Tune in to the Dave, Shelley and Chainsaw radio show on 101.5 KGB in San Diego tomorrow morning (March 14th)

If you’re not in San Diego, you can listen live online at www.101kgb.com (careful, some images on the site may not be safe for some workplaces)

Thanks! And keep your comments and questions coming, with the show finished, we’ll have much more time to get back to you.

–Ryan–

Hi everybody!

Thanks for visiting the site. Blaine Cotter and Dane Patterson have been so busy running marathons and competing in triathlons that they haven’t had a lot of time to keep up the site (obviously). We have also been working on a more customized site that should be up pretty soon. In the meantime, enjoy tonight’s Biggest Loser Finale! Check back here in the next couple of weeks for more photos, blog posts, pictures, updates and the release of the new website. Thanks again for your support!!

–Ryan–

In my first post I talked about how I was trying to find out why.  Why I hadn’t done this before the show.  Since then, have felt that I am beginning to find the answer.  The answer for me has been a journey rather than a destination.

Motivation is a powerful weight loss tool.  Imagine you’re going to go to the pool to swim some laps.  You get there and put on your swim suit, goggles, cap, and earplugs.  You get in the pool and go to start swimming but there is no water.  Trying to loose weight without being even a little motivated to do so is much like trying to swim with no water.  Its just not possible.

Thinking back to different times in my life when I did lose weight, I can see some different patterns with how motivated I was to do it.  I think you can relate it to just about anything in your life.  Why do we do the things we do?  Why do we play with our kids or volunteer in our communities?  Why do we go to church or even take out the trash?  There is some motivation there.  I had a boss once that was one of the most driven individuals that I knew, but this person suffered from one of the worse cases of obesity that I have seen (and that is including the show).   Obviously this boss of mine was motivated to advance to great heights socially, but in her addiction to food, could not come up with any motivation to improve her health.  I think my boss was a good example of not having the right kind of motivation.

There are three reasons that we do things.  Three categories of motivation that cause anyone to do something.

1. Fear

2. Duty

3. Love

Fear is a very basic, low level of motivation.  The trash is a perfect example of this.  If I don’t take out the trash, I fear that it will pile up and stink up the house.  (I’ll be honest with you, what I really fear is my wife getting mad at me if I don’t do it, but that is a different discussion).  Education of how unhealthy obesity makes you takes many people to this level.  People get scared of what will happen if they don’t lose weight.  Getting to this level will only get you so far.  Being at this level will get someone to sign up for the gym, but it probably will not even get them to actually use it.  I have spent most of my life at this motivation level. I once lost 20 pounds with this motivation because I was afraid that I wouldn’t find a hot wife if I didn’t.  I gained it all back though as soon as the fear was not there anymore.  Really, I think this is what drives me to do most everything in life.  However, there is a better way.

Duty is a very powerful feeling.  Relating weight loss, I felt this when I ended up in the hospital for three days because of my poor health.  I had an obligation to  my wife and kids to be around.  It’s the motivation I used to get up early in the morning and go to this casting call with my  cousin for this show called The Biggest Loser, even though I had never seen the show.  Duty pushes most people pretty far because of the pride that each of us has.  It just is the right thing to do… and that is enough reason for most people to be motivated to do something. You can use this type of motivation to push yourself to get to that goal weight.  But there still is a better way.  Do you play with your kids because its your duty to do so?  Or do you play with your kids because you love them?  Sometimes its a little of both in my case but there is obviously a correct answer there.

Love is the most powerful force on earth.  I think it’s probably pretty hard to argue with that statement.  In weight loss, it’s a little different than you might think.  If I loved my kids and wife, then why didn’t I do it sooner? I do believe I loved my wife and kids but that was not enough.  I had to love myself.

I had one workout in the second week, a last chance workout.  Jillian was performing her weekly ritual of killing me.  (Kind of a side note, I loved Jillian and she really liked me, but I think for her it’s like what your mom use to say in elementary school, “she picks on you because she likes you”) I all of a sudden just could not do it anymore and quit.  I just threw down the medicine ball that I was working with and gave up.  My motivation at that point was done.  I didn’t care that cameras were in my face and it was my duty to do exactly what Jillian wanted me to do.  Obviously, I had earned a trip to the outside stairs of the gym to have one of the patented “Jillian talks.”  She told me something that I will always remember.  She said that I couldn’t give something that I did not already have.  I am sure that was not a thought original to her, and in fact I think I had heard that before, but it clicked just then.  If I didn’t love myself, how could I love my wife and kids?  I was there solely for them, but at that moment I learned that I needed to be there for myself as well.  I needed to love myself enough to be motivated to improve this thing (me), that I loved.

