Episode 97Jul 10, 2026· 5:38

If I Started Over: The Mistakes I'd Skip This Time

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About this episode

Host Ashley Grant reflects on her fitness journey four days before the one-year mark, sharing the specific mistakes she'd skip if starting over: quitting movement in college, using weight-loss pills and shots she couldn't sustain or afford to maintain, developing diet-culture thinking around earning food, overtraining without adequate rest or sleep, obsessing over the scale, and initially doing the journey for…

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Who this episode is for

This episode may resonate with you if:

You stopped exercising at some point in your life — college, a relationship, a hard season — and you've been carrying quiet regret about it ever since, wondering how different things might be if you'd just kept going.

You've tried a weight-loss shortcut — pills, shots, a crash diet — it worked for a while, then it didn't, and now you feel like you wasted time and money and ended up back where you started or worse.

You've noticed your relationship with food has gotten strange — you feel guilty eating certain things, like you have to earn a big meal by working out first, and some part of you knows that's not healthy but you can't shake it.

You've been pushing yourself hard — working out constantly, not sleeping enough, not resting — and part of you knows you're overdoing it but admitting that feels like giving up.

You've been doing the fitness thing — or any big personal effort — for someone else, or to look a certain way for others, and somewhere along the way you lost track of whether any of it is actually for you.

You're close to a personal milestone and instead of feeling proud you're mostly thinking about everything you wish you'd done differently — the time lost, the wrong turns, the version of yourself you could have been.

Questions this episode wrestles with

Is there any point in trying quick fixes if you can't afford the maintenance?

answered

Ashley says no — she couldn't afford the maintenance phase, gained everything back plus more, and calls the whole thing 'a waste of time and a waste of money.'

"did not have the money to do the maintenance phase. Supposedly, allegedly, if I had gone through the maintenance phase, I might have been able to keep off the weight. But I'll never know. And so the bigger thing is that it was a waste of time and a waste of money. And I wish I hadn't"

Did weight loss shortcuts just make things worse in the long run?

answered

Ashley reflects that the pills and shots worked temporarily — 'I looked good for a little while and I felt good for a little while' — but because it wasn't sustainable, she gained it all back plus some, making it feel pointless.

"that horrible diet, I gained it all back plus some. And so it was just further proof that what was the point? Yeah, OK, I looked good for a little while and I felt good for a little while. But the way that I did it, since it was not sustainable"

Is resting actually compatible with a daily movement practice?

open question

Ashley holds the tension without fully resolving it — she admits she was overdoing it and needed more rest, but still identifies as someone who tells people to move more every day, calling the lack of balance 'the bigger problem.'

"more. And I know that sounds kind of crazy coming from a girl who's telling you to move your body more. I'm not telling you not to rest. And that was part of the reason that I had to slow down a little bit earlier this year. is I was overdoing it and I finally had to admit that. But at the"

Is feeling like you have to burn off a big meal a sign something's wrong?

open question

Ashley names it as a problem — 'how sad is it that we feel like we have to earn the things that we're consuming?' — but doesn't offer a way out of it, only the recognition that her thinking around food has become 'warped.'

"food. I do feel still like I need to burn it off. But how sad is it that we feel like we have to earn the things that we're consuming? The"

Setting expectations: This episode is not a structured guide to fixing fitness mistakes or a breakdown of what diet and exercise methods actually work. It's Ashley talking through personal regrets — the pills and shots, stopping movement in college, obsessing over the scale — four days before hitting a 365-day streak.

Tensions inside this episode

Moments where Famous Ashley Grant names something — and contradicts it inside the same episode. Both quotes are verbatim from the transcript.

Host of a 'move your body more' podcast

Ashley hosts a podcast explicitly dedicated to getting people to move more, yet admits she pushed so hard without rest that she had to slow down and 'finally admit' she was overdoing it.

