BY MELISSA ROLLINS (Morning News)

Florence’s Biggest Loser contestants met with their life coach Robin Lewis for the last time Tuesday night. Lewis wanted to encourage them for the final push of the competition but more than that, wanted to show them that their journey isn’t over because the 10-week contest is.

“Our topic today is ‘Now what?’ because we have one week left,” Lewis said. “We want to talk about staying strong and making these changes last. These kinds of challenges are life-changing, regardless of the results; you will never be the same after this. What you have learned, you will take with you for the rest of your life. “

Learning from all types of experiences was something that Lewis wanted to hammer home for the contestants.

“To those of you who are fighting some kind of disappointment, to those of you who feel like you’ve not done well, to those of you who aren’t giving yourself very much grace: I want to redefine what failure means,” Lewis said. “We go through life with good and bad experiences; it’s not an if, it’s a when, but that is a part of the way we grow.

After talking, Lewis opened up the floor for comments, questions and advice on the discussion topic of failure and success.

“I’ve found that you can’t compare your success to other people’s success,” Denise Ellis said. “Calvin (Brown, fellow contestant) said that he saw me running the other night. I was running in the corner at McLeod because I can’t run where everyone else is running. If I do, I feel like a failure when I can’t do more. What I can do is still MY success; I can’t compare that to their success.”

Another contestant said that each day means a decision to maintain the healthier lifestyle.

“You have to take it one day at a time,” Marci Emanuelli said. “Don’t focus on the long haul. Just say, I’m going to do it today and then do it.”

Lewis agreed with Emanuelli.

“Today is the only day that you can do anything about,” Lewis said. “Yesterday is gone. You can’t change it but you can learn from it. Tomorrow isn’t here yet. You can have a plan but a lot of times plans get changed. We spend so much of our mental time in yesterday and tomorrow that we can miss today. Take one day at a time.”

John Thibodeaux reminded his fellow contestants that aside from the number on the scale, there are so many other changes in their lives.

“For me, I did this competition because of my blood pressure,” Thibodeaux said. “My systolics are down 40 points in nine weeks and it is consistent. I guarantee most of the big guys like me probably snore at night because of too much tissue on their throats and that puts pressure on it. I don’t care if you’ve lost 10 pounds or 50; a millimeter difference and you are going to breathe better. You’re probably going to sleep better. There are so many little things that don’t show on the scale. I don’t care what you did on the scale, you are way better off than you were Day 1.”

 

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