Episode 14 - Using Exercise To Fight Depression

Fitness can have more perks than simply weight loss, it can also be used strategically to reduce stress, manage anxiety and even fight depression. In this podcast, Brian Keiper joins me to chat about how he used exercise and nutrition to fight depression, come off his medication and shed 100+lbs.

I have an advertisement relationship with the ads in this post. Check out my disclaimer here

Disclaimer: A few fun facts first: in this podcast episode, we are sharing a story. Neither Brian nor I am doctors or medical professionals.

Brian Introduction (0:51)
Brians Initial Workouts (6:38)
Brian’s Current Workout Routine For Weight Loss (8:05)
Going Off Antidepressants (14:54)
Using Nutrition & Exercise To Fight Depression (19:46)
Fitness Equipment For All Goals (23:42)
Using Fitness To Stay Sane (25:00)
Using Nutrition To Fight Depression (26:30)
Going Off Antidepressants Trial Two (30:50)
A Crucial Support System (35:23)
Wrap Up (47:30
Mentioned in the podcast

Using Exercise To Fight Depression

Welcome to the fit as a mama bear podcast. I'm Shelby and certified strength coach, nutrition coach mama to two and all-around health nut. This show is about a little bit of everything healthy, fit and natural related. So, if you're striving smash goals, eat better, feel better and enjoy the occasional mom rant. This is the place for you. You're listening in to episode 14 today where I'm chatting with Brian Kyper, father, husband, teacher and a 100-pound weight loss success story.

Hey everyone, I hope you are all having kick butt weeks and enjoying the slow season change. I personally am not because I hibernate the second it goes below 10 degrees.

I'm pretty excited to introduce my guest today because his story is insanely motivational, and it just makes you want to work out.

So, on the podcast, today is Brian Kyper. Brian, am I saying your last name right?

You sure are.

Brian Introduction (0:51)/a>

Oh, it's a win. Excellent.

Brian is a dad to three kiddos and I'm not even sure how he survived because I can barely handle two. He’s also an elementary music school teacher and one hell of a success story.

So in just over a year, Brian has lost 100 pounds, which is quite a freaking achievement. Brian, how do you feel when you hear that number?

Well, first of all, thanks for having me on today. I'm so glad to be here.

Happy to have you.

Frankly, I, it's hard to believe it's even real. When I started losing weight, I had no idea that I even had that much to lose, frankly, that it's a big number.

Like that's a huge thing.

No kidding. I had absolutely no clue. My original goal weight was about 10 pounds heavier than I am now.

That's amazing. Congratulations.

We’re obviously going get into how exactly that weight loss happened and why his weight loss journey is insanely motivational.

But, that's not actually the reason I brought him onto the podcast.

Instead, I wanted to chat a little bit more about the mental aspect of weight loss, which is one that doesn't always come up in conversation. Specifically, the battle to fight depression and how it can be overcome by using the exercise.

Disclaimer: A few fun facts first: in this podcast episode, we are sharing a story. Neither Brian nor I am doctors or medical professionals.

The lesson of this story isn't to throw your medication out the window and begin a crazy exercise routine. Its purpose is to give you some food for thought, some motivation and some hope.

As always before you begin an exercise program, and especially before you stop taking a medication, please have a chat with your dog and get the all-clear work with your doctors to find the best solution to fight depression, for you.

Okay. So now that we have a fun disclaimer going so that no one just completely abandons all medication; Brian, why don't you start off telling me about the weight loss aspect.

Was there a big moment? What pushed you to the edge of actually committing to this journey to fight depression? Because that's a huge thing.

If there was a moment it wasn't a lightning bolt. It’s hard to describe. I'll do my best.

I was at a 50th-anniversary gathering of my high school choir and it was people from all those 50 years and there were several people there from my year as well. When I noticed this, I noticed we all seem to be kind of the same.

You know, the overweight ones were all still overweight, including myself. The thin ones and the popular ones and everyone just kind of seemed in the same place, especially me.

And I felt stuck. Like I was just, letting life happen to me rather than actually taking life on with any kind of vigor or purpose.

