The Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast Episode 56 with Guest, James Anderson
Welcome to the Voices for Voices TV Show and podcast sponsored by Redwood Living
thank you for joining us today I am Justin Alan Hayes founder and
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today's guest joining us in studio is a world traveler National level
competitive bodybuilder nasm certified personal trainer
Marathon finisher mountain climber Iron Man trial athlete and martial artist
and he's also the owner of James Anderson Ambition Personal Training Services where his philosophy is
Nutrition exercise mindset philosophy nutrition exercise
and mindset philosophy so covering those three areas so today please join me in
welcoming to the show Mr. James Anderson hey how are you thanks for having me
you're welcome thanks for coming in you have quite a remarkable story looking at
your website one of the first things that jumps out is that the terms
or the phrase from iron bars to Iron Man and I know that's a loaded question
and it takes a little bit of explaining to do but maybe we can walk
through the audience of where that where that began the maybe
more difficult times of life and then we can work into where you're at today
what's coming up and where people can get a hold of you yeah absolutely so
uh when I was 15, I started drinking alcohol and using
marijuana and I would say probably by 16 I was doing
prescription pills Percocet’s and oxycontin
and things kind of spiraled from there
as a as I would say probably around 17 is when I
knew I had a problem with substance abuse and we actually my parents had me do an
outpatient treatment program and I was clean, and I was introduced to 12-step
meetings pretty young you know 17 and I was
actually going to meetings regularly and like working on a recovery program
while I was still in high school and then when I graduated high school I
decided I'm too young to be an addict I'm just gonna go to party and live my life
and worst-case scenario if things progress, I know where to go and it took
you know like eight years to make it back so
as you know as things progressed you know alcohol and partying
after I turned 18 quickly turned into substances much harder heroin crack
things like that and a lot of criminal charges
associated with drug abuse I was on probation for
over six years in and out because I kept violating with new charges and
in and out of jail all together I did two and a half years incarcerated
a year and a half in prison and you would think that would be it right
you think oh you've probably learned his lessons, but I didn't I got out of prison in 2011 I was
using again you know within a month and then it was actually nine months later
that I actually got clean on October 14th 2013.
so it's quite a quite a journey and then in and out of the Criminal Justice
System and so what would you say was that point or series of points where
you decided okay Now's the Time to start working towards getting clean you had when you were younger but when you
started to get serious about it what was there a point that you can
remember or an experience yeah so
well I'm so I had been using against my will for years I know I did not want
to be living the way that I was living I did not want to be
as essentially a slave to the substances but I couldn't stop and every time I
started I couldn't stop and so actually being in prison for 18 months
that was the longest I'd ever gone without using okay and since I you know
since I started when I was like 15. so what happened was when I got I while I
was in there I you know I was able to get healthy and I had these weird freedoms that I didn't have as a using
addict where I could kind of like make decisions about how I wanted to spend my day and it wasn't all controlled by how
do I get more drugs and so when I got out and I started
using again quickly I was caught back up and you know that Obsession and compulsion of
the day-to-day just really just trying to survive and
I would reflect back on the freedom that I felt that I had when I was incarcerated
and it just like clicked one day it didn't make any sense, but I was you know
I was actually waiting on a dealer to come give me what I was after, and it was you
know probably 80 degrees but I'm cold I got cold sweats in a car and I'm sitting
there like what is going on like how did this happen again and I felt like
for the first time I felt like you know my life was not meant to look the way
that it looked in that moment and that that wasn't what was planned for me at least I know it wasn't what my
plan my parents had planned for me so I actually went to a treatment center or
no I went to a meeting that evening and I basically told him if I don't get
clean I'm going to die, and I asked for help for the first time ever and
people kind of pointed me in the right direction I went to a treatment center and
that really, I just never looked back after that like I wanted
to be clean like I didn't want to have to use anymore, and I just couldn't stop
on my own so the role of family how much did that play into the
the using years did were they aware that you were using what level and you had
that on your mind too of okay they know or maybe they don't know
what role do you think that I'm going to play so my family I mean I had a great
