Exercising is critical for all kinds of health – and it can be done in small doses as well. Sonia Ponzo is a psychologist, behavior change expert, and founder of Outset Wellness, an ADHD-friendly platform that helps people stay active without overthinking it. In the interview below she talks about all those topics and more. This is part of the TouchBase Reach Out series.
Check out Outset Wellness and Sonia’s LinkedIn.
You can watch the interview here, or read the transcript, lightly edited for clarity.
Yohay Elam (YE): Hi everyone, thank you for watching or listening. Welcome to another episode of the Reach Out series, where we explore the intersection of human connection, technology, and mental well-being. I’m Yochai Lam, founder of Touchbase, an app that helps people reconnect and strengthen relations with those they care about. It’s part of a bigger problem of loneliness.
And today I’m excited to speak with Sonia Ponzo, a psychologist, behavior change expert and the founder of Outset Wellness, an ADHD friendly platform that helps people stay active without overthinking it. Sonia brings a decade of experience in digital health and a deep understanding of the mind–body connection to everything she builds.
Sonia, thank you very much for joining me here today.
Sonia Ponzo (SP): Thank you, thank you for having me. Really happy to be here.
YE: Before we dive into Outset Wellness, I’d love to start with a broader question. Could you please tell us a bit about yourself, about your background, professional, personal.
SP: Absolutely. My name is Sonia Ponzo. I have a background in psychology and research mainly. And as Johan said, it’s mainly related to how we put together signals that come from our body and from outside—things like touching your skin, vision—and we put them together to get to a sense that our body belongs to us.
That’s what I focused on during my PhD. After that I moved to industry and worked in a lot of different startups. Mental health mainly, with a little detour in women’s health when I was Director of Science at Flo Health. And then about a year and a half ago, I founded Outset.
We’ll talk a little bit more about Outset in a minute. Personally I’m very into gardening these days. As any good ADHD, I went full hyper fixation on gardening and now my backyard looks like a garden center. There is basically no space for people to sit down and have a meal.
It’s all plants, but they’re giving me a lot of happiness. And the other big passion I have is running and exercising and we’ll talk a little bit more about that in a second.
YE: Running is also a big passion of mine and Outset Wellness was clearly built with a deep understanding of how ADHD brains work. As I said, I’m a runner addicted to running. And I know that for many, especially those with ADHD, staying consistent with movement is an entirely different challenge.
So what are the unique challenges people with ADHD face when it comes to staying active?
SP: The main one is that paralysis feeling of I know what to do but I just can’t bring myself to do it. This is something you hear a lot in ADHD. It’s referred to as task paralysis.
It’s one of the most core experiences and one of the worst because it makes you feel like you’re incapable. When in reality it’s just not having the right systems that support you to actually do the thing you need to do.
Linked to that is decision fatigue. The idea of what should I do when and why. Everyday things like: when should I exercise, because I also have to wash my hair, then I have to take the dog out, then I have to do this. The ADHD brain does that on steroids.
It’s always a lot of this, this, this and that. And what happens is you try to plan things but at the end of the day you end up not doing anything because you’re thinking about the different possibilities.
There’s also time blindness and letting the day get away from you. And the more you plan and fail to do things, the more likely you are to end up in guilt—shame, guilt, why am I not like anybody else who just gets up and goes for a walk?
YE: You get a feeling that everybody else is relaxed and does things on the flow and you have things whirling through the head.
SP: Exactly. It’s the feeling your brain never shuts up. There is never something as simple as go for a walk. It’s always an inner battle with all your voices, all your thoughts, all the possibilities. And that is exhausting.
YE: So what misconceptions do people have about motivation and consistency with ADHD brains?
SP: The biggest one—and the one that does the most harm—is the idea that you just need to try harder. Just be disciplined, just use willpower. But that’s not how it works.
And funny enough, it doesn’t even work for neurotypicals. Plenty of people struggle with motivation. The reality is you need to make things easier and reduce friction. That’s what helps.
And motivation isn’t constant. It changes based on context—your day, your mood, your stress. If your boss yelled at you, exercising feels impossible. If you’ve had a light day, it feels easy. Motivation is context-dependent, and ADHD amplifies that.
YE: I find that too—some days I feel I can do everything, then suddenly I get stuck on nonsense. So, how does Outset Wellness approach this differently from traditional fitness platforms?
SP: Outset syncs with your calendars—Google, Outlook. It reads when you’re busy and when you’re free. It also pulls in weather data to suggest whether you should go outside for a walk or stay indoors.
Then it plans activities for you based on what you said you’d like to do. And it adapts—learning from what you actually do, adjusting to your day, the weather, your behavior.
We also add social support—you can invite friends to body double. We try to match you with people who have similar exercise slots so you feel like you’re not alone.
And finally, every time you complete an activity, you answer a one-minute questionnaire and your plant grows. The plant is your visual representation of progress.
The idea is to give a tangible reward without obsessing over numbers, which can be risky for ADHD brains.
The philosophy is: no pain, no guilt, no streaks. Just small, sustainable habits you enjoy. If you miss a day, it’s fine. There’s always tomorrow.
