The TV Chick

As The Biggest Loser slowly wraps up the season (next week is makeover week), I have noticed that this group of people (minus Melissa) has really been one of the nicest groups of contestants I have ever seen on the show. Everyone seems to be rooting for each other and while there is always some game play involved, it seems mostly minimal. These contestants seem more like a family than a group of strangers, and while I love someone to root against on any reality show, I have really been enjoying this season of The Biggest Loser. I recently had the chance to chat with O’Neal Hampton, (or “Uncle” as he’s called on the show) and he was one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to. He talked about his emotional sendoff, his knee problems, and his bond with fellow contestant (and his daughter) Sunshine.

So last night’s episode had a very emotional sendoff for you and I wanted to know just a little bit of what that was like for you.
Well it was – it was quite daunting. I mean, I was on the one hand I always tried to make it crystal clear that if I ever fell below the yellow line with Sunshine that I would definitely, definitely, definitely want to go before she because I don’t know, it’s just – I just always felt it was my place as a father. You know, really I was a father first and a contestant second I guess and because that’s how I was before I went to the show, during and after. So I’ve fallen below the yellow line with her and having to leave it was, you know, it was a – it was a bittersweet thing; the bitterness was the fact I had to leave but the sweet part of it that it was me instead of her.

And I wanted to know what was the most important lesson you learned on the ranch that you took home with you?
I think the most important lesson I learned on the ranch was to always be truthful to yourself – to myself. I think before I came on the ranch I’m looking at myself as, you know, almost 400 pounds and, you know, it was like an unspoken passion about how bad it really was. And I should have been more true to myself and done something about it sooner. But I think for every, you know, for every season, you know, there’s a time and for every time there’s a season. And I think this was both my time and my season for it to happen right then and there.

I was just wondering if you could tell us how you met your wife?
Wow. I met – we met in college. We met at college and she asked me to a Sadie Hawkins Day dance. And believe it or not I wasn’t always as humble as I am now; she made me that humble over 30 years. She asked me to the dance and I told her – I was a big football star on campus and I looked her I said, why should I go to a Sadie Hawkins Day dance with you? I can go out with any girl on this campus. And she left crying. o then the person who I wanted to ask me to the dance was the captain of the cheerleaders. She asked the quarterback. The captain of the cheerleaders didn’t ask me. So I’m sitting up in my room and my wife came knocking on my door and she said I thought you could go out with any girl on campus, how come you’re sitting here by yourself? I said do you want go out for a coffee or a beer? She said a beer but I said coffee. I said well yeah, I will and we’ve been together ever since. Yeah, yeah, I’m so glad she came back to my room. And gave me a second chance. So this is kind of a second time I had a second chance in life. That’s how I met her. Yeah, we met in college and it was a Sadie Hawkins Day dance she asked me to.

Now have your good habits rubbed off on her since you’ve been home?
Yes they have. And she’s been totally supportive of me and Sunshine as well as she’s just been totally supportive of us through the whole process. And her good habits – it didn’t initially when we came home the first time when we got, you know, kicked off the first day, her habits were still the habits, well we were only gone for not even, you know, for a day. So but then as the season went on and she seen us change she changed within too. And I’ll tell you it’s just the – it’s nice to have – to be united under the roof, you know, everyone’s on the same thing going the same direction.

I wanted to know how your knee has been holding up with all the exercise?
Well my knee is very bad, it’s bone on bone and I’m definitely getting it replaced after this whole process is over. I’m just not sure where but I’m definitely getting – well I have to because it’s incredibly, incredibly bad. But like I said before my – I guess my desire – my desire to change far outweighed the pain in my knee. And they just, you know, Dr. H just can’t believe that I make it through with the pain and with my knee condition. Because, you know, when I fell on building that tower – when I fell they did an MRI on my knee and they seen how bad it was and they were just shocked. They said, “O’Neal we don’t know how you’re in this game, we don’t know how you’re exercising daily,” but, you know, but like – that’s nothing to do with my desire to change. And my knee is – it’s – I’ve been used to this pain for 30 years, I had it through football, through when I was a Green Beret, through all the things so it’s – the good and bad of it is is that as the weight came off it hurt less – it hurt less but I started doing more on it so it was kind of a balance there. But the best thing of it all is the recovery time. Like now I can recover, you know, overnight or the next day. Before if I did any of the things I’m doing now weighing almost 400 pounds I’d be out for a month. But now it’s the next day I’m back at it again. So the knee definitely has to get replaced for my, you know, to complete this journey and I’m definitely getting it replaced.

