Last week was the season premiere of Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition featuring Tony. You can read my recap of that episode here. This week we meet Jacqui, a 30 year old woman who weighed 355 pounds at the beginning of her journey. Spoiler alert: she weighed less than 150 at the end of the year – over TWO HUNDRED POUNDS LOST. Think about that for a minute.
I’ve watched all of the episodes from the show’s two seasons and for some reason Jacqui is my favorite story. I am not sure exactly why, but her story was just so motivating. She didn’t seem to have the issues to deal with that the other participants had so I can’t quite figure out why her journey was my favorite.
Basically Jacqui’s reason for wanting to get in shape is that she wanted to have a family with her husband was told that because of her weight, it just wasn’t possible.
Throughout the entire episode she kept talking about things that are impossible – she can’t lift another weight, she can’t pedal another mile, etc. Yet trainer Chris showed her that nothing is impossible.
(side note: I am learning more and more that it is our mind that makes us think we can’t do things – our body can do anything but is limited by what our mind tells our body we can/can’t do)
She talked about how the weight was a shield for her. And that now she has no excuses when something doesn’t go her way – meaning she can’t blame x not happening because of her weight.
My favorite moment in the episode was when she decided to quit her job to focus on the health transformation. She was nervous in the car ride home having to tell her husband that she wants to stop working for a while. She got home and told him and he said don’t worry about it, he would help out so she can focus on her health. That was so freaking awesome!
Over the course of the year, she lost over 200 pounds, over half of her starting weight. She had the skin removal surgery at the end of the episode and it’s worth watching when she sees her new body for the first time. I don’t want to ruin it so go watch to see her reaction.
You can watch Jacqui’s update video on the abc.com website. She also has a facebook page and a blog. She has started her own coaching business and ABC has announced she will be a coach for season 3 of the Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition!
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