Claim

"Grant here. Welcome to More Movement, Please, the podcast where I hope to inspire you to move your body more. Today, I wanna talk about what"

but

Contradiction

"more. And I know that sounds kind of crazy coming from a girl who's telling you to move your body more. I'm not telling you not to rest. And that was part of the reason that I had to slow down a little bit earlier this year. is I was overdoing it and I finally had to admit that. But at the"

Against diet culture and food guilt

Ashley says she wishes she hadn't gotten so deep into diet culture and the mindset of earning food, yet in the same breath admits she still feels like she needs to burn off large meals.

Claim

"differently. I probably wouldn't be worrying so much about every single little thing that I consume. I have gotten really bad about diet culture. Like, I did not realize just how warped my mind has become in terms of, oh, you can't eat this, you can't eat that. Yeah, okay, you"

but

Contradiction

"food. I do feel still like I need to burn it off. But how sad is it that we feel like we have to earn the things that we're consuming? The"

Tone & style

Ashley starts from the position of someone who stopped moving in college, chased weight loss through pills and shots, and got tangled in diet culture rules. Approaching day 365 forces the retrospective: she names each mistake — the shortcuts, the food guilt, the overtraining, the scale fixation, the wrong motivation — and ends forward-looking but unresolved, still catching herself feeling like she needs to earn food.

Personal experience and self-reflection from one year into a fitness streak. Not medical, nutritional, or fitness advice.

toneCandid & reflective

focusAshley, four days from her 365-day movement streak, runs through the mistakes she'd skip if she were starting over — stopping movement in college, the pills and shots, diet culture thinking, ignoring rest, obsessing over the scale, and not doing it for herself.

stylesolo_monologue

energymedium_low

complexitybeginner

pressure Levellow

emotional Texturehonest, self-critical, forward-looking

Notable quotes

"off. But how sad is it that we feel like we have to earn the things that we're consuming? The"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"thing is that I would go back and I'd shake the crap out of, you know, old Ashley, past Ashley, and just tell her, like, whatever you do, don't stop moving. I really wish that I had continued"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"that horrible diet, I gained it all back plus"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"more. And I know that sounds kind of crazy coming from a girl who's telling you to move your body more. I'm not telling you not to rest. And that"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"Initially, I was not doing all this weight loss stuff for me. I wasn't doing the fitness journey"

— Famous Ashley Grant

Episode transcript

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

0:001. Approaching Day 365 and Wishing She'd Never Stopped MovingAshley introduces the episode four days before her 365-day mark and shares her biggest regret: stopping movement when she got to college and never picking it back up.1:212. The Pills and Shots She Wishes She'd SkippedAshley reflects on using weight-loss pills and shots, calling it a waste of money since she gained the weight back once she stopped and couldn't afford the maintenance phase.2:063. Diet Culture, Earning Food, and Overdoing ItAshley talks about how warped her thinking around food has become — feeling like she has to earn meals — and admits she pushed too hard without enough rest or balance.4:034. The Scale, Doing It for Yourself, and Starting NowAshley adds obsessing over the scale and not doing the journey for herself to her list of mistakes, then wraps up by encouraging listeners to start today and avoid the same pitfalls.

Open full transcript

Key themes

Wishing she'd never stopped moving

Ashley says stopping movement when she got to college is her biggest regret, and she'd 'shake the crap out of past Ashley' to tell her not to quit.

Pills and shots she calls a waste

Ashley reflects on using weight-loss pills and shots, saying she gained everything back once she stopped and couldn't afford the maintenance phase, making it a waste of time and money.

Feeling like you have to earn food

Ashley admits her thinking around food has become warped — she still feels she needs to burn off a big meal, and questions how sad it is that people feel they have to earn what they consume.

Overdoing it without enough rest

Ashley admits she pushed too hard earlier in the year, wasn't going to bed on time, and finally had to slow down — framing it as a lack of balance rather than a lack of effort.

Obsessing over the scale

Ashley says she needs to quit focusing on the scale, noting that the standard weight benchmarks don't account for muscle weighing more than fat.

Not doing it for herself

Ashley reveals she initially started the fitness journey for reasons other than herself, and frames doing it for you as one of the most important things to get right from the start.

Approaching day 365 and looking back

The episode is framed around Ashley being four days from her 365-day mark, which is prompting her to reflect on the whole journey and what she'd do differently.