No excuses, "I can't get out of my comfort zone"

So Conda is not only in good with a strong female alliance, she's also in a secret alliance with a handful of men. Gawd. We are never going to see the end of her, are we.

Kim's hypocrisy over the 'keep the strong people around you to compete with' plea while simultaneously being in an alliance aimed at getting all the strong men out of the house is pretty disgusting.

And as much as I appreciated seeing Dolvett in tight clothing, the whole ballet sequence was painful. From the clips they showed us of her dancing, the teacher was not that great; and she didn't seem to make any effort to correct what was HORRENDOUS technique on everyone's part. Emily's ass sticking out three miles behind her as she went down into her pliés hurt my eyes a whole lot. And would it have killed the teacher to ask them to point their toes even once?

Best. Line. Ever.

Dolvett: "Hello, ladies."

Milestones achieved:

• Cassandra dropped under 175lbs
  
• Emily hit the 25% mark of total loss
  

Potential milestones for next week:

• Jeremy could drop under 275lbs
  
• Conda could drop under 225lbs
  
• Kim could hit the 75lb mark of total loss
  
• Kimmy and Chris could hit the 25% mark of total loss
  
• Buddy could hit the 30% mark of total loss
  

"No excuses", episode 8

Two words: Oy. Vey.

The stupid was out in force this week, boy howdy!

I missed the first ten minutes or so of the episode, so I didn't see the lead-in to the temptation, but I think that what Daphne did was pure dumbass. She's just coming off a week where she was the team hero, and Chris has isolated herself from the rest of the Black team. Daphne would have been totally safe this week if she'd just kept her head down and been a team player! Instead, she decided to go for revenge, which is stupid anyway, because in a lot of ways, Adrian brought his being voted out down on his own self.

(And apparently his sister also inherited this ability.)

So in retaliation for the Jeremy/Conda team switching and the lying about it, most of Black throws the weigh-in to get rid of Daphne. (And they went about it really stupidly, too - they should have made sure they kept at least one or two people back and doing their best so as to make sure Daphne wasn't the biggest loser on the team. Luckily for them, though, the stress evidently did Daphne in.)

Except that from Emily's interview, it sounds like Conda was the one who came up with this strategy and persuaded almost everyone to throw the weigh-in. Interesting. So not only is Conda mean, she's manipulative and (evidently) charismatic. Ouch. We're never going to see the end of her, are we?

Sigh. At least she's nice to look at. Anyone else see a little bit of Kaley Cuoco in her?

Next week: I bet Black will kick ass on the scale.

Milestones achieved:

• Kim and Chris dropped under 200lbs (as predicted)
  
• Jeremy and Buddy hit the 75lb mark of total loss (as predicted)
  
• Mark (as predicted), Jeremy and Buddy (as predicted) hit the 20% mark of total loss
  
• Chris moved from clinically obese to obese (as predicted)
  

Potential milestones for next week:

• Mark could drop under 225lbs
  
• Emily and Conda could hit the 50lb mark of total loss (originally predicted for this week)
  
• Chism could hit the 75lb mark of total loss
  
• Kimmy, Emily, Chris and Chism could hit the 20% mark of total loss
  
• Kim could hit the 25% mark of total loss
  
• Chism could move from morbidly obese to clinically obese
  
• Mark and Kim could move from obese to overweight
  

"No excuses", episode 7

So we start off getting completely Jerry Springer between Daphne and Conda, while the rest of the house looks on with serious "holy crap" looks on their faces. Awkward!

So I guess it's pretty clear who is going to be the target of Conda's hatred this week. Personally, I think there's fault on both sides. Daphne's smoking crack if she thinks not liking someone isn't a good enough reason to vote them off. And Conda's smoking crack if she thinks for one second that denying they voted Adrian out because they didn't like him is even marginally believable.

