The Associated Press

A central Missouri gym teacher's philosophy on life may have helped her become a castaway on the reality TV show "Survivor: The Amazon."

Heidi Strobel believes: You bite off more than you can chew, and then you spit the rest out.

Strobel, 24, who teaches in Eldon, has a shot at $1 million on the CBS show, which premieres Feb. 13 and pits men against women.

Strobel's father has learned to expect the unexpected from his oldest daughter.

"If there was something she wanted to do, she did it," John Strobel said. "You just have to know the girls, whatever they do is not a surprise."

Kathleen Dugas, Heidi's mother, was taken aback by the news only because her daughter hates bugs.

"I thought, 'This will never work,"' Dugas said. "That's like the biggest camping trip in the world. But then she said she wanted to do it and I knew the bugs wouldn't bother her."

Her family moved to Conway, Mo., in 1980 from Maryland. When she was 7 years old, her family moved to Buffalo, Mo.

In 2002, Strobel graduated from Drury University in Springfield and landed a job in Eldon.

Strobel initially auditioned for "The Amazing Race" with Beth Knight, a physical education teacher at Lebanon High School and Strobel's supervisor during her last semester of student teaching.

"One day we were talking about what had happened the night before on one of the shows and she said, 'Hey, let's do it,"' Knight says. "She did the paperwork. Heidi did the legwork."

When "The Amazing Race" fell through, Strobel turned her attention to "Survivor."

Strobel's boyfriend, Justin Sinning, and sister Ashleigh shot the audition tape. Strobel runs six to eight miles a day and is a former aerobics instructor.

"She's probably the most health-conscious person I've ever met," said Sarah Ford, who has been friends with Strobel since seventh grade. "She takes care of her body. She's the most athletic person I've ever met."

Show participants are forbidden from speaking to the media until the season ends or they are voted off the show.

Regardless of what happens on "Survivor," friends were confident Strobel would capture national attention.

"I think after she's on there it'll put her in the spotlight where she'll have more opportunities," Ford said.

On the Net:

Strobel's Survivor bio: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor6/survivors/prof/heidi.shtml