My Story

The day my margin for error hit zero.

A decade of losing weight and regaining it, getting in shape and falling off, and the moment that finally forced a real system.

For about a decade, my health ran in circles.

Lose the weight, regain it. Get in shape, fall off. New diet, new training split, new supplement stack, new compound someone swore was the answer. Each version worked for a while, then collapsed the moment real life pushed back. A brutal stretch at work. A bad run of sleep. A holiday. None of it was built to survive any of that.

Cats are supposed to have nine lives. By the time my daughter was born, that is genuinely how I felt. Like I had already burned through eight versions of myself, eight rebuilds that did not last, and I was standing on the ninth.

That is when the pressure became real. A kid changes the math. No more margin for error. It honestly felt like my last clean shot to fix my health for good, before life got even busier and the window closed.

So this time I did not chase another quick fix. I built a real system. One that worked, that survived a packed schedule, and that focused on more than what the mirror showed. Health first. A solid foundation. Amplifiers layered on top to maximize it. That ninth life is the one that finally stuck, and 9th Life is everything I learned building it.

James, founder of 9th Life
The receipts

Roughly 40 pounds, the slow and sustainable way.

This happened during the busiest year of my life. Full-time high-pressure job, getting married, and a newborn. The system had to survive all of it, because quitting was not an option.

BeforeBefore
Where it startedYears of yo-yo dieting. Heavier, lower energy, no system that lasted.
AfterAfter
The ninth lifeFoundation first, amplifiers second, every decision backed by bloodwork.
~1.5/wk
pounds per week, steady
Best in years
lipid & metabolic panel
Built to last
not a 12-week shred
With my family

The reason it had to work.

This is who the system is really for. When the margin for error hit zero, it was not abstract. It was this. The whole point was building something that made me healthier and more present, not something that pulled me away from the people it was supposed to be for.

Why most fitness advice fails you

Most coaches selling you a program have never worked a real job.

A huge number of mainstream fitness creators went straight from college into coaching. They have never sat behind a desk for eight hours, never carried a quota, never done bedtime and a 6am wake-up on four hours of sleep.

It shows in their advice. Most of these training and diet protocols quietly assume your life revolves around the gym. They fall apart the second you have a demanding job, a partner, a mortgage, travel, and people who depend on you.

I work a high-pressure sales job. Headhunting. Contract negotiation, business development, account management. If I slack on work, I leave thousands of dollars on the table. If I slack on training and diet, I balloon overnight from a sedentary desk job. I have spent years building a system that lets me stay a top performer at work, raise a kid, train MMA, and keep my health dialed, all at once. The margin for error is brutal.

So when I talk about managing energy, body composition, and performance as a busy working person, it is not theory. It is lived experience.

What this is not

Built for longevity, not a quick fix.

Not a crash diet

This is not a 12-week shred you white-knuckle and then rebound from. It is a system designed to run for decades. The goal is a body and a level of health you keep, not a peak you crash off of.

Not a bodybuilding coach

I am not the coach who tells clients to pump themselves full of drugs and steroids while their actual health quietly falls apart. I have watched that path up close. The goal here is to look and feel your best without wrecking your health to get there.

Blasting anabolics and chasing the mirror at all costs nearly wrecked my health years ago. It taught me the most important lesson on this whole site: how you look means very little if how you feel, perform, and show up every day is falling apart underneath it.

“The goal is to help you look and feel your best without destroying your health to get there.”

— 9th Life

Who this site is for

This is for the executive, the corporate employee, the teacher, the nurse, the tradesperson, the busy parent. The person who is 20, 50, or 80 pounds overweight and tired of being talked down to. The person who used to be athletic and wants that back.

It is for men and women alike. It is also for the person already deep in this world who is sick of the noise and wants a straight answer. You do not need to be young, lean, or experienced to belong here.

I am not a doctor, and I will never pretend to be. I am someone who spent a decade and a lot of money making mistakes so you do not have to repeat all of them.

Ready to see how it all fits together?

The approach page lays out the exact system, with real schedules and no secrets held back.

See the approach → Work with me