Despite the fact that her black team teammate Daniel Wright gained one pound at last Tuesday night's weigh-in, her team chose to send Dina Mercado home, despite a five-pound weight-loss.

"I have to say I wasn't too surprised," Dina admits. "Ultimately, my team chose to stick with friendship rather than keeping the team strong. And that's pretty much all I can say about that."

Part of Dina's problem was that she and her partner, Rudy Pauls, were split up when the "Losers" were divided into blue and black teams by Tracey Yukich, so she didn't have anyone to stand up for her during the vote.

"Tracey is definitely the game player. She played it well," Dina says. "Going into that whole situation, I pretty much knew she was going to split us, because of the fact that she has played the game from day one. I have to say that I did get pretty upset when she made the comment that she was choosing these teams with her heart."

In hindsight, though, Dina, who now weighs 178 pounds -- down from her starting weight of 253, says that it ended up being a blessing in disguise in a lot of ways, because losing Rudy, who was her support, made her stronger. And she needs the strength now to deal with being at home and around her family, some of whom continue to eat high-calorie foods.

"At this point, I am not eating a whole lot of carbs," she says. "Because I've come so far, and because I've become stronger physically, mentally and spiritually, I think I'm able to cope with it and handle it very well."

She also overcame her inability to jump up on the box. Something that trainer Jillian Michaels continuously harangued her about.

"Ultimately, when I did get up on the box, I committed -- I committed to it and it was kind of like committing to my future."

"The Biggest Loser" airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. on NBC.