So you were overweight in high school then also?

I was. I was overweight pretty much my whole life. I've sometimes described myself as a chubby kid and then a teenager and then overweight and obese adult.

So, that was kind of the big moment though, you realized you were stuck.

Yeah. I was not the best version of myself that I could be.

And you already had kids at this point?

I did. This one was about a year ago. My children are now 13, 11 and nine.

And so what was the first thing you did? Where did you go from there? Did you just go to a gym the next day?

Not exactly. I started with the diet aspect. I started tracking my calories. That was the first thing I did because I had done it before.

And I'm really curious. What were you coming in at? Calorie-wise I love hearing calorie numbers.

I honestly don't know what my pre tracking calories were. I don't know. Because the day I started tracking I said: I'm going to keep myself to 2000 calories.

I may have actually gotten lower than that now that I think of it. I really had no idea what I was doing correctly.

So you just jumped into finding a number and aiming for that.

I did. I just put a cap on it and didn't have any idea about macros.

Oh, I love it. I love that you just started though because that's a huge hurdle in itself. Everyone is scared to start because they think they have to know so much about nutrition when really you just need to start and pay attention and kind of tweak from there.

You can lose weight. If your plan is to just lose weight. If you just cut your calories back by no matter what you eat, you will lose weight at first at least.

It’s true. When you have a lot of weight to lose, it's not really about nitpicking types of things. It's just getting a lower calorie count and getting the initial weight loss.

Yeah, that's exactly right. And that was a motivation factor, just to lose the weight at first.

Brians Initial Workouts To Fight Depression (6:38)

And so when did you start working out?

I started working out within a couple of weeks. I was back to things I had been familiar with and comfortable with. Things like the elliptical, the bike.

More cardio-based then?

Very cardio-based at the time because I was frankly afraid of the weights.

Most people are, it's really intimidating though if you've never been in that setting and all that. Everyone goes to the weights and they do some bicep curls and they're like, well, okay.

Yeah, it is scary and free weights especially I think are really scary. Barbells and free weights are frightening at first.

I love them now, but I still remember walking into the gym. This is when I still went to a gym and I didn't have my home set up. I wasn't a trainer and I wanted it to be. You're trying to be cool at the gym to be perfectly honest like you're trying to not look like an idiot.

I went to sit down on the weight bench to do a bench press and I missed the weight bench and fell on my ass in the middle of the gym. And I don't think I've rebounded up from a fall so fast in my life. I was like, that just didn't happen. Didn't happen. Don't need to acknowledge it. Not doing this.

Haha. It's all good.

It was terrible. So you’re more into working out now. What is your current workout schedule look like?

Brian’s Current Workout Routine To Fight Depression (8:05)

Okay, so I get up early around four 15.

Oh my God. You're up at the same time as me. That's depressing.

Oh, of course. I'm about three hours later relative to our time zones. I get to the gym right when it opens at 5:00 AM to weight lifting five days a week for about an hour each day.

I do a five day split: chest, then back, shoulders, legs, and then a chest, upper body day on Friday. And I do abs three days a week, cardio for 20 to 30 minutes, four days a week, and then rest.

Wow. That's impressive. Your volume beats mine.

Well, I found that what I needed the consistency, I needed the routine.

I needed the routine every weekday morning. For a while, I was so afraid that I would lose the habit that I did things on the weekends too.

They're pretty active recovery days. I walk a lot too.

Well, you have kids.

Yeah, I have kids. Exactly. I'm busy on the weekends, but I'm not lifting weights.

I'm the same way. I do take two full rest days on the weekends. But I'm, I'm a routine-oriented person too. I need to thrive on “this is just what I do on these days period”. I just, that's how I work.

When I was building the habit, it was so vital to me to go every day because I was afraid that if I missed a day it would be to reason to miss another day.

Then it's just an easy excuse. Slope. Right.? I already missed yesterday, so this week's kind of a write-off and it just goes downhill.

I love it. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about where your head was a year ago and what depression felt like for you and kind of your journey through antidepressants.

