Episode 23Dec 31, 2025· 7:57

Stop 30-Day Challenges: Why Baby Steps Beat Fad Diets for Lasting Results

▸ Show notes from the creator

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About this episode

Ashley Grant discusses fad diets, 30-day fitness challenges, and weight cycling versus sustainable lifestyle change. She shares personal experience losing weight through shots and pills only to regain it, and describes her current approach: incremental movement habits like parking farther away and hourly movement breaks, a non-restrictive soda-to-water swap, mindful eating with portion awareness (quarter cup of M&Ms…

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Who this episode is for

This episode may resonate with you if:

You've done the 30-day challenge, lost some weight, felt good about yourself — and then watched it all come back the moment you stopped, and you're tired of that cycle repeating every January.

You feel like every fitness attempt has to be all-or-nothing, and the idea of overhauling your entire life at once is exactly why you haven't started — or why you keep quitting.

You have a food or drink you love — soda, chocolate, whatever — and every diet you've tried has told you to give it up completely, which makes you feel deprived and eventually leads you to quit.

You've caught yourself mindlessly eating through an entire bag of something and only noticed when it was gone — and you feel a low-level shame about it that you can't quite shake.

It's the new year and your social media is full of fitness challenges and diet ads, and something about all of it feels exhausting and fake even though part of you still wants to change.

You've talked yourself out of trying again because last time 'the stupid fitness thing wasn't working' — and you've started to wonder if the problem is you, not the approach.

Questions this episode wrestles with

Why do I keep starting over every January?

answered

Ashley's take is that the problem is treating it as a challenge — something you do for a little while and then stop — rather than committing to it as a permanent lifestyle change.

"with a lot of people, and I know I am completely guilty of this myself, is treating it as a challenge. Something that you just do for a little while and then you go back to your regular lifestyle."

Is there actually a difference between a challenge and a real change, or is it just semantics?

answered

Ashley describes the difference as concrete: a challenge ends and you revert, gaining the weight back and feeling like 'this stupid fitness thing, it's not working' — whereas a lifestyle change is built from small steps you intend to keep doing for the rest of your life.

"go back to your previous lifestyle, what happens? You gain all the weight back, right? Sometimes you gain even more. And then you feel like, well, this stupid fitness thing, it's not working."

Can you actually change your eating without giving up the foods you love?

answered

Ashley describes still having soda and chocolate, but changing the amounts and slowing down — drinking a full glass of water before a treat, or portioning out a quarter cup of M&Ms instead of clearing the whole bag.

"I'll. Again, I'll grab myself a complete glass of water and I'll have an entire glass of water before I let myself have the treat that I want to have. And again, it's not restriction. It is just a choice to make sure that I'm full so that I'm not anxiously just shoveling all these cookies and treats and chocolates into my face."

How do tiny habits ever become real change when they feel so insignificant?

open question

Ashley argues the case from her own early experience — that small improvements add up to big changes that don't feel abrupt — but she's working through this belief as she goes, not reporting a proven outcome.

"taking taking the time to look at it as a lifestyle"

Setting expectations: This episode is not a structured guide to designing a fitness routine or a breakdown of why specific diets fail scientifically. It's Ashley talking through her own experience with fad challenges and weight cycling, sharing the small personal swaps she's actually making — like half-filling her soda glass and portioning out a quarter cup of M&Ms — as a case for slow habit change over short-term challenges.

Tone & style

Ashley opens by recognizing herself in the fad-challenge cycle — having taken shots and pills, lost weight, then gained it all back the moment she stopped. That pattern led her to reframe health as a permanent lifestyle rather than a temporary challenge, and she's now mid-experiment: still working on phasing out soda, but noticing she naturally reaches for water more as she works out.

