Better by the Day

After years of emotional binge eating and unsuccessful restrictive dieting, Ashley Zeffiro (@ashleytrackspoints) became a weight loss success story.

Not only did Ashley hit her target weight, but she also kept the weight off, a part of the journey Ashley says “people don’t talk about enough.”

So how did Ashley go from watching her weight yo-yo for years to becoming a sustainable weight loss advocate for over 67,000 fans on Instagram? She changed her mindset and started thinking long term.

Ashley finally realized that in order to make lasting changes, she had to ditch the short term fixes. She had to try things that she’d be willing to stick to for life.

In this episode, Ashley shares everything she discovered along the way. You’ll hear how she made food tracking feel easy to fit her busy life as a mom of three, why she refuses to give herself rules around food, and why when it comes to focusing on her weight loss, she thinks about everything a year in advance.

Better by the Day is produced by WayBetter, the app that makes health and fitness fun with new group challenges starting weekly.

To join a challenge, download WayBetter in the App store.

“At the end of the day...self-care is fitness.”

Ever wondered what a 37-year-long health journey looks like? For Tara Allison (@fatgirl.fit), it’s one full of wisdom, self-love, and lots of squats.

Raised in a household with generations of complex body image issues, Tara was taught to feel ashamed of her weight from a young age, and even forced to attend Weight Watchers meetings when she was just 14 years old.

For Tara, this was simply her way of life. And then everything changed.

A form of arthritis brought chronic pain into Tara’s life, and she was faced with a choice. She could either take copious amounts of medication for the rest of her life, or try building muscle to help out her joints and relieve her pain. She chose the latter.

Now known as the “internet queen of the deadlifts” to her 123,000 fans on TikTok, Tara says she still takes herself by surprise. What took Tara about 35 years to realize is that, despite all the times she stood on a scale in those public WW meetings, she never lacked self confidence. What she lacked was self-love. And once she found it, a whole new world of health opened before her eyes.

In this episode, Tara shares it all: how she let go of her very complicated history with food, why strength training can be for everyone, and how you can turn self-hate into self-love.

Better by the Day is produced by WayBetter, the app that makes health and fitness fun with new group challenges starting weekly.

To join a challenge, download WayBetter in the App store.

We often talk about “getting healthy” and “losing weight” as if they always mean the same thing. But of course, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Health and wellness mean so much more than a number on the scale.  

Take our guest, personal trainer Margaret Cresta. At the beginning of her journey, stress and a lack of proper nutrition made it nearly impossible for Margaret to keep weight on. So when she  decided to focus on her health, she knew she had to get physically and mentally strong. And that meant gaining weight.

At the beginning, she was on her own. Most of her friends and family weren’t as supportive as they could have been, so Margaret had to learn how to eat well and workout properly without a strong support network.

Today, Margaret is a certified personal trainer with 169,000 fans following her workouts on Instagram. In this episode, she shares real tips from everything she learned along her journey, like how to eat well even when you have a busy schedule, easy ways to get protein in at every meal, and the one workout move you can do for the most results. 

Better by the Day is produced by WayBetter, the app that makes health and fitness fun with new group challenges starting weekly.

To join a challenge, download WayBetter in the App store.

Follow along with Margaret on Instagram (@sovigor). 

Polly Kerbut (@polly__wants) is all about making big life changes. 

But sometimes these changes happen to you. Instead of being in control, you feel at the mercy of your circumstances. 

It was one of these changes in Polly’s life almost two years ago that left her feeling stressed, overweight, and depressed. Polly had relocated from her native home in Russia to Seattle where she didn’t know a soul. Her body was in the U.S., but her head was back in Russia. As she describes it, she felt like she was floating in space. 

Ironically, this experience of disconnection and isolation is what ultimately inspired her to take back control of her mental and physical health, and become a fitness star with 189,000 fans in the process.

How did she do it? By embracing the suck. In this episode, Polly shares the benefits of committing to workouts that you think you hate. She also breaks down the “fantastic 4” method that helped her lose 50lbs in quarantine, and her famous Russian pancakes filled with protein. 

Better by the Day is produced by WayBetter, the app that makes health and fitness fun with new group challenges starting weekly.

To join a challenge, download WayBetter in the App store.

Follow  Polly's journey on Instagram (@polly__wants). 

Ashley Mojo’s transformation was so stark, sometimes even she can’t believe it. 

And it’s not even the physical transformation that stands out (though after dropping 80 pounds, that’s definitely part of her story). No, the viral Tik Tok star went from hating the way she looked and dreading the gym, to someone who inspires nearly half a million people  to think about their health and bodies in a whole new way. 

On her road to helping others, Ashley also regained her self-confidence and a greater sense of control over her health. One key: Mindful Eating, a practice she developed while also adopting a vegan lifestyle. 

In this episode, Ashley breaks down what we mean by Mindful Eating and how to practice, why you should celebrate non-scale victories, and the secret to mobility for better workouts.

