If you’ve ever started a new health routine with total conviction, then quietly quit two weeks later, this one’s for you.
You don’t have a consistency problem. You have a staple problem.
Let me explain.
I walked every day for a year, and IT WASN’T FOR MY HEALTH.
Did it help my health? Absolutely. But that’s not why I did it, and changing the reason I walked allowed me to walk for a year without it being this big thing. It just was,100% completely normal.
It wasn’t a challenge.
I wasn’t working.
It wasn’t guilt-infested or shame-ridden.
It was my white T-shirt.
I call it my white T-shirt because it's that one staple that goes with anything on any occasion. You don’t have to think about it. You just reach for it.
It’s not trendy or expensive. It’s just the staple that makes everything else work. And that’s what walking has become for me. My white T-shirt health staple.
And yet it didn’t start out that way.
My Fruit-Pebble Era (I don’t regret):
Do you remember when I hard quit health? When I woke up one morning and put a dead stop to any “health” practices I had been engaging in (which were so many). You might remember it as the morning I binged an entire box of Fruity Pebbles in bed, with zero shame?
Here’s the thing. I didn’t quit because I didn’t want to be healthy. I quit because I didn’t want health at the expense of what it was taking, which felt like my entire life. At that time, it was literally so much time, money, and energy that wasn’t getting me to where I wanted to go.
So I quit.
But I didn’t stay a quitter forever. Turns out Fruity Pebbles only make you feel good for so long (shocker). A few days, or maybe just after a week, I hated to admit it, but I was genuinely craving something healthy again.
I wouldn’t say I crawled back to health, but I did go back, with a new determination to make it something different. I was done with that way of health, and I was committed to figuring out something different.
And I found the plot twist we’ve all been missing.
The Game-Changing Plot Twist
Here’s what I figured out for myself. I had been treating health like a destination. Like health would magically appear when I hit the number on the scale I was desperate for. Or when I’d fit into a certain size of pants. That would bring me joy. It would make me loved. It would be the place I could finally live.
Maybe it would have? I don’t know, because I never really arrived. Which also meant I was never really living.
And yet, I’ve watched a lot of people “arrive” and still not live. And I think that’s the problem that we constantly overlook.
We make health the purpose of life when it was never intended to be that. Living like that might be one of the greatest distractions from life there is.
Health is the fuel for your purpose. It’s not the purpose.
This might be a cheesy example, but think of it as the gas in your car.
I know this sounds crazy, but so many people live health like they’re road-tripping just to fill up the tank. Yet, NO ONE DOES THAT. Because the road trip isn’t about the fuel. It’s about going somewhere. Yes, the fuel matters. You can’t drive on an empty tank. But filling up your car is something you do, not something that consumes you.
It’s the same thing with health, and we need to get it back to its rightful place.
Health is meant to fuel you into the adventure, the experience, THE LIVING!
And realizing that was a game changer for me!
Walking for vs. walking from
Honestly, walking is not only where I learned this but the first “safe space” to test it out. Because here’s the thing: it sounds great, but what happens if you try it and everything falls apart?
That’s what I love about walking. The perks are always there. They’re just amplified when you do it out of health, not for it.
Let me show you how I made this shift.
I used to walk for things.
I walked for a step count that I assumed was required to achieve a state of health I’d imagined existed. I walked for a goal. I walked to feel different. I even went through a phase I didn’t let myself walk because it wasn’t hard enough. So I ran.
And don’t get me wrong, I love running and am building up capacity to be a runner.
But the point is, all of the walking and running for something turned it into a chore. It consumed me instead of fueling me. And that meant it took time, it took energy, it took life that I could quickly justify I didn’t have — so I didn’t do it.
You know that place, right?
You want the thing, so you start doing it. But then you quit, not because you want to, but because you don’t have the capacity to give what it is taking. And ain’t nobody have time or energy for that.
That’s why I flipped it. Because I refuse to give up my life to something that promises to give back and never does.
Health has to show up for me today. Not someday. Now.
Make it make sense!
Here’s what I came to decide. If health is taking more than it’s giving. It’s not health. That’s stress. And that’s exactly why I quit health.
But on the other side, I’ve realized we get to CHOOSE whether the health practice siphons our energy or fills it. It’s not up to the practice. It’s up to you.
Nobody taught me that. It’s definitely not mainstream news, but it did change things for me, because it makes health so stupid simple that you don’t really need the program or plan. You just need the story change so you can learn to choose what you want and how you respond to it.
And walking is the easiest place I’ve found to experience that in real time.
When walking is a lose-lose:
When I’m walking because I think I have to. I never have time for it. It always feels like too much. It’s another stress. And yet, when I don’t do it because I don’t think I have time, I feel guilty. Making it a lose-lose.
When walking is a win-win:
And yet, just like you can choose to feel like walking is a chunk of time you have to find to arrive. You can also believe the opposite. Walking can give you time. It can give you energy. It can give you productivity. It gives you because you’re choosing to use it to fill you.
It’s the same walk but a different story. And when you learn to do it with walking, you can do it with everything else.
It’s also why walking made me a good house cleaner. And yes, you’ve had lots of questions. I promise, it’s not because walking makes me Mary Poppins. It’s because walking fills my energy tank, helps me process life, and brings me home with three times more energy than I started with.
Not because the walk is miraculous, but because I learned how to use it to create what I wanted.
And it didn’t just make me a good house cleaner; it also helped me:
Spend time with God. Literally, I can’t tell you how many prayers I’ve prayed on sidewalks around my hometown. And how many connections in my life I’ve brought to God because my walks aren’t just about prayers but processing, creating, thinking, and even being relational with other people.
It cleaned up my emotions and changed how I showed up in my marriage, as a mom, and in my job. I can go out on a walk frustrated and overwhelmed and come home as if none of it happened. Not because it didn’t, but because I’ve moved through it.
Walks are where my best work happens. I swear I’m more productive on a one-hour walk than I am for three hours behind my computer. Not because I’m physically getting “work” done, but because I’m being creative.
Change the pace of my life. Just like they amplify my productivity, walks also create space in my day, where the work I just mentioned is also a form of rest. It slows me down, and that speeds things up (because slow is fast).
It’s hard to describe, but all of this happens on one walk. I’m not segmenting my walks into chunks to accomplish these things. I’m just showing up and letting it happen. Sometimes I’m intentional about it, but other times, I’m just being.
And it’s the being that becomes the filling.
Make walking your trusted white t-shirt.
If your goal is to “get healthy,” you’re going to be chasing trends forever. Because what is the finish line to that?
But if you get clear on what you want your life to hold, what you are here for, you can build health practices and create staples that let you start living that today.
Try it out today:
Before you walk, pick one thing you want it to give you. Time with God, a clear head, an idea, a real conversation with your kid. Just pick one.
Walk for 20 minutes. Not for a step count or a certain pace. No earbuds. Just you on a walk.
Notice what it gave you. When you get done, notice what it gave you and how it filled you. Just one or two sentences. We’ll use this as evidence for a better story.
Hit reply and let me know what our walk gave you. I’m going to be using this to help change your story next week!
And if you want to make walking your trusted white t-shirt for good, that’s exactly what we’re doing inside The Holiday Walking Club.
I’ll show you how to build the story, create evidence for it, and make walking the practice you go back to, not because you have to, but because it fuels your life.
It’s not your average walking club! Grab your spot here and change your story before the new year!
Don’t forget to hit reply and tell me what your walk gave you!
Talk soon!