Episode 31Jan 21, 2026· 5:07

We're All Gonna Die Anyway: Why Mortality Should Motivate Your Fitness

▸ Show notes from the creator

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About this episode

Ashley Grant reflects on mortality, personal loss, and existential questioning as the backdrop for her fitness journey. Six months prior she was in physical pain from basic daily movements — standing up, walking across a room, lifting a water pitcher — and her doctor described her as a ticking time bomb due to high blood pressure. A recent doctor's visit showed her blood pressure had normalized. She contrasts the…

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Who this episode is for

This episode may resonate with you if:

You know you've let your body go, and somewhere in the back of your mind you're aware it's getting worse — but the gap between knowing and doing anything about it feels impossible to cross.

You've had a loss recently — a person, a health scare, something — and it's sent you into that spiral of 'what's the point of any of this anyway.'

Everyday physical tasks — getting up from a chair, carrying groceries, walking across the house — have quietly become harder than they should be, and you're embarrassed by it.

You're scared of becoming a burden — on your family, your partner, anyone — and that fear is starting to feel more real than abstract.

You've gotten a warning from a doctor — high blood pressure, pre-diabetes, something — and it rattled you, but the feeling faded before you actually changed anything.

Questions this episode wrestles with

Can fear of dying actually motivate you to get healthy, or does it just make you anxious?

answered

For Ashley, mortality awareness — triggered by personal losses and existential crises — is exactly what made her want to get fit: "if we're going to die anyway, shouldn't we do everything that we can to be as healthy as possible while we're still here?"

"been on my mind lately because I've suffered"

Is wanting to get fit so you're not a burden on others a healthy motivation or a shame-based one?

open question

Ashley names the motivation without interrogating whether it's healthy or shame-driven — she simply holds both at once, framing fitness as personal care and as not making others carry her weight.

"still here? Shouldn't we do everything that we can to take care of ourselves so that someone else doesn't have to pick up the slack? So we don't have to be a burden on others. I feel like"

Can you actually come back from being really out of shape, or does the damage stick?

answered

Ashley shares that her doctor once called her a ticking time bomb, and six months later told her — for the first time in as long as she can remember — that her blood pressure was normal, which she describes as "big for me."

"I mean, even my doctor called me a ticking time bomb. And recently I had to go to the doctor for something. And she said that for the first time in as long as I can remember, she said my blood pressure was normal. That's big for me."

What does it feel like when your body starts working again after years of decline?

answered

Ashley describes the contrast as the pain of exercising feeling "so much better" than the pain of just existing — she was having significant pain walking from her chair to the bathroom, and now her soreness comes from taking five classes in a day.

"months ago. It feels so much better to be in pain from exercising. than it did from just standing up. When I tell you that getting up from my chair was painful, walking from my chair to the bed or the bathroom or the kitchen or whatever, when I tell you that was painful, that is not an overstatement."

Setting expectations: Despite the title invoking mortality and motivation, this episode is not a philosophical framework for using death as a productivity tool or a structured fitness guide. It's Ashley talking through her own recent losses and existential heaviness, and what it felt like six months ago when standing up from a chair was genuinely painful.

Tone & style

Ashley opens from a place of grief and existential questioning after recent personal losses, then traces back six months to when she was in pain just standing up and her doctor called her a ticking time bomb. The turning point is a recent doctor's visit where her blood pressure was normal for the first time in years — and the soreness she feels now is from taking five exercise classes, not from existing. She lands on mortality reframed as motivation: since we're all going to die anyway, she wants to make her body as fit as possible for the years she has left, and she wants that for her listeners too.

Personal lived experience and opinion. Ashley shares her own physical transformation and a doctor's comment about her blood pressure — not medical advice or generalizable health guidance.

toneRaw & motivational

focusAshley uses her own experience of barely being able to lift a Brita pitcher six months ago — and now being sore from five exercise classes — to argue that mortality is a reason to move, not a reason to give up.

stylepersonal_confession

energymedium_high

complexitybeginner

pressure Levelmedium

emotional Texturevulnerable, urgent, warm, earnest

Notable quotes

"just six months ago, I wasn't really living."

— Famous Ashley Grant

"I mean, even my doctor called me a ticking time bomb. And recently I had to go to the doctor"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"That is not an exaggeration. I really was having"

— Famous Ashley Grant

Episode transcript

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

0:071. Mortality on Her MindAshley opens by acknowledging recent personal losses and existential questions that have been weighing on her, connecting those thoughts to a reflection on how six months ago she was merely surviving — not living — because of how out of shape she was.1:452. From Ticking Time Bomb to Normal Blood PressureAshley shares that her doctor once called her a ticking time bomb, and contrasts that with a recent visit where her blood pressure was normal for the first time in years.2:433. The Pain of Just ExistingAshley describes how six months ago she was in significant pain just standing up, walking to the bathroom, or lifting a Brita pitcher — and contrasts that with the soreness she feels now from taking five exercise classes in one day.4:064. If We're Gonna Die Anyway, Let's LiveAshley makes her core case: since death is inevitable, she wants to make her body as fit as possible for the years she has left, and urges listeners — whether they haven't started moving yet or already do — to add more movement to their lives.

Open full transcript

Mentioned in this episode

personFamous Ashley Grant

The host of More Movement Please, sharing her personal experience of going from severe physical decline to improved fitness and normal blood pressure over six months.

productBrita pitcher

Ashley mentions being unable to lift a Brita pitcher of water as a concrete example of how bad her physical condition had gotten six months prior.

Key themes

Surviving vs. living

Ashley reflects that six months ago she was merely surviving — not living — because her physical condition had deteriorated so badly.

Mortality as motivation

Ashley uses the fact that everyone is going to die as her central argument for why getting fit now actually matters, framing death not as a reason to give up but as a reason to live better.

Personal losses and existential weight

Ashley opens by disclosing that recent personal losses have triggered existential questions about purpose and what we're doing on the planet.

Pain of just existing

Ashley describes how six months ago standing up from a chair, walking to the bathroom, or lifting a Brita pitcher caused her significant physical pain — and insists this is not an exaggeration.

Before and after health markers

Ashley contrasts her doctor once calling her a ticking time bomb with a recent visit where her blood pressure was normal for the first time in as long as she can remember.

Not being a burden on others

Ashley frames getting fit partly as a responsibility to others — so someone else doesn't have to pick up the slack for her declining health.

Good pain vs. bad pain

Ashley distinguishes between the soreness she feels now from taking five exercise classes in one day and the pain she used to feel just from existing, saying the exercise pain feels so much better.

Call to start moving — wherever you are

Ashley closes by directly addressing listeners at every stage — those who haven't started, those thinking about it, and those already moving — and tells all of them to add more movement.

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