Being a contestant on The Biggest Loser gives folks a chance to focus solely on their health and weightloss, without the pressures of their daily lives. But what happens when they have to go home and reintegrate into their jobs and families? OHSOGRAY chatted with Gina Haddon and Mike Murburg who both recently left the Ranch. Here’s what they had to say about their adjustment into the real world.
The Biggest Loser airs Thursdays at 8/7c on NBC.
Gina, your family has gotten a unique perspective that a lot of families don’t get because they’ve got to see another side of you in watching you on the show. How has that changed your relationship?
Gina Haddon: Here’s one thing I used to do. My husband is very active. He does everything. He plays every sport. I used to be like: honey, I don’t understand why you don’t want to stay with me. Why don’t you want to stay home with me? Why don’t you want to go to the grocery store with me? And he was like because I got to go – I’ve got this team I’ve got to go play this game or whatever; baseball or softball or whatever. I never understood that. I never understood the love of your team, and the love of your game, and that that fulfilled him.
I used to think it just took time away from me. Now after being on the show and having a team, I get that and I push him to go do stuff or I’ll go with him. I’ll go to his games. I’m going to get on a softball team, which is a coed softball team, and I’ve never played before. It’s brought us closer together as a family because I no longer resent him for taking time out for himself because I get it now. I see how that fills you up. It’s just changed the whole dynamic of the house, I mean we’re just an active family, I’m no longer just sitting in the house watching TV; watching everybody go do their stuff or just running them from here to there. It’s like our unit has changed.
Has the experience of watching you on the show changed your relationship with your children? Do you feel like they approach you differently now than they did before?
Gina Haddon: I don’t know if they approach me any more different because they’re still crazy and think that I’m Wonder Woman and ask me for everything and never stop. But I think now they know that I have to do me, for lack of a better term. They know now that if I say no, it’s not because I’m just saying no; it’s because I have to go do something and they’re a little bit more laxed with me now.
Like my daughter she would ask me to do something, and I would tell her no she would give me crap about it. And now it’s like she’s a little bit more understanding and she’s like I’ll until you get home. She’s still 15 and smart butt, but she’ll say fine, I’ll wait until you get home because she knows that this is a priority in my life now.
Them seeing me cry on TV…they hug me a lot more now. I think I used to just be this stone person that was just always there and – not that they walked over me, but, you know, I think they appreciate me a little bit more now, and they see that I have feelings, too. So I do think it changed a little bit watching me on TV, be human.
Mike, Working as an attorney, there’s definitely a sedentary aspect to that kind of office work. What are you doing to kind of combat that during the workday?
Mike Murburg: The first thing I do is I get up at 5:30 in the morning. I’m in the pool between 6:00 and 8:00, sometimes as late as 8:30. Because I founded this office and I have another partner who, she did a great job of covering for me and all while I was gone, she took all my hearings over — and we do predominantly disability law, almost exclusively — so I was given a little bit of latitude.
But what I end up doing is after I’ve done with my pool workout, I shower, I come in and I shave and then, you know, I wear — I wear river shorts which are like nylon cargo shorts to work. There like kind of a, excuse me, a fancy swim trunk and when I leave work — if I can leave early 4:00, 4:30 or so — I’ll hit the gym on the way home, have dinner and then I’ll meet with a friend to work out after dinner. I do a lighter workout in the evening obviously.
And what I’m doing here at the office is putting in two exercycles behind the office so that people here can workout on their breaks, actually it’s kind of selfish I get a chance to go out there and work out on my breaks as well because every 15 minutes counts in staying active. So I’d rather see my staff out there working out than, you know, smoking a cigarette up front or something like that. So I’m trying to encourage them — or some of them — that aren’t in as good a shape to join in.
You basically have to recreate your day around your workout and because you have extra energy from doing this – living this kind of lifestyle — I think nothing of being up at 5:30 in the morning anymore; where years ago 5:30 in the morning was something I’d absolutely sleep through until 8:00, I took my shower and got into work.
Being 120 pounds lighter sure does help with the stress and with two hours of exercise — especially with swimming in the morning — it’s almost like a Zen meditation. I come in, I’m calmer – anything can happen and I’m okay with it. I’ll deal with it. There have been tougher things that I’ve dealt with and this is all small stuff when it comes to getting things done. Then again I do have a competent staff and they take care of things for me so I don’t have to worry about the big things anymore.
Since you are in the field of disability law, have you gotten any feedback from clients or potential clients who have seen you on the show and what has the response been like from them?
Mike Murburg: Oh my former clients and I – I keep in touch with a number of them and they’ve been ecstatic about it. A couple of them that are disabled are active and doing things again. So I’m glad about that because – just because you’re disabled, – let’s say for example you have bilateral carpal tunnel and you can’t type or lift things anymore, it doesn’t mean you can’t go out for a walk or you can’t do a half an hour or hour of swimming every day.
So I encourage them to find ways that they can get out there and do things. Also with their diet to be mindful of what their eating. I have a very kind of specialized diet that’s easy to follow and it: high protein, moderate amount of carbohydrates and so I try to encourage them to do that as well.
I have had people start contacting me through our Web site and, you know, Mike Murburg PA. We’re at disabilityattorney.net, I wrote the Web site and got my email address there so they’ve been contacting me directly. I didn’t intend for this to be a means of creating a market for my practice, but it simply – it has started to go that way. I’ve been getting people contacting me through Avvo, which is an attorney rating service, just, you know, raving, saying we love you. I had no idea I had this kind of effect on people and I’m glad that they’re in some way moved to create a better life for themselves, even if I can’t help them with their, you know, disability case or I choose not to.