One Year of Commitment: What Movement Taught Me Beyond the Scale
December 1st marked one year of my commitment to myself through fitness and movement.
I've had a Peloton since people started selling them post-COVID. My husband found me a used one around 2021-2022 after I'd shown genuine effort to maintain a riding habit. But honestly? I'd be focused for weeks or months, then fall off for weeks or months, then come back again in the same cycle.
In April 2024, I attempted to start a real commitment—with a week off here and there. Then December 1st arrived, and I decided my "new year, new me" was starting right then.
Since that day, I've logged into Peloton for at least a meditation every single day. I've completed many Power Zone Pack challenges, logged two to three 45-minute rides weekly plus a 60-minute ride, lifted heavy weights, practiced yoga and meditation regularly, and dabbled in Pilates and barre.
The result after a year? I feel stronger. My endurance has absolutely improved.
The scale? Hasn't budged. The waistline? Roughly the same.
What I've Learned From a Year of Consistent Movement
1. It's Not About the Body Changes
Don't get me wrong, I just had my annual physical and my bloodwork is stellar. But considering I'm roughly the same weight after a year of consistent movement (and minding my calories off and on), I've had to reckon with what this commitment actually means.
It means I can move more freely. Get up and off the floor easier with my son. Find clarity through movement when my mind is cluttered (like right now, as I'm writing these words while moving my body).
This is what holistic health actually looks like, not a number on a scale, but how you feel in your body, how your nervous system responds to stress, how you show up for yourself and others.
2. Rest Days Are Not Optional
Every single day has a blue check-in mark on my Peloton app… but that doesn't mean every day is a big, hard, sweaty workout. Sometimes it's slow-flow yoga. Sometimes it's sitting still in guided meditation. Sometimes it's an all-out, heart-pumping sprint.
I've started incorporating real recovery rides, days where I just move without pushing into higher zones. Days where I stay in zone one, which feels rare but necessary (my brain struggles with not pushing my max).
These moments of showing up for myself, even gently, have created consistency that's played out everywhere: in my client care at Root & Soul Acupuncture, in my clinic, in my personal life, in my moments of patience and repair with my kids and husband, in the fights I choose (or don't choose).
As an acupuncturist specializing in hormonal health, I see this pattern constantly, folks pushing through exhaustion, ignoring their body's signals for rest, wondering why their hormones are imbalanced or their cycles are irregular. Rest isn't weakness… it's medicine.
3. Thinking Bigger Requires Energy
My ability to expand my thoughts, feelings, and emotions, or create boundaries around them, for self-preservation, protection, safety, and growth, requires that I show up for those who need me from a full overflowing cup.
Movement fills my cup.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, we talk about Qi, your vital life force energy (think like steam rising off a bowl of rice, or gas for your car). When your Qi is depleted, everything suffers: your immune system, your hormonal balance, your mental clarity, your emotional resilience. Movement cultivates and circulates Qi. Rest preserves it.
4. The Practice of Doing Hard Things Is Not Optional
Depending on where you are and how you're moving through your world, sometimes every day contains hard things.
Can you acknowledge that? Give yourself grace? You have survived 100% of the hard days you've encountered. You deserve all the awards and applause for that.
And if you sit down and decide that the things you want, need, and desire out of life require you to do MORE hard things? Baby, let's write out a plan and move forward. Those are mountains you know you can conquer, mountains well worth climbing.
I see this with my fertility patients all the time—women navigating IVF cycles, hormone treatments, the emotional rollercoaster of trying to conceive. They're doing the hardest thing. And they're showing up anyway. That's the practice.
5. Did I Mention Rest Is Not Optional?
Real talk about sleep. 8-10 hours should be your goal. Yes, we've all functioned on less, but I've noticed a huge difference in my ability to move, breathe, push, recover, and have patience when I've allowed myself real rest.
Some days that means getting up before my five-year-old to have time for movement. Other days, when weighed against rest, I dig deep and show up anyway. And sometimes? I just roll back over and acknowledge the cuddle that won't always be there—because he won't always want that time with me.
In my practice, I support folks through fertility journeys, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and hormonal balance. The number one thing that improves outcomes? Sleep! Your body does its deepest healing work, including hormone regulation and cellular repair, while you rest. All the supplements and clean eating in the world can’t make up for a sleep deprived body.
Your body is not a problem to fix. It's a temple to honor!
Through movement… through rest… through consistency… through grace.
Whether you're working on your fitness goals, navigating your menstrual cycle, preparing for pregnancy, or healing postpartum, the same principle applies: sustainable wellness comes from listening to your body, not punishing it.
About Dr. Mama Shani
Dr. Shani Cooper, DACM, L.Ac., is a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine specializing in fertility support, pregnancy care, and hormonal health at Root & Soul Acupuncture in La Mesa, California.
She combines Traditional Chinese Medicine with holistic wellness practices to help folks honor their bodies through every phase of life.
