By Liana Jacob
MEET the former soldier whose previous weight made him feel so fat, lazy and worthless that he began to use everyday household objects for fitness which helped him lose over a stone-and-a-half in just twelve weeks and now he sports an impressive six-pack.
Personal trainer, Ben Lowry (27), from Cairns, Australia, left his hometown at the age of 18 to join the Australian Army as an Infantry soldier full time for one year before heading to the Gold Coast to study exercise science at university.
Adapting to a student lifestyle lead him to fall into bad habits of drinking too much alcohol and eating unhealthy meals. This resulted in him reaching 14st 13Ibs.
His weight gain caused him to feel insecure about his ‘fat’ body, so after graduating from university he went back to his hometown and decided to make a change. His method of a ‘backyard-style’ workout plan included weight lifting using everyday household objects. Now Ben has shredded the fat, shrinking to 13st 5Ibs.
“I was feeling fat, lazy and a bit worthless at the time which was compensating with bad mental health and an alcoholic problem,” Ben said.
“Even as a health professional people can get roped into bad habits and lose sight of what is important.
“Being at university can really put the stress on someone’s health and when not caring about nutrition and exercise seeps into the mind, it can cause a person to spiral out of control.
“I decided to lose the weight when I was at home for 6 months saving money to move to Cairns Far North QLD.
“Having a close family net and supportive friends was an ideal situation to start the weight loss journey.
“I transformed my body using a backyard-style workout plan that consisted of calisthenics (body weight movements) and everyday household objects like jerry cans, logs, ropes, and potato sacks for my resistance.
“I built a chin-up bar and chopped down a tree to make a log-lifting deadlift bar for numerous exercises.
“This workout style was the start of how I formed Dingo Fitness which is now the business I have built for the last two years.
“Losing the weight and gaining the muscle has changed my life dramatically and has given me the trigger switch I needed to get back on track with my exercise science profession and start to achieve success in my career.
“I originally started to cut down on the carbohydrates and utilise protein and fats as an energy source to carefully strip the fat off me whilst doing high intensity interval training (cardio and resistance) to achieve the figure I have today.
“Now, I still combine resistance functional training into my regime and some cardio with a healthy balanced diet of forty percent protein, forty percent carbohydrate and twenty percent fat.”
While building his business has worked out for him and his transformation, Ben says that the mental change and motivation to get started was a tough process.
“The hardest part of the transformation is your own mind telling you how hard it is. A strong tough mind set will overcome any external adversity you have and will put you in the position of achieving great things,” he said.
“Once I decided to achieve greatness, I trained my mind to enjoy the physical pain and endurance that exercise brings and trusted in the principles of fitness I learnt through my university education to become the person I am today.
“I feel great now. I’m stronger, faster, leaner and have more endurance to do everyday activities and be a more effective personal trainer and Army Soldier for my Battalion which is the 51st Battalion Far Nth QLD Regiment Cairns.
“The advice I would give to people who don’t know where to start is seek help. Educate yourself with research and people that have done these things before and don’t be afraid to ask the hard questions.
“Start small, with minor changes and grow good habits. Don’t be afraid of hard work because it builds a tough mind set and gives you mental strength in other areas of life.”
For more information visit: www.dingofitness.com.au