YE: I like that. Something is better than nothing. And your gardening hobby ended up mirrored in the app.
SP: Actually the app came first. Growing plants in the app inspired me to grow them in real life.
YE: That’s great. You have a strong background in behavioral science. How do you translate complex insights into tools that work for everyday users, especially those with executive dysfunction?
SP: Always start with lowering friction. You can’t overhaul someone’s life. Change comes from tiny steps away from the current situation.
Get out of the “I should” mentality. Enable people to do what feels achievable right now. Even if they don’t build further, it’s still more than before.
And importantly, health is embodied. Our bodies send us signals all the time—fatigue, pain, restlessness—but we ignore them until they escalate into chronic stress or illness. Outset helps people reconnect with those signals and act early.
YE: I learned that the hard way with running injuries. I ignored the signals until I couldn’t move properly anymore.
Can you share a core behavior change principle Outset is built on?
SP: We’re developing a model that ADHD may not just be executive dysfunction, but a mind–body disconnection. Signals from the body—hunger, thirst, tiredness—are scrambled. People feel either too much or nothing.
If signals are unreliable, you make wrong choices—like going for a nap when you actually needed movement. Repeat that enough and you stop trusting yourself. That leads to feeling incapable.
So our core principle is rebuilding the sensing–interpreting–acting loop, starting with exercise.
YE: What tells you Outset is working?
SP: Outcomes. When users tell us they feel better, more focused, or even, “I can’t imagine life without Outset.” That’s huge.
When people share the app unprompted, with friends or online—that shows it resonates.
And resilience: when users drop off but return easily. One user hadn’t exercised for five years, built a routine with Outset, then got Covid. She thought she’d lost everything, but within a week she was back. Easy re-entry is a strong signal.
YE: Outset feels like it was built with neurodivergent users, not just for them. What insights did you gather from users?
SP: Not having to decide when or what resonated most with ADHD users. Neurotypicals say, “I can plan myself” (though they usually don’t). ADHD users found it transformative to offload the mental load.
Another is moving away from all-or-nothing thinking. Fitness doesn’t have to be the gym. It can be dancing in your kitchen, playing with your dog, walking outside. Anything is better than nothing.
And finally, tangible progress. Beta users asked for it—so we created the plant.
YE: How do you make sure the product feels supportive and not overwhelming?
SP: By not punishing people. If they skip, it’s fine. If anything, we ask why—so we can improve.
The plant grows no matter how small the activity is. That builds momentum without shame.
And socially, we’re expanding so people can connect not only with friends but with strangers if they prefer, eventually even forming community workouts.
YE: What have you learned about the role of social connection in sustaining habits, especially for ADHD?
SP: Body doubling is huge. Doing things alongside someone else—even virtually—makes it easier to start. It turns “I should do this” into “We are doing this.” That’s powerful motivation.
YE: Do you see opportunities to expand into more community experiences?
SP: Absolutely. We’d love to host virtual body doubling sessions, group walks, or events where people move together. Even with cameras off, it creates connection.
YE: You’ve worked in psychology and digital health for over a decade. What opportunities excite you most—and what worries you?
SP: On the positive side, wearables. They generate data—sleep, heart rate, activity—that can power preventative interventions.
AI also democratizes knowledge. Before it was WebMD, now it’s ChatGPT. That can empower people, though there’s risk.
What worries me is regulatory barriers. Safety is essential, but there should be faster paths for low-risk interventions. In the UK, waiting lists for ADHD diagnosis can be five to seven years. That’s unacceptable.
YE: Five to seven years—that’s staggering. People can build entire lives in that time.
You touched on AI. What role should it play in well-being?
SP: AI is excellent at pattern recognition. For example, I had gut pain recently. I tracked what I ate and used AI to adjust my diet quickly. What would’ve taken hours took minutes.
AI can make health management faster and more accessible. Combined with contextual tools like Outset, I see great potential for personalized plans.
YE: But how do we keep tech human, especially for vulnerable people?
SP: By optimizing for impact, not clicks. Build products with empathy, safety guardrails, and flexibility. Speak to people as humans, from humans. And never punish them.
YE: That’s been a theme today—don’t punish users. Sonia, if there’s one insight you’d like listeners to take away, what would it be?
SP: That ADHD—and many conditions—are partly about mind–body disconnection. Pay attention to your body’s signals. Check in often. Act before problems escalate. This applies to everyone, not just ADHD.
YE: What’s next for Outset Wellness?
SP: Expanding beyond exercise. Adding tools like deep breathing, sensory grounding, mindfulness practices. Sometimes what people need isn’t a workout, but a five-minute reset.
YE: And Outset was born from your personal journey. Where can people learn more?
SP: You can find me on LinkedIn or at outsetwellness.com. There’s a free seven-day trial—no pressure.
YE: Perfect. Sonia, thank you for sharing your science, perspective, and empathy with us today. And thanks to everyone listening. If you’re looking for support that meets your brain where it is, check out Outset Wellness—and of course, download TouchBase too.
See you next time on Reach Out.
SP: Thank you!