ProTourist

Numbers aside as well, I think Cillas had the bigger achievement because Justin was mobile. Cillas lost half of his 419 pounds while still bed-bound (other than his PT sessions) and had to learn to walk again, which he did in under a year. The other poundticipants who are bed-bound take quite a bit longer to walk again, if they walk again. [Some, like Milla, take a few years to walk again.] Cillas had lots of motivation and worked hard. Justin worked hard too, his story was more inspirational and people tended to like him better.

A 413 pound weight loss in 12 months, along with transition from bed-bound to up and walking in the same 12 months. That is the most that any of the poundticipants has achieved in one year so far in this whole series. Kudos to Cillas for working so hard. Not even Justin achieved this much in his first year -- it's hard to imagine that anyone could manage more.

According to her FB page, Jessica is back in nursing school. Her page is under the name Jessica Erin Givens, and has some good info and photos.

Yes, this kind of reminds me of the movie "Blue Valentine". The female lead was pregnant by another man, was thinking of abortion but couldn't go through with it. So the male lead marries her while she is still pregnant and raises the little girl with her like his own daughter. [Highly recommended film for those who have not seen it.]

I found that tattoo odd as well. If anything, Jessica's name would have been more appropriate. 1) It could be a fetish on Jessica's part, although we usually see this with the roles reversed, where a man prefers large women. Or, depending on Jessica's history, Cillas may have provided her the best option for a safe and stable home for her children. Especially since Cillas had his own home health aid and they would not need to do the more unpleasant things for him such as the bed baths. 2) Agree with all of this. Even Robert from New Jersey was able to get himself between the van and the hotel rooms using a walker and a wheel chair -- they only had to call for EMTs when he fell and could not get back up. Cillas really should have had a medical transport. 3) I've only watched once so far, but I believe Dr. Now's voice over said that Cillas came off the oxygen shortly before his weight loss surgery. I agree. Most of the success stories this season -- with one notable exception of Justin -- have not been such nice or likeable people. With Cillas there was no lying, arguing, or making excuses. He seemed to be nice to people, with no obviously shady behaviors. But Cillas' story was rather dull, I must admit -- at least as it was presented. There may have been more drama to his and Jessica's back stories, and even current life, that was not presented. It seemed they just wanted to focus on his dramatic weight loss, which at over 400 pounds in one year may indeed be Dr. Now's greatest success so far. But I don't think the dramatic weight loss by itself was enough to make for an interesting show. We didn't get to know Cillas very well, so as a viewer although I was happy for him, I had no real emotional involvement with his 'journey'. Yes, that was odd. Since he already referred to Jessica as his fiancée that must mean one of them had already proposed. But perhaps since he is transforming to a very different life, Cillas felt it important to renew the proposal. Hmmm. Agree about Jessica. I found the way she kept eating her dessert during Cillas' proposal was rather dismissive and even offensive. Even if she didn't know it was a marriage proposal, it was obvious he had something important to say to her, especially since he was using prepared notes. About not marrying as yet, sometime couples have financial reasons for not becoming legally married -- although as has been noted here before I believe, Texas is a state that still has common law marriage. I know of a couple who have been living together in a marriage-like relationship for several years without marrying legally. Some speculate it's because of the five children she has from her previous marriage: because her own income is so low, she is able to get them free health insurance through Medicaid. If she married her boyfriend, his income would disqualify them. Just one possibility. Thanks for that info; it makes sense. I do hope Jessica will transfer to a similar program in Houston, so she can complete her training. One note about Dr. Now during this episode; he seemed to be particularly charmed by the little girl Nevaeh. I thought that was cute. Here's a photo of the family I found online, from earlier this month. They appear to be at a church, probably for an Easter service. I wish them all well.

Yes, that's what she wrote. Probably life partner; doubt she and Bertha would be business partners, but you never know. Here they are in a recent photo.

I too have only known Cilla as a woman's name, but thought this one might be Cillas as an alternate spelling of the man's name Silas. 😕 ✌️ Edit to add: According to the schedule currently posted on TLC's site for this coming Wednesday April 24, the episode is indeed "Cillas' Story" : https://www.tlc.com/schedule

Yeah, me too. LaShanta has several photos of her mother on her FB page (username Shine White) looking nothing like the lady in scrubs we saw during her episode. In one photo Bertha appears with another middle-aged woman identified by LaShanta as her mother's 'potna' which I figure must be 'partner'. 😯

Has anyone had a look at Google's home page today? Happy Easter to all the pounders! 😎

I thought of that immediately, too -- timpano ! 😎

I didn't think it was a wig either, because it looked like hair coloring growing out. But, then I found a photo on Facebook of LaShanta's mother wearing it. 😮 Maybe she has her own. . . .

I've always figured the poundticipants' tattoos were several years old, obtained during earlier times of better mobility.

Her daughter lives in New Orleans, according to LaShanta, and no we did not see her. Though I must admit that at first, I mistook her youngest son for her daughter. [I thought he looked like a girl.]

