Barak vs. Jillian

Last night, I got home from spin class in time to catch The Biggest Loser, which may now be my favorite reality show of all time... getting a great workout and some "Bob the trainer" style coaching from the spin instructor that was teaching.

Instead, the Presidential press conference was on.  Not that I don't think it's important to be up on what's going on with the federal budget, but I'm starting to think Barak Obama is on TV way too much to sell this stuff to the American people.  The approach is very Reagan-esque even if the programs are very Carter-esque.  Needless to say, I was informed but disappointed.  

Fortunately for all of us fans, The Biggest Loser did come on after the press conference and they played the entire episode :-).  In this week's deal, each of the contestants started on their own and got to pick their trainer.  Many picked Jillian, whose workout style can probably be described as a cross between Newt Gingrich and Robert Montgomery Knight as far as intensity, lack of mercy, and being in your face.  However, her training style works... most of the winners of the The Biggest Loser have been trained by her... and those who work out under her end up loving her. 

When watching Jillian work out her contestants, you'll see something... she doesn't want to "give" anybody who she works out anything... instead she pushes them to go and take it and take it aggressively.  The results come when those folks go out, kick tail, and earn those huge weight drop numbers on the scale.  This seems to be a contrast to what I saw in the first hour of watching TV as the President wanted to give (from others) to folks that were down (in the form of health care, "tax cuts", etc.) and while he talked a lot about "sacrifice" you never really saw any evidence of the sacrifice that they would make... other than to give up more control to the government perhaps but that was not stated.  On the other hand, Jillian is ALL about sacrifice... sacrifice your diet, sacrifice your body, sacrifice your paradigms as to what you can and cannot do.  It is proven that Jillian's program... "you have the power to change... go out and take it!" works... in the times that Barak's plan has been tried, it may have put money into certain people's pockets but it never, I mean never, lifted them out of despair... in many cases this made the problem worse because they became dependent on the handout and lost the will to "go out and take it."  

My spin instructor said something that stuck... when kicking our tails he would say "this is how you build confidence!"  I knew what that meant... when you prove that you can conquer your fears and overcome your own physical boundaries, you grow and gain more confidence.  This happens spiritually when God takes us to a place where we have to trust Him for something that we cannot do on our own and He comes through for us and giving us confidence to trust in God for our lives and for the next "God-sized challenge."  (James 1:2-4).  

Jillian (you have the power) or Barak (you need us because you don't have the power)?  Jillian's got a couple of people that have lost over 100 pounds in 8 weeks in this season.  Let's see what Barak is able to do.