What Depression Looked Like (10:20)

So I had been on antidepressants for about 10 years, give or take. I started taking them when I was in a job that I just hated. I was burnt out, stuck. I was 270 pounds and was feeling like I just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep.

That's a common expression with depression.

It is. And then people who experience depression will often feel like they just don't want to do anything let alone fight depression. I struggled to play with my kids. I mean my son would want to play a video game and I would struggle to get up and even do something like that.

Really. Wow.

This is a little bit dark.

Thank you for sharing it.

This, this was where my head was at, at its worst.

I would drive to work hoping that I would get in a car accident or something so that I would not have to deal with anything. Exactly. I was never exactly suicidal. I didn't want to kill myself, but I certainly entertained the ideas of hurting myself.

So, I've had a lot of friends commit suicide, which is terrible and a story for another day. But the ones that haven't succeeded, when we've talked to them about it they’ll tell you that it started out years ago. They didn't want to actively commit suicide, but it was okay if it was passive. So that's the same thing with the car accident.

You're not striving for it, that's not your goal, but if it happened, it'd be easier. That’s the way that they kind of explained it to me. So I understand that thought.

That's a good way of putting it. I hadn't heard that, but I guess it is passive.

Yeah. You just, you're not actively seeking it.

Anyways, then I started taking the pills, and they helped. They lifted the fog a bit. I felt okay, not great. Not necessarily even normal, but okay.

Did it take a lot of tweaking with your doses to kind of get to the okay spot?

A little bit. I was taking two a for a while and that seemed to compliment each other and sort of balance the best out of any of them.

So it took a little bit of fiddling around with that. It's weird when you first start taking them because you actually start to feel worse at first as your body rejects them at first. That’s basically what happens. And then it sort of balances out.

So at this point you weren't doing anything nutritionally to fight depression or exercising. We, you had just started with the antidepressants, right?

That's exactly right. I basically had no desire to get fit at all and had resigned myself that I had always been fat. I was always going to be fat and was always going to be unhealthy and out of shape.

So then you were still on the antidepressants when you went to this reunion. Had you been thinking about anything more up until that point?

I think I was tired of being on medicine. I was tired of the way it made me feel because it felt like it wasn't doing anything anymore.

Going Off Antidepressants The First Time (14:54)

Now, the previous summer I had actually tried going off the medicine.

Just cold Turkey?

Just for the summer. I think we might've done sort of an every other day thing.

Kind of weaned it down.

And you know, during the summer, I live in Western Washington. We're well known for our cloudy weather and rain. It's fairly common to have a seasonal affective disorder around here.

So I thought; Hey, I'll give it a try.

During July and August, I went off the medication for a while. After I left that job, just to backtrack just a tiny bit, actually still on the antidepressants, I actually did lose about 60 pounds.

Whoa.

Yeah, all cardio

I really only was losing weight because I had time to go to the gym.

But that's still impressive though. Because with antidepressants and a lot of those medications, they're storage medications. You don't typically lose weight with them. So that's still way to go.

Then I started a substitute teaching job and it just became too easy to not go to the gym anymore. And then eventually the healthy eating went by the wayside. I gained everything back.

Which is easy to do on antidepressants.

The doctor warned me about that and he was already a little bit concerned because I was already overweight.

So he said, “you're really going to have to watch yourself”.

So I went off during the summer which worked. That was 2017. But then I got back to the school year and it was just a situation where it's hectic and busy and all of a sudden real life happens again.

Right.

And I just couldn't cope with the stress of the year. And everything that was going on. I had some pretty serious I could hurt myself kinds of situations.

So you went back on the medication, which just pointing out to listeners is the smart choice. Again, we are not doctors. This is for motivational purposes. Please seek a doctor or continue with your medication.

I very much agree with that. With that situation, I absolutely needed the medication. Because if I was going to be a danger to myself or to anyone else there are measures you need to take.

Well, and I think a lot of the times it's overlooked that you're not weak if you use antidepressants and you are not weak if you can't pull through and fight depression.

