A group of Sunshine Coast fitness enthusiasts are starring in an upcoming television series recently shot in Gibsons, documenting their accomplishments.
James Hergott, executive producer of the series Radical Body Transformations (RBT), and co-producer Michelle Barrett, spent a week on the Coast in early July at Sluggers Family Gym, recording for the series. The segment will air in season-three of the online program, which runs on Amazon Prime, Google Play, and Apple TV.
The subject of the RBT segment was a team of eight people brought together by Gibsons fitness coach and competitive bodybuilder Mikayla Custance, who’s guided the team since February through individualized diets and fitness routines.
Lifestyle changes
“They have all been training very hard and made amazing lifestyle changes,” Custance, 29, told Coast Reporter.
One member of the local team who will appear in the show is Theresa De Boer, a nurse with Vancouver Coastal Health, and who Custance said has made remarkable progress.
“She lost 25 pounds,” said Custance. “A lot of this happened during COVID, using a little home gym. She’s very busy, a mother of two and has a great husband. And instead of just focusing on losing weight, she turned her lifestyle around and her whole family also changed their way of eating. She wants to be a good role model.”
Producers Hergott and Barrett, who are based near Toronto, interviewed De Boer and the other members of Custance’s team during the production of the local RBT segment. Hergott said in an interview that the show, which tapes segments all over North America, is not just about people deciding to lose weight and take up bodybuilding.
“It’s really about the individual and their journey,” Hergott said. “The coach really is a guide to help them. Then there’s a community aspect. As you can see with Mikayla’s team, all of them encourage each other. There’s just a great vibe about it. We live in a crazy world right now. And here’s the human spirit, here’s people wanting to better themselves.”
Custance said the segment also will also show off some of the Coast’s scenic splendour to viewers around the world. “They got some really good footage around Gibsons and the harbour. It was four full days of filming, and it went really well.”
