{"id":314,"date":"2021-04-22T04:01:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T04:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baydari.com\/?p=314"},"modified":"2025-05-05T10:51:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T10:51:57","slug":"keep-showing-up-5-people-who-met-their-body-transformation-goals-during-the-covid-19-crisis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baydari.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/22\/keep-showing-up-5-people-who-met-their-body-transformation-goals-during-the-covid-19-crisis-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep showing up: 5 people who met their body transformation goals during the COVID-19 crisis."},"content":{"rendered":"

When these clients joined Precision Nutrition Coaching<\/b><\/a> in January of 2020 to improve their health and lives, the plan was straightforward: Follow the program and trust the process.<\/p>\n

Two months in, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Nothing<\/i> in life was straightforward.<\/p>\n

Overnight, many were facing food shortages, financial instability, and overwhelming uncertainty.<\/p>\n

It would have been understandable for these five people to <\/b>press pause<\/b><\/a> on their health and fitness efforts.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

But they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Instead, they listened to the little voice in their heads that said: \u2018<\/b>keep going<\/b>.\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

Every person highlighted in this article faced challenges in the past year: medical issues, forced business closure, heightened anxiety, the loss of a loved one\u2026 The list goes on.<\/p>\n

Despite these obstacles, they kept showing up for themselves\u2014chipping away at their goals, a little bit at a time.<\/p>\n

Over the course of 12 months, they achieved incredible<\/em> physical transformations.<\/p>\n

Even more impressive? The unexpected ways these five people changed their lives, and the powerful lessons they took from their experiences.<\/strong><\/p>\n

++++<\/p>\n

Victor: In the midst of grief, he lost 25 pounds and found a new purpose in life.<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
Victor used to shy away from asking sales associates to help him find his size. Now he can find clothes that fit straight from the rack.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In his early forties, Victor Salgado, now 47, developed diabetes. He managed this condition with three to four injections of insulin every day. He also took eight other medications to treat additional health concerns, including high blood pressure.<\/p>\n

That was Victor\u2019s life for nearly five years.<\/b><\/p>\n

In 2018, desperate for change, he signed up for coaching with a PN-Certified Coach. In that year, he lost nearly 50 pounds and, on the advice of his doctors, he stopped taking insulin injections and blood pressure medication.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the last two years, I haven\u2019t taken one single prescription medication\u2014not a shot,\u201d he says proudly.<\/p>\n

Victor\u2019s experience working with a coach made him realize he wanted to help others too, so he became a personal trainer and earned his Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification<\/b><\/a>. (And in the fall of 2020, he graduated from the Precision Nutrition Level 2<\/b><\/a> program!)<\/p>\n

However, it wasn\u2019t all smooth sailing from there. Towards the end of 2019, Victor was struggling again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a veteran suffering from PTSD. For a while, I wasn\u2019t doing enough to keep myself busy. And when that happens, your mind goes to other places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victor knew he needed something to focus on, a place to direct his energy. He thought back to his experience working with a coach, and signed up for Precision Nutrition Coaching.<\/p>\n

Right before he joined, Victor, newly married, moved from South Carolina to California to be with his extended family. \u201cAdjusting to a new family life in a new place was very challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to adapting to a new, well, everything<\/i>, Victor soon faced another challenge: The pandemic.<\/p>\n

The gym where Victor had just<\/em> begun to find comfort and community shut down.<\/h3>\n

He tried to adapt his gym workouts to at-home ones, but affordable equipment was hard to come by. So he took up running.<\/p>\n

Even when temperatures rose to unbearable levels (think: 130\u2109), Victor found a way to make it work. \u201cI woke up at 3:30am to be outside by 4am. Even then it would already be 97\u2109.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point, his neighbors asked if he was getting tired of running every day. His answer?<\/p>\n

\u201cI got tired of taking insulin three to four times a day, pricking my finger three to four times a day. That got me tired. But running? No.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Eventually, he built some workout equipment out of metal bars and concrete. (He calls it his \u201cFred Flinstone\u201d gym.) Every now and then, his 11-year-old daughter will ask to train with him, which makes him smile.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the year, Victor and his wife contracted COVID-19. \u201cMy heart rate became really high. My doctor suggested I dial back my workouts, so I eased up. But I didn\u2019t stop. Eventually, my heart rate went back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victor\u2019s mother-in-law, who lived with him, also contracted the virus. She passed away shortly after, in December of 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of the most challenging things I\u2019ve had to endure in quite some time. I\u2019m pretty sure that if I hadn\u2019t developed a mindset of resilience with the help of PN, I would\u2019ve been paralyzed.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

