Joe Mitchell, a 46-year-old home health therapist from Knoxville TN, was the latest contestant eliminated from NBC’s ‘The Biggest Loser’. He started at the ranch weighing 348 pounds, and currently weighs 230 pounds! He’s a winner in our books!
Joe shared his health and fitness tips, secret-weapon foods and what he thought about the trainers with us! Check out the highlights below!
What Joe thinks about Biggest Loser trainers Bob, Anna and Dolvett:
I will say unequivocally that the trainer had nothing to do with my downfall. It was hard leaving Bob. Bob helped me in so many ways. I mean, he showed me that weight loss was possible. And I always will appreciate that that he showed me it was possible.
Bob obviously knows this game better than anyone. He’s been with the show from the beginning. He was tremendous in the gym. And it was the first time in my life that I had ever really lost weight so it was just natural to have that dependency to think if I lose Bob, I’ve never been able to do it before; I won’t.
Anna, to me, was an amazing trainer. She truly, and I have told her this, she has affected me – my life, my family for generations because she fixed my thinking and she truly made me know that I could do this, and that helped prepare me to go home.
She did so much to drill into our heads that really at the end of the day the only person you can count on is yourself. And that did so much to get me ready to go home. I had no fear because she’s fixed that part of me. And I appreciate that so much. And she prepared me for that.
And Dolvett was just amazing. I’ve got to work with him some on camera. And, you know, on dark days they didn’t do a lot of filming but, you know, Dolvett and Anna they will work you out; they didn’t care whose team you were on. They just would – they were there to get you healthy.
And we just had three tremendous trainers. And I appreciate all three of them. I truly do.
His weight loss tips:
The first thing I tell people is first and foremost, you have got to be documenting every single thing you do. And that is the one thing I’ve probably done even better since I’ve come home. There are so many great iPhone or Android apps you can put on your phone. But you’ve got to document everything you are eating so that you’re not lying to yourself.
You have to know what’s going in. And that is my number one tip I tell people. Because people can fool themselves and don’t eat – they eat a lot more than they think they do. And that was my problem.
And the second thing I tell folks is to plan. You know, don’t ever have a meal by accident. Know what your game plan is even if you are going out to eat, if you’re going to go somewhere you’ve got to know in the back of your head what you’re going to do when you get there so that you don’t make any spur of the moment choices that are going to put you behind, as far as weight loss or what your body needs.
Food cannot have control over you. You’ve just got to realize there is a time and place for things.
And as long as you are 80%-90% of the time eating right then there are going to come those times. And when they do come you’ve got to enjoy them and enjoy that moment but then move on.
His secret-weapon foods and fitness tips:
My biggest thing is when I get to the gym I don’t ever do the same routine. One of my secrets would be [that] you’ve got to change things up all the time even to the point that if you’re going to do 30 minutes of cardio don’t do 30 minutes on elliptical – do eight minutes on the elliptical and nine minutes on a bike and six minutes on a rowing machine and just change it up constantly; don’t let your body ever adjust.
And that is what I find gives me the best burn because my body can never get used to anything. And I change up the times…all that stuff. I’ll do three 10s or I’ll do a nine, eight and seven or whatever. But I always make sure I go station to station and hit it as fast as I can, as hard as I can, but always changing things up definitely is a big secret for me.
As far as foods – I never ate fish before I went on the show. I love tilapia now; it’s a great source of protein. And Greek yogurt is definitely in my refrigerator; I’ve got a lot of it. And one of my favorite deserts I have now is I’ll take some Greek yogurt with a little bit of cocoa in it – cocoa powder, just a little bit, and a couple packs of Truvia, mix it up.
And man I am happy. I mean, that is a good chocolaty treat that definitely satisfies me, yet it’s got a lot of protein and I don’t have to feel bad about eating it.