Josh wjo was on the team No Excuses who was recently eliminated on Money Hungry this week , did an interview with
VH1.com. He says that VH1 made him look like a cocky ass. He also talks about his crushes on Jamie and Stephanie, Mission Slimpossible and his partner Melissa.
How was your time on the show?
It was a crazy experience. It was a little bit different than we expected going in. We didn’t have an idea as to the game play or the voting. We thought it was going to be more like The Biggest Loser, where you show up and you lose the weight with possible immunities and surprises. When we got there and everything was completely different, it took some adjusting.
What did you think about your portrayal?
It’s VH1, so I didn’t know what to expect. I think they showed the sneaky side of me. Everything that was there obviously happened, but I think there could have been more emphasis on the workouts. My team was in the gym five hours a day, minimum. From Week 3 on, we were helping other teams with their diets and their workouts. Richard was there so many times a week, but he wasn’t there for every meal. They did touch on that in episode 6, with me helping the regulators. Other than that, they made me look like a hornball.
Before we get to that, I wanted to touch on your coaching of the Regulators. It was ironic that the episode in which we saw you coaching another team was the episode in which you went home.
My entire reason for going on the show at all wasn’t about the money. I wanted to get out there and show America what I was capable of. Before I went on the show, I’d lost 100 lbs. on my own. I had a base knowledge. Obviously, that didn’t show because of the way that it was edited, but I did want to eventually parlay this into a training career. That’s still the ultimate goal.
Just the way that it played out, someone could watch the show and say, “Well, he doesn’t know what he was talking about. He was eliminated before several other teams.”
On the same token, I pretty much designed the Regulators’ entire diet and workout that week, and they dropped 13 lbs. each. They’re kind of my testament. And if you look at the percentages in the game, we were in second place behind only Mission Slimpossible. We were doing extremely well on the weight side of it, we just kept struggling on the challenges.
How much weight did you end up losing on the show?
40 lbs. I was there for 28 days, so I averaged 1.5 lbs. a day.
How hard was it to make good nutritional choices on set? Was there an array of food including both healthy and unhealthy stuff, or was it more controlled?
I think it was the most uncontrolled environment I’ve ever been in while trying to lose weight. We started with 24 people in the house. No matter how much healthy food they put in there, it was gone the next day. Everyone ran to things they knew: the chicken breast, the ground turkey. They’d be gone for a day or so before the supplies were replenished. Since this was 51 Minds’ foray into a weight loss show like this, we had to get really creative. You end up eating things that you probably wouldn’t have in a different situation. I never advocate relying solely on protein powders for meal sources, but it was nice to have that there in a pinch when you’ve got 24 other people in the house vying for that 5 lbs. of chicken. But on top of all that, you have a pantry that’s full of M&Ms, cookies, chips and pasta – everything that you should probably be avoiding when you’re trying to lose weight in a competitive nature. I’m really proud of the cast, though: besides that first night, I don’t think anyone went into the liquor cabinet at all.
Have you lost weight since the show?
I lost about 40 more lbs. since the show. I’m keeping a slightly slower pace than on the show, because the show wasn’t real life. It’s not sustainable. The rate that some people were losing at is probably sustainable at home, but what I was doing wasn’t. I’m doing it at a moderate pace to where it isn’t my life right now.
So it was the pace that wasn’t sustainable?
The pace, and the amount of working out. Five-plus hours a day is Olympic-athlete training level. I’ve been lucky since the show to get sponsors that are essentially paying me to work out. I have the time and I’m still putting in three and a half, four hours a day. But it’s not as do-or-die right now. I’m having fun with it. I’m lifting weights more. A lot of people were afraid of lifting weights, not so much because of gaining muscle because it’s really hard to gain muscle in a caloric deficit, but I think people were afraid of volumizing the muscle with water, which is what I think happened to Deep Dish when they went home.
You seemed sad to be eliminated. Did that come at all from a feeling of betrayal?
