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In 5 years, Angela’s fiancé, Bruce, has never seen her naked because she is so self-conscious about her size. Bruce wants a beach wedding in the tropics, but right now there’s no way Angela will wear a bathing suit.
As a top local radio announcer, Nicolle seems confident. In reality, she is so self-conscious she shies away from making public appearances. Bouts of depression and toxic relationships made her put on weight, but now that life is good it is time to get healthy.
After the show ended, Angela continued to lose weight. She’s taken her weight-loss slowly, and says it hasn’t been easy – but, to date, she has lost around 75 pounds. “I’ve gone beyond the goal I’d set on the show and so I set another one. I’d still like to lose another 20 pounds, and continue with the athleticism part of it. It’s coming along, but it’s tough!” she says. (At the start of her journey, Angela weighed 223.5 pounds.)
Angela says that being part of X-Weighted was life changing. “I really wasn’t aware of how big I’d become until Nicolle said “Let’s go audition for the show”. I mean there were certainly things I wanted to change, but I thought I had, as a human, reached my potential, which I really hadn’t, because there were so many aspects of my life that I was unhappy with,” she says.
Once she lost the weight, Angela realized that she hadn’t been putting enough value on herself and that she had been settling in many areas of her life. “When you aren’t taking care of yourself, you don’t have a lot of self-worth,” she explains.
She knew that Bruce, who she was engaged to on the show, was not the guy for her and ended their relationship a few years back. Angela has now met “a wonderful man who is very supportive” and recently got engaged to him.
Staying fit is really important to Angela. She competes in 10k runs with friends, and makes it to the gym pretty much every day because she says that keeping the weight off is hard work. “It’s a constant battle,” she says, “but I do enjoy working my butt off at the gym and the running. Although I complain the whole time I’m doing it, I love how I feel afterwards.”
Whenever people do recognize Angela, (which happens often) they always want to ask if Paul is like he seems on TV, due to the obvious friction between them on the show. “He really is that bad,” says Angela, “he makes no apologies or bones about it, which is fair, but he is exactly as he appears.”
The next thing people ask is how she did it. “They want to hear that there is some secret, but it is unfortunately true that losing weight is 80% about food and 20% about exercise. I thought if I worked out more I could eat more, but unfortunately it just doesn’t work that way,” she says.
September, 2009
This binge-eating mother of 3 has got bigger with each of her children, but dreams of being a “yummy mummy”. Her husband says that she is lazy and his unsupportive comments drive her to binge in private.
Soon after X-Weighted finished filming, Kendra split from her husband and moved with her kids to a small town outside of Calgary. She says that her life is going really well. “I’m very happy, I don’t have to answer to anybody,” she says.
Unfortunately, Kendra wasn’t able to keep off the weight she lost in her journey. Although she did start making life changes on the show, Kendra feels that there are emotional factors that continue to affect her weight. “I believe that there is something inside of me that wants to keep the weight on, and until I deal with those issues I don’t think my weight will come off,” she says, “I will always struggle with my weight and that’s a shame.”
Kendra says that she learned a lot from being on X-Weighted. “It was a real eye-opener,” she says, “and although a lot of things were hard to look at, I really learned a lot about myself and my relationships.” Kendra regrets not delving deeper into the emotional aspects of her eating, and would really like to explore them some more in the future.
Kendra gets approached by fans of X-Weighted on a regular basis. “I’m a waitress in this small town, and I have people all the time saying “I recognize you from somewhere, have you ever been on TV?. I even went on holiday to the Dominican Republic, and as soon as I got off the plane there was somebody there that recognized me,” she says, “it’s crazy how many people felt a connection with me on the show.”
Kendra says that her kids are doing awesome. Marco, her youngest is about to start school, so soon she will have afternoons to herself all week, and her goal is to start using that time to exercise. Despite being so busy, Kendra is very happy and looking forward to being able to start getting healthier again soon.
September 2009
Over the years Heather’s weight has gone up and down repeatedly. She wants to find out why and break the pattern in order to be a good role model for her daughter. She has a successful career and a beautiful family - the only thing holding her back in life is her weight.
Once so skinny that people thought she was anorexic, Jocelyn now turns to food whenever she hits a set-back . She feels old before her time, and suffers from illnesses exacerbated by her weight.
Life is going great for Jocelyn and Vance. They are now living in Edmonton after Vance scored his dream job doing sound design for EA games. “His company moved us out here three years ago and we just love living in Alberta,” says Jocelyn. Following her dreams too, Jocelyn is starting journalism school this fall.
Unfortunately, the couple still hasn’t gone on the honeymoon they dreamed of while on the show. “We’re just too busy or every time we think about going something happens like the car breaks down or another big expense,” Jocelyn says, “but we do go on a regular date night now and celebrated our fifteen year anniversary in September.”
Jocelyn has managed keep the weight that she lost on X-Weighted off, and even lost more weight after the show finished. “I lost another 20lb so I was 50lb down, but that 20lb keeps coming back, it is haunting me. I keep losing it again, then gaining back,” she says, adding that she started getting back on track a few weeks ago and is determined to lose that 20lb for good this time.
Being on the show changed Jocelyn’s mind about fitness. While on the show, she really concentrated on her food intake and didn’t take the fitness aspect of her journey too seriously. However, now Jocelyn embraces fitness as part of her life and gets a real kick out of the sense of achievement she feels from physically exerting herself.
“Oddly enough I ended up becoming a big fan of the spin class,” she says, “they are super challenging but very fun. After you finish you know you have had a huge workout, and you’d never do that much work on your own.”
September 2009
Naomi excels in her work and studies, but struggles desperately with her weight, unlike her pencil-thin sister Sula. Naomi believes that her weight has damaged her self-esteem so much that it is stopping her from meeting a partner.
In the 4 years since her X-Weighted experience, Naomi has maintained her weight loss and stays super active, hitting the gym 4 to 5 days a week and spending her weekends camping, swimming and hanging out with friends. She is still single and lives with her sister Sula, but is dating and trying to meet “the right guy”.
Naomi got her bachelors degree in social work in May of this year, and is very happy that after 6 years of hard studying, she landed a terrific job as a mental health social worker with Nova Scotia's largest provider of health services. She still works as a residential counselor too, so even though her studies are over, life is just as busy.
As someone who was already relatively fit and had a good knowledge of healthy eating before she went on X-Weighted, Naomi feels that she would have made the changes to get healthier anyway at that point in her life, but the pressure of being on the show kept her on track and enabled her to meet her goals. “I know I’m an emotional eater and that I take on too much stress, and that I deal better with those things when I exercise,” she says, “but I already knew those things before.
Naomi quite enjoys that people recognize her from X-Weighted, and that friends from all over the world have emailed her to say that they saw her episode. “It’s kind of interesting being a mini-celebrity,” she says.
September 2009
This flamboyant film-industry caterer loves cheeseburgers so much he has one tattooed on his arm. Jeremy plays the clown but is really concerned about how he looks, his health, and the example he is setting for his daughter.
The last thing Jill wants is to be fat and 50, especially since a close friend recently died of a sudden heart attack. She doesn’t know how to incorporate exercise into her life, or eat properly on the run.
She has always been overweight, but since losing her best friend in a tragic accident, Sarah has put on so much weight that it scares her. She knows that losing weight is a matter of life and death at this point, especially since being diagnosed with breast cancer.
A myriad of weight-related health problems, including fibromyalgia, have put Jannette at the tipping point. She is convinced that her excess weight is stopping her from finding love, and says that missing sex is a great motivator to get slim.
Soon after filming, Jannette went on the trip of a lifetime, travelling through South and Central America then across the Atlantic to Greece and Turkey. She had an incredible time hiking volcanoes, going down canopy zip-lines and got her scuba diving certification along the way.
Unfortunately, despite bursts of activity, a lot of her time travelling was spent in transit on buses, trains and planes, which is one of the reasons Jannette thinks she regained some of the weight she’d lost on her X-Weighted journey. “Also, in South and Central America, the diet was lots of potatoes, white rice and fried chicken, and finding a salad was seriously challenging,” she says. Eight months after the show Jannette had put 20 pounds back on, and since then another ten pounds has crept back too.
Putting weight back on has meant that Jannette’s fibromyalgia is getting worse (it was better when she was more active and not so heavy). “Because of that I’m getting started again right now,” she says, “It’s annoying for me that I’ve done this to myself, but what’s really annoying is that Paul gets to be right about me putting some of the weight back on.”
Jannette is forming a weight-loss support group with friends in the hope that it will motivate her. “Doing it on my own just doesn’t work for me. I’m externally motivated, that’s why I did the show – there’s nothing like being on national television for keeping a girl on track!” she says.
