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Below the Yellow Line with Mike and Ron Morelli of The Biggest Loser Couples
by Troy Rogers
 Another
season of The Biggest Loser is almost set to crown
a new "biggest loser," as the competitive weight-loss
field has been narrowed down to four, with the
father and son team of Ron and Mike Morelli falling
below the yellow line before the season finale
of The Biggest Loser Couples. However, the most
intense drama leading up to The Biggest Loser
finale came when the competitors went home for
30 days but received word that they'd each have
to run a full marathon before the final weight-in
to prove their newfound physical fitness, a feat
that even Jillian Michaels has never attempted.
After running 26 miles, Tara finished first, Helen crossed the line in second place, and Mike in third. But it was Ron who had the toughest time, as his knees and state of cardio health took the punishment that forced him to nearly pull out of the marathon. In the end, Ron picked himself up and walked his way to the finish line to prove to himself that anything is possible.
When the final weigh-in went down after the competitors spend 30 days at home to test their will-power, Tara and Helen held their lost weight above the yellow line while Mike and Ron fell below when the scales revealed they'd only lost 10 pounds each. Now, as The Biggest Loser Couples prepares for its three-hour finale on Tuesday, May 12 at 8pm on NBC, it will be the Biggest Loser fans who will be voting to keep either Mike or Ron in the game for the finale.
The next morning we hopped on the phone to run a conference call marathon with a few outlets to catch up to both Mike and Ron Morelli to get their thoughts on their Biggest Loser progress, running the marathon, integrating back into normal life, and their time at The Biggest Loser ranch.
 THE
DEADBOLT: So, Ron, when you were getting
close to the marathon finish line, did you have
the theme song to Rocky going through your head?
RON MORELLI: [laughs] No, I was just, 'Get me off of this damn sand.' That's all I was thinking. No, I didn't. But maybe I should've, it would've been easier.
THE DEADBOLT: I was actually humming it on my sofa while I was watching you cross the finish line.
RON: [laughs]
THE DEADBOLT: How surprised were you at how hard it was to integrate back into normal life after being on the ranch for so long?
MIKE MORELLI: For me, normal life still hasn't started yet. I mean, we're still working towards [the] finale and that kind of thing. So normal life, for me, is going to be getting back at Michigan State and getting back into school, and that's something I'm really really looking forward to. And I'll let you know how it works out [laughs].
 RON:
It was pretty easy for me to slide back into
[normal life]. At least as normal as my life
usually was. I mean, I'm a city councilman out
here in my town, so I needed to get back into
those meetings and they're just twice a month.
So I got right back into that, and after the
meetings we'd all go up to the local bar and
just sit and talk about what went on at the
meeting and I would just have water, where before
I would have a couple of beers. But I still
sit down and have the comradery with my friends
and the other people on council and the other
people in town.
I mean, I come from a small town. We only have 10,000 people here in South Lyon [Michigan] and most of the town knows who I am. So going through town wasn't much different than it normally was. But once this is all over, the thing that is going to change is getting back into my normal life with my wife where we can go out and we can go to the movies and we can go to a restaurant. You know, do the kind of things where the main focus isn't getting to bed early, getting up early, working out, you know - doing all of the stuff and really over working yourself waiting to get to this finale.
THE DEADBOLT: Mike, when you were fighting those food temptations, were you thankful that you gave your groceries away to Aubry?
MIKE: Honestly, yeah, because if I had
a year's supply of cereal in my house I would've
eaten the entire thing.
THE DEADBOLT: How often do you speak to Bob and Jillian?
RON: I don't speak to Bob much and that's kind of my choice. I know that they're not going to be around every day like they were at the ranch, and I really need to try to focus on how I'm going to handle this past Bob. And I know that for the rest of my life, if I need him, he'll be there. But I need to make sure that I'm able to do it on my own. If I was really running into trouble, I'd call him more. But so far, I'm not. My son Max talks to him a lot, so I kind of talk to Bob through him a little bit. But other than that, I haven't talked to him much.
 MIKE:
As for me, I really don't talk to Jillian, or
anything, or Bob either. Every once in a while,
if I see Jillian is on like Rachael Ray, or
she was Huckabee, I'll text her and be like,
'Good job on TV.'
THE DEADBOLT: At what point along the way, Mike, did you start to believe, 'I could win this whole thing.'?
MIKE: I think the first time I really did the math on where I was percentage weight-loss wise was when I realized I could really do it. I don't have a specific week. But the more I lost weight and the better I felt, the more I was like, 'Wow, if I don't fall below the yellow line I can get pretty far.' And I've been below once this past week.
THE DEADBOLT: So your biggest hurdle is still Tara?
MIKE: I'm actually more scared of Helen than Tara.
THE DEADBOLT: What's the most important thing you guys took away from the ranch?
 RON:
The most important thing I took away from the
ranch was that if my mind was in the right spot,
I really didn't need the ranch. Everything I
learned there, I already knew, I just never
did it. And what the ranch forced us to do was
to do it. If you're going to play the game and
stick around, you had to do the work. And it
proved to me just by doing the work - you know,
eating right and exercising - the weight would
come off, and the weight would come off quick.
And I could've done that 35 years ago.
MIKE: The greatest thing I took away from the show was that if you stick to a plan, if you just tell yourself you can do this, you'll be able to do it. If you go out and say, 'I'm not going to give up. I'm going to lose weight and I'm going to follow this diet program,' exercise and eating right, the math will work out. You'll lose weight [and] it'll work. Before, I'd try anything. I'd try any number of diets and I yo-yo'd up to 388 lbs, and I was 18. It was really the guidance and the perspective I gained from the ranch that I took away most.
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