What have you been doing as far as exercise?
For cardio what I do a lot of boxing. And they got elliptical that I can do that it bends the perfect direction because my knee can’t break a 90-degree angle but this elliptical machine that I have – that I use at the gym and I do boxing and I do, you know, other, you know, obviously other cardio stuff – things. But – and that’s what I do, I do a lot of boxing though, I mean, boxing is the best, I mean, it gets my heart rate up, it keeps it up. And, you know, then it comes back down and it goes back up. That’s, I’ll tell you what, I mean, boxing with my trainer, (Tiffany), and between that and the elliptical and the swimming. Naturally the water, you know, it’s been heaven sent. I mean, it’s truly a – I don’t know I just feel so fortunate with the process and be able to get through it. I mean, it’s been very, very nice though.

So I have to say I got the most emotional throughout the season whenever I would see you and Sunshine together. So what is it about your bond that makes you two so strong and connected?
Well, you know, I was raised as a single parent; my mother raised me. My father – I was raised in (Hammond) in Chicago Land area and my father lived in Gary, Indiana. And my mother taught me from Day 1 to respect women. I think that Sunshine being my only daughter she got the most highest level of respect – well all women did but Sunshine to me Sunshine is – I just put her up on that pedestal. And I wanted any guy to have to – that would ask Sunshine for her hand in marriage or boyfriend I wanted him to have high standards. I want her to know that, you know, you just can’t settle for anything. And just not that it’s just from my perspective how I felt about – and this is no cliché is, I mean, I’ll say this in front of a roomful of men or roomful of women, anyone, that I think women is God’s greatest creation. And I want to treat not only just my daughter but everyone else. I have sisters, I have a mother, I have a grandmother. I want all them treated with the utmost respect as well. And I said Sunshine, she should have the same thing. She should be treated with utmost respect. And if she gets it from me in my household she should expect that same level of respect outside of my household. That’s the bond I have with her.

Tell me about that 5K experience during that challenge and especially that woman that you walked with that you certainly inspired.
Oh, you know what, I felt a good connection with her as well because she had – she fed – her mother – she lost her mother at a young age. And she was heading down that same slippery slope that I was. And all the people there, I mean, everyone has a story. Her story just connected with me and it just – it touched me. I mean, it literally touched me. When she started talking it’s almost like, you know, like the room would darken and her – it was just like a beacon of light shined over her. And I wanted to let her know that she was not into the battle by herself. I think the only thing you do, you come into the world by yourself and you leave by yourself. I think you have to have someone there with you in between those two stages to guide you all the way. And I wanted to help her, the reciprocity, I wanted to give and take. I was giving something and I was taking something – excuse me – from the ranch and I wanted to give it back to her. Everything that I possibly knew or learned I wanted her to have especially with the encouragement and not and the give-up – do not give up attitude; do not give up. I mean, it’s there you just have to find a way to get it.

And do you think that 5K showed other people out there they can do it?
Absolutely. I’m telling you with my physical ailments if I was able to do it – and I’m never one of these people to stand up and say well if I can do it you can do it, come on. You know, it’s not about that. Like I said you have to, you know, I’m a firm believer and I said this once before, it is exactly 18 inches from your heart to your brain. When you make those two connections from your heart to your brain you can do anything in this world you would like to do and I’m a firm believer in that. And I wanted her to make that connection, those 18 inches from her heart to her brain. And I think she did, well she obviously did she’s making a change and a significant difference in her life.

