October 21st, 2014

I’m hesitant to even start writing this blog. I’ve never shared my personal or ‘life’ story. Most of these things I’m about to share I’ve never even told to my family. Big GULP…and here we go…

I’ve always been one of those people who’s lived by the cliché that ‘Everything Happens for a Reason’. What I didn’t realize is that everything in my life has  happened for a reason, leading to each phase of my life.

The more I think about it, the more it turns out that I have been groomed my entire life to do exactly what I do and to work my hardest to be the best. As I started to think back, these are some of the defining memories I could recall…

Health, nutrition and vitamins has always been in my lif:. Being born the son of a chiropractor and a French Canadian is a good way to start. I have never had a vaccine or immunization…in my entire life!

Efficiently thinking outside the box: In Pre K at Genesis in New Port Richey, I was asked to color in a drawing of an elephant. Shortly after I turned in a blank elephant drawing. My reply, ‘it’s an elephant in the snow!’

Faith and respect: I was an alter boy at St. Anne’s Catholic church. Responsibility, routine, respect and faith were all groomed early on.

Early childhood setbacks: When I was 10 years old I had two black eyes at once! Not from a fight but from baseballs. The first was from a foul tip that hit me directly in the eye. The second was exactly 7 days later while playing with only one eye open, I missed a flyball that hit me in the other eye…I ran off the field screaming “NOT AGAIN, NOT AGAIN!” If I had quit then, who knows where my life would be.

My brother Kevin and I at Ingram's Karate School

My brother Kevin and I at Ingram’s Karate School

Self Control. At 15 I became a junior black belt in karate. My parents put us in Karate at a really young age. There is no greater practice of self control than karate. I can’t say my brother and I always liked it or wanted to go but, I’m so happy my mom made us finish what we started.

Family. My grandparents picked me up from school everyday during middle school and we’d spend the afternoons together. They told us stories, cooked old family Ukrainian and Czechoslovakian recipes and shared so many countless memories.

Big injury #1. At 15 I already had a pretty good idea that baseball would be a big part of my future. I spent the entire off season learning how to switch hit. Then in the first game of the season, I broke my right upper arm playing getting hit with a fastball. I never went back to switch hitting after that 🙂

Expectations. I have an older brother that is a genius. Like literally a genius. He never missed a day of high school. He only got one B, ever. He is 9 years older than me so the bar was always set pretty high. He has now traveled the world the past 11 years as an engineer for Intel.

2001 St. Pete Times Athlete of the Year

2001 St. Pete Times Athlete of the Year

Discipline. I played baseball for coach Larry Beets. Besides my dad and grandfather, this is the most impactful man in my entire life. For every failure there was a consequence. If you popped out in a game, the next day you’d be running laps with a bat over your head screaming “no pop ups, no pop ups”. If we struck out we had 200 weighted bat swings the next day after practice. If we won, we did sprints. If we lost, we did sprints. But just as my clients look to me with trust now, I knew he was only trying to make me the best version of me that I could be.

Recognition. 2001 I was Athlete of the Year for the Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times for my senior baseball season. I took a lot of pride in the fact that I was chosen over several other athletes who excelled in 3 and 4 sports. I was chosen to participate in the State All Star game and actually missed my high school graduation to play in that weekend’s tournament.

Injury #2. I tore my rotator cuff 3 days before the state all star game preparing for the tournament. I didn’t know it was torn until almost 2 months later. I just knew I couldn’t swing hard, throw hard or do anything without excruciating pain. I didn’t play as well as I could have or should have in front of over 100 pro and college scouts. All that hard work, success and recognition from the past 4 years had come and gone without getting drafted by a major league team. Big disappointment.

Fall 2002 before fracturing my femur

Fall 2002 before fracturing my femur

Injury #3. After only playing half of the season my freshman year of college while recovering from shoulder surgery, I spent the entire off season training, working out and getting into the best playing shape of my life. I had just hit my 7th homerun in 14 games the previous game when a kid slid into me and broke my femur. An ambulance scooped me off the field as my left leg dangled across my right thigh (think about that). I had to have an emergency surgery that night to have a rod inserted into my femur that goes from my knee to my hip, with 2 screws in my knee and one in my hip. To this day I still feel the screw in my knee grind against the bone on every squat, stride or jump.

Responsibility. I bought my first house at 20 years old.

Management. I managed the largest nutrition store in Palm Beach county called The Muscle Store from the age of 20-22. I was responsible for giving sound nutrition and supplement recommendations to top amateur body builders, athletes and professional sports athletes.

Entrepreneur failure #1. I opened Hardbody Sports Nutrition in 2006 with a childhood friend. I quickly learned the motto “don’t go into business with friends”. I walked away from my entire investment. But everything was not lost, I learned valuable lessons.

Starting over. I got divorced at 24 from my high school sweat heart. While most people would be bitter, we both walked away friends with invaluable life lessons. But, this also led to the next life lesson.

Humbled. I had 2 houses foreclosed and 2 vehicles repossessed and literally had to start over from scratch. No place to live, no job, no furniture, no stuff. It was me, my dog and my cat.