When strangers recognize Jannette from the show, which even happened when she was in Honduras and Guatemala, she says that they always ask the same two questions. “First they ask is Paul really such a jerk, and the second is, what happened with Chris?” she says, “well right after that date with Chris that you saw on the show, we had quite a long talk about the age difference and what that translated to, and he was a very sweet guy but it just wasn’t going to work, although we are still good friends.” Jannette is still dating and looking for love.
September 2009
As sole breadwinner, with a stressful family life, Michelle hasn’t taken care of herself for a long time. She is obese and borderline diabetic. If she doesn’t get healthy, there’s a good chance her autistic son may need to be institutionalized, and Michelle will do anything to stop that from happening.
Right after the show finished, life got pretty difficult for Michelle as she adjusted to Connor going to live in a group home. “Paul’s prediction that after Connor left home I wasn’t going to care about anything was pretty accurate and I went back up to 250 pounds,” she says.
However, now Connor is doing really well and Michelle has been able to get her weight back on track, she is now ten pounds lighter than when she finished her weight-loss journey on X-Weighted. She still indulges in junk food occasionally, and says this is why she hasn’t lost more weight, but is much more likely to choose sushi than a burger when eating out with her daughters. “I can’t say that my eating is perfect but it’s certainly better than when I first met Paul,” she says.
Michelle stays active, and recently completed a 30-day hot yoga challenge. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, because if you miss a day you have to do a double session and I ended up missing three days because of my knee problems,” she says, “although it’s really difficult, I do enjoy it. Hot Yoga is my new thing.”
Michelle says that she learned a lot from being on the show and that her family makes healthier choices overall thanks to being on X-Weighted. “The biggest thing I got out of doing the show was knowing that I could do it. I was right at the bottom and had no idea of how to get control of anything, how to stop eating and start exercising, and the show gave me that. If anyone has the opportunity to go on X-Weighted they should do it,” she says.
Michelle says that the support she got from Paul was key to her success. “I adore Paul. When I met him, I asked him why people thought he was so awful because I found him really pleasant. He said, “You don’t have a problem with me Michelle because you’re not a whiner.” My attitude when I did the show was that I signed on for this, and if I don’t like it, then it’s not his fault. Nobody was kidnapped and forced to come on the show,” she says.
Due to the way things were exploding at home, Michelle never got to renew her wedding vows at the end of her journey, but is happy to say that her and Dennis did it last year. “All the kids were there and it was really fun,” she says.
Connor is really happy with where he is living, and has become quite athletic himself. “My son is in a good place and that makes it easy for everyone. He is in the best program in British Columbia,” she says.
Her daughters are also doing well - her eldest just graduated high-school, got her first job and wants to be an actress. Dennis is also doing great, enjoying being back at work and recently got a big promotion. Michelle is heading back to school this fall to finish her degree in visual arts. Life is really good for the whole family, and a lot less stressful than when they were on the show.
September 2009
This stay-at-home mom was abused as a child and used her weight to shield herself from attention. Now she is fighting a myriad of health problems and is desperate to slim down. The last thing Amy wants to do is pass her issues with food on to her daughters.
A lot of really positive changes have happened in Amy’s life since the end of her X-Weighted journey. A month after filming wrapped up, Amy found out she was pregnant, with twins, and now has four daughters (aged 6, 5 and the twins are now 3). Amy is proud to say that even throughout her pregnancy, she was able to maintain her weight loss and is now 15 pounds lighter than when the show ended.
Last year, Amy and her family moved from Calgary to buy their dream house in the Annapolis Valley (where Amy is from originally) and credits the show with helping her be able to make that move. “I had a lot of demons here and I wasn’t ready to come back. Although I didn’t necessarily lose a lot of weight on X-Weighted, what it did do was kick me in to high gear as far as figuring out all the emotional skeletons I had in my closet. Since the show I feel like I’m really healed from the whole thing, and I was ready to go home,” she says.
Any issues that there were between Amy and her husband have been resolved and they have never been happier. “Oh my gosh, we are so completely happy that we are like newlyweds,” says Amy, “the issues we did have were due to the barrier I built around myself because of the abuse issues in my childhood.”
Amy says that when she started on X-Weighted, she was at the lowest point in her life. “I thought the show was going to totally fix me, and when it didn’t I got so frustrated,” she says, “but then I realized that I was holding on to every excuse that I had to stay fat. It was time for me to just start dealing with stuff and get over it.”
Amy is still trying to lose more weight, and maintains an active lifestyle. “It’s a slow progression, I try to lose about a pound a week,” she says. Life is busy, Amy works full-time outside the home and runs a home-based business, but she still makes time for exercise and sees a trainer regularly.
Amy says that going on the show was “the best experience I think to date in my whole life.” She laughs about how resistant she was to everything on the show, and the fact that she thought Paul was “just right out to lunch.” She says that it wasn’t until after filming that everything just snapped together for her.
“It was like Holy Cow, it's time for me to get over this. I’ve got to deal with what ails me as opposed to what I’m putting in my mouth, that’s just a symptom, and if you don’t fix the problem you’ll have symptoms for the rest of your life,” she says. Amy has spent the past three years dealing with her issues, and says that she has never felt better or fitter.
September 2009
This fitness instructor has been battling with her weight for a long time. She is positive that her size is what stops her from attaining her dream of meeting a man and having children. Her biological clock is ticking: it is time to lose the weight and get the life she so desperately wants.
Since the show, Diane’s life has changed completely. She has a two-year-old son, has moved to a different town and is in a happy relationship.
While filming X-Weighted, Diane dated and broke up with Ken. After filming the pair reconciled and started a life together. They had a baby, Aaron, and moved to Elkford, BC, which is the small town that Diane grew up in (and where a lot of her family lives). “Ken works in the mines and I’m a stay-at-home mom, I’m living my dream,” she says.
On the show, Diane went to see a matchmaker who basically told her that there was no chance she would meet a man and have babies. “That matchmaker was an old cow, she was just so unrealistic,” says Diane.
Since the show, Diane has had a few health issues, including a recent diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, and was put on various medications that affected her weight. “I put on 27 pounds, but now my medications are sorted out I’ve started losing the weight. I’ve already dropped 24 pounds, through not pigging out and teaching boot-camp classes,” she says.
When Diane moved home to Elkford, she says that everybody had seen the show and wanted to talk to her about it. Diane says that going on the show was a really fun experience, “it's a fun story to tell everybody,” she says.
September 2009
Surrounded by size 0 friends, Angela desperately wants to be slimmer but can’t stop eating when she is bored or sad. She has always been athletic and disciplined in every other aspect of her life. It’s time to take control of her weight.
Angela says that being on X-Weighted was a really great experience. “I worked my butt off so I was really happy with the outcome,” she says. Angela has kept in shape, “I’m still a lot leaner and I’m happy with how I look right now,” she says. Since the show, Angela has had a really exciting work life. She finished her degree in marketing and is now vice-president of public relations and marketing at a real estate investment firm. “My life is going really great,” she says.
In terms of keeping in shape, Angela does a similar routine at the gym to the one that she was doing on X-Weighted, but does it 3 days a week instead of 5. She also does lots of fitness activities such as roller-blading, skiing and has taken up golfing too. “I bought a treadmill for my house and watch all my junky reality TV shows while I’m on there,” she says.
Angela does get recognized by viewers. She says that one of the things people always want to know is whether she is still friends with Carolyn, who was pretty unsupportive and sometimes rude about Angela’s efforts to slim down. “I am absolutely, she is still a close friend of mine. She is over it and wants to be on X-Weighted now,” says Angela.
Although Angela still hangs out with the same core group of friends she had during filming, she has developed another group of friends that share her athletic interests. “Being fit just wasn’t their thing, but by also having friends that are more athletically minded, I stay more motivated,” she says.
Check out Angela's Follow Up Photos in the Photo Gallery. You can also find Angela on Twitter (follow @angelamjoyce), through her blog or Facebook page.
September 2009
Gaia is a beautiful young mom, debilitated by self-doubt from being overweight all her whole life. She wants to get healthy so she can start to love herself, and set a good example for her daughter.
Gaia says that she was surprised by how much her X-Weighted experience gave her. “Being on the show was a profound experience for me. I felt like I was really able to affect some authentic personal growth over those six months, and not just lose a few pounds, because losing weight is one thing and actually changing your life is another thing entirely. Although, of course they are connected,” she says.
Because she enjoyed being part of the show so much, Gaia decided that she wanted to pursue a career in television and is about to go in to her second year of studying broadcasting in Calgary. Being in school full-time means that Gaia doesn’t get to play roller derby as much as she’d like to, although she still plays on a freelance basis.
“I’m almost 30 and I’m a mom, so I have a lot at stake and it’s really important that I do well at school so I really wanted to focus on that,” she says, “but I’m practicing with the Oil City Derby girls in Edmonton, and I play in scrimmages now and then when teams need an extra body.”
