Get inspired by these Daily Burn success stories, which showcase real people who committed to fitness and saw results that were way beyond average.
In October 2005, 24-year-old Stacy Cole married the love of her life, and celebrated with a honeymoon on the beautiful shores of Montego Bay, Jamaica. Fast-forward about 10 years and one child later, when the couple decided to spend their special anniversary with a return visit to the Caribbean island. Stacy booked the trip, and quickly stepped on the scale, knowing bikini photos would be inevitable. Her 5’5’’ frame at 162 pounds was a wake-up call. With busy days at the office — and even busier nights at home taking care of her family — Cole realized she needed to carve out time to take better care of herself, too.
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Before finding Daily Burn, Cole thought she was active enough: a weekly mile-long jog here, a lunchtime walk there, plus kickball games sprinkled throughout. And as a Project Manager in the bustling tech world, she explains there’s always work to be done and meetings to attend. Throw in married life and a three-and-a-half year-old son, and Cole found herself with a full plate. “But Being busy didn’t mean I was active,” she recalls. “In fact, I was quite sedentary.”
Finding What Worked
Right after Cole booked her vacation, she also joined Daily Burn to step up her workout game. “I tried looking for stuff online, but I just wanted someone to tell me what to do. And when I saw an ad for Daily Burn on Hulu, I was like, ‘This is exactly what I need.’ I don’t want to have to go to the gym. I want a personal trainer to guide me, step-by-step, on what I can do and how I can get results,” she explains.
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Cole started with Daily Burn's Cardio Sculpt and Intelliburn, then moved on to TBT (a no-equipment, bodyweight-based program). Encouraged by the results she was seeing for the first time in what seemed like forever, she then jumped into the high-intensity Inferno program (“Anja Garcia is my favorite,” she says of the program’s trainer). It was official: Cole was hooked on her daily DB workouts — and lost 35 pounds in six months, weighing in at a lean 132 pounds.
Now, with just two pounds to go until reaching her goal weight of 130 pounds, Cole is making her way through the strength training program Live to Fail, while also (not-so) secretly recruiting her husband to join her. “My husband doesn’t really exercise, but I think when he sees me picking up the weights and lifting he thinks, ‘I can do that too!’ she says. He’s since begun jumping in on several of those sweat sessions.
Making the Necessary Tweaks
What’s remarkable about Cole’s transformation isn’t that it wasn’t all about the food changes she made — it was about the attitude she took on. “To be very honest, my diet hasn’t changed too much, but what I think has changed the most is my mindset. Because I’m not calling it ‘a diet,’” she says. “As soon as you do, that’s when you fail. If I cheat, I feel guilty, then I’ve failed...and I’m not gonna do that anymore.”
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So rather than overhaul everything in her fridge, Cole decided to adapt to the circumstances around her, making subtle changes for each meal (and snack) that contributed to her 30-pound weight loss. While breakfast used to be scrambled eggs and breakfast sausage, now it’s a veggie omelet — with produce from her very own garden. “I started gardening over the summer because I didn’t want to put any more garbage in my body,” she explains of her newfound green thumb.
She snacks on her bounty as well, grabbing a handful of green beans or an apple instead of a bag of chips from the office vending machine. When it comes to dinner, though, Cole has to keep her husband and son in mind. “They still want to eat pizza, so I’m trying to make a lot of healthy swaps. So instead of regular pizza, I’m making cauliflower crust instead,” she says. Add to that a wealth of spiralized zucchini dishes (“No more pasta!” Cole exclaims of her new kitchen discovery), and you’ve got a happy, healthy and satisfied family.
A New Reason to Stay Healthy
While Cole’s original weight loss intentions were skin deep, they turned out to be a larger wake-up call when it came to her own health. “My mother was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a few years ago, and now my father was diagnosed, as well,” explains Cole. “And the stats tell me that my chances of developing the disease as I get older are very high.”
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To keep her future looking bright, Cole plans on continuing her weight loss journey, but with wellness at the forefront of her mind. “I take so much comfort knowing I’m doing everything in my power to make sure that’s not how I end up. I’m taking care of my body, I’m putting in good food,” Cole explains. “Yeah, of course I wanted to look cute in a swimsuit,” she adds. “But there’s so much more to this whole process. You don’t even realize it.”
To learn more about Daily Burn or to try a free 30-day trial yourself, head to DailyBurn.com.
Note to reader: The content in this article relates to the core service offered by Daily Burn. In the interest of editorial disclosure and integrity, the reader should know that this site is owned and operated by Daily Burn. Always talk to your doctor before beginning any exercise or weight loss program. Daily Burn users who worked out for 30 minutes or more at least five times a week for 60 to 90 days reported an average weight loss of about one pound per week.
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