The Real Housewives Of New Jersey Recap: Cover Girl Drama | Home
June 10, 2012 11:15 PM by Gina Hall
This week Chris Powells skills are put to the test as he encounters a woman whose tragic past serves as the catalyst for her weight gain. Is Chris enough of a life coach to help this woman excise her demons? Find out in this recap of Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition. We join Jacqui, 30, at 355 pounds and crying her eyes out. Shes locked herself in the bathroom and the shows producers are pleading with her to come out. Seems Jacqui has a problem with her body image. Wed imagine thats why she signed up for this show.
But Jacquis backstory goes a little deeper than just a love affair with fried foods. We are introduced to photos of Jacqui at age 13 when she was skinny and then at age 15 when she began to gain weight. What happened? A boy attacked her at a party at at 14. Attacked is apparently ABCs euphemism for what reality show audiences cant handle, so we have to leave it at that. But she started to use food as a comfort and a hiding mechanism, and by the time Jacqui graduated high school, she was 100 pounds overweight.
Shawn, her fire-fighter husband, is very supportive of her goal to lose weight so Chris Powell shuffles her off from Florida to Los Angeles to get started. Jacquis new lifestyle regimen will consist of 1500-calorie meals and 2-4 hour workouts six times a week. For her medical exam, the nurses cant even draw blood out of her arm through the layers of fat, so they have to resort to drawing it from her foot. The doctors also talk to her about herpolycystic overian disease, which has prevented her from having children. If shes able to lose the weight, doctors say, she will likely be able to have the children shed been wanting.
Chris starts to push Jacqui in the weight room and initially Jacqui proves to be kind of a puss. She breaks down crying. But Chris reminds her that shes doing this for her husband, so she soldiers forth and pushes herself to the limit. She returns to Florida to find that her home has been remodeled with her own home gym. No more excuses.
Jacquis next challenge is to lose 90 pounds in 3 months, not safe weight loss by any standards, but this is reality TV, so what should be real about it? But if she does, shell win a trip to Ireland for the honeymoon she never got to enjoy with her husband. And, Chris is going to with Jacqui and Shawn to help her lose the weight, to make for one of the most awkward threesome living arrangements since Threes Company. But Jacqui has now lost 62 pounds and is making progress.
In a rather cruel change up of the old exercise routine, Chris takes Jacqui to the theater. She loves the theater, but hasnt been as of late because the seats dont accommodate her size. For her work out, Chris makes Jacqui sit in every of the 300 seats in the theater. She cries, but she does it.
Ultimately, Jacqui makes weight at the end of Phase 1 at 263 pounds, shell be heading to Ireland soon. Top o the mornin to ya, Jacqui!
Unfortunately, Jacqui cant keep up this reality TV thing and a full-time job at the same time. So after a discussion with her husband, she decides to quit the job with his support. Hell even take on more work. What a guy!
Continue reading here:
Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition Recap: Jacqui Loses It For Kids