Participants
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.
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