Better by the Day is produced by WayBetter, the app that makes health and fitness fun with new group challenges starting weekly.

To join a challenge, download WayBetter in the App store.

Follow along with Ashley on TikTok.

“I don’t think I would have survived recovery had I not lost the weight.” 

Those are the words of Jen Wagner (@_jens_journey_), who lost 100 pounds and was enjoying her new, healthier life when her world was turned upside down.  

She was diagnosed with a brain tumor. 

According to Jen, recovering from brain surgery is the hardest thing she has ever faced. But it was only possible because she had recently committed to a healthier lifestyle, breaking her sugar addiction and dropping more than 100 pounds in the process. 

Now her mission is to spread the lesson from that ordeal to her thousands of followers across social media and beyond: focus on the things you can control... while you still can. 

In this episode, you’ll hear Jen share real tips on how she does this everyday, plus how she broke her years-long addiction to sugar, how she keeps the weight off, and her very favorite low-carb recipe.  

Better by the Day is produced by WayBetter, the app that makes health and fitness fun with new group challenges starting weekly.

To join a challenge, download WayBetter in the App store.

Follow along with Jen on Instagram (@_jens_journey_).

This is the Season 1 finale! Join us again in two weeks for the start of Season 2. 

Jasmine Parent (@jasminelosingit) is a certified fitness trainer and nutrition coach who knows exactly what it takes to make sustainable, long-lasting health changes, because she lost over 120 pounds herself. Here’s a hint: it involves completely ditching diet culture.

If you’re wondering how this is possible, you're not alone. There’s a reason Jasmine now guides her clients and her 174,000 followers on Instagram to true success. In this episode, Jasmine shares  three key things you can easily adopt for your own successful transformation, how she changed her life first by finding self-love, and why it’s so important to treat your mind just like a muscle.

Better by the Day is produced by WayBetter, the app that makes health and fitness fun with new group challenges starting weekly.

To join a challenge, download WayBetter in the App store.

Follow along with Jasmine on Instagram (@jasminelosingit). 

Madelyn Payne (@Life_As_Madelyn) has a secret weapon when it comes to weight loss: the  art of resilience.

Madelyn knows that every health journey comes with its share of ups and downs, and instead of shying away from that fact, she faces it head-on. Despite the peaks and inevitable valleys, she keeps it positive and sets small, sustainable goals to see herself through to the next wave. This mindset helps Madelyn inspire her community of 34,000 strong on Instagram everyday, who come to her both for advice like this and her next-level nutrition tracking skills.

In this episode, you’ll hear from Madelyn on how she lost 130 pounds by staying positive through our varying “seasons of life,” and how anyone can become an expert on their healthiest way to live life if they’re willing to start out as a beginner.

Better by the Day is produced by WayBetter, the app that makes health and fitness fun with new group challenges starting weekly.

To join a challenge, download WayBetter in the App store.

Follow along with Madelyn on Instagram (@Life_As_Madelyn). 

Amy Kiser Schemper is a certified personal trainer and busy mom of two who helps over 730,000 followers all over the world workout at home through her YouTube channel, BodyFit by Amy. 

But Amy wasn't always the self-assured, virtual supertrainer she is today. In fact, it wasn’t until Amy experienced a powerful mindset shift that she reached her full fitness potential. Amy learned to work out because she loved her body,  not because she hated it or needed to change it. 

After that, fitness for Amy stopped being about what we can do physically, and more about what we tell ourselves that can stop us from living our healthiest lives. 

In this episode, you’ll hear from Amy on how becoming a mom taught her everything she knows about loving her body today, why anyone getting started with fitness should forget the all-or-nothing approach, and why she’s on a mission to get rid of that “pre-baby body” mentality. 

Better by the Day is produced by WayBetter, the app that makes health and fitness fun with new group challenges starting weekly.

To join a challenge, download WayBetter in the App store.

Follow along with Amy on Instagram (@bodyfitbyamy) or YouTube (BodyFitbyAmy).

Matt Fox (@mattycfox) is a fitness trainer from Australia who specializes in at-home bodyweight workouts for his clients and nearly 380k social media followers. 

Matt has been active and passionate about fitness his whole life, and was actually a semi-professional tennis player before life took him down a different path. 

At age 21, and with his tennis career in the rearview, Matt was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Recovering from cancer and returning to his fit lifestyle after life on the road as a tennis pro made Matt realize something: he absolutely hated the gym. 

That may sound unconventional for someone who now teaches others how to stay fit for a living. In this episode, you’ll hear from Matt on what made him walk away from the gym for good, how he achieved the level of fitness he always wanted by working out at home, and how anyone can make fitness work for them, no matter where they are. 

Better by the Day is produced by WayBetter, the app that makes health and fitness fun with new group challenges starting weekly.

To join a challenge, download WayBetter in the App store.

Follow along with Matt on Instagram (@mattycfox).