Lose to Gain: Gems from The Biggest Loser and More

"Loser!" Someone naming you that might ordinarily spark a whack attack, a word war or worse, a fist fight.

It's one of those killer words bullies or those with illusions of grandeur or power heap on those they perceive to be weak or unable to fight back.

But thanks to its image-handlers, "Loser!" seems to have taken on a new spin---plucking it out of rehab and giving it a total make-over.

Television's reality show, The Biggest Loser, has grown into such a worldwide franchise that it tops viewership ratings wherever it broadcasts.

Recently, we became a church-ful of rah-rah folks for someone we prayed for to be this season's biggest loser. Eboy one day texted that he would be incomunicado for sometime; and asked for prayers while he competed in The Biggest Loser. At 481 pounds, he needed to act to avert a heart attack.

A gifted musician (he sings and plays the keyboard and drums plus other musical instruments), artist and budding entrepreneur, Eboy must have been born with humor hard-wired into his DNA.

We are alternately guffawing, snickering or stiffling our chuckles whenever Eboy manages a banter or pun in between songs during praise and worship practice. This is how we've always seen Eboy---mega-man inside and out. Note his Facebook remark re his photo with family and friends: "Team Tarre, Pata Team and Jabba."

Eboy realized he needed to whittle himself down if he wants to live to a ripe old age. So it was all systems go when he passed The Biggest Loser prequals. He may have been eliminated from the competition earlier than the others, but he continues to gain---his health, longevity, and yes, his handsome good looks, and definitely fans---as he loses more body mass.

I'm one of those believing Eboy will make a comeback in The Biggest Loser.

A few days ago, I felt even happier for Eboy---that things are working out for him as he had prayed for---after seeing a TV documentary about the super obese.

It featured a lady so overweight she had to either always be in bed or or pushed around in a giant wheelchair because the big mass from her legs started to fold under her heels. Big slabs had to be removed from her thighs and legs to enable her to walk again. After her operation, simple things---which we normally take for granted like being able to shop in the supermarket---had become such liberating experiences for her.

How about that---Eboy runs regularly today!

"I'm so fat!" I'd always complain whenever I faced the mirror while attempting to shrink my insides (by not breathing!) to fit myself into a dress; followed by this self-deprecating remark: "I look like a refrigerator."

Well, not anymore---since these above images. What am I complaining about?

Exercise, reduce your intake if you must; but never belittle and be thankful for the body you were born with. Genes and heredity have a lot to do with it too. That's why some people are bigger or smaller than others.

"I'm fat!" Said a young lady so reed-thin, she could easily be knocked over by a faint afternoon breeze. Then she would constantly fidget, believing that her eternal shaking would burn her calories so she could be thinner. (I think I read this too somewhere.)

Actually, for most of us, the battle is not really with the bulge. Call it low self-esteem, insecurity, discontent. We may exercise or ballroom-dance till we drop or diet till our cravings die but that's no guarantee we'd be happy with that vision in the mirror.

Some seemingly perfect-bodied and good-looking women (and men!) still have their lipo, lift and tuck. Lips get thickened. (A popular singer looks awful today because of her too out-turned lips. Whoever told them belles they could be next Angelina Jolies?!) Noses receive a trim or get cantilevered, while wayward ears are sewn closer to the nape. Good thing, I can only afford a facial, and even that is just once in a blue moon.

Fear. That's the underlying issue. "I look fat." "Look at my wrinkles." "I'm ugly." Most of these express our concerns about how others may look at us. But surely God did not make a mistake when He wove us so wonderfully in our mothers' wombs.

I'm glad Eboy is on his way to health, and that once super-obese lady now functions as a normal human being. Thank God for scientific advances, opportunities and people sent our way to help solve our health problems---in spite of our genetic predispositions or neglect or abuse.

But after the long and short of it, our daily dose of joy comes not from having gained all these but in knowing that our lives are in the palm of the one who shaped us into being.

In Genesis, God created an awesome universe and saw that it was good. After crafting Adam and Eve, what He saw thrilled Him so, because it was "Very good!"

We are His piece de resistance. And He must have added, "Lovely."