family a great life there was none of the you know typical reasons why you would think
someone would be using I just had terrible self-esteem and
but my parents knew pretty early on, and they were like on top of it I mean
like at home drug tests and they had a breathalyzer machine I mean
above and beyond like they were really trying to help me and
when I graduated and I was 18 and basically, they gave me a choice like get
it together or get out so I left and
really, I never went back so it was very
hard on my parents because they were constantly worried about if I was even
alive basically and you know that took its toll on them over the years, but they were always there for
me my mom was always there for me and
when I wanted to get clean, I actually had to call them and say Hey listen I'm a mess I need your help and I was
25 turning 26 in about two months and so
I was still able to get on my Dad's health insurance and so I asked him if he could add me to
his health insurance so that I could get into this treatment center, and he did and
that was that yeah and that's big I mean getting back on the insurance I remember
car insurance where my parents took at a certain point where like you're affected
or score or rate so you need to get your own policy and then I had
taken 32 colon cough pills overdosed wasn't in the hospital and going
through that because 18 at the at the time that was hard to see how my
parents handled it went to counseling and then was like oh I can handle this like I don't have a problem like I'm
okay I'm not suicidal like all these you hear about all these tips of like
okay somebody may be suicidal if this well those are the obvious signs there's other things that I guess I was
exhibiting and had no idea and so just from the family perspective of you know blowing off
Family get-togethers because it's like okay I want to go to party I need to go get the alcohol because I need a pregame
and I need to do this, and I got this plan, and I can't go to a family reunion or a family function
because I I'm too preoccupied with getting what I wanted to get whether
that was that I would call the substances girls living you name it
it took a took its whole so bodybuilding lifting that
uh obviously in the brighter side of life
did that play any role even a minor role growing up or when you found yourself
incarcerated where you had some extra time when did just maybe that
thought enter your mind and like okay like I wanna be healthy I want to get strong I wanna
have muscles those types of things yeah definitely it was while I was in jail
so nothing else to do okay well I'm stuck here for six months eight months
whatever the situation was I'm going to use this time to my advantage and do the best I can with it
so it started I did an eighth month sentence in 2000
nine and it started there then I got out I started using again
um and then in 2011 when I did the 18-month prison sentence I just like pretty
big and strong when I got out and I and I liked it, and I enjoyed that I could
manipulate my body through my own you know actions and it felt like there was
this sense of control over it that I didn't feel that I had at the time
so it started there then I got out started using again and you know
disintegrated and then when I got clean, I knew that this was
something that had really helped me get through the 18-month prison sentence and
I know that I knew that I felt good when I was doing it and that it was a good confidence builder for me so I
started like immediately like there was a gym in the rehab center that I was hitting before I had even left and so
you know when I got out the people, I hung out with the places I
went the things that I did I couldn't do any of that anymore and so I had a lot of free time to fill and so the fitness
aspect of things it was like that one thing I knew that I could do every single day that would help me and make
me feel better and fill up you know an hour at least and so it became a pretty
big part of my life early on and then it just kind of like progressed over the years so you imagine if it felt good when you
started working out lifting can you maybe contrast that when you
were using the feeling was it that same feel good or was it short-term
effect of like okay once I get what I need the effect the positive effect the
higher whatever that might be is gonna how does that make you feel I guess
versus maybe the lifting and I know they're a little bit different obviously but just yeah so for the exercise you
know now I've been doing it so long like I feel great all the time and I feel pretty good
but sometimes not so great when I'm lifting depending on how hard the workout is but with the using, I felt
terrible all the time and I only felt good when I was high okay and as the
longer I use the shorter that high would last and the quicker the dope sickness and things like that would come into
play so you know I was in this constant state of misery as a using addict where
I felt Weak and Powerless and shame and all these terrible feelings because I you know I knew what I was doing wasn't
good I just couldn't stop doing it and today you know I feel confident I
feel strong I'm healthy I feel capable they're really
I guess kind of exact opposites and this in the sense of like
