It started with my back.
In late 2024 I herniated a disc in my lower back, and spent the better part of a year in more pain than I knew existed. I couldn’t sleep for more than an hour at a time. Some days I could barely walk. I couldn’t chase my kids around any more, which was the part that really got to me. The stretches helped for an hour, and then the pain crept back.
By the end of 2025 I was desperate enough to try something odd. I pieced together seventeen gentle, tai chi-inspired movements, a minute each, and tested them in front of my in-laws’ full-length mirror over the holidays. It felt awkward. Then it felt good. Within a week the pain had eased, and within a month it was gone. So I kept doing them, twenty minutes every morning, and I’ve done them every day since.
The habit didn’t stick because I was afraid to break it. It stuck because I felt better.
Here’s the thing, though. Yes, that’s a streak, and no, the streak isn’t what kept me going. Nobody shows up for hundreds of mornings because they’re scared of a number resetting. I showed up because I could get out of bed without feeling like the tin man, because my mood was brighter, because I could feel it working. The feeling better was the whole engine.
I wanted a simple way to keep track of it: the days I moved, and how I felt afterwards. Every app I tried had it exactly backwards. They were built around the failure. Flames, chains, “don’t break it.” Miss a day because your kid is sick or life simply gets in the way, and the whole thing goes up in smoke and takes your motivation with it. Nothing did what I was looking for. So I built it.
Meadow is the app I wanted. Something that notices the days you show up and says nothing at all about the days you don’t. One wildflower for every day you move. A day count that only ever goes up. And quiet proof, from your own days, that moving helps you feel better, because in my experience that is the only thing that actually keeps you going.
— Spencer
