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Biggest losers reunion: See how we kept the weight off!

Biggest losers reunion: See how we kept the weight off!

Their weight-loss achievements inspired us – now we catch up with past contestants to see how they’ve survived after the show.

Many thought they’d go back to their old ways once they left the house, but all our contestants say there’s no way they’ll ever return to their former selves – unhealthy, unhappy and uncontrollable.

For a few, The Biggest Loser experience has been so profound it has even spurred them to help others. And they all agree that a certain TV show gave them an opportunity for a new lease on life – one in which food is about choice rather than compulsion. They will never be the same again…

Teresa Mackay: “I had no friends and my husband left me”

“I decided to move to Newcastle, NSW, after the show ended. I’d never really had friends or been part of a team before. I’d never lived my life. Now, I have awesome friends and a wonderful new life.

“Before the show I was married. My ex-husband left me before the auditions. He wasn’t happy and neither was I, but he was the only one who had the balls to leave. “I am back working as a personal trainer and I play indoor netball and soccer. I’m back into kickboxing, and I go running on the sand.

Daina Bottrell: “I used to pretend I was happy”

“I put on a couple of kilos after the show, but that’s natural. It’s such a fabricated environment in the house – the only thing you can binge on is an orange! “I’m a size 12 still and I’m really happy with that. I feel fit and healthy. I play netball and I go for runs – I recently did a 10km run to raise money for [cancer charity] Canteen. Now I’m focusing on fitness rather than weight loss.

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John Laws: I’m just an average Joe

John Laws: I'm just an average Joe

John Laws opens up to Glen Williams about his amazing life, his great love, and why he’ll never be contented.

On the eve of his return to radio, John Laws is in a reflective mood, gazing intently at the lapping waters of Sydney Harbour as they ebb and flow beneath his plush Woolloomooloo apartment.

“I’m very happy with being undisturbed and living with this peace and quiet,” he says calmly, as one of his many elaborate antique clocks strikes the hour and sets his three much adored British shorthair cats – Leo, Pushkin and Ernest – scurrying. “You know I don’t think there’s a single radio in the house.”

At 75, John is happy in himself and more in love than ever with third wife Caroline … just don’t call him contented.

“I don’t think contentment is a good idea. Contentment leads to mediocrity and mediocrity is an offence. I think you get self-absorbed if you’re contented. If you’re totally content you tend not to think about others and that’s a pity.”

Perhaps that’s the reason he’s returning to the slaughterhouse that is commercial radio.

“Retirement didn’t agree with me. Radio has been my life, I don’t know anything else. And I lived it 24 hours a day for 55 years, and it’s very difficult to get out of your blood, particularly when you live in a vibrant country with so many things that people want to talk about. And I like to hear what the average Joe has to say about things.”

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Real life diet success story: Darnell Milford

“In the past six months I’ve lost 15kg – the last 4kg on the Woman’s Day diet, which I thoroughly enjoyed road testing.

It’s really family-friendly, so I didn’t have to cook separate meals for the kids, and there was even a hamburger in one week. You can still enjoy a few wines and some chocolate every week too.

“I also love the Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred video (it’s only 20 minutes) and I do it six times a week.

Related video: See Darnell’s and the other finalists’ makeovers and weight loss stories in the video below.

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Real life diet success story: Leanne Thompson

“I had always been 15-20kg overweight, but the kilos really piled on while breastfeeding my youngest daughter, Hallie. But even when Hallie turned two, my weight wouldn’t shift.

“Then in February 2009 my weight problems hit crisis point when I suddenly started to notice numbness in my hands and feet. I was chronically fatigued, couldn’t get through the day without a nanna nap and felt like collapsing every time I lifted Hallie.

“A few months earlier, I had also noticed a deep depression and crippling anxiety. I was constantly exhausted and every morning there would be some little voice calling ‘Mummy, Mummy’.

“I began to resent my children, and was frequently yelling because I was so exhausted. In fact, one day Brooke actually told me she was scared of me – that was another reason I needed to get my health issues in control.

“I traipsed off to the doctor’s and, finally, a test result for multiple sclerosis came back inconclusive. I was told to see a neurologist for more tests. I was horrified at the thought of being confined to a wheelchair or that my little girls, Brooke, 9, and Hallie, 4, might have to help my hubby Bill look after their own mum.

“I read a lot about MS. There is no cure and doctors can only treat the symptoms – and I knew my weight wouldn’t help.

Related video: See Leanne and the other finalists’ makeovers and weight loss stories in the video below.

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Williams speaks about Heath

Michelle Williams has opened up about Heath Ledger‘s death from an accidental drug overdose in 2008.

The actress, who has a five-year-old daughter Matilda from her relationship with the late actor, said she coped with the loss by reading The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

“It didn’t seem unlikely to me that he could walk through a door or could appear behind a bush,” she explained in an interview with the US NightLine program.

“It was a year of very magical thinking, and in some ways I’m sad to be moving further and further away from it,” she said.

Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger.

Michelle and Heath met on the set of Brokeback Mountain.

