Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition Season 2 Episode 5 “Nyla” Recap
At twenty-seven years old and 435 pounds, Nyla has been overweight most over life. She has an unhealthy addiction to food that she uses a way to numb her feelings of abandonment, stemming from never knowing her father.
Even though she presents a calm and collected front that is oozing “confidence,” Nyla in reality is desperately trying to keep it together and that is why she is finally reaching out to Chris for help. So when Nyla is at a Louisiana styled restaurant and she is chowing down ten pounds of crawfish with sausage, corn and potatoes Chris gives Nyla the surprise of her life, letting her now that she has been chosen for a transformation.
To say that Nyla is shocked, is an understatement, but she has been waiting for this moment and is ready to go. From the restaurant, Nyla is whisked away to the California Health and Longevity Institute where she goes through a copious amount of medical testing as well as the start of her mini boot camp. Not even two minutes in Nyla already starts to stall and doubt herself, but with Chris’s help she perceivers and pushes through the hardship and continues the workout.
After the one week mini boot camp is over, Nyla accompanied by Chris heads back home and is for a surprise. While she was away, her apartment has gone its own transformation with a newly added training room and updated kitchen. While taking in her new “surprise” Chris decides to explain how the next twelve months are going to play out. Over the course of a year, Nyla will go through a four phases that are comprised of three months. In addition, each phase has its own goal to help Nyla with her weight-loss and for Nyla…Phase One is about to begin.
For Phase one, Chris gives Nyla her first weight loss goal of losing 100 pounds with an incentive of having a dancing session with one of the dance instructors from Dancing with the Stars. From the moment, Nyla begins Phase One, it is a struggle. She continues to eat poorly, sneaking junk food behind Chris’s back all the while not giving her all during the exercises sessions. During her first exercising challenge, so completely loses it, giving up in a manner of minutes and walking out of the training all together.
After weeks of the same negative self-destructing attitude, Chris confronts Nyla. She keeps putting the blame on the issues in her life such as referring to her abandonment by her father. Chris tries to reassure her that he will never abandon her, but she needs to be the one to take control and decided to commit. Nayla reluctantly agrees and starts putting more effort into her workout sessions. Unfortunately the effort is a little too late. At the ninety day weigh-in, she loses only seventy-four pounds, giving her a new weight total of 361 pounds and leaving this first phase unsuccessfully fulfilled. Nyal and Chris are not happy with the turnout, but look to the brighter side that Nyla did in fact lose weight.
For Phase Two, Chris allows Nyla to set her own goal this time. She gives herself a seventy pound weight loss goal which is ambitious to say the least. Since this is Phase Two, Chris moves out of Nyla’s house leaving it all up to her to complete this goal. Well as the weeks pass, it is apparent that Nyla is not living up to her end of the bargain. She is barely exercising at all, believing her weight will magically disappear. When the six month weigh-in comes around she is in for a rude wake-up call losing only twenty pounds this phase. This drops her down to a new weight of 341 pounds, meaning she is the first person to not hit the 100 weight loss mark for the allotted time. She continues to put the blame on outside forces, this time on financial troubles. Chris tries to reinforce the importance of sticking to the exercise and nutrition regiment, but Nyla is not having it. She walks away, completely ignoring Chris all the way to her hotel room, leaving Chris to believe she has given up. Chris decides to try to convince Nyla to continue with the program, by making her understand how lucky she is to have this opportunity. Ultimately, his speech works and Nyla agrees to continue forward with the transformation.
At this time, Chris informs Nyla that he hired a private detective to find her father, which he has. He then proceeds to give Nyla an envelope of information not only pertaining to her father, but to his side of the family she has never met. Nyla declines opening the envelope, but during the one-on-one videos she asks the producers to see the information. According to a letter written by her aunt, (father’s sister) her dad was always remorseful for leaving his family. He was not in a good place, often getting arrested. He did however cleaned up his act, but committed suicide a year ago after the death of his late wife. Upon reading the news, Nyla completely breaks down letting go all of the pain she has carried around for all of her life. She tells Chris, that she doesn’t want to end up like her father slowly killing herself not when she has chance to turn herself around.
From this point on Nyla devotes herself to her transformation all the while bonding with her new found family members. When Phase Three’s weigh-in finally rolls around she loses thirty-eight pounds dropping her down to a new totally of 303 pounds. With all of the struggles Nyla has gone through, Chris decides to reward her with a dance lesson with Tony Dovoloni of Dancing with the Stars. She is a natural when it comes to dancing, never missing a beat or step. As the weeks progress, she unfortunately strains her back. This setback is a huge challenge for Nyla, because of the lengthy bed rest and recovery time. When the final weigh-in comes to pass Nyla loses a grand total of 157 pounds dropping her to a new weight of 278 pounds. Nyla and her family are thrilled at her accomplishment and so is Chris. She has complete changed her life all for the better and as a reward, Walmart has decided to give Nyla $50,000 gift card to help her continue to maintain her healthy lifestyle. Nyla is overwhelmed and stunned by the amount and vows to continue eating right, because this is just the beginning of a lifelong process and once she gets going there will be no way of stopping her!
Originally posted on Affairs Magazine