the general state of being as an addict opposed to being you know the
healthy fit recovering addict that I am today yeah so it lasts a lot the feel-good lasts longer because you're
able to see it you're able to feel a inside versus that shorter aspect a few
minutes an hour or whatever that might be so when did so
obviously shifting gears for her audience you had the iron bars and now
the Iron Man and all the all the different things that can come with that
the different Adventures when did the Adventures of I believe you
hiked to the top but I was like kill him and jar of a journal yeah how did that
come about and those experiences of like okay I want to do that
well I always wanted to travel and see the world because I'm a curious person and
it was just never on the table in my head at the time you know as a as
a using addict like you're just trying to survive it the next hour so you're not really making vacation plans
and so when I got clean you know first it was like okay I gotta get it get my
driver's license back and I gotta get a car and I gotta get a job find a place to live and you have all these like fires to put out pretty immediately
while you're trying to just like get another day put together and essentially learn how to live
all over again because I had relied on substances basically my entire adult
life to that point just to like survive and so I'm like learning how to feel
feelings and deal with paying bills and do I put dryer sheets
in before or after like and so
you know all that's happening and one day I realized like okay I have some
money saved and I was already working for myself so
I was like well why can't I go see the coliseum in Italy right like, so I got
online and I was like oh okay so booked a trip for me and my
girlfriend at the time now wife and that started it, and we got you know
I just I want to see everything, so we travel every six months every three to six months to a different country or
whatever and in the process of all that I started
I was doing a Spartan Race one year and the race itself happened to be on my clean date anniversary okay
so I was like oh well that's kind of cool you know so I went and did the race, and I was like well I should do something like this every year
and so the following year was Mount Kilimanjaro round one, so I went from a
Spartan Race to Mount Kilimanjaro I'm a bit ambitious but
so we did that it didn't work out super great the first time and then I think the following year we
went to Norway and I hiked Trolltunga and Norway and then covet happened, so I did a 50-mile race
the following year eight hours of burpees the year after that and then this past year was
Kilimanjaro again successfully this time and
this coming October is a 100-mile foot race wow so what is what is that like
the hike itself I know there's a ton of planning probably goes into it just to
travel and then the actual once you're there how do you do it what's the process yeah there's a lot that goes
into it leading up to it like you said you have the travel arrangements and all that but the guides that you we used who
I'm now working with are really great at like handling a lot of
that stuff for you so basically you have a packing list of equipment and things that you need to get you show up you
land they pick you up at the airport you don't have to do anything they take care of all of it hotels all that stuff it's
all included and then they just drop you back off when you're done so you're kind of just like
going Through the Motions like as they guide you through the whole
process and I mean basically you land you stay in a
hotel they pick you up in the morning you have breakfast you go get into the park there's like
permits and things that you got to go through and then you start and that first day
I mean if you're not in shape you're gonna know the first day because it's not like if you're
well trained it's not terrible but you feel it you know and then it's
six days out to the summit and then one day down one and a half days down because the
sixth day basically you leave at midnight on the sixth day okay to Summit then you
come back down to another camp and then the last day is you finish hiking out
um but you know it's seven days and a tent on the mountain no showers you're taking you know wet wipe showers and at
the mercy of whatever they're feeding you on the Mountain so you're by the time you're done you're happy you're
very fatigued and you're ready for a hot shower oh wow it's how many feet how
tall is it's 19 341 feet wow yeah congratulations on
doing that I thank you just seeing, and I've seen some documentaries about
hikes and people going through the process and that's I mean awesome the I
know that's kind of like second hand to you that's just what you do you train you're in shape and it's just
another adventure for you so that's I mean gotta feel good so there's does it
feel good when you're at the top when you yeah absolutely it felt great, I mean this this one was extra special
because like I said in 2000 what is it two thousand
2018 was when we first attempted to climb it and I got a hypoxic on the
mountain like five hours from the summit we were on that final push to the summit and the
medical staff was like no we got to turn around and that you know the thought of that