Gaia has managed to keep off the majority of the weight she lost on her journey. After she started school last year ten pounds did come back due to the changes in her schedule, but she’s working on getting rid of that now.
Every time her episode airs, people get in touch with Gaia to tell her how inspiring she is to them. “I’ve had hundreds of emails. People contact me through MySpace and Facebook. I’ve had people contact me from the UK and I even had a message from a girl in Mexico,” she says.
Gaia enjoys hearing that her story resonates with people. “It’s really flattering and part of the reason I decided to do it. I knew that other people out there had to be feeling helpless and depressed and alone - the way I felt - and maybe this could be the thing that gave them a lifeline,” she says, “so when I get emails from people who say that I did that, it means a lot to me.” Gaia also gets told that people took up roller derby after watching her episode, and often gets recognized from X-Weighted by fans at games.
She may joke about the size of her butt, but Kristi feels like her weight gain is out of control. Her size is holding her back and she yearns to break free of small town life and find a mate.
Kristi says that going on X-Weighted was the best experience of her life. "It was amazing how much I changed, inside and out," she says, "I know that if I hadn't been on the show I would never have made those changes and I would be in a really bad place right now. Going on the show was almost like having an intervention."
Although the physical changes that Kristi made to her body were huge and obvious (she lost 13 inches off her stomach alone), she says it was the mental changes that had the greatest affect on her life. "Wow, when I look back at my life before I started," she says, "I'll see my neighbours having a drink on a Tuesday night or Sunday night, and I just think how I've got better things to do. It is amazing how much my journey changed my attitude to life."
Kristi says that her life has changed 100% since she came on the show. By the time her episode went on air, Kristi had found love and now lives with her boyfriend! "He was on the episode, he's the bald guy that I give a kiss to at my birthday party. I've had a crush on him forever and we've been friends for years, then right about the time the show aired everything just fell into place," she says. "He is just fantastic, being with him has been wonderful," she says.
Kristi has managed to keep off all the weight she lost on X-Weighted. "I'd still like to lose another 30 pounds, but I know that being able to keep the weight off and maintain is awesome, so I'm cruising," she says. Her boyfriend is also conscious of his weight, so Kristi applies her new found nutritional knowledge to meal planning for both of them.
"It feels like everything in my life changed from that moment when I got accepted onto the show. Everything that happened from that time on has been so positive, it just feels like I have got everything that I have ever wanted," says Kristi, "I now know that if I work hard at it, anything is attainable. There is nothing I can't do."
Every year, Kristi climbs the CN Tower and repeats her fitness goal with her friend and sister. "It's a good gauge to see that I'm still on track," she says, "it is something to look forward to, a way of celebrating the anniversary of my success."
September 2009
Debbi takes care of kids all day long but has long since stopped taking care of herself. She dreams of being a trophy wife and feels her weight is causing serious issues in her marriage.
Since finishing her X-Weighted journey, life has changed dramatically for Debbi and her family. Debbi is now divorced from Chris, but says that the split was amicable and they have a great relationship with really good communication.
As she was getting divorced, Debbi was introduced to a Mormon guy, Brian, who is divorced with 4 kids. The pair fell in love and are about to get married. “I am so much happier and so in love, he just worships the ground I walk on. He thinks my body is just the sexiest thing he’s ever seen,” she says.
Debbi says that Brian actually fell in love with her after watching her X-Weighted episode. “He is my girlfriend’s brother. She introduced us because we were going through similar stuff, and the day he met me he went home and watched the show online 3 times that night. He said the fact that you were trying to fix every problem Chris had, that you got up after you fell, makes me appreciate what an amazing woman you are,” says Debbi.
On the show, Debbi talked about her disappointment that Chris had a vasectomy, which was in conflict with her desire to have more children. This proved to be something she had in common with Brian. “Interestingly enough, his ex-wife wanted him to have a vasectomy and he wanted more kids. We both felt like we got ripped off with the kids thing, so it kinda works,” she says.
With her 3 kids and Brian’s 4, Debbi will now have the big family she always wanted, and says that all the kids, both hers and Brian’s, are ecstatic about having new brothers and sisters. “They are on cloud nine,” she says happily.
Since X-Weighted finished filming, Debbi has kept off all the weight she had lost and says this is due to the education she received through going on the show. “I’m a lot more conscious about what I’m eating and fitness is part of my life. I’m much more healthy, much more aware,” she says. Debbi trained for a marathon last winter, does a lot of walking and loves to go rollerblading, hiking and kayaking.
Debbi says that she loved her X-Weighted experience, and doing the shoot at the end of the challenge was so much fun. “It was incredible and overwhelming to see myself as attractive and beautiful again when I hadn’t felt that way in years. It was awesome,” she says.
September 2009
A desk job and major health issues have led to Chris packing on the pounds. He feels revolting, and yearns to be more energetic for his family.
She works as an administrator by day and fronts a band by night. Kristen is so self-conscious about her body that it is impacting her relationship and compromising her stage performances.
Kristen is busier than ever, and now performs in 2 bands. Over the summer months, she was on stage every weekend on both Friday and Saturday nights, and has shows booked at least every second weekend through the fall. “It is so rewarding, and I just love it,” she says.
Kristen has kept the majority of the weight she lost on X-Weighted off. “I’ve been struggling with 4 or 5 pounds, but it never goes up past that. Whenever I hit that 5 pounds mark, I know I’ve got to run an extra bit or crack down on what I’m eating,” she says. Whenever Kristen feels herself slipping into bad eating habits, she motivates herself by watching her episode. “My journey was so hard that I call it my 6 months of suppressed rage,” she says, “and I don’t want all that hard work to be a waste.”
Kristen keeps fit by running and doing a lot of walking. She goes running with a group of people from work, which helps her stay motivated. “We usually run straight after work, which is good because my problem is that once I get home, I don’t want to get up off the couch. It’s good, because God knows I can’t motivate myself,” she says. She also gets a fair amount of exercise when she performs on stage.
Kristen is now single and enjoying dating. “Jill dumped me 2 days after the show aired. It really was a good thing, because quite honestly our relationship was over far before the show was even a twinkle in my eye,” she says, “we are still best friends and are even going to Mexico together in the spring.”
October 2009
For years Melanie has been devoted to caring for those around her, and has neglected herself. She desperately wants to be strong and fit, instead of overweight, and is willing to do anything to change her situation.
Melanie’s life has changed dramatically since filming finished. You may remember that she separated from her husband on the show – they never reconciled. “My divorce was finalized in February,” she says, “I had a lot of things coming at me in life: stuff with my son came up, we sold our home and I moved too.”
As challenging as life has been since X-Weighted, Melanie says that she is much happier now. Throughout all these changes, Melanie worked really hard to maintain her weight and go to the gym. “I feel great and I look really good,” she says, adding that she loves it when people comment on how trim, lean and athletic she looks.
“My sister was visiting from Arizona, I hadn’t seen her in a year, and she said “Oh my God, you have Hollywood arms,” and I’ve had people at work comment on how slim and toned I am,” she says with pride.
Melanie still has the goal of competing in a bodybuilding show and is sure that she’ll reach that goal at some point. “I’m someone that is pretty dedicated. When I say I’m going to take something on, I take it to fruition, I’m not a quitter,” she says.
She says that going on X-Weighted really was a positive experience for her. “I definitely learned a lot and it catapulted my life in to a whole different direction. I’m the fittest that I’ve ever been in my life, I haven’t gained a pound since the show ended in Dec 2007,” she says, “going on the show has driven me to live and dream and dare.”
Melanie says that she is having a lot of fun growing as a woman and an individual. "I think that the next time I get in to a relationship with anyone I’ll be a lot healthier in every facet of my being,” she says. Right now she is saving up to travel to Greece, which has always been a dream of hers.
She is thinking about becoming a certified fitness trainer, as she knows that her story has been very inspiring to others and would like to continue to help other people reach their fitness goals. “Hearing how I’ve helped other people move forward is very humbling and rewarding for me,” she says.
September 2009
Though her fiancé is health-conscious, Nicola has terrible eating habits and barely exercises. Her excess weight is stopping her from setting a date for her wedding. She doesn’t want to walk down the aisle feeling fat.
After years being joined at the hip to her sister, Nicola, Laurelle is ready to start a life without her. She feels like her weight is preventing her from succeeding in every aspect of her life, and is desperate to get fit.
Maggie says that being overweight is holding her back from experiencing life, and she is desperate to break free. She feels like she cannot even think about having children until she has some control over her weight.
Liz hasn’t managed to lose her baby weight, and is having intimacy issues with her husband because of her size. She spends a lot of time and energy covering herself both physically and emotionally, but is ready to reveal the woman inside.
