77 replies to this topic

[TWoP Gadget]

CONTESTANTS LEARN TO MAKE HEALTHY CHOICES ON A LIMITED BUDGET -- This week kicks off with the players returning from a workout, only to find that the kitchen and refrigerators are empty. Tasked with trying to affordably stock the kitchen with a week’s worth of healthy food, the contestants race against time to make healthy purchases within their budget at a grocery. Later, one contestant struggles to keep trying her best despite weight loss setbacks, while Dr. H and one of the trainers help a contestant realize the importance of addressing the emotional issues that contribute to weight gain. Trainers Bob, Jillian and Dolvett skype with kid participants Biingo, Lindsay and Sunny, and then a swimming challenge puts the players to the test as they compete for one of the most coveted prizes of all. Finally, a tearful elimination sends another player home.

[SueR]

OMG This show could have been one half hour if they had cut all the product placement and general other bullshit. Good for Danni! She is doing great all by herself. And interesting how she did it without Jillian screaming at her. Dolvett - looking fine at the weigh-in my cutie. Jillian - the white t-shirt over the black bra look is really out. Allison- I beg you - get a better stylist. Some people - I'm looking at you Jeff and Alex- are going to be gorgeous when they lose all their weight. Lisa- looking good. Good for her.

[whyohwhy]

Question:
Who buys a week's worth of produce? How does it stay fresh?
I'm so afraid of wasting it by its going bad that I buy produce no longer than two days in advance.

[maryt]

I missed the first hour of the show - but I can catch it tomorrow.

How did David mess up his knee? When Dr H showed him that mri - I thought torn meniscus, and then David confirmed it.

David is being very foolish and endangering his health, in my opinion. If he has a torn meniscus or whatever is wrong with his knee that he is on crutches, there should be NO sense in keeping any of his health a secret. I think that is stupid of him in that regard. He is akin to having a broken arm and instead of letting it mend, he thinks he is a bad boy for having a broken arm. No, David, when you break something, it is NOT wrong to tell the doctor you are injured. I don't get the shame for it that he is having.

[missbloom]

Maryt - "No, David, when you break something, it is NOT wrong to tell the doctor you are injured. I don't get the shame for it that he is having. "

I totally get why he would be feeling this way - for the first several shows all we've seen is the trainers screaming at the contestants that they are weak, pretending, not really hurt, etc. .... "My KNEE HUUUURRRRTTTSSS... boo hoo, etc", followed by jillian or bob screaming that they are weak, disgusting, lazy slobs who are making excuses.

So I'm not shocked that he was hiding the extent of his injury.

Lisa looked amazing! Good for her.

[irisheyes]

Way to show people how to buy healthy food on a budget. "Here's some money and you have 15 minutes. GO!" How about showing them make a menu and then shop? BTW, I'd kill for $10 per day per person. Even cutting it in half for kids, my grocery budget would still almost double.

[bigskygirl]

I call bs on what happened with David. I thought the contestants are given a complete physical and psychological testing/exams before getting on the show. Do they ask for the COMPLETE medical history of the contestants? Dr. IcanhealeveryoneQuack probably wanted David on the show to prove he can be fixed by him. And yes, you idiot, letting someone who is extremely overweight and prior injuries should not be doing over the top exercising.

Jillian turning into a pussycat is so phony. If it quacks like a bully, know it all witch, and walks like a bully, know it all witch... Boohoo I might have to leave the show if my contestant loses the weigh-in.

How long was this week. The blue team can leave my tv screen at anytime. At least the time with the kids did not go on and on. Where was Bob's birth control glasses at? I smell a alligance on the red team and Lisa was not a part of it. Thank God TC was not brought back to the show.

[murrrrr]

Who buys a week's worth of produce? How does it stay fresh?
I'm so afraid of wasting it by its going bad that I buy produce no longer than two days in advance.

I have an answer which I will take to the Weight Issues: We Know a Little Something About Them forum, since to answer as fully as I would like will probably stray from anything appropriate to the episode.