With my wife Michelle celebrating our 4th anniversary

With my wife Michelle celebrating our 4th anniversary

Love. I was swept off my feet by the love of my life Michelle when I least expected it. She invigorated my life with love, support and confidence to make the next chapter of our lives filled with new adventures and challenges.

Entrepreneur #2. I started Slim Fit Weight Loss in 2009. We had a solid business model with great results. I developed my own product line and custom designed 7 of my own supplements. In late 2010 we decided to take the business to the next step and expand to other physician’s clinics and gyms. After almost 2 years of successful products and orders through our compounding factory, we received our largest order of over 1,500 bottles of product with the wrong year on the expiration date which left us less than 8 months to sell all the product instead of the usual 7 years of a typical expiration date. We lost over $15,000 in lost inventory and the company refused to refund a single penny. We never produced another supplement afterwards.

Injury #4, 5, & 6. Michelle and I were rear ended by a sleeping driver a month before our wedding, getting into town on the first day of a ‘relaxing’ vacation…at 2am! I was left with bulging and compressed discs in my neck and back and horrible jaw pain for over 6 months. I went through over 30 spinal decompression treatments and did not work out for almost 2 full years.

Surgery #3. The jaw pain led to double TMJ surgery which was followed by a liquid and soft food diet for almost 5 months.

Commitment and Sweat Equity.  I worked an averaged 60-75 hours per week 2011-2013 managing my family’s chiropractic clinic and building my nutritional supplement company and my personal training business.

The first week of Bootcamp!

The first week of Bootcamp!

Have an Open Mind: I started NewPortRicheyBootcamps.com in August 2012 after months of persuasion by a friend and Slim Fit client. I loved personal training and working with clients one on one. I didn’t see anyway possible to get the same results with multiple people as I did with one person at a time. I also hated the idea of only charging $5-10 per workout compared to the $30-50 I was currently charging.  By the end of the first week it totally made sense, the team environment built a sense of accountability I could never provide alone.

Making a Comeback: After 22 months away from the gym or any kind of weight lifting, one of my trainers Rich Berrian approached me about competing in his first competition and that it would be cool to compete together. In just 20 short weeks, I got into the best shape of my life and better than any of the previous 7 competitions before my accident.

My 20 week transformation, from day 1 to on stage

My 20 week transformation, from day 1 to on stage

Trust in Yourself: In April 2013 I pulled the safety net and left my family’s chiropractic clinic after 6 years. In July of 2013 Shelly left the office also. We were all in with our new bootcamp business. What started as a fun thing to do at night was now our sole source of living, keeping the lights on and a roof over our heads. We had only 18 clients and only 59 people had ever tried one of my bootcamp workouts up to that point in those first 8 months.

With my amazing Fit Family :)

With my amazing Fit Family 🙂

Have a Vision: In March of 2014 we moved our bootcamp, private training and nutritional coaching business into our current 4,200 square foot location. I knew there was no way to be able to provide the type of diverse training programs in our old location. I wanted to be able to have a weight training gym dedicated to teaching clients all the benefits of weight lifting I’d experienced myself. I wanted a private space where clients and I could sit down to troubleshoot, plan and develop customized fitness solutions for each person. I wanted outdoor space with a multitude of terrains for conditioning programs. We looked for months for this ‘perfect’ space and we did not settle until we found it.

Continue to Evolve: At 31 as a person, business owner, trainer, nutrition coach, a husband, a boss, a family member and a son I continue to evolve. I read training manuals, nutrition journals, business and cook books for fun. We now have over 140 clients and have helped more than 460 people in the past 2+ years (almost 600 if you add in SlimFit clients). We are now responsible for the livelihood’s of 5 people and their family’s. I’ve now been married for over 4 years to Michelle and fall deeper in love with her the longer we’re together because she has taught me to love deeper, to give unconditionally to everyone in our lives and she has taught me something I thought I could never do; RELAX!

The people that have changed my life and made and better version of me.

The people that have changed my life and made me a better version of me.

Life is always changing around you. If you fail to adapt and change, you become a worse version of yourself.

“The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be” -Oprah Winfrey

(Ya, I just quoted Oprah…and I liked it!)

One of my favorite quotes is “Fail Falling Forward”

I interpret that as it’s better to fail trying to do something great then it is to never try, know or give it your best effort.

I’ve started and stopped this blog multiple times throughout the past 4 months.

Why? Because it’s scary to tell your story!

It’s scary to let your guard down, expose your faults and downfalls.

What I didn’t realize until I started writing this though was how many failures, set backs and injuries I’ve had!

What I’ve learned from my parents, life experiences, set backs and successes is that you just have to keep going.

Nothing great is waiting for you and nothing great will ever be given to you.

It takes hard work and a conscious effort to make positive changes on a daily basis.

Okay. I’ve read this 350 freakin times. This will be the hardest blog to ever press “Publish”.

Just remember if it feels like life keeps kicking you in the balls, keep pushing, living with love, and don’t stop.

Oh shit, here we go.

Derek Kuryliw
www.LiveFitBootcamps.com