‘Biggest Loser’ encourages others to take Off-Road Challenge in Burnet

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

BURNET — Tara Costa understands what it’s like to look at yourself in the mirror and think there’s no way you’ll ever lose enough weight. At age 23, she weighed 294 pounds, which was still shy of her heaviest weight of 316 pounds.

Five years later, Costa is leading teams of people across the country through obstacle courses, including one May 17-18 at Reveille Peak Ranch.  And she wants others looking to get active or drop some weight to join her.

Her weight now hovers between 120 and 125 pounds.

“I think what happens when you go through a transformation or a journey is you see it as this long-term goal, and it seems impossible,” Costa said. “You should set short-term goals that take you to that long-term goal. That’s how you achieve something big.”

Plus, Costa noted, it helps to surround yourself with like-minded people, which you’ll find during the Biggest Loser 5k Off-Road Challenge at Reveille Peak Ranch, 105 CR 114 near Burnet. It’s run alongside the Spartan Race series but at a different pace and intensity.

Costa — if her name sounds familiar — was the second runner-up during the seventh season of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser.” The show features people with major weight problems who undergo a series of challenges and workouts monitored by trainers. The object is to lose the highest percentage of body fat to win.

Costa weighed 294 when the show started, but 17 weeks later, she was 139 pounds. Costa lost 155 pounds during the program.

She learned a lot along the way, but one of her biggest lessons was to find people who support your goal and surround yourself with them. Even as you try to improve yourself, whether it’s weight loss or learning a new skill, some folks will try to sabotage it or at least make light of your dream. Those people, Costa said, can make it very hard for you.

Once Costa completed “The Biggest Loser,” she began competing in triathlons and other athletic endeavors.

“I built this network of people who were doing what I wanted to do and supported me,” she said. “That made a tremendous difference in my success.”

Soon, Costa became a team captain for the Biggest Loser Off-Road Challenge, and just about every weekend there’s an event somewhere in the United States, she’ll be there. She was on her way to one outside Colorado Springs, Colo., when she shared how she sees the event as a chance for people to get out and get active.

“Yeah, it’s ran alongside the Spartan races, but there’s no time penalty for not doing an obstacle,” Costa said. But she hopes people give each of the obstacles a try because they might surprise themselves.

“You could come up on an obstacle, like a wall or a mud pit, and say, ‘I could never do that.’ But then, you try, and there’s all these people there supporting you, and, the next thing you know, you’re over that wall. It just changes you.”

She pointed out the obstacles and the race (you can walk or run or both) often serve as a stepping stone to dealing with other struggles in life.

“After you’ve made it over those (race) obstacles, you’ll come to something during your week, and you’ll think, ‘I don’t know if I can do that,’ but then, you’ll remember those obstacles (in the race), and you’ll think, ‘I bet I can,’ and you do,” Costa said. “That’s the way this event can change you.”

While it’s set on the Spartan Race course, Costa said people shouldn’t feel intimidated by the Spartan competitors. In fact, they are often the most supportive group of people for the Off-Road Challenge participants.

But the key, Costa pointed out, is starting.

“Sure it sounds tough, and it is challenging,” she said, “but I think if you sign up, come out and maybe even bring a friend or two, you’ll really surprise yourself in what you can do.”

Plus, Costa will be right there with you showing you the way.

“You’ll be doing something you didn’t do the day before,” she added. “It’s about getting yourself moving.”

If five kilometers sounds like a long way to go, take Costa’s advice and just focus on getting through the next few yards and then the next and keep repeating until you cross the finish line, or a line that leads to a new life.

Go to www.biggestloserrunwalk.com and click on the “Off-Road Challenge” link.

daniel@thepicayune.com