There was one thing mentioned in the episode, to which I will post a reply here. It's this notion that eating healthy is more expensive than eating junk food. This drives me nuts! I work at a grocery store. I constantly see people spend a lot less on food when the majority of it is produce than when most of it is processed crap. Also, I don't see how eating at a restaurant every day can possibly be cheaper than buying a week's worth of groceries.

Edited by murrrrr, Jan 28, 2013 @ 11:49 PM.

[dreamer55]

Lisa looked AH-MAZING in her follow-up! She looked at least ten years younger. She's totally adorable and I'm glad she's had so much success.

The "makeover" bit with Quitty McLeftTheShow and TC was just plain weird. This show has before never followed up with someone who's quit; usually they act like the person never existed.

[lu1wml]

What's with Ali's 60s hairstyle? Has that come back?
I find it hard to believe that Jillian would be out if Danni loses. Her contract would be better than that, though there may be faux drama.
My U-verse was down, so I missed everything between 23 minutes and 76 minutes, and am counting on Potes to fill me in.
I may be back with questions if I still can't figure everything out.

[gardendiva]

I am guessing that they planned a challenge that Danni had a good chance of winning this week. Wasn't she a former swimmer? That way Jillian won't be done with the show so early in its run.

Edited by gardendiva, Jan 29, 2013 @ 12:13 AM.

[Anacharsis]

I was sorry to see Lisa go. She looked great at the end, though. Happy to hear that she's able to do more with her family and show her students a healthier way to eat. She's right that special needs people and their families/care givers need more help when it comes to food education ... but that's probably true for everyone. I wish this show would put the same emphasis on how to eat healthy that it does on exercising (or at least give it more attention than it does).

BTW, I'd kill for $10 per day per person. Even cutting it in half for kids, my grocery budget would still almost double.

Same here. I couldn't believe they were complaining about how difficult it was to shop with ten bucks per person, per day. We spend half that for a family of four people, a dog, cats, and fish.

[chewy101]

The "makeover" bit with Quitty McLeftTheShow and TC was just plain weird. This show has before never followed up with someone who's quit; usually they act like the person never existed.

Might just be more of the attempt at making this season more encouraging and less controversial.Quitty said she made a huge mistake, but she continued on to lose same as ranch members.

Bob anxting about his Goliath team possibly taking a turn at losing irritated me. Other trainers were even encouraging his contestants, but there he was being the egomaniac he is, offering nothing to others. Some of his teammembers are becoming the whiny self-entitled snots I would expect from his team. If Bob has anything to do with it, this will NOT be a drama free season, because it is how he operates.

Enjoyed the budget challenge, as saying produce costs more than processed food is crap...

[IzzleZizzle]

Finally! They sent these guys shopping on a budget. Or "budget", because does one person really spend $70 a week on groceries?? Also nice to see a chef in there. How old is that woman who has kept her weight off for 20 years? She looked to be in her 30's, which doesn't work out math-wise.

Thought for SURE that David on the blue team was getting the "get to know me because I'm leaving this week" edit, and then the blue team didn't even lose! Don't really know much about Alex and not sure I want to. She feels like a whiner. (So does Gina, for that matter.)

VERY amused that the kinder, gentler Jillian training helped Danni get a HUGE weight loss for the week. I wonder if she is doomed for next week, though.

Glad to see that Lisa has been successful at home, and that she's teaching her students about healthy eating.

[chewy101]

Gina, shut up and go away...

[Holliday]

Gina, shut up and go away...

Right? What a whiner. For being an attorney, she sure is good at playing the victim. I wonder what type of law she practices. I think some of her clients may be rubbing off on her.

[chewy101]

Gina, shut up and go away...

Right? What a whiner. For being an attorney, she sure is good at playing the victim. I wonder what type of law she practices. I think some of her clients may be rubbing off on her.

Defense attorney? Lol, hell good at what she does.

[OtterChaos]

Is Jeff channeling Michael with the omnipresent head band? Any way he can get off my screen any day now. Getting a worried "pride on three" feeling for this season with the blue team now outnumbering the red and white team combined. When teams are disbanded and solo play is the name of the game then the blue team has the numbers to get rid of everybody else.