She was sleeping and didn't hear the phone ring? The battery was dead? She was on another call at the time, and did not check who was the incoming caller? She had the phone turned off, or on do-not-disturb?

You know, I wonder how LaShanta was able to drop out of school at age 14. In every state the upper mandatory school age is at least 16; in Louisiana it's 18. Source: NCSL. I've searched online for exceptions due to pregnancy but have found none. Hmmm.

About her being proud, well, it's all relative. After being in bed for 2.5 years, leaving the house at all is a big achievement. I agree with the rest -- I tended to dislike LaShanta, and found the episode uninteresting and pointless. But I do hope she will build on the bit of progress she made at the end, for her own sake and for her family's.

But LaShanta rallied at the end, and managed a base hit in the ninth inning. She finally lost weight on her own, and was going to proceed to weight loss surgery after relearning to stand and walk in physical therapy. That's true, I agree with this. And the show has to give all sorts of people a chance, not just the most intelligent with the best educations. But for the people who are obviously slower/less educated, they really need to give more training in the beginning (that poundticipants' boot camp) to understand what they must and must not do with their eating habits, and why. So many of them really seem not to understand that they can't compensate for some bad meals by working out with their hand weights, for example. I agree; LaShanta seems to enjoy burrowing her hands into the folds on her legs, and the camera liked to show it. I haven't found this season boring at all, although I did find LaShanta boring. To me she did not have much personality and was not a good choice for the show. I have found most of the episodes interesting, even when I did not like the poundticipant. There have been just a few failures so far this season, although several of the successes have needed three or four tries before they got with the program, really lost weight, and had their surgery. However, some of the successes may not be uplifting, and if we don't like the patients, such as because they tell lies and make excuses in the early months, then we may not be rooting for them. Here is the breakdown to the best of my recollection: Success: 1 - Octavia 2- Brianne 3 - Robin & Garrett 4 - Justin 5 - Holly 6 - Lacey 7 - Brandon 9 - Tiffany 10 - Destinee 12 - Aaron 13 - Kelly (made very good progress until her heart gave out) 14 - Annjeanette 16 - LaShanta (11th hour turn-around) Failure: 8 - Maja 11 - Jeanne 15 - Angela

Angela stated that she had made arrangements for Lacey's care so that she (Angela) would be able to spend time in Houston as needed, but that later on, the arrangement fell through. But who knows what that arrangement was, if it should have been considered reliable, or even if it existed at all.

There was an announcement about the domain change, posted on Monday and still present, via the red banner toward top of page: https://forums.primetimer.com/announcement/64-previouslytv-is-now-primetimer/

Not me. I did have to log back in, but did not need to reset my password. I then updated my password manager for the new URL for the login page, and think I'm all set.

No, words will just roll off, like water off a duck's back. Deeply-rooted damage to the personality is a b!tch to heal, even given frequent sessions with a very good psychologist. There are often multiple layers of dysfunction and disordered thinking/feeling/response, which can run all the way down to the foundation of personality. Becoming aware of cause and effect is a useful first step, but is just that -- identification by itself doesn't effect change. People who have learned to despise themselves have to turn that around and learn to love themselves before they can start to take and maintain healthy choices, which is a huge undertaking -- and there are no established tools with which to do it. People can do things like journaling and recording their dreams, but it can be like finding a needle in a haystack; groping around in the dark, trying to find your way out. If one is not highly motivated and able to sustain that motivation for a long time, years even, it can be easier to give up on yourself and forfeit any quality of life. Some of us are not strong enough to maintain this level of self-excavation while meeting the demands of daily life. But if you cannot fix yourself, I think it's better to stand alone and not take others down with you. I would love to see that scene! 😄

Well yes, but AJ neglected to tell Erica that she should make a list of short-term goals, saying only that they should be her own goals in a general sense. And, if they are each making a list of personal goals, whether long- or short-term, if their relationship is not the subject, then it's likely they would not be on the same page. For example, AJ's goals could be about her health, Erica's goals could be about her employment. So it would not necessarily be a good starting point for a discussion of their future as a couple. Maybe because AJ waited so long to do this piece of homework from Lola, she forgot exactly how they were supposed to do it. [Also IMHO, AJ is not the brightest bulb in the package.]

Grapes, oranges, and peaches are higher in sugar, also juicier. Pears and apples are lower in sugar, also are harder to chew. Bananas tend to be very popular in offices also, as they are soft and high in sugar. My favorite apple is the honey crisp, and favorite pear is the anjou as it is soft, sweet, and juicy. 😍

I would watch it, but I don't have TV and I've never found the supersized episodes online. 😟

The Starcasm article I linked says they both have MS: "Finally, it’s also important to note that Angela, like her daughter Andrea, also suffers from multiple sclerosis. (While the risk for MS can be passed down from parents to children, MS itself is not hereditary.)" There was no mention of MS on the show that I noticed -- perhaps on the supersized episode?