Looking for a reset that actually sticks? Self-help author Ben Povlow opens up about losing 22 pounds at 48 by cutting liquid calories, reading labels, and building a simple routine that survived weekends and setbacks. No crash diets, no punishing programs—just honest adjustments that compounded into visible results and less daily pain.
We start with the messy middle: the cycle of weekday progress erased by beer and late-night ice cream. The shift came from one decisive weekend of saying no and keeping the workouts going. From there, Ben walks through dropping sugar and even “healthy” sweeteners, swapping fast food for cleaner meals, and choosing ingredients with short, readable labels. Managing acid reflux became a practical filter for greasy and fried foods, and once the heartburn eased, energy returned and weight moved.
Motivation had real anchors. A simple fact—each pound lost can take roughly four pounds of pressure off your knees—made every choice feel worthwhile. A Survivor audition added a spark to train for strength and endurance, even with limited time and a modest gym. Ben details how he started with 20-minute sessions on a treadmill and light weights, then gradually scaled to three longer workouts a week with walking on off days. Recovery mattered, so the plan focused on repeatability over perfection.
We also unpack the nutrition side without dogma: using a tracker to learn macros, reintroducing healthy fats like avocado and yogurt, avoiding starvation tactics, and experimenting with small supplements. When the scale stalled, he changed one lever at a time—protein intake, steps, sleep, or weekend habits. The result is a sustainable loop where early wins make discipline easier, cravings shrink, and identity shifts from “trying” to “consistent.”
If you’re ready to trade extremes for momentum, start with one cut—beer, soda, or late-night sweets—and pair it with 20 minutes of movement, three times a week. Subscribe for more practical guides, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review to tell us the first habit you’ll change.
Learn more about Ben and his books at https://theselfhelpcompany.com
Thank you for tuning in. I hope you can take some of my knowledge and experience and apply it to your life.
Ben Povlow
www.theselfhelpcompany.com
Episode Transcript
Hello and welcome to this episode of the Raising
Yourself Up Podcast.
I am your host, Ben Pavlo.
And as we are heading into thewe're in the end of 2025 and
we're heading into the beginningof 2026, as most people are
heading into the new year,they're looking at resolutions
(01:23):
and fitness goals and weightloss.
So with this episode, I want togo ahead and tackle that because
my personal fitness journey, Ifeel, can be of some help to you
if that's something that you'relooking forward to doing.
Now, just to give you a littlebackstory and a little bit of
(01:44):
description, you know, I'm a48-year-old man.
I weighed about 190 pounds sixmonths ago.
I am maybe 168 right now, sothat's about a 22-pound weight
loss.
And basically I'm 5'7 if thathelps paint the picture.
(02:11):
And so basically, what I want todo is just kind of give you an
idea of what I've done, andmaybe it's something that you
know you it will inspire you orgive you some tips or tricks or
things that you may be able todo to uh jumpstart your fitness
journey as well.
So again, I basically decided tostart actively exercising about
(02:36):
I think it was about eightmonths ago.
And technically, I probablyweighed 190 a little more than
you know, probably closer toeight months ago, but then I
lost some and put some back on,and because in the beginning
it's hard, and it's very hard tostay committed, especially early
(02:56):
on when you're not seeing theresults.
And I think that's kind of oneof the things that really messed
me up was not seeing the resultsand getting a little frustrated.
And now that I'm about eightmonths into it and I'm seeing
results, I've it's become somuch more easier for me to
resist the temptation of eatingthe junk food, eating fast food,
(03:20):
and eating a lot of the thefoods that of course help cause
me to gain weight.
Not only foods, but drinks aswell.
One of the things that's veryimportant to is that you know
not drinking your calories.
And so for me, I tend to drink alot of beer, and historically
I've always drank beer, and beerhas always been basically my
(03:41):
worst enemy, and and it and andjust alongside of that is also
ice cream, especially late atnight.
So basically I decided that Ihad to start cutting that stuff
back.
And in the beginning, you know,it's not fully cutting it out,
it's just cutting it back, andthen that way eventually when it
started to work and start to seethe weight loss, then over the
(04:06):
course of time it got easier tosay no to those things.
So for me, I basically went backand forth in the beginning where
I'd lose some a little bit ofweight, maybe a couple pounds
during the week, and then youknow, have beer and ice cream
and junk and whatnot on theweekend and pretty much put it
all back on.
And then that becamefrustrating.
(04:27):
So what I started to realizewhen I started to realize that I
basically said that this can'tkeep happening, and so I decided
one weekend I was gonna buckledown and not not have all that
junk, and the next weekcontinued my my exercise and and
fitness, as well as the eating,and eventually that's when I
(04:50):
started to see it compound andstart to really gain some
momentum in the weight loss.
The main thing I did was I cutout sugars.
I cut out even some in thebeginning I cut back to fake
sugars like stevia and thingslike that, but then eventually
that became to where like I larlearned that that's not even
(05:13):
good because the fake sugars arealso really not good for you.
So eventually I started Istopped putting any types of
sweeteners in my coffee.
