Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition Season 2 Episode 3 “Michael” Recap
Willing and ready to start a new life, one in which people finally see who he really is; Mike reaches out to Chris Powell to help shed and lose his excess 300 pounds. At 28 years-old, Mike has been stuck in a rut, never having a girlfriend and only leaving the house to visit family members who live on the street, just to eat. With Chris’ help, Mike is ready to start the beginning of his transformation and truly start living.
During the initial weigh-in, Mike comes in at a staggering 493 pounds. He makes the rounds through the Health and Wellness facility learning he has sleep apnea, causing him to stop breathing during the night, but finds out that it is reversible, if he loses the excess weight. Chris works Mike hard during the “flight-or flight boot camp” to see if Mike has the resiliency to keep up the workout for the entire year.
Unfortunately, things don’t start out that good, with Mike barely putting 100% of the effort and leaving Chris frustrated so much so that he walks out of the workout all together. Chris decides to let Mike stew for a while, before heading to see Mike and offering a second chance. Mike jumps at the opportunity and puts 110% effort into the workout proving not only to Chris, but to more importantly to himself that if he applies himself, he can accomplish anything.
After the one week boot camp, Mike and Chris head back to Florida, where Mike’s living room has been transformed to his very own personal training facility. Chris explains that over the year, will be conducting into four phases comprised of three months, each with its own weight-loss goal. He also explains that for the next 3 months he will be living with Mike to help him receive the tools that is needed to help him lose weight.
For the first phase, Mike is tasked with the job of losing 120 pounds in three months, with milestone incentive of a dating coach/matchmaker. Up to the challenge, Mike tries his best, but stumbles back to old habits, never really finding the intensity, the drive to push harder. To help Mike further along, Chris enlists the help of his family who decided to workout with Mike and pledges to lose 500 pounds collectively as motivation, in turn Chris will train Mike and he will train his family. With this new incentive, Mike pushes himself to the limit, digging deep to meet his goal. He even has an intense and “stimulating” workout with the help of the WWE Divas to show him the “ropes”. In the end, at the three month weigh-in Mike loses exactly, 120 pounds dropping him to a new weight of 373 pounds and gaining him a dating coach/matchmaker to him with the ladies.
For the second phase, Mike needs to lose seventy pounds, but the difference is that Chris is no longer helping him. For this moment on, it is all up to Mike to succeed. The milestone incentive for this goal is a triathlon, which is a passion for Mike who did his first triathlon two years ago at 401 pounds. Furthermore, Mike wants to do an Iron Man competition and this incentive would really help in achieve his ultimate goal. During this phase, he also meets with the matchmaker who setups a speed dating event for him to attend in order for him to meet women and learn how to conduct himself in this new type of setting.
Mike is nervous, but does get a phone number from one of the girls, but know he has a lot to learn when it comes to women. He friends decide to setup him up on a blind date, which goes really well and ends with Mike getting his first kiss! He and his new girlfriend Megan, start spending a lot of time together, which leaves his exercising and his goal to fall to the wayside. When the weigh-in comes to pass, Mike loses only fifty-six pounds dropping him to a new weight of 303 pounds, which is still amazing, but does mean that he did not meet his phase two goal. Chris still gives him the option of participating in the triathlon, even though it will be harder for him since he did not lose the complete weight that was needed to help him through the competition.
Mike decides to do the triathlon anyway with Chris and kicks-ass! He breezes through the first two stages and trudges along through the third finishing the total course over a little four hours. For the third phase, Mike needs to lose fifty pounds in order to get back in track. With the help of his family and his girlfriend, Mike is able to lose fifty-six pounds dropping to 261 pounds giving him a forty-seven percent original weight-loss total also helping Mike qualify for skin removal surgery.
At the end of the year, the last final phase has come to pass including the final weigh-in and Mike looks like a completely different person. He looks healthier, stronger and more sure-of-himself than ever before. His family throughout his journey took it upon themselves to get healthier as well and lost a collective total of 442 pounds. Definitely quite an accomplishment! As for Mike, well he now weighs 238 pounds, giving him a grand total weight-loss of 255 pounds that transpired in just one whole year. Mike looks amazing and because of this transformation he is ready to start living life to its very fullest.
The episode ends, with an update. Mike is currently participating in speaking engagements to help motivate and inspire people to help them achieve their full potential no matter the obstacle. He also unfortunately, broke up with his girlfriend, learning that he still has some growing up to do before he works on building a relationship with someone, but he knows that that there is a special someone waiting for him and all he has to is just be himself.
Originally posted on Affairs Magazine
