Last week on The Biggest Loser, twins Roberto and Luis Hernandez battled it out at home in Chicago.
The opening challenge winner could choose a contestant from Team Jen and Team Dolvette to go home for the week where they would be surrounded by old habits and temptations. However, their weight would be the only one that mattered in the final weigh-in. Team Jen decided to send home both Luis and Roberto, hoping Luis would be motivated enough to beat his brother. In the end, Luis lost more weight than Roberto, forcing Team Dolvett to send home another team member, Rob Kidney, who fell below the red line.
After Rob went home, Team Jen and Team Dolvett were once again disassembled as the competition moved to singles. The players had spent nine weeks facing all types of temptations, but this week had them facing their biggest challenge yet — spending an entire week away from the ranch, eating, training and learning how to live their lives in the real world. With an equal number of boys and girls left in the competition, both the men and the woman tried to form alliances to bring down the other. At the final weigh-in, Lauren and Luis fell below the yellow line. Much to the disappointment of Luis and the other guys, Steve decided to send Luis home because he considered him the biggest threat to him in the competition.
CelebSecrets4U spoke with Luis Hernandez and Rob Kidney to find out about their experience on The Biggest Loser and what they are doing now at home to keep the weight off. Plus, they give some great advice for readers looking to live a more healthy and active lifestyle — make sure to read our Q&A below!
The Biggest Loser airs Monday, February 8, 2016 at 9pm ET on NBC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97tYreWbjyM
CS4U: First of all, can you tell us what you feel your experience being on The Biggest Loser has taught you?
Luis Hernandez: “You know, it’s opened so many doors for me. Eating beforehand was more of a pleasure. I loved eating and always have enjoyed eating. And I know a lot today I still like eating but now it’s in a more controlled setting where I appreciate my body a lot more than before and I’ve put in a lot of work to look the way I look. So I’ve learned how to control myself a lot better.”
Rob Kidney: “I have to agree with that. I’ve learned – I’ve just learned how to really lose the weight. I’ve learned how to record every single thing that goes into my body and stand back and look at it and make adjustments where I need to make it. And I guess that’s about it. It’s just really great to have that control.”
CS4U: What would you say was the biggest challenge for you while you were on The Biggest Loser ranch?
Luis Hernandez: “The biggest challenge was probably being away from my family. You know, having a newly born baby and a two-year old was kind of the hardest thing to do leaving them behind. But I look at the bigger picture – I looked at the bigger picture and the bigger picture was that if I leave them for three months or maybe four months, it’s a lot better than leaving them when I’m 50. So that’s the way I looked at it.”
Rob Kidney: “And mine was also family but also my business. Since I’m self-employed that eight inches between my ears got in the way all the time just wondering what is going on at home. Is my business going to still be there when I get back? What kind of problems, what kind of difficulties? Are we there? Yes, so that – for me it was family as well but business just – it took me a good number of weeks to get my mind settled so that I could let some of that stuff go and concentrate on me.”
CS4U: Are both of you cooking differently at home now? Are you keeping different foods on hand? How has that changed since you were on the show?
Luis Hernandez: “You know, definitely eating – coming from a Latino family we tend to fry everything and tend to overcook. Now, being back, you want to make sure – I definitely make sure that I only cook portions that I know is good to eat. Don’t overdo it. I am cooking a lot. Something about this whole experience is that opening doors to different type of foods. I wasn’t a salad guy before. Now I am a bigtime salad guy. I love eating salad so that’s something that’s changed. The cooking at home, my wife is doing a lot better. She’s cooking better for herself and cooking better for the kids. So yes, things have changed at home. Preparing foods for the week is also very important. Sometimes we cook for the whole week and have meals already designated for each day and that definitely has helped us.”
Rob Kidney: “All I can add to that is not just as its changed preparation. I mean preparation the same thing Luis said. Portions are the biggest thing with me. There’s no more – not usually four or five things to eat. There’s one or two little things to eat, maybe for variety but the portions are just so much smaller because I know I don’t need it. And before I would eat so fast that everything would be gone. And now I’m just eating slower and smaller portions and the biggest thing is actually before I even prepare the food when I’m buying the food I’m a label reader now. And I just never did that before in my life but right now everything you pick up you want to see how much sodium’s in it, how much fat, how much fiber, everything. It’s just everything about it has changed.”
CS4U: While you’re at the ranch you have all kinds of time to exercise. What are you both doing now to make sure that you’re getting your exercise?
Luis Hernandez: “Well at the ranch all we did was exercise. We had the time and the facilities. Here you have to be a little more creative. Any little time that you have, any time to exercise. If you’re sitting my thing is always that if you’re sitting down, you aren’t burning. So constant movement is very important. But besides just the little things I am taking some spinning classes, doing some CrossFit, also doing some workouts on the south side part of town, the south side – what’s it called – the Southside Knockout, okay. I also do some spinning with full cycle and I also do some CrossFit with Posted and LaGrange. So basically trying to get as much possible time to work out. Sometimes it’s a little hard. You’ve got to find a way to put it in.”
Rob Kidney: “I pretty much solved that problem by since I still have a business to run by getting up very early and trying to get to bed on time. Or I still – I’ve always functioned pretty well on less sleep. But I know that sleep is a very important part to what I’m doing now so I’m trying to get in bed by 10:30, 11:00 but I’m always up by, you know, by 5:30 at the gym. And try to get a couple hours in before work. Today in Georgia it’s 70 degrees, there’s going to be an afternoon bike ride when this is done. I do affectionately what I call a lot of group classes that I never did before. I called them girly classes, the body pump and I found once I went in there they probably kicked my tail more than I ever thought. I know why I never did them before because it’s like real work. And I do body combat, body pump, so I’ve kind of pushed myself in all directions. And I have some equipment here at home as Lewis does that we work on, some go-tos that even late at night when I’m watching TV – I was watching The Biggest Loser on my assault bike just to keep moving. There’s not much TV time around here, there’s not much sitting down but if I have to I’m going to sit on that assault bike and just pedal.”
CS4U: If you could bring out some advice to viewers and people in general who want to live a healthier lifestyle, what would you guys say?
Luis Hernandez: “You know what, I would say take it a day at a time. You know, we were put in extreme situation where we were allowed to exercise, were given healthy foods and, you know, all we thought about exercising. But for the real world it’s taking a day at a time. Yes, people are going to have hiccups. People are going to have hard times saying no to foods. But as long as you get back on track take it a day at a time.”
Rob Kidney: “That’s good. And I would add that I have learned that the biggest advice I could give anyone is to plan your day, to plan your food, and always, always, always have something healthy with you to snack on. For me just the biggest temptation to pull into a convenience store or a fast food place. It was just like it was the easy thing to do. But now that I spend more time prepping meals and prepping snacks and keeping snacks in my car, in my gym bag, that’s eliminated that completely and I now look at food as fuel.”
Photos: NBC
