village on a diet

Here's my article I did for Candence Canada Magazine on the new CBC mini-series Village on a Diet.


The groundbreaking 10-part mini-series, Village on A Diet premiered last night on CBC showcasing the small town of Taylor, British Columbia and their quest to lose 2,000 pounds in three months.

Home of 14,000 residents, 60% of which are either overweight or obese, Taylor decides as a community to lose weight together and become a healthy place where their children have more than diabetes and heart disease to look forward to in their future.

Glen Cross, the groundskeeper at the local golf course, heads up the three-month exercise with a team weight loss experts. Bringing in doctor, Ali Zentner, who was also overweight a few years ago; Garfield Wilson, the positive personal trainer; Mike Veinot, the headstrong trainer; psychologist Adele Fox and Chef Jonathan Chovancek, who will take care of the food along with project dietarian, Maria Thomas; Cross readies the town for an experiment of a lifetime.

The first order of business was to determine just how much weight the town needed to lose. Assembling the residents together, the team of experts asked the community to jump on a tractor scale to be weighed. The result? The community came in at a whooping 28,754 pounds, 1 ton over what they should be.

The Goal?

Loose 2,000 Pounds in 10 weeks.

While the show focused on all parts of the city – from the residents, to the kids of the residents to even the popular pizza spot – everyone on the show had some type of inspiration to why they wanted to loose weight.

Jamie, mid-20′s, is a bride-to-be and wants to lose weight before the big day. Her goal is to loose enough weight that she can look stunning in her wedding dress.

Colleen Fraser,47, though a hefty 268 pounds standing at 5’6, is worried about her grandchildren. One is only 16 months young and is already considered obese. As the town goes in to get their body age test done, Colleen’s comes back aging her body to that of a 70 year old -the life expectancy for Canadians is 80. When Colleen learns this news she starts to break down while doctor Zentner calmly tells her she’ll do like every other girl does when they’re confronted with a problem, cry it out, get mad and then get ‘er done. Colleen promises she will.

The experts encourage the citizens to do various work-outs like jogging through the golf course, doing aerobics and even sorting out the bad and good foods in their fridge, which most had trouble with.

The series is a defiantly real account of not only an individual’s process of feeling good about themselves, but also a look at how a community comes together in time of hardship, crisis and even celebration.

Catch all the weight loss trials and triumphs every Monday night at 9:00pm on CBC.

You can check out my articles for Candence Canada here.