From LOSING IT! With Jillian Michaels
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Season 9, Episode 4
Week Four was a red-hot week on the Ranch. This week was all about power, and the way one team chose to use its power almost changed the fate of three teams at once. Tension reached an all-time high — from the first challenge through the elimination — and tempers flared all around. Still, Week Four also proved to be a turning point for several teams. While they may not have gained power in the game this week, they did get empowered. Some teams reached milestones, got motivated to push harder, or recommitted to their weight-loss mission. So, what happened this week? Let me break it all down.
Pop Challenge Choices: Alison met up with the contestants and explained that Week Four was all about power — and "with great power comes great responsibility." The teams would compete by running the "presidential mile" — a one-mile loop around the Ranch campus — to select an electronic key card from a board of 100 cards. Each team had to bring one card back at a time to the starting point, place it inside an electronic reader, and wait to see if they got a green check, which would earn them one point. If they received a red X, then they had to go back and try again. The first team to get three points would win the challenge and get immunity from elimination — a first in Biggest Loser history for a pop challenge prize. It didn't take long for the teams to get frustrated with all of the red X's they received. Melissa and Lance, the Red Team, finally got three green checks and won the challenge, and immunity. They also won the power to decide which teams would get either no elimination vote, no access to the gym, or a two-pound disadvantage at the weigh-in. They selected the White Team's Michael to lose his vote; they barred John, of the Brown Team, from the gym; and they gave the two-pound penalty to Miggy and Migdalia, of the Green Team. The Green Team, which had come off a difficult week, was mighty angry about that.
Seeing Red: Bob and I had our own bone to pick with the Red Team. Last week, we were convinced that Melissa had thrown the weigh-in for a second week in a row. In the first week, she had lost 19 pounds; the second week, when she had immunity, she gained a pound; and last week, when her weight loss again didn't count, she lost just one pound. While she denied any game play, it sure looked to us as if she was saving her big losses for weeks that mattered more. Bob and I each confronted Melissa and Lance to get to the bottom of it. They stuck with their story, but in the end Bob and I still just didn't buy it. The Red Team decided not to work out with me any longer, but later changed their minds.
Powering Up: Alison and the teams met up at a shipyard for this week's challenge. Each team had a cage that was attached to ropes connected to a massive crane. Their mission was to pull on the ropes to lift themselves 120 feet to the top of the crane. The first team to get there would win phone calls home. (Everyone at the Ranch really misses their loved ones, so the stakes were high.) The winning team would also choose three other teams who could make calls. All the teams struggled to get their cages up the ropes, but the Gray and Red Teams fought it out to the end. The Gray Team won by just one second; however they graciously selected the Red Team, the Green Team, and Brown Team's John to make phone calls home.
Weigh-in Woes: No one knew what was going to happen at the weigh-in this week. After two weeks of Melissa not losing weight, I was pretty sure that she would show some big numbers. Not surprisingly, she lost 11 pounds! Combined with Lance's 6 pounds, they lost 17 pounds. The White Team's Michael, who got a lot of flak last week for not trying hard enough, found that his new commitment paid off — he lost 15 pounds this week and 70 pounds in four weeks! The Black Team's Andrea lost 5 and her father, Darrell, lost 10 pounds, but they wondered whether their 15 pounds was enough to keep them in the game. The Orange Team lost 6 pounds each; however, they both hit new milestones when Cheryl dropped below 200 pounds and Daris dropped below 300. The Pink Team fell one pound short of the 12 they needed to stay safely above the yellow line, as Sherry dropped 4 pounds and Ashley dropped 7. The Brown Team's John, who wasn't able to enter the gym this week after the pop challenge, lost 10 pounds anyway and stayed safe. The Gray Team's Sam lost 14 and Koli lost 12 pounds for an outstanding 26-pound loss. The Purple Team's only remaining member, Stephanie, went down 6 pounds and stayed safe with her 2.54 percent total weight loss.
Finally, the Green Team's Miggy and Migdalia headed to the scale. They had been angry all week that the Red Team had given them the two-pound disadvantage, and it was clear that they were worried and still very upset. To beat the Pink Team and stay safe from elimination, they needed to lose more than 11 pounds. Unfortunately, the scale revealed some very disappointing numbers for them: Migdalia lost 4 pounds and Miggy lost only 1 pound, a mere 0.67 percent total weight loss. That meant that they were going to fall below the yellow line and one of them was going to be sent home. Things got pretty heated between the Green and Red Teams after that. As she left the scale, Migdalia lashed out at the Red Team. Melissa reminded everyone that it was the low 5-pound loss, not the 2-pound penalty, that made them fall below the yellow line. To me, it was also clear that biochemistry played a part in their mediocre losses. They had stressed themselves out over that 2-pound disadvantage all week, which caused their bodies to retain fluids; they also sulked instead of giving their all during the workouts. Had they focused on the job at hand instead, they both could have had a good week on the scale.
Elimination Vote: Instead of pleading to stay on the Ranch, Migdalia demanded to be sent home — end of story. That approach didn't sit well with the other teams, who felt like they needed to hear from her and Miggy about why they should each stay or go. In fact, several teams voted to send Miggy home instead of Migdalia just because of her attitude. It all came down to the Black Team, who granted Migdalia's wish to leave so her mom could remain on the Ranch.
Back at Home: Migdalia gained 10 pounds when she first returned home. Her husband was deployed to Afghanistan and it took some time for the mom of two to finally get her head back in the game at home. Now she's back in the gym and her weight has dropped from 265 pounds to 202. She's well on her way to being "a hot mama again" and she plans to run a marathon when her husband returns from Afghanistan. Keep up the good work, mama!