Hitting Reset

After Amanda Lucci, WH deputy editor of content strategy, missed a fitness goal she’d been working toward for almost a year, she didn’t lament what she’d lost. Instead, she set a new target with the intention of truly nourishing her mind and body.

When I unwrapped my new Apple Watch two Christmases ago, I almost started a workout right there in my living room. Though I had already been crushing the occasional at-home workout, having all this health-related data at my fingertips made me want to go harder—as if I wanted to impress my new tech. So I set a goal to close my rings (Apple Watch slang for hitting markers for calorie burn, exercise, and standing) every day for a year.

For the next 341 days, I achieved it. Adding more movement into my life should have been a good thing—maybe, in theory, it was—but mentally, it was a burden. I’d force myself to do HIIT workouts just to burn calories. I took frozen-toed strolls in an ice storm to close a ring. Something that started as a fun fitness challenge was making me resent the time I took to move every day. But it wasn’t until day 342, the day I accidentally broke my streak, that I realized how much I’d been missing out on.