My family - my parents, sister and her fiance - was gathered around our dining room table on New Year's Day, facing approximately 700 pounds of Chinese takeout, when my father was distracted by several significantly overweight people on the television who were running up a very steep hill in pairs. Actually, some were crawling at various points, others were crying, a soap opera star was involved, and in general the whole scene was fairly disturbing.

Welcome to the The Biggest Loser, Couples, brand new for the '08, and please pass the egg rolls.

And yes, I'm watching it, before I go on. And so is my father. For the answer to the inevitable "why", I will paraphrase him here, albeit between distracting bites of fried rice:

"It's got everything, for God's sake. Drama. The reality business. Fitness competitions. Accidental comedy. Family conflict. It's ridiculous. I'm watching it."

What's a daughter to say to that but "Well, alrighty then."

Now, I'm not really here to discuss the relative merits or lack thereof of the show, although I could go on for several hours about those, to everyone's glee. I just find it interesting that in spite of an embarrassing foray into that show where they picked the leads for the Broadway production of Grease, my father is not a reality show fan, unless Poker With the Stars or whatever that weirdness is on the sports channel counts. He berates American Idol from start to finish, as my mother is engrossed in it, of course, which makes this Biggest Loser interest a little strange.

Now me, I've been known to watch an episode or 20 of some dubious programming (COUGH, Rock of Love 2 much?) and can quote most of the activities of the Real World casts until they all started looking like a cross between Old Navy and Playboy models, so it's less shocking that I'd be sitting there engrossed as the masochistic contestants on TBL got their t-shirts in various colors and cried (cried!) because they didn't get Jillian Michaels, their trainer of choice. So it's kind of touching that we could turn it into a father-daughter enterprise, especially because there was a father-daughter weight loss team on the show. Perfect. Happy new year.

The rest of the family remained focused on their Szechuan beef as an excuse to avert their eyes, while I worried aloud about the physical safety of the folks crawling up and down the sizeable hill, and got creeped out by the comments Alison Sweeney makes at weigh-in.

"Seven pounds this week, hmm? How do you FEEL about that?" she says, in her "I"m Sami from Days of Our Lives" voice.

Whatever, Alison Sweeney. They're standing up there in their exercising unmentionables on a gigantic Willy Wonka-style metal scale, which I totally give them credit for, because hello? Me in a sports bra on television? Standing atop something that looks like a trap door's going to open under me or a giant hook is going to come out any second? Not gonna happen. How do you think they feel? (I mean, besides totally wanting to be above the yellow line, because they want to win thousands of dollars, and also wanting to kick the football player team's collective butt, but that's kind of obvious.)

But still I watch it. This year, as I said, they're competing in pairs, which the show's official site doesn't reflect yet (Get on it, NBC. Feed the writers. Stop the madness.) Off the top of my head, they're a mother and son, a father and daughter, a mother and daughter, a few married couples, two brothers, football teammates, best friends, and one very brave formerly married couple. Alison Sweeney writes about it in her blog here, and sounds lots nicer than I surmised from the show, so I guess I should lay off.

Right from when we first started discussing the possibility of doing teams of two, I loved the idea. To have a teammate with you, going through this experience, would add so many interesting dynamics to the show. First of all, you have a built in support system. Some one who will love you no matter what happens on campus. But, then in some ways maybe it’s harder too. And gotta love Jillian’s comment – they may be bringing their ‘enabler’ with them…What’s harder: getting on the scale in front everyone in America, or getting on the scale in front of your husband?

It’s a little bit difficult to get to know 20 new people right away. Some personalities stand out more than others. Paul for example… he teased me and let me in on his sense of humor right away. And I am, of course, fascinated by his relationship with his ex-wife, Kelly. They both seem like great people, and its so interesting that they are ex’s who decided to team up for an experience like the Biggest Loser. Obviously they still care about each other a lot.