So throughout the show we have seen Sunshine really grow in independence and self-love. How has that been, you know, watching her do that? And is that independence okay with you?
Absolutely. You know what the only reason it’s okay with me is because we went through this process together. Like I said if – I don’t think she would have done it without us being separate. We were close like that. I watched all of the weeks I’ve been on that ranch I’ve seen a little bit of change in Sunshine every week, even the changes that she didn’t see in herself. I’ve seen her change in those 17 – 15, 17 weeks I’ve seen her change in that time, in those weeks more than I have seen her change in the 24 years she’s been in my life. But it was the most significant change. And the changes that – and these changes that she made on the ranch and us being together going through this process those are the changes that’s going to catapult her into the next half of her life which is the changes that she needs to get through her life, with the changes of how she think about herself as a person, how she think about other people, you know. The best thing is the self-worth, your self-worth means – is more than any kind of worth, any kind of worth monetary, materialistic anything; self-worth is the best thing and that’s what she got from there as long as me being there with her. I’ll tell you what, no, I’m absolutely 100% glad that she’s getting her independence and she’s being emancipated from underneath my, you know, from underneath my (unintelligible) and underneath my everything, you know. I’m so glad because that day when she called me up to her room and said dad I got this, I can do this. I’ll tell you what, I felt like 20,000 pounds of pressure – the weight I lost I felt it all come off at that moment sitting on that bed. That’s when I felt the lightest I’ve felt in years because I needed to hear it. And I didn’t hear it from her mouth I heard it from her heart. And that’s what I wanted to do. I felt it, I felt it and it felt really, really good to hear her say I can do this dad, I got it. Thank you for what you’ve done for me so far but let me take the baton and run with it. And I gave it to her.

Now we also saw that this was just a really emotional episode because you and Sunshine had to go to your brother’s funeral and my condolences. How was that dealing with this emotional burden and caring for yourself at the ranch?
Wow, you know, rehashing the memories of this it’s all good though because it was a very emotional thing because, you know, I didn’t know going to the ranch – I didn’t know my brother had cancer and I didn’t know he has passed because he didn’t want us to know, he didn’t want Sunshine and I to know. All my other brothers did and all my other sisters did. I’m the second youngest of 12 kids; I got seven brothers and five sisters. And they – all of them knew and all of them, you know, they were, you know, he wanted to keep it separate because he wanted us – the unselfish love that he had that he wanted to make sure that me and Sunshine continued our journey. And they said that he knew that we were going through this and he didn’t want no interruptions, he didn’t want us to have no excuses not to finish what we were doing or not be finished before it was time for us to finish. And in retrospect I totally agree with that. I couldn’t understand it at the time naturally because you’re caught up in the grieving – I was caught up in grieving, I was caught up in missing him and not being able to physically say goodbye. But there’s so many other ways to say goodbye and it was a good thing. It was a good thing. He was a very good guy. He was a very good man. He was a good man. Like I told you I didn’t have a father in my house; he was my father. My oldest brother was my father. He taught me how to drive. He taught me about – he gave me the sex talk. He gave me all the talks that a young man would have. So he was a good man, he was a very good man. And I’m proud to be his little brother.

