Well as you may have noticed I have been spinning my wheels and getting nowhere for a few months. This was exasperated in August because I tried out for the biggest loser. As a fan of the show I always thought how cool it would be to be a part of it. Getting to spend weeks on nothing but health and fitness is a dream. No outside distractions. No excuses. Hard work, and lots of support. When I heard in early August that they wanted teams of two and were holding auditions only a little over a hour from my home I thought it would be fun to go try out. My husband is also trying to lose weight and who could make a better team mate than him.
We packed up the car Saturday morning and headed out to the audition. We didn't have our hopes up as many would audition and the chances were slim but we figured it would be interesting to see the casting process and we may meet some pretty cool people. Auditions were to be held from 10am - 5pm and they guaranteed to see the first 500 people. Hubby and I wanted to be first in line so we could we could have the rest of Saturday to spend some time together. We got there a little before 6am and happened to be number nine in line. The first person had gotten there at midnight! Wow! That is dedication! About an hour later there were hundreds of people there and more coming every minute. I was certainly glad to have gotten an great spot in line. For the audition we had to fill out an application and bring a picture. I couldn't decide what pictures to submit so we went through the 20 I brought as we waited. We each did a head shot and a full body. It couldn't hurt to send two right? As I heard the stories of each of the other biggest loser wanna-bes I was touched. Each person I spoke with was pretty fabulous. It was nice to talk to a whole group of people who all had weight issues. We could all relate on that level. There was every kind of overweight person there. Some had 50 pounds to lose and some had 300. Some were old, some young. Some came in pairs of co-workers, best friends, parent-child teams and everything in between. Some even came by themselves. Even thought they asked for teams they had to give it a chance. To see the hope in each persons eyes made me sad. I know very few would even make it to call backs. I am hoping they can take control and lose weight on their own.
As the casting opened a little after 10am we formed a line. As it zig-zagged across the room and way out the door I realized it would be a very long day for some. As number 9 in line we only waited about 20 mins to be called. They were bringing people up in groups on 8 and we were in the second group. When we got up stairs they broke us up into two groups of four. There were two casting directors, a man and a women, each one took a group of four.
We were sent over to the women's side of the room. She introduced herself and warmly smiled. They other two in our group were best friends and co-workers. They looked very nervous. Shawn and I weren't taken it two serious so we felt pretty laid back. The casting director asked took our applications and pictures and asked us to go around and say our name, age, how much we weigh, how much we want to lose and our profession. I was the first to start. It was very odd to hear myself saying out loud how much I weighed and how much I needed to lose. In fact, I had never said it to anyone except here on my blog. Hearing a number over 300 pounds is just too much of a slap of reality. Also, facing the fact you weight more than your husband who is a tall guy is a shot to the gut. I guess I am usually living in a fantasy land. After we had all finished she asked us each to tell her our motivations for losing weight and why we would want to do it on BL. Hubby did a fabulous job and was very easy-going and witty. He got many laughs and I was proud of his interview skills. I was a little more serious with what I said and truthfully I teared up a bit. I said I didn't want to cry but when you speak from the heart its tough. All in all we spent about 5 minutes with her and then were all thanked for coming and told they would only call back 20 teams that day and if we didn't get a call we should send in a video if we want a second chance. Hubby and I felt we did well but how can you really tell much from 5 minutes? We laughed about the things we said and drove home not expecting a call back.
To be continued.