Maggie
Right at the end of filming, Maggie found out that she was pregnant. “It was kind of a big surprise. I had to come to terms with it, and realize that I was going to put some of the fifty pounds that I’d lost back on,” she says.
Because of everything she learned on X-Weighted, Maggie says that she had a much healthier pregnancy than she might of otherwise, and only ended up gaining a little weight with her son, Logan. “Because I had done all the weight loss before I got pregnant, I knew how I was supposed to be eating. I’d changed my mindset about food and my cravings weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they’d be,” she says.
After giving birth, Maggie was only twelve pounds heavier than she was at the end of the show. “A lot of the pregnancy weight just came off straight away. Now I’m about five pounds heavier than my lightest weight,” she says. She keeps fit by going to the gym, which she loves. “It's my alone time away from the baby,” she says, “other people enjoy shopping, but for me it’s the gym that helps me relax and unwind.”
Maggie says that before going on X-Weighted, she just didn’t know where to start when it came to losing weight. “Paul gave us hope, he said “This can be done”,” she says, “plus we’d seen other people do it on the show.”
Maggie says that although when she first watched her episode she was mortified, as she never really realized how big she looked, she loved that it was a happy ending for her and her sister, Liz. “I love being repeated, I always watch it,” she says.
Liz
Since filming, Liz has had another baby, named Olivia, but says that other that that not a lot has changed in her life. She hasn't managed to keep all her weight off, but only because she just had a baby - "With a newborn and a 3 year old, it's tough to find time for me," she says, "Olivia is still not sleeping through the night, so I'm up every 2 hours."
Although Liz is finding little time to exercise, she knows what it is that she has to do to drop the baby weight, thanks to everything that she learned on her weight-loss journey. "I know how to eat healthily, and I know that I can't bring unhealthy foods in to the house because if I do, I will eat them," she says.
For several reasons, Liz says that she loved her X-Weighted experience. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat," she says, "It was so much fun and the advice was invaluable, especially Fred showing us how to do our make-up properly and our hair. I'll never go back to long hair again, now I know my hairstyle reflects my age and I have fun with it - I've dyed it red, I've had highlights, I love changing it up." Liz says that going on X-Weighted strengthened her relationship with her sister. "We were close before, but going through our X-Weighted journey together made us closer than ever before," she says.
"I feel a lot more confident that before I did X-Weighted. I feel like I look my age. There's no more pulling my wet hair back in to a ponytail and that's it, I look after myself," says Liz.
December 2009
Andrea has always been bigger than her peers, and was bullied throughout school because of her size. She is tired of living her life in the shadows and being worried about what people think of her.
Always athletic, until she had twins, Carrie has never been able to lose her pregnancy weight. Overindulging in fatty treats with her best friend and neighbour, Andrea, has only added to her weight problem.
Carrie
Carrie continued to lose weight after filming finished 18 months ago, and says that although she doesn’t follow a strict diet she is careful to keep what she eats in check. Carrie is now on a ringette team, which keeps her fit, but also enjoys rollerblading and working out at the local playground with one of her ringette friends (she still uses the same playground workout she was doing on X-Weighted).
Carrie says that before she went on the show, she honestly didn’t think that losing weight was possible. “I definitely needed the show to motivate me to lose weight. Andrea and I had tried before, but it never really worked. Being on the show gave us the oomph we needed,” she says.
Although having 3 kids keeps her pretty busy, Carrie still finds the time to cook decent meals and get out there and exercise. “You just have to make that time for yourself,” she says, “I think there is always time to exercise, even if it is when the kids go to bed.”
Carrie loves the way that clothes fit these days, so much so, that she gets dressed up any chance she gets. “Because I spent so long wearing yoga pants and plain black t-shirts, now I get dressed up just to get the kids from preschool or go to the store,” she says.
Losing weight was a life-changing experience for Carrie. “I’m just so much happier now, I feel like I can do anything,” she says, “I’m not so worried about what I look like or what I’m wearing, it’s really nice to go out and not be worried about whether people are judging me about my weight.”
Andrea
Andrea says that she had the time of her life while X-Weighted was being filmed. “When I first started, I had no idea that my whole life was going to change. I figured this was just another extreme measure to lose weight that I’d just end up gaining back. I had no idea that I was actually going to change as a person,” she says.
Because Andrea went through such a drastic change, she initially found it hard to believe that she was now a slim woman. “I just didn’t recognize that girl at the end of show makeover, but now that is how I live every day. I don’t leave the house unless I look like that, with my make-up and my heels,” she says.
“I had no idea who I was after the show,” she says, “I didn’t know what I was supposed to do now because as far a I was concerned the rest of my life was about hiding from the world, being overweight and just doing the same things that I’d always done.”
Also, after the show aired, Andrea’s biological brother (she was adopted and had never met any of her biological family) saw the episode and got in touch. Andrea was reconciled with her biological family, which included 9 siblings, which was wonderful but also incredibly stressful.
“On top of this huge transformation, I tried to make up for 30 years I’d missed with my biological family and I just snapped. I lost it and turned in to a total teenager staying out and partying all night, it was ridiculous. I couldn’t handle all the change coming so fast,” she says.
This put a fair amount of stress on Andrea’s marriage. “There was quite a long time where we weren’t sure if we were going to stay together. We were high-school sweethearts. We got together when I was 14, and so he’s been with me for 17 years. But I became a completely different person,” she says.
After seeing a therapist, Andrea has learned to reconcile the new her with the old one, and is now “getting towards being in a good place.” She is finding balance. “It's okay to have a life where I go out and have fun but I have to balance it with the life that I had previous to that, as a wife and mother,” she says.
Andrea says that the biggest thing that she got from being on X-Weighted, was the change in her attitude: “I look in the mirror and like what I see, other people's comments don’t matter and the only person’s opinion that matters is my own. I hope I get to take that with me for the rest of my life because it is really freeing.”
October 2009
Mike describes himself as a “sad clown” and struggles with his huge size. He is morbidly obese, but wants to begin his adult life fit and healthy.
This overachiever has watched her weight grow with the success of her business. Jamila wants to lose the extra pounds around her midsection and become athletic again.
Jamila continued to train hard and has competed in several triathlons since the show finished filming. Her husband Mike has also started doing triathlons and the pair are planning to do a full Ironman together in 2010. “I don’t think we’d be doing this if we hadn’t been on the show. He saw how much I loved it and it inspired him,” she says. Jamila says that doing triathlons together has been a phenomenal bonding experience for her and Mike. “We train together and hire the same coach. I had to drag him kicking and screaming at first but now he’s got the bug worse than I do,” she says, adding that because the training is so intensive, she was worried that if he didn’t start training too she’d never see him. Mike has lost 50 pounds since he started training and is so dedicated that he leaves Jamila in the dust when he runs! Because training for an Ironman is so time consuming, Jamila has had to cut back on her working hours and take on another chiropractor for her office. “I’ve had to take a cut in salary but at the end of the day I think it’s important to live life too,” she says. Jamila admits that she still struggles with her eating habits, and has put ten pounds back on since the show finished, but is pretty confident that the weight is going to fall straight off (and then some) from doing the Ironman and because she is back on a clean eating plan. Jamila says that she really enjoyed her X-Weighted experience, and loves it when people recognize her and tell her that they found her journey inspiring. “That was part of the goal for doing the show, so I’m pretty happy that I was able to inspire people,” she says. October 2009
Margaret was absolutely devastated by the death of her son, and used food to numb the pain. Recently separated from her husband, she is desperate to change her life and get a grip on her health.
Kayla’s weight keeps her standing on the sidelines while she watches her friends experience life. She needs a fresh start, to get over the death of her brother and start a healthier chapter of her young life.
Margaret says that both her and Kayla really enjoyed their X-Weighted experience. " I feel like it was a privilege to be able to do the show, not everyone gets a chance to do something like that," says Margaret.
Since filming finished, Margaret has started dating someone. "I'm having a lot of fun, the only problem is that he lives in Alberta so I do lots of trips back and forth," she says. "I am really happy," says Margaret, "we're talking about moving to Alberta. Kayla would come too, she would have to be with her mommy! On my recent trip away, Kayla cried when she picked me up from the airport because she'd missed me so much! Our relationship is still very close." (Despite threatening to move out on the show, Kayla is still living at home.)
Margaret has also built a house, which meant that she has had to work a lot of hours in order to make this huge achievement happen. "Some weeks I work 60 plus hours, but I always make time for myself, to do the things that I enjoy doing," she says.
Margaret is 15 pounds heavier than when her X-Weighted journey finished, but she is okay with that. "Because I had lost so much weight and got down to such a low weight, which I did because it was a challenge, but I had to work really hard at the gym to stay at that weight and since working 2 jobs I just haven't had the oomph to keep it up," she says, "I slacked off in doing that."
