The Ten-Minute Truth | A realistic approach to fitness, motherhood, and self-trust
Everyone thinks transformation requires perfect conditions. The hour-long gym sessions, the meal prep Sundays, the 5AM wake-ups. When Britany Williams sat down with me for the Shaping Freedom podcast, she dismantled the myth that fitness means grinding yourself into exhaustion. Britany is a competitive runner living with rheumatoid arthritis since 13, a fitness trainer who left corporate to build a global platform, and a mother who delivered eight weeks early – yet she's teaching women that success lives in the 10 minutes you have, not the hour you don't.
Her story reads like a masterclass in redefining what "showing up" actually means. The teenage athlete who got diagnosed with a lifelong autoimmune disease and decided obstacles were just puzzles to solve differently. The Under Armour executive who thought she'd climb the corporate ladder forever until she realized helping women globally filled her cup more than any title could. The fitness trainer who took 73 days off from working out and shares that publicly because perfection isn't the point.
Britany's journey revealed three truths about why the path to your strongest self has nothing to do with being unbreakable:
1. Your breath matters more than your burpees
When I asked Britany where a disconnected woman should start, she didn't say "sign up for a gym." She said check in with your breath – even if it's just while you're sitting on the toilet. "Every time you sit down to pee, you're going to be there for 15 seconds. Close your eyes and just inhale for four seconds, hold for two seconds, exhale for four seconds."
She learned this at 13 when rheumatoid arthritis hit multiple joints and she had to inject herself with medication weekly. Her mom told the nurse: "No, I don't need to do it. Teach her – she's 13. She's going to have to be the one who goes off to college and does it herself." That early lesson in checking in with what her body needed, not what it should be doing, became the foundation for everything. Now she tells women: become the person who checks in with herself first. Then maybe you become the woman who stretches for 10 minutes in bed with her bonnet on. Eventually that becomes 20 minutes with dumbbells. But it starts with proving you can be still with yourself.
2. Plan C is where you actually live
Britany had her workshop participants write down their perfect health plan. "Everyone has it. Everyone, it does not take a lot of time to you know exactly what you like your plan to look like." Then she reminded them about reality: holidays, travel, delays. "All right. So write down a plan B. What does your plan B look like? What can you actually truly achieve realistically?" But even that's optimistic. "And that's probably not going to happen either. So now I need you to write your plan C."
She sets her Garmin for 45-minute workouts now. During early postpartum? Twenty minutes. "Once that 20 minutes was done, I gave myself permission to say, that's enough." When work emails started hijacking her morning workouts, she didn't push harder – she moved them to before daycare drop-off and went to bed at 9:30 instead of scrolling TikTok until 11. The motivation comes from not holding herself to impossible standards. "Who cares if Tuesday's workout wasn't good? That doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of being fit in 50 years so that I can dance at my grandkid's wedding."
3. You Don’t Disappear When You Become a Mom
At one year postpartum, Britany was breastfeeding, pumping, trying to be a stay-at-home mom AND work-from-home mom. "I felt like I was trying to run a marathon while also trying to qualify for the Olympics in basketball." Everything that filled her cup – workouts, eating well, board games with her husband, seeing friends – gone. Pure function and serve mode.
Then she woke up and remembered: "You have never once in your life thought you were going to be a stay-at-home mom. You've always wanted to be a working mom. Why are you trying to balance both when balancing both brings you zero joy?" Now when her daughter tries to crawl on her during workouts, she says "No honey, that hour is mom time." No guilt. Her husband takes boys' trips that couldn't come at worse times. She zips her mouth and says "Of course, go" because she knows that fills his cup. "I will never feel guilty for needing an hour to lift a barbell downstairs. I have zero guilt for that."
If you're waiting for perfect conditions to start taking care of yourself, you're playing the wrong game. The long game isn't about intensity – it's about showing up with whatever you have today.
TL;DR:
Start where you are, not where Instagram says you should be. The woman checking in with her breath on the toilet is closer to her goals than the one waiting for Monday to start her perfect routine.
Your obstacles aren't failures – they're data. Thirteen-year-old Britany learned this getting diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Can't do something today? It’s ok, how can you do it differently tomorrow? Tenacity isn't pushing through – it's finding another way.
Taking time for yourself isn't selfish, it's maintenance. You can't pour from an empty cup, and what fills that cup changes. Sometimes it's a workout. Sometimes it's shaving your armpits alone without a toddler trying to join you. Honor what you need today.
Learn More:
Find Britany Williams at @britanywilliams on Instagram where she shares the reality of fitness, motherhood, and being human with actual humor instead of toxic positivity.
Check out her Core and Restore program – recorded in real-time as a postpartum woman because someone needs to tell you that not being able to walk upstairs after a C-section is normal and you're not broken.