After the show ended, Angela continued to lose weight. She’s taken her weight-loss slowly, and says it hasn’t been easy – but, to date, she has lost around 75 pounds. “I’ve gone beyond the goal I’d set on the show and so I set another one. I’d still like to lose another 20 pounds, and continue with the athleticism part of it. It’s coming along, but it’s tough!” she says. (At the start of her journey, Angela weighed 223.5 pounds.)  Angela says that being part of X-Weighted was life changing. “I really wasn’t aware of how big I’d become until Nicolle said “Let’s go audition for the show”. I mean there were certainly things I wanted to change, but I thought I had, as a human, reached my potential, which I really hadn’t, because there were so many aspects of my life that I was unhappy with,” she says. Once she lost the weight, Angela realized that she hadn’t been putting enough value on herself and that she had been settling in many areas of her life. “When you aren’t taking care of yourself, you don’t have a lot of self-worth,” she explains. She knew that Bruce, who she was engaged to on the show, was not the guy for her and ended their relationship a few years back. Angela has now met “a wonderful man who is very supportive” and recently got engaged to him.  Staying fit is really important to Angela. She competes in 10k runs with friends, and makes it to the gym pretty much every day because she says that keeping the weight off is hard work. “It’s a constant battle,” she says, “but I do enjoy working my butt off at the gym and the running. Although I complain the whole time I’m doing it, I love how I feel afterwards.” Whenever people do recognize Angela, (which happens often) they always want to ask if Paul is like he seems on TV, due to the obvious friction between them on the show. “He really is that bad,” says Angela, “he makes no apologies or bones about it, which is fair, but he is exactly as he appears.” The next thing people ask is how she did it. “They want to hear that there is some secret, but it is unfortunately true that losing weight is 80% about food and 20% about exercise. I thought if I worked out more I could eat more, but unfortunately it just doesn’t work that way,” she says.   September, 2009

In the 4 years since her X-Weighted experience, Naomi has maintained her weight loss and stays super active, hitting the gym 4 to 5 days a week and spending her weekends camping, swimming and hanging out with friends. She is still single and lives with her sister Sula, but is dating and trying to meet “the right guy”. Naomi got her bachelors degree in social work in May of this year, and is very happy that after 6 years of hard studying, she landed a terrific job as a mental health social worker with Nova Scotia's largest provider of health services. She still works as a residential counselor too, so even though her studies are over, life is just as busy. As someone who was already relatively fit and had a good knowledge of healthy eating before she went on X-Weighted, Naomi feels that she would have made the changes to get healthier anyway at that point in her life, but the pressure of being on the show kept her on track and enabled her to meet her goals. “I know I’m an emotional eater and that I take on too much stress, and that I deal better with those things when I exercise,” she says, “but I already knew those things before. Naomi quite enjoys that people recognize her from X-Weighted, and that friends from all over the world have emailed her to say that they saw her episode. “It’s kind of interesting being a mini-celebrity,” she says.   September 2009

Soon after filming, Jannette went on the trip of a lifetime, travelling through South and Central America then across the Atlantic to Greece and Turkey. She had an incredible time hiking volcanoes, going down canopy zip-lines and got her scuba diving certification along the way. Unfortunately, despite bursts of activity, a lot of her time travelling was spent in transit on buses, trains and planes, which is one of the reasons Jannette thinks she regained some of the weight she’d lost on her X-Weighted journey. “Also, in South and Central America, the diet was lots of potatoes, white rice and fried chicken, and finding a salad was seriously challenging,” she says. Eight months after the show Jannette had put 20 pounds back on, and since then another ten pounds has crept back too. Putting weight back on has meant that Jannette’s fibromyalgia is getting worse (it was better when she was more active and not so heavy). “Because of that I’m getting started again right now,” she says, “It’s annoying for me that I’ve done this to myself, but what’s really annoying is that Paul gets to be right about me putting some of the weight back on.” Jannette is forming a weight-loss support group with friends in the hope that it will motivate her. “Doing it on my own just doesn’t work for me. I’m externally motivated, that’s why I did the show – there’s nothing like being on national television for keeping a girl on track!” she says. When strangers recognize Jannette from the show, which even happened when she was in Honduras and Guatemala, she says that they always ask the same two questions. “First they ask is Paul really such a jerk, and the second is, what happened with Chris?” she says, “well right after that date with Chris that you saw on the show, we had quite a long talk about the age difference and what that translated to, and he was a very sweet guy but it just wasn’t going to work, although we are still good friends.” Jannette is still dating and looking for love.   September 2009