It's not about pulling through. There's a chemical brain imbalance and a lot to do mentally. It's not just something that you overcome because you want to.

That's exactly right.

It just doesn't work that way. My biggest goal is that I hope no one thinks that they are weak or hopeless just by using the medication. Medication is there as a tool and it's a great one when it's needed.

Absolutely. I wholeheartedly agree with that.

And like you've said very well at the beginning, this is my story and my situation. And I think that there are ways, even with a good exercise routine that you would still need to have some medication for certain people.

I think so too.

I love exercise and I love nutrition, but it doesn't make it a cure all in any sense of the matter.

But talk to me about you. So you went back on antidepressants?

Using Nutrition & Exercise To Fight Depression (19:46)

I went through my entire school year and then I decided; okay, it's summer again. Let's give it another trial.

This was the summer of 2018. It was June 11th. I decided that I was going to start to fight depression and start losing weight and started changing my eating habits.

I think I was probably still taking the medication for a couple more weeks until the weather started getting really nice again. But had also started a workout routine.

And how did you feel once you started eating better?

Well, when I started eating better, I think just the fact that I was shedding weight was very motivating. And then you're like, okay, I want to take this to the next level, so I'm going to start really getting into a workout routine.

I was doing that for about a month on my own. And then I got connected with someone through social media, who very kindly started sending me workout circuits, essentially HIIT circuits. High-intensity interval training circuits.

They were very challenging to me at the time.

I don't doubt that! They're challenging to begin with, but when you're carrying extra weight there, it's a lot of impact too.

Exactly. I was probably still 250 pounds. I started doing those. They were core and leg exercises mostly. Just what she knew and was familiar with.

But it got you moving.

It got me moving. She really challenged me and I really didn't think I could do a lot of those exercises.

But when you really give it your best try you find you can kind of sort of do it. That is a big motivation.

It is.

Now, how so? Weight loss is never linear. The scale does not always go down. How did you deal with the times that it fluctuated?

Honestly, it kept on it on the downward for a long time which helped fight depression. It's actually fairly recently that I've hit the real plateau.

I got stuck when I was a little over 200, just about to enter Wonderland, the 100s. I was just kinda stuck there for a while and at the time I was still in communication with this person and she was really encouraging.

Eventually, we broke through that plateau. By that time I was sort of creating my own circuits and doing my own thing. And I was starting to get into weight training too.

So you were in the gym setting doing these?

I was

Good on you!

This was not easy at first because I went to the gym and I had people talking to me and saying, you don't want to try doing this or that. Which was just really embarrassing to me. I had a hard time with that.

Fitness Equipment For All Goals (23:42)

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So I did them at home for a while, but then eventually I was like; Oh, come on. They have the equipment I need. Especially when she started giving me things to do with the Bosu ball.

And then when you get into lifting you might as well go.

And also battle ropes, which was great. I liked doing that a lot.

Using Fitness To Stay Sane (25:00)

Talk to me about battle ropes because one of the benefits of exercise, especially for me is it's a great way to get out a lot of aggression and pent up everything and basically keep you sane.

Yeah. Battle ropes are definitely one way to do that. I find really lifting heavy weight is really the way that I could channel the aggression.

That's me too. I tried kickboxing for a little bit and it's fun. Some of my friends use it to fight depression. It's just not my thing, but picking up a really, really heavy bar, being able to pick it up feels amazing.

Yeah, I know. Pressing, squatting, deadlifting, things like that are the best relief. I grunt when I lift and people would be like; “Oh, there it goes again”.

It just means you're serious. I curse, I'm the cursor.

Oh, dude.

And that's terrible. Because I work out with my girls too. So I always end up saying something like fudge, it's horrible.

But my two-year-old, if she stubbed her toe, will say “fidget” and I'm like, Oh God,

It could be a lot worse.

Right. I try really hard there. They mimic a lot. Apparently

They do.

Using Nutrition To Fight Depression (26:30)

Now with nutrition, how were you using nutrition to fight depression? Obviously you scaled back on calories, but did you change the types of foods you were eating?

Well, the fact is if you eat more nutritious food, you can just eat more food.

