Danny Cahill won the Biggest Loser. He is a 39 year old land surveyor and musician from Oklahoma who weighted in originally at 430 pounds. Over seven months he lost 239 pounds on this reality show. His wife and children watched with delight and pride as he was declared the winner of the $250,000. He lost 55.58% of his original body weight. In other words he lost a 239 pound person. That is awesome.

Here you see the results. Not much else has to be said about what Danny looks like – he looks absolutely amazing.

This is not a small accomplishment – no pun intended. It takes courage to do this. Just making the decision to enter and lose weight in front of the American population takes more courage than you can imagine. And to stay with the program week after week takes will power, courage, motivation, and all those other words we throw at such a challenge.

Speaking of challenge, now a new challenge begins – keeping the weight off. He lost his last pounds at home so he has some experience in losing weight in the “real world.”

I have heard several people say that anyone could lose weight if they could have all the help and encouragement that those on “The Biggest Loser” have. Maybe so. Let them apply. That doesn’t diminish the accomplishment or in any way detract from the the dedication it takes to stick with it. Danny talked about how hard it was in the beginning – how he wanted to quit, how he questioned his presence on this program, how hard it was to compete carrying all that weight. Some of those challenges were, well, challenging – how they could do them, I don’t know.

I have also heard comments that this program puts too much emphasis on body image, again putting before our children an image of model thin and making them feel bad about themselves if they are overweight. I disagree. This show emphasizes health above all. Danny, at 430 pounds was a prime candidate for heart disease, stroke and diabetes as were all the contestants on the show. I think it’s giving a wake up call to obese Americans that they are in danger of serious illness and an early death. I also think they are inspiring many (I hope millions) to shed the pounds in a sensible, safe way.

Some of the contestants whined and complained and wanted to go home. Hey, it was hard. Gillian and Bob use “tough love” and sometimes you only saw the “tough.”  If whining and complaining help you go from a size 3X to a size 4 then whine and complain all you need to.

Looking at the pictures of Danny Cahill it’s hard to believe that he’s the same person. In fact looking at most of those on The Biggest Loser, the before and after pictures are amazing. With such drastic changes in such a short period of time they will each have some major adjusting to do with their thinking. Now they think as a slender, healthy person thinks and have every right to the attitude of “If I can do that, I can do anything”  now.

This is a fantastic display of self improvement. Danny Cahill, we salute you.

Now, you who are overweight, get up from your computer and go and do likewise.