A lot of really positive changes have happened in Amy’s life since the end of her X-Weighted journey. A month after filming wrapped up, Amy found out she was pregnant, with twins, and now has four daughters (aged 6, 5 and the twins are now 3). Amy is proud to say that even throughout her pregnancy, she was able to maintain her weight loss and is now 15 pounds lighter than when the show ended. Last year, Amy and her family moved from Calgary to buy their dream house in the Annapolis Valley (where Amy is from originally) and credits the show with helping her be able to make that move. “I had a lot of demons here and I wasn’t ready to come back. Although I didn’t necessarily lose a lot of weight on X-Weighted, what it did do was kick me in to high gear as far as figuring out all the emotional skeletons I had in my closet. Since the show I feel like I’m really healed from the whole thing, and I was ready to go home,” she says. Any issues that there were between Amy and her husband have been resolved and they have never been happier. “Oh my gosh, we are so completely happy that we are like newlyweds,” says Amy, “the issues we did have were due to the barrier I built around myself because of the abuse issues in my childhood.” Amy says that when she started on X-Weighted, she was at the lowest point in her life. “I thought the show was going to totally fix me, and when it didn’t I got so frustrated,” she says, “but then I realized that I was holding on to every excuse that I had to stay fat. It was time for me to just start dealing with stuff and get over it.” Amy is still trying to lose more weight, and maintains an active lifestyle. “It’s a slow progression, I try to lose about a pound a week,” she says. Life is busy, Amy works full-time outside the home and runs a home-based business, but she still makes time for exercise and sees a trainer regularly. Amy says that going on the show was “the best experience I think to date in my whole life.” She laughs about how resistant she was to everything on the show, and the fact that she thought Paul was “just right out to lunch.” She says that it wasn’t until after filming that everything just snapped together for her. “It was like Holy Cow, it's time for me to get over this. I’ve got to deal with what ails me as opposed to what I’m putting in my mouth, that’s just a symptom, and if you don’t fix the problem you’ll have symptoms for the rest of your life,” she says. Amy has spent the past three years dealing with her issues, and says that she has never felt better or fitter.   September 2009

Angela says that being on X-Weighted was a really great experience. “I worked my butt off so I was really happy with the outcome,” she says. Angela has kept in shape, “I’m still a lot leaner and I’m happy with how I look right now,” she says. Since the show, Angela has had a really exciting work life. She finished her degree in marketing and is now vice-president of public relations and marketing at a real estate investment firm. “My life is going really great,” she says. In terms of keeping in shape, Angela does a similar routine at the gym to the one that she was doing on X-Weighted, but does it 3 days a week instead of 5. She also does lots of fitness activities such as roller-blading, skiing and has taken up golfing too. “I bought a treadmill for my house and watch all my junky reality TV shows while I’m on there,” she says. Angela does get recognized by viewers. She says that one of the things people always want to know is whether she is still friends with Carolyn, who was pretty unsupportive and sometimes rude about Angela’s efforts to slim down. “I am absolutely, she is still a close friend of mine. She is over it and wants to be on X-Weighted now,” says Angela. Although Angela still hangs out with the same core group of friends she had during filming, she has developed another group of friends that share her athletic interests. “Being fit just wasn’t their thing, but by also having friends that are more athletically minded, I stay more motivated,” she says. Check out Angela's Follow Up Photos in the Photo Gallery. You can also find Angela on Twitter (follow @angelamjoyce), through her blog or Facebook page.    September 2009

