New season of the Biggest Loser

I always get excited when it's time for another season of the Biggest Loser to start. So I guess I'm excited today.

BL will always be special to me, because I discovered it around the time I decided to make changes in my life, and it served as early motivation. Now, several years later, I don't feel like I can learn much from it anymore, and the product placement segments irritate me to no end, but I still tune in.

I watch because it helps keep my mind focused on fitness. I watch because I enjoy watching people reach the same "a-ha" moment that I did a couple of years ago. But mostly I watch because it helps keep me motivated. Anytime I start feeling lazy or like I want to indulge in some unhealthy snack, those messages to stick with it, to keep moving, to not give up that one hears every week on the show begin playing in my mind and, most of the time, give me enough willpower to overcome.

So, when that familiar chorus begins tonight -- "What have you done today, to make you feel proud?" -- I'll be tuning in, ready to see what unfolds over the course of the next four months or so.

But since we're on the subject of TV, I have found another show recently that does seemingly teach me something new every week, You Are What You Eat, which airs on BBC America. The show features Gillian McKeith's attempts to teach, sometimes crudely, obese Brits what their unhealthy lifestyles are doing to them and, more importantly, how they can change for the better.

Now, McKeith has come under fire for trumpeting some questionable credentials, and there is no doubt that a few of the things she espouses are a bit batty, but I've found her to be right on track much more often than not. Each week, it seems like she reveals some fact that I never knew before.

One thing about the show: It will definitely force you to re-examine how you fuel your body. Give it a look, sometime.