I used uh an unsweetenedcreamer, and then eventually I
started to try differentcreamers that were like less
ingredients, because that'sthat's the thing.
(05:36):
You've got to start to read theingredients, and when you start
to learn what's in the in someof these foods and drinks, it
it's kind of frightening.
And one of the things that whyone of the ways I've learned
some of this is through readingand watching videos and things
like that, and one of the peoplethat I learned a lot of the
fitness, like the eating part ofit was was from um Bob Harper,
(05:59):
who's the one of the coaches onThe Biggest Loser.
Bob has a couple books, and I'velistened to some of his
audiobooks as well as read someof his books called like skinny
um skinny rules.
He's got all kinds of books,skinny this, skinny that, he's
got skinny cookbooks.
And once I realized that thatsome of these ingredients are in
(06:20):
all these foods, a lot of thehigh fructose corn syrups, a lot
of the sugars and things likethat, you it's it's kind of
frightening how much is in thefoods that we're kind of eating
almost on a daily basis.
So, one of the reasons why Ilike had to stop eating certain
things initially and years,years leading up to this recent
(06:44):
like run of doing well wasbecause I have an acid reflux
disease that if I want to feelbetter, I had to cut out certain
foods and drinks and stuff thatthat were really affecting my
health in other ways other thanyou know weight gain.
So for me, I I realized I had tobuckle down, and when I did it,
(07:07):
it worked.
And so not only did I feelbetter, but I also started
losing weight from it.
And that was all that was reallywithout any exercise.
But once I started to add inexercise, that really compounded
my results.
So for me, having cut out a lotof the fast food, first of all,
(07:31):
was one of the big things that Ididn't eat a ton of it, but and
a little bit is is basicallymore than I could even do
because the acid reflux diseasedoesn't really allow for me to
do any kind of fried foods, andfried foods, fatty foods, greasy
foods were were really at thetop of the list of things that I
(07:54):
had to stop doing.
And once I started it, I startedfeeling better in all different
ways, and just weight loss isjust kind of a byproduct of it.
The other thing is that Irealized once someone I
overheard a conversation betweentwo people who one guy was
saying to the other one, Hey, Ihaven't seen you a while, you
(08:15):
look like you lost weight, andhe's like, Yeah.
He's like, Hey, do you know thatif you for every one pound of
weight you lose, you will takefour pounds of pressure off of
your knees.
And these guys are having thisconversation, and meanwhile, I'm
sitting there with my knees werehurting me.
(08:37):
They were I was having a lot ofissues on my knees at the time,
and I've realized, whoa, andwithout even being in the
conversation, that just likestuck with me.
And that was one of the thingsthat motivated me to start uh
trying to lose weight.
That was one factor.
The other factor was that once Idecided I wanted to lose some
(09:00):
weight, I had a well, I watcheda show called Survivor, and
every time they show an episode,they say, like, hey, sign up to
be on the show.
And so one day I said, I'm gonnasign up, I'm gonna audition for
it.
So I submitted an an auditiontape video, and basically
(09:21):
decided, well, if I'm gonna ifthey ever call me, I gotta be
ready.
Because when we watch the showwith my family, we watch it and
we see people that go on theretotally out of shape, totally
like not not fit at all, andbasically they can't do the
challenges, they can't lift thethings, they can't run, they
can't they can't do hardly anyof it, and it's like well, why
(09:45):
didn't you prepare yourselfbetter?
So I made that part of myreason.
Part of the reason why I wantedto lose weight was and get in
shape and become more like fitin general, was in case they
called me, and they hopefullystill will, and I'm in a much
(10:07):
better position now than I thanI was, you know, six months ago,
because even though that was oneof the reasons why I started,
it's kind of been put to theback burner, like now it's not
even a thing.
Like I'm doing it for otherreasons now because I'm feeling
better and I'm starting toactually see results where you
(10:28):
know my stomach is much flatternow.
I have much much more you knowmuscular in a sense where
before, like I would, you know,again being 48, as you get
older, you know, you're you'restarting to get kind of hurt
doing anything.
You know, you go to go into thecabinet or go to do something,
and you're like, oh, that hurtmy shoulder, oh that hurt my
leg.
And it it got old for me.
(10:49):
It could I got to the pointwhere I'm like so sick of just
doing the stupidest littlethings and having it cause like
body pain.
And so I was like, I really needto start exercising.
And so that was more like theexercising part of it came from
that.
Whereas like the the dietingcame for a different reason, and
the exercise, I added anexercise for another reason, and
(11:12):
then together they've reallyreally just started to work hand
in hand, and this is really nosecret.
Like, most everybody that's evertried to lose weight, you're
never like most of the timeyou're always going to hear diet
and exercise together.
You're never really gonna beable to have fully like the full
(11:35):
results by just doing one or theother.
Now, you you could do one or theother and get results, but when
you do them together, yourresults are so much greater.
One of the things about myexercise routine was was very
simple.
I have just a simple fitnesscenter where I live where it's
(11:56):
not a lot of equipment, but it'senough.
