Danica's ReBoot Experience.... The Pure Life !

Costa Rica ReBoot Experience

"As I arrived at the airport and pulled my luggage to the counter – I was filled with anticipation and excitement.  This was not my first re-boot camp with Mike Andreula in Costa Rica– but my second – and one that meant more to me and already had a different and special meaning.  I literally threw my suitcase on the scale and looked and waited to see the weight of the suitcase.  I winced, for two reasons; one, because I felt as though I had pulled a muscle lifting the suitcase onto the machine and two, because I hoped I hadn’t exceeded the 50 lbs limit.  I hadn’t – the scale read 34 lbs.  One talks about those ever so rare moments – life changing, life altering, moments of realization, and this was one for me.  

Rewind two months.  On December 9th, 2012, after a trip to Turks and Caicos, I returned to Jersey City and got on the scale.  It read 200 lbs.  The emotion I felt at that point was sheer disappointment.  I had gone through a weight gain two years prior and hit 190 lbs.  I worked out two times a day and essentially starved myself to lose 30 lbs and was successful.  Three months later, just in time for the summer and after a trip to Costa Rica I hit 160 lbs.  

How did I get there again? 

I have always been driven.  Driven to succeed in work, driven to succeed in sports, driven to be a team player; always wanting to be a success, wanting my teams to be successful, always taking the next step to be pro-active and reach the next goal before it was placed in front of me.  How could it be that I couldn’t see myself – and where I had gone?  Putting myself last, and putting a lot of other things first, had been easy for me.  Much easier to solve everyone else’s problem’s, business issues, and other non-consequential things, than to really look where much of the issue really was.  

As I stood on that scale, I was resolute.  I would try again.  Over the course of the past year, I went through many life changes:  a job change, relationship changes and the worst in my mind – hitting 40.  My first thought was that I needed to change – and I needed someone to support me in that change.  I knew who that person was – I had believed in him before and I wanted to believe in him again.  What I realize today was that believing in an inspirational and motivational person meant learning how to believe in myself.  

The Body Transformation Experiment.  I didn’t really understand at that point what it meant but what I learned was a completely different path of weight loss than I had ever experienced before.  Looking back on the first few months, it was more of an education and mental battle than of physical weight loss.  I committed to the process on December 9th, 2012 and told myself that if I could sustain the program and achieve a goal, that I would reward myself with the ReBoot camp in Costa Rica in mid-February.  Learning how to eat in a completely different way, learning how to avoid the paths which I had taken before and trusting in someone else’s method was extremely difficult.  

I have always admired Mike.  His classes at the gym are the most rewarding to me – and most obviously to a huge number of members since his classes are always packed.  He packs the same amount of intensity and personalization into a class full of seventy participants as he does during a one on one training session.  This is harder than it seems and his personal attributes are what make him so inspirational.  When I think about potential societal barriers: age, weight, gender etc. – Mike breaks all of these down.  They simply don’t exist.  You exist as you.

Going to the gym has never been a problem for me.  I get up early, I go because I know I have to go.  But the gym is a place of individuals and individual goals.  It’s not necessarily about a team goal and it’s not necessarily a team supported environment.  Which isn’t a bad thing – it’s just the nature of the classes/environment.  You work out to work out – and you have to motivate yourself.  Whether that comes from your trainer, the person standing next to you, or yourself, it’s a personal experience.  The ReBoot camps always were intriguing to me.  It seemed as if they would lend themselves to a ‘team’ experience.  Having been an active sports enthusiast in high school and college being a competitive rower, this appealed to me.  

I very much enjoyed my first ReBoot camp – but I was in a different mental/emotional place at that point in time.  I was losing weight in all the wrong ways and it wasn’t something that I shared or spoke about with anyone.  It was just happening.  I did enjoy the friendships and experience – but because I was so focused on myself and was not sharing my personal journey it became one that was only self-actualized.  

From December to February there was not a day when I was not sharing something with Mike and Kristie.  They were fully aware of my everyday eating habits, what I was proud of, what small successes I had achieved and my joy in creating a new carb/sugar free meal.  The support, trust and intensity of this personal journey was so rewarding to me.  I was doing it for myself but I felt supported in a way that I never had.  He wasn’t pushy but he pushed.  He wasn’t dictatorial but he was powerful.  He never judged and always was encouraging.  My walls were completely broken down with him.  He allowed me to be proud of my successes without intimidation or fear.  The first week of February when I weighed in and hit 175, which was my goal weight for the Costa Rica trip, I was surprised.  I had lost 25 lbs in seven weeks and it hadn’t been hard.  I was eating more than I ever had and I was not killing myself at the gym two times a day.  My stretch goal of 165 was 10 lbs away – a goal I had set for summer and it was the first week of February.    

Costa Rica was a truly rewarding experience for me.  I have always loved the sun and sand but I gained so much more this year.  The relationships, the friendships, the experiences, the laughs, the exhaustion, all were a part of this amazing journey which has given me so much personally.  Coming to the gym now and seeing my fellow Re-Booters changes the whole dynamic for me.  It is a team now to me.  They were all a part of the same experience and we are all invested in each other’s success and personal journey.  

The moment which I alluded to in the beginning of my story began at the scale at Newark airport.  I realized – almost with shock – that what I had just lifted onto the scale, and almost threw out my back, was a suitcase weighing over 30 lbs, which was what I had essentially lost.  On the day I left for Costa Rica I had lost 28 lbs.  To think that the weight of that suitcase, which had physically been a part of me two months prior, was an eye opening turning point for me.  

I have Mike to thank for this.  I will always be so grateful for him teaching me so many lessons, not about weight loss and working out, but about the things that really matter in life: support, trust, motivation, and finally – the most important, believing in myself.  PURA VIDA!!!!"

Danica Curcic

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