The Biggest Loser: Emotions and Injuries with O'Neal Hampton

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by Troy Rogers

After embarking on one of the most heartfelt and touching journeys of all seasons of The Biggest Loser, O'Neal Hampton saw his quest for Biggest Loser glory come to an end this week. Although O'Neal and his daughter, Sunshine, were gone from The Biggest Loser ranch early in the season, O'Neal and Sunshine were given a second chance at Biggest Loser Couples redemption when they returned to the game. However, as tough as The Biggest Loser was for O'Neal, nothing could have prepared him for injuring his knee during competition and losing his brother in the same week. For O'Neal Hampton, The Biggest Loser Couples was life-changing in more ways than most Biggest Loser competitors experience.

Although O'Neal lost 139 pounds during his time at The Biggest Loser ranch, O'Neal found himself below the yellow line with Sunshine at this week's weigh-in. As a result, O'Neal asked his Biggest Loser mates to send him home instead of Sunshine and O'Neal Hampton became the latest to leave The Biggest Loser ranch.

The morning after The Biggest Loser vote, we spent a few minutes with O'Neal to learn more about how he handled the emotional side of The Biggest Loser, whether he was prepared to leave the game when he injured his knee, and whether he has any plans with Sam and Koli once The Biggest Loser Couples comes to an end.

THE DEADBOLT: Your last week on the ranch was really emotional for you. How did you prepare for the emotional side of the journey on The Biggest Loser?

O'NEAL HAMPTON: I don't think you can. I really don't think you can prepare, because, for one thing, it's an unknown. You don't know what's ahead. I think what prepares you is your life. I think all of your life prepares you. I think everything I did in my life prepared me for this moment, because the simple fact is: you don't know what's going to happen. Have I been in similar situations where I reacted similar? Yes, I have, and I think that's the only thing I can do. It's not that I sat down and said, "This is this. This is going to be this. And when this happens, I'm going to do this." I'll be lying to you if I said I did that.

The only thing I did was remain true to who and what I was to make the decisions that got me as far as it had. Now, the bad decisions that I made got me overweight. I cast those over to the side. I want to look forward and you can not live your life looking in the rearview mirror. [laughs] Well, I take that back. Yes, you should look in that rearview mirror just to see what's behind there and leave it behind there. But don't put it in front of you because you'll get in an accident and the accident is back to where I was before.

THE DEADBOLT: What was going through your mind last week when you re-injured your knee? Were you getting ready to go home right then?

O'NEAL: You know what I was more concerned with than my knee? Well, you had to have seen it. I hit my head first and the only thing I was thinking about was, "Don't pass out. Don't pass out." I just kept saying that over and over. In fact, I bugged my eyes. I opened my eyes as wide as I could, as if that made a difference. [laughs] But I was opening my eyes, saying, "Don't pass out. Don't pass out." And you can kind of see it getting dark and then things started getting bright again. I mean, I'm telling you: when you physically will your mind and body to do things, it will react.

Once I knew I wasn't going to pass out then the pain started shooting from my knee to my back to my hip. Then I started focusing on my knee and I said, "Okay, you're going to be all right." I kept reassuring myself. You know what? I also think I kept saying, "I'm going to be all right," because I knew any minute that Sunshine was gong to be standing over me and I wanted her to hear from my voice that I was alright. Even if I wasn't, I wanted her to know that I'm constantly saying, "I'm all right." [laughs] That's what was going through my head, not passing out and making sure she knew that I was all right.

But so far as me and my condition, I'm going to tell you: I've never felt pain in my knee and hip and back like that. I thought - I really did - that it was worse than what it was, but it wasn't. I mean, it's just like - I guess we all answer to a higher authority. But I truly believe that it could've been worse, and I thought it was worse, but it wasn't and it all worked out. In fact, it worked out enough for me to go the next week and go again. I was much more hurt by my brother passing than that thing of me falling.

THE DEADBOLT: What do you, Sam, and Koli have planned for when the show is over?

O'NEAL: They're coming here. They're making a Minnesota trip. You know, we talked so much about our areas, I've never been to Napa Valley. So when I go there, they don't live too far from Napa Valley. I'd love to go there. I've never been there. I've heard so much about it. Prior me losing this weight, I could never walk around Napa Valley anyway. But now I'm able to maneuver around there and go quite well through there.

They're coming to Minnesota and I'm going to show them all of the things. I'm going to take them by Prince's house. I'm going to take them to see Morris Day. I'm going to take them to all of the Minnesota things they see and hear about. So Minnesota has 10,000 lakes and it's a beautiful place. Actually, I said, "Please come in the summer. If you come in September, I'm not responsible for you." [laughs]