Kayla is working right now as a customer representative and saving up her money to go to school - ultimately she wants to be a parole officer. She says that going on the show was a very positive experience for her: "I've gained loads and loads of self esteem and confidence and am very happy with life," she says.
Doing X-Weighted together helped this mother and daughter team make positive, and permanent, changes in their lives. "Since the show my mother and I trained for and did a 10 km run in Vancouver which was terrific! And we have decided to do that every year now," says Kayla.
November 2009
An injury and pregnancies led to this former beauty queen putting on weight. Tammy eats to numb the pain caused by the tragic death of her brother. She wants to regain her love of athletics and stop turning to food for comfort.
As much as she professes to love her ample booty, this single mom is worried that she’s headed for a stroke if she doesn’t lose weight. Valencia works as a fitness motivator, but is clueless when it comes to motivating herself.
After contracting meningitis, Nicole packed on so much weight that she gave up on her lifelong dream of becoming a professional dancer. When she lost her dancer physique, her confidence went with it.
Since filming finished, Nicole has continued to stay fit and healthy. She kept up with kickboxing, training 5 times a week and has just recently had her first fight. "It was a lot of fun, I didn't win and I got a really bad bloody nose but everybody said I did really well," she says. Nicole recently slimmed down further in order to fight at 145 pounds, making her 10 pounds lighter than at the end of her X-Weighted journey.
She also kept up with her dancing and while at university was co-captain on the Western Dance Team, and was dancing at least twice a week as well as doing regular performances. "This summer was kind of hectic, what with finishing school and moving back to Toronto, so I haven't been dancing for a couple of months, but I'll get back to it," she says.
Nicole has graduated from university and is just about to start full-time work with the federal government. She is no longer with the boyfriend who was with her during filming (they broke up pretty soon after filming finished) and is having fun dating.
Nicole says that she loved being part of X-Weighted, and probably wouldn't have been motivated to make such positive changes in her life without it. "I love the show because it got me in to kickboxing, and if I hadn't done it I wouldn't have met all the great friends that I train with. Kickboxing is such a big part of who I am now," she says.
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September 2009
Overwhelmed by the demands of the modeling world at age 16, Jennifer gained weight to avoid a modeling career. Now a size 18, her health is suffering and her size is affecting her relationship.
As business student with dreams of getting a job in finance, Anthony knows that his size will hold him back. He desperately wants to be able to get healthy for the sake of his family, and their future.
Once a fit lifeguard, Marichu has steadily put on weight throughout her marriage to Anthony. Her health is now her number one priority, even if that puts her marriage at risk.
Marichu
These days Marichu’s life is completely different. “Being on X-Weighted was totally life changing, that is for sure. Had somebody told me what kind of effect being on the show would have, I would never have believed them,” says Marichu.
Since filming finished, Marichu says that her life has improved immeasurably and she is a lot happier. “I think I had given up on trying to be happy and trying to be me. Through the whole X-Weighted experience, I became empowered enough to make changes to my life,” she says.
Marichu continued to lose weight and ended up getting a job at the gym, where she had been working out. She worked the front-desk, then was approached by the gym owner to do nutritional coaching too. “He felt that with my psychology degree and life-experiences, the coaching would be something I would be good at,” she says, “it was hard for me because with my body shape I’ve never exactly fit the fitness industry, but when people walked through that front door and I wasn’t like “Barbie” they felt they could connect with me.”
Marichu left Anthony in Spring 2008 and is now in the process of getting divorced. Very soon after leaving her marriage, Marichu met a new man, Troy, and the relationship progressed very quickly. Marichu became pregnant, and gave birth to a son, Jake, in August 2009.
“Being on the show was really difficult for our marriage and magnified the problems we had,” explains Marichu, “It was good that it went the way it did and gave us that final push we needed. Things with Anthony were very difficult during filming and I didn’t feel supported by him throughout the journey.”
For Marichu, her X-Weighted experience was about so much more than losing weight. It gave her back her self-esteem and enabled her to get the life she wanted. She loves the effect that this has had on her daughters, and feels so good about being a better role model to them. “Having seen what I can do, there is just no stopping them,” she says, “I’m watching them blossom and grow with a whole new attitude.”
“The change in my own attitude was probably the most profound thing that I got from the show,” says Marichu, “when you are given an opportunity like that, to change your life in such a public manner, you give it all you’ve got. And you don’t look back, sell yourself short and you don’t make excuses. You have to suck it up and do what you have to do to get through it.”
Marichu says that if she’d known her X-Weighted journey was going to be so hard, she’d have never embarked on it. “It was probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” she says, “but it was worth it every step of the way.”
Anthony
Since separating from Marichu, life has changed a great deal for Anthony. Due to the stress he has been under, he wasn’t able to keep off all the weight he lost while doing X-Weighted (although he is still a lot lighter than when he started his X-Weighted journey). “There’s way too much stuff going on right now, I’ve put myself on the backburner while I look after other things,” he says.
Anthony shares custody of his daughters with Marichu, and says that right now, the girls are where his focus is. “I’m just trying to get life straightened out,” he says. He is still one course away from completing his degree, and hopes to get to that soon but was feeling burnt out and needed a break from his studies. He is working full time at a bottle-depot, which he says pays “not bad” but says, “it’s not what I want for myself. I still want a career and to better myself, and be the best person I can.”
Anthony says that he learned a lot from the show and is looking forward to getting his fitness back on track once things are more settled in his life. “I just have to find my own personal desire and fire again to want to lose weight,” he says.
He is also looking forward to doing Thai boxing again, as it gave him a great deal of pleasure. “I would walk out just feeling absolutely spent, but I walked out with my head high and just feeling really good. I want that feeling back,” he says.
September 2009
Once fit and active, an on-the-job injury led to Casey becoming seriously overweight and suffering from ill health. Now disgusted with his appearance, Casey is desperate to reclaim his body and his health.
We are happy to report that Casey is doing just fine since we last saw him on the show. There have been some huge changes in his life, the biggest one being that he now has a baby daughter. "Finally a girl after all those boys," he says (Casey has 3 sons). His ex Linda, has moved away but their son Dylan is still living with him in Kelowna.
Casey has managed to keep his excess weight off, and maintained a healthy lifestyle - mostly through biking with his son Dylan, who we met on the show, and through being part of the local ski patrol. His general health is really good, although he still has some health issues related to the injury he suffered while on the show (his sense of smell and taste was affected and has never really come back).
Casey says that besides the fact that going on the show made him get fit, he also enjoyed it and had a lot of fun on his journey.
Still single, Casey is actively dating and having a lot of fun doing so. He is flattered by the female attention that came from being on the show. "I thought it was pretty humorous when I found out my episode was called "Casey: Chick Magnet"," he says.
Casey gets recognized everywhere he goes in Kelowna: "It's a pretty small town" he says, "when I took Dylan for his first day of school, the secretaries in the school office recognized me, I get recognized in the gas station and everywhere really."
November 2009
This burned out single-mom fears that if she doesn’t lose weight she’ll no longer be able to take care of her physically challenged daughter. Sharla needs to make drastic changes in order to keep her family together.
“Life is going pretty good,” says Sharla. Since finishing her X-Weighted journey, she has managed to keep off most of the fifty pounds that she lost. “I’m not as regimented as I was with fitness, but still a lot more active than before X-Weighted,” she says, adding that she does between three and seven hours a week of fitness a week. “Exercising for sixteen hours a week like I did on the show meant I didn’t have a life,” she says.
Sharla says that keeping the weight off is hard, especially when it comes to restricting her food intake. “My eating habits are still really good, I have slip ups every now and again because you can’t be regimented all the time,” she says, “I learned that in order to keep my shape, I need to have more exercise in my life.”
To keep in shape, Sharla still rides her bike lots and enjoyed doing the boxing she started on X-Weighted, until she injured her knee last year lifting her daughter Toni. After a year of physio, Sharla is eager to step back in the ring and start boxing again. “Because the injury limited my ability to exercise, I had to be pretty strict on my diet during that year to maintain my weight,” she says.
Toni is eighteen and has graduated from high-school, and is starting college this fall. Sydney is now twelve, just going in to grade seven. Sharla says that both girls have come a long way in terms of their eating. “Sydney is still pretty picky but we’ve managed to get her eating some vegetables, it's easier now that she is becoming a woman and is a little more conscientious about her weight and her looks,” says Sharla.
Toni has lost some weight and has been doing what she can to get fit in the wheelchair, at school she had been doing some light weight training and she has been taking healthier lunches to school. “Toni is excited and nervous about starting college, it’s a whole new life and transition in to adulthood,” says Sharla.
