Excess Baggage | Ajay Rochester's Finding My Mojo

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Ajay Rochester blogs about her weight loss journey on Channel Nine’s Excess Baggage

Down but definitely NOT out!

February 9, 2012

Posted by AjayRochester in Excess Baggage, Featured Post

Okay so it is a brand new day and one of the many great lessons I have learned from Dr Tim on Excess Baggage is to not go down for the count but to fight on, getting stronger every day, and with each day there is an opportunity to succeed in more ways than just one.

The last couple of days were definitely filled with right and left hooks coupled with a few blows below the belt from people with nothing better to do with their time than send hate but the great and liberating moment is this: I have learnt to brush it off with a strength I never thought I would ever have and that I am also surrounded by a lot of people who not only genuinely care but who look to me for inspiration and in doing so, remind me that this “game” is for life and for me, it has just begun and will never ever end, regardless of business decisions that may or may not suit me and the people I work with. Let me make myself clear: with or without this TV show I intend to take these lessons into my life and flourish as living proof that it is never too late to heal your life!…

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THIS JUST IN…….

February 9, 2012

Posted by AjayRochester in Excess Baggage

GOTTA LAUGH…….I JUST GOT THIS FROM A FRIEND (AND YOU FIND OUT WHO THEY ARE WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN)

AND I JUST HAD TO SHARE IT:

Hi Babe

Just wanted to send you a huge big hug and let you know that people out here love your show. Don’t let Channel 9 ruin this amazing experience and it’s great message just cos they don’t have the courage of their own convictions. This is the channel that ‘bumped’ muliti Emmy and Golden Globe award winning show The Sopranos to the graveyard shift cos it didn’t rate in the first couple of weeks …. I could go on! They seriously couldn’t programme a digital radio – putting you against TBL is one thing but up against My Kitchen Rules – which won hands down over everything last year – wasn’t clever it was simply silly and a tad arrogant. Plus they’ve moved you for every cricket match that has come along – not a smart way to establish a loyal audience – and it ain’t just moi that is commenting on this. Constant repeats of Big Bang and Charlie Sheen just don’t cut it. I bet Sonia Kruger is feeling a wee bit shakey.…

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Channel 9 Have some balls….(you’ve got NINE!)

February 7, 2012

Posted by AjayRochester in Excess Baggage

Okay, I am currently stuck on the bottom end of Australia, Kangaroo Island, beautiful place but NO reception so we just found out that the ratings/channel say that we should move channels. Well, anyone who knows me, and who knows that I turned down $50,000 from Woman Day to say “I lied” about a certain photoshopped bikini shot that I was not responsible for (I can’t photoshop to save my life and last I checked I am not the one pressing the “go to print” button). People who know me well know that I will never ever ever take a buck versus NOT say what is on my mind.

Come on channel nine, have some faith. Excess Baggage is a grower not a shower! Don’t flick US (our show) off onto another channel in the first week without standing behind the product you sell. SHAME ON YOU! This is a GREAT show and has the ability to change people’s lives for the better FOREVER!

I know that I risk not ever being employed by channel nine again (but even they know this is a good show!), but I also did that with channel 10. I refused to endorse their online weight loss club and their shakes and protein bars…call me a Diva!!!!!!…

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How I “keep my cool” on the set of Excess Baggage

February 3, 2012

Posted by AjayRochester in Excess Baggage

I really can’t explain how hot The Kimberly is. Your skin feels like it’s being ripped from the bones by the sun’s reach like some alien ray gun set to do more than stun. OUCH. The heat pulses from your head all the way to your toes and it doesn’t matter how much water you pour on your head, it’s just never enough.

The only way to really understand it is to see just how much joy there is in something so simple as pouring water on overheated feet. Seriously better than sex and/or chocolate!

I captured this moment after the spirit walk and it was just too cute to not share.

Enjoy, cause we certainly did!…

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The games we play

January 30, 2012

Posted by AjayRochester in Excess Baggage

Working on Loser we were always trying to keep everything secret from the contestants, hoping to catch that element of surprise (or horror) on camera the first and most natural and therefore realistic response to whatever torturous challenge we set for them. We were often surprised at how much they actually knew and it was not uncommon for them to just sidle up and casually mention our next exotic destination planned for them. I learnt the poker face response pretty quickly but would run right inot the production office to tell them we had been busted.

We never really knew how they knew what they knew and I couldnt understand why it seemed so important to find out what was going to happen next. Haha until I found myself on the other side of the camera as a contestant in a similar yet very different weight loss escapade. Now I get it.

Life in a roving fat camp is restrictive. We never know our schedules from one minute to the next and even if we did they change every five minutes, we are either filming, working out or sleeping, and in our case, any time in between we are travelling. Life on the road can become repetitious and tedious (times like this I wish I was a member of both The Qantas Club and Virgin Lounge) and so, with the absence of the pub on a Friday or any other night actually, the sport of finding out what happens next has become the game everyone plays.…

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Blubberguts

January 28, 2012

Posted by AjayRochester in Excess Baggage, Finding My Mojo, Life

“Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says I will try again tomorrow.”

If I had been a Spice Girl I would have been labeled Old Spice for sure. Never Posh, sometimes Scary but never ever Sporty. I don’t possess an athletic bone in my body. Never have and seriously doubt I ever will.