even happening had never even crossed my mind like in my head like I was you know I was gonna crush this like
everything else that I had tried to do and so it was quite humbling and
um I didn't have the right medication you know okay so there's a medication that helps you adapt to the low oxygen
levels it helps your body produce more red blood cells and we didn't have it and so
this time I made sure I had it and everything went much more smoothly so it
felt extra special at the top this time because it you know it was years in the making yeah
so taking Adventures exercise your
philosophy now helping other people you're not just doing things yourself but you're helping through training how
does how does that make you feel and obviously it's something that you like to do, and you want to continue to do
is it fulfilling now looking back and say wow I've come so far
and instead of just worrying about myself which we all do to get
through the days but now you're helping others get to that point or somewhere close
different than where they're at this may walk through that kind of mentoring
process you go through with your train your personal training yeah; I mean I love it so
it's you know a lot of it's the mindset a lot of us the psychology behind it the day-to-day of like
what you eat and you know what exercises to do and stuff like that that part is much easier for
me you know that part's the simple part right it's getting in in clients
heads and you know sometimes it's just getting people to believe in themselves getting them to believe something's
possible they've tried to lose you know this amount of weight for this many years and they're pretty defeated at
that point because they just think that something's wrong with them you know it's just not going to work for them but it's problem
solving and it's getting them to not only believe it's possible but to do the
things that are required to make it possible and so I love it it's
like a you know it's like a Rubik's Cube for me it's every person is a
new problem to solve and in that process, I get to help them not only achieve whatever their
fitness goals may be but like change the way they view the world so that they
approach everything in their lives differently and really become like the greatest versions of themselves or
continue that Pursuit as I continue that Pursuit by myself so
I mean it's kind of cool because I'm constantly trying to improve and grow, and I get to like help all these people
along and kind of like get their fire started as I do it and you know it's
it's amazing watching people transform and
I mean I've had people like completely shift their entire lives and it's not just them that benefits but their
families you know if you're a father your kids benefit because you're going to be there when they're older
because your health is together things like that so yeah, I mean it's a
complete 180 it's like you said it's from the iron bars to the Iron Man you're taking your Ventures
you're exercising and you're not only helping yourself and your family but you're helping others how can people get
in touch with you yeah so, I have my website is JamesAndersonAmbition.com I have my Instagram Anderson underscore Ambition YouTube is
Anderson Ambition and my Facebook business page I believe is James Anderson Ambition and so any of
those ways all the information's on there I have like the whole process of
me you know kind of deciding to do the Iron Man and the
Kilimanjaro climb and then you know doing the Iron Man and then
doing the climb the whole documentary is on my YouTube channel Anderson Ambition and
it's you know it's pretty cool I at the time I just felt like this is this
feels like a moment this should be documented like this is this is kind
of a big deal for me at the time and so it felt like a story worth telling and so I told it yeah and I'm glad that
you're where you're at you're able to tell your story you're able to share it with others and that your
life is more fulfilled on the positive side, so I want to thank you for
been on the podcast and sharing that I know there's going to be many
people in the audience to benefit from what we talked about your
story it's I mean it's nothing short of remarkable kind of where you've been to where you are now and I and I
think it is motivating to hear like okay somebody has been at the bottom and
they're you know there's work that needs to get put in, but you put the work in
maybe they don't hey Kilimanjaro, but they get healthy for their family and they
increase their longevity and all those things are very awesome to be a
part of so thank you for joining today yeah wish you best of luck and
congratulations on all your accomplishments that you've done thank you thank you very much absolutely and
we want to thank you also for joining us today on this episode of the Voices for
Voices TV Show and podcast and a special thank you to Our Guest James Anderson for spending
some time with us today check him out check his website https://jamesandersonAmbition.com/ follow him check out
his documentary on YouTube and until next time I am Justin Alan Hayes and
have a great day and be a voice for you or somebody in need
[Music] [Applause] [Music]
thank you
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