Losing so much weight on her X-Weighted journey was a life altering experience for Sharla. “I’ve always had to do everything for Toni. I had her when I was seventeen, so all my adult life has been about fighting for her and looking after my kids. Until the show, I’d never really done anything for me,” she says.
November 2009
Since having her baby, Ann-Marie has put on so much weight she feels self-conscious with her husband, and it’s affecting her marriage. She wants 4 kids, but worries that her weight will climb with each one if she doesn’t get fitter now.
Since filming finished, Ann-Marie has had another baby, Charlie, who is now eighteen-months-old. She finished her diploma in business administration. Ann-Marie continued to do triathlons after X-Weighted finished filming – she did five that year, completing her last when she was twelve weeks pregnant – and recently tackled another, her first since having Charlie.
"I finished in 1hr33mins, which is my personal best, and I might add not bad for being newly pregnant with nausea!" says Ann-Marie, who is now expecting a 3rd child, due on May 1st 2010. Although some of her weight did come back on with having another baby, she was able to lose most of it before getting pregnant again.
These days, Ann-Marie cooks dinner for her husband five-nights a week (this was an issue in their marriage on the show). “My cooking is phenomenal,” she says. She does meal plans at the start of every week before hitting the grocery store to get everything she needs, because she is by nature a planner and says that as long as she knows what she is going to prepare, cooking dinner is no problem. “I love to cook and am the wife of the year these days,” she says.
September 2009
An extreme binge-eater who stuffs down her emotions with food, Rae has put on a serious amount of weight since her mother died. She can no longer fit in to her motorbike leathers, so no longer participates in the road-trips she used to share with her husband.
Since filming finished, things are going really well for Rae. This coming spring, Rae and her husband are about to go on the trip of a lifetime on their motorcycles.
"We're going to fly the bikes from Calgary to London, ride through Europe and down through Africa," she says, "we are planning on being gone for a year right now, but we'll see how it goes, it's going to be pretty wild. It's really thrilling and really scary all rolled into one."
At the start of Rae's journey, she was going through some tough times. Not only was she dealing with the death of her mom, but she was also having real problems in her marriage. "Things weren't so good, but being on the show actually brought us back together," she says.
After filming finished, Rae did regain some of the weight that she lost. "I'll be honest with you, after X-Weighted finished I kind of took a big breath and relaxed and some of the weight did go back on," she says.
Rae is working hard to lose it again though - "Knowing that we were going on this trip is part of the reason I've had to stay fit and now we are really getting serious, because riding for that long is grueling," she says.
Rae gets recognized all the time. "I was in the emergency room recently and the nurse recognized me from the show. Funnily enough everyone always asks me the same question when they do recognize me - is Paul Plakas really that big a jerk?" she says.
Although her relationship with Paul was strained, Rae said that she got a lot out of working with Fred. "He helped me face some of the stuff I was going through with my mom passing, because I was not willing to deal with that. He was so good with that, because he was so gentle but then he really gets to you because he hits the nail on the head as to what is really going on," says Rae.
October 2009
Because of abuse issues in her childhood, Nikki never felt worthy of being thin. Now that her engagement has ended, and she is back in the dating world, she wants to become healthy at last.
Almost 3 years on, Nikki is doing very well indeed. She has kept the weight off (and lost more). "Right now I waver between 163 and 165 pounds, I am super active and I no longer let the scale determine my happiness," she says.
Nikki loved being part of X-Weighted. "It was a beautiful process and I'm so grateful that I had that opportunity. My life changed 389°, it was ridiculous how much my life changed from that experience," she says.
Nikki says that she feels that her best when she is active. "I am the captain of my own soccer team, so I play lots of soccer. I do lots of running and right now I am training to do a triathlon. I do my thing about four or five times a week for sure, and there's not one day that goes by where I'm not active in some way," she says.
You may remember that Nikki split with her fiance Erich while on the show, the two only met once after that so that she could get her stuff back. "It was just a brilliant end to something that was causing me so much grief," she says, "and I learned a lot about my own self-worth and what I wanted to put up with and what I wanted in a relationship."
Nikki is a happy single girl, who is having lots of fun. She has an active social life and is very busy setting up her own business. "It is called Authentic Image, and it works with women around the physiological, sociological and emotional components of their relationships with food," she explains.
Nikki says that being on the show taught her to eat right and the importance of exercise, but says that for her, "the maintenance comes from really going in and doing the emotional work".
At the end of her journey, once the cameras stopped rolling, Nikki took all her bigger clothes to a consignment store and says that doing so gave her a sense of closure. "At the end of the 6 months I took what I learned, and I moved forward," she says.
"I am extremely happy," says Nikki, "people watching my episode can see the physical transformation, but for me it was the emotional transformation that had the biggest affect."
Nikki's relationship with her mom was something that was dealt with on the show, and happily Nikki says that her relationship with her mom only got better after filming finished. "I love my mom dearly. We just cut the BS, we really got real with each other. It was really good for her to see my episode actually, she realized it that what I needed from her when she watched it was not perfection but just her time and her interest in me," says Nikki.
October 2009
Once a slim size 7, Amy is now a size 22. She bemoans the fact she has to shop in the men’s section to get clothes that fit. She desperately wants to lose weight and join in activities with her family.
Once athletic, Gary has gained weight since he was the victim of a violent crime that almost killed him. His weight makes him too tired to enjoy his life after work.
Dealing with chronic pain from a car accident, and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, have made Rayna overweight and unhappy. Her partner, Gary, calls her a heavy-weight lover, but it’s the last thing Rayna wants to be.
As a medical health professional she should know better, but Nima just can’t say no when it comes to food. She has an excuse for everything, but knows that she has to change or her health will suffer.
Nima is still eating healthily and has an active lifestyle. After the show she did initially put a bit of weight back on, but over the past six months has been good about eating healthy and is now back wearing the same size clothes that she did at the end of the show. “I’m proud of how I’ve progressed in terms of the amount of fitness I do,” she says.
After picking up good habits from the show, Nima has gone on to work out what works for her lifestyle in terms of being fit and healthy. “I’ve learned it’s not really about my weight, it’s about eating healthy and keeping active. I try to eat all natural foods, use as little processed food as possible and try to buy local foods and organic produce,” she says.
Nima has made peace with herself, and her body. “The size that I’m at feels like a good weight for me. Is it a size two? No, but I’m okay with that now. I like cooking for people, and I like eating. I like it a lot. If you are going to be a size two you have to eat very little, and when I think back on all the times I’d been that skinny I was quite sad.”
Nima soon realized that running wasn’t her thing. “Training for a marathon trashed my knees and I had to wear two bras to stop my breasts from bobbing around and giving me a black eye, it was uncomfortable,” she says. Instead, she does interval training and weights at the gym with a trainer twice a week and goes once more either with her husband, Claude, or alone.
Finding the right trainer was important to Nima, and being on the show helped her decide what didn’t motivate her, namely Paul’s style. “If someone starts yelling at me and saying negative things I just stop paying attention and shut down. My trainer now is funny and quiet in the way he motivates me, and I like his style,” she says.
Becoming a healthier person has improved Nima’s already great marriage. The couple goes biking together as well as to the gym. “My husband is awesome, he’s the one that keeps me in-line. If I don’t work-out for a couple of days he’ll say “Come on, let’s just make a healthier choice today,” she says, “Claude has always been super healthy, he’s always worked out and he always tries to eat right, so when I started to do that it was one more thing that brought us closer together. I was actually turning into someone who was more like him - so it worked out well.”
Nima says that being on the show was a good learning experience and she enjoys hearing that the success she had on her journey motivates others. She still cooks delicious East Indian meals, but has modified the recipes to make them healthier and cooks everything from scratch. Claude helps with meal prep by chopping vegetables, and together, they are loving their healthy lifestyle.
September 2009
Life at home is absolute chaos for Jen. She has 3 young boys, a rocky new marriage and turns to food for comfort. Jen dreams of being a strong female warrior - the role she plays in her online life.
