This week’s episode of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition didn’t feature any drama, there was some crying, but no real drama. Instead, it was more of an inspirational episode, showing people that if you really set your mind to something, you can make things happen.
Take Jacqui. Jacqui started gaining weight after a traumatic experience at the age of 14, and by the age of 30 she weighed in at 355 lbs. Desperate to start a family, she knew she had to lose the weight, but all of her fears and insecurities made her question divorcing her husband so he could be with someone who could give him children. It’s so heartbreaking to hear someone contemplate ending a relationship not because the love isn’t there, but because they don’t love themselves enough. And Jacqui admitted that she really didn’t love herself enough to change her life.
But the awesome Chris Powell — I just grow to admire him week by week — answered Jacqui’s cry for help and took her on a year long journey to lose 200 lbs. At the California Health & Longevity Institute, Jacqui learned that one cup of pasta is enough for a meal, and that restaurants usually serve three or four cups which could add up to 40 lbs to your weight per year! Yikes! She also learned that Chris was not going to let her quit, no matter how hard she cried or complained that she didn’t have the strength to continue the workout. And she didn’t quit.
Jacqui’s journey was inspiring to everyone, including Chris, who was blown away by her surpassing her three month goal of 90 lbs by 2 lbs, by her perseverance in sitting in 300 theatre seats (Jacqui wants to be on stage, but her self-consciousness about her weight holds her back), then surpassing her six month goal of 50 lbs by 3, and going on a 100 km bike ride through the hills of Ireland! She even made it up an insane, winding road that looked like a 45-degree incline (and even Chris questioned his method of pushing a client at this point — is he setting them up for failure?). But Jacqui and her husband Shawn’s honeymoon in Ireland (she won the trip at her Phase 1 weigh in) came with a price: a 7 lb weigh gain.
Jacqui felt a bit defeated by that, and she had to decide whether to cut her work hours back so she could complete her journey (she ultimately had to resign, with Shawn’s blessing, because they wanted a full time employee), but those were just a couple more metaphorical hills Jacqui had to get over. By the time of her nine month weigh in, she was down to 175 lbs, losing 180 lbs and 50.70% of her body weight. Chris has never had a female client achieve this goal in that amount of time (and then he dragged her into a conference room full of people to sing!). Jacqui’s good news continued as she learned she was going to get the skin removal surgery and was now at a healthy weight to get pregnant.
By the end of the year, Jacqui had lost a whopping 207 lbs through determination, the support of her entire family, and one of the best friends anyone in this situation could have, Chris Powell. With her amazing transformation, Jacqui finally had the confidence to sing to her husband (accompanied by Chris on piano!) in a full auditorium … and the amazing news for Jacqui didn’t stop at the end of filming. Check out the video below to see what Jacqui’s been up to and where you will be seeing her again.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Jun 11, 2012 @ 01:34 EST5EDT
