Binge drinker who collapsed on Scots train ditches booze to become personal trainer

A man who struggled with alcohol all his life and drank two litres of spirits and eight beers every weekend has quit the booze and is now becoming a personal trainer after a health scare in Scotland.

Kevin Lamb was travelling north of the border from his home in Cumbria for work when his stomach swelled to double its normal size and he ended up spending nearly two weeks in hospital in Kirkcaldy. It was at this point that he realised he needed to make a change.

The 47-year-old had started bingeing on cheap cider when he was just 19, before moving on to vodka and other spirits. He piled on the pounds, with his weight peaking at 217lbs - 15-and-a-half stone.

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But he finally decided to quit the booze after he collapsed in pain and ended up in hospital for 12 days and doctors warned he would kill himself if he did not stop. Kevin decided to make some huge changes in the following years, most notably stopping drinking, and he has since shed four stone and is studying to be a personal trainer.

He said: "The worst thing was when I was sitting there on a Thursday and Friday drinking whisky until 5am. I was told I was a high stroke/heart attack risk due to high cholesterol/triglycerides and I could develop chronic pancreatitis which is a life changing and threatening condition if I carried on in that state."

In September 2018, Kevin was travelling to Dunfermline for a job when he experienced stomach pain and his stomach bloated to double his size. He went to Kirkcaldy Hospital, where he was put on morphine for 12 days - to try and stop the pain. Kevin said: "It felt like someone was sticking a knife in me and I used to get major flashbacks from those 12 days in hospital."

Kevin then had an MRI scan at The Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, every six months and monthly blood tests -to just observe and monitor your heart and to make sure all the levels had gone down.

He then took it upon himself to stop drinking in January 2023, and lost four stone in five months. Kevin Lamb, a health and safety manager, from Whitehaven, Cumbria said: "I came out of Covid, and I'd be sat there looking at a wall and four hours had gone. I didn't want to get out of bed, and I had no motivation.

"I'd get home on Thursday night, and I would have a bottle of whisky, vodka, have 8 cans. I got to work on Monday morning, and I was only thinking about drinking on Thursday night."

He added: "I've always lived for the weekend for most of my adult life. I never drank during the day I was working, but I would always be out on the weekend."

In January, 2022, Kevin transformed his life by quitting drinking and starting the gym. He completely overhauled his diet and lost four stone in the process - going from 15st 7lbs to 11st 7lbs.

Kevin said: "14.5 was my cholesterol when I joined the gym, and I didn't realise the magnitude of how bad I actually was. I felt better after I took a stone off.

Now, Kevin is training to be a personal trainer and says he can easily go out drinking for months. He said: "There's no more uncontrolled drinking and I am careful enough to limit myself at an occasional event. I make sure that on the rare occasion I still have a couple of beers, mostly alcohol free."

Kevin said: "I'm being mentored through my PT qualification. I'm working with people who are overweight and with health issues and bringing them back to healthy."

"I've learnt that it's all about a mindset and to stay disciplined to the point of I know what to eat and when to treat myself every now and then. I've got a whole new outlook on life. I'm bouncing out of bed every day."

In January 2023, Kevin signed up to work with Toni Taylor Performance who provided him with a training plan which started to turn things around. Kevin said: "It's involved a lot of mindset work and Toni and I would spend a lot of time talking about discipline, consistency and how to turn bad habits into good habits."

Kevin's diet then:

Breakfast: normally a pie or fry up

Lunch: would have been something from the work canteen or chip shop

supper: mostly fried food and six packets of crisps.

Weekends: was 3 or 4 either Chinese, pizza or Doner Kebabs

Kevin's diet now:

Overnight oats or pancakes every day with 60g of protein

Mid morning snack of fruit or protein bar

Rice and Chicken or beef for lunch

Chicken or fish salad and protein shake at night.

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