Michelle with the couple’s child Matilda.

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*From Blood*

In 30 words or less, tell us what is great about a book you are reading at the moment. The best critique will be printed in the March issue of The Weekly and the writer will win The AWW Cooking School cookbook, valued at $74.95.

FROM BLOOD BY EDWARD WRIGHT, ORION, $32.99..

Is it the confessional protagonist Shannon Fairchild or the gritty domestic political-thriller plot that conjures the heady aura of film noir in this crime novel? Either way – and it’s probably a combination of the two – it makes for a compulsive and very visual read.

Author Edward Wright, whose first career was newspaper editor, gives just enough detail and description to paint the picture but also devotes time to developing his characters beyond the usual crime-thriller stereotypes, so you care about what happens to them.

The result is a fast-paced, engaging read, perfect to transport you on lazy summer days.

The novel opens with a powerful scene. It’s 1968 and a security guard and his child are blown up in what appears to be a callous, terrorist-style attack. Fast-forward to present day and Shannon Fairchild is nursing a shiny black eye as she is hauled in front of a judge in a local courthouse to explain the drunken brawl that landed her in the clink overnight. How Shannon is linked to this event unfolds much, much later in the novel.

Shannon is the rebellious bolshy heroine who has always felt like the square peg in her academic, high-achieving family circle, not because she couldn’t keep up, but because she felt an uncontrollable need to rebel.

When her parents are tortured, murdered and their home torched, Shannon is forced to revisit her notion of these mild-mannered professors and of her troubled role within the family unit. A curious message from her dying mother’s bedside sets Shannon on a path to investigate their past and fulfil her mother’s final request. What she discovers, however, is a disturbing and rather exciting back story of radical politics that careered far beyond a few student rallies. Shannon is perplexed and the more she uncovers, the more she realises how little she understood her parents and how much they understood her.

While you won’t be guessing all the way to the last line, there are enough turns to keep the plot moving and plenty of tightly drawn characters. But the real strength of Wright’s tale is his central character: the feisty, self-deprecating “girl pirate” who just can’t help but get involved.

In 30 words or less, tell us what is great about a book you are reading at the moment. The best critique will be printed in the March issue of The Weekly and the writer will win The AWW Cooking School cookbook, valued at $74.95.

Please ensure you leave an email address you can be contacted on in order to be eligible for the prize.

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*The Hundred Foot Journey*

The Hundred Foot Journey BY RICHARD C. MORAIS, ALLEN & UNWIN, $27.99.

If you enjoy a novel about food, you’re sure to love this tale of restaurant rivalry set in provincial France.

When the Haji family arrives in the village of Lumiere – with the dust of Mumbai still on their clothes and intoxicating Indian flavours suffusing their cooking – little do they know they have set up their restaurant opposite a Michelin-starred establishment which has been revered for generations. What ensues is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant battle of wits and dishes that will have your mouth watering.

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*Rescue*

RESCUE BY ANITA SHREVE, LITTLE, BROWN, $32.99.

Peter Webster is a good man and a single dad raising teenage daughter Rowan. For 17 years, they’ve lived a simple life together, but they’re missing a wife and mother.

The missing wife and mum in question is Sheila Arsenault, who was a young woman on the run when she crashed her car and met Webster, a rookie paramedic. He fell hard and quickly, and for a while he and Sheila were happy. yet even Webster couldn’t save his wife from herself. What happened to drive them apart? And can it ever be forgiven? For Rowan’s sake, their troubled past has to be addressed. It takes a second near-tragedy to bring this family together. The plot of Rescue sounds gruelling, but makes smooth reading.

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*Why Men Are Necessary And More News From Nowhere*

WHY MEN ARE NECESSARY AND MORE NEWS FROM NOWHERE BY RICHARD GLOVER, ABC BOOKS, $27.99.

Why Men Are Necessary is something like what you’d get if you crossed Seinfeld with Neighbours. An Australian family, doing nothing particularly extraordinary, is transformed into 24-carat comedy gold.

Richard Glover’s beloved Jocasta is a feisty woman “with the body of a goddess and the vocabulary of a wharfie”, she’s partnered with a “heroic” male, “handsome, intelligent, sharp of eye and mind”. You might guess who that could be. Their domestic adventures and those of sons, Batboy and The Space Cadet, are hilarious because of our instant connection with them, ordinary family events, and they are told with sly wit and side-splitting one-liners.

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*The Courier’s Tale*

THE COURIER’S TALEBY PETER WALKER, BLOOMSBURY, $32.99.

This is the story of the only man to tell Henry VIII the truth about his laughable lust for Anne Boleyn and the cold-blooded murders he committed to get what he wanted.

Reginald Pole was Henry’s Plantagenet cousin, who came close to becoming both Pope and King of England. His story is told through the eyes of Pole’s canny courier Michael Throckmorton, a man who spent much of his life galloping between Italy and London. The novel is based largely on his letters, which are still held in the British archives. The Courier’s Tale is a fascinating lesson in history and in the psychology of a man who dared to cross one of the world’s most powerful men – and paid the price.

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