When Ben Powell started the Second Chance Challenge 2010, he weighed in at 159.9kg. Just a few months later he went on to win the Challenge with his good friend Kate, having lost a total of 43.9kg or 78.5kg combined. “It doesn’t matter if I had won the Second Chance Challenge or not, because I had already won,” he says.
The thirty-four-year-old public servant from ACT is a self-confessed good-time guy, but he has a different focus now. “Back then, when the party bus got started, it had no brakes,” he says. “So from the age of around 18, the weight began to creep on. I never knew how much I weighed as I was too heavy for regular bathroom scales and so the weight kept going up and up.”
Ben has been totally committed to the Challenge right from the very start. He says, “I realised that I was never going to get more support and a better chance to improve myself, so I took it. Something just clicked in my head. I woke up in the morning before we met for the start of the Second Chance Challenge and decided that would be it. I would eat well and keep an eye on calories, I would cut out alcohol and soft drinks and I would make full use of The Biggest Loser Club website and the Meal Replacement Program.”
Now, the confident and contented Ben says that he can’t think of a prize that would be big enough or great enough to thank the team behind The Biggest Loser Club Meal Replacement Program, his Challenge partner Kate and the rest of the Second Chance team for giving him the opportunity to regain his life.
Ben chose friend Kate Smith, whom he describes as “a great chick”, to be his Second Chance partner. Ben says, “As well as Kate, friends and family have also been ridiculously supportive of me. They realise how much effort I have put in and how important it is to me. My friends and I are notorious for joking and having fun, but when they know that it is something really important, we are all genuinely supportive.
“In fact, friends have seen so many changes in me that four or five of them started using the Meal Replacement Program. I tell them it is not just about diet though (a few of them are couch potatoes) and so I offer to work out with them. We still have fun together, but it is a different kind of fun now.”
Click to enlarge photos
Ben before
Ben's 30th fancy dress
Ben bike riding
Ben at Finale
Ben's before photo
Learning to succeed
By following the Meal Replacement Program in conjunction with The Biggest Loser Club website, Ben says “I have learnt how much and what my body needs, as opposed to what I want to eat and drink. Just because food is there, I don’t feel compelled to eat it now. Using the diary has helped me work out whether it is worth eating the occasional treat and how much. Plus, I know now when it just isn’t worth it. The Shakes have shown me how much my body needs and what it doesn’t need. I never feel hungry. My tastes have changed too as I don’t want to eat junk food.
“I now have the tools I need to keep on losing weight and reverse any gains. It feels like I am a carpenter and I have finally been given the tools I need. I always knew I could be competitive but now I have learned how strong I can actually be."
Ben is happy to report that he has exceeded his own goals. He can now accept compliments saying, “It is the first time in my life that I look in the mirror and like what I see. I am now goal-oriented. I have never set goals for myself before, because I never thought I would reach them. Now I see that I can, so much so that I have decided to apply for the police force, which is something I would always have loved to do, but never thought it would be possible for me to achieve."
Ben ends by saying: “In my whole life, if there was a short cut, I would take it and I avoided hard work. Having a goal and reaching it means I can now set up the next phase of my life. You can have the best resources in the world and five million people telling you to do it, but until you have your head right, you won’t make any changes to your life.”