Get to know our latest Daybreakers of the Month!

These Daybreakers represent commitment and dedication to their fitness, health and well-being. They work hard, stay positive and help form the key threads of our community fabric. Get to know the current Daybreakers of the Month!

About Rahul

My two girls (Myra and Rhea) , my wife Megha and I call Wayland home. We have been living here for the last 5 years after moving cities and continents earlier in our lives having spent time in Cambridge, London, San Francisco, Mumbai and Johannesburg, SA! Megha and I met during undergrad college in India and have been married for close to 15 years. My work life has primarily been in consulting and scaling up data analytics businesses (hence all the travel) and I currently work at a consulting company in Boston called Bain Consulting as a GM for one of their practices.

I got introduced to CrossFit by Megha (well, it took one year of pursuing and me coming up with excuses for not joining) but after week 1 I couldn’t stop coming back (no matter how sore I was) and have been doing it for the past 15 months usually coming in for the 6:30 am class.

1- What keeps you coming back to CrossFit each day?
CrossFit has had a game changing dramatic (and positive) influence on my lifestyle helping me get more daily discipline into my exercise routine and diet. I think everyone should try it! Suggestion for a holiday product – Daybreak gift cards!! I know we all hear this but this is really true that being a part of the Daybreak community has been fantastic, learning from my coaches and also everyone who come to the classes makes it easy to show up every-day.

2- Do you have a favorite holiday movie? (Or one that your girls make you watch over and over again?)
The girls (and that includes Megha!) are completely into the Harry Potter movies – on our trip last year to LA the highlight was to get to the hotel early every night because they were showing Harry Potter moves through the week! And we have the DVDs at home but still!! For me recently it has been the Marvel universe movies – we collectively got into following them and I can see this Christmas holiday it might just replace the Harry Potter movies!

3- What is your favorite part of the holiday season? What’s your least favorite?
Favorite has to be – good chipper workout on Saturdays followed by afternoon naps (feels kind off well deserved!) We try to visit a new destination every holiday season so that’s gotta be the favorite part. This year we are doing Germany (Bavaria including the Christmas markets in Nuremberg and Munich so should be fun!) Least favorite has got to be day 1 back at work, actually it’s a double whammy if the first day of work is the first day of school

4- Are you making any New Years resolutions this year?
I have never really done well with NY resolutions. Tend to last not more than 24 hours, if they are after a few glasses of wine then I don’t recollect any of the resolutions (or completely refute when I am reminded of them.) This year might be the usual – stay off sugar, eat more-healthy. Well actually one resolution from 2017 I did accomplish – joining CrossFit!!

5- What’s your spirit animal (an animal that represents you)?
So I took the quiz and apparently my spirit animal is a Wolf! I am wearing three layers of clothes as I write this with the snow storm today so really don’t think the quiz was right!

About Neel

1 – Tell us about yourself outside of Daybreak CrossFit North.
I grew up in Long Island, NY until my parents moved to Maine in 2008. I actually never really spent anytime living in Maine as I finished my senior year in Virginia and then went to WPI for college after. I did spend the summers home in Maine; however, my time was mostly spent working with my parents as we owned a Liquor Store in Old Orchard Beach. After I graduated from WPI, I commissioned into the US Army. After 4 years active, I decided to leave since it was hard trying to find a base where my now wife, Julie, could also find a job. I currently work as a Project Engineer for the Department of Veteran Affairs at the West Roxbury Campus. We currently do not have any kids, however are planning to have them in the near future. We do have a lovely 9 year-old cat named Aggie.

2 – Tell us about your CrossFit journey so far, what have you learned about yourself, and what keeps you coming back?
I started CrossFit back in 2016 since I hated going to gym alone. Since I started my first class, I was automatically hooked. I enjoyed the drive to push yourself to the max during each workout, as well as then trying to beat your own time on repeat workouts. From doing CrossFit, I have learned that anytime I think I cannot do another round/rep and I look up and see everyone pushing just as hard, it allows me to dig deeper and complete that round/rep. As for what keeps me coming back, it has always been the other classmates that I have met and the camaraderie that we all have to support to each other during the workouts.

3 – Tell us something that would surprise us to hear you’ve done.
Last year, I joined my colleagues running team for the Reebok Ragnar Cape Cod run. What I didn’t know until after I had paid for my registration, was that it was a 200-mile overnight running relay starting in Hull, MA and finishing in Smuggler’s Beach, MA, completed in 2 days with teams of only 12 people. My colleague told me we were just running for fun and not competing for time. This of course did not happen as my group was extremely competitive and we actually finished 17th in our division of 203 teams. We are planning to run it again in 2020 and beat our previous time of 25:58:35.

4 – What are you looking forward to over the holiday season?
I am a foodie at heart, so I am really looking forward to all the different food options during the holiday season. The only downside is that I’ll have to work to as hard during each workout so I can indulge accordingly.