Despite the fact it was painful for him, James said he never
really struggled with motivation or gave up working out because
of how much he hated himself.
“It’s so weird, because I’d really just gotten to the point where
I was done with everything, and I just wanted to change, so
staying dedicated wasn’t actually all that hard at all,” he ex-
plained, “but that’s not the point I recommend people get to be-
fore they try to, because it was an all-or-nothing kind of change
that had to happen.”
James instead suggests that anyone who is thinking about it
to should just do it.
“It’s not worthwhile to wait that long,” he explained. “The lon-
ger you put it off, the more strenuous it gets to rebound.”
James knows that from personal experience. At some point in
his journey to a healthier lifestyle, James stopped going to the
gym for about five months because of a mild sickness. He then
reached a weight of about 400 pounds, and he struggled with de-
pression because he felt like he wasn’t reaching his goals quickly
enough.
“So I climbed back from 400 up to like 440, and then in Febru-
ary of 2018, I completely reconsolidated my effort, just refocused
everything, and that’s whenever I started seeing the best, the
most, results is when I was in here almost every day.”
That doesn’t mean he never had days where he didn’t feel like
going to the gym, though.
“I often feel that way, but it’s because I know that during the
workout itself, it’s going to be stressful … it’s going to be push-
ing. I’m going to be sore. But I also know that at the end of it, I’ll
feel better,” he said.
In fact, whenever he started feeling bad, he would then go to
the gym for about an hour to feel better, he said.
“If you do have depression, it can help,” he explained. “It’s not
gonna be an automatic fix because obviously, you have to do
your own mental work on that. The rush of endorphins
from working out help boost the serotonin.”
There are also small things that remind him of
the progress he’s made over the years.
“Honestly the biggest changing factors were, for the longest
time, I couldn’t see the bones in my own hand, … but I remem-
ber whenever I first noticed my bones, people were like, ‘Are you
OK?’”
His response was, “I’m just enjoying this. I’ve never seen these
before, didn’t know they were actually in there.”
After he lost more weight, James was able to feel his pulse in
his neck, which he couldn’t do when he was 520 pounds, and
now, he doesn’t go to the gym entirely because of his self-hate,
but instead, mostly to continue to improve and to help others.
Helping Others
Somewhere along the way of working out and improving him-
self, James also started using Instagram to share his story with
others.
“I just want to hopefully inspire literally anybody to just give
Brett James stretches
before working out at
Anytime Fitness.
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