Personal experience and opinion. Ashley shares what has worked for her own habits, not a structured method or professional guidance.

toneCasual & encouraging

focusAshley argues from her own experience that fad challenges fail because they're treated as temporary, and shares the small habit swaps she personally uses instead — like half-glasses of soda and quarter cups of M&Ms.

stylesolo_monologue

energymedium_low

complexitybeginner

pressure Levellow

emotional Textureconversational, self-deprecating, encouraging

Notable quotes

"it anymore. So yeah, you can do what I did and take all these shots and these pills and lose a bunch of weight, but then the second you stop, you gain it all back. So instead of doing fad"

— Famous Ashley Grant

Episode transcript

Organized into 5 chapters — open any part to read the full text.

0:121. The Problem with 30-Day Challenges and Fad DietsAshley introduces the episode's topic by pointing to the flood of New Year fitness challenges on her Facebook feed and argues that treating them as short-term challenges — rather than permanent changes — is why people give up and regain weight, referencing her own experience with shots and pills.2:042. Small Movement Changes to Start WithAshley suggests concrete, low-barrier ways to add more movement to daily life — parking farther away, getting up every hour to do squats or jumping jacks, or taking a 20-minute walk before going inside after work — framing these as sustainable habits rather than overhauls.4:073. Ashley's Soda and Water SwapAshley shares her personal approach to reducing soda: drinking two glasses of water for every soda, only filling the glass halfway, and noticing that as she works out more she naturally craves water over soda — without banning soda entirely.6:154. Mindful Eating Instead of RestrictionAshley describes drinking a full glass of water before treats, portioning out a quarter cup of peanut butter M&Ms instead of eating the whole bag, and actively thinking about what she's consuming — finding she needs less when she's paying attention.7:575. Why Baby Steps Lead to Lasting ChangeAshley wraps up by arguing that small, gradual improvements feel less abrupt and less restrictive than fad approaches, and that going back to old habits after a challenge is exactly what leads to regaining weight and giving up on fitness altogether.

Open full transcript

Mentioned in this episode

personFamous Ashley Grant

The host of More Movement Please, who shares her personal experiences with fad diets, shots and pills for weight loss, and her current approach to small lifestyle changes.

personRhonda

A previously interviewed guest on the podcast whose episodes are linked in the show notes; Ashley references her philosophy of not subscribing to 'no carbs and no happy foods.'

websiteFacebook

The platform where Ashley sees New Year fitness challenges and fad diet promotions flooding her feed.

productpeanut butter M&Ms

The specific snack Ashley used to eat an entire bag of mindlessly, now portioning into a quarter cup as part of her mindful eating approach.

Key themes

fads vs. lifestyle change

Ashley argues that treating fitness challenges as short-term events — like 30-day plank or push-up challenges — is why people finish them and then go right back to their previous lifestyle.

weight cycling from fad dieting

Ashley references her own experience taking shots and pills to lose weight, only to gain it all back the moment she stopped.

baby steps over overhauling everything

Ashley pushes back against the idea of changing everything at once, suggesting instead that small additions — parking farther away, getting up every hour to move — are more sustainable.

non-restrictive approach to food

Ashley repeatedly frames her changes as not about restriction or banning foods she loves, referencing a guest named Rhonda who also doesn't subscribe to 'no carbs and no happy foods.'

Ashley's soda-to-water swap

Ashley describes her specific personal system: for every soda she has, she drinks two glasses of water and only fills the glass halfway with soda, without banning soda outright.

mindful eating instead of mindless consumption

Ashley describes shifting from clearing an entire bag of peanut butter M&Ms without thinking to portioning out a quarter cup, putting the rest away, and actively thinking about what she's consuming as she eats it.

movement woven into daily routine

Ashley suggests specific low-barrier ways to add movement — getting up every hour for squats or jumping jacks, or taking a 20-minute walk before going inside after work — rather than treating exercise as a separate intense event.

mindset around choice vs. restriction

Ashley frames her healthier choices as active decisions rather than rules imposed on herself, saying knowing she can have soda but choosing water instead is what makes the change feel sustainable.

New Year fitness culture as the backdrop

Ashley situates the episode in the flood of New Year diet and challenge posts on her Facebook feed, using that cultural moment as the prompt for her argument against fads.

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