Success Stories Archives - Whole Life Challenge

How Small Habits Rewrote My Life: A Journey Beyond the Gym

Richard Dreyfus — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 17:35:30 +0000

Reading Time: 6 minutes

I used to think health was about hitting the gym hard, eating kale salads, and tracking my sleep like a scientist. I’d scroll through fitness blogs on sites like Whole Life Challenge, nodding at the advice—move more, sleep better, eat clean. It all made sense, but it felt like a checklist, a series of boxes to tick off on my way to a “better me.”…

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The Power of Small Habit Change: Building a Better You, One Step at a Time

Michael Stanwyck — Tue, 20 May 2025 16:00:37 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

In a world obsessed with overnight transformations—think crash diets, intense fitness boot camps, or 30-day productivity challenges—it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that big, dramatic changes are the only path to self-improvement.

But what if the secret to lasting change lies in the opposite approach?

What if the smallest, most incremental adjustments to your daily routine could lead to profound, sustainable transformation?…

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How Dani Weaver Lost 110 Pounds with the Whole Life Challenge

Emily Beers — Tue, 15 Sep 2020 15:00:15 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Dani Weaver didn’t weigh herself for two years. She knew she was overweight, but she didn’t want to know the number on the scale.

“I had always assumed I was around 275 pounds,” said the five-foot-seven Dani.

In September of 2017, she decided to find out for sure. She stood on the scale and watched it spit out a number: 307.…

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Carolyn Baker: 75 Going on 50 (Thanks to Whole Life Challenge)

Emily Beers — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 07:01:41 +0000

While many people feel like they’re winding down in life once they hit the age of seventy, Carolyn Baker is ramping up.

And she credits the Whole Life Challenge for this.

Carolyn Baker signed up for her first Whole Life Challenge this spring because she wanted more balance in her life — at the age of 75. A self-proclaimed workaholic, the Denver, Colorado, native continues to work full-time running an architectural design business.…

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Playing the Whole Life Challenge Revealed My Blind Spots

Emily Beers — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 07:01:48 +0000

Reading Time: 6 minutes

When you ask most people why they sign up for the Whole Life Challenge, it usually comes down to one of two specific reasons:

“I want to lose weight.”
“I want to get fit.”

This wasn’t the case for 64-year-old Jim Warnock. At 5-foot-11 and 170lbs, Jim was not overweight, nor was he out of shape.

Jim, a native of El Dorado, Arkansas, has long had a passion for long-distance hiking, sometimes tackling 100-plus mile long trails, including finishing the 180-mile Ozark Highlands Trail in Arkansas and the 211-mile Jim Muir Trail in California.…

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The Amazing Way the WLC Changed Her Life (and Also His)

Emily Beers — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 09:00:14 +0000

When Amber Williams signed up for the Whole Life Challenge, her friend Judy Campbell was brought to tears.

“Judy had been telling me to do it for a while, and I remember the day I signed up I texted her and she called me back crying. ‘You have no idea how happy I am that you’re doing this. You don’t even realize what you’re in for,’ she said to me,” Amber remembered of her conversation with Judy in September of 2018.…

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How to Stop Drinking Diet Coke (And Like Yourself More)

Terry Maggert — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 09:00:35 +0000

Reading Time: 5 minutes

For 25 years I have known the sweet, chemical sting of my first early morning Diet Coke. Watering eyes. The flavor unlike anything ever made in nature. The carbonation. All of it was my routine — until I started the Whole Life Challenge.

The Whole Life Challenge changed me almost immediately, not as a tool of denial, but something that caused me to think, carefully, about what I was eating and drinking.…

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How Taylor James Found Hope Through the Whole Life Challenge

Hilary Achauer — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 09:00:34 +0000

In his late twenties Taylor James, now 31, was living the life of an elite athlete. A professional dancer, he rehearsed almost every day. When he wasn’t rehearsing, he spent hours in the gym. Taylor faced intense pressure to have a perfect body and dieted constantly.

Then, about two years ago, Taylor switched his focus to other creative outlets. He worked more on filmmaking and photography and wasn’t dancing as much.…

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How the Whole Life Challenge Gave This Man a Whole New Perspective

Hilary Achauer — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 10:00:19 +0000

Reading Time: 6 minutes

When Scott Bolt, age fifty, played the Whole Life Challenge for the first time in 2012, he wasn’t sure he needed it.

Scott already exercised regularly at CrossFit 714 near his home in Orange County, California. He always felt he followed a good diet, he never smoked, and he doesn’t drink alcohol. Scott only had one real weakness: a love of sugary sweets.…

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“I Decided I Was Going to Fight for My Life, Body, Mind, and Spirit”

Emily Beers — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 10:00:15 +0000

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Three years ago, Peggy Jindra’s goal was to be able to walk the 200 feet to her mailbox.

“I remember thinking, ‘If I could just make it to the mailbox and back, I’d be so happy,’” said the 54-year-old Peggy, who lives in Rogers, Minnesota. “I never dreamed of moving further than the mailbox.”