As much as it ended up working out well, I think the trainers' decisions were pretty dumb. For Red, I totally would have chosen Buddy. He's got a NEWBORN, for crying out loud, so he should be going home to see the baby. Also, he's a consistent loser, plus he's already proven that he can do really well at home. But instead, Dolvett chooses the person who just had a kick-ass week and likely doesn't have much left in the tank for the next weigh-in. As for Daphne, Chris is right - she's already been home. She's also not as much of a proven entity as, say, Cassandra, who's the biggest loser in the entire house! Hello?!?

I found it was good to hear more about Conda's story. But on the other side, I was seriously annoyed that Bob wanted Daphne's motivation to be hatred, anger and revenge. The hell?!? How is that psychologically healthy?

I think it was quite the triumph for Daphne to overcome a two-pound disadvantage and kick ass for her team. Add Chris' generally poor attitude annoying her teammates, and she's quite safe not to be voted off for a while, I should think.

Bonus nice thing this week: Kim's looking like she's getting abs!

Milestones achieved:

• Chism dropped under 300lbs (as predicted)
  
• Conda dropped under 250lbs (as predicted)
  
• Daphne dropped under 225lbs
  
• Roy (as predicted), Mark (as predicted), Kim (better than expected) and Cassandra (as predicted) hit the 50lb mark of total loss
  
• Roy, Megan, Kimmy, Daphne, Conda and Chris hit the 15% mark of total loss
  
• Kim and Cassandra hit the 20% mark of total loss
  
• Daphne moved from morbidly obese to clinically obese (as predicted)
  
• Roy moved from clinically obese to obese (as predicted)
  

Potential milestones for next week:

• Kim and Chris could drop under 200lbs
  
• Emily, Daphne and Conda could hit the 50lb mark of total loss
  
• Jeremy and Buddy (originally predicted for this week) could hit the 75lb mark of total loss
  
• Mark, Daphne and Buddy could hit the 20% mark of total loss
  
• Conda could move from morbidly obese to clinically obese
  
• Chris could move from clinically obese to obese
  

No excuses", episode 6

I think Chism summed up Adrian's problems the best not four minutes into the show: "Adrian, stop talking!!! This isn't your moment, this isn't The Adrian Show, this is The Biggest Loser! All you're doing is making trouble for yourself. It's like you're saying everything wrong, and you're just not thinking, and what you should do is step back, and listen to what's going on around you before you start trying to make a scene about every little thing that happens." That right there is everything you need to know about how Adrian's been behaving for the past two shows.

And honestly, serious kudos to Chism for being firm to Adrian and bringing the focus back to Cassandra's sadness. I wouldn't have had the cojones to do that to an adult many years my senior when I was nineteen.

At any rate, although I do think Adrian has a point that he wasn't given much of a chance, I also have to say that his complete inability to SHUT THE EFF UP was very annoying; divisive for the house in general; and definitely something I'm glad I won't have to see every week anymore. Now if we can just give Conda the boot, things would be great.

And about Conda: my kids play Webkinz Junior, and there's a video section in there which runs lessons about good behaviour and bad behaviour, and one of the videos is about "Tattling". In this video, a character named Earthworm starts telling her teacher all about what everybody else is doing: "Miss Lily, Honeydew is looking out the window!"; "Miss Lily, Clover is reading a book!"; "Miss Lily, Hazel is touching the science centre!"; etc. Finally, it's "Miss Lily, everyone is talking!" and the entire class yells out, "Stop it, Earthworm!!!" Miss Lily then sits down with Earthworm to explain that it's not Earthworm's job to make sure other people are following the rules; the only person whose behaviour Earthworm is responsible for is Earthworm herself.

Yeah.

I think Conda seriously needs to see that video.

