Jennifer Rumple, a 39-year-old television producer from Alameda, CA, was eliminated Tuesday night from “The Biggest Loser”, after all the teams failed to reach the collective 100 pound weight-loss goal of the week. In fact, they were nowhere close, managing to lose only 38 pounds collectively. Jennifer was eliminated – not because she didn’t lose enough weight (she lost 4 pounds, which was more than a lot of the contestants managed to lose), but because of her “attitude.”
But did Jennifer really have an attitude, or did she just feel left out? “I was isolated in that pool for weeks because of this knee injury. Day and night I was in that pool by myself,” she explained. “Being isolated on my own, trying to get integrated back in that group…alliances had already been formed. And as you can see from the numbers on the scale, I was becoming a threat.”
Whatever the reason for her elimination, Jennifer is continuing to be a threat even back at home. She’s lost a total of 102 pounds and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down!
Watch her ‘Where Are They Now’ video below, and keep reading to find out what else Jennifer had to say about working with Bob Harper, her exercise and diet plan, and what she’s looking forward to now that she’s lost the weight!
On training with Bob Harper:
In Season 3, I saw his journey with Erik Chopin at the finale – Erik pushing Bob up in a wheelbarrow. And I said out loud, and it was just my dog next to me, that man would change my life one day. Because I truly believed it. There was just something about him. He just seemed caring and knowledgeable and I knew that if I had access to him or somebody like him, my life would change.
Fast forward six years, and here I am in this desert and I get a chance to fight for him to be my trainer. He’s just a person who knows which buttons to push in me to push me harder, to get me to challenge myself, believe in myself. And I will be forever grateful to him for that.
He pushed me to start believing in myself that I could do this. And I can, obviously. And it’s a fantastic feeling. And I will be again forever grateful to him. He’s changing the world with what he does for people.
On finding a new trainer:
I think the biggest thing with training is that you have to have that connection where you feel trust – you can trust them, you feel safe with them, and they push you. And Michael does the same thing for me. We’re the best of friends and he’s just fantastic. And he’s no-nonsense, as well.
You know, there are a lot of people that write and say, “I would never be able to have anybody yell at me. I can’t believe that’s okay.” And that’s kind of how I like to work. People yell at me because it fuels me. It makes me stronger. Like, “You don’t think I can do this? Oh, I can do this. Let me show you I can do this.”
And that’s just the style, and I was very fortunate to come home to find somebody like that. I encourage everybody to not settle for one person — if you do decide to get a trainer, look at two or three people, four or five people, until you find the right one that’s actually going to push you and challenge you to challenge yourself.
The challenges she faced when she first got home, and her exercise and diet plan:
I think the hardest thing when I got back was I was nervous. I had just gotten released to do the treadmill, actually the day before I was eliminated. So when I get back, I’m pushing through this fear of, “Oh my gosh, every step I take on the pavement or when I walk, am I going to have another crack in this knee? Am I going to have another crack?”
And once I started trusting myself to know what kind of pain was good, what kind of pain was bad, I started doing more and more of that. So I have been training for this marathon.
These little tiny successes – I was going at a 3.0 on the treadmill for, you know, more than two minutes, and I’m like in tears because I think, “Oh my gosh, that’s so amazing.” Because I couldn’t do it before. But now I just do – I do a lot of jogging, a lot of pool work, and I am in love with boxing. I absolutely love boxing.
And my diet – I’m just basically eating the right foods. Bob is huge on organics and eating just fresh food, things that aren’t processed, things that have no chemicals. And even though it’s a little bit more expensive, I can tell a huge difference. Even my skin looks better! I feel better. So, I’m just really trying to stick to that plan of just fresh, nothing boxed, everything fresh – either grown or, I don’t want to say killed but, you know, it’s something with a mother or something that’s been grown!
What it’s like watching the old footage of herself:
Last night when I watched, it was the black and white version of when I’m walking on the ranch, when I first got onto the ranch. And it made me incredibly sad because I thought at the time — because I am an optimistic, positive, happy person that tries to see the good in everything — but I just saw my face…
The difference between now and then, it just made me really sad. It made me cry. It made me very sad. And I honestly cannot identify with that person anymore, truly. I look at her – even friends – I had a couple friends over last night watching with me and like, “Oh my gosh, Jen. I would never even recognize you from that.” It’s like a different person.
And the best thing about it, yes it is the physical. Yes, I’m smaller than I was then and healthier. But it’s more of the internal part that’s completely different now because I want this for my life. And I want others to want this for their life because it’s the best feeling in the world.
What she’s looking forward to now that she’s lost all the weight:
Oh my gosh. I keep saying I’m open to the process and anything that comes my way. But I received a couple things, actually. As far as my own personal things, I want to kite surf, because that’s something that I’ve watched every day when I walk my dog, because I live on an island in the bay. And people do it every single day.
But I thought there’s no way. First of all, I’m never going to fit into a wet suit, A. B, I’m never going to have the core strength or arm strength to be able to do this. But I think I can do it now. So that’s next on my list.
It’s crazy but I hate it when I’m doing it, but I crave it when I’m not — I love to run. I don’t know what that’s about. I’m still trying to get my brain wrapped around it.
But the big thing is I got something on my Facebook page yesterday. A woman was asking me to come to her local — this is kind of close, about 30 miles away — and talk to her Girl Scout Troop that she leads or possibly the school.
And that just makes me so excited and so happy because I want to inspire others with my journey and hopefully instill healthy habits and a healthy lifestyle in young people so they can get started that way and never have to go through what I went through as a kid being overweight.