I was surprised how glad I was to see Lisa's success at home, she looked great and her little kid was so cute after the sled race. I can actually get behind one of these contestants becoming a fitness coach if they are working with special needs kids.

[HerLadyship]

followed by jillian or bob screaming that they are weak, disgusting, lazy slobs who are making excuses.

To be fair to Bob and Jillian, they scream and threaten, and put on a huge ridiculous show, but they never call the contestants weak, disgusting, or lazy. "Acting lazy right now" maybe.

I was sad to see Lisa go. She seems like she was there to work hard and ignore any house drama. Also, she looks like an overweight version of a friend of mine. I'm wondering if she will look just like her by the finale. Good for her for pushing healthy eating and fitness with her special needs students. I have known many families with special needs children (including my godmother) who tend to give in to cries for junk food and TV. I guess they think that they are making their kids' lives a bit easier. But, that's probably true of a lot of parents with typically developing children these days.

I agree with everyone that was a bit amazed by the $70 per person "budget". I hope that there was some menu planning that we didn't see. We should have seen something like that though. That's the real key to smart grocery shopping. However, for $70, I can feed myself for a week (healthy, organic stuff), get in a couple of trips to Starbucks, and maybe go to a movie. Stop complaining! Also, I was shocked at how many of them "don't grocery shop" or "don't know what the family spends on groceries". Including fricken' Gina. She's in her 40s and has a family and doesn't by food from the supermarket! Where the hell does the food in your house come from? If you're really eating out every meal, I think I've found your problem.

Speaking of Gina. (sigh) I really liked her for about a week or two, but she really needs to shut up and quit the bitchen'. What kind of lawyer is she that she is this incapable of handling stress? Or maybe she's just incapable of handling stress and negative emotions without stress eating.

Edited by HerLadyship, Jan 29, 2013 @ 6:53 AM.

[katje]

Bob anxting about his Goliath team possibly taking a turn at losing irritated me. Other trainers were even encouraging his contestants, but there he was being the egomaniac he is, offering nothing to others. Some of his teammembers are becoming the whiny self-entitled snots I would expect from his team. If Bob has anything to do with it, this will NOT be a drama free season, because it is how he operates.

I really wanted the blue team to lose the weigh-in. Bob needs to be humbled.

I find it hard to believe that Jillian would be out if Danni loses. Her contract would be better than that, though there may be faux drama.

Exactly. In previous seasons, we've seen the situation where a trainer's entire team is eliminated, and then the teams are shuffled and the trainer stays. Or I should say the trainer returns after the faux drama where the show pretends the trainer has to go home. The blaring exception to this is Kim in season four, when her last contestant, "B," was eliminated. They had a teary farewell, and both went home for the duration.

Edited by katje, Jan 29, 2013 @ 7:12 AM.

[notoffred]

I wonder what type of law she practices. I think some of her clients may be rubbing off on her.

I'm finishing up law school right now, so I am ALWAYS interested in what kind of law someone practices. Gina is a consumer bankruptcy attorney (i'm going to be a corporate bankruptcy attorney, which is vastly different). Here's her firm bio. While she graduated Summa Cum Laude, her law school is not accredited, which means she can only practice law in Alabama and can never take the bar in any other state.

[JLVerde]

For the "who buys all that produce at one time" question someone asked, the contestants are only eating fruit/veg every day so I'm sure it won't get a chance to spoil. Also, they were buying a lot of different produce but not huge quantities of any one thing (except lettuce, they bought a crapload of that). (I won't go into that topic more, I'll check out the "weight loss issues" thread to continue that discussion)

I liked the grocery shopping segment but I didn't like the Super Market Sweep timed portion of it. In real life no one sets a timer and races into the grocery store all frantic like that. I get it, it's a t.v. show and they needed to keep it interesting but all it did was make me miss Super Market Sweep (really, someone needs to bring that show back, I'd watch the hell out of it).

Jillian continues to do the Dr. Jillian/Mr. Hyde routine and it irks. Bragging about how she had to be all nicey nicey with Dani or Dani would turn into a wooblie mess, huh? So basically you're saying you deliberately chased away the other folks (by being "mean JM") so you could have just one contestant to focus on making your job easier? Yeah, we already figured that out, Jillian.

