Extreme Weight Loss Show: Snell returns home for three-month reveal

[caption id="attachment_9041" align="alignright" width="121"] Jen Snell[/caption]

Once again the cameras were rolling on Saturday, Sept. 20, in front of the Hyart Theatre in Lovell, as Lovell resident Jennifer Snell returned from a boot camp that she attended in Colorado as part of her participation as a contestant on ABC’s Extreme Weight Loss show.

Snell appeared on a small stage during her three-month reveal of her progress in front of around 150 residents who were there to show their support of her efforts. The event was filmed and will be part of a two-hour episode that will feature Snell’s weight loss journey expected to air next summer.

Snell said she is relieved to be home after being away from her husband, Dan, and two children Hannah, 6, and Timothy, 5.

“So far, to me, being home is easier than being in the environment I was in,” she said. “I think it’s because being away from my family was really hard on me, much harder than anything they’ve had me do as part of the show. The boot camp was great, I learned a lot, but it’s good to be back home with my family doing my own routine.”

Snell, a dispatcher for the Lovell Police Dept., has been working with staff and trainers provided by the show who are helping her achieve her goal of losing 180 pounds, which is roughly half of her body weight from the time she became a participant on the show. She will have a full year to lose the weight.

Snell said she hopes her weight loss efforts will inspire other members of the community to lead a healthy lifestyle. She said she has learned about herself through her participation on the show and a lot about nutrition, exercise and how to conquer the emotional issues that led to her weight gain in the first place.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is progression, not perfection,” said Snell. “I can not expect myself to be perfect because I’m not perfect. No one is.”

Snell, who has attended weight loss boot camps as part of the show, said the experience was like attending a military boot camp.

“Everything was very regimented,” she explained. “You can’t go anywhere on your own. You get taken to the grocery store and told what to buy and you have a required four hours of exercise every day.”

She said representatives from the show periodically would go through her apartment to make sure she wasn’t cheating.

“It was all about holding you accountable, which was OK with me because I wasn’t cheating,” she said.

She said she received some medical testing and attended therapy sessions to help her understand the reason she let herself become overweight. She also attended other special classes.

“I think dealing with the mental stuff was even harder than the physical stuff, but it’s important because it won’t last until I deal with that stuff.”

Now that Snell is home, she works out two hours a day and continues to follow a very strict eating regimen of around 1,300 - 1,400 calories per day, mostly from vegetables, fruit and lean protein sources. She is allowed one “cheat day” per week.

“I just get up and go every day and stick to my diet,” she said. “My focus is on real, whole foods, nothing is processed. I don’t eat any diet food at all.”

She said she has also adjusted the amount of food she eats, eating fewer calories, and less protein and carbs than she ate in the past, while at the same time increasing vegetables and fruits in her diet. She said she tries to include lean sources of protein in her diet as much as possible. She said she measures everything she eats and counts every calorie and hopes to reach the “half way point” of her weight loss journey around January. 

So far, she has lost a substantial amount of weight, but the amount of her weight loss is a carefully guarded secret that will be revealed during her episode of the show when it airs next summer.

Now that Snell is home, she is on her own to lose the remainder of the weight and, as far she is concerned, that is for the best.

“I feel like I’m actually doing better here at home. Though it may be harder for other participants, it’s better for me. Some say their family doesn’t support them and it makes it very hard for them. I think since my family is such a great support to me, it actually makes it easier for me to do this.”

By Patti Carpenter