Guest Author - Marci Ann Peterson

Because one of the goals in our house is to get healthier by moving more and eating better we have become motivated by the show The Biggest Loser. While we enjoyed the show before, the fact that we are trying to change makes us like it even more. We watch them and think, “Look they started out were I started,” or “They were worse off than I am and look how far they have come.” It goes along with the if they can do it so can I mentality.

My husband and I are the ones that need to lose weight, my girls don't have to worry about that, yet. We still feel that it is important for them to start creating healthy habits now while they are young. Getting outside and moving, eating healthy, not having fast food all the time. McDonald's is only a sometimes food in our house now!

We as a family enjoy watching TV show Biggest Loser! The show airs Tuesday evenings on NBC.

Like I said it helps us keep motivated. It is also harder for me to sit their watching these people work like crazy and the whole time be sitting on the couch eating ice cream or cookies! Believe me I have done that. Now we find that by exercising together as a family while we watch is a great way to get fit and spend time together.

We all have our favorite people that we are rooting for, as well as the ones we don't like. I like trainer Bob the best while my husband like Jillian. Though we do like both of them. We joke about how if we went on the show together that we would have to have some challenge ourselves to decide who our trainer would be!

The premise of the show is that you have a bunch of overweight people come together at “The Ranch.” The people are then divided up into teams and each team gets a trainer to help them train in the gym, eat healthy, cheer them on, and push them further than they think is possible—basically they are helping them get healthy and lose weight!

Throughout the show the contestants are faced with temptations and challenges as they go through the journey of losing weight. At the end of each week everyone is weighed on this big humongous scale on national TV in front of everyone. The team with the lowest percentage then votes off who they feel is not helping them win. Near the end of the show it goes to individuals and then it's the two people that have the lowest percentages that are up for elimination.

At the end the person who has lost the most gets $250,000. So, there does tend to be a lot of game play going on as well as alliances set up and broken.

I do want to caution parents that the earlier seasons we felt were fine to watch with our daughters this season going on right now we preview before we let them watch. This season does have a lot more backbiting, name calling, and foul language than any other season. This does disappoint us because before this season this is one of the shows we considered a good family show. So, while I feel that it is a great show for adults and teens, you might want to preview it for younger children.

If you too are looking for a way to get your family off the couch and motivated, you might want to consider Biggest Loser. The only thing you have to lose is weight!