Alex and Gina are now at the top of the "need to shut up" list. Alex is looking like the trademark lazy contestant (and not just this episode's edit--during the 5K she stopped and walked the last few yards to the finish--WHAT?) and Gina is the token constant whiner/worrier. I'm no fan of Jeff (mind you) but when he eye rolled Gina when she was drama worrying that they hadn't bought enough of the food stuffs SHE liked, I was loving it.

I liked that we FINALLY saw Stillwell (Bingo) doing what he does best. Playing computer games. Me thinks Stillwell isn't going to be very sucessful in making healthy changes. Of the kids, I like Lindsay the most. She seems more genuine and I like rooting for her. Sunny is ok, but since she's older than the other two she hardly seems like a "kid" to me.

Dolvett, Dolvett, Dolvett. Can I possibly like you more? He just seems more genuine than JM and Bob, especially with Lindsay. The way he was smiling at her and encouraging her (like last episode when he did the cheer WITH her) just felt less forced. (but maybe he's just so charismatic he pulls off an act better than JM/Bob?)

This show still could be half the running time and we'd get just as much out of it. The second hour I watched only when "The Following" was on commercial and I don't feel it necessary to re-watch. I know I didn't miss anything important.

[dvrsavedtv]

The "makeover" bit with Quitty McLeftTheShow and TC was just plain weird. This show has before never followed up with someone who's quit; usually they act like the person never existed.

I was annoyed to see her back. She doesn't deserve to be back in any way.

[bendercat]

Had to admit, Dave's home story made me cry.

On the other hand, doesn't BL do a complete medical check-up on the contestants? Wouldn't his previous knee injury been noticed?

Gina - please.

Lisa looked so good at home.

Loved when Frangelina said she was thinking of cutting her hair to get a better number at the weigh-in.

Even if Dani loses, JM won't be gone long. Remember when they flew Brett in after his crowd was gone?

About a week's worth of produce - the red team bought bags of salad. Those don't last more than two days in my house - after that they start to wilt. I wonder if they really ate those on day 7. (yuk.)

[katje]

Dolvett, Dolvett, Dolvett. Can I possibly like you more? He just seems more genuine than JM and Bob, especially with Lindsay. The way he was smiling at her and encouraging her (like last episode when he did the cheer WITH her) just felt less forced.

I'm right with you on this. I'm really hoping one of his team members wins the show this season.

Even if Dani loses, JM won't be gone long. Remember when they flew Brett in after his crowd was gone?

I do--as I recall, they did a fake-out of making it seem as though he was out for the rest of the season, and then, surprise!--he's back!

[beaker73]

Dani's really kicking some ass during the challenges. She's starting to remind me of Tara.

I agree that it would've been helpful to see some menu planning. What do they eat for breakfast and why? What's a good post-workout snack? How much protein and dairy are they eating per day?

[ThatBadgerChick]

I was sorry to see Lisa go. I think she's the one who said in the first episode this season that she didn't come to the ranch to get skinny, she came to get strong. That really resonated with me. I had a feeling she was going home -- thanks for suddenly giving her a ton of air time, editing monkeys! -- but it looks like she has done great on her own since then, so yay!

They've talked a lot about how Lisa has four kids and teaches special needs children, then we come to find out that David has SEVEN kids and one of them has special needs! Plus he's a cop. Man. Way to hide your light under a bushel there, guy.

Re: the time limit on the grocery shopping trip, maybe they were trying to show that you can shop/eat healthy not only on a budget, but that you can grab the stuff pretty quickly during your lunch hour or on your way home from work? Like with fast food? I don't know. When the chef came to make the sweet potatoes (which looked kind of delicious, I've gotta say) I remember her saying they only took 20 minutes to make. So it sounds like they may be addressing the time issue of eating healthy -- people think it takes a long time to cook from scratch -- as well as the cost issue.

