‘You can't get the promise without the process’ | Old Harbour bodybuilder’s battle with depression culminates in historic triumph

Yet on November 15th, she stepped onto an international stage in Neiva, Colombia, smiled through the heat, held her pose, and walked away with the one title bodybuilders spend years chasing: International Federation of Bodybuilding & Fitness Professional League (IFBB) Card. 

Her fitness story began long before she ever thought of bodybuilding. Before the trophies and stage lights, she was simply a young woman from Rock River Clarendon living in Old Harbour, trying to fulfil her purpose. 

 “Before I started working in an office, I was working from home and struggling with depression and anxiety,” she recalled. “I was eating fast food every day, watching YouTube videos and trying to work out, but nothing was changing.”

Her first turning point came not from a dramatic revelation, but from watching a coworker change into gym clothes after work. Johnson admired the routine but convinced herself she wasn’t ready. 

“I told her I didn’t have gym clothes, which wasn’t even true,” she said with a laugh. “She looked at me and told me, ‘Stop the excuses and just start.’ That was the push I needed.”

In December 2022, on a rainy evening that could have easily discouraged her, Bryana walked into a gym and signed up. What started as an attempt to cope with depression quickly became a lifeline. “I was taking some depression medication at the time but they made me sick, and I was tired of being sad,” she explained. “So, I threw them away and told myself, ‘Once I’m trying to do better than I was yesterday, I’m doing a great job.’”

That mindset spill-over and changed everything — her eating habits, her spiritual life, her sense of discipline. The gym became more than a workout space. It became clarity. “I started praying more, reading my Bible more, dressing different, eating different. God carried me through,” she said.

But even as her personal life improved, her professional life felt stagnant. Despite moving from customer service representative to operations manager, she felt boxed in. “Going to work became my chore,” she said. “I didn’t see myself growing there anymore. I love helping people, and I wanted my career to reflect that.” 

By age 21, she knew she wanted to become a personal trainer. Her coach encouraged her to test her discipline by entering a bodybuilding competition — a suggestion that shifted her entire trajectory.

She competed, trained, and slowly built a reputation. She won her first novice competition, then went on to become a two-time national champion, as well as the winner of several invitational shows. 

“Bodybuilding wasn’t just a sport for me,” she said. “It helped me find purpose.”

Along the way, she began shaping her own coaching brand. In January 2024, she officially launched B3 Body Lab — a name inspired by her own transformation. “B3 means Becoming Bold, Brave and Beautiful,” she said. “The ‘lab’ is because I’m always fixing and improving, just like what’s done in a real lab.”

Still, despite her local achievements, she had never competed internationally. That changed when she registered for the Giovanni Fitness Competition in Colombia — the show that would earn her the coveted IFBB Pro Card. But the journey to get there would test her faith and discipline in ways she never expected.

“I booked the ticket three or four times and my card kept declining,” she recalled. “Then the flight I finally secured was canceled because of Hurricane Melissa, and no one told me.” 

She made the bold decision to try Kingston the following morning and request standby. Even at the airport, with meals timed and alarms going off, she stayed focused. “I had to eat when the alarm went off, even if I was on the phone trying to shift my connecting flight,” she said. “I just knew I had to get to Colombia.”

As the determined person she is, Bryana managed to get on a fight to Panama which brought more complications — language barriers, missed connections, overweight luggage fees. But help came in unexpected ways. “I met a young man named Jonathan, he didn’t speak much English, but I felt safe. He helped me get a SIM card, a hotel room, everything. We communicated through Google Translate. That was God showing up for me,” she said.

Johnson said that being accepted as a Jamaican athlete in Neiva Columbia felt like home but also brought its own chaos — from getting lost on her way to the weigh-ins, leaving her bikini at the hotel to standing in her robe in the wrong area while all the other athletes lined up to go on stage. The heat, the sweat, and the long wait on stage pushed her to her limits. 

“I had to hold an uncomfortable pose for over ten minutes and my legs started shaking,” she admitted. “But then I remembered all the times I kept running on the treadmill at its highest for up to an hour and even when I wanted to stop, I didn’t… it was the same feeling so that’s what helped to keep my composure and my smile; so I didn’t wipe my sweat, I just hold my pose. I just couldn’t come that far to give up.”

Her perseverance paid off. She won her class, then won overall, earning her IFBB Pro Card on her very first international attempt. “A judge told me afterward that it looked easy, but I had to work for it,” she said. “And they were right, it wasn’t easy.”

The journey home was no less dramatic — another missed flight, an hours-long bus ride, severe sickness upon returning to Jamaica, and days bedridden. “I couldn’t even celebrate right away,” she explained. “I was so weak I had to go straight to the doctor. I couldn’t walk, my body literally shut down.”

It was a small surprise gathering planned by her spouse days later that finally allowed her to process everything she had endured. “That’s when I realized how much I went through and how grateful I am,” she said.

Johnson’s journey from quiet struggle to international triumph continues to inspire young people who feel stuck or unsure of their next step. Her victory was not the highlight of a lucky season, but the culmination of a life rebuilt — physically, mentally, and spiritually — through discipline, faith, and unshakable determination. 

She told Old Harbour News that she is now happily shaping lives as she trains her clients in-person at Jambaugh Fitness Centre in Old Harbour and online via Zoom or Whatsapp. 

Reflecting on everything she overcame; she summed it up in one line that now defines her story: “You can’t get the promise without going through the process.”