The Biggest Loser eliminated Jessica Limpert, a 26-year-old travel nurse from Pittsburgh, during Tuesday night’s surprising episode! Let’s just say it’s no longer “Battle of the Ages.”
The original teams were split up and reassigned to new teams and new trainers, by competition of course. Everyone was pretty distraught about it, except for Bonnie who was thrilled to rid herself of Anna! Jessica filled us…
Jess says having to leave her boys behind for a new team was the hardest part of the season, but “I was here for myself; I wasn’t here to work with certain people. So I had to remember that focus and remember that regardless of who’s on my team, I’ve got to push to make sure that we win or that I stay.”
Unfortunately, Jess didn’t stay. At the weigh in, pretty much all the contestants pulled big numbers, losing up to 16 pounds each! Jess lost 8 pounds – dropping from 209 to 201 – but it wasn’t enough. Her team lost and she was sent home.
Jessica isn’t letting her elimination slow her down. In fact, she’s says she’s okay with being sent home under the circumstances: “To be going home as a threat or a big competitor I’m okay with. I’d rather do that than go home because I was weak or annoying or that they didn’t like me.”
Since Jessica first arrived on the ranch at 254 pounds, she has lost 69 pounds, and has gone from a size 22 to a size 10. She’s still going at it at home and is training hard to win that marathon! Her relationship with Ramon has helped her work harder and keep pushing ahead. She explains:
“People are going to doubt us because of the situation that we’re in, but we push each other so much. We want to beat each other and everything, and we want to push each other even harder every single time we’re together. And we really use that – the grief that we got from Anna and anybody else as even more motivation to push us even harder to prove everybody wrong because as individuals we’re strong and if you want to say ‘big threats’, but together we’re going to be even stronger. And we’re going to kick some butt!”
Jess continues to work out hard, aiming for 4 hours of exercise a day! As for her diet, Jess says “it’s very common sense,” making sure she eats every 3 hours, spreading her calories evenly throughout 5 meals a day, and logging everything in her food journal.
The most important thing Jess has learned through this journey is that you have to focus on yourself. “I have to have respect for myself. I have to remember my goals,” she says. “And I have to put myself first before anybody else.” She continues:
“You know, I think when you lose your self esteem as a woman who’s in a size 22 pants weighing 254 plus pounds, self esteem’s almost gone. And you lose it over time and you don’t realize that it’s gone until you get to the point where you don’t find hope and you don’t feel happy. You don’t even feel comfortable walking by a mirror let alone a window because you see your reflection and it makes you feel even worse.
Each and every day I had to deal with issues emotionally and mentally and build myself to be a strong person not only on that side but the physical side.
And that built the self esteem and that showed me that I am worth it; I am worth the time and I am worth the respect and I’m going to demand it from now on.”