Now, I don’t presume to think that it is all this simple and straightforward.  There are different degrees of each level and sometimes we digress.  I do believe however that I had to go through all of these different thresholds of motivation to ultimately get to a place, that  now I feel I will never fall back from.

Please let me know what you think.  If you think I am full of crap you will not be the first or the last, but I would like to know.  I also look forward to exploring this idea further.  Until then, adios.

What has inspired you the most on the show this season?

While on the show I came up with analogy to discribe the experience.  I don’t know that it will ever make it to the air, but it got to the point that everyone was using the bus analogy.  Ali, Jillian and Bob all started to refer to the bus.  Let me explain what it was.  

Being on The Biggest Loser was the best and worst thing I have ever been through.  ”It was the best of times. It was the worst of times”.    There were two things happening at the same time.  The show is very different than the process of losing weight.  The show in fact got in the way of losing weight most of the time.  We all are on a journey, the destination, our goal weight.  It’s a long journey that includes eating right, exercising with Jillian or Bob, counting calories and walking until midnight.  Then you have the show.  The show is the Bus.  The Bus makes you sick, throws you for loops, temps you, and overall is a crazy ride. It reminded me of as a kid, going to Disneyland and riding on Mr. Toad’s wild ride.  I remember thinking why my parents thought that is was a good idea to take me on this scary ride (I cried the entire time, I was a huge wuss as a kid) and what made it worse was, I didn’t know who the heck this stupid Toad was. Anyway, two very different things…journey…Bus.  

So why the bus then if it is such a crazy ride? – It’s a lot faster than walking.  

While you are on the show, you hang on and try and get as far as you can.  Then one day you are going to get thrown off and have to do it on your own.  The “own” word is scary.  We all had gotten to where we were at home with that “own” thing.  You hope, One- that you just get thrown off and not under, and Two-  you hope that you got a good enough head start that you aren’t  just walking on your own but you are able to run.  

So what does that mean for everyone else?  Find a “Bus” and get on it.  Your “Bus” could be a certain diet or New Year’s resolution.  It could be a new gym membership or goal to run a marathon.  Whatever gets you started, so that when, and not if, you get thrown off you can keep running to your destination.  

Ali would ask me all the time on the show “Blaine, so what is the bus doing now?”  I would ask you the same thing.  What is the bus doing now?

Blaine Cotter

I wanted to start this blog to hear Stories. Most blogs deal with telling stories, and I guess some of that will happen here but mostly I want to hear from you. So, what do I want to hear? Let me give you an example.

I am 28 years old. I recently was involved in a show called the Biggest Loser on NBC. It will air January 6th. I wish I could tell you all about it and at one point in time I will be able to do that but that is not what this is all about. I want to talk about why I ended up there, and why it took that drastic of an approach to change my life. Why did I not do this sooner? Why being a father of 3, and now 4 children, being married to a beautiful wife, did I not think it was a good idea to lose some weight? One of the producers of the show asked me this same question. “Blaine, you look like an intelligent person why would you not lose the weight on your own?” First, I told him looks can be deceiving (I was wearing a suit and tie for that interview). Secondly, I told him I did not know and that is precisely what I was doing there… to find out. To find out why I eat until I am sick. To find out why if I get even a little depressed I want to eat. To find out why in the past 5 and 1/2 years of being married I gained close to a hundred pounds. To find out why I had not changed. I knew how to change- I was given plenty of opportunities to do it. I would start diets and exercise plans, but still no change. Being that “intelligent person” (don’t worry I won’t let it go to my head) why couldn’t I make the change and lose big?
I still do not know the answer to this question. I am closer to figuring it out though. Maybe my weight loss journey (or “bus ride”) will help others figure out why. Obviosly intelligent people get fat too. I knew how to lose weight when I was overweight, the reason why I didn’t is my big question.