Fall TV Blog

She’s the proud mom of three boys, who came to the ranch to turn her life around. Despite being eliminated by the alliance on her team — Brady, his wife Vicky and their pal Heba — South Carolina’s Amy Parham remains undaunted. Happy to now weigh 145 lbs. and wear a size 6, Parham talked to PEOPLE about the Brady-Vicky-Heba triumvirate, how she’s keeping the weight off, and whether Brady sabotaged his weight loss during week six. – Sara Hammel

Is losing weight with your husband make it easier?
It’s good accountability having each other. I can’t imagine being married to somebody who had not been on the ranch and didn’t understand the whole dynamic of what to eat and the exercise and all that. It’s been so great to be doing this together. We get bulk food — chicken and broccoli — and we make a whole pile of meals at the beginning of the week and we put them in individual containers and that way we can just pull them out.

How have your and your husband’s habits changed now that you’re back at home?
One thing I learned on the show is I wasn’t eating enough. I would go all day without eating and then eat everything at night. It helped me to eat every four hours. We go to the gym together, our trainer works out with both of us. It’s kinda neat — we have our own little ranch here in South Carolina.

What happened behind the scenes with your elimination? Did you believe Heba was not going to vote you out after her speech?
I’m watching the show with you and I didn’t know until last night that Brady and Vicky had gone and had this discussion with Heba about Phillip, which was not accurate in any stretch of the imagination. It makes me think they felt a bit threatened in their alliance with Heba, because Heba, Amy C. and I had become close that week. They felt they needed to make up that story to strengthen their alliance with her [and] make her suspicious of me.

Once the game is over, how do you plan to keep the weight off?
I really don’t feel like I’m on a diet. This is completely maintainable for the rest of my life. I don’t deprive myself. If I want a little something once a week, I’ll have it. It’s good for your metabolism to [shock] the body because it doesn’t expect the same 1,100 calories a day. I don’t have the urge to go out and binge because my metabolism’s going all the time so I’m not hungry. Honestly, it’s really amazing how when your body’s fed it doesn’t cry out for Cheetos anymore.

Phillip seemed to be one of the more aggressive competitors on the show. Is there anything you would have changed that he did?
I’m constantly trying to prevent Phillip from talking so much because he tends to talk his way into adversity. But that’s one reason I love him too — there’s never a dull moment. One thing, looking back, we had an agreement that during the food temptation that he was going to eat and I was not going to eat. I kept trying to encourage him to eat more Reece’s cups and I wish he’d have done that. But other than that I think he played the game well and with as much dignity as he could.

What was it like to go back to Dr. Huizenga for such improved results?
That really felt good, especially for Phillip because he was really starting to have some serious medical conditions. When you’re married and you love somebody, you worry more about your spouse than you do yourself, so that made me happy for Philip that he got such a better report. I want to keep him around for 20 more years.

There was speculation Brady drank a lot of water to keep his weight loss low (he lost only 3 lbs.), so he’d lose double the weight the following week. Were you thinking about sabotage when you were being voted off?
I’m really naïve and kind of oblivious. At the time, it did not even cross my mind that he could possibly have done that. But after watching it last night, I was like, “He did that!” I don’t know that for a fact but that has to be the truth. I’m not there the next week, so I really don’t know what happened. I guess we’re all going to see next week who it is that pulls the big number. I’m excited to see.

NBC