Yeah. You don't say.

Nutritious food has fewer calories. So I could eat all the things. I've never said to myself, you absolutely can never have this or that.

Good.

I think that that can be dangerous because then you just want it more.

Yeah. It's a dumb way to do it. It just doesn't work. And at some point in time, you're going to want to eat the damn cake.

Exactly. So, I mean, I do work in a weekly, you could call it a cheat meal, but you know, I'll have pizza or I'll have some ice cream that something that I don't want to have during the week.

But you know, if I want to have a piece of chocolate or something like that, even during my regular weekly routine, as long as I work it into my calories it’s fine. I use macros as well.

Okay. You learned about them.

I track my macros, especially as a weightlifter it's important to especially it a certain amount of protein and fats, you know, just to make sure everything's working the way it should.

But the truth is, and I struggle with this too because I'm very goal-oriented, but in recent years I've had to remind myself that there is such thing as life.

And so it's okay to have the ice cream, pizza, chocolate, whatever you want on a Tuesday every so often and not a Friday.

Yeah, that's true.

So you kind of have to think that way too. Because I find when you get overly restrictive, it's not a beneficial situation either.

I agree. I’ve learned early on because I've had the up and down diet for various times in my life, but the ones that were most successful were not the diet that said you can't have this or that. But the ones that's like, well, you said you can have what you want, you just need to moderate it.

Yeah. You can have what you want, just don't be a dumb ass. Basically how the diet works.

Exactly. And those were the ones that were always most successful for me.

They normally are mainly because they just keep you saying like over-restrictive isn't sane.

I try not to come down on people's diets at all. It's like; “Hey, if you want to do it that way, I'm, I'm happy to allow you to do that. I'm not going to stop you. I'm not going to criticize you,” but at the same time, don't criticize me for the good food that I eat.

That's how I feel! I have no problem if you want to eat, even the cabbage soup diet, knock yourself out. But I am not going to do that.

And I hope it makes you happy though because I don't think that you should be on any kind of food diet or just way of eating that you truly despise. I just don't think it's beneficial mentally or physically.

I disagree with that more or less. If you love keto or you love carnivore or anything rock it.

This is cliche, but the best diet is the one that you can stick to.

It’s true. And you'll stick to one that you semi I enjoy.

And it's going to look different for absolutely anyone. Okay. We still got off topic there, but I did want to ask you; so that summer you started weightlifting and you learned a little bit more about nutrition.

You were watching your nutrition and you went off your antidepressants. Now how were your energy levels?

Going Off Antidepressants Trial Two (30:50)

Oh, my energy levels were very high. When I first started, I really went all out. I was way too low on my calories, especially for weight lifting. I was probably doing 1700 calories a day.

Whoa.

For a guy, six one trying to build muscle, that's not going to be very helpful.

No, you'll burn out.

Exactly. And I started to realize that I wasn't pushing as much weight. I didn't really have a method or a program that I was following. I had an app that sort of created workouts for me.

Happy random workouts.

But I didn't understand them. I didn't know why they were doing them. Why the programming was happening the way it was.

I was getting very confused and really frustrated which doesn't help fight depression. I didn't really know how much I should be eating. My brother-in-law is a natural weightlifter and I was even afraid to ask him.

You never want to ask the family though. You never want to take advice from friends or family that way.

Yeah and well the thing is now that I kind of know everything I need to know for that, I think he's on the right track. I think he's doing pretty much what I would be doing at the time.

I definitely needed to be eating more than I was.

Yeah, that was pretty low.

If you're exercising a lot, that's just not enough.

That's a hard lesson to learn though for anyone, let alone someone coming from an extreme weight loss perspective.

If you shift your goals towards performance, weight loss typically comes because you change your body shape. But with performance you have to actually fuel, you can not be in a chronic calorie deficit. It just doesn't work.

And from anyone with a major weight loss goal, I think that's harder than any other hurdle that they have to jump over is getting that through someone's head.

I would agree. And so I was afraid to up my calories.

Because you'll think you think you're going to gain it all back.

