Losing It With Jillian: The Jones Family
The Losing It With Jillian episode that aired on June 8, 2010 was about the health journey of The Jones Family. This family was just three people which consisted of a single Mom (Deb), a 12 year old daughter (Isabella) and a 10 year old boy named J0rdan. The father of this Massachusetts family passed away a few years before and the entire household was nothing but a chaotic mess as a result.
Deb weighed in at 239 pounds at the age of 53 and Dr. Van Hurle told her that she was a ticking time bomb of poor health. The doctor was very blunt in telling her that if she did not change her ways, she should find someone else to raise her children because she would die before her time, from her poor health.
Jillian Michaels called up the Jones family from her cell phone and told them that all of them that they needed to be at the sports center in 20 minutes. This phone call and the 20 minute time limit appears to becoming a trade mark of this show. After they all met at the gym, it was revealed just how poor the physical condition she was in. There was really no physical exertion she could take for more than a few moments.
In typical Jillian fashion, Deb cried out that she could not breath and Jillian had on her game face when she replied, “Do you think I care?” Deb fell down on the floor and cried she coulf not get up and this upset Jillian because Deb’s children were there to see it happen.
Later on after Jillian arrived at the home of the Jones family it was revealed that the home was in complete disarray. There were stacks of clothing and books and garbage everywhere. Jillian was shocked and Jillian would not stay in the home that night because there was literally no place to lay down. Jillian went to a motel and said she would be back in the morning.
The next morning Jillian left the home with the children to start cleaning up while she took Deb to the gym. Jillian looked to the camera and told America that she had to break through to Deb before the week was over. Jillian said that she had to get to the root of the emotions because if she did not, Deb would revert back to just having a messy, unkempt life and home. Jillian then was ruthless in the gym and kept hammering the exercises onto Deb until Deb broke down and cried how tired she was all the time and was having such a hard time, since her husband died. This was a break through moment for Deb which was what needed to happen in order for her to take back control of her life.
The next scene was similar to last weeks scene and it was because Deb and Isabella each were wearing a Bodybugg with a digital display. If you did not notice it, the scene may have passed you by, but we have received many questions already about “what is the thing on the arms of the people on Losing it With Jillian?” That black band, or thing is called the BodyBugg. The interesting thing is that once again there was no commercialization of the BodyBugg at all. There were no commercials and there was no even so much as a single word spoken about it. This leads us to the realization that the BodyBugg must really be something that Jillian believes in because if she did not, she would not have given one to the family members. If there had been commercials about it I would not say this. The only reason why it is even mentioned here is because there was no mention of it AT ALL. The lack of commercialization clearly points to me that BodyBugg is really as credible as Jillian has always proclaimed it to be!
The rest of the show Jillian was trying to take the adult burdens off the 12 year old daughter and got all of them to go to a dance studio where Jillian admitted she was not comfortable. Jillian did have some cute facial expressions during that segment of the show. Soon the entire 3 members of the Jones family went for a canoe ride and Jillian was blaring orders at them with a bullhorn which really suited her very well. A bullhorn and Jillian Michaels really do go well together.
There was then another portion of the show which I expect to become a regular portion of the show and that was what Jillian stated as the time to declare goals. The daughter Isabella stood up first and said her Mom could come to her anytime she needed to for help. The next thing Isabella said was it was her goal to lose 20 pounds and the reaction from Jillian just showed the world that Jillian knew what she was talking about, when speaking of weight loss. Jillian told the daughter she was a kid and should not be thinking in terms of weight loss. She told Isabella that she needed to think in terms of being healthy because if she did that, the weight would come off. So, I guess the advice to all the teens out there is to just make good health choices and stop worrying about dieting.
Jillian returned six weeks later to learn that Deb did meet all of her goals. Deb lost 32 pounds and was able to run a 5K and was within days away of not having to use diabetes medication anymore. Jillian also presented the family with a $50,000 check to help remove some of the stress from their lives.
This was another success story for Jillian Michaels and showed that getting to the root cause of the emotional issues is what needs to be done before a person can make the needed and permanent changes in their life. It was a pretty good show.