How Josh transformed his bad habits to be in the best shape of his life by his 30th birthday

“Investing in your body is the best thing you can do. I only wish I’d signed up to Ultimate Performance sooner.”

Josh has accomplished his goal of getting in the best shape of his life ready to turn 30.

He’d fallen into bad habits during his twenties – and working remotely for 18 months and travelling a lot made matters worse.

The 29-year-old played tennis a couple of times a week to try to stay fit…but he was undoing his good work ordering takeout food every day.

With his 30th birthday looming, his relocation to Amsterdam from London gave him the fresh start he needed. He wanted to ‘lay the foundations’ for good health early in life…and he knew Ultimate Performance could teach him how.

All it took was four months of focus on his training and nutrition at U.P. to lose 13kg (29lbs) and transform his life in the process.

Having a trainer behind him 24/7 to ensure he did his steps, recorded his meals, and knew what to eat when out at restaurants ensured he hit his goal.

Now he’s fitter than ever, lightning fast around the tennis court, and his work colleagues are stunned with the change he’s made…and say he should be the next Wolverine.

Josh shares how he accomplished this awesome transformation in the Q&A below…

What were your main motivations for joining U.P.?

My 30th birthday was coming up and I’d set myself a goal of being in the best shape of my life as I turned 30. I was conscious that the earlier in life you start setting the right foundations, the easier it is in later life, and I wanted to see what I could do to achieve my goal. I’d been working remotely for 18 months before joining U.P. and I’d found it difficult to stay on track with my nutrition especially. I’ve always been relatively active, and I play a lot of tennis but when you’re traveling a lot, it’s easy to end up ordering delivery once a day. I moved to Amsterdam and was aware of U.P. from a colleague who had joined in London and thought with my milestone birthday coming up, it was the perfect time to hit it hard. I knew there was no better place to do that than at U.P.
 

What were your initial expectations?

I expected to be in better shape than when I’d started but to achieve what I have in just four months is beyond any expectation. It far surpasses what I thought was physically possible! But I don’t think there’s anything more important than investing in your body and your life.

Why do you think you were able to achieve your results so quickly?

I think it was having great support and 24/7 accountability from my trainer. He always pushed me the extra mile and made sure I felt like I was on top of things the whole time. With the personal trainer I had in the past, it was fine for getting a good workout in, but with Kon (from U.P.) I’d get a message at 11 pm reminding me I hadn’t got enough steps in. Having a trainer who holds you accountable is what made the biggest difference for me. Anyone can train in a gym by themselves but having someone by your side who pushes you, helps you, and supports you to keep going is the sort of thing I like and that I wouldn’t have got anywhere else.

Your results are amazing! What do you think is your biggest achievement and what do you feel most proud of?

For me, my biggest achievement is breaking a lot of the habits I had. The toughest part of the transformation was probably the first month when I struggled with my nutrition and getting in enough steps every day. Overcoming that first hurdle was probably the hardest part for me, and what I’m most proud of.

What made it easier to break your old habits?

I really love food and I love to cook. We tried a few iterations of pre-planning meals versus having more flexibility, and I found I preferred to have a few different meals I could eat consistently for breakfast and lunch while keeping dinner a bit more flexible.

Were there any misconceptions you had about dieting that U.P. shattered?

I think the biggest one was what constitutes a good diet. When I’d tried to diet in the past or looked them up online, they were all super unsustainable. You could do them for a few weeks and lose weight but the second you stopped; you’d put it all back on. What I loved about the U.P. diet, which was almost a bit surprising for me, was that it was all reasonable. Nothing really changed that much between the initial transformation phase and the maintenance phase because we’d already started with a sustainable diet. And it wasn’t anything crazy; I can still eat all the different types of meat, as well as dairy and vegetables. It was a positive surprise for me that it wasn’t just a crash diet. I’m so happy that isn’t the case.
 

How did you find the training side of the programme?

It has been amazing. It’s the hardest I have ever trained in my life but that’s where having my trainer Kon helped again with the accountability. What you think is your limit is lower than your real limit, and he would push me to do the extra three or four reps and that’s the part of the workout that gives you the most benefit. He helped me make the most of being in the gym but to a safe level. Being in the gym has been the easiest bit of the programme for me. I’m very competitive and I’m still trying to set records against other people for different machines.

What’s been your biggest takeaway?

I think the first key thing for me is nutrition and knowing what a healthy diet looks like. The education I’ve received and the empowerment to keep sustainably going with my nutrition have resonated so well with me. I know now what to eat if I want to bulk up or if I want to cut down for whatever reason.

I also think the daily steps is really underrated. I didn’t realise how important it was at first and I didn’t think doing 10,000 steps a day would make any difference. After my first few weeks, I wasn’t getting anywhere near my target and Kon kept pushing me, so I finally bought a walking pad for my office and suddenly, I went from an average of 7,000 steps a day to about 17,000 and that’s when I started seeing the progress. Noticing that my progress correlated strongly with the increase in steps helped me understand the importance of staying active.

Before, I thought playing tennis three times a week was intense exercise but there were still hundreds of other hours in that week. There’s so much benefit from being active in a way that doesn’t overly strain your body and maintains your recovery. I think that was a real game-changer for me as well.

Ultimately, I wanted to make sure I had all the right fundamentals in place so that as I get older, I’m at the best possible baseline and I can continue to work with those new skills I’ve got and the knowledge I’ve received from training with Ultimate Performance.
 

Have your tennis skills improved?

Yeah, definitely. I didn’t even realise it myself, but the people who I played with quite frequently say I’m so much faster around the court now, and it’s impossible to get anything past me. It wasn’t even me that noticed it. It was more like other people were commenting non-stop about it. 

How have your friends and family reacted to your transformation?

It’s crazy, they tell me now that I should be on the cover of magazines! Three days ago, I was with the leadership team in my company in Portugal, and I’d sent the photos from my shoot to a colleague who has since joined U.P., and she showed them around and everyone said I looked like a different person. They told me I should be the next Wolverine!
 

That must feel good! Have you seen any benefits mentally from joining U.P.?

Mentally, I feel a lot clearer, and I feel more energetic day-to-day. More than anything, I’m just super-motivated right now. I think it shows what you can achieve in a relatively short period and now I know that I don’t want to go back to how I was before. I feel really empowered to keep up with what I’ve achieved. I’ve learned that small changes add up to a very big change. The wow moment for me was as I got to the end of the transformation journey and did the photo shoot. If you’d told me that would have been two years later, I would have said that’s incredible so to know I achieved that in just a few months is the best investment and best thing I’ve ever done in my life. Before I started, I was active and played a lot of tennis and didn’t consider myself to be in terrible shape, but even looking at my face in photos from the end of last year, I think I look a lot better now. I’m so proud of my progress.

You came to U.P. off the back of a colleague’s recommendation. Would you recommend the programme to others?

Yeah, 100%. One of my colleagues has already signed up to Ultimate Performance because of what she saw from my results, and a lot of my friends are really interested in doing it now as well, so absolutely! My trainer has been with me through the whole journey, and I couldn’t have done it without him. I’ve worked with a personal trainer in the past in a more regular gym but where U.P. differs is that your trainer is supporting you the whole time, whether you are in the gym or at home. That constant level of support is exactly what I needed to help me achieve what I have. The support and motivation have been incredible, from watching my step count to what I’m eating. I would say joining U.P. is one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life, if not the best. I think the biggest and most important step you can take is just starting; once you’ve started, everything else is there to support you, to get an amazing result.

Want to feel amazing like Josh? Start your transformation journey with Ultimate Performance and you can get results like this in a matter of months.

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