At 5-foot-9 and 305 pounds, Peggy was overweight and unfit.…

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How the Whole Life Challenge Became a Way of Life for Phill Kane

Emily Beers — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 10:00:31 +0000

Reading Time: 8 minutes

When Phill Kane signed up for his first Whole Life Challenge in September 2013, he braced himself for what he thought was going to be a short-term and extreme “diet.” A few weeks of clean eating and regular exercise was his plan at the time, he explained.

Little did he know, it would be the start of a journey that would change everything about his life, not for a few weeks, but for good.…

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The WLC Lessons This Player Learned After 10 Challenges and 7 Years

Hilary Achauer — Wed, 12 Dec 2018 10:00:06 +0000

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Courtney Pillsbury was there at the beginning.

The 44-year-old participated in the very first Whole Life Challenge in 2011, back when founders Michael Stanwyck and Andy Petranek offered the Challenge — then eight weeks long — as a way for members of their gym, CrossFit Los Angeles, to improve their health and fitness.

Courtney signed up for the Challenge and it changed her life.…

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The Surprising Way the Whole Life Challenge Changed a Woman’s Life

Hilary Achauer — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 10:00:58 +0000

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Every fall and winter, Judy Baker Campbell’s life gets busy. Judy, 42, lives outside of Toronto, Canada, with her husband and three teenage children. She also owns a vacation rental company in Mexico with 120 properties. When winter hits and everyone wants to escape the cold, Judy’s business heats up and she has to work overtime to keep up with demand.…

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Fwd: 6 weeks – after years of a mess

Cyrus Sabavala — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 12:00:33 +0000

Reading Time: 8 minutes

This article isn’t really an “article.” It’s the text of an email — one we received third-hand via Cyrus’s friend Abby, who forwarded it to Andy, our co-founder. His story was too incredible not to share, and we do so with Cyrus’s blessing. – Ed.

In late September, I visited my rheumatologist — something a 39-year-old really shouldn’t need — to do some blood work to make sure my gout was “in check.”…

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How the Whole Life Challenge Prepared Me to Hike a 14er

Hilary Achauer — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 09:00:28 +0000

Reading Time: 11 minutes

We’d all just turned off our headlamps and could see the peaks take shape in the distance. The landscape came into focus: tufts of green grass turning to gray and brown scree as the trail climbed upward. At just under 13,000 feet, we were well above the tree line.

A tall, fit man appeared over the rise, descending from the summit.…

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How the Whole Life Challenge Helped Me Lose 100 Pounds

Michael Stanwyck — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 07:01:17 +0000

Reading Time: 4 minutes

John Daniels works in computer systems in Minneapolis. He is an avid gamer, photographer, and robot enthusiast. When he’s not doing that, he’s hanging out with his wife and his dog.

Three years ago, my health was at a dangerous place: I was 34 years old and weighed 300 pounds. I smoked cigarettes, junk food was a staple of my diet, and I felt miserable.…

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I Didn’t Think I Could Get Healthier—And I Was Wrong

Michael Stanwyck — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 07:01:20 +0000

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Heather Herbeck is a professional kayaker and owner of Fitness and Sport Evolution in the Columbia River Gorge

I was definitely skeptical going into this “Whole Life Challenge” thing. I didn’t have any idea what it was really about and no one around me seemed to be able to explain. All I heard from people who had done it in the past was, “It’s different for everyone.”…

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How to Get Healthy Even When You Live in Vegas

Michael Stanwyck — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 02:16:12 +0000

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Note: What follows is a story written by a WLC player. We felt the obstacles he faced (being a young, single man in Vegas amid all the unhealthy temptations) might resonate with some of you, and inspire you on your own WLC journey.

When I started the Whole Life Challenge in January 2015, I was 5’11,” 205 pounds, had a 36.5″ waist.…

The post How to Get Healthy Even When You Live in Vegas appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.

My Big Fat Take on the Whole Life Challenge

Jessica Wolf — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 11:00:22 +0000

Excerpt from Jessica’s Take

I didn’t write down the date I started my first Whole Life Challenge, but I’m pretty sure it was in a January. I had lost some weight on Weight Watchers a few years earlier and had gained a lot of it back. This completely freaked me out, because largely, I was eating a Weight Watchers-condoned diet. I talked to my internist and my gynecologist about it and they both just nodded their heads.…

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Kelly Dreyer: Using the Whole Life Challenge to Come Back from Stroke

Michael Stanwyck — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 20:07:42 +0000

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Kelly Dreyer was your average, multi-tasking 37-year-old mother, wife, coach, and occupational therapist from Cincinnati, Ohio. All of that changed on January 27, 2014, when she suffered a catastrophic stroke. The effects of the stroke rocked almost every corner of Kelly’s world. In addition to the loss of muscular control on her left side, she also endured constant pain from the slightest touch, even the rustle of clothing on her left side.…

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Jeff Germond Talks New Orleans, His Mom, and the Whole Life Challenge

Andy Petranek — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 16:25:53 +0000

Reading Time: 5 minutes

One of our favorite things about the Whole Life Challenge is that we get to hear stories from CrossFit gyms about their students who have participated in the Challenge. Here’s a story from Jeff Germond of CrossFit NOLA, who told us how the Challenge has impacted his community — and his mom.

WLC: You’ve participated in the Whole Life Challenge since we opened it up to CrossFit affiliates in 2012.…

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