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Biggest Loser Ranch Reflections with Shay and Daniel
by Troy Rogers
 Last
week on The Biggest Loser Second Chances, Tracey
Yukich was sent home after a controversial stay
at The Biggest Loser ranch. This week fans got
a double dose of Biggest Loser elimination surprises
as both Shay Sorrells and Daniel Wright, two fan
favorites, saw their time at The Biggest Loser
ranch come to an end.
This season of The Biggest Loser was a second chance for Daniel after returning to The Biggest Loser to complete his mission of shedding even more pounds. For Shay, who started the Biggest Loser at almost 500 pounds, this season was a second chance at life, which Shay took seriously on her journey to become a Biggest Loser record holder of losing 100 pounds in nine weeks. Although Daniel and Shay left The Biggest Loser ranch this week, both competitors have experienced life altering moments that will stay with them forever.
The next morning after Shay and Daniel were sent home from The Biggest Loser in a double elimination, we caught up with both Biggest Loser fan favorites on our weekly conference call for a few brief minutes of post Biggest Loser feelings, their outlooks for the future, how the spirit of Shay has changed, and why Daniel believes people have to want change to affect change in their lives.
THE DEADBOLT: Shay, your spirit really came alive during the episodes. How is your spirit today?
SHAY SORRELLS: It's great. I think every day I grow stronger. I knew walking into that ranch the very first day it was not going to be pretty and it was not going to be easy, as seen with Jillian and the other people. I totally expected it, and social is my field. Self awareness and self regulation is huge. So walking in, I was like, "I have to be open, because if I don't fix this nitty gritty stuff, if I don't get to the root of this other stuff, I'm not going to get better."
So I put it out there on the line every time, all of the time. Each time was a breakthrough. And each moment with Bob and Jill, I mean, I just got stronger and stronger. That did include emotional strength, and it was so great to where I felt like the weight dropping every week was emotional weight and it was coming off. Now I'm just like, "I lost 154 pounds, that's a person." I've lost that and, yeah, I have probably 150 to go.
But oh my gosh, five months ago I was 500 pounds. That is insane to think about, and to think about where I'm still going. People are being inspired and people are latching onto it and people are continuing on their journey. And people who thought they couldn't do it, watched me do it and now are doing it. That to me is paying it forward, and it's amazing and I love it.
THE DEADBOLT: Daniel, I wanted to know how frustrating is it for you to listen to David's excuses? Especially since you know they don't really hold any water?
 DANIEL
WRIGHT: I don't now if it's frustrating
as it is heartbreaking, just because I knew
how my family felt when they were talking to
me before I started my journey. You know, I
now see what everyone else was trying to do
in my life before I wanted to do it for me.
And the heartbreaking thing is knowing that
I can never say anything to him to make him
change. It's going to have to be him.
Whatever happens in his life, whatever eventually clicks for him, whatever breaks his heart that makes him want to make a change, that's what's going to have to be the cause. There's nothing I can do to affect that change and I wish I could. It's kind of the same way my family wishes they could have for me before I reached the point I reached when I went on the show.
THE DEADBOLT: You said it was heartbreaking. Does it anger you at all?
DANIEL: No, it's not anger. Only because, how do you get angry at someone who is only hurting themselves and doesn't know any better? It's sad for somebody who has so many potential health problems and not seeing the importance of being healthy again. There's nothing you can do for them but love them and be there for them, because yelling has already been tried.
Other Conference Call Highlights:
How did the opportunity
to return for another season arise?
DANIEL: I was at the finale of Season 7 and producers said, 'Would you be willing to [do a "second chance" season] and we start filming in three days.' I said, "Wow. First off, I'd like to rest. But second off, sure. I have so much more weight I need to lose and I need to go, so absolutely.'"
Were you worried you'd
be targeted because you were a past contestant?
DANIEL: h yeah, absolutely. I knew that I could be targeted because of having the opportunity beforehand. I had internal struggles with whether or not I deserved to be there with 15 other people who had just started a journey rather than me who had already had a head-start. had to realize and come to the place of understanding that all of us have a journey and they're all equally important. When you start to compare yourself to people you deprive yourself of your joy and so I had to come to terms with I have a journey and it's just as important as everybody else's.
What was it like to become
the fastest women to lose 100 pounds, a record
previously held by Biggest Loser: Couple's Kristin
Steede?
 SHAY:
Breaking a record was the most phenomenal moment.
had already broken a record by being the heaviest
person on campus and I was like, "Great. That
is not a record I want to hold." Breaking this
record meant so much, because I had watched
Kristin the season before and I was so inspired.
She's such as amazing person and an amazing
fighter and a champion, so to have it happen
that night was just mind-blowing. It was so
amazing to walk down from that scale.
Were you shocked that
the same night you broke the record, you were
eliminated from the competition?
SHAY: It's a numbers game and it's a
percentage game ... I knew it wasn't enough
to keep me there at the top of the scoreboard.
And as I watched my name drop down I was like,
"17 is not enough." Jill said, "Stop it, shut
up, don't self-doubt." And I was like, "Jill,
I'm telling you now. I love you, thank you for
everything you did, I'm going home." I knew
it at that moment and then when Daniel fell
below the red line I was like, "Oh my God, this
is crazy."
You've been saved from
going home a few times. Did you feel more prepared
to leave this time?
SHAY: It's a scary thing to leave the ranch, because at home you've never been successful but at the ranch you've been super successful. No matter what week it is, it's always scary to leave. I don't know if you ever feel prepared. You just have to jump with two feet and do it.
Jillian really wanted
to push you to stay on the ranch and your work-out
became quite emotional. What was going through
your mind?
SHAY: I was very used to Jillian yelling at me and crying at that point! For the first time, it really got to the point where I could do it. I was so close to losing 100 pounds. It was a real possibility. The emotional journey I took was very different to a lot of people on the ranch. The weight you saw coming off every week, I probably cried it off in tears! All of my work-outs were very cathartic to deal with my past so I could run into my future.
How different was it
going home this time than the first time?
 DANIEL:
The second time I was really getting to the
issues and not just believing I had fixed the
problem and it would be perfect forever. It's
a lifestyle and being willing to explore what
caused me to get where I had gotten is really
what I had to work on in the second season and
my second time at home.
Last season you confessed
that you were terrified of Jillian. Is that
still the case?
DANIEL: Definitely! I love her but there's an innate fear when she walks near a treadmill that I'm on! I don't think I really fear Jillian, I think it's my fear of running and that she has control over making me try to reach limits with running. That's what I'm afraid of!
There seemed to be a
division between the younger and older contestants.
Had that been going on for a while or was it
quite new?
DANIEL: I don't think there was a real division. I think after the first elimination people were just hanging out with each other. It was more like people who had been overweight before and people who had been thin before. Shay and I always thought of it as the has-beens versus the has-nots! It was more who related to who and hung out with each other, rather than it being an age separation.
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