It takes a lot to get me excited about a television show.

Wait, actually, I take that back, judging by the fact that I've been excited by some of the most terrible television shows to make it to primetime.

But I am EXTREMELY excited about a new show on Oxygen called Dance Your Ass Off.

The Oxygen Network is a buried little secret amongst the big, bad tv channels, but if you watch it at the right time, you may just find a treasure like this show. Essentially, it is Dancing with the Stars with a group of overweight contestants.

In the first episode, you were able to meet all the contestants, who come from assorted backgrounds and ages. There are both men and women and each "fat person" gets a professional dance instructor/partner to dance with on the show. All of the contestants live together in their own lofts and meet with personal trainers, nutritionists and doctors. At the end of each episode, the contestant performs for a live audience and judges. The judges then give them a score, before they are weighed. The percentage of weight lost that week, coupled with their dance score provides them an overall score, of which the lowest scoring contestant is eliminated each week.

The majority of the contestants weigh in the 200-lb. range, though a couple of them weight a little bit less. Karla weighs less than me and Angela weighs pretty close to what I weigh, which makes me even more interested in watching their progess and keeping them as role models for my own weight loss journey.

I was telling my friend about the show and she didn't see it the way I did. She thought it was more of a "mean joke" than an interesting concept for weight loss.

In my opinion, and I think I have a fairly outgoing personality, I don't know that I would be able to go on national television with my belly out and "shake what my mama gave me," as one contestant said. I find it admireable.

What do you think?

P.S. The show is on Oxygen, Monday nights at 10 p.m.

One of my favorite sayings of all time is "change your image, change your life," and I thought perhaps, in a similar fashion, I thought this phrase could be flipped around a little to reflect the following article:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Health/Healthy+weight+loss+starts+ends+with+healthy+attitude/1743434/story.html

I want to say I love, love, LOVE this article (note, I have to say love three times when I really really like something.) I love it for a few reasons.

First, I love it because the situation the journalist is describing is one I was actually in this past weekend as I attempted to cover a high school graduation and stupidly forgot my credentials at home, though I'm not sure if it was food that was driving me crazy or the police officer that did not believe I was a reporter from the newspaper.

The second reason I love this article is the following quote: "I've come to believe that weighing ourselves sets us up to fail. Weighing ourselves puts us in conflict and competition with ourselves."

Time and time again I have used this excuse for not getting on the scale. I believe that you know the best, better than anyone else when you have lost weight. You know better than your family, your friends and your scale, because you know how well your favorite pair of jeans used to fit and you know how well that pair of jeans fits you now.

When you're tyring to lose weight, it is almost impossible to not compete with someone: all of the people at the gym with near-perfect bodies daunt you while you struggle to make it to 30 minutes on the treadmill, or how about your friend who has been working out as long as you have and has lost more than you.

A little competition is good even, I believe. Without it, there is less incentive to actually drop the weight-I know, I know, you should do it for yourself.

Point is, of all the people to compete with, you shouldn't compete with yourself, because when the competition gets hot, you become your own worst enemy. I think that's what this writer is trying to say.

Who do YOU compete with?