Episode 3Oct 29, 2025· 6:21

I Wasted 18 Months Half-Assing Fitness | Why Going All-In Is the Only Way to See Results

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About this episode

Ashley Grant shares a personal reflection on 18 months of inconsistent gym attendance after 12 years of inactivity, joining the YMCA in Richmond, Kentucky in August 2023. She describes how half-hearted commitment led to failure, and how public accountability on Instagram during a 100-day fitness effort helped her treat exercise as a lifestyle change rather than a finite challenge. She discusses going all-in to build…

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Who this episode is for

This episode may resonate with you if:

You've started and stopped working out so many times that you've stopped trusting yourself to follow through — and part of you wonders if you're just not the kind of person who does this.

You've been paying for a gym membership for months and barely going — the guilt is there but it hasn't been enough to change anything.

You look in the mirror and still see the version of yourself you're trying to leave behind, even when other things are clearly changing.

You've been treating fitness like a temporary challenge — a 30-day thing, a reset — and it never sticks because there's always an end date in your head.

You used to get winded doing ordinary things — climbing stairs, walking across a parking lot — and you're tired of your own body feeling like the obstacle.

Questions this episode wrestles with

Is it better to not start at all than to keep half-assing it?

answered

Ashley's experience is that half-assing it is its own kind of failure — she paid for a gym membership for 18 months and got nowhere because she never fully committed, and her view is that going all-in is the only thing that actually worked.

"didn't commit fully. And that is why I failed"

What's the difference between doing a fitness challenge and actually changing your lifestyle?

answered

Ashley describes the difference as the endpoint: a challenge has a finish line where you stop, but a lifestyle change has no end — she had to frame her 100 days as permanent from the start, not as something she'd wind down after.

"the plan at all. This wasn't a challenge I was doing. Yes, I was challenging myself, but it wasn't a, OK, I'm going to do this. And then at the end of 100 days, I'm good. That's not how fitness works. It's a lifestyle change. And"

Why do I keep joining gyms and then stopping after a few weeks?

answered

Ashley's take is that just saying 'I'm going to start working out' doesn't put any skin in the game — you need public accountability, a specific plan, and to treat it as permanent, otherwise 'it's too easy to give up, it's too easy to quit.'

"If I had just done what I have previously done in years past and just said, oh, I'm going to start working out, that doesn't put any skin"

Setting expectations: This episode is not a structured fitness guide, workout plan, or breakdown of how to build a routine. It's Ashley reflecting on 18 months of half-assing her gym membership after 12 years of inactivity, and why she thinks going all-in — with public Instagram accountability posts and treating it as a lifestyle rather than a 100-day challenge — was the only thing that finally worked for her.

Tone & style

Ashley starts from the belief that joining the gym and saying 'I'm going to work out' is enough, spends 18 months proving herself wrong, then pivots by going fully public with Instagram accountability posts during a 100-day fitness run — reframing the whole thing as a lifestyle change rather than a challenge. She ends having claimed a new identity ('I am a fitness person') while still honestly admitting she sees 'the fatty' in the mirror.

Personal experience and self-assessed reflection. Ashley explicitly hedges generalizability — 'I don't know if that will help you or not, but it's definitely helping me.' Not fitness or medical advice.

toneCandid & motivational

focusAshley's account of wasting 18 months half-assing it at the Y, and why going all-in with public accountability was the only thing that finally made fitness stick.

stylesolo_monologue

energymedium_high

complexitybeginner

pressure Levelmedium

emotional Texturehonest, self-deprecating, encouraging, slightly vulnerable

Notable quotes

"out was because I knew that if I didn't go all in, I'd be all out. Because it's too easy to give up. It's too easy to quit. The thing is,"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"I still see that fatty. I do. I still see the fatty. But I'm trying to recognize that, well, my pants are fitting better. I'm trying to..."

— Famous Ashley Grant

"I would feel whenever I'd take a flight of stairs. It feels so much better than the pain I would feel, the discomfort I would feel getting winded, going from the Kroger parking lot to the Kroger front door or even walking around the store."

— Famous Ashley Grant

"have never said those words. I never would have said I was into fitness. I would have said I was into, you know, traveling or going out to"

— Famous Ashley Grant

Episode transcript

Organized into 4 chapters — open any part to read the full text.

0:131. 18 Months of Half-Assing It at the YAshley describes joining the local Y in Richmond, Kentucky in August 2023 after about 12 years of inactivity, and admits she failed because she never fully committed.2:012. Why the 100 Days of Fitness Wasn't a ChallengeAshley explains how people kept asking if she'd stop after 100 days, and why she framed it as a lifestyle change rather than a finite challenge — and why going all-in with public accountability posts was the only thing that kept her from quitting.3:333. Going All-In and Getting AddictedAshley reflects on how full commitment turned fitness into something she's addicted to, while also being honest about still seeing 'the fatty' in the mirror despite her body changing — and focusing on how her pants fit instead.6:214. Getting Winded at Kroger vs. NowAshley contrasts how she used to get winded walking from the Kroger parking lot to the front door with how different her body feels now, and closes with a direct call to go all in.

Open full transcript

Mentioned in this episode

organizationthe local Y

The gym in Richmond, Kentucky that Ashley joined in August 2023 after about 12 years of inactivity — the place where she failed to commit the first time around.

placeRichmond, Kentucky

The city where Ashley lives and where the local Y she joined is located.

websiteInstagram

The platform where Ashley posted public accountability updates about her workouts — she describes this as a key part of going all-in and not letting herself quit.

companyKroger

The grocery store Ashley used to get winded walking from the parking lot to the front door — used as a concrete before-and-after marker of her physical change.

Key themes

Half-assing it vs. going all in

Ashley traces her 18 months of failed gym attendance directly to never fully committing, and argues that partial effort is functionally the same as quitting.

Lifestyle change vs. finite challenge

Ashley describes people repeatedly asking if she'd stop working out after 100 days, and pushes back by insisting she was never doing a challenge — she was changing how she lives.

Public accountability as the thing that kept her from quitting

Ashley explains that constantly posting to Instagram about her workouts was a deliberate strategy because she knew without external pressure she'd find it too easy to give up.

12 years of inactivity before this

Ashley frames her current commitment against a backdrop of what she calls a 'redonkulous' stretch of not working out — roughly 12 years — which sets the stakes for why this time felt different.

Getting addicted to fitness

Ashley describes the shift from forcing herself to go to the gym to now being addicted to it, and frames that addiction as the goal of going all in.

Body dysmorphia and still seeing 'the fatty'

Ashley admits that despite real physical changes, she still sees her old body in the mirror, and describes trying to shift her attention to how her pants fit instead.

Measuring progress by feel and fit, not the mirror

Because the mirror isn't giving her accurate feedback, Ashley says she's trying to focus on changes she can feel — like pants fitting better — rather than what she sees.

Getting winded at Kroger vs. now

Ashley uses the concrete memory of getting out of breath walking from the Kroger parking lot to the front door as a before-and-after marker for how much her body has changed.

Calling herself a fitness person for the first time

Ashley marks a personal identity shift — she says she would never have described herself as 'into fitness' before, and now being able to say it feels significant.

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Partial effort vs. showing up at all

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Partial effort: half-ass vs. show up late

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External vs. internal motivation to keep going