After making it through one of the most difficult periods of his life, Victor decided to do something to pay it forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working on establishing a coaching business. Yesterday, I began training my first online client.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silvia: A scary diagnosis made her believe she\u2019d never run again. But she regained her strength and defied the odds.<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
Silvia says she now looks at her body with kindness, curiosity, and love.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In her early thirties, Silvia Pontuschka was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in both of her hips.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like I was being handed a life sentence of misery,\u201d she remembers.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

By her mid-thirties, the pain had become so severe that she found it difficult to walk. She would wake up in the middle of the night stiff and in agony.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was afraid of my future,\u201d she recalls. \u201cWas this something I just had to live with forever? Would I have to have a hip replacement in my forties? I felt so limited in terms of what I was allowed to do. The pain felt like a reminder that life would never be \u2018normal.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Silvia knew she couldn\u2019t just wait around to see what would happen. She had to take action.<\/h3>\n

Silvia had previously signed up for Precision Nutrition Coaching, but didn\u2019t make it through the whole year due to the stress of an international move.<\/p>\n

This time around, she felt ready to fully commit, but she knew she\u2019d need as much support as possible. After Silvia chatted with her sister about her plans, her sister volunteered to do a weekly check-in for added moral support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sealed the deal for me. It was the push I needed to sign up,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Silvia quickly found her groove. She maintained much closer contact with her PN coach this time around. She also trained at her gym three times a week, and over the course of a few short months, she felt her body getting stronger.<\/p>\n

But soon, COVID-19 meant her gym had to close.<\/p>\n

Silvia tried to make the best of the situation. She decided to turn her living room into a makeshift gym, and took advantage of the program\u2019s minimal equipment workout routines.<\/p>\n

This worked for Silvia at the start. But eventually, she felt something was missing when she trained alone.<\/p>\n

So, she found another accountability partner\u2014a workout buddy.<\/p>\n

Soon, Silvia\u2019s daily workouts became the anchor of her day, helping her to stick to a routine when everything else seemed turned upside down.<\/p>\n

After weeks, then months, Silvia noticed her body becoming stronger.<\/h3>\n

\u201cFour modified push-ups before needing a break became seven, then ten, which then became sets of full push-ups.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the debilitating pain in her hips?<\/p>\n

It was still an issue halfway through the year, so she decided to employ a strategy from her PN Coaching lessons: She kept things simple.<\/p>\n

Silvia added one glute-focused exercise to her routine. And as she felt able, she gradually added more targeted exercises to support her hip mobility.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
Silvia doing what she once thought was impossible: running!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cShowing up continually and slowly increasing my strength, mobility, and the length of my daily walks for the last six months of the program resulted in better flexibility, less pain, and the ability to do something I thought was no longer possible: go for runs!\u201d<\/p>\n

Silvia even began to look for more<\/i> ways to move her body. She took daily afternoon walks, opted to use her condo stairs instead of the elevator, and sought out hills on her bike rides.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more I moved, the more I realized my body is designed to do exactly that. Every movement became a way to honor my body and admire how marvelous it is.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

The best part: \u201cThis was all achieved not by being perfect and doing grand gestures, but by just showing up and doing what I could do with the time, energy, and resources I had in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bradley: He regained control of his health after a decade of pain\u2014and lost 80 pounds.<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
For years, Bradley wanted to lose weight. He achieved that and so much more.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A decade ago, Bradley was in a car accident, which broke his back in four places, leaving him with ongoing pain.<\/p>\n

A few years later, he developed sciatica-like pain due to arthritis, which made exercise almost unbearable. Not long after, he developed rashes, which his doctor treated with a steroid regimen.<\/p>\n

And with that treatment came unwanted weight gain.<\/b><\/p>\n

The extra weight aggravated his previous back injury and further limited his ability to work out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was completely broken, physically and mentally. I was hopeless.\u201d<\/h3>\n

