – go Tracy!
We tried to talk to Alex and Abby but they were too busy with other people and I didn’t think to get pictures of them. I will say that Abby has put on some of the weight she lost but Alex still looked great. Then we met Colleen, and let me tell you, she was the sweetest, most adorable thing ever. She is only 23 years old and lost 70lbs. She still wants to lose more but I think she looks great like she is. Here is Michelle with her:
She spent a good 10-15 minutes talking to us about the ranch, what she went through, and what it was like as a contestant. She said they work out approximately 8 hours a day – could you imagine? She said the hardest part for her was not being able to contact her family during her stay. Once you are at the ranch, you have NO outside contact with anyone – no emails, no phone calls, nothing. I asked if she ever wanted to quit and she said “No, I wanted it that bad.” She told us that while it’s fun and exciting to be on the ranch, it’s not reality. No matter what happened on the show, it all has to continue at home. She said home is reality and that really hit home with both Michelle and I. If I told you every detail of these conversations, my blog would be 10 pages long so I won’t go into much more detail.
After talking with these people and seeing where they started and where they are now, there is no reason on earth why I can’t drop these last 10-15lbs. So now, I’m extremely motivated, ready to take the bull by the horns and get this show on the road! On Sunday, I got up early and went for a 3 mile walk then came back and hit the weights. I was sore on Monday and that is a good indication of how much I’ve slacked. I joined the recreation center at SLU and have a plan for making sure I find time for my workouts and for getting healthier. Michelle is super motivated too and may even check out my bootcamp that she has been afraid of. I know we can do this – and I know we WILL do this.
While Michelle may not get on the show, it was an awesome experience – very inspiring and ever so motivating. If you ever lose motivation or need an extra push, go online and Google any biggest loser contestant. Some of them even have blogs so read that or their success story and I’m sure it will be enough to get you over the hump!
PS - Just got the pic of Michelle with Tracy that I mentioned earlier:
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