fitness Reality weight-loss — no show
Extreme Weight Loss group hosts a week-long version of reality show; sessions have sold out
morrison» As he climbed a trail carved into a hillside near Red Rocks, Robert “Junior” Poles told his fellow hikers how he ended up here, at an Extreme Weight Loss: Destination Boot Camp.
“She had the talk with me: ‘Dad, you are morbidly obese.’ ”
One of the other boot campers gave a little gasp and a laugh.
“That’s my baby girl, she don’t hold nothing back.”
Poles’ daughter is Kelli Poles, one of the stars of “Extreme Weight Loss,” ABC’s reality television show that is based at the University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. At the end of the season, when Kelli had the chance to pay her experience forward and give a loved one a free week at a boot camp in Colorado, she chose her dad.
On Wednesday, there he was, along with more than 30 other boot campers — most of whom had paid $3,999 (lodging and meals included) for a week-long version of the reality show they follow. This camp, along with every other camp the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center has offered since starting the medical-tourism program in October, was sold out. (The next one is scheduled for September; 844-4042008 or www.anschutzwellness.com.)
The boot campers in Colorado this week came from around the country, plus Switzerland and Italy, to live the weight-loss principles Dr. Holly Wyatt touts on the show, where she serves as the medical director, and in the book she co-authored, “State of Slim.”
The cameras aren’t rolling here, but for participants, it might feel a little like being in the show.
At the start of the hike at Matthews/ Winters Park, boot campers gathered around Dr. Wyatt as she reminded them that “this is all about your mind, right?” The challenge of the hike was physical, yes, but it was also a mental journey to the top of the mountain.
“Trust me, you are always stronger than your mind!” Her audience was rapt. “Your body follows your ...” “MIND,” they said in unison. A few previous participants in the television show were on hand at the boot camp to serve as motivational coaches, including Bruce Pitcher (season 4) and Bob Brenner (season 3). That mind-set Dr. Wyatt mentioned? “That’s what it’s all about,” Brenner said as he and Pitcher mingled with boot campers at the trailhead, giving out hugs and posing for selfies with them.
Though “State of Slim” uses Colorado as an example for how to live a healthy lifestyle anywhere, Brenner is planning to move to Fort Collins in December. His friend Pitcher — who lost 201 pounds on the show — moved here after being on the show, from Utah.
“You need a change,” Pitcher said. “This is what got you to be successful.”
Heidi Brito, who lives in Miami, returned as a mentor for this boot camp after attending the first boot camp, in October. She was a fan of “Extreme Weight Loss” and signed up for the boot camp as soon as she learned it existed.
“I did it because even though you have support at home, there’s nothing like being focused and concentrating on yourself,” Brito said, between encouraging other participants as they climbed toward the hike’s destination, a mesa-top overlook.
“I am so freaking proud of you right now!” Brito shouted as hikers huffed and puffed up a steep section of trail.
The night before the hike, participants contemplated their main excuse for not eating well and exercising — work, travel, family obligations — and wrote that excuse on a rock. They carried those rocks on the hike, and at the overlook, Dr. Wyatt told all of them to “leave that rock, and leave that excuse, on the mountain.”
Poles, who works with underprivileged children in Rochester, N.Y., said this was a scary moment. “I’m a giver, and I give to my detriment sometimes.” His rock read “work.” “But you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others.”