AE: Are you pretty competitive, or is it just more self-competitive?
CB: I didn't realize that I was that competitive until I did the show, but yeah I am.
AE: So had you gained weight recently?
CB: I'd been overweight for awhile, it wasn't like a recent thing.
AE: Did you do any kind of exercise or eat healthy before the show?
CB: I had just started exercising and getting into that maybe a couple months before the show started.
AE: What was your moment when you decided it was time to start losing weight?
CB: I had just ignored it and let it go and getting into my middle thirties and knowing that if I was going to do this and try to live a healthier lifestyle, now would be the time to start.
AE: How did you get on the show, did they contact you?
CB: They contacted me.
AE: Were you insulted?
CB: No, hell no, I know I'm fat, it wasn't like, “Oh my God, me?!” I just looked it as a good opportunity to do something positive and get paid to do it.
AE: What contributed to you getting overweight, a slow metabolism?
CB: Well that's part of it but a lot of it was just drug abuse, and not caring about anything. When I got clean and sober, I just worked on the inside stuff for about a year, and then I wanted to start working on the physical stuff.
AE: So this is recent that you're sober?
CB: It's a year and nine months.
AE: So that's also something you had to decide to change.
CB: Yeah, it's similar degree of denial. And in that way, it was breaking down the denial of physically - not taking care of myself and how that affected me, and how it made me feel and how I felt about my body.
AE: Have you changed your diet?
CB: I got on a meal plan service, they deliver it, and it's a combination of The Zone and also eating for my blood type (type O). There's a book calledEating Right For Your Blood Type and it actually makes a lot of sense…I don't eat flour, I don't eat dairy other than eggs, and I eat mostly protein and vegetables and fruit.
AE: How were you eating before?
CB: Well oddly enough, when I was doing drugs, I craved a lot of sweets. Once I stopped doing that, my taste literally changed, what I desire. I don't know if it was a lack of serotonin that I was just trying to get because I did prescription drugs – painkillers – I don't know if I was craving sugar to give me kind of a lift, a high, a food high or what…I love to eat carbs, but they're really not good for me.
AE: Do you have an actual weight-loss goal?
CB: I just want to get to a weight that's healthy for me.
AE: You're the captain of the Blue Team, how did that come about?
CB: They chose me and it was something that I told them I was willing before [I started].
AE: What does it entail?
CB: I call everybody a couple times a week, check in, see how they're doing, deal with people having any personal problems. It's just being supportive.
AE: Is that your personality?
CB: Yeah, totally. I think it's totally my personality.
AE: Is that a nurturing…
CB: …It's a nurturing, it's kind of a white knight syndrome unfortunately. It's been hard being the team captain, I didn't think it would be as difficult as it's been, but I think ‘cause I naturally put so much pressure on myself, it's just put more pressure on me. I feel like I have this responsibility to lead by example.
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