Right away, I love Dan – he is hilarious, and very charming. He and his mom are so boisterous and they have a very loving relationship. Talking to all three parent-child teams really struck home for me. I have a young son, and I am trying so hard to teach him healthy eating habits and getting him outside to play all the time, so I know how tough it is. And I relate to these Bette-Sue, Jackie and Lynn, feeling like they are responsible for their child being in this situation. But I love the pro-active attitude both members of these teams have taken. The kids aren’t letting their parents take all the responsibility, and they are definitely all taking on the challenge of getting healthy.

(Yes, they are exes, and quite entertaining at that. And Dan? Dude has hit some role-playing game websites. He knows his strategy, whereas Bette Sue is pure "please please please lemme get what I want" id. Love me some Bette-Sue. We could hang out.)

My personal jury is still out on how this family weight loss thing works. It's one thing to sit there with my father chowing down and observing other people busting their asses on television, but quite another to be running up and down a hill with him, or to be pacing around a field with huge (seriously, very huge) balloons strapped to us. And working out in a gym all day with him, where we're being filmed. And then sharing a room with him. And being filmed. And sharing a ROOM with him, while I'm hungry, and have no contact with the outside world, my only respite my exhaustion from working out FIVE HOURS A DAY.

Wow. No thanks. Not sure we could handle it, or more appropriately that I could. And besides those logistical issues that go along with filming such a show, there's the whole losing weight enterprise, with Jillian Michaels potentially yelling in my face, that I'm not sure I want to partner up with anyone on, especially my father. Treadmilling side-by-side I could probably handle, but that might be the limit. Recommitting to fitness for the countless time is hard enough. Add a family member in there, as much as I love them, and I'm just not sure I could swing it. Pressure, baggage, etc., because the significant others? They can have a lot to do with this glorious yellow brick road of food and body issues that so many of us walk, in sometimes not-so-comfy shoes, be they ruby or not.

Erin at Minxredux has had some trouble dealing with a male friend's attitude about her body and weight loss.

But to answer A...when I say there's a man's voice in every woman's head, I was generalizing the basic desire that anyone feels to be adored, accepted, beloved for who she is. And it may not necessarily be just an old boyfriend or a thoughtless teenage boy in high school or whatever...it could be a mother, or a girlfriend, or even just a stranger on the street who made a snide comment in passing...but those voices exist, and it takes a lot of strength to rise above the basic sentiment of you're not good enough for me. Sometimes it takes hundreds of days of failing, thousands of miles on the elliptical...it takes pain and sweat and tears and that exquisitely painful process of breaking yourself down, looking at all the pieces, and then putting yourself back together again to make someone recognizable and yet stronger. I'm trying to say the emotional reasons for losing weight never really go all the way away, even though most of us evolve to a level where working and out and eating right for the sake of feeling good is a much more viable option for our lives.

Here's another post of Erin's on the same topic, where she says she'll "never blog about this again." I hope she does, for as long as she needs to.

Neill and Amanda were the married couple contestants who got voted off last week. Per the editing, Neill didn't like to work out. Neill didn't "want to be there" (HUGE buzzword on the TBL "campus", by the way. You gotta wanna be there, baby, or that's going to be the excuse when the other teams write your names in Sharpie (c) marker on the tent card.)

Here's an interview with Neil and Amanda where he says he wasn't the slacker, totally lazy, misogynistic bad guy who let his wife take the fall for her crocodile tears at the last minute (SLAM!) that everyone made him out to be, and she concurs.

Q. Mark, RealityWanted.com: What did you change about yourself?

A. Neil, Biggest Loser Couples: I dealt with several emotional issues I had been dealing with for years. When I got home I did some soul searching, Amanda and her family also helped me change my can’t do attitude to a can do attitude.

Q. Mark: Amanda, has Neil changed?

A. Amanda, Biggest Loser Couples: I think the portrayal for Neil was accurate but as Neil stated sadly viewers never got to see how much Neil supported and encouraged me during the show. He is a much more positive Neil these days, we workout and have fun.

