How committing to changing his habits helped Alexander lose 14kg in 5 months

“It’s about integrating fitness into your life, not replacing your life. It’s about finding a balance.”

Alexander’s impressive 14kg weight loss has helped him build healthy habits for life.

He’d always done some form of exercise…whether that was weight training at university, rugby training, or CrossFit when he lived out in Hong Kong.

But getting married, having children, and travelling for work meant fitness and health fell by the wayside for 35-year-old Alexander.

He was always the 100kg person who could lose 5kg or 10kg…but he would always slip back into old habits and put the weight back on.

Coming to Ultimate Performance was about losing the weight and making it stick by building concrete habits into his lifestyle for good.

The accountability, support and consistency of his trainer helped Alexander stay on track and integrate his new diet and fitness habits into his busy lifestyle.

The results have been 14kg weight loss and a knowledge of how to maintain it for the long term.

In this Q&A with one of our expert trainers, Alexander shares his advice for anyone else looking to achieve transformative results like this…

What was your main motivation for joining U.P.?

Having spent the last 12 or 13 years working in London, getting married, having children and trying to prioritise my health, I found it tricky to find time for everything, even though my health was important. I have friends and family members who have trained with U.P. in the past, and they all encouraged me to join, suggesting my mindset of having an addictive personality would work well – and the results have shown that to be the case!

You’ve struggled to maintain weight loss in the past. What do you think has been different this time?

I’m quite a big guy and when you lose weight as a bigger person, it drops fast, and you think it’ll just keep coming off. However, I probably didn’t lose enough in the first place to reach a point where my body changed permanently. I was always a 100kg person who got down to 90-95kg but then went straight back up to 100kg. Additionally, my weight loss efforts often revolved around short-term goals such as not drinking or eating poorly for a month. These changes would always unravel. This time, however, I’ve trained for five months, and that extended period made a major difference and helped me to change my habits permanently.

What were the key habits you felt needed to be changed to achieve your transformation?

I needed to cut down on the amount of alcohol I was drinking. I travel a lot for work and drinking is always a big part of client and staff entertainment. The training too was a major part of the program for me as I’ve found it difficult in recent years to fit in exercise alongside my other commitments. The step-counting was less relevant to me as I already do around 9,000 a day due to having a fairly active lifestyle. Lastly, the accountability and discipline needed for calorie counting was important. It was helpful for me to feel accountable to Christian, my trainer, as he was monitoring what I was eating so that helped me stay focused and committed to what I had said I wanted to achieve.

Did you find the app useful in terms of achieving your goals?

The technology of the platform, while not without its faults, is actually pretty good. If you’re not updating your calorie counter, they’ll keep you honest. For me, it made a huge difference knowing my trainer was on the other end of the app, asking what I was doing and telling me to start or stop eating. Whatever advice I needed, he was there and that was a major factor for me in achieving my results. Being analytical was also key for me. I’m an analytical guy so tracking progress diligently worked well. We’d assess progress weekly and set new targets. It was important to understand that progress isn’t linear either. I used to think weight loss should be a straight line, but it’s not; it fluctuates. Setting realistic timelines for your goals helps maintain motivation, I think.

Absolutely, that’s important. So, how did you exercise before joining U.P.?

For me, the gym has had many iterations. Looking back to my university days, my gym sessions involved lifting weights. I played rugby and trained twice a week, with an additional two games a week. After that, I went through more of a cardio phase. I did a half marathon and cycled but without any proper commitment. While in Hong Kong, I spent 18 months getting into CrossFit. That was good and, in many ways, like U.P. because you can show up, get told what to do, and if you work hard, you get good results.

More recently, I’ve not had the same discipline with exercise, primarily because my children were born and my priorities changed. It was interesting and quite humbling to realise that I am now pushing less weight than I did at university, but I look bigger. I’m not sure if I’m stronger because, hypothetically, the easiest measurement of strength is how much weight you move. However, my form has changed drastically.

How would you describe your relationship with your trainer?

One thing that really impressed me about Christian was the personal touch he created. He understood me and my stressful work environment. He knew when to let me work on my own to just shift heavy weight and burn off some steam, versus when I was ready to focus on form and everything else. The consistency of having one person doing the training was good. Now, I’m training at another gym, not at U.P. anymore. It’s interesting when you see other trainers at my current gym. They seem quite poor in comparison. At U.P., I trained with probably four separate trainers. Christian was consistent, and there were a couple of others when he was off. There’s just a huge gulf of difference between where the rest of the market is and where you guys (U.P.) are. I built a good relationship with Christian. He did a really good job, and I felt he genuinely cared for the 20 weeks.

Was it difficult to stay on track with the program while traveling?

For me, it was about integrating fitness into my life, not replacing my life. It’s about finding a balance. I travel a lot for work. I don’t have a bad diet, but alcohol is a big factor, especially with client and staff entertainment. When I’m traveling, it’s more pronounced because I’m meeting people. However, I found that my clients and colleagues are really accepting of me not drinking. It’s much easier to explain than I expected, and people find it interesting that I’m on a fitness kick. 

Another key factor for me was being diligent with my food choices. You can usually find suitable options to hit your macros if you’re committed. I travel fortnightly, spending three days abroad each time. That’s about 20% of the time, so avoiding good habits during those days would delay outcomes. But it’s important not to be too hard on yourself – missing your macros occasionally won’t ruin your progress. During the first six to eight weeks, I was very precise measuring everything to get started. It required a lot of motivation because it was different from my usual habits. Over time, it became more flexible and easier to manage.

Great, thank you. Lastly, what are your top 3 tips for achieving results?

Goal setting is so important, and sharing those goals with multiple people is crucial. It creates accountability. For me, sharing a goal means that accountability is spread out, making me feel more responsible. 

Creating habits is also crucial. For the first six weeks, I prepped all my meals on Sunday for the entire week. This helped me stick to my plan. After those six to eight weeks, I could have more normal lunches, though still healthier than before. 

Lastly, I would say avoid being too restrictive. It’s important to allow yourself to live life. New habits need to be sustainable, otherwise they won’t work. Making better decisions and allowing yourself some flexibility is important for long-term success. It’s important to find a balance that fits into a normal lifestyle.

If you want to create sustainable life-changing habits like Alexander, get in touch with Ultimate Performance today.

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