Kristi says that going on X-Weighted was the best experience of her life. "It was amazing how much I changed, inside and out,"  she says, "I know that if I hadn't been on the show I would never have made those changes and I would be in a really bad place right now. Going on the show was almost like having an intervention." Although the physical changes that Kristi made to her body were huge and obvious (she lost 13 inches off her stomach alone), she says it was the mental changes that had the greatest affect on her life.  "Wow, when I look back at my life before I started," she says, "I'll see my neighbours having a drink on a Tuesday night or Sunday night, and I just think how I've got better things to do. It is amazing how much my journey changed my attitude to life." Kristi says that her life has changed 100% since she came on the show. By the time her episode went on air, Kristi had found love and now lives with her boyfriend! "He was on the episode, he's the bald guy that I give a kiss to at my birthday party. I've had a crush on him forever and we've been friends for years, then right about the time the show aired everything just fell into place," she says. "He is just fantastic, being with him has been wonderful," she says. Kristi has managed to keep off all the weight she lost on X-Weighted. "I'd still like to lose another 30 pounds, but I know that being able to keep the weight off and maintain is awesome, so I'm cruising," she says. Her boyfriend is also conscious of his weight, so Kristi applies her new found nutritional knowledge to meal planning for both of them. "It feels like everything in my life changed from that moment when I got accepted onto the show. Everything that happened from that time on has been so positive, it just feels like I have got everything that I have ever wanted," says Kristi, "I now know that if I work hard at it, anything is attainable. There is nothing I can't do." Every year, Kristi climbs the CN Tower and repeats her fitness goal with her friend and sister. "It's a good gauge to see that I'm still on track," she says, "it is something to look forward to, a way of celebrating the anniversary of my success." September 2009

Melanie’s life has changed dramatically since filming finished. You may remember that she separated from her husband on the show – they never reconciled. “My divorce was finalized in February,” she says, “I had a lot of things coming at me in life: stuff with my son came up, we sold our home and I moved too.”   As challenging as life has been since X-Weighted, Melanie says that she is much happier now. Throughout all these changes, Melanie worked really hard to maintain her weight and go to the gym. “I feel great and I look really good,” she says, adding that she loves it when people comment on how trim, lean and athletic she looks. “My sister was visiting from Arizona, I hadn’t seen her in a year, and she said “Oh my God, you have Hollywood arms,” and I’ve had people at work comment on how slim and toned I am,” she says with pride. Melanie still has the goal of competing in a bodybuilding show and is sure that she’ll reach that goal at some point. “I’m someone that is pretty dedicated. When I say I’m going to take something on, I take it to fruition, I’m not a quitter,” she says. She says that going on X-Weighted really was a positive experience for her. “I definitely learned a lot and it catapulted my life in to a whole different direction. I’m the fittest that I’ve ever been in my life, I haven’t gained a pound since the show ended in Dec 2007,” she says, “going on the show has driven me to live and dream and dare.” Melanie says that she is having a lot of fun growing as a woman and an individual. "I think that the next time I get in to a relationship with anyone I’ll be a lot healthier in every facet of my being,” she says. Right now she is saving up to travel to Greece, which has always been a dream of hers. She is thinking about becoming a certified fitness trainer, as she knows that her story has been very inspiring to others and would like to continue to help other people reach their fitness goals. “Hearing how I’ve helped other people move forward is very humbling and rewarding for me,” she says.   September 2009