I grew up in country NSW and attended a small one teacher school, not quite at the end of the world but you could see it from there. Our biggest claim to fame was that our town, if you could call it that, was nestled on the highway to Tenterfield, a place made famous by singer and showman Peter Allen. Pretty unimpressive, I know. Try living there.

Our tiny rural school had no athletics department to speak of and once a year the surrounding schools would gather together to hold a sports carnival which I would either get my mother to write me a sick note for or spend the entire day dreading and trying to avoid my age events knowing they would always end the same way – with me not only coming last, but the next race waiting to start until I crossed the line.…

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What I like about Darryn Lyons

January 25, 2012

Posted by AjayRochester in Excess Baggage, Featured Post

Okay, well for anyone who has been reading my blog or listening in on Twitter, or those of you who may be about to embark on the television hit of the year Excess Baggage (okay mildly biased endorsement) on Channel Nine, you will know what I Do NOT like about Mr. Paparazzi. However it’s just not in my nature to simply blab on about the not so positive sides of someone, given I, myself, am a self confessed extremely flawed work in progress.

So despite having a burgeoning file of things that would no doubt well and truly put this guy at the top of Santa’s “naughty” list I have to give credit where credit is due and having spent a good few weeks on a “reality” TV show where you never really know who your “real” friends are, sometimes, honesty, no matter how brutal or deluded it might be, is somewhat refreshing.

I have also recently learnt that an opinion does not necessarily mean it is the truth. However I have also learnt that lessons come in many forms and sometimes the more brutal they come the more liberating the learning curve. Cue Darryn Lyons the epicenter of one of the worst and best few weeks of my life.…

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The best revenge is success!

January 17, 2012

Posted by AjayRochester in Excess Baggage

I stand up for everybody! Yep I will stand in front of a truck to save almost anyone. I have a long and detailed history of rescuing sick animals and injured human beings who have often gone on to wreak havoc in my life as a thank you but I like to think that my giving spirit is what my true friends who take the time to get to know the surprisingly shy and very eccentric me, love me for.

But I am learning. I’m learning to recognize the early warning signs of those kinds of people, I keep a wide berth of people who are down right nasty and I try to let other people speak up first in defense of whatever it is going on around me. As I said, I try, because I don’t always succeed. Sometimes what is going on is so abhorrent I just have to risk having the anger turned on me in an attempt to help whoever it is in need.

I have recently found myself in an environment I really never fully understood despite being around it for many years previously. No one can ever describe what it is like living in a competitive fishbowl filled with super egos and/or people trying to rebuild their lives/careers or even just get more noticed than they have or even quite simply just pay the bills…..(I include myself in that exclusive list of wannabes/desperados and/or tryhards..no doubt just some of the words that will be used to describe the brand new batch of contestants on Excess Baggage airing on January 30^th on Channel 9 at 7pm.) I prefer to call us human beings living their lives and taking every opportunity to make it interesting and worthwhile.…

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If you wouldn’t pull the trigger then don’t help load the gun.

January 8, 2012

Posted by AjayRochester in Anti-bullying, Excess Baggage, Life

Having lost my birth mother a very short year after meeting her I know just how precious and fleeting life and time can be. So I can never fathom why anyone with five minutes to themselves would use their time to be nasty and cruel to a fellow human being.

I am inspired to write about, but also incredibly heart broken for, Amanda Cummings, another child who was bullied to the point where she felt no other escape than to take her own life.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083504/Amanda-Cummings-suicide-Hate-messages-Facebook-tribute-page.html

Whoever said, “Sticks and stones may break your bones but names can never hurt you” was, to put it simply, unfeeling and ignorant.

It’s very easy for someone else to say, “Don’t listen to what nasty people say,” but if you are fragile, lost, in pain and afraid, sometimes it doesn’t take much to make you feel like there is nowhere else to go but to just go. I know, I have been there before far too many times to mention. I have learnt that I am stronger than I ever thought I could be but on the bad days it is a fragile and elusive thread that keeps me attached to this mortal coil. I have my son Kai to thank for my ability to keep going but not everyone has an anchor so strong.…

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It’s time to cut the crap!

January 6, 2012

Posted by AjayRochester in Been There Done Fat TV, Excess Baggage, Featured Post

Okay so it’s a new year and I am very excited. Someone sent me this clip of Excess Baggage and I loved it. So funny! Having been a part of Biggest Loser for so many years and so frustrated at the tragically boring, often times rude and extremely repetitive scripts (that people actually think came from me) filled with fat jabs and eye rolling puns even the most pitifully paid writers wouldn’t dare put their name to, I was more than ready to have a little fun.

More importantly I was ready to actually heal a part of my life that has dogged me for years. Hey, I know how to lose weight, I’ve certainly done it enough times in my life as a professional yo-yo. But when offered the opportunity to deal with why I might actually keep doing it and even more importantly an opportunity to actually FIX that part of me forever, well it was too tempting to pass up.

On top of that, to finally give people an opportunity to see me, the real me, that was also important. So much crap, lies, bullsh*t and nastiness has been written about me over the years when all I ever wanted to do was help others deal with the weight loss and self esteem demons that had dogged me for so much of my life.…

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