I went into the game playing it strategically, not personally. It was: what can I do to get me as far in the game as possible. When I left, they brought up my inspiration for being there, which is my little brother, Grant. He’s got Down syndrome and he’s got gluten intolerance and he’s got heart issues. This little kid has had everything against him since the day he was born. He’s a Special Olympics gold medalist. When they brought him up, it made me break down. It was a month of nonstop workouts, a stressful situation since Episode 2, because of my own moves. It was emotional, but I don’t think there was betrayal. Now maybe a little bit because you see some of the things that were said that you didn’t know about. In the moment, though, it was more about not being ready for it to be over. It wasn’t about losing the money. That sucked, but for me it was more about not feeling like I finished what I started.
Did you feel resentment for the Slenderellas or Flabulous?
We kind of had a heads-up for how the Slenderellas planned on voting, and so I knew they were essentially lying. But I couldn’t blame them. What had I done in Episode 2? The Orphanage said, “Hey we want to vote out Jamie,” I said, “OK,” and when the time came, I switched my vote. If I were to be upset for that, I’d be a hypocrite. If we’re being real about it, it was a good decision on their part. I can see where they were coming from strategically.
Any thoughts on Mission Slimpossible and their brutish maneuvering?
That’s just their personality. They’re aggressive, they’re blunt, they’re straight to the point. One of the reasons me and my partner decided to switch our vote was that Mark said, “Josh, you’re a real competitor, and I’m going to get rid of you as soon as I can.” And this was when I was supposedly in his alliance. Some of the teams in that alliance were keen on making personal attacks, and I’m not into that. There’s no reason to make fun of somebody’s appearance when you’re all on an overweight show. There’s no reason to call names, to get violent. It’s childish. That’s not what I wanted to be a part of. That said, they’re hellish competitors. I always considered myself in really good shape for my size; those guys are just in really good shape.
Speaking of the hornball thing, was that accurately portrayed? Did you really skip from Jamie to Stephanie?
All I can say is: it was a situation I’ve never been put in before and I’m a natural flirt. When you’re working out a lot, there’s a lot of endorphins flowing – there’s a lot going on. I don’t think either instance went as far as puppy love, they were just crushes. They were both attractive women. They both have a lot going for them in life.
The Stephanie matter wasn’t mentioned in the last episode – the last we saw of that was your presenting her with a flower in the confessional. Did anything bloom from there?
She and I are really good friends. I think anything that happens on reality TV is not sustainable to begin with, but we talk. We talked about maybe having a fake engagement for publicity reasons (laughs). She’s an awesome girl, and it was conveyed after we left that she had nothing to do with the decision to get rid of us. It was Phillip grabbing the ball and running with it, which is Phillip. That’s what you expect dealing with Phillip. I don’t think we’ve seen Stephanie talk much at all.
How’s your relationship with your No Excuses partner, Melissa, these days?
I was just up in South Dakota about a week ago. We had lunch, it was good. I think we’re both moving on past the show. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I’d do it again in a heartbeat…but it wasn’t what we expected. I think her biggest problem, if anything, is that I said on national TV that she had a crush on me. But I told her that if you look at they way they edited, I ended up looking like a cocky assh***, and she doesn’t. She doesn’t have to worry about it.
Do you regret saying that?
I do. I don’t think it was appropriate to say on national television. I feel like I kind of threw my partner under the bus. Truth be told, in a period of 28 days, I said it twice and both times happened to make the air.
Giving the flowers to her was a nice save, though. We don’t see a lot of that kind of consideration on reality TV.
She’s one of my best friends. At the end of the day, I wasn’t going to hurt her feelings for something on reality TV. I meant what I told her: I came here with you and I’m leaving with you. I had hoped we’d have friendships with the other people after the show, but she was the only person that really mattered.
Do you have any other regrets?
I really don’t. I stand by the way I played the game, I know people said it was sneaky, but the fact is that I went there and I never said anything mean about anyone, I played strategically, I lost a bunch of weight in a short period of time. I wish I could have won, but other than that, no.