Maggie Right at the end of filming, Maggie found out that she was pregnant. “It was kind of a big surprise. I had to come to terms with it, and realize that I was going to put some of the fifty pounds that I’d lost back on,” she says. Because of everything she learned on X-Weighted, Maggie says that she had a much healthier pregnancy than she might of otherwise, and only ended up gaining a little weight with her son, Logan. “Because I had done all the weight loss before I got pregnant, I knew how I was supposed to be eating. I’d changed my mindset about food and my cravings weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they’d be,” she says. After giving birth, Maggie was only twelve pounds heavier than she was at the end of the show. “A lot of the pregnancy weight just came off straight away. Now I’m about five pounds heavier than my lightest weight,” she says. She keeps fit by going to the gym, which she loves. “It's my alone time away from the baby,” she says, “other people enjoy shopping, but for me it’s the gym that helps me relax and unwind.” Maggie says that before going on X-Weighted, she just didn’t know where to start when it came to losing weight. “Paul gave us hope, he said “This can be done”,” she says, “plus we’d seen other people do it on the show.” Maggie says that although when she first watched her episode she was mortified, as she never really realized how big she looked, she loved that it was a happy ending for her and her sister, Liz. “I love being repeated, I always watch it,” she says.  Liz Since filming, Liz has had another baby, named Olivia, but says that other that that not a lot has changed in her life. She hasn't managed to keep all her weight off, but only because she just had a baby - "With a newborn and a 3 year old, it's tough to find time for me," she says, "Olivia is still not sleeping through the night, so I'm up every 2 hours." Although Liz is finding little time to exercise, she knows what it is that she has to do to drop the baby weight, thanks to everything that she learned on her weight-loss journey. "I know how to eat healthily, and I know that I can't bring unhealthy foods in to the house because if I do, I will eat them," she says. For several reasons, Liz says that she loved her X-Weighted experience. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat," she says, "It was so much fun and the advice was invaluable, especially Fred showing us how to do our make-up properly and our hair. I'll never go back to long hair again, now I know my hairstyle reflects my age and I have fun with it - I've dyed it red, I've had highlights, I love changing it up." Liz says that going on X-Weighted strengthened her relationship with her sister. "We were close before, but going through our X-Weighted journey together made us closer than ever before," she says. "I feel a lot more confident that before I did X-Weighted. I feel like I look my age. There's no more pulling my wet hair back in to a ponytail and that's it, I look after myself," says Liz.   December 2009

Marichu These days Marichu’s life is completely different. “Being on X-Weighted was totally life changing, that is for sure. Had somebody told me what kind of effect being on the show would have, I would never have believed them,” says Marichu.   Since filming finished, Marichu says that her life has improved immeasurably and she is a lot happier. “I think I had given up on trying to be happy and trying to be me. Through the whole X-Weighted experience, I became empowered enough to make changes to my life,” she says. Marichu continued to lose weight and ended up getting a job at the gym, where she had been working out. She worked the front-desk, then was approached by the gym owner to do nutritional coaching too. “He felt that with my psychology degree and life-experiences, the coaching would be something I would be good at,” she says, “it was hard for me because with my body shape I’ve never exactly fit the fitness industry, but when people walked through that front door and I wasn’t like “Barbie” they felt they could connect with me.” Marichu left Anthony in Spring 2008 and is now in the process of getting divorced. Very soon after leaving her marriage, Marichu met a new man, Troy, and the relationship progressed very quickly. Marichu became pregnant, and gave birth to a son, Jake, in August 2009. “Being on the show was really difficult for our marriage and magnified the problems we had,” explains Marichu, “It was good that it went the way it did and gave us that final push we needed. Things with Anthony were very difficult during filming and I didn’t feel supported by him throughout the journey.” For Marichu, her X-Weighted experience was about so much more than losing weight. It gave her back her self-esteem and enabled her to get the life she wanted. She loves the effect that this has had on her daughters, and feels so good about being a better role model to them. “Having seen what I can do, there is just no stopping them,” she says, “I’m watching them blossom and grow with a whole new attitude.” “The change in my own attitude was probably the most profound thing that I got from the show,” says Marichu, “when you are given an opportunity like that, to change your life in such a public manner, you give it all you’ve got. And you don’t look back, sell yourself short and you don’t make excuses. You have to suck it up and do what you have to do to get through it.” Marichu says that if she’d known her X-Weighted journey was going to be so hard, she’d have never embarked on it. “It was probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,” she says, “but it was worth it every step of the way.” Anthony  Since separating from Marichu, life has changed a great deal for Anthony. Due to the stress he has been under, he wasn’t able to keep off all the weight he lost while doing X-Weighted (although he is still a lot lighter than when he started his X-Weighted journey). “There’s way too much stuff going on right now, I’ve put myself on the backburner while I look after other things,” he says. Anthony shares custody of his daughters with Marichu, and says that right now, the girls are where his focus is. “I’m just trying to get life straightened out,” he says. He is still one course away from completing his degree, and hopes to get to that soon but was feeling burnt out and needed a break from his studies. He is working full time at a bottle-depot, which he says pays “not bad” but says, “it’s not what I want for myself. I still want a career and to better myself, and be the best person I can.” Anthony says that he learned a lot from the show and is looking forward to getting his fitness back on track once things are more settled in his life. “I just have to find my own personal desire and fire again to want to lose weight,” he says. He is also looking forward to doing Thai boxing again, as it gave him a great deal of pleasure. “I would walk out just feeling absolutely spent, but I walked out with my head high and just feeling really good. I want that feeling back,” he says.   September 2009