And for someone like me who was overweight my whole life that was a real fear. I found some information online eventually.

I found a great book that I, that I have got a lot of that has been indispensable. That sort of laid out the scientific basis behind weight loss and muscle gain, fat loss and muscle gain.

It’s called a Bigger Leaner, Stronger by Mike Matthews. I highly recommend it. He also has a version for women called thinner, leaner, stronger.

It’s always nice to have something to guide you because for a lot of people just, it's confusing.

I'm actually reading it again.

Oh, I love books like that.

Yeah, it's, he just came out with a third edition. I cannot speak highly of it enough.

So my energy levels were fluctuating a little bit until I got that calorie deficit in the right place. Because I am still just finishing up my cut. I'm kind of at maintenance levels now.

I'm enjoying the little extra energy that I've had over the past couple of weeks. It's been really good. So just finding that sweet spot.

A Crucial Support System (35:23)

And now tell me about your family during this entire transformation. Because weight loss can be tricky, it can be challenging for family members too when someone is striving towards a goal- especially to fight depression.

But I can only imagine it would be doubly challenging in terms of coming off your medication.

Yeah, I think so. Looking back on the last summer, there was a little bit of withdrawal that occurred. I would have some mood swings and things like that. But overall I found that with the exercise routine, with that endorphin rush it was better and easier to fight depression.

The workout high, it's a real thing.

It's a very much a real thing. You've got all those circuits firing new ways. Your brain is literally being rewired through exercise.

That’s a whole fascinating subject on its own. But just rest assured that's how it literally works. Your brain rewires, how your reward centers in your brain and say “Oh, exercise is good. It makes me feel good”.

Those endorphins and things will make you feel really, really good after you're done with your workout.

Which brings me to one question I forgot to ask.

Obviously being overweight, you didn’t enjoy exercise for awhile. When did it shift so that you now look forward to your workouts instead of them being something that you have to do?

Wow.

Do you remember that shift?

Well, it almost became, it almost became a habit first. You know where I just said I'm going every day, I'm going to go, so I might as well.

Okay.

I think when, when you see the success when you see success and you feel that workout high, you just find a switch, it's flipped and you do really enjoy it and that helps fight depression. That's been my experience.

Certainly, I was never particularly active as a kid or as an adult.

I actually wasn't either. And everyone seems to think that clearly. I played sports when I was younger and was very active, but I was not. I was really antisocial and a crazy introvert, a crazy smoker until I was like 25 so.

Wow. That's interesting.

Yeah. I know everyone just assumes because of how fit I am and how much I love it. That I, I grew up really fit, but no.

I certainly didn't either. And you know, my brother was into that, my dad weight lifted in his youth and all those sorts of things.

My parents are actually more active now that they're retired than they were when they were kids. So it's in my family, I just never personally liked sports. I actually even find now that I hate exercise classes. I just don't enjoy them at all.

Me either. And I still don't enjoy sports. I'm not overly coordinated that way.

So it just brings on a whole new level of anxiety because everyone thinks that I'm going to be really good at them and I'm not.

That's kind of the way I feel. I really like weightlifting because it's very much a solo endeavor.

I love that I can put on my headphones and I can focus on what my body is doing and I can just do that on my own.

My wife, on the other hand, loves her exercise class, you know? She's actually going to be adding to the number of times she does it during the week.

Good for her. If you love it, rock it

Exactly. And that's what it comes down to. If the diet is the best, just have one you can stick to, the best exercise program is the one you love.

Yup. Exactly. Now, would you say she was a really big support while you were going through all these changes because you've made quite a few?

Yeah, she was. She actually was on exactly the same medication. And she just went to her doctor and said, you know, I don't feel any better on this medication than off it and her doctor actually advised her to stop taking it.

Really?

On the other hand, I went through my summer process and what it came down to, it was a matter of the exercise program

I found that when I got back until school this time, I didn't need it. I still had another outlet. Yeah. I still had rough days, but I could manage it.

I could manage it without feeling like I was going to curl up in a ball. That I’d be stuck. I love it.

