Overcoming anorexia and bulimia
James Roffey, 34, has turned his life around after battling an eating disorder, which he went through for 10 years, from the age 17 to 27.
He was a professional football player but was dropped from his team. This event made him "not feeling good enough" and he started "punishing" himself by restricting his food.
Simultaneously, he was also struggling with his A-Levels and looking after his late grandma, who was battling bowel cancer. "All three events just came all together I felt not good enough, like I had nothing," James said, as quoted by YorkshireLive.
'Punishing myself for not being good enough'
James said, "I was helpless and hopeless. I never had issues with food before, I had an unbelievably privileged childhood, but I just stopped eating and I think I was punishing myself for not being good enough. When I had lost a little weight, and people said ‘oh you’re looking', and they were giving me positive reinforcement and giving me attention.”
Dropping to as low as 31 kg
“No matter how little I was eating and running I couldn’t lose anymore weight," he added. James suffered from anorexia for a year and bulimia for nine years. At the lowest point, James, who is around 6ft 4ins tall, weighed just over 31 kg.
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‘I would throw up 40 times a day’
"I was passing out a home, when I went to the bathroom at night I would collapse and wake up in hospital. I would throw up 40 times a day. My potassium levels were so low that if I had a cardiac arrest I would not have been able to be resuscitated," he shared his miserable condition.
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Gymming and gaining weight
Over time, things started looking better after he got a job, went on a trip and fell in love. However, his break up triggered him to look more "like a man."
James then "lived and breathed the gym" and quit his job. He focused entirely on his mental and physical wellbeing. After 18 months, he gained over 35 kg and reached his "normal healthy weight."
Becoming a personal trainer
James became a qualified personal trainer in 2018.
"I want to empower people now. I don't know of any personal trainers who have had eating disorders, or if they have, aren't vocal about it. I have a niche brand and I want people to feel comforted that there are people out there, like me, who people who have been eating disorders, or had mental health issues, can relate to,” he added.