Health isn't the enemy (and quitting health wasn't the answer).

4 minute read | The Weekly Fill: My reflections from 2024 and what advice I wished I hadn't given you.

This year, as I was prepping for the last podcast I'll record for the year - my traditional' end-of-the-year health review - I had quite the realization.

It was sweet and shocking all at the same time.

That realization was that quitting health may not have been the best advice I ever published.

Quitting health was bad advice.

If you're new here, you might not know that six years ago, I quit health. It's exactly as it sounds. I woke up one morning fed up with everything about the health space and declared my loyalty to it over.

I can't say it was unexpected as much as it was more of an eruption of years of attempting to hate myself healthy and yet feeling like I didn't add up. Something was wrong, and I needed to fix it or forever live stuck as a hypocrite telling you one thing but never quite believing it for myself.

Honestly, this created quite the internal battle in the last few years. I fought to find a way to get healthy without crediting healthy practices while simultaneously being drawn to them.

It felt like two opposing forces fighting to win my life.

While I don't regret quitting health, I also don't think that's the answer.

Quitting health only reinforced the ultimate truth I've learned: We all desire to be well.

Health is a human desire.

Health is a foundation for humanity. Living well is part of our innate desire. No one in the history of the world chooses to get unhealthy on purpose.

When nothing seemed to work in my own life, even though I knew all of the right things, there was only one thing left to believe: that I was the problem.

The problem with this belief is that it's so outside your design (your innate desire to be well) that it's unbelievable. It's against your internal logic, making you question how your body can be the problem and the solution.

Your body can’t be the ‘problem’ and the ‘solution.’

The truth is, I don't think anyone ultimately believes it. I don't think you believe that health is impossible, which is why you've shifted that blame to the health space.

I say this because I lived it. But now that I can see it, I can do something to change it.

Perhaps the greatest advice I heard all year was:

"A pattern is only a pattern until you recognize it. When you see the pattern, it becomes a choice."

Do you see the pattern?

You might have a pattern of thinking you hate your body, but that belief is so unsafe (or outside reality) that you shift the blame to the health space.

Don't get me wrong—the health space has and will fail you. But I don't want you to get so consumed by blaming the health space and hating yourself that you fail to do something to change.

What I'm trying to say and what I've realized is that we all desire to be well, and the way to live well is to break up with bad beliefs about yourself and start engaging in healthy practices—it's the action of health that creates it.

The focus needs to shift away from blaming the health space or yourself and instead move toward recognizing harmful patterns and engage in healthy practices without the baggage of unrealistic expectations or self-judgment

As shocking as it is to hear, it is to say…

You need healthy practices as part of your life.

In fact, you crave it.

As I close out this year, I can't help but reflect on my own journey—one that's been messy, emotional, and honestly, at times, confusing. When I quit health six years ago, I thought I was freeing myself. I was so frustrated by a system that felt impossible to live up to and so tired of the shame I carried for not "getting it right."

But here's the thing—when I walked away from health, I never stopped craving it. I still wanted to feel good in my body. I still wanted to live well.

This year, I finally recognized the pattern: blaming health for my struggles, then blaming myself, and going in circles without real progress.

UNHEALTHY PATTERN: blaming health for my struggles, then blaming myself, and going in circles without real progress.

Recognizing it was like flipping on a light switch. It didn't mean everything got easier overnight, but it meant I could finally choose something different.

Who knows, maybe ‘different’ will be my word of the year.

And here's what I chose: health is about daily practices that align with the life I want to live. It's not about extremes—it's about rhythms. It's not about being better—it's about being whole.

This year (and next year and forever), I want to live whole, and I want to help you live whole. But that means we have to do something. We have to act and engage in healthy practices, maybe even some we’ve hated and blamed in the past.

I really believe there is more common ground than we think, partially because, as we’ve learned this year, there is a biological drive to diet. The key is to do it in a loving and healing way, not a forceful, guilt-ridden way.

It has to be a choice more than a chase.

Next year is going to be so good!

To help with the process, I invite you to use a tool that has been my lifeline for years: the Nourished Planner. This planner isn't about rigid rules or overwhelming to-do lists. It's about creating structure and space for the things that matter most—your health, your rhythms, your life.

It's helped me shift from chaos to clarity, and I know it can do the same for you.

So, as we head into a new year, I want to leave you with this: healthy practices aren't the enemy. They're the foundation. And when you approach them with kindness instead of shame, they're also the solution.

Start your year off right with the Nourished Planner. Let's choose to live well—not because we're broken, but because we're worthy of it.

Here's to health, freedom, and ending this year well and welcoming the new one with open arms!

P.S. LAST DAY to get 25% off all planners and 50% off all accessories — no code needed! Shop here!