That's me though. My wife was lucky enough to have a similar situation.

Now you asked about how my family, how they went along with this. The kids still struggle with it. I mean, we do all have the same dinner every night and its stuff that everyone's likes.

We do have a lot of foods that are based on chicken breasts and healthy things, ground Turkey. But they liked them. My wife eats the same as I do. She's actually lost 80 pounds herself.

That's amazing. Wow. You guys are the fit couple now. How does that feel?

We are, I mean some of the posts I put on social media, I've done some of our comparison pictures from last year to this year.

I didn't realize she had lost that much as well. That's amazing.

It's a, it's kind of a cool story, I got to say.

That is, and what a great example for your kids too. Like that's a huge achievement that you worked for something.

And the kids struggle with their weight a bit. With my daughter, especially really trying to instill the healthy habits in her. But you know, we both have bad habits for a long time.

Well, and I think that's something that at least you share with her and can discuss with her.

You've been on that spectrum too. It's not that it's a new thing to you, so at least you're able to communicate with her.

We are.

Wow. So a hundred pounds down.

What tips would you give anyone finding themselves in your spots? What's one thing you wish you could go back and tell your past self?

Well, I would tell myself a couple of things.

First of all; I wish I had started earlier. Everyone says that.

If I had just like a kid, I've got to do something. But when you're a kid, you don't necessarily think that way. I knew was I didn't like sports. I didn't like PE, but I could have found something that I enjoyed doing. I'm sure.

When I first realized I was having the depression struggles, which was in my thirties, I wish I had had the drive to start exercising and eating healthy then as well.

At the time I was convinced by some voices out there that the meds were the only way that I could overcome it. And for some people they are, don't get me wrong.

For some people they absolutely are. But for me, because I had moderate depression, not as severe depression or bipolar depression or something of that nature,

Which are very much more chemical imbalances.

Exactly. Mine, mine was more of a lack of, of serotonin. It's just not enough of certain chemicals. Whereas bipolar is much more serious than him.

Yeah. It's at the extreme end.

So, in my case though it was manageable without medication or I found it to be. Now, of course, I still have difficult days.

Everyone does.

The last two have been brutal. I have to admit. But you know what? It's manageable. I get up, I still got up this morning, I still did my workout.

Which I would like to point out is because it's now routine and habit.

Once you develop those habits, it's not a question of whether or not you're going to work out, it's just what you do on Monday mornings because it's Monday morning.

When you get to that point in the routine that saves you in days like that when you don't want to work out and it's just kind of a shit day and the old you would have been like, “I'm fine. I have better stuff to do”. It’s the routine that forces you.

Exactly. And frankly, I didn't sleep well last night, but you know what? I was up at four-thirty anyways. I'm going to get up and I'm going to go work out. I'm up anyway. Let's go.

Well, and you probably felt better after you did.

I did.

I was going to say I'm the exact same way. It's rare that I regret doing the workout.

Yeah, I agree.

Wrap Up (47:30)

All right. Well, I think that about wraps it up for today.

Brian, thank you millions for coming into the show and sharing your journey. It is insanely inspirational and your wife is too. That's just impressive.

I'm glad that I was able to say something about that too.

That’s amazing.

I obviously follow you on Twitter and that's kind of where we connected. I see how hard you're working and still can't believe that it's a full hundred pounds, but after hearing your story, I love how much life has changed for you.

For anyone who wants to connect with Brian and follow along with this journey and you can hit him up on Twitter at becoming_BrianK, which I will link to in the show notes because I can't spell anything when people tell me on podcasts.

Once again, I can't thank you all enough for listening in to episode 14 today. Remember if you're in need of fitness tips, workouts, and amazingly healthy recipes. To check out my website at www.fitasamamabear.com

You can also hit up the show notes on my website to find and connect with Brian.

And if you're loving what you're listening to, please subscribe, rate and share the podcast. Not only does this give some helpful information to others who may not know where to find it, but it also helps me out too, so that I can keep providing you with more episodes.

On that note, check back soon to catch the next episode of the fit is a mama bear podcast and have a fantastic night.