Episode 8Nov 19, 2025· 32:08

Watching Her Mom Become a Prisoner in Her Own Body | Why Rhonda Will Never Stop Moving (Part 2)

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About this episode

Fitness instructor Rhonda Goode describes her mother's final two years of life housebound due to obesity-related immobility — unable to walk from a chair to a car parked steps away, relying on a porta potty, developing bed sores, sedated by medications while mentally still present — and how witnessing that shaped her entire approach to fitness and aging. The conversation covers caregiver helplessness, grief, the…

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Who this episode is for

This episode may resonate with you if:

You're watching a parent's health deteriorate and you can't stop thinking about whether you're looking at your own future.

You've been going through the motions at the gym — showing up but not really working — and some part of you knows it.

You've stopped moving for a while — life got in the way — and you can feel yourself sliding back into a dark mental place.

You're in your 40s or 50s and you're starting to feel the weight of every choice you've made about your body — and you're scared about what the next 20 years look like.

You just lost someone and you're trying to figure out how to grieve while still functioning — and maybe movement is the only thing keeping you upright.

You've been telling yourself you'll start in January, and somewhere underneath that you know the delay is costing you something real.

Questions this episode wrestles with

What does it feel like to watch a parent lose all physical independence?

answered

Rhonda describes her mother as literally housebound for nearly two years — unable to walk from her chair to the car, eventually unable to reach the bathroom — and names it plainly: 'a prisoner in your body and a prisoner in your home.'

"in your own body. Wow. And you can't do anything."

How do you keep going when you're exhausted and grieving at the same time?

answered

Rhonda describes lying on the floor of her father's hospice room with a heating pad on her injured knee, then getting up to teach class the next morning — not as a lesson, but as 'you just got to get through it.'

"floor in his room with a heating pad wrapped around my knee with a brace on it and lying on the floor spending the night there, you know, and then getting up and going to teach class the next morning. You know, I was like, well, you just got to get through it. But I do believe"

Can staying active actually prevent what happened to my parent from happening to me?

open question

Rhonda never claims fitness is a guarantee — she wrote 'my biggest fear is her last year, and I'll do everything I can to avoid it the right way,' which frames movement as a response to fear rather than a promise of a different outcome.

"wrote, her retirement years were plagued with nothing but sickness and disease. It didn't have to be this way. My biggest fear is her last year, and I'll do everything I can to avoid it the right way. How did watching your mother's health"

What if I don't care about losing weight — is there another reason to keep moving?

answered

Rhonda points to people in her classes who've gotten off blood pressure and diabetes meds, and seniors still doing their own yard work and grocery shopping — 'you can't ask for any better than that.'

"then I've got several people that have, you know, gotten off blood pressure meds and off diabetic meds. And I mean, you can't ask for any better than that. That's, you know, I mean, yeah. Being"

Setting expectations: This episode is not a fitness tutorial, a weight loss plan, or an inspirational story about transformation — it's a raw account of Rhonda watching her mother spend the last two years of her life unable to walk from her chair to the car, and what that did to Rhonda's relationship with movement. The practical fitness content (teaching style, holiday eating, community) is secondary to sitting with what it actually looks like when a body stops working.

Tone & style

Rhonda grew up watching her family decline into obesity and immobility, treating it as an inherited fate. Her mother's final two years — housebound, using a porta potty indoors, dying from a UTI and a bad antibiotic — became the turning point she wrote about weeks after the death: 'It didn't have to be this way.' The episode ends partially unresolved: Rhonda has built her entire fitness practice and community around that fear, but admits at 50 she doesn't know how much longer she can keep up the pace.

Personal lived experience and grief, shared in real time. Not clinical guidance or research-backed fitness advice.

toneRaw & grief-driven

focusRhonda describes watching her mother spend her last two years housebound — unable to walk three steps to the car — and how that image became the reason she will never stop moving.

stylepersonal_confession

energymedium_low

complexitybeginner

pressure Levellow

emotional Textureheavy, honest, quietly urgent

Notable quotes

"so... Just sitting her slumped over again, drugs out of her mind between all of the meds she was on for all of the ailments she had. And then"

— Rhonda Goode

"yeah, just a prisoner in your body and a prisoner in your home where you can't do anything. You can't leave. You can't do anything. I mean, we all have days where we don't want to leave our house or we don't want to do whatever. But to not have the choice. Oh, no, I'm out."

— Rhonda Goode

"had days where I break down in class. It happens. But, you know, I just keep going. I've had people"

— Rhonda Goode

"menu items. And at the end of the text, it said, I know this is a lot. But it's what I want. And"

— Rhonda Goode

"are not my people. And people that just want to check a box are not my people."

— Rhonda Goode

Episode transcript

Organized into 10 chapters — open any part to read the full text.

