Are you familiar with the ABC show Extreme Weight Loss? I hadn’t watched it before, but after a round table Q&A with JD Roth, the Executive Producer, I will be tuning in!! The new season premieres at 8pm EST tonight. In short, they take some of the most extreme cases of people that are overweight and over a years time help them lose that weight.
During my trip to LA we were given the opportunity to interview the EPs of several ABC shows and pick one to write about. You would think I would choose Revenge seeing as that is one of my all time favorite shows right now. But no, I choose Extreme Weight Loss because I personally felt inspired by JD. He was so incredibly nice (not that any of the EPs were not!), down to Earth and helpful.
JD Roth was one of the original creators of the show The Biggest Loser and was tired of some of the people who were “too big” not being taken on for the show. In talking to JD it was VERY clear that he takes this matter personally, he really cares for these people and helps them through the trials and troubles along the way.
So much so that he actually had a text from a few days earlier from one of THIS new season’s participants pictures and he showed it to us, telling us a bit of the back story and details of how he worked with this one guy. It was remarkable and at the same time very REAL.
Just sitting with JD for 20 minutes, he gave some fantastic tips that could change your diet and outlook on cooking, weight and even family.
One of my favorites was something so simple… take a walk with your family every night after dinner. Those 30 minutes you will find out more from your kids than any other time of day. Not only are you conversing and spending uninterrupted time with the family, but you are also exercising.
Another? He never drinks his calories. He ONLY drinks water.
He also gives his kids $20 a week at the Farmer’s Market and lets them pick fresh things that they want to eat, then when they get home, they cut it up and leave it out on the counter to snack on all day. Creating good eating habits starts early and this is a fantastic way to get the kids eating healthy.
Season 4 of Extreme Weight Loss has been changed up a little bit this year. In addition to working with the trainers Chris and Heidi, each participant spent their first 90 days of the weight loss journey at the renowned University of Colorado’s Anschutz Health and Wellness Center (AHWC) in Aurora, Colorado.
Chris and Heidi, along with AHWC’s medical director Holly Wyatt, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, guide each participant on their journey to safely lose up to half their body weight. The remaining participants this season include:
- Kathie & Josh (Charlotte, NC) – Single mother/255 lbs. & her 21-year-old son/345 lbs., who lives at home. – Psssst…. This episode includes special guests Rocco Dispirito, Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg and hosts of “The View” because Chris told Kathie and Josh they’d been chosen while at a live taping of “The View”!
- Bruce (Salt Lake City, UT) – Football coach/382 lbs., who wants to confront his imprisoned father, a convicted child molester, for what he says happened to him during his childhood. (This was the one that JD told us about and showed us a picture – all I can say is WOW!!)
- Ty – a 19-year-old, 6’4”, 480-pound baseball phenom who’s struggled with his weight since he was 10. Then already over 300 pounds, Ty was nearly twice as big as everyone else on his baseball team. Baseball agents and coaches have informed him that the only thing standing between him and a professional contract is his weight.
- Charita is a 32-year-old hairstylist who stands 5’6” and weighs 310 lbs. Raised in a strict, religious family, she turned to food to cope with a bad decision she made at 19. She works two jobs, struggling to support her husband and three sons.
- Jeff & Juliana (Denver, CO) – Father/423 lbs. & his 15-year-old daughter/265 lbs., who have a strained relationship.
- Jayce (Nashville, TN) – Country songwriter/417 lbs., who wants to be a performer.
- Melissa (Shadyside, OH) – Widow/301 lbs. who was married to an Afghanistan war veteran until he committed suicide as a result of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).
- David (St. Louis, MO) – Gourmet chef/413 lbs. who can’t overcome the guilt he feels about his brother & sister’s deaths.
- Brandi (Atlanta, GA) – Former Pageant Queen/329 lbs. who wants to be pretty again.
- Georgeanna (Tulsa, OK) – Pastor’s wife/315 lbs. who was a former gymnast & cheerleader, but stopped pursuing both to become a mom.
- Sara (Owensboro, KY) – The first “little person”/245 lbs. ever on the show.
- Cassie (Milwaukee, WI) – Mother/347 lbs. who wants to get healthy to meet the son she gave up for adoption 18 years ago.
- Rod (Tallahassee, FL) – Drama teacher/448 lbs., who wants to come out as being gay and then pursue his dream of becoming an actor.
- Christy & Kenny (Las Vegas, NV; Oklahoma City, OK) – Christy/380 lbs., who tried to commit suicide after experiencing teenage bullying, & Kenny/410 lbs., a former Marine who wants to make his kids proud. (Their head-to-head episode is not to be missed; only one of them will make it to the final weigh-in, while the other is the first participant ever to be kicked off the show for bad behavior.)
Be sure to tune in tonight, 5/27 at 8pm EST on ABC!!
(Photo Credit ABC)
*I was provided an all expense paid trip to Los Angeles by Disney and ABC, opinions are 100% my own.
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