A lot has changed for Jen since the show finished filming, and she says that she has never been happier. Her divorce from Steve is almost finalized, and she is in a new relationship, but is taking things slowly this time. Her boys are happy and healthy and the youngest is starting school this year. Although Jen kept up with the capoeira for a while, she decided it just wasn’t her thing and instead found two new activities that she is super passionate about: Burlesque and belly dancing! “In January I got into burlesque and realized I have a natural talent for it! I won Miss Burlesque Fest 2009 in Calgary earlier this year,” she says. You can check out her winning performance here. The first year after the show was pretty tough for Jen, not only was she going through her split from Steve, but there were also family issues that led to her brother moving out of her house. “I kind of fell apart for a year,” she says, “and after six months I started binge eating, put the weight back on and then some.” Jen started seeing a therapist and faced her demons, which enabled her to get to the point where she is now, which is slimmer, healthier and happier. Jen says that being on X-Weighted really did change her life. “The show was a blessing, because it allowed me to focus on myself, which I hadn’t done because I’d been too busy being a mom the past ten years,” she says, “I realized that you really have to focus on yourself if you really want these changes to happen.” Jen also says that being on the show helped her realize that she had hidden talents, such as henna and body painting, which she does for two companies in Calgary. “Last year I was doing body painting at the sex show, which was really fun,” she says. While there, a fan of the show recognized her for the first time: “A couple of ladies came to the booth and one said “X-Weighted! You’re female warrior!” At the time I was still quite big, so I thought oh no, don’t recognize me now,” she says. Now she has put herself in the limelight as a burlesque dancer, Jen gets recognized regularly and quite enjoys it. “People start off by complimenting my performance, then they’ll add “Oh by the way, weren’t you on X-Weighted?” This year I’m happy to get recognized because I’m back to my smaller size,” she says. “When I did put the weight back on, I just had to refocus on what was important,” she says, “I learned that it’s not just about the weight loss, that part was easiest. The part that was hardest was dealing with the root problems that cause you to eat.” September 2009
This grade 6 student has always turned to food for comfort as a way of coping with her parents constant bickering. Amy is unhappy and headed for serious health complications if she doesn’t lose weight.
Daniel is a sensitive 8th grader who is bullied due to his weight. His obesity affects every aspect of his life. He dreams of becoming a police officer, but knows for that to happen he’ll need to get fit.
Tara says that both her boys are doing just great. Daniel kept up with biathlon after filming finished (that was the sport the family did as their fitness challenge), and only recently switching to swimming because he wants to do lifeguarding. “He is now doing his bronze star and junior lifesaving on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so he is keeping pretty active,” says Tara, “over the summer he decided that he really liked swimming so we decided to pursue that.”
Daniel’s brother Joshua is also doing well. “Oh my gosh, he just doesn’t stop, that one,” says Tara, “he is active in tae kwon do twice a week and he also does Irish dance, which he keeps coming home with medals from.”
Daniel is in grade 10 now and is doing much better in school this year. Joshua is in grade 7 and just loves it. “Daniel’s recent parent teacher interviews were the absolute best that we’ve had in 11 years of school,” says Tara.
Tara says that being on the show helped her to improve her family’s eating habits. “I was conscious before, and I knew what I was supposed to be doing, but it didn’t seem to matter. It is easier now that the kids know more about food through being on the show,” she says, “now the kids are apt to comment on whether we are eating healthy or not as much as I do. Going on the show helped the kids get on board with healthy eating.”
Tara had a couple of setbacks in the past year and did put weight on, but managed to get back on track by “working her butt off” and is now lighter than she was at the end of her X-Weighted journey. “I’ve learned a lot, and I now know that I can do it by working out and eating properly the majority of the time. I know what I have to do in order to lose weight,” she says, “it’s a lifelong journey, the weight won’t just come off overnight.”
Watching their episode was a real eye-opener, and Tara says that doing so has helped her to become a better parent. “I’m not as grumpy towards the kids as I used to be. I try to take things in my stride and know that screaming and yelling just didn’t get me anywhere. Sometimes I relapse, I’m not perfect, but I’m so much better these days,” she says, “I know that doing things the same way never gets you any different results so I had to change the way I react to them. I think I’m a better parent now than I was.”
“Going on the show was one of the best things that I’ve ever done, and it was really good for our family,” Tara says.
This sweet grade 6 student appears confident, until she starts talking about her appearance. Madison feels lonely because of her weight, and is desperate to fit in with her friends.
An abusive boyfriend ruined Jade’s self-esteem and she turned to food for comfort. Depressed and self-conscious, she doesn’t feel prepared to face life as an adult.
After filming finished, Jade went to her dad’s wedding (one of the things that she wanted to slim down for on her X-Weighted journey) and her mom, Janine, “That was really good and she looked so wonderful in her dress,” says her mom, Janine.
The year since the cameras stopped rolling have been challenging for this family. Janine was out of work for a year, and says that trying to get Jade to get some of her schooling finished was difficult. The relationship between Jade and her dad unfortunately deteriorated, which caused her considerable distress. “Jade’s weight has gone back up, sadly, and although I try not to get on at her too much I know that she is bothered by it,” says Janine.
Recently, both Janine and Jade have been working together at a big box store where the wages and benefits are great, which has been a big boost for both of them. “Now she is working in a physically demanding environment and is going to have her own money to buy clothes, so I’m really hoping that something is going to change for her,” says Janine.
In the year that she wasn’t working, Janine took her mortgage broker’s training and is now a registered mortgage broker. “It’s tough starting out as I’m having to build a client base, but I just interviewed with a big company, so I’m hopeful that I’ll be landing a good job now that I have this qualification,” she says.
Janine has managed to keep the weight off, and says that she is going to keep focusing on eating better and getting exercise, and hope that Jade sees and follows her example. “I just have to watch myself with comments to her, because I know that upsetting her doesn’t help at all,” she says.
Kyla is so scared of being judged by boys, that she can’t even think about dating. She desperately wants a skinny body to match her pretty face.
Over the past year, Rhonda says that by and large her family has continued to do well. “We mostly continued to eat healthily, although of course over the summer we had a few slip ups because it is harder to eat healthy at family barbecues and get togethers because not everyone in our extended family eats the same way that we do,” says Rhonda.
Despite a few minor set backs, Rhonda says that the everyone is doing pretty good health wise. “We are being as healthy as we can possibly be. I’m still trying to be the captain of the ship, but when I fall they fall. When I slip, they think they can slip too,” she says, adding that it is easier to keep Michael on track because he is younger, and Kyla is still a little difficult to steer in the right direction.
Both Kyla and Brandon are graduating from high school this year. Brandon is excited to be joining the army, as he has been in the reserves up until now and can join properly once he graduates. “Brandon is back from army training and staying fit, which is inspiring us all to do the same,” Rhonda says with considerable pride.
This lonely, latchkey kid is bullied because of his weight and has few friends. Anthony's obesity is already affecting his health.
18 months after the cameras stopped rolling at Anthony’s house, his mom Sherri is happy to report that the family is still doing really great. Although she says that Anthony’s weight goes up and down, he is getting taller and more muscular so things are evening out for him and he is looking good.
“Anthony is a lot more confident these days. He is carrying himself better and caring more about his appearance, partially I think because he is in grade 9 now and is growing up,” says Sherri.
The family has stayed active, and in fact continues to increase their activity levels.
“We are still very involved in our tae kwon do, which we started doing as part of our X-Weighted journey,” says Sherri, “we are now half way towards getting our black belts, and in another 6 testings we will all, as a family, have them.”
The family has also joined their tae kwon do school’s demonstration team, which Sherri says is hard work but very fun and has brought the family many new friendships. “Tae kwon do was probably the best thing we took away from being on X-Weighted,” says Sherri.
Sherri has now lost over 40 pounds and Louis, Anthony’s dad, is now a whopping 60+ pounds lighter than before starting the family’s X-Weighted journey.
“Nowadays, Lou is the most adventurous of us all and the most into exercise. He was the one that was morbidly obese and at the highest risk to start out with. Now he’s just like Mr. Healthy and it is wonderful,” says Sherri, “He actually went with our tae kwon do school to Korea over the summer and participated in some Marine Core training, there is just no way he would ever have been able to do that carrying the extra 50 pounds that he had on him.”
Being on the show was a real eye opener for the family, says Sherri, and the amount of support that they got from their family, friends and neighbours after the episode aired was incredible. “We had so many people come up to us after the show and offer their support, because they all knew Anthony but they didn’t know about the turmoil that he was going through, or about all the strength that he had. His story brought lots of people to tears, and that was amazing feedback to get,” she says.
The family is proud of how well they have done and says they will continue to succeed. “Nothing makes me more proud than when our family is doing things together, the three of us,” says Sherri.
Leanne is a socially isolated teen, who desperately wants to change. She is scared of becoming diabetic, like her morbidly obese mother, Rose.
Almost two years since her X-Weighted journey, Leanne says that she is feeling happy and healthy. “I still weigh 200 pounds, but you know, things are good,” she says. She is graduating school this year, and is very excited about that. “I’m planning to take a year off of school, work and save up money while I decide what it is I want to do with my life. I still have my job as an usher at the coliseum here, where all the concerts play, which is really good fun,” she says.
(Her brother Aaron is also doing great, and is involved in football and cadets, which he loves.)
“I am so glad that I did the show,” says Leanne, “when I watch my episode I look back and can’t believe that I was that big.” (She lost 18 pounds on the show and has kept the weight off.)
