One thing that The Biggest Loser really tries to highlight is that the choices we make have consequences. The choice between an Egg McMuffin or a Sausage Egg & Cheese McGriddle means that we've got an extra 200-500 calories sitting in our gullet, but if we'd only have picked their sponsor's oatmeal, then we'd save even more calories, and be just as happy about it. Hey, I can't fault that, as I'm very pro-oatmeal and am all about incorporating easy swaps in my life, but yeah, enough with the commercial fakeouts, okay?

Then there's the choice to work out or the choice to sit on one's butt and apparently fail drastically at weigh-in (which, on this particular show, means that you ONLY lost 4 pounds in a single week as opposed to 6 or 9 pounds), but let's face it, the only people making that choice are the people sitting on the couch watching The Biggest Loser.

And there's that rascally choice we make to be born with male genitals or female ones...whoops, we don't make that choice, but on this show, you're kind of screwed as a girl. Guys can eat like crap and lose weight faster! And on the show, all the boys will pick on you and take every opportunity to target you in challenges, even when it's pretty obvious that they are shooting themselves in the foot in the process.

And then there are the choices you make between who are your friends versus your enemies: this week, Dan paid for the repercussions of some decisions he made earlier in the game. To play catch up: the guys on his team voted off the only girl on their team, Dan's mom. Dan knew that he was probably going to be voted off the next time he came up for elimination and swore to avenge his mother, and yet, when he could have easily allied with members of the black team to vote off some of his prime competition, he chose situational friendship over his own personal goals. And now, it sucks to be Dan. Remember when all of the blue team was crying like they were auditioning for Band of Brothers? No tears for little bro Dan, and that's saying a lot. Maybe the supposed nonconformist shouldn't have been such a damned sheep?

Meanwhile, the Biggest Editors made a huge deal about the importance of one pound, dropping a huge anvil that somehow a pound was going to come into play at some point. And it did. Sort of. Whiny Boston Brother gave up $10K in order to have lost an extra pound at weigh-in and, yeah, still didn't really make a difference because he was totally safe, no matter what. Dan lost a pound and um, really it didn't make a difference at all because unless he hit the elimination room against a girl, it was a given that he was going home. And no one mentions that one pound made the difference between Berndana and Bossy Boston Brother coming back to the show. It's like Berndana never even existed! He is gone, along with my joy. However, reading this interview pepped me up somewhat.

This week, we walked into not one but two awkward infomercials again: one for the aforementioned oatmeal and then another one where Ali and the Kellster raved about how delicious 100 calorie bags of microwave popcorn are. It's funny, because I heard that Jillian refuses to participate in a lot of these fake commercials and the producers managed to make it look like she was endorsing said popcorn by supplying a gift basket for Kelly and Ali that was supposedly from Jillian. Ha! I'll bet that pisses Jillian off to no end. More interestingly, I found out that the Biggest Editors manipulated that whole exchange two weeks ago to make it look like Jillian was reaming Sami Brady, but in actuality, she's talking to a producer.  Meanwhile, I think Trainer Bob would shill the purported weight-loss benefits of goat semen if the producers asked.

I never really thought I'd say this, but at this point, I've pretty much set my hopes on the former crybaby, Kelly. I mean, Ali looks amazing and has lost a lot of weight, but at the same time, she voted against Brittany, which sucked. And yes, I hold grudges. I would totally go down if I were on that show. Oh yeah, I'd be going down. That having been said, I kind of ordered the Biggest Loser workout tape. Okay, I admit it, I have completely done a 180 and sort of love Jillian now. I KNOW! I am as shocked as anyone.

Full Disclosure: This week while watching the show, I snacked on popcorn spritzed lightly with white truffle olive oil and more sugar-free Kool-Aid. I've been on a major popcorn and Kool-Aid kick recently. Clearly, in my head, Kool-Aid is associated with summer and I'm sure that I'm craving it because the days are starting to get noticeably longer and warmer. As for the popcorn, I've been concentrating on eating more fiber and I don't know if the truffle oil would be approved by Jillian but I know I used less oil than I would have with butter, but it still had that kind of unami mouth feel plus it was DAMNED tasty. Thumbs up!