[ClaireO]

Mr. O and I eat healthy foods and spend considerably less than $70 apiece each week. However ... I spend a lot of time on menu planning, I have a pantry stocked with items I bought in bulk at Costco (factored into the less-than-$70), we use leftovers strategically, and I scope out the sales. Starting from scratch (except for the condiments, which I believe the BLs still had) would be very expensive. But I don't think it would be impossible to do it for a week on a budget. The 15 minutes would have been the hard part for me.

Agree that Jillian needs to lose the black bra under the white t-shirt, that Gina and Jeff are welcome to leave, and that Lisa did extremely well at home. One thing I'd like to know, however, is the contestants' heights. Yeah, Gina's short and should probably weigh ~120. Everyone else I'm not so sure about. I'd also like to see goal weights assigned, though I understand why they don't do that.

The way Bob carried on about his team being set up to fail, I knew it was going to end up being the red team losing someone.

Next week's weigh-in twist seems to be set up to keep Dani and Jillian around another week. I keep expecting the inevitable team switch, but maybe they'll do that when they have the inevitable returning contestant(s).

[katje]

I was sorry to see Lisa go. I think she's the one who said in the first episode this season that she didn't come to the ranch to get skinny, she came to get strong. That really resonated with me.

You've reminded me of something that happens when Jillian is the trainer in the Biggest Loser Challenge Wii game. One of the things she says is something like, "I know what you're thinking, 'this hurts, waah-waah-waah,' well, do you wanna be skinny or not?" I find this so annoying, and even though it's silly to answer a video-game CGI, I tell it, "No, not 'skinny'; lean and well-muscled." I've said this enough times that my nine-year-old son recites this whenever CGI Jillian comes out with her "do you wanna be skinny or not" thing. This emphasis on "skinny" really bugs, especially since I am already at a healthy weight. I want to get stronger and refine my fitness.

The way Bob carried on about his team being set up to fail, I knew it was going to end up being the red team losing someone.

Yup, I was afraid of this. Had Bob's team really been in trouble, the editing monkeys would surely have set up some kind of misdirection so we'd expect a different outcome.

Edited by katje, Jan 29, 2013 @ 10:35 AM.

[loki1957]

OK where do I start? Gina 'the chin' STFU. WTF are you talking about there wasn't enough of what you like? What? No pizza, no fried chicken, no cheese laden pasta? Tough shit. Jeff can leave anytime. He's still not working to his potential in my opinion. And for some reason, he looks at least partially Tongan so maybe they do have them represented this season. Frangelina is very pretty, but oh that hair.... Hope she makes it to makeover week. Alex will be beautiful when she loses more weight. She's beautiful now. Lisa looks amazing. I was hoping she'd take it all the way. Now I think I want Dani. She's working hard, and it's paying off.

Footnote to the person who asked on produce: I shop for a week and buy lots of produce. I don't have any problem with spoilage. Bell peppers last a good 2 weeks in the crisper drawer, I use a lettuce keeper (genuine Tupperware) for head lettuce, but I normally by the 4-5 pack of romaine hearts. They last a long time if kept in the bag and in the crisper. The only thing that has a short shelf life is cucumbers, especially Persian ones. The larger ones will last week though. Fruits last a long time. Keep apples in a cool dark place, like a closet. Same with potatoes and onions. Don't refrigerate them. I buy bananas at Costco and they easily last a week. Costco sells theim in varoius stages of ripeness.When they get too ripe, I'll make a banana bread (healthy of course).

Meal planning is key to staying on a budget. I've been cooking in some way since I was 5. (I had an Italian grandmother) so I cook every night. It's not hard if you have the right stuff in the house, chicken breasts, lean pork chops, turkey burgers, and for a vegetarian like me, tofu, lots of varieties of beans (NOT canned-do you know how expensive those are compared with a $1.00 bag of dry beans?) Yes they take a while to cook, but cook a cup of them dry and you have enough for a meal plus leftovers. I make my own soups, again, very easy. Our budge is around $70 for the 2 of us. I don't count catfood in the food budget because I have 7 and they have their own budget. LOL

Not impressed with Biingo and Jackson talks too much. He works hard, but STFU once in a while. Yikes.