Since filming finished, Nicole has continued to stay fit and healthy. She kept up with kickboxing, training 5 times a week and has just recently had her first fight. "It was a lot of fun, I didn't win and I got a really bad bloody nose but everybody said I did really well," she says. Nicole recently slimmed down further in order to fight at 145 pounds, making her 10 pounds lighter than at the end of her X-Weighted journey. She also kept up with her dancing and while at university was co-captain on the Western Dance Team, and was dancing at least twice a week as well as doing regular performances. "This summer was kind of hectic, what with finishing school and moving back to Toronto, so I haven't been dancing for a couple of months, but I'll get back to it," she says. Nicole has graduated from university and is just about to start full-time work with the federal government. She is no longer with the boyfriend who was with her during filming (they broke up pretty soon after filming finished) and is having fun dating. Nicole says that she loved being part of X-Weighted, and probably wouldn't have been motivated to make such positive changes in her life without it. "I love the show because it got me in to kickboxing, and if I hadn't done it I wouldn't have met all the great friends that I train with. Kickboxing is such a big part of who I am now," she says.   <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> September 2009

We are happy to report that Casey is doing just fine since we last saw him on the show. There have been some huge changes in his life, the biggest one being that he now has a baby daughter. "Finally a girl after all those boys," he says (Casey has 3 sons). His ex Linda, has moved away but their son Dylan is still living with him in Kelowna. Casey has managed to keep his excess weight off, and maintained a healthy lifestyle - mostly through biking with his son Dylan, who we met on the show, and through being part of the local ski patrol. His general health is really good, although he still has some health issues related to the injury he suffered while on the show (his sense of smell and taste was affected and has never really come back). Casey says that besides the fact that going on the show made him get fit, he also enjoyed it and had a lot of fun on his journey. Still single, Casey is actively dating and having a lot of fun doing so. He is flattered by the female attention that came from being on the show. "I thought it was pretty humorous when I found out my episode was called "Casey: Chick Magnet"," he says. Casey gets recognized everywhere he goes in Kelowna: "It's a pretty small town" he says, "when I took Dylan for his first day of school, the secretaries in the school office recognized me, I get recognized in the gas station and everywhere really." November 2009

Since filming finished, Ann-Marie has had another baby, Charlie, who is now eighteen-months-old. She finished her diploma in business administration. Ann-Marie continued to do triathlons after X-Weighted finished filming – she did five that year, completing her last when she was twelve weeks pregnant – and recently tackled another, her first since having Charlie. "I finished in 1hr33mins, which is my personal best, and I might add not bad for being newly pregnant with nausea!" says Ann-Marie, who is now expecting a 3rd child, due on May 1st 2010. Although some of her weight did come back on with having another baby, she was able to lose most of it before getting pregnant again. These days, Ann-Marie cooks dinner for her husband five-nights a week (this was an issue in their marriage on the show). “My cooking is phenomenal,” she says. She does meal plans at the start of every week before hitting the grocery store to get everything she needs, because she is by nature a planner and says that as long as she knows what she is going to prepare, cooking dinner is no problem. “I love to cook and am the wife of the year these days,” she says.     September 2009