HamsterDame doesn't feel for Amanda and Neill.

After the weigh-in, the purple told everybody that they've been working hard the whole time. Amanda (white) basically begged everybody to not vote them off just because of her husband. You know, I couldn't stand the way she tried to appeal to everybody. Girl, this is a competition and if your husband is a lazy ass then too bad. Yeah, you're working hard but you surely can't expect everybody to keep you around because they feel sorry you're stuck with a bum. Anyway....

Kim of Miss Zoot also writes at TVBloggin.com, where she had this to say about the various and sundry relationships and weight loss efforts:

Now - what did you think about last night’s episode? I actually really enjoyed the Mom/Daughter team drama last night. I know sometimes this show takes advantage of the vulnerability of the contestants to milk the drama, but last night’s episode just seemed so hopeful. Like - I really felt like they were both pleased with their talk about how Ali grew up feeling a little alone. I loved how Bette Sue said something along the lines of Ali sticking with her through all of her loser boyfriends. That was priceless! I really am pulling for Bette Sue. I just feel like she is really there to change her life.

I was also glad to see the Blue Team do so well. And I loved Bernie swearing the difference was because he hadn’t shaved. I like the idea of two strangers being as strong of a team as two loved ones. I was kinda bummed to see the Yellow Team beat them out. Where I love to see an underdog team come to the front of the pack, I’m just not sure what I think about Paul yet. I can’t quite get behind rooting for him for some reason.

Where do you stand so far during this season? Do you like the Couples Concept? Are you rooting for any team in particular? My favorites were booted last week, so I don’t know who I’m rooting for right now.

Yes, there is one wild card "couple" who didn't know each other at all, who were apparently chosen through the TBL online community.

And although it doesn't have much to do with the family affair that is this year's hook (and indeed the reason for this very post), I'll make an exception for humor and smarts and share Weetabix's 10 reasons she hates The Biggest Loser. Here's #4:

4. The weigh-in uniform. Girls wear just a sports bra but the guys get to have some modesty by wearing their Biggest Loser shirts until the moment they step on the scale. I understand the fear of a prolonged span across a crowd of man nipples, but the girls should get to wear a shirt too, damn it.

So what about Lynn and Jenni, the dad and daughter on the show? Well, simply put, they were sort of a mess. In spite of Jenni's worries that he'd die soon, Lynn's feet were all blistered and he just wasn't into it. Like Neill, he didn't want to be there, and I've already told you what that means in Biggest Loser land. Jenni was quite upset, and she cried and told him he was letting her down, but Lynn was over it. They were the first pair to go.

Darlene interviewed them a couple of weeks ago at Reality Insiders.

"Now, it really seemed like you wanted to stay and your dad was okay with going. What conversation did you two have after you were eliminated?

Jenni: After those final interviews, our conversation, there really wasn't any for a good 12 hours afterwards. We didn't really have anything to say.

Lynn: There was a conversation after we found out that we were in the bottom two and we went to the elimination room, and that was a lot of conversation.

Jenni: But, when we came home, the trip home was hard, but after that, I just started getting on Dad about the fitness. And everyone else was on him as well, and I don't think he was expecting that. And, it was hard for him, and we were very hard on him, but then now, he's really gotten with the program. I'm very pleased to see that, I really am.

Lynn: I'm pleased with you too, Jen.

Jenni: Thank you, Dad."

Here's another interview with the pair at iVillage. Dad wanted to go home, that's it.

Finally, check out BlogHer '07 attendees Jen of ToledoLefty and
Shauna aka DietGirl with Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels at the Chicago conference. And check out their blogs to see how big losing is really done. Here's Shauna's blog, The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl and Angryfatgirlz, where Jen is a team member.

Laurie White writes (and swears she's going to start exercising again) at LaurieWrites