Biggest Loser: Get your head in the game

It was student/teacher week on the Biggest Loser this week. One player in each pair was the teacher, one was the student. The students did not get to workout with Bob and Jillian. Instead, their teacher partner had to deliver all the training to them and the student was the only one whose weight counted at weigh-in.

To determine who of each pair would be the student and the teacher, the contestants had to face a candy challenge. Players had to eat only one piece of candy per round. Each candy was 5 calories each. (M&Ms, I think.) If you didn't eat, you're out. The one who ate the most got to pick the students and the teachers. Only two people ate candy in the first round -- Michael (White) and Sherry (Pink). Michael bowed out after the first round. So Pink got the power for only 10 calories.

For the most part, they chose the heaviest partner in the pair to weigh in. They were very deliberate about not making enemies with their choices. However, Green team -- Migdalia (daughter) and Miggy (mother) -- was upset that Migdalia was chosen as the teacher because they thought that she would have the best weigh in of the two. The other odd choice, in my opinion, was that the White team teacher was selected to be Michael, leaving his mother Maria to weigh in.

Migdalia was obviously angry, but when Bob asked her about it, she denied being angry. So Bob and Jillian went all psychiatrist on Migdalia, trying to break her down. Even though it was a bit overly dramatic, Jillian did make sense in saying that feelings and emotion are a compass that let us know when things are out of kilter in our life. That allowing ourselves to be vulnerable really is to be strong.

But Migdalia was not having it. When she finally started to allow herself to feel the pain, she walked out of the gym and threatened to quit.

Jillian followed her out of the gym, sayin that quitting is weak. True strength is digging in to the feelings you're having. Fixing the inside is the only way to make what's going on outside better. Once Jillian got Migdalia crying and broken, she sent Bob in to finish the deal.

When Bob goes in to talk to Migdalia, her mother is there too. Miggy argues that coming to the ranch was about changing your ways, not your personalities. They won't let themselves see that it's their insides that made their outsides 300 pounds.

A few times the show checked in with the Blue and the Yellow teams at home. I really wish that Green would go home and they would bring back one of the teams that is willing to work on their whole selves. As a seriously overweight person myself, I will venture to bet that there are very few obese people who are that way because they just love pizza and beer. Most people eat to extremes for the same reason others drink to extremes or take drugs or shop -- to fill a hole inside themselves. And until we face down those holes and learn to fill them with something emotionally -- and physically -- healthier, we will always be sick individuals.

I wonder if they have real therapists on the ranch, besides Bob and Jillian doing their best Dr. Phil impersonations?

The middle segment of the show was one big product placement. The first was in the training room for Walgreens. The second was with Chef Curtis Stone who showed the contestants proper portion size. While seeing how many calories are in certain restaurant foods was eye opening, it was basically an extended commercial for Muir Glen fire-roasted organic tomatoes.

With the product placements out of the way, it was time for the student-teacher challenge. The teacher had to unwind 1,000 feet of ribbon through a school playground. The students were told they would draw for which ribbon they had to untangle. The winning team would earn immunity and the ability to switch teacher and student roles on one team.

Once the tangling was done, the twist was that the students didn't really draw to see which ribbon they were untangling. They had to untangle their own ribbon -- blindfolded. The untangling would have been hard enough, but blindfolded seemed impossible. Gray, Red and Green did a remarkable job untangling the ribbon, but Gray won. They had until the weigh in to make the teacher/student switch if they chose too.

In the last chance workout, Mike was kind of slacking off, joking around. It made me wonder if Gray would choose White to switch teacher and student at the weigh in. And I was right. Of course, that made Mike mad.

Weigh in (Teacher, Student)

Gray: Koli -13, Sam -11

Even though they had immunity, they said they were there to work and that's what they planned to do every week. Gotta have a lot of respect for that.

Green: Migdalia -8, Miggy -7 (3.2%)
Black: Andrea -7, Darrell -12 (3.22%)
Orange: Cheryl -7, Daris -9 (2.9%)
Purple/Brown: Stephanie -7, John -14 (3.1%)
Red: Melissa -1, Lance -12 (3.57%)

Was this more game play from Melissa? Bob and Jillian seemed to think so. An argument ensued with Bob and Jillian accusing Melissa of throwing the weigh in and Melissa denying it. I think Melissa just guaranteed that Bob and Jillian will not be giving her much attention in the workouts next week. This is not over. The previews for next week, show Melissa scoring a 28 pound weight loss, proving Bob and Jillian right; Melissa is all about the game play and also lied about not throwing the weigh in again this week.

White: Maria -4, Michael -10 (2.08%) - not enough to keep them safe, unless Pink falls below
Pink: Sherry -6, Ashley -12 (3.48%)

So White was up for elimination. I think that everyone will give Michael an opportunity to prove that he really does want to be on the ranch. Sending him home at this point could literally be sending him home to his death. John wasn't buying Michael's sob story about being in pain. And John would know best. He only weighed about 60 pounds less than Michael when they all arrived at the ranch. And John and Stephanie (Brown/Purple) were the only ones who voted to send Michael home.

Maria was eliminated, as she wished. I only hope that Michael sees this as a wake up call that he needs to engage in the processand take advantage of the gift that the Biggest Loser ranch is.

While on campus, Maria lost 27 pounds. At home, she's lost another 23 pounds, for a total of 50 pounds. She's also taking swimming lessons and is conquering her fear of water.

This episode has given me more to think about than any episode in a long time. I think I'll come back to revisit that whole idea of healing the inside. In the meantime, I'm curious to hear your thoughts about it.