I Want To Quit Drinking And Lose Weight

Bhaven Taylor, 41, from London, shares how he transformed his body—and his entire mindset—by changing his diet, giving up alcohol, and working out three times a week.

I was extremely fit when I was younger, playing all sports at first team level (rugby, football, cricket) while at school and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The negative change started to occur once I attended university, which often consisted of nights out binge-drinking, lack of good sleep, and poor diet. My weight began to creep up, and this continued into my work life in London from 2002 onwards. This lasted for almost 20 years, and a combination of unhealthy eating and inactivity meant that I steadily gained weight throughout my 20s and 30s.

I probably reached my heaviest around 35 years old. It had a huge impact on my self-esteem and overall confidence, both of which were extremely low. I did not feel good about myself or how I looked, and I was a prime candidate for Type 2 diabetes, which runs in my family.

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Having spent a large part of 2020 indoors in the UK, coming into 2021 I decided I wanted to make a change. I decided that this could be a good opportunity as there were still so few distractions available due to lockdown. So in January 2021 I signed up to Ultimate Performance. I had come across them 15 years ago but when I saw the before and after pictures from their transformation program, I honestly thought that was not possible for someone like me. However, I spoke to a friend who went through it and achieved incredible results, so I immediately signed up. This was the first time in my life where I invested directly into myself, and thought I would put my all into it and see what happens.

The UK was in a strict lockdown from the moment I started until gyms reopened on 13th April 2021, so my trainer Jason and I had a weekly 30-minute call to focus primarily on nutrition and increasing my energy output. He aimed to improve my education on nutrition and how to ensure I was eating and tracking the right amount of calories, split across the appropriate protein, carbohydrates and fats. I quite enjoyed cooking and I got into it immediately, weighing foods and learning how to use spices to ensure the meal tasted good. I also cut out alcohol in order to get the best outcome from the whole process.

The first time I worked out with Jason in person three months later, I was blown away. We kept the workouts simple, did around 6 or 7 exercises per session, super-setting each exercise and ensuring we did a whole body workout. Jason started to educate me on weight training, proper form and slowly progressively overloading. My experience in the gym at UP was just incredible: the environment is set up for gear motivation and maximum output and I loved every minute of it.

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From then on, I worked out with Jason 3 times per week and this really was enough to change my overall body. In addition, Jason set me a daily step target and I found a new appreciation for long walks—podcasts and audiobooks became my best friends during this time—but I was able to hit my weight loss goals without doing excessive amounts of cardio.

Within three months I lost about 17 kgs (37 pounds) and got my body fat, which was close to 30 percent when I started, down to 11 percent. When I saw my friends and family for the first time after lockdown, many of them were shocked, and some didn't even recognize me. I have now got myself back to how I looked when I was 17 years old, at the age of 41. My experience has motivated others to get fit themselves, and I have countless conversations about what I did. What blew me away is when an extremely close friend referred to me as an inspiration, and that he has never seen me this focused, and how proud he was.

The entire transformation journey was truly an incredible experience, but the most dramatic effect was not my weight or the way I looked: it was actually more on the mental side and how I felt. My sleep was transformed, I naturally became a morning person (not something I could have said for 25 years), productivity increased, my energy rose, and my self-esteem and confidence improved dramatically. I started to ask myself how far can I take this, and what could I be capable of? I actually got approached and started a new job during lockdown and have begun working in a new industry for a truly amazing company. This for me was a life transformation rather than just a body one.

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If you want to make a change, just go for it: it's all about taking it one step at a time, and once you begin to see progress it is immensely motivating. Consistency is key, but if you're turning up every day, then it is amazing what you can achieve in just three months.

Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.

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When Tamas Haiman was at his heaviest, he felt like he was living in someone else's body. He'd get out of breath walking up hills—the same hills that he used to sprint up while wearing a 20-kilogram jacket. I stopped weighing myself when I hit 230 pounds, but I think I peaked above that, he says. I was 45 years old.

Quit Alcohol To Lose Weight

Haiman, now 46, who works as a banker in London, says that for many years, he was highly active—running marathons, cycling, regularly going to the gym—but eventually, his travel schedule started to get in the way.

I stopped exercising altogether, he says. Things went downhill very fast. I really ballooned in six months. Haiman, however, points to his diet—not necessarily the drop in activity—as the biggest contributor.

On the nutrition front, he started with the most obvious culprits: alcohol, processed carbs, and processed sugars. Immediately, he cut them all out.

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Then I focused on the macros for each meal rather than the total calories. I bought a scale to measure high-calorie items such as nuts, and tried to eat organic, non-processed foods as much as possible. (Haiman recalls his housekeeper panicking when he arrived home with two massive bags of celery, kale, broccoli, spinach, and mentioning that it was for the next three days.) Overall I ate more than before, but better, he says.

As for his workout, he started with a combination of resistance and weight training, as well as a few strongman sessions at UP, while working with his trainer, Eddie. Saying that he is an exceptional trainer is a huge understatement. I tried other people, but nobody compared in terms of focus, quality of the workouts, and the intensity. Haiman kept busy on his rest days, too, working in the occasional hike, bike ride, or long walk. The biggest challenge, he says, was avoiding injury: With the kind of weights we ended up working with, it's really important to have someone watching and correcting your every move.

That said, there were inevitable challenges: At some point, everyone plateaus, and Haiman was no different. In the end there's nothing to do but push through it and be patient, he says. You try to make small changes and see what works—such as increasing your daily steps, or cutting out certain types of food. Once Haiman had his nutrition and fitness plan dialed in, the weight dropped quickly—between 2 and 3 pounds per week. After about 16 weeks, he says, he'd burned close to 60 pounds of fat.

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As a result, Haiman says, he felt incredibly fit—having pushed through his personal bests on his squat, bench press, and nearly his 10K. I never thought I would be able to do a farmers walk with almost 500 pounds, he says. My wife kept saying to her friends that she'd upgraded her husband. Haiman now says he's focusing on the cardio side of things—he'd like to finally crack that 10K PR, for starters, as well as in the half-marathon. More importantly, he wants to prove to himself that he can