The Biggest Loser - It's the day of The Finale!

It’s finally here, the day of the Finale!

8:00 AM

Yawn! It makes me sleepy just thinking about it. But I’m so full of energy; it’s up and at ‘em. I have to be up, work out, get a quick healthy breakfast, and be dressed for the Finale by 1 PM.

What? Are you taking to me? I just said I'd workout. OK, you caught me. I didn't work out, but I honestly thought about it, especially after Alex let me know she worked out with Lisa and Francie while they were in LA.

I mentioned earlier that I finally get the importance of physical activity, especially now that I've seen the result personally. Everyone looks incredible and toned while I have so much sagging skin and a great deal of ugly skin folds from the weight loss. TMI? I'll just conclude by writing that my boyfriend is a very brave man.

Jill and I head down to breakfast and we are greeted by six beautiful blonde women in the lobby. They are all healthy and fit, straight from the gym, and all without make-up.

I then knew I had a big problem. Men are so much easier to recognize than the women are, especially the blondes. Each season has at least one stunning blonde woman. Problem is, because I hadn't watched early on, I couldn't tell them apart.

We head into the restaurant and notice there were two groups eating together. At one long table were former contestants and at the other, I learned later, was a group of alumni who went through the interview process for this season but didn't make it on the show. All have lost weight on their own and some won stays at the Biggest Loser Resort. I wish I knew that at the time. I find all of their journeys fascinating.

Jill and I split a California omelet with avocado, bacon, cheese, and onions. We each ate about one fourth. It’s true confession time. The problem with my Lapband is that if I eat too fast, or if I’m excited or nervous, or if it’s a Monday at 8:00 AM, my band isn’t happy after I’ve eaten eggs. It is especially so when breakfast was so good that I squeezed in one bite too many. That’s “no bueno” in Lapband World. It’s even worse when you are with a group of people who are striving to lose weight in a healthy way. I had one bite too many, rushed into the restroom, and when I ran past the woman in the bathroom I was probably labeled as someone with an eating disorder. Yikes!

After I humiliated myself, Jill got crafty in the lobby. Lisa's family was having a poster making party. I was so happy to meet her mom. I spoke with her husband as well who has also lost weight with her. He looks amazing. I believe he’s lost close to 80 pounds. Half was lost before she came home from the ranch, the second half he lost after she came home. In fact, many of Lisa’s family members partnered with her. Bravo!

At dinner the night before, Alex let us know more Finale tickets were available so Jill was able to extend an invite from Alex for her sister Jen and her son Gabriel. We knew Cate had traveled alone so Jill made her a banner as well that her sister Jen held for adorable Cate.

A few moments later I met Adam Hurtado. It’s obvious why he’s a motivational speaker. We only spoke briefly, and I was moved to tears by something he said.

“Can I quote you?” I asked.

“Sure.”

Wow! This is the first official quote as a reality writer I’ve ever asked to take. This is a big deal. Um, but I can’t remember what he said. I can tell you the date, time, location he said it, and what he was wearing when he said it. I can tell you what I was wearing when he said it, but unfortunately, I can’t remember the exact words. I know the gist. I’m a writer so I can summarize the gist six ways to Sunday, but I can’t remember the exact words.

I whip out my cell phone and try to take notes using the Android swipe feature and One Note. It sounds like a plan, right? I do this all of the time when it’s not important. All I have to do is to quickly jot down what he said, but since this is real life and not a DVR show that I can pause, we started to talk about other stuff. I put my hand on his forearm. I’m sorry, would you mind saying that again?
He smiles, politely begins to talk, and I figure I’ll just swipe quickly while he’s talking. I’ve got this. I can do this fast enough to catch what he's saying.

Um, that's not happening.

I touch his forearm again. I’m so sorry. My cell phone is fighting with me. I’m just going to turn on my phone voice recorder.

At this point, Jill has heard this same sentence three times and she didn't know we were trying to record so she enters into the conversation, and long story short (too late,) Jill and I made up a quote that caught the “gist” of what he said and I posted it as my Facebook status.

Once we got dressed we went back down to the lobby for more photos. Poor Henry, Joe’s brother, was so tired of lobby photos, but he was accommodating. He teased us to put some good gossip about him and Joe in the article.

I met Lisa's adorable cousin, Heidi, in the lobby just before we left.

Getting to Sony at Culver City was much easier than finding a restaurant the night before. We got in line, went through security, and we broke up into five individual line that were all filled will family and friends of the current contestants plus former contestants. We stood in this line for several hours, but we were able to get around and talk to everyone so it really was wonderful. I really had a great time talking to David's lovely wife, who spent some time living in the same areas of San Francisco. I also was able to talk with David’s mom and his gorgeous children.

We entered the studio and were escorted to reserved seats! That was a thrill!

And the show begins to tape.

To be continued.