In a World of Instant Everything, Your Body Still Takes Time (And That's A Good Thing)
So I recently downloaded Substack.
For those unfamiliar, Substack is a platform where creators post long and short-form written content — less Instagram-style photo dumps and more newsletters, essays, and reflections. And you may be wondering: what does this have to do with fitness? Let me connect the dots.
By now, it's pretty well established that social media can be hard on our mental and social health. Studies have shown that “social media can negatively impact our overall wellbeing by fueling anxiety, depression, loneliness and FOMO” (see here, here, here & here among other sources). And a court recently found Meta and YouTube liable for intentionally designing their platforms to be addictive (which, let’s be real, didn't surprise many of us).
As a millennial, I'm consistently grateful to have grown up before smartphones were this ubiquitous. But coming of age during the tech revolution also means I've accumulated my fair share of unhealthy phone habits. I genuinely enjoy some of what social media offers — staying connected to old friends, celebrating the wins of people I love, discovering new things. But I'm also self-aware enough to notice when it's working against me. My personal struggle is the scrolling impulse. The moment I feel even a flicker of boredom, I notice my hand reach for my phone. I've lost count of how many times I've caught myself mindlessly scrolling through content I don't even care about. And while my mental health hasn't taken a significant hit from social media, the constant, unnecessary consumption has overfed my brain and left me feeling a little numb in a way I just don't enjoy.
I fully recognize how counterintuitive it sounds to say: I got sick of consuming social media slop, so I downloaded another app. However, I actually love reading long-form content. Substack lets me seek out articles on topics that genuinely interest me and spark something in my brain, rather than passively receiving an endless loop of whatever the algorithm decides I should see.
Making that shift from the constant dopamine hits of Instagram to the slower, more intentional pace of finding and reading full articles got me thinking deeply about our media environment, the rise of AI, and what all of this means for our fitness journeys. And it really solidified something I've been feeling for a while: AI and on-demand culture are creating a mental barrier for achieving our fitness goals.
Over the last decade, we've watched (and lived firsthand) as our world evolved from dial-up to fully on-demand. And in the last year especially, the rapid integration of AI into so many corners of our lives has created an expectation that anything we want is available at the click of a button.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a frequent user of Uber Eats or streaming services and I am not complaining about either. But as a trainer, one of my biggest challenges is teaching patience, consistency, and commitment in a world that keeps rewarding speed. When every other area of life is being "optimized" by quick fixes, it becomes harder to convince people that some things are worth the wait.
I want to be clear: I'm not anti-AI in fitness. I've seen people use it in genuinely helpful ways like building meal plans, tracking calories, getting workout ideas. But the one thing AI cannot do is transform your body or your mindset overnight. That still takes time. Full stop.
And honestly? I think that's a beautiful thing.
The process of transforming your body teaches you something that no shortcut ever could. It builds patience. It grows your confidence. It shows you what you're mentally and physically capable of. It helps you figure out what works for your body, not someone else's. It creates the kind of routine that ripples out into other healthy habits. It can even open doors to healthier relationships with yourself and the people around you. None of that happens overnight and none of it can be automated.
But in a world where AI keeps finding faster and faster ways to give us what we want — and the dopamine hit that comes with it — I genuinely worry that we'll lose our appreciation for processes that require patience and hard work. That we'll start treating our fitness journeys as problems to be solved rather than experiences to be lived.
I'm still thinking through how we address this as an industry and in broader public conversation. But in the meantime, I want to share a few things I'm personally grateful for on my own fitness journey and some ways you can reframe the slow process as the point, not the problem.
A few ways to find the beauty in your fitness journey (even when progress feels slow):
Make a gratitude list for your journey. Write down everything your fitness journey has given you beyond physical changes, energy, confidence, stress relief, community, discipline. Whatever comes to mind & keep it somewhere you can see.
Redefine what a "win" looks like. Not every win is a number on a scale or a PR. Showing up on a hard day, choosing a walk over a scroll, or cooking a meal at home are all wins worth celebrating.
Notice your non-physical growth. Pay attention to how your relationship with your body, your stress levels, or your daily habits has shifted. That's the real transformation.
Create intention around your consumption. Whether it's social media, AI-generated plans, or fitness content, be sure to ask yourself if what you're consuming is genuinely serving you, or just filling space.
Give yourself permission to be “in process.” You don't have to have it all figured out. A fitness journey is a journey for a reason. Progress isn't linear, and as cliche as it sounds, in life the journey is often the destination.
Let me know your thoughts on this & stay active my friends!