And what I started to do was 20minutes a day.
First, I started out with justdoing like the treadmill and
some lightweights, andeventually I started going like
more often.
I've started out maybe once,once or twice a a week, and it
was spread out maybe three orfour days in between, and slowly
(12:19):
but surely I started getting mydays closer, where now at this
point it's just every other day,maybe every two, depending.
Because what I realized is thatyou really do need to let your
muscles recover.
And so if you're someone who uhlike has a lot of time and can
go every day, a lot of likeweightlifters and bodybuilders
(12:41):
and people that are reallytrying to put on muscle, they
they go every day of the weekand they do a different body
part or two on each day.
Whereas like I don't have thatmuch time, so I don't I have
created a routine for myselfwhere it's more like a kind of a
total body workout, but it itit's obviously not as intense as
(13:03):
like what people would do ifthey had all day to do one body
part.
But I've created a littleroutine that eventually once
when I started I was at 20minutes a day, 20 to 30.
Now, over the course of time myroutine has grown to about an
hour and a half to two hours.
But I only do it every other dayor every every sometimes
there'll be two days in between.
(13:24):
But basically three days a week,maybe an hour and a half to two
hours a day, and on the daysthat I don't do like the full
and like weightlifting portion,I just do the treadmill, or I
also just take walks and go outoutside and go in the park and
walk on the days that I don't dothe fitness center.
(13:45):
So that's kind of my routine,but basically, once I started, I
started adding more in and I gotbetter and better at it, and now
I'm 20 almost 25 pounds lighter,as well as feeling a whole lot
better because of it.
And I just wanted to encouragepeople that if you're someone
(14:08):
who wants to be more in shape,wants to eat healthier, wants to
be slimmer, wants to loseweight, it is possible, and it's
it's not easy in the beginning,it takes some work, but once you
get started, you will learn whatyou need to do.
And as you continue to do it andyou continue to do like research
about it, or you know, whetheryou follow social media
(14:30):
influencers who are you knowinto fitness or whatever, you
will learn more and more thingsto do.
If you read more books ondieting or exercise, you'll
learn like, oh wait, I'm stilleating this, but I should cut
this out, and you'll learn toadd this new thing in.
And so that's really what I'vedone is slowly um altered my
diet, slowly added things in,took things out.
(14:53):
Also do take some kind ofsupplements, like I've switched
to two to three different fatburners over the course of the
six to eight months that I'vebeen consistently doing this
routine.
So for me, little bits ofsupplements help.
Uh different kinds of foods,like I used to avoid all kinds
(15:16):
of all fats, like anything, Iwould no fat, no fat, but now I
realize that you you have tohave some fats, but you have to
have healthy fat.
So avocados and things likethat, and yogurts, these are
things that I started to add inbecause when you start to do it,
you want to track if you ifyou're using any kind of like a
Fitbit, like I use Fitbit to uhwear a watch and that tracks my
(15:40):
stuff, but on the app you candocument your food, and that's a
big part of it is documentingwhat you eat and what you may
hear the term macros, you know,macronutrients, and part of that
is its fats, it's carbs, and itsproteins.
So you need a little bit of eachat a certain amount of each, and
(16:01):
so cutting one all the way outisn't necessarily healthy, and
so there's healthy ways to loseweight, and then there's
unhealthy ways to lose weight,and starving yourself really
isn't a healthy way to do it.
And a lot of people will findthat when you don't eat
anything, it's not even youdon't even lose weight, you kind
of can't because like your bodyneeds certain things, and so for
(16:24):
me, like star I realize like noteating, it didn't really work.
I see people who just don't eatat all, and you think, well,
they're gonna lose weightbecause I'm not eating, but it's
not really the case, andespecially if you're gonna do
exercise as well, you need youneed carbs to burn, and so for
me, it's worked.
We're continuously altering thediet, adding things in, adding
(16:48):
things out.
Also, the exercises I do, I Iadd things in, I take things
out, I you know, I learn aboutsomething new, and I start
trying that for a different bodypart, and so that's how my
routine has evolved.
And hopefully, if you're someonewho's looking to make those
changes, these are things thatmaybe you could consider doing.
(17:09):
So, hopefully, this has beenhelpful.
I want to uh encourage you totake the first step or to
continue if you've started tocontinue because the consistency
is key, and doing it over thecourse of time is really where
you'll start to see the results.
Eventually, the pounds will juststart to drop off.
(17:30):
There may be a time where you'relike, I've been doing this so
long and nothing's happening.
Well, again, the more you learn,the more you realize maybe
you're doing something maybe notright, maybe you need to add
something in or take somethingout that's really holding you
back.
But once it starts to happen,you'll get excited and you'll
want to do even more of it, andit'll be a lot easier for you to
(17:52):
say no to you know the fattyfoods and and the greasy foods
and the fast food once you areseeing the results on the scale.
So hopefully this has beenhelpful.
Thank you for tuning in to thisepisode, and I will see you in
the next episode.
Have a great day.
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