Tell me what’s the hardest part about being home?
The hardest part about being home I guess is being out of the controlled environment. And believe it or not the ranch is – it pretty much it is – is very much a controlled environment. Away from there now this is where the hard work starts. I’m telling you the beat downs that Bob and Jillian gave us in that gym and sticking to the right nutrition and eating the right food it’s paled in comparison to being here, driving and the convenience of everything – everything you know in our society and our life is set up or convenience. But when you take the time to be healthy it’s so much more worth it. And that’s what I’m – that’s the adjustment; that’s the hard adjustment about being home is not falling to the way of convenience and doing the things that would make it convenient for you to live longer. And I think with me that’s the hardest thing is not, you know, not submitting to the things that got me to the ranch in the first place. But I’m telling you though that shape was my shame, standing up, weighing in before. And you know what it wasn’t the fact of me went in being, you know, in a pair of gym shorts and my man-boobs is out there and my terrible body is out there I don’t think that that’s what made me feel emotional; I think what made me feel emotional was me putting it out there and me coming to this point in my life where I had to change. I think that was so clever of the Biggest Loser to have us weigh in in front of our family and friends because none of them people believe me. I found ways to cover up my body so much. I love clothes, I dress nice, I’d dress well, I was a very nice dresser. And to be standing before them in all my glory like that, that right there solidified the fact that they’ll never see me like that again. And I think that was a very good idea to have us weigh in in front of our family and friends and my coworkers, I mean, none of them ever would have seen me like that. The same thing with Sunshine, I mean, she’s in a sports bra and these shorts and, you know, it’s not, you know, it’s – it’s not nothing. Sunshine wouldn’t even wear a bathing suit – a one-piece bathing suit let alone and she’s a swimmer. But when her body got like this she stopped doing all of that. So and for me I, you know, I played sports all my life and the difference in me was I wasn’t big as a teenager and young man; I was in the perfect shape. You know, and for me to go from that to this, oh I don’t know, that’s my perspective I guess.

Did Bob and Jillian give you any advice for when you actually make your goal weight how to make sure you don’t regain any of it?
Absolutely. I think, yeah, absolutely they did. Bob would say – here’s Bob – Bob worked with me mostly. He said the best thing you can do Uncle – he called me Uncle – he said the best thing you can do is get up in the morning and get it out of the way right away. He said for one thing it starts everything in motion; it starts you thinking better, you’re getting your workout done and you don’t have an excuse for later on because you could push stuff to the back and say I’ll do it when I get home, I’ll do it when I get off work. Well I’m just going to go for a short walk on my lunch break and I’m going to do this and it never ends up being that way. He said if you do it in the morning it’s the best thing to do. And then I guarantee you if you do it in the morning that’s going to feel good enough for you to have another one in the afternoon or evening when you get home. And that’s exactly how it’s been, that’s exactly how it was. So, yeah, and not just that though because the exercise is one thing and depending on your body and depending on who and what you are I believe that it’s 60/40 or 70/30. I think it’s 60% or 70% nutrition and it’s either 30% or 40% exercise. Because garbage in – because you hear so many people say well, you know, I’m exercising so much but I just can’t lose weight. I wonder why I can’t lose weight? Well what the hell are you eating in between you exercising? That’s what’s making the difference. And with all – with all the packaged foods or the prepared foods, the quickness, like I said before, that’s what’s being such a detriment to us, to society I think. So I think personally for me, for O’Neal Hampton, it’s 60%-70% nutrition and it’s – well that must be apparent because I got a bad left knee and a bad right hip and I’m about 30 years older than the people when I left the ranch – than them and I still was losing as much weight as what they were and it’s because the mixture that I have going through there. So I think outside of this it’s not, you know, I fall into the rules and roles of what got me there.

So are you really hoping to work hard and bring in the at-home prize for your fans?
Absolutely, you know, me coming home it was – that’s just what it was, it was coming home. I did it once, I lost, you know, I lost a significant amount of weight when I come home the first time. And I know it gets harder as time goes on as the weight comes off but the desire is still there. And I’m making that connection of that 18 inches and I still want to do good. If I don’t win it I want Sunshine to win it. So – and me and her got a pact, no matter what it is I’m going to split it; if I win it she’s going to split it, she win it, you know, it’s going to be like that. You know, with the exception of that car I want her solely to have that car. But anything else I get out of this I’m splitting it with Sunshine. And the best thing is my family is totally, totally understanding and supportive of the decision that I made with this. My other son and my other – and my wife, my half I’m definitely splitting it up with my younger kids and my wife. It’s just, you know what to me seriously if O’Neal don’t get a nickel out of this O’Neal got much more than that; he got his health back, I got my chance to get a new knee. You know, I, you know, if you will the quote Mick Jagger said it the best, he said you can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you get what you need. I needed my health, I needed a new set of knees, I needed everything else. So if I don’t get – if I don’t get what I want, the money, I’m going to get what I need. And I already got that so you can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you get what you need.

