Today you’ll meet Kelly Close, who has been with Wishroute for eight months and counting. As CEO, I don’t get to interact with our users 1-on-1 as much, so I was really excited to chat with her. I believe in my team, but nevertheless I was still blown away by Kelly’s responses to our questions about her journey with Wishroute and how life-changing (her words!) it’s been for her and her identity.

If you’ve never heard of Wishroute, the simplest explanation is we help people build sustainable, healthy habits via text message support. You can focus on exercise (like Kelly), self-care, or healthy eating habits like reducing sugar or meal prepping, and the Wishroute team is on your side from day 1 to help you prioritize your health and help you stay on track. We keep things simple -- you get a quick tip each morning and check-in each night on an achievable daily goal for accountability. When you follow through with your daily goals, we’ll help you celebrate and share rewards, and when you hit roadblocks, we’ll be there for you with encouragement and judgment-free support to keep you motivated!‍

If you’d like to learn more on how Wishroute works, check out our Healthy Eating, Exercise, and Self-Care programs. 

For some, Wishroute helps them get on track with healthy habits and then after three to four months, they feel comfortable sustaining them solo. Others stick with us longer because they love how our judgment-free accountability helps them feel motivated to keep their health a priority through the ups and downs of daily life.

Considering joining Wishroute yourself? Take a look at Kelly’s experience and ask yourself if you’d benefit from the same motivational boost to hit your exercise goals 💪 ‍

How would you describe Wishroute to a friend?‍

Kelly: "Wishroute is a wonderful service where I have the most amazing partner helping me figure out my strategy around exercise. Wishroute’s focused on helping me improve what I want to improve, and I said my area was exercise this year. It’s helped me focus and get results. It’s motivating, and they’ve personalized my experience, which has made all the difference. "

Where were you at with your health and wellness journey prior to starting Wishroute?‍

Kelly: "I was doing well with my health, I have diabetes and I work really hard to maintain good blood sugar levels, but I had a lot to work on with wellness, especially with my sleep and daily step goals. I was only hitting about one third of my step goal each day."‍

How would you describe where you're at now?‍

Kelly: "I’ve made so much progress, and I love exercising now! I used to think I wasn’t good at exercise so I didn’t want to do it and didn’t think of it as part of my identity, but it’s amazing how helpful it is to have someone smart and encouraging keeping me accountable. Wishroute asks me great questions.They’re relentless but I’m relentless too – just in different ways, and they work with me in really complementary ways! Although officially I value exercise, I wasn’t behaving in a way that showed that. I wasn’t taking the time to make a choice to prioritize exercise and they helped me change that over time – now I’m doing that. They’ve trained me to be more productive and think about exercise and wellness more productively. And, it’s been in such an encouraging way!"‍

What new habits or positive changes have you seen in yourself since starting Wishroute? ‍

Kelly: "Oh my gosh, I mean I’m in totally different shape. My heart rate is lower -- it’s gone from the 70s to the 60s – my average daily steps have nearly tripled from 4000-ish to over 10,000, I have a better attitude about exercise and walking now, and I try to get other people to do it too. They’ve helped me figure out how to be productive with my work while I walk on the treadmill. I’m hitting 100,000 steps a week, and I can see the difference in my blood sugars and my overall health. For the first five months of the year I was in the 3,500 to 4,500 range, so that’s been a lot to get past. I have 842,000 more steps to do the rest of this year and I’ll make my 10,000 average steps per day goal!"

What would you say to a new Wishrouter who may be wary about opening up to us via text?‍

Kelly: "Texting is great. It’s awesome. For me, personally, it’s the most convenient thing. Others may of course prefer email. I don’t have to text them back if I don’t want to. I like texting them back though, especially compared to something like email, and if I want them to text me less, I just ask. I also get random surprises from them. I spend so much of my time taking care of other people and other work, and I love that, but having an organization take time to show me they believe in my health and in me – how beautiful and I feel so lucky!"‍

I spend so much of my time taking care of other people and other work, and I love that, but having an organization take time to show me they believe in my health and in me – how beautiful and I feel so lucky!

‍What would you say is the biggest value you get out of your Wishroute membership?‍

Kelly: "Oh, so much! So, three things: First, I get to be in community with incredibly smart people. Just being in community and being in conversation about the exercise I want to be doing is terrific. Second, I feel encouraged every day and I can see the results on Apple Health every day. Third, if I don’t have a good day, I have a sympathetic, action-oriented ear. I don’t always want to share my failings with my family and effectively waste their time with attitudes I don’t want to model, but I can always share with Wishroute if I want to and they give me a boost and encourage me. Last, it’s surprisingly customizable. We have changed my goals multiple times as we figured out what I can take on – amazing service. Signing up for Wishroute is one of the very best things I’ve ever done – go for it!"‍