The Biggest Loser - Opinions?

[lph]

Rant on,sister. That was way over-the-top.

Hey, this reminded me. I stumbled over a blog earlier this year, turned out to be a Norwegian sports journalist who had a plan to get back in shape.

He used to be fairly fit, played football regularly, had at one point run a marathon, but had settled down to family life, put on weight and stopped working out over a period of several years. So his plan to get back in shape? Sign up for the Norseman Xtreme triathlon, apparently the worlds's hardest Ironman, with nine* months to go...

I... this is just mindboggling. I mean, I'm all for big dreams and all that, but there is a point where optimistic turns plain stupid. And I dunno, to me it seems a bit disrespectful, to all of the talented, determined athletes out there who train hard and well and healthily over a long period of time and prepare themselves properly to be able to do something like this without killing themselves or sustaining long-term injury.

I know, this doesn't really hurt anybody but him, but since he did start a blog and post this in the paper, and made a point out of wanting to be "followed" I felt he was sort of putting himself out there as an example. "Hey, this isn't hard!"

He ended up being pulled from the race because he was so far behind at some point.

So anyone but me thinking... "Men!"

*eta: I just googled him. Per January 1st 2009 he was, in his own words, 20 kg overweight, hadn't worked out regularly for 3 years and couldn't swim freestyle. The Norseman was August 8th.