Jamie Goodwin scoops a bowl of ice cream and gets comfortable in front of the TV to watch NBC’s reality show “The Biggest Loser.” During this 2012 episode, the contestants are training in Hawaii.
The pep talk for show contestants by American surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm to a shark in 2003 in Hawaii, amazes Jamie, 38. She looks down at her wheelchair.
She’s gained a lot of weight over the years and knows her condition, being unable to use her stomach muscles, has played a role in her sedentary lifestyle.
But if Bethany Hamilton can inspire others and continue surfing without a left arm, Jamie believes she can lose weight and share her story from her wheelchair. She wants to be an example.
She puts down her spoon and looks at her husband Will Goodwin.
"I'm going to try out for this show."
Jamie joins scores of people at auditions at Kennesaw State University in June 2012. After a five-minute interview she’s not optimistic, and later learns she wasn’t picked.
But the rejection doesn’t stop her. She’s still determined to change her life and share her story.
She and Will spend the rest of the summer filming a 12-minute video detailing Jamie’s condition and explaining why she deserves to be a contestant on the show’s next season. Jamie uploads the video to YouTube and watches in amazement as it receives over 10,000 views in the first 24 hours.
This is it. This is what God wants me to do with my injury and my life. Inspire.
The video goes viral and “The Biggest Loser” takes notice, inviting her to be an audition finalist for the show’s 14th season.
Jamie flies out to Los Angeles to finish the audition process, but once again, she is not chosen.
Disappointed, she returns home and tries losing weight and eating better on her own, but gives up as soon as Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie roll around.
Then in April 2013, Jamie’s phone rings. It’s the casting people from ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition.” They know her story, and they’re wondering if she’s interested in being a season three contestant. Jamie is ecstatic.
This is my chance.
Three days later, she listens to her last and final rejection. They’re sorry, they say, but they’ve changed their minds.
Jamie turns her disappointment into ambition. There’s nothing she can do about about her handicap, but she knows she can do something about her weight.
She’s going to have to do it on her own, and she starts by setting her first goal.
I'm going to weigh less than 200 pounds by the 20th anniversary of my accident.
An unforgettable lesson
On a cool night in October of 1993, 17-year-old Jamie, a senior and cheerleader at North Cobb High School in Kennesaw with hopes of cheering in college, joined friends from a church youth group for a movie before going to get pizza.
One friend had just gotten a new truck that was too small to fit everyone in the cab. So Jamie and a few others decided to ride in the truck bed. Her parents would be furious, she knew. But she got back there anyway, and lay on her back with her head facing the cab in an effort block the chilly air. She and two friends laughed each time their heads bumped the cab when the driver braked.
Then, there was a collision. The impact hurled Jamie into the cab, and into unconsciousness.
She awoke again on her back. But something was different. Her legs felt as if they'd been dipped in wet concrete. She looked up at her friends and spoke the two words that would characterize the rest of her life: "I'm paralyzed."
Jamie was rushed to intensive care at Kennestone Hospital, where she underwent X-rays, MRIs and CT scans.
Shivering as she lay on the hospital table, she put her hands under her legs for warmth and realized doctors had removed her pants. How did I not feel that?
Before ever having to hear it from a doctor, she knew. She was never going to walk again.
The crash had initially broken her back, exposing her spinal cord to injury. Her body had rolled while she was unconscious, and her vertebrae severed her spinal cord, causing paralysis from the chest down.
After surgery to fuse her broken vertebrae with metal rods, and nine days in ICU, she was transferred to The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, which specializes in rehabilitation for patients with brain and spinal cord injuries.
Over several grueling months, she learned how to transfer from her wheelchair into a car, get back into her chair if she falls out and how to pop the occasional wheelchair wheelie.
She’s an optimist, but when she was alone at night, with no visitors and no busy therapy schedule, fear tiptoed into her mind.
This is scary. How am I going to do this?
She put in her headphones, turned on "Amazing Grace" and remembered one of the first questions she'd asked her doctor at Shepherd. "Can I still have children?"
The answer was yes, and from that moment on, Jamie knew life wasn’t going to be all that bad.
Two and a half months later, she went back to school and even back to cheerleading. Only this time, she cheered with wheels.
Later, she married Will, had children and began a life not too different from any other mom’s.
Doing it herself
Jamie never stops rolling. Her life is a montage of school drop-offs, practice pickups and workouts.
Ean, 11, keeps Jamie busy by dabbling in nearly every sport. Spencer, 9, attends regular Lego robotics classes, and Sawyer, 4, who hasn’t quite found his extracurricular niche, enjoys his preschool classes.
Jamie’s husband of 15 years, Will Goodwin, is the lead pastor at Oak Leaf Church in Canton, where both stay busy with church activities.
Her faith is key in her life. Jamie believes God allowed her accident to happen so she could serve as an example for others.
Amy Fendley, owner of Independent Fitness Consulting, a female-only fitness and nutritional coaching facility, couldn’t agree more.
Fendley contacted Jamie on Facebook after seeing her YouTube video, but her message went unanswered until months later when Jamie was rejected from “Extreme Makeover.”
Offering her services free, Fendley came to Jamie’s house, taught her how to eat properly and helped her create a grocery list without Cheetos, ice cream or cake.
Jamie took Fendley’s advice and rolled with it.
Then she found another supporter in Rodney McClure, owner of RAM Athletic in Canton. McClure had never trained anyone in a wheelchair, and while it made him uncomfortable at first, he was willing to take on the challenge.
He had adaptive equipment put in his gym and made changes such as moving equipment to make room for Jamie’s wheelchair.
For the past six months, Jamie has worked out at RAM Athletic for an hour every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Her workouts usually consist of a warm-up and some kind of strength training, as well as conditioning and calorie-blasting cardio, all using only her arms.
When Jamie was turned down by “Extreme Makeover” last April, she weighed 231 pounds. With help from her new friends, she’s lost 37 of those pounds. And on October 9, 2013 – the 20th anniversary of her accident – Jamie Goodwin met her very first goal, weighing 199 pounds.
Her Facebook page, “Wheelin’ Weightloss,” has 2,277 followers who are inspired by her story and are rooting for her success.
She hadn’t thought about the reality weight-loss shows in months when she got yet another unexpected phone call in February.
It was “Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition.” She was once again at the top of their list, and they were wondering if she would be interested in auditioning for this year’s show.
Jamie smiled, and gave them the answer she’d been longing to give since April of 2012.
I’m sorry, but I no longer meet the weight requirements to be a contestant on your show.
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