As Bradley reached a low point, he connected with someone who\u2019d recently finished Precision Nutrition Coaching. They told him the program could help, and Bradley was game to try anything\u2014so he signed up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started out, I couldn\u2019t do any of the exercises without severe pain. I had to take it very easy,\u201d he remembers. Bradley focused on stretching daily, taking walks on his treadmill, and practicing the program\u2019s eating habits.<\/p>\n

Within a few weeks, he began to notice weight loss.<\/p>\n

Then the pandemic hit. Yet another<\/i> roadblock. Bradley could hardly believe it.<\/p>\n

As a healthcare lab technician, Bradley was thrown into a grueling schedule performing COVID-19 tests. Like many other frontline workers, the demands of his job left him with little energy for his own health.<\/p>\n

Every day provided another legitimate reason for Bradley to break the momentum he was building with nutrition and fitness. But he kept leaning on a big, undeniable reason to keep going:<\/p>\n

\u201cI <\/b>had<\/b> to get myself better. Not just for me, but for my family.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

So he did what he could, when he could, and worked on \u201cjust a little bit better\u201d each day. He continued to lose weight.<\/p>\n

The more Bradley lost, the better he felt. After nearly a decade of feeling stuck, the ball was rolling.<\/p>\n

Bradley felt like he was finally getting his health back on track.<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
Bradley with his wife and daughters.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cLosing weight was almost easy after a while, because I wasn\u2019t focused on losing weight, but on healing,\u201d Bradley says.<\/b><\/p>\n

By the end of the year, Bradley had lost 80 pounds and 53 total inches. And with the reduced strain on his body, his pain levels went from debilitating pangs to mild, occasional aches.<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s finally back to his favorite hobby: bowling in leagues and tournaments.<\/p>\n

His biggest takeaway?<\/p>\n

\u201cCompleting the program during the pandemic made me realize that I can make time for my health, no matter the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsey: When her business shut down, she found solace in nutrition and fitness, losing 14 pounds in the process.<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
\u201cMoving every day made everything else feel doable,\u201d Lindsey says.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

At 34 years old, Lindsey Marvin\u2019s weight, insomnia, and anxiety were at an all-time high.<\/p>\n

Money was tight at the taproom and restaurant Lindsey owns with her husband. The business is a labor of love for the couple, so she was working 14-hour days back-to-back to keep it afloat.<\/p>\n

That mean Lindsey\u2019s health and wellness fell to the bottom of her to-do list. \u201cI was stress-eating the first thing I saw just so I could get back to work. I felt totally out of control,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

One day, Lindsey realized some of her favorite clothes weren\u2019t fitting anymore.<\/h3>\n

And the idea of putting on a swimsuit? No way.<\/p>\n

That marked a turning point. \u201cGoing to the beach is my absolute favorite thing, so I knew I needed to make some changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The previous year, Lindsey saw her husband lose 60 pounds with the help of Precision Nutrition Coaching. \u201cHe was more confident and in control than I had ever seen,\u201d she says. So she decided to sign up too.<\/p>\n

Nearly halfway through the coaching year, a curveball: Her restaurant was mandated to shut down due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the restaurant emptied out was very emotional for me,\u201d Lindsey says. \u201cStarting and growing a small business is like having a baby. The thought of it failing is traumatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that empty space that initially felt so uncomfortable to be in?<\/p>\n

Lindsey got creative and turned the empty taproom into her own personal gym.<\/h3>\n

She used bags of sugar as weights. She filled kegs to varying levels and used those too.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I started working out in my makeshift workout space, I started to regain some feeling of control over the situation,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

Despite all the uncertainties she faced, this was a place where she could let it all go and focus on doing something for herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving my body every day and planning my meals made everything else feel doable. I learned to control what I could and stop stressing about the things I couldn\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Lindsey was making progress not just physically, but mentally too.<\/p>\n

Working with her doctor, Lindsey slowly weaned off the medication she\u2019d been taking for anxiety and insomnia. At the same time, she picked up some new coping strategies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started knitting before bed instead of watching TV or scrolling through my phone. It was just enough mental stimulation to keep me from boredom, and it occupied my hands so I didn\u2019t want to snack late at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
Lindsey was terrified of joining a gym. Now she goes a few times a week.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When gyms were allowed to reopen their doors, Lindsey took one of the Precision Nutrition Coaching lessons to heart: She stepped out of her comfort zone and tried something new.<\/p>\n