What advice would you say you’d have for other people out there who are struggling with weight loss?
Don’t try to climb the mountain in one sitting. Don’t try to – don’t try to eat the elephant in one bite. Don’t try that, I mean, because what that does it gets you frustrated. You go out there and try – even the first time walking don’t – like we walked that 5K – don’t even try to go out there and walk a 5K; take the small gradual steps that’s going to make you successful. Take the small things that’s going to rejuvenate you, that’s going to make you want to get up the next day and do it. Walk around that block the first time. Then the next time walk around the block twice. Then the next day walk around two blocks once and make the small gradual change. The biggest thing you can do to make the change and stick with it knock the sodium out of your diet. If you take the sodium – reduce the sodium in your diet because you got the natural sodium in things you have – if you reduce the sodium. And from my perspective – from O’Neal, you know, because I don’t have no initials in front of my name or behind my name. I’m not a doctor; I don’t have a PhD, I don’t have no initials, you know, in front or behind my name, but I know the common sense and I know the things that helped me is the sodium is worse than the sugar. If you take the sodium out of your diet I guarantee you along with the exercise like I told you, the 70/30, 60/40, if you take that sodium out and continue your journey in small steps you will climb Mt. Everest, you will get to the top of that mountain. You know, and that’s the best thing to do is be persistent with small gradual changes.

How did you manage the drive and determination and to compete with the relationship with the other contestants?
I think, that you – I think all of us have a natural homing device within our own bodies. I think we naturally send out messages. I’m basically a Midwestern no-nonsense person. I don’t need this, I don’t need that, I don’t need the glimmer and glam, I don’t need the fortune and fame; I am who I am. I think we all project a radiance of our personality. I think your attitude describes you. And I think my attitude was describing me before we even met, before people even met, before I even met these other contestants even just being in the room. And that’s why – that’s what I try to portray. I don’t, you know, if you – now naturally that’s what I project but now when you sit and talk to me you will see exactly who and what I am. I am the easiest person in the world to hurt and I’m the easiest person in the world to help you because I don’t hide nothing, I don’t have no bars on the inside as you see, you know, like some people say I cry too much. But I don’t consider that crying. I mean, those are just my try emotions and who and what I am. And that’s what I projected to the rest of the contestants. I will talk to anything about anyone. It wasn’t so much of game playing or doing this or doing that, things that I’ve seen in the previous show. I was really worried for myself because I’m thinking Jesus Christ, here I am a big guy and they going to think that I’m this or that way. I said, you know, do I stay true to who I am? Do I stay – and you know what I did I said I’m going to be the same person that got me – I’m going to dance to the same music that I’ve been dancing to for 51 years; why change that tune now? And that’s exactly what I did. And when people met me they talked with me said, wow, you are who you are. And I don’t, you know, and I’m not saying that in a condescending way, I’m not saying that in a, you know, in a, you know, in any fashion way than what it is, that I am exactly who and what you are. If you do something to hurt me it’s up to your – it’s your peril it’s not mine. You know, that’s your shame it’s not mine. If you – and I will help you – I will do my best to help you in any circumstances. My thing of it was is that, I don’t know, you know the saying treat others how you want them to treat you? I see it different, I treat others better than what I want them to treat me because I want them to treat – I want that to be raised. I don’t, you know, because sometimes you don’t treat yourself very well so why would I want somebody to treat me that way? I try to treat others better than what I actually treat myself. That’s why – I don’t know, it’s hard to really put in words. I know how I feel and I know I think I’m thinking faster than what I want to talk. But I know how I feel on the inside so when people come to me and they, you know, and they see who and what I am is just what it is. I can guarantee you it is – you can’t get two people together to say that I said something that wasn’t true or I did something that wasn’t right; I just never did and I never will. I mean, it’s not, you know, now don’t get me wrong, have I ever lied before? Yes I have. Like Lincoln said you show me a man don’t lie and I’ll show you a man with no virtue, you know, so yes I have told a lie before, yes I have done things I shouldn’t have done. I’m not miss pure Polly sweetbread, I’m not, you know, I’m not that person either but I am, you know, even to the fact that I know that I’m not the man that I want to be, I’m not even the man I should be but I know I’m better than the man I was yesterday.

