Cassandra Sturos was eliminated from The Biggest Loser last week for being a threat to the house, proving once again what this season is all about – doing whatever you have to do to win. Cassandra begged the other team to keep her on the ranch, but in the end, it all came down to alliances and voting off the biggest threat. Cassandra calls it “cutthroat,” explaining:
It was pretty alarming to us. We were like whoa it’s getting cutthroat, like the gloves are coming off for sure. And I was just really dismayed by that because I felt like I had a lot of friendships in the house and on the Red Team. And it didn’t feel like it was something I was ready for. I did speak to a lot of people on the Red Team about it. I was like ‘you really feel like you would put my name down’? And they were like, ‘yes, you’re a huge threat in this house’.
But finding out about Conda saying that it was going to be an all-girl alliance, I mean, I’m flabbergasted by that because that wasn’t ever our intention as far as it being an alliance. It was just the fact that it became clear to us that we were the threat and so we were like well if you’re going to send someone home as far as the two girls, we would go with the strong guy. And it would never have been Jeremy.
The Biggest Loser may have been tough, emotionally and physically, but helped her face issues she had been setting aside for years. She says:
It was the best experience of my life – hands down, the most phenomenal journey. But it was just brutal… the workouts are so brutal. And having to have one on one time to confront yourself and all these issues that you’ve been denying for years, like me being here without my family or friends or a cell phone or distractions, having to really face all these issues that I had been denying to myself it’s a heady experience.
It was just so much more challenging than I ever dreamed, but in the best way. Having to face all those challenges was the best thing. But that was what surprised me; it was so much more difficult than I ever thought or dreamed it could be. I don’t even know that I could ever describe how difficult the ranch is.
She says being sent home was an emotional experience, and a scary one at that. But she faced her fears and her anger, and found a way to deal with it, explaining:
The ranch is rehab; I was in rehab and now I have to go home. So I have to face all the things that I wasn’t so good at before and be confident that I learned enough, you know, going home.
I told my mom as soon as I got home I was like bring me to the gym. And it was late and I was tired and discombobulated, all over the place. But I’m like bring me to the gym and I just ran and ran and ran. And I ended up doing seven miles which is the longest I’ve ever done without stopping.
I took all my aggression out in the gym. And it propelled me. I was like every time I’m feeling angst-y or upset it’s like I’m going to take it out on the gym; I’m not taking it out on food!
In fact, facing her fears and believing in herself was the most valuable lesson Cassandra learned on the ranch. She says:
The most valuable lesson for me was facing my fears…I felt like I was just sitting on the sidelines of my life. I was so scared to put myself out there in any way and feel rejection or loss or failure. I feel like I tried too many times and that had happened. And it was just so conflicting for me because I’m such a big dreamer and I have high hopes for myself. But I would not want to put myself out there.
And being at the ranch and having to do things that scared me every day – every day I was terrified of something, whether it was just this workout that I was like I – oh my gosh I would never do this workout. I’m going to die. You know, like you can’t possibly think I could do this.
And doing things that I never in a million years thought I could do it just – it was a perfect parallel for me and my life. And I’m someone – as a writer who can appreciate a good metaphor an so every time it would be this epiphany for me of if you can do this and this is really hard what have you been telling yourself you couldn’t do in life? What have you been saying that you couldn’t do because you were scared?
So for me it was just realizing how powerful it is to face your fears of any kind whether big or small. But it does make you stronger. And that was huge for me as someone who was just riddled with self doubt. It made me so much stronger to have to face my fears.
