Houston model ready to test survival skills
Lindsay Phenix, a Houston model and licensed massage therapist, is one of six participants on the new reality survival show “The Wheel.”
Lindsay Phenix was in the middle of the South American wild, fighting to keep the fire she started burning. The flames, she says, helped to ward off jaguars, but she could hear their howl in the distance.
The first few nights were the toughest.
Sure, it was all part of Discovery’s reality show, “The Wheel,” which airs 9 p.m. Friday, but Phenix says her fear was real. So were the jaguars.
The Houston model and licensed massage therapist is one of six of the show’s participants who must endure 60 days in the grueling South America landscape. With every turn of the “wheel,” each survivalist is dropped into a new isolated location alone, exposed to some of the world’s deadliest terrain. The only thing they have are light survival packs and SOS devices that can be used at any time to quit the challenge and call for help.
To prepare for the show, Phenix, 26, who is usually a size 2 and a vegetarian, packed on 25 pounds, knowing that finding food would be a challenge. She stocked up on donuts, whole pizzas, hash browns and lots of chocolate.
“I also knew if had more weight on me, I wouldn’t starve,” she said. “But the first night was awful. Everything that could go wrong did. It was extremely hot, and I was dehydrated. Then I heard the jaguar close by. It was the scariest moment of my life.”
Phenix also researched that humans can go more than three weeks without food, so she felt good about her survival chances. After a few days in wild, anything that moved became dinner, including lizards and worm-infested fish, she says.
The hardest part was the weather. There was no protection from rain or wind. “I tried to hide when I could and pray,” she says.
Phenix, who also is a marathon runner, an Ironman Triathlete and a professional stunt woman, said her intense fitness regime helped her. She ran in Sunday’s Chevron Houston marathon (it was her eighth) and will compete in Ironman Texas in April in The Woodlands.
“A marathon is the perfect endurance test for your mental and physical power. It’s the right training for something like this. You’re guaranteed to hurt, but you can push through. That’s the fun part. You start getting faster, and then you start feeling invincible.”
“Being an athlete helps you do things you don’t feel like doing (on the show), like hauling wood to make a fire. I had to be fit.”
Phenix was born into military family and lived in New Mexico, Belgium and, finally, Houston. The Pasadena Memorial High School graduate started modeling at age 13, eventually joining Page Parkes modeling agency. She even spent a summer modeling in Thailand, where she had a lot interest from the Asian market for her looks. Phenix is actually Mexican and Irish.
She’s also a favorite on the runway at Houston fashion and charity events and recently started working part time in Los Angeles as a model and doing stunt work. She plays Kate Beckinsale’s stunt double in the movie, “Underworld: Bloodwars.”
Last year, Phenix was appeared in a commercial for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s reality competition show, “The Runner,” which streams on go90. That led to an audition for “The Wheel.”
“It was the best experience of my life,” she said, “You are in the middle of a foreign country with scary animals. After a few days, it was so peaceful.
“I had lost my grandfather just before I went directly into the wild, so it was a therapeutic time to heal.”
The show, which was filmed from September through November, offers no big prize or money for surviving, just a feeling of accomplishment, Phenix said.
Next up: ultramarathons of 50 and 100 miles. Then maybe she’ll do the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii.
“I have to keep going, keep challenging myself,” she said.