Almost 3 years on, Nikki is doing very well indeed. She has kept the weight off (and lost more). "Right now I waver between 163 and 165 pounds, I am super active and I no longer let the scale determine my happiness," she says.  Nikki loved being part of X-Weighted. "It was a beautiful process and I'm so grateful that I had that opportunity. My life changed 389°, it was ridiculous how much my life changed from that experience," she says. Nikki says that she feels that her best when she is active. "I am the captain of my own soccer team, so I play lots of soccer. I do lots of running and right now I am training to do a triathlon. I do my thing about four or five times a week for sure, and there's not one day that goes by where I'm not active in some way," she says. You may remember that Nikki split with her fiance Erich while on the show, the two only met once after that so that she could get her stuff back. "It was just a brilliant end to something that was causing me so much grief," she says, "and I learned a lot about my own self-worth and what I wanted to put up with and what I wanted in a relationship." Nikki is a happy single girl, who is having lots of fun. She has an active social life and is very busy setting up her own business. "It is called Authentic Image, and it works with women around the physiological, sociological and emotional components of their relationships with food," she explains. Nikki says that being on the show taught her to eat right and the importance of exercise,  but says that for her, "the maintenance comes from really going in and doing the emotional work". At the end of her journey, once the cameras stopped rolling, Nikki took all her bigger clothes to a consignment store and says that doing so gave her a sense of closure. "At the end of the 6 months I took what I learned, and I moved forward," she says. "I am extremely happy," says Nikki, "people watching my episode can see the physical transformation, but for me it was the emotional transformation that had the biggest affect." Nikki's relationship with her mom was something that was dealt with on the show, and happily Nikki says that her relationship with her mom only got better after filming finished. "I love my mom dearly. We just cut the BS, we really got real with each other. It was really good for her to see my episode actually, she realized it that what I needed from her when she watched it was not perfection but just her time and her interest in me," says Nikki. October 2009

A lot has changed for Jen since the show finished filming, and she says that she has never been happier. Her divorce from Steve is almost finalized, and she is in a new relationship, but is taking things slowly this time. Her boys are happy and healthy and the youngest is starting school this year.   Although Jen kept up with the capoeira for a while, she decided it just wasn’t her thing and instead found two new activities that she is super passionate about: Burlesque and belly dancing! “In January I got into burlesque and realized I have a natural talent for it! I won Miss Burlesque Fest 2009 in Calgary earlier this year,” she says. You can check out her winning performance here.   The first year after the show was pretty tough for Jen, not only was she going through her split from Steve, but there were also family issues that led to her brother moving out of her house. “I kind of fell apart for a year,” she says, “and after six months I started binge eating, put the weight back on and then some.”   Jen started seeing a therapist and faced her demons, which enabled her to get to the point where she is now, which is slimmer, healthier and happier.   Jen says that being on X-Weighted really did change her life. “The show was a blessing, because it allowed me to focus on myself, which I hadn’t done because I’d been too busy being a mom the past ten years,” she says, “I realized that you really have to focus on yourself if you really want these changes to happen.”   Jen also says that being on the show helped her realize that she had hidden talents, such as henna and body painting, which she does for two companies in Calgary. “Last year I was doing body painting at the sex show, which was really fun,” she says. While there, a fan of the show recognized her for the first time: “A couple of ladies came to the booth and one said “X-Weighted! You’re female warrior!” At the time I was still quite big, so I thought oh no, don’t recognize me now,” she says.   Now she has put herself in the limelight as a burlesque dancer, Jen gets recognized regularly and quite enjoys it. “People start off by complimenting my performance, then they’ll add “Oh by the way, weren’t you on X-Weighted?” This year I’m happy to get recognized because I’m back to my smaller size,” she says.   “When I did put the weight back on, I just had to refocus on what was important,” she says, “I learned that it’s not just about the weight loss, that part was easiest. The part that was hardest was dealing with the root problems that cause you to eat.” September 2009