0:101. Episode Introduction and What's ComingAshley introduces part two of the series, previewing the vulnerable conversation about Rhonda's mother's final years, the mental health benefits of movement, and holiday eating.1:342. Watching Her Mom Become HouseboundRhonda describes her mother's last two years — unable to walk from her chair to the car, relying on a porta potty inside the house, developing bed sores, and eventually being completely sedated by medications while mentally still present.6:103. The Final Months and Her Mother's DeathRhonda recounts trying to get her mother to do chair exercises, ordering her a $37 Sonic meal on Christmas Day because 'who cares at this point,' and her mother ultimately dying from a UTI and a bad antibiotic reaction.9:434. Movement as Mental Health MedicineRhonda talks about how smartphones have put people in 'mental jails,' how the gym forces a phone break and creates human interaction, and how people who stop going to the gym tend to slide back into serious mental health struggles.14:225. Faith, Injury, and Keeping Up the Pace at 50Rhonda reflects on crediting divine protection for avoiding serious injury despite teaching 25 hours of classes a week for 15 years, recounting a knee injury that coincided with her father entering hospice, and acknowledging uncertainty about how long she can maintain her current pace.18:486. Teaching Style and Who Thrives With RhondaRhonda describes her style as built for people who want to work hard and show up consistently, explicitly saying lazy people and box-checkers are not her people, while Ashley admits her first year and a half didn't really count.22:157. Success Stories: Getting Off Meds and Doing Yard Work at 80Rhonda shares what success looks like to her — people losing 30-40 pounds, going from 5-pound to 15-pound weights, staying off blood pressure and diabetes meds, and still doing their own grocery shopping and yard work in their 70s and 80s.26:508. What Builds a Loyal Fitness TribeRhonda explains why people show up after 12-hour shifts and choose her over newer gyms — she's always there, she builds full-body workouts, she sends home workouts when people can't come in, and the group naturally becomes invested in each other's lives.26:529. Holiday Eating Without the Guilt SpiralRhonda says once you stop using food as a crutch, the holidays stop being a crisis — eat what you actually love, skip Aunt Sue's dressing if you don't like it, and it's fine to gain three or four pounds as long as you're back in the gym the Friday after Thanksgiving.30:1910. Ashley's Closing Reflection on FreedomAshley wraps up by saying she can't shake the image of being a prisoner in your own body, and frames Rhonda's entire fitness philosophy as being about freedom — to leave your house, to have choices, to live the last decades of life on your own terms.

Open full transcript

Mentioned in this episode

personRhonda Goode

Fitness instructor and guest — the episode centers on her mother's decline, her own fitness philosophy, and why she became an instructor after losing 120 pounds.

personFamous Ashley Grant

Host of More Movement Please, interviewing Rhonda; mentions watching her own mother's health decline and her personal experience as Rhonda's student.

personMarilyn

A member of Rhonda's fitness group, nearly 72 years old, whom Ashley shouts out as someone she's trying to keep pace with on weights.

companySonic

Fast food chain where Rhonda ordered her dying mother a $37 Christmas Day meal — queso, tater tots, a burger, and a milkshake — because it was one of the few places open.

Key themes

Prisoner in your own body

Rhonda describes watching her mother spend nearly two years housebound — unable to walk from her chair to the car, relying on a porta potty inside the house, developing bed sores, and sitting slumped and drugged in a recliner with a stomach that nearly touched the floor.

Watching a parent decline and being unable to stop it

Rhonda recounts trying to get her mother to do five-step walker walks and chair exercises, only for it to last less than a week, and eventually reaching the point where she just brought her mother whatever food she wanted — including a $37 Sonic order on Christmas Day — because there was nothing left to do.

Her mother's death as the fuel behind everything

Rhonda wrote weeks after her mother's death that her retirement years were 'plagued with nothing but sickness and disease' and that her mother's last year is her biggest fear — and she says watching it changed her, not just doubled her down on fitness.

Movement as mental health medicine

Rhonda argues that smartphones have put people in 'mental jails,' that the gym forces a phone break and human interaction, and that people who stop going tend to slide back into the 'serious black hole they started in' — she's also broken down crying in class herself during her mother's illnesses.

Fitness as freedom, not appearance

Ashley closes the episode by framing Rhonda's entire philosophy around freedom — the freedom to leave your house, to have choices, to live the last decades of life on your own terms — directly contrasting it with fitness as a way to look good or fit a certain size.

Faith and divine protection at a punishing pace

Rhonda credits what she calls divine protection for the fact that she hasn't been seriously injured despite teaching 25 hours of classes a week for 15 years, recounting a knee injury that coincided with her father entering hospice, and saying she believes God tells her when she's doing something stupid.

Community and accountability at the gym

Rhonda explains that people show up to her classes after 12-hour shifts and choose her over newer gyms because they know she'll be there, and because the group naturally starts checking on each other — 'if you're always here and then you're not here for three days, where are you?'

Functional strength in old age as the real goal

Rhonda says success to her is people in their 70s and 80s still doing their own yard work, grocery shopping, and getting up out of a chair without help — not class numbers or weight loss aesthetics.

Coaching style that isn't for everyone

Rhonda says her people are those who want to work hard and show up consistently, and explicitly says lazy people and box-checkers are not her people — Ashley adds that her first year and a half of working out with Rhonda 'didn't count.'

Holiday eating without the guilt spiral

Rhonda says once you stop using food as a crutch, the holidays stop being a crisis — eat what you actually love, skip what you don't, and it's fine to gain three or four pounds as long as you were at the gym Wednesday before Thanksgiving and back the Friday after.

Connected episodes

Shared experience

Fear of decline driving constant movement

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