Participants
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.
SELECT YOUR CITY
