Determined. Motivating. Deserving. These are just a few words people have used to describe Anytime Fitness member Jean. Just ask Todd, owner of Anytime Fitness Port St. Lucie, FL. “He works so hard,” says Todd. “He is dedicated beyond belief for someone who is only 22 years old.”
Changing habits
Like most of us, Jean enjoys food. “I had some bad eating habits,” he says. “I would eat anything and everything, from junk food to home-cooked meals. Anything that tastes good, I’m eating it.”
His relationship with food started when he was growing up. “My background is Caribbean,” explained Jean. “So all we do is eat rice and fried foods.” From there, he says it evolved into eating fast food on a regular basis.
Too much of a good thing eventually caught up with him, and it was when he passed his bathroom, catching a glance of himself in the mirror, that it hit him. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I look so overweight,’” remembers Jean. “It was just too much. I got on the home scale and it said 316 pounds and I thought, ‘Okay I gotta do something about this. I let myself go too far.’”
Conveniently, there was an Anytime Fitness in the same shopping center where he worked (humble brag: we have more than 5,000 locations worldwide). During one of his work breaks, he stopped by and rang the doorbell. Todd opened the door, and Jean was off.
Crushing every goal
Jean’s goals when he first joined Anytime Fitness were all about weight loss, and he also knew that if he didn’t change his habits soon, he’d have health issues to deal with. But his primary motivation?
“I wanted to see what my body would be like when I’m ripped,” Jean explains. “That was the main motivation.”
He reports that he’s happy with the results, but adds,“I’m still improving every day,” he continues. “The journey’s not done yet. This is just the beginning.”
Since joining Anytime Fitness, Jean has lost 41 pounds, dropping to 275 pounds. He switches up his workouts to help himself stay engaged, starting with group training and working one-on-one with his Coach, Kristen. But his favorite way to break a sweat is cardio. “I love cardio,” Jean states. “I’m running three miles every day.”
Along with a new fitness routine, his eating habits have shifted, too. He’s eating healthier foods, and he’s found nutritional support through his Coach and his friends.
Sharing the good vibes
You can’t not be inspired by Jean’s dedication and energy, and that’s just what happened at his job. “I inspired my coworkers to join the gym,” he explains. He’s also creating quite a buzz within the gym.
“I didn’t expect to get all this attention when I joined,” he says. “I just joined the gym to see if I could slim down, and now I have people coming up to me like, ‘I remember when you first walked into the gym — and now you just melted away!”
He’s such a motivational force that he’s even considering becoming a trainer himself. We asked him what he says to encourage others to put their health first, and he responded, “Just do it. Don’t think about it. The hard part is [starting], but after that, it’s easy. Now [going to the gym] is second nature to me. It’s like brushing your teeth in the morning.”
Jean says that the temptation to fall back into old eating habits is always present, so he stays vigilant through discipline. “The food is within my grasp,” he says, “But I use the discipline — and the results — as my motivation. I came this far, why crash now?”
His story — and the stories of others like him — show just how important it is to put your own health first. In Jean’s own words, “Tomorrow is never promised. Put 100% of everything, give it your all, and you’ll see results.”
Inspired? We sure are! Find a gym near you to start prioritizing your fitness goals today.
