Ben says fear of “dying young” fuelled his jaw-dropping 25kg transformation

“I feel like a different person. It’s surreal. Only six months have passed, but it’s hard to remember how I felt back then.”

Ben’s situation was stark…

Fix his health now or face dying young.

This was the warning doctors gave 42-year-old Ben who was overweight, diabetic, and with blood pressure off the charts.

His health was in tatters. But his self-confidence was battered and bruised too. It was dragging him down in life and in his career.

Six months on, Ben looks back and can’t imagine living that same life.

Losing 25kg with Ultimate Performance has helped him normalise his blood pressure and reverse his diabetes. He says it’s the start of a completely new life.

Read how small changes have made a huge difference to Ben’s health…

How do you feel physically and mentally before you started training with U.P.? 

 
Terrible. I was physically a wreck. Very overweight, high blood pressure, too much body fat, inflammation. I was sick.

Mentally, it created a huge drag. I lacked confidence and comfort in most circumstances. Personally and professionally, it held me back. I didn’t feel good about myself, which affected every area of my life.

I was at a serious risk of medical problems due to being overweight and having hypertension. These put me at risk for severe health complications later in life.

At 42, it was obvious I had to do something, or I would die young. 

Could you have achieved your results without it? 

 
The simple answer is no.

The longer answer is that what they teach at U.P. is not new. They’re the best in the world at it, but it’s not ground-breaking.

I knew I should be eating healthy and exercising. I spent time researching, watching videos, and reading articles. I knew what I should be doing, but I wasn’t doing it. Knowing and doing are different.

U.P. gave me the very best guidance, held me accountable and brought everything together.

I couldn’t have achieved any of this without U.P. 

Amazing. So, compare yourself from day one to now. How do you feel? 

 
Day one to now? I feel like a different person. It’s surreal.

Only six months have passed, but it’s hard to remember how I felt back then. I was lethargic and miserable. I lacked the energy to take care of myself.

Now, I wake up, go for a walk, get some steps, hydrate, do a pliability session, organise my gym time, and sort my food. It’s all part of my daily routine. I even notice when I skip it, feeling like my day is incomplete.

Six months ago, doing half of what I do now was unimaginable. I feel completely different, and my wardrobe reflects that. 

What was the reaction of your friends and family, and how does that make you feel? 

 
The reaction of my friends and family has been amazing. Really affirming. I mean, they say you shouldn’t rely on external affirmation, which is probably true, but it’s still nice to get it.

My family have been quite supportive. I live a little bit away from most of my family, so I see them every few months, but not as often as I’d like. So, we had a good block of time where I didn’t see any of them for the first three months. That was fun because that was sort of a pure shock reaction. I think during that period, I had lost about 15kg. And I was already looking a lot better.

They were somewhat overwhelmed, particularly my father.  

A couple of weeks ago now, I saw my extended family for my sister’s birthday for the first time in six months. I think I sort of spoiled my sister’s birthday a bit because we were all talking about that all day rather than her birthday. It was really enjoyable.

It was nice to feel like the effort had been worth it. But there’s a certain something about people who’ve known you your whole life telling you these things to really drive it home. 

But the nicest thing, truthfully, is the number of them that were asking me for advice, like “How do I do this? What did you do? What did you do differently? What did you eat?”

People coming to me for advice. That was completely new to me.

Why would they? I was the fat guy sitting in the corner of the room. No one’s going to ask me what to do in the gym. My sister messaged me a couple of days afterwards and said, “I’ve been inspired. I’m going start doing this myself. 

Would you say your transformation has changed your life, Ben? 

 
Yes – I was thinking about this earlier.

The habits that it’s created in me, the impetus I now have to get moving every day, to engage in some kind of activity, to plan my food, or at least have something healthy in the fridge. It’s been huge. It has reset how I approach life and how I organise myself, and that’s huge.

Ideally, I’m going to maintain that mindset and let those habits grow and develop, which is brilliant because it makes me feel happy and positive about the future, which is hugely important.

The other significant change for me has been how I see food. It’s something we all probably know to some extent, as I mentioned earlier. None of this is a revelation that sugar might be detrimental if you consume it excessively. However, logging everything I eat has taught me a great deal about the true content of my choices.

I strongly believe that you should own your choices, understanding both the consequences and the benefits of good choices. Sometimes, we make poor choices without fully comprehending their impact on us. But keeping track of my weight fluctuations, workouts, and everything I consume and seeing how they all intersect has been incredibly educational. 

Yes, I already know that a doughnut is not the best option when I’m trying to make a healthy choice. But realising that it’s comparable to a small mountain of pineapple or a substantial amount of chicken from a calorie perspective helps me view it differently.

Additionally, considering the effort required in the gym to offset the indulgence, I think, “Well, that’s a gruelling workout just to compensate for this treat. No, thank you. I’ll probably pass on the third doughnut.”

This realisation has had a significant impact on me. It has allowed me to see things I already knew instinctively in greater detail, enabling me to make better choices. That’s huge for me because it’s the kind of thing I will carry with me and maintain moving forward. 

Last question. Would you recommend U.P. to others and why? 

 
I would absolutely recommend U.P. to anyone. I think the caveat would be it needs to be people who want to make a change in their life or people who are at least mostly committed to making a change in their life.

It isn’t easy. It’s amazing and life-changing, and when deployed properly, it will do anything and everything that you need it to do. But it isn’t something that can be done to you.

The trainers here are some of the best in the world, but they aren’t magic. They can’t make you look the way you want to look. You have to work with them. They’ll tell you what to do, they’ll show you how to do it, they’ll give you advice, they’ll give you motivation, they’ll keep you accountable, but you need to do it.

So, I would recommend U.P. to anyone, provided I thought they would make the effort to do what needs to be done. But if they are someone who wants to make a change and who is willing to put in some effort, yeah, it’s 100% life changing.

I 100% recommend it. 

You cannot put a price on health. Give yourself the best chance of living an active future with your family by partnering with a U.P. personal trainer today.  

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