Milestones achieved:

• Mark dropped below 250lbs (predicted)
  
• Megan and Emily dropped below 225lbs (predicted)
  
• Cassandra dropped below 200lbs (predicted)
  
• Chism hit the 50lb mark of total loss (predicted)
  
• Daphne and Adrian hit the 10% mark of total loss (predicted)
  
• Mark (predicted), Kim (predicted), Jeremy (predicted), Emily (predicted), Chism (better than predicted) and Buddy (predicted) hit the 15% mark of total loss
  
• Jeremy moved from super-obese to morbidly obese (better than predicted)
  
• Cassandra moved from clinically obese to obese (predicted)
  

Potential milestones for next week:

• Conda could drop below 250lbs
  
• Chism could drop below 300lbs
  
• Roy, Mark and Cassandra could hit the 50lb mark of total loss
  
• Buddy could hit the 75lb mark of total loss
  
• Daphne could move from morbidly obese to clinically obese
  
• Roy could move from clinically obese to obese
  

"No excuses", episode 5

If Conda rolls her eyes at the current person that she "hates so much" one more time, I'm gonna...well, I dunno. Not much, I guess. But it's still supremely annoying. Conda honey, maybe your life would be so much better if you didn't actively try to be so negative about people all the freakin' time. I mean, seriously, Adrian has a fabulous first workout with Dolvett and everyone else is pretty darn impressed, and all Conda can say is, 'yeah, that wasn't really a hard workout so it doesn't count'. Bite me, lady.

However, I agree that Adrian suffers from not knowing when to shut up and listen. He has no idea of the dynamics of the house he's just been thrown into, but he keeps shooting off his mouth, and thus simultaneously planting his foot in it. I agree wholeheartedly with him that it is demeaning for him, a grown man, to be told to shut up and listen, but I also have to admit that the people giving him this advice - as much as they should have put it differently - were right.

And I have to admit that I was thinking along the same lines as Mark in terms of, did Adrian and Daphne throw the weigh-in so they could kick ass next week? I think it's a distinct possibility. However, it's also possible that their different (on-ranch) diet was responsible. Who knows. Based on how they were acting, though, I'm leaning towards thinking it was actually game play.

Milestones achieved:

• Buddy dropped below 350lbs (predicted)
  
• Nancy dropped below 200lbs (predicted)
  
• Megan and Kimmy hit the 25lb mark of total loss (predicted)
  
• Jeremy hit the 50lb mark of total loss (predicted)
  
• Megan (better than predicted) and Conda (predicted) hit the 10% mark of total loss
  
• Cassandra (predicted) hit the 15% mark of total loss
  
• Nancy moved from clinically obese to obese (predicted)
  

Potential milestones for next week:

• Mark could drop below 250lbs (originally predicted for this week)
  
• Megan and Emily could drop below 225lbs
  
• Cassandra could drop below 200lbs
  
• Chism could hit the 50lb mark of total loss (originally predicted for this week)
  
• Daphne and Adrian could hit the 10% mark of total loss
  
• Mark (orignially predicted for this week), Kim (originally predicted for this week), Jeremy, Emily and Buddy could hit the 15% mark of total loss
  
• Cassandra could move from clinically obese to obese
  

"No excuses", episode 4

Chris is so beautiful I can barely stand it. If she makes it to Makeover Week and they take the silver out of her hair, I am going to be pissed.

I must admit, Gail's baseless and pointless sob act was grating on my nerves, so I'm kind of glad we won't have to see that anymore.

Definitely rooting for Adrian and Daphne to get back into the house! (Based on the fact that NBC has videos of them interviewing on-ranch, I strongly suspect they succeeded.)

And once again, we have Conda deciding that she hates somebody. I don't know what her issues are, but their manifestation does continue to piss me off.

