My name is Andrew Jurd, I’m 44 years old, I work for Next as their retail human resources manager for London. I joined the DVCC about March 2014, about a year I have been going now.
Since that time I have *lost 30lbs of body fat; I’ve *gone from 21.4% body fat to 7.2% body fat, and *gained 4.5lbs of muscle. As I moved into my 30’s, I noticed that my body shape was changing and I was getting very unhappy with it.
I had a conference that I had to attend and I went to put on my dinner jacket; I noticed that I had to go up a size and I just remember thinking I just really don’t want to be this person that buys bigger clothes, ever bigger clothes, just to accommodate my size.
So I really knew I needed to do something about it at that point. It was interesting that the DVCC was one of the first sites that I’d hit originally and I just remember looking at it and thinking, “What’s this all about? What’s this philosophy, what’s this boot camp all about and is it something that I can do, is it something I’m interested in?” As soon as I arrived, I was met by Josh and he showed me round the space, and I started to instantly feel at ease.
I remember the first consultation, we were just talking about my goals, what I wanted to achieve, and I just remember looking down at my stomach and thinking, “Well this needs to go for a start!” I knew that this was something completely different; I knew it was something that was interesting and challenging at the same time.
I remember my first session; I knew it was going to be bad, it was tough but I think at the same time it was a lot of fun. The trainers were so supportive throughout that first session. The thing is for me, the timings of the sessions, they’re 45 minutes long so it’s really easy to fit into a day, which is something for me that is really important, something that I needed to have from any fitness regime that I was doing; you can end up doing either the same exercises in different ways or completely different exercises altogether.
It’s just having different trainers and different people gives you different motivations; so it just keeps it interesting. I thought the nutrition would be harder than it was; I think this was definitely something that was lacking the last time I trained.
Because of the way they introduced each protocol a stage at a time, it made it really easy to change your habits so you didn’t feel like you were doing everything all at the same time. With the busy work schedule I have, it’s important that I eat relatively quickly in the morning; I don’t want to spend hours slaving over a stove. But really, the small changes that I have made, it’s just taken 15 minutes longer just to think about putting an omelette together.
Because I have to make so many decisions as part of my job on a day to day basis, I love turning up for 45 minutes and being able to switch my brain off, just get told what to do, how to do it, when to do it, go home, eat what I’m told and get the results that I’ve got.
It’s difficult not to notice the changes on literally every level and I feel the most physically fit that I’ve ever felt in my *life; the way that I look and the tone of my body, I feel energised, I feel focused – just better all round really.
The support I received from the client experience managers, Josh and Nathan, has been amazing throughout this whole process. I mean simply, I just couldn’t have done it without them. And it’s like your goals are the only ones that matter, but on top of that you’re part of a bigger team. The DVCC clients, they really are the best group of people you could ever hope to meet.
I’ve really made some friends for *life, and that support is so different to any other gym that I’ve been to. This really has been such a *life changing experience for me. And for anybody out there that is thinking about doing this and wanting to come in and see the team, I just tell you to come in and do it; it’s such a different environment, such a friendly environment and you will not regret it.