When she watches the show, she can get pretty emotional because it brings back so many memories, but feels very positive watching the end where she can actually see the results of her hard work pay off. “After the show aired I just got so many compliments from people. I went to work the next day and it seemed like everyone I met had seen the show and I got so many positive comments from strangers,” she says, “it was a bit embarrassing, but everyone has been really nice about it. I kina like it when people say they saw my episode.”
Leanne learned a lot from being on X-Weighted. “Since being on the show we’ve eaten a lot healthier foods, and there is always healthy food available in the house. I haven’t drank pop in I don’t know how long and we used to eat Kraft Dinner a lot, but since the show I haven’t eaten a single piece,” she says.
Rebekah spends hours making sure her hair and make-up are perfect, but realizes that these things can’t hide her weight problem. Life at home is full of conflict, and she turns to food for comfort.
This grade 6 student admits that she lives to watch TV, and clocks up to 60 hours per week of tube time. Monaca is self-conscious about her body and frustrated by her mother’s constant criticism.
Although she is only in grade 3, Randi is already self-conscious about her body and she is teased by kids at school. She loves swimming and wishes that she could fit into a cute bathing suit.
Life has been a little crazy for Randi’s family lately, as they’ve moved into a new, bigger, house. “It was a good move,” says Randi’s mom Terrie, “but it sure takes your focus away from other things. Packing up a house of 5 people after we lived in the same house for 11 years is a lot of work.”
The kids are all doing well at school. Randi is doing tap dancing and swimming while little sister Maggie dances and takes piano lessons. Their big brother Mitchell rock climbs and joined a competitive league this year, “He climbs 4 or 5 days a week,” says Terrie with pride. Mom still works out at the gym a couple of times a week too, and developed a passion for Nia, a form of creative dance, but dad hasn’t been able to keep up with exercise because he has been concentrating on starting a new business.
The family is happy and doing well, although they still struggle with making the right food choices and fitting exercise into their lives. “We still talk about what we should be doing, and we still try, we just aren’t as successful as we’d like to be,” says Terrie.
Just after filming finished, Terrie raised $2300 doing a 60k walk for charity, and says that she felt amazing doing it, and couldn’t have succeeded without all the exercise that she’d done on her X-Weighted journey.
She hasn’t been able to maintain that same commitment to exercise since, but says that the amount of exercise they were doing when on the show would be impossible to maintain long term. “Having a balance is important, and there was no balance back then, we exercised all the time,” she says, “we accept that we won’t always be perfect and I think that is a better place that trying to be perfect and keep falling off the wagon.”
“I don’t think that you fail until you stop trying,” says Terrie, “We are much healthier than before we did X-Weighted. In many avenues, things have drastically changed. I’d still like to be a lot lighter, and that will come, but we need to find a balance between having a family life and doing enough exercise.”
Piper is the biggest girl amongst her Highland Dancing peers, and lives in a family, where everyone has a weight issue. She wants to feel pretty while performing, and fit in with her slim peers.
Since filming finished, Piper says that she is feeling great and has pretty much maintained the weight-loss from her X-Weighted journey (she lost a awe-inspiring 28 pounds while participating in the show). “I did gain a little bit back after the show finished filming. I’m back on track and I’m trying to lose the rest of my weight now,” she says.
Piper says that after her X-Weighted experience, her confidence just grew and grew. “I feel really good about myself, and my self-confidence is great, I feel so much better about myself and I know that I can do things no matter what size I am,” she says, “I’m never going to let my weight get in my way again. Though of course I would prefer to be a smaller version of myself.”
During the show, Piper says that she learned lots about healthy eating and what it takes to be healthy, but says that she knows that her weight is likely to be a constant battle her whole life through.
She did benefit from doing the show, and says that all her friends were really happy for her that she was losing weight and feeling better about herself. “They were really supportive of my doing X-Weighted,” she says.
Scottish dancing is still Piper’s passion but she has developed a love of, and talent for, drama. “I hope to continue with that when I leave school, I want to pursue that. I’m looking forward to being in the next play that we do in school,” she says. On the whole, Piper says that life is going really good and she is really happy with who she is.
Grade 6 student, Hugh, is self-conscious and physically limited by his weight. He spends all his spare time playing video games and indulging in high-fat snacks.
Overall, Hugh’s family is doing pretty good one year on. They are happy and mostly healthy, although Hugh has gained back a lot of the weight he lost and his dad has put some back on also. Hugh’s dad, Jim, says that getting Hugh motivated to be active is tough, and he gets quite upset if asked to step on the scale. “Perhaps Paul could knock on our door and say, "Welcome back to X-Weighted" to scare him back on track,” jokes Jim.
His mom, Kelly, has put on a little weight but is very active, “I would like to think that some of the weight gain is due to muscles growth in my legs and butt thanks to spin class - I go three days a week and I ensure I work out 5 - 6 days a week,” she says. Kelly says that her challenge will always be making the right choices when it comes to eating, but she has maintained an active life, and is still biking well in to the winter months.
The family is busy, they just did a lot of fundraising to get Hugh’s little brother, Oliver, to the Boy Scouts World Jamboree in Sweden this summer, and they’ve had a fun and hectic social life over the holidays. Oliver has not put any weight back on, and his mom credits his self control around treats as being the reason for this.
Being overweight exacerbates Analisa’s epilepsy and the physical challenges that come with her cerebral palsy. Losing weight is an urgent attempt to control her seizures and lead a more productive life.
Analisa says that although the past year has been full of ups and downs, she is happy to report that she continued losing weight after filming finished. “In total I’m now down 50 pounds and I feel amazing,” she says (she lost 24 pounds during her X-Weighted journey).
Analisa managed to keep losing weight because she maintained the healthy eating habits that she learned while doing her X-Weighted journey, and also because she kept up with seeing a personal trainer (with whom she works out 3 times a week). “My trainer says that now my metabolism has just revved right up,” she says with pride.
Unfortunately, even though she has lost all that weight, Analisa says that she still gets the same amount of seizures as she always did. “But I sleep very well and I think in that way it has helped at least,” she says, “I have a lot more energy these days.”
Analisa loves the reactions that she gets from people that she hasn’t seen in a while: “I saw my aunt who I hadn’t seen in two years and her jaw just dropped, I saw my uncle last week and he told me, “You just keep shrinking”.”
Right now, Analisa is working with a group that helps people with disabilities find employment. “We are putting in a resume together and they are helping me workout what I want to do. It’s going very well and I’m feeling good about that,” she says.
Analisa says that going on X-Weighted was definitely a positive experience. “Before the show I had no confidence in myself, and being on the show, meeting people and doing stuff I normally wouldn’t do, my confidence just grew,” she says, “I am a much more confident person now than I used to be.”
When the show aired, Analisa really enjoyed watching it. “Watching myself finish the challenge was really great, it helped me realize that I had achieved something really wonderful,” she says.
An obese, fun-loving 16-year-old girl decides to stop the wishful thinking and start setting goals to shed the weight - but can she overcome her biggest fears and reap the rewards of being brave?
An 18-year-old boy buried under fat and insecurity decides its time to get out of his parents basement, drop the pounds, get a life…and maybe even a girlfriend.
A chubby 10-year-old boy who struggles with ADHD and whose father gave up on healthy eating after cancer, inspires his family to regain control of their weight for his sake.
A cheeky but insecure 11-year-old boy battles his junk food fixation alongside his shy, overweight sister and his overwhelmed single mom.
An overweight and bullied 13-year-old boy connects with his disabled father to change their lifestyle, lose weight and rebuild his shattered self-esteem.
A 16-year-old inspires her family to kick its astonishing addiction to corner-store junk food and get in shape in preparation for their greatest challenge – a treacherous mountain hike that threatens to end in disaster.
An obese 14-year-old with high cholesterol and low self-esteem follows in his older brother’s healthy footsteps and inspires the rest of his traditional Jewish family to change the unhealthy eating habits that have been in his family for generations.
A depressed 16-year-old girl, still grieving her father’s recent death, must learn to stop relying on junk food for comfort.
Paige is overweight, lonely and depressed. Her life at home is hard and full of strife, and she is desperate for things to change, and to become happy with who she is.
An 11-year-old-girl seeks to step out of the shadow of her mother’s 450-pound legacy as her entire family seeks to break the cycle of food addiction that is threatening their health and happiness.
An obese 17-year-old who is terrified of following in her ailing father’s morbidly obese footsteps, vows to kick her junk food habit and find healthier ways to bond with her family.
A bullied 17-year-old obese girl battles anxiety and insecurity as she and her overweight mother try to drop the pounds once and for all.
Two stubborn and overweight sisters aged 13 and 14 grapple with sibling rivalry as their family tries to reverse a lifetime of coddling and over-indulgence.
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