Milestones achieved:

• Jeremy dropped under 350lbs (as predicted)
  
• Gail dropped under 300lbs (as predicted)
  
• Roy and Conda dropped under 275lbs (as predicted)
  
• Kim dropped under 225lbs (as predicted)
  
• Kimmy dropped under 200lbs (as predicted)
  
• Kim (as predicted), Gail (as predicted), Emily (as predicted), Conda (as predicted) and Chris (unpredicted) hit the 25lb mark of total loss
  
• Buddy hit the 50lb mark of total loss (as predicted)
  
• Roy (as predicted), Mark (as predicted), Kimmy (unpredicted), Kim (as predicted), Jeremy (as predicted), Emily (unpredicted), Chris (unpredicted), Chism (as predicted) and Buddy (as predicted) hit the 10% mark of total loss
  
• Emily moved from morbidly obese to clinically obese (as predicted)
  
• Mark and Kim moved from clinically obese to obese (unpredicted)
  

Potential milestones for next week:

• Buddy could drop under 350lbs
  
• Mark could drop under 250lbs
  
• Nancy could drop under 200lbs
  
• Megan (originally predicted for this week) and Kimmy could hit the 25lb mark of total loss
  
• Jeremy and Chism could hit the 50lb mark of total loss
  
• Conda could hit the 10% mark of total loss
  
• Mark, Kim and Cassandra could hit the 15% mark of total loss
  
• Nancy could move from clinically obese to obese
  

"No excuses", episode 3

So this week my distaste for Conda deepened. Clearly she just has to have an enemy of some kind. Mike's gone, so she decided to turn her schoolyard bitchiness on to Cassandra, and then Dolvett (who admittedly looked like he was just trying to shift the blame off of himself when he called her out at the weigh-in). Good grief. I'm also getting increasingly annoyed at Kim's competitiveness. I love determination and grit as much as the next person, but to turn that into insulting your fellow competitors? Not cool. Fortunately, Chism didn't appear to let it get to him (unlike Cassandra with Conda's behaviour, unfortunately). I like that boy.

Also, could it be any more obvious that Emily's relationship with her dad is a huge source of her issues? Yowza.

Still not sure why Buddy gave up his video chat to Mark. Buddy's got small children, whereas Mark's kids are older. Mark's already got a kid with him on the ranch, while Buddy has nobody...it's weird. Unless a) Buddy felt that the video chat would send him over the edge and make him want to quit just like Joe; and/or b) Buddy perceives Mark as someone who will be a big power in the house and wants to be owed a favour.

And speaking of Joe - geez. As was said on the show, his family needs him on the ranch. Loads of people season after season have avoided quitting even though it was eating them up being away from their loved ones. Although Bob was full of it when he said no one had ever quit in the history of the Biggest Loser before. Hello? Can you say...Rulon?

Sad that Lauren's gone, but in hindsight, I guess it shouldn't have been too surprising. A team that wants to focus on keeping the people around who need to be on the ranch the most would certainly be well-advised to give Lauren the boot first. Add to that the fact that she doesn't seem to be too charismatic or memorable, and you have the kiss of death. So glad to see her doing so well at home!

Milestones achieved:

• Emily dropped below 250lbs (as predicted)
  
• Chris dropped below 225lbs (as predicted)
  
• Roy (better than predicted), Mark, Jeremy (as predicted), Chism (as predicted) and Cassandra (better than predicted) hit the 25lb mark of total loss
  
• Cassandra hit the 10% mark of total loss (better than predicted)
  
• Buddy moved from super-obese to morbidly obese (as predicted)
  
• Megan (better than predicted) and Chris (as predicted) moved from morbidly obese to clinically obese
  
• Kimmy moved from clinically obese to obese (as predicted)
  

Potential milestones for next week:

• Jeremy could drop below 350lbs
  
• Gail could drop below 300lbs
  
• Roy and Conda (originally predicted for this week) could drop below 275lbs
  
• Kim could drop below 225lbs
  
• Kimmy could drop below 200lbs
  
• Megan, Kim, Gail, Emily and Conda could hit the 25lb mark of total loss
  
• Buddy could hit the 50lb mark of total loss
  
• Roy, Mark, Kim, Jeremy, Chism and Buddy could hit the 10% mark of total loss
  
• Emily could move from morbidly obese to clinically obese