With only two weeks left on the ranch, The Biggest Loser contestants competed in a challenge with a prize that would change the course of the entire competition on Monday (Feb. 15) night’s episode. Whoever won the challenge would not only win a 1-pound advantage for themselves, but they would also gain the ultimate power to give a 1-pound disadvantage to one of their remaining opponents.
Erin Willett came out strong, winning the challenge, and ultimately giving Roberto Hernandez the 1-pound disadvantage. Unfortunately for Erin, the 1-pound disadvantage did not affect Roberto’s position in the competition, and she fell below the yellow line with Felicia Buffkin and was voted off by her fellow opponents.
The Biggest Loser season 17 live finale airs Monday, February 22, 2016 at 9:00pm ET on NBC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDKsML3A3g0
CS4U: Having competed before on another NBC show, which was The Voice, do you feel as though the competitive nature of the show helped you in any way during your experience on The Biggest Loser?
Erin Willett: “Oh man. I don’t know. I don’t know if it necessarily helped me, like, with competitive nature. I think that I’m naturally just a competitive person. I’ve grown up like playing sports and that’s just kind of instilled in me a little bit. I don’t necessarily think that being on another reality show has helped me in that way. I think it kind of just prepared me for the stress of – kind of working at a goal while also filming a show because it is a lot of sitting around and waiting and, you know, a lot of the contestants on, The Biggest Loser, I feel, like, kind of don’t know what to expect with that kind of situation. Whereas I kind of am grateful enough to have an experience where I got to kind of experience reality TV before. So I don’t know if it necessarily prepared me in the competitive way, but it definitely prepared me just to kind of know what to expect with filming a show.”
CS4U: So what did you think being on The Biggest Loser taught you about yourself?
Erin Willett: “I think it taught me that my mind is a lot stronger than my body. I have learned that if I want something that usually my body’s what gives up first and I have to train my mind to push my body a lot more. Whether that’s, you know, in my career, at the gym, or when I’m craving, you know, something really bad and gross and greasy. It’s my mind that has to be strong and that’s probably something that I’ve definitely learned.
CS4U: What you do think was the most rewarding part of the entire experience on the Ranch?
Erin Willett: “I think the most rewarding part for me I guess, you know, seeing everybody else — as much as you’re seeing yourself succeed and change — seeing everyone else change and realizing that it’s not just you, it’s everybody that is changing. And you – it’s just really cool to be a part of a season with such great, genuine people who want to change their life and I’ve become close with a lot of people on the show and seeing and leaning on each other and realizing, you know, like we’re all just people trying to figure it out. And at the core of it, we’re all just going kind of through the same stuff. But that’s definitely a prideful moment to come. I mean we’re back for Finale Week and see how much people have worked hard and it’s just, there’s so much pride because you know that you were there with them at the beginning when you didn’t have any idea what you were doing. So seeing how far we all have come, it’s pretty powerful.”
CS4U: And if you could bring out some advice to viewers and people in general who would want to live a healthier lifestyle. What advice would you give them?
Erin Willett: “I think the biggest advice that I would give someone is you kind of have to make yourself a priority. I think in our day and age we naturally want to give our time to everyone else. We want to show up to things. You know, I feel like it’s always a big thing like you’re invited to a party. You just want to show up because you don’t want someone to be mad at you, but at the end of the day, you have to make yourself a priority, and if you need to go to the gym every day and you can’t go to Happy Hour or whatever and people are mad at you about that, that’s not your problem. And making yourself a priority and if you want to change, you can. But you have to change. You have to put things in place to make that happen and hold yourself accountable. And also just not comparing yourself to anyone else. I think that that’s a really harsh thing that we do in our society and especially with changing, everybody has their own journey. Everybody’s going to go through their own ups and downs. Whatever works for one person, might not work for another. So I think that’s also something, just not comparing yourself to anybody else.”
