Losing Weight Quitting Beer
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.
How To Lose Weight Without Giving Up Alcohol
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.
, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of
How This Guy Went All-In and Got Cut in 12 Weeks Indoor Cycling Helped this Guy Lose 200 Pounds Arnold Schwarzenegger's Son Reveals Weight Loss Ethan Suplee Shows Off His 200-Pound Weight Loss
What Happened When I Quit Drinking Coffee For One Year
YouTuber MrBeast Shows Off Dramatic Weight Loss John Goodman Shows Off 200-Pound Weight Loss This Guy Lost 300 Pounds and Runs Half-Marathons This Guy Dropped 27 Pounds With Simple Fixes
Hulk Hogan Feels Healthier Than Ever at 69 This Guy Changed His Mindset and Dropped 43 Pounds Pickleball Helped This Guy Drop 70 Pounds How This Guy Lost 16 Percent of His Body FatAfter Mark Smith dropped more than 100 pounds, he posted before-and-after photos on Reddit. He couldn't believe the response: It blew up, he says. 97, 000 up-votes. It was a monster. Funny he should use that word, because that's exactly how Smith referred to his old self—the 6-foot-3, 300-pound contractor with the shaved head and goatee. He also enjoyed his drinks on the weekend—a lot. Some folks find contentment living that lifestyle, and that's what Smith did well into his 50s. But it was obvious even to him: He, and his habits, were getting old.
Here's how he made the changes that transformed him into a new—and healthy—man at age 55. So everyone who makes the kind of life-wide, wholesale changes you made usually starts with an a-ha moment. What was yours? One morning, my wife said to me, I think I'd like it better if you didn't drink anymore. That's a big one, but not exactly groundbreaking territory as far as morning-requests-that-wives-make go. [Laughs] True. But I've had a difficult relationship with alcohol my whole life. I had on-again, off-again periods of abstinence. So I told her I'd quit. That's how it started. It was nothing more than that. I felt like I was ready to quit. Drinking had caused me problems and I wasn't feeling very healthy. As a side effect, I lost 30 pounds in a couple of months without doing anything. Just from cutting out the booze? I don't know how it happened so quickly. I don't know if the drinking made me make bad decisions about diet. I was only drinking a couple days a week. I find it hard to believe it was making me so fat but something changed. And that motivated me to try to lose even more weight. Going sober isn't easy for a lot of people. How did that go? I had to do it. At the time I was 53 and my hangovers were just becoming debilitating. I had no interest in being some kind of social drinker, having just a glass of wine or beer. I wanted to get drunk. As shitty as it made me feel, I really think the drinking would've killed me. So I went cold turkey. From that day on.Advertisement What's the hardest part? It's tough to socialize without drinking. I still find it uncomfortable in social situations. I always found it easier to be around crowds when I was drinking. Not easier for them, but easier for me [laughs]. How did you approach your weight after dropping the first 30? I started eating three meals a day instead of constant snacking through the day. It seemed easier to pick just one thing to do, so I cut sugar out. I'd heard Kevin Smith on his podcast saying he cut sugar from his diet and lost a bunch of weight. So that was in my head. Then it was portion control. I was always the guy who had the giant plate of spaghetti and then go back for another plate. I actually had a bowl, the size of a salad or cereal bowl, and I would make my meals no bigger than that bowl. I could put
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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.
, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of
How This Guy Went All-In and Got Cut in 12 Weeks Indoor Cycling Helped this Guy Lose 200 Pounds Arnold Schwarzenegger's Son Reveals Weight Loss Ethan Suplee Shows Off His 200-Pound Weight Loss
What Happened When I Quit Drinking Coffee For One Year
YouTuber MrBeast Shows Off Dramatic Weight Loss John Goodman Shows Off 200-Pound Weight Loss This Guy Lost 300 Pounds and Runs Half-Marathons This Guy Dropped 27 Pounds With Simple Fixes
Hulk Hogan Feels Healthier Than Ever at 69 This Guy Changed His Mindset and Dropped 43 Pounds Pickleball Helped This Guy Drop 70 Pounds How This Guy Lost 16 Percent of His Body FatAfter Mark Smith dropped more than 100 pounds, he posted before-and-after photos on Reddit. He couldn't believe the response: It blew up, he says. 97, 000 up-votes. It was a monster. Funny he should use that word, because that's exactly how Smith referred to his old self—the 6-foot-3, 300-pound contractor with the shaved head and goatee. He also enjoyed his drinks on the weekend—a lot. Some folks find contentment living that lifestyle, and that's what Smith did well into his 50s. But it was obvious even to him: He, and his habits, were getting old.
Here's how he made the changes that transformed him into a new—and healthy—man at age 55. So everyone who makes the kind of life-wide, wholesale changes you made usually starts with an a-ha moment. What was yours? One morning, my wife said to me, I think I'd like it better if you didn't drink anymore. That's a big one, but not exactly groundbreaking territory as far as morning-requests-that-wives-make go. [Laughs] True. But I've had a difficult relationship with alcohol my whole life. I had on-again, off-again periods of abstinence. So I told her I'd quit. That's how it started. It was nothing more than that. I felt like I was ready to quit. Drinking had caused me problems and I wasn't feeling very healthy. As a side effect, I lost 30 pounds in a couple of months without doing anything. Just from cutting out the booze? I don't know how it happened so quickly. I don't know if the drinking made me make bad decisions about diet. I was only drinking a couple days a week. I find it hard to believe it was making me so fat but something changed. And that motivated me to try to lose even more weight. Going sober isn't easy for a lot of people. How did that go? I had to do it. At the time I was 53 and my hangovers were just becoming debilitating. I had no interest in being some kind of social drinker, having just a glass of wine or beer. I wanted to get drunk. As shitty as it made me feel, I really think the drinking would've killed me. So I went cold turkey. From that day on.Advertisement What's the hardest part? It's tough to socialize without drinking. I still find it uncomfortable in social situations. I always found it easier to be around crowds when I was drinking. Not easier for them, but easier for me [laughs]. How did you approach your weight after dropping the first 30? I started eating three meals a day instead of constant snacking through the day. It seemed easier to pick just one thing to do, so I cut sugar out. I'd heard Kevin Smith on his podcast saying he cut sugar from his diet and lost a bunch of weight. So that was in my head. Then it was portion control. I was always the guy who had the giant plate of spaghetti and then go back for another plate. I actually had a bowl, the size of a salad or cereal bowl, and I would make my meals no bigger than that bowl. I could put
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