She'd already adopted the clean eating habits John picked up while competing on "The Biggest Loser." She'd already begun to share John's love of running, and between the diet and the exercise, she'd dropped about 30 pounds on her own. Now, she announced, she wanted to take her fitness to the next level. She wanted to find out what the fuss over the "WOD" was all about.
"I thought that was so cool," John recalls, "because CrossFit can kind of come off as a little too intense for some people. But what we're doing is, we're getting the word out, saying, 'Look, this is for everybody because you modify [the workouts].' [Jill] hears me talk all the time about the WOD and my modifications, because I totally have to modify a bunch of stuff, and now, she says, 'Oh, I think I'm going to try it!' And I was giddy."
John? Giddy? Is this the same laser-focused guy we saw breathing fire for four months on "The Biggest Loser" ranch, shedding 224 pounds to beat a former NFL lineman for the Season 12 grand prize? It's funny he brings up CrossFit's "scary" stigma, because viewers most likely had similar notions about John after watching him on the show.
Admit it. You think John himself came off as "a little too intense for some people." Well, the 41-year-old father of two would like to get the word out about that, as well.
He might be drinking the CrossFit Kool-Aid and beating his own personal trainer in half-marathons, but he's no longer living every day in so-called "beast mode."
"No, no, as a matter of fact, my frame of mind when the show was over was, 'O.K., we're in maintenance mode. Don't forget we're in maintenance mode,' " said John, who completed the Yuma Half-Marathon last weekend in two hours, five minutes and five seconds. "'We are going to put on muscle, but we're in maintenance mode,' and so how competitive I was at the ranch isn't really a true reflection. I am competitive, but not nearly to the tune that the show would like to make it out to be."
For John, "maintenance mode" means allowing himself a cheeseburger. He's had one in the seven weeks since the Season 12 finale, whereas he jokes about eating 67 a day before starting on the show. He said his biggest challenge has been and will always be to "renegotiate his relationship with food," which means learning to see food as fuel and recognizing the root causes of cravings.
"Maintenance mode" also means five to 10 pounds more than his finale weight. He weighed in at 220 on Dec. 13, right before claiming his $250,000 check, and now says he bounces around between 225 and 230, depending on whether he's carb-loading for a race.
He does that a lot. Before running the Yuma Half, he completed a charity 10K with "Biggest Loser" Season 5 champion Ali Vincent in Tempe, Ariz., and he's training for both the Phoenix Half-Marathon on March 3 and the Los Angeles Marathon on March 18.
John loves running, an admission that shocks him to this day, considering he's a former high school/junior college football and track athlete whose specialty was "throwing heavy things." Also, don't forget, he weighed 445 pounds when he arrived on the ranch last summer.
John's biggest non-running passion is CrossFit, which combines every form of physical activity imaginable with a competitive atmosphere that pushes him to his limits. John said he trains three times a week at CrossFit Leiftime Fitness near his home in Mesa, Ariz., and although he's not nearly as strong as he used to be, he never has a "bad" WOD.
"It's the coolest experience ever," he said. "I know that everybody says that 'Oh, my box is the best,' but these guys [at Leiftime] really are fantastic. I have been welcomed with open arms and just absolutely fallen in love with it.
"CrossFit is gymnastics movements, it's cardio, it's heavy weights, it's Olympic lifts. It's a cornucopia. It's total body fitness. It's truly the definition of absolute fitness. But what's cool for me is, my old stomping grounds is the deadlift, the squat, the clean and jerk -- that was my forte when I was in my prime, and for me, I'm like, 'All right, I'm a little bit older, a little bit rusty, a little bit dusty, but let's get in there and have some fun.' "
John's having so much fun that he's roped his wife and even his 8-year-old son into CrossFit training. After consulting with athletes he met a few weeks ago at a CrossFit event benefiting the Disposable Heroes Project -- an organization that raises funds to help injured military veterans -- he has decided to taper off his running and train for the L.A. Marathon solely via CrossFit.
"This is what's nuts," said John, who has taken a hiatus from his job as a high school teacher/coach in order to travel around the country doing athletic events and speaking engagements. "I was running myself to death. I was clocking anywhere from 45 to 50 miles a week, and then all of a sudden I go and meet these guys from the Disposable Heroes Project and this guy that ran 100 miles who was going through the same journey that I was going through, as far as the running and all that crap. And he's like, 'I just started doing CrossFit exclusively to prepare for the 100-miler,' and I'm like, 'All right, I'm sold on it.' "
John experienced the highlight of his post-"Biggest Loser" athletic career at that Disposable Heroes event in California. He met a few veterans who'd been severely injured overseas by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and were still recovering after several years. One of the vets sprinted past John in the brutal WOD and yelled back, "Why are you walking, Big John?"
At that moment, with his inner competitive beast pretty much exhausted, John switched into reflective mode. He thought back about how far he'd come since starting his "Biggest Loser" journey and just felt grateful for the entire experience.
"That guy absolutely owned me," John said with a laugh. "I'm laying it all out there, and it's insane, and as I'm next to this guy that's still recovering from his IED injuries, I'm thinking to myself, 'Well, I'm definitely not complaining, I can tell you that.'
"It was a really good reality check. It's a really good opportunity to say, 'Hey, where am I at in this crazy thing I call life? Where am I at right now? Hey, I'm in a pretty good place. I'm in a pretty good place.' "
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