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Monday, Jan. 03, 2011
Columbia couple in newest ‘Biggest Loser’ season
By OTIS R. TAYLOR JR.
Avoiding mirrors and scales was how Larialmy Allen ignored her weight.
Until that wasn’t enough.
“I cut the tags out of (my) clothes so I didn’t know how big they were,” she said.
Until that wasn’t enough.
“I cut the tags out of (my) clothes so I didn’t know how big they were,” she said.
Similar stories of denial will be told on “The Biggest Loser: Couples,” the 11th installment of NBC’s weight-loss franchise. Millions of viewers will watch Allen and her husband, Jaquin, step on the scales when the new season premieres at 8 p.m. Tuesday on WIS-10.
The Allens, who live in Columbia, will be one of 11 twosomes competing to shed pounds. They are the second pair of South Carolinians to be on the show, following Phil and Amy Parham, who were on season six.
Jaquin, a patient services representative with the USC School of Medicine, attended a July 31 casting call at the Colonial Life Arena with his boss. His wife stood in line with them for support. When casting directors called Jaquin the same day, they asked if Larialmy would be interested in being on the show, too.
He didn’t have to ask her twice.
“We had decided a couple of months before to lose weight,” she said. “It was a blessing in disguise.”
“The Biggest Loser,” which debuted in 2004 and is hosted by Alison Sweeney, has attracted more viewers than other recent weight-loss shows, including VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club” and “Kirstie Alley’s Big Life,” which began on A&E before moving to Lifetime.
The Allens, who will wear red T-shirts, began filming the show in September with the cast, which includes former Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Rulon Gardner, who let his weight drift near 500 pounds. The Allens were home for a holiday break from taping when they spoke to a reporter by telephone last week. They weren’t allowed to share their current weight, but they did talk about what we’ll see tomorrow night: their first weigh-in.
“I honestly had no idea,” 27-year-old Jaquin, who was over 400 pounds, said. “I really didn’t know that I had gained that much weight. I just skipped the 3s.
“Once you see those numbers, your whole perspective on things changes.”
At 26, Larialmy, a student services program coordinator at USC, was over 300 pounds. She had been told to lose weight before she has children. Now she is losing weight for her future family as well as her current family members.
“I have to be an example. I can’t let myself get back into bad habits,” Larialmy, a Columbia College graduate, said, adding that she has a 23-year-old cousin who weighs 600 pounds. “There are so many people in my family that are overweight and morbidly obese.
“I’m trying to break that cycle.”
That’s something that seems easy with “The Biggest Loser” trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels designing workouts and screaming into the ears of contestants. Harper has a cajoling manner about him when trying to get maximum effort, while Michaels, who is in her final season with the series, can get downright scary.
“It’s real. It’s authentic,” Jaquin said about Michaels’ tough-love approach. “It’s beyond tough. I don’t even know what the word is for it.”
“The Biggest Loser” puts contestants through rigorous workouts, but the show also dedicates time to educating about proper nutrition. Jaquin said the show altered him physically and emotionally, but it also changed the way he thinks about food.
“I had that mentality that it’s just more so how you eat things and you can have ‘this’ from time to time,” he said. “You can’t have those kind of things because that’s your abuse.
“That’s the thing that got me up to 437 pounds.”
Jaquin’s boss was supportive of his going on the show.
“It’s a big moment that’s really going to define the rest of my life,” said the Benedict College graduate. “I will never see that starting weight again.”
And Larialmy will no longer have to remove the tags from her clothes. But for her, the opportunity is about more than simply losing weight.
“It’s about changing your life,” she said.
The Allens, who live in Columbia, will be one of 11 twosomes competing to shed pounds. They are the second pair of South Carolinians to be on the show, following Phil and Amy Parham, who were on season six.
Jaquin, a patient services representative with the USC School of Medicine, attended a July 31 casting call at the Colonial Life Arena with his boss. His wife stood in line with them for support. When casting directors called Jaquin the same day, they asked if Larialmy would be interested in being on the show, too.
He didn’t have to ask her twice.
“We had decided a couple of months before to lose weight,” she said. “It was a blessing in disguise.”
“The Biggest Loser,” which debuted in 2004 and is hosted by Alison Sweeney, has attracted more viewers than other recent weight-loss shows, including VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club” and “Kirstie Alley’s Big Life,” which began on A&E before moving to Lifetime.
The Allens, who will wear red T-shirts, began filming the show in September with the cast, which includes former Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Rulon Gardner, who let his weight drift near 500 pounds. The Allens were home for a holiday break from taping when they spoke to a reporter by telephone last week. They weren’t allowed to share their current weight, but they did talk about what we’ll see tomorrow night: their first weigh-in.
“I honestly had no idea,” 27-year-old Jaquin, who was over 400 pounds, said. “I really didn’t know that I had gained that much weight. I just skipped the 3s.
“Once you see those numbers, your whole perspective on things changes.”
At 26, Larialmy, a student services program coordinator at USC, was over 300 pounds. She had been told to lose weight before she has children. Now she is losing weight for her future family as well as her current family members.
“I have to be an example. I can’t let myself get back into bad habits,” Larialmy, a Columbia College graduate, said, adding that she has a 23-year-old cousin who weighs 600 pounds. “There are so many people in my family that are overweight and morbidly obese.
“I’m trying to break that cycle.”
That’s something that seems easy with “The Biggest Loser” trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels designing workouts and screaming into the ears of contestants. Harper has a cajoling manner about him when trying to get maximum effort, while Michaels, who is in her final season with the series, can get downright scary.
“It’s real. It’s authentic,” Jaquin said about Michaels’ tough-love approach. “It’s beyond tough. I don’t even know what the word is for it.”
“The Biggest Loser” puts contestants through rigorous workouts, but the show also dedicates time to educating about proper nutrition. Jaquin said the show altered him physically and emotionally, but it also changed the way he thinks about food.
“I had that mentality that it’s just more so how you eat things and you can have ‘this’ from time to time,” he said. “You can’t have those kind of things because that’s your abuse.
“That’s the thing that got me up to 437 pounds.”
Jaquin’s boss was supportive of his going on the show.
“It’s a big moment that’s really going to define the rest of my life,” said the Benedict College graduate. “I will never see that starting weight again.”
And Larialmy will no longer have to remove the tags from her clothes. But for her, the opportunity is about more than simply losing weight.
“It’s about changing your life,” she said.
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