She joined a (real) gym and hired a personal trainer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had reservations about having a trainer. But having Coach Gillian<\/a> support me made me feel more open to trying it. I absolutely love being coached now.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of 2020, Lindsey lost 16 total inches and gained a new approach to looking after her health:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started PN, I was obsessed with the number on a scale. I thought I needed to spend hours weighing food, and always be perfect. Now I know it\u2019s about an accumulation of small things that add up to something bigger. I don\u2019t need to go all out on anything. I just need to think about myself, what I want, and be a little bit better every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philip: At 61, he got his health and fitness back on course with small, simple shifts in the right direction.<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n
Philip\u2019s commitment to improving a little each day paid off.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When Philip Davis started Precision Nutrition Coaching, he was on a \u201cgentle, but nonetheless apparent, downward slide.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he\u2019d always done a fair amount of walking, Philip\u2019s friends pointed out that he would choose the least hilly route on their walks. He also noticed he was winded climbing the steep hill to his home.<\/p>\n

Philip knew his physical fitness was in decline.<\/p>\n

And the health markers he was keeping track of\u2014blood pressure, cholesterol, body fat percentage, and weight\u2014were all going up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was starting to not like how I looked in the mirror. My clothes weren\u2019t fitting as well. And on one occasion, a pal even commented on my \u2018dad bod\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n

Philip knew he didn\u2019t want physical decline to become his new normal.<\/h3>\n

But he debated what to do next: Stay on the same course? Or start moving more and eating differently?<\/p>\n

Philip knew his huffing-and-puffing up the hill was related to what he calls poor eating choices: too much wine at dinner and a tendency to frequent neighborhood bakeries.<\/p>\n

So when he joined the program, he was eager to improve his diet. But knew it would be a process, and that his efforts could backfire if he felt deprived.<\/p>\n

He understood that he wouldn\u2019t be able to completely change his habits overnight. But what he discovered was that he didn\u2019t have to. (Check out PN\u2019s body transformation research<\/a><\/strong> to find out why.)<\/p>\n

Philip told himself that if he \u201cjust kept showing up,\u201d he would be able to adopt new habits\u2014healthier habits\u2014that would stick.<\/p>\n

The way Philip sees it, forming new habits is like sailing a boat. If you change a boat\u2019s direction by a few degrees, this slight adjustment can dramatically alter its final destination.<\/p>\n

Throughout the year, Philip experienced occasional \u201clapses.\u201d Instead of being discouraged by these setbacks, he focused on how he could improve a little bit each day.<\/p>\n

And the steep hill to his house? Philip barely notices it now.<\/p>\n

He enjoys<\/i> his daily walks up his neighborhood\u2019s steep hills.<\/p>\n

In fact, Philip and his wife now seek out hills on their daily walks:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s one particular walk we take in the mornings that includes a 500-foot elevation gain in half a mile. That\u2019s when I feel all those squats from the PN exercise program proving their worth!\u201d<\/p>\n

Twelve months later, Philip is 15 pounds leaner and quite a bit stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a more proactive outlook on my health and fitness that will serve me well today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Want help becoming the healthiest, fittest, strongest version of you?<\/h2>\n

Most people know<\/em> that regular movement, eating well, sleep, and stress management are important for looking and feeling better. Yet they need help applying that knowledge<\/em> in the context of their busy, sometimes stressful lives.<\/p>\n

Over the past the past two decades, we\u2019ve used the Precision Nutrition Coaching<\/a> method to help over 150,000 clients lose fat<\/strong>, get stronger<\/strong>, and improve their physical and mental health<\/strong>\u2026 for the long-term\u2026 no matter what challenges they\u2019re dealing with.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also why we work with health, fitness, and wellness professionals (through our Level 1<\/a> and Level 2<\/a> Certification programs) to teach them how to coach their own clients<\/strong> through the same challenges.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<!–<\/p>\n

Interested in Precision Nutrition Coaching? Join the presale list<\/a> now. You’ll get a free gift today, save up to [pnc_discount], and have the chance to secure a spot 24 hours early.<\/h2>\n

We\u2019ll be opening up spots in our next Precision Nutrition Coaching on [launch_date program=”pnc” type=”general” dateformat=”l, F jS, Y”].<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in coaching and want to find out more, join the presale list below. Being on the list gives you three special advantages.<\/p>\n