Now your last week on the ranch was really emotional on you. I just wanted to know how did you prepare for the emotional side of the journey before you started?
I don’t think you can. I really don’t think – I don’t think you can prepare because for one thing it’s the unknown; you don’t know what’s there. I think what prepares you is your life. I think all of your life prepares you for like I said earlier, for every time there’s a season, every season there’s a time. I think everything I did in my life prepared me for this moment. And I think it’s no – because the simple fact is you don’t know what’s going to happen. I know that had I been in a similar situations where I reacted similar? Yes you have. And I think that’s the only thing that can do it. It’s not that I sat down and said this is this, this is going to be this and when this happens I’m going to do this. You know, I can’t – I’d be lying to you if I said I did that. The only thing I did is remained to true to who and what I was, to make the decision that got me as far as it has. Now the bad decisions that I made that got me overweight I cast those to the side. That’s the only thing I guess I prepared, I cast those to the side. I got – I want to look forward and like I said before you cannot live your life looking through a rearview mirror. You – well I take that back yes you should look through that rearview mirror just to see what’s behind there and leave it behind there but don’t put it in front of you because you’ll get in an accident. And the accident is getting back to where I was before.

Now what do you, Koli and Sam have planned after the show is over? Like are you guys going to get together and do something?
Yeah, they’re coming here. They’re making a Minnesota trip and they’re coming here. And we’re just going to, you know, because we talked so much about our area, you know, I’ve never been to Napa Valley so when I go to there they don’t live too far from Napa Valley I’d love to go there. I never been there. I heard so much about it and prior to me losing this weight I could never walk around Napa Valley anyway. But now I’m able to maneuver around there and go quite well through them. And they’re coming to Minnesota and I’m going to show them all the things, I’m going to take them by Prince’s house, I’m going to take them by Prince’s club, I’m going to take them to see Morris Bay. I’m going to take them to all the Minnesota things that they hear and see about so much. You know, Minnesota has 10,000 lakes here, we have 10,000 lakes here and it’s a beautiful place. But naturally, I said please come in the summer. If you come in September I’m not responsible for you being up here.

I wanted to know what was going through your mind last week when you reinjured a knee? Like were you getting ready to go home right then?
You know, I’m going to be honest, you know what I was more concerned with than my knee? I don’t know if you – well yeah you had to have seen it. I hit my head first and the only thing I was thinking about is don’t pass out. Don’t pass out…don’t pass out. I just kept saying that over and over. In fact I bugged my eyes – I opened my eyes as wide as I could as if that had a difference. But I was opening my eyes said don’t pass out, don’t pass out. And you kind of see it getting dark and then things started getting bright again. I mean, I’m telling you when you physically will your mind and body to do things it will react. And then once I knew I wasn’t going to pass out then the pain started shooting from my knee to my back to my hip and then it started focusing on my knee. And then I said okay you’re going to be all right. I just kept reassuring myself. And, you know what I also think that I kept saying I’m going to be all right, I’m going to be all right because I knew any minute Sunshine was going to be standing over me and I wanted her to hear from my voice that I’m all right. Even if I wasn’t I wanted her to think, you know, that I’m constantly saying that I’m all right, you know, and that’s just – that was going through my head is not passing out and the other thing is making sure she knew that I was all right. But so far as me and my condition I’m going to tell you I never felt the pain like that in my joints in my knee and hip and back like that. I thought – I really did thought it was worse than what it was but it wasn’t. I mean, it just let you know that, you know, that, you know, I guess we all answer to a higher authority but I truly believe that it could have been worse and I thought it was worse, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t; it all worked out. In fact it worked out enough for me to, you know, to go next week and go again. I was much more hurt by, you know, my brother passing than that pain of me falling.

The Biggest Loser airs Tuesday nights at 8 pm on NBC.