More HUGE Thoughts and Feelings

I was going to wait until tomorrow to write this post, but I've had so many more thoughts and feelings about the show since watching last night. Plus...I've heard from a lot of people over Facebook and Twitter, telling me what they like or don't like about the show.

One of the main points I would like to make is that we can really relate to these characters, whether we are currently teens or pre-teens, or we are adults who have already been through those years. They go through things that actually happen to people. People really do deal with their body and self-esteem issues in all kinds of different ways, like stuffing themselves with junk food, throwing up, starving themselves, and sizing up others. They also really are treated like criminals because of their weight, and there is no getting around that. The show has to start with all of these conflicts, and they won't all be resolved in one episode...just like we don't instantly solve our problems overnight.

This show is based on a novel and although it is a work of fiction, the author and the screenwriters have made the characters into people we really know...perhaps even ourselves. You know that old saying that truth is stranger than fiction? It definitely applies here. There is much more reality in this show than many of the so-called reality shows that are on the air now. I used to be such a Biggest Loser fan, as many of you know. I even volunteered for a group that was an unofficial fan club for Jillian Michaels. I spent a year with them, hoping I could help people get past issues like dealing with stress and sugar addiction, but we were told that we had to stop talking about stuff like that. Supposedly this was a suuport group, but all we wound up being allowed to do was promote Jillian and her products. (These were not directions from Jillian herself, I've never even spoken to her.) I also found out along the way that Biggest Loser treats its contestants like crap, not just from Kai but from others. Some of them had good experiences, but the bad far outweigh that for me. I tried to stay positive about the show and trainers for a long time, giving them the benefit of the doubt and still writing about them in a good way. Of course, I also was not allowed to say anything derrogatory in my blogs, even if I was questioning things in my own mind. I was even told who to vote for in the finale...well, actually told I'd better not even think about voting for a certain person! We were expected to do all of this without pay, and it was very time consuming. Not only did it interfere with my family activities, but I was being told by the person in charge (not Jillian) what I could and couldn't tweet. These were not even tweets about anything Jillian or BL related. I was being told that I couldn't re-tweet things from my other friends that I cover for dance shows or other people I work for...that actually pay me! Apparently my tweets about anything other than BL were annoying this person, and she had to read through them to get to what she needed. Well, duh...that's how Twitter works! And she was following less than 30 people, so she really didn't have that much to read through. She just wanted to control me, and it was the last straw. I was already realizing that so many things with BL didn't add up, and becoming disillusioned very quickly. I resigned my unpaid position with the group, because I don't believe in their version of "reality" anymore and why should I promote something I no longer believe in, especially when the person in charge was treating me like that? It's one of the best decisions I ever made. I sleep better at night, and I can promote how I really feel...that we are all beautiful no matter what size we are, and that we still need to take care of ourselves and do healthy things. If you want to lose weight, you should not do it in a way that endangers your health... and you should not wait to live your life until a said number of pounds comes off. Start living now!

Needless to say...I won't be writing about BL stuff anymore. I may lose some followers because of that, but it's OK. It's more important for me to do what is right, and some very wise friends inspire me in that way as well. I'd much rather watch a show like HUGE that actually teaches us something, than a show the claims to be reality but is nowhere near that. A fictional show that is more realistic than a supposed reality show...and trainer Shay on HUGE? I know she's made to sound a lot like certain other trainers...and I can't believe I ever thought that screaming at people and belittling them was OK to help them lose weight. Maybe my self-esteem wasn't high enough at the time to realize that it would be wrong for someone to treat me or anyone else like that. I can't wait to see what unfolds next on HUGE!