Losing It With Jillian Michaels: Trying It Out

I love, love, love The Biggest Loser, but when I heard trainer Jillian Michaels had her own TV show coming out, I was skeptical (Team Bob!).  There’s plenty of potential for an overdose of cheesiness, even for my taste.  The premise of the show, called Losing It with Jillian, is that Jillian moves in with one family for a week and teaches them how to live a healthy lifestyle.  It’s like The Biggest Loser meets Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition.  I enjoy makeover shows of all types, so I figured I’d give this one a chance for an episode at least. 

In the week I watched, Jillian traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts to stay with a widow named Deb and her two kids.  The family lived in a state of depression over the death of Deb’s husband/the children’s father, which manifested itself in the way they treated their house.  Almost every aspect of Deb’s life was neglected and her daughter, Isabella, had assumed the adult role in the house.  Deb was terrified of dying and leaving her children as orphans, but she was also afraid of living and her health suffered greatly. 

Jillian showed up and “beat up on” Deb in the gym and had the kids help clean the house.  There were plenty of heart-to-hearts and a lot of sad stories were shared.  During this time, the family members had many revelations and plenty of tears were shed by both the people on the show and me!  Point scored for Losing It!    

At the end of Jillian’s stay, each family member declared their goals.  Deb pledged to lose 30 pounds in 6 weeks and to run a 5K.  Isabella first said she wanted to lose 20 pounds, which was shot down by Jillian because 12-year olds shouldn’t be focused on weight-loss (good move).  Instead, she vowed to be healthy and to be a good daughter.  Jordan, Deb’s son, declared he’d be the best 10-year old he could be.   Nice one.

The episode concluded by showing the progress everyone had made in 6 weeks.  Deb ran a 5K and lost 32 pounds, exceeding her goal.  Jillian rewarded her with $50,000 (not sure if that’s gonna happen every episode—what kind of budget did NBC give this show?).

My concern is that Jillian is there for one week, and the families make 6-week goals then are never heard from again.  How many of The Biggest Loser contestants lose a ton of weight for the show, and then slip back into their bad habits?  I don’t want to sound pessimistic (Who am I kidding?  Yes, I do), but I’m concerned that these are temporary solutions to much bigger issues in these families.  We’ll see.

Overall, the episode wasn’t too bad.  I don’t know if I’ll go out of my way to watch it every week, but I might tune in if it’s on and I’m in front of the TV—which I almost always am.  The stories of the families are definitely the best part and I wish them all the best (see, no negativity there!).