A portly grandad now has “the body of a 25-year-old” after a heart attack pushed him to get fit. Tucking into takeaways and drinking a litre of brandy each week, Richard Gouldon admits he couldn't even wear his wedding ring due to his "fat fingers".
But drastic change came in June 2021 when, weighing 15st, Richard suffered a heart attack. Cutting out booze and and overhauling his diet, he started a fitness programme in Leeds with “life-changing results”.
The 54-year-old, who lives with his wife, Claire Gouldon, 48, and two of his five children, Phoebe, 13, Grace, eight, said: “I looked like an old man and now I look like a 25-year-old. All I wanted was to be healthy and to not die, but what they’ve given me is this amazing new body that has transformed my entire life."
Richard explained his weight gain began when he fell 30ft out of a tree in 2018 and damaged all the muscles and nerves in the left side of his body. It left him in constant pain and struggling to walk.
With his family’s fitted furniture business to run, he ploughed on working 12-hour days, on just three hours of sleep a night. As a way of letting off steam, he enjoying steak dinners with pals and takeaways at weekends.
“I would drink every other day, at least three double brandys a night – probably a litre of brandy a week,” he said. “I was very much in the mid-life lifestyle, having meals out three times a week because all anybody says is ‘let’s go have a steak’, and you just pile it on.
“I would work six days a week, ten to 12 hours a day, get home, have a curry, a couple of brandys and that was how I released stress. I looked swollen all over, including my fingers, so I couldn’t even put my wedding ring on.”
But everything came to a head when Richard had the heart attack. "I was sat at home drinking some orange juice and I just got this massive pain,” he said.
“My wife said she thought I might be having a heart attack but I said, no, it can’t be. But then the pain was out of control, we had to go to hospital.”
Richard was fitted with two stents – tiny tubes that are inserted into blocked passageways in the heart to keep it open. Doctors then told him to rest for the next six months and advised him to get fit afterwards.
For one hour, three times a week, Richard began his Ultimate Performance weight-based workouts as well as adopting a no-carb protein and vegetable diet. “When I first started, they asked me what I wanted to look like, and I said Mark Wahlberg, because he is ripped but can still look normal with a shirt,” he said.
“I never actually imagined I might end up like it. I just didn’t want to die.”
By the end of 12 weeks, Richard had hit his goal of 13 stone and but couldn’t believe the results. “It was like they had swapped my body for someone in their 20s,” he said.
“Even after ten weeks, in the pictures, my skin looked healthier and I had lost all the visceral fat and the swelling. And I could put my wedding ring back on!”
After 16 weeks, Richard had dropped to 12 stone, and had completely changed his diet. “I don’t drink anymore – now, I think brandy actually tastes like poison!” he said.
“The other day I was invited to the pub with my mates and I got a coffee and no one chastised me, they all really support me. But I also have a better work-life balance.
"I start work at 6.30am or 7am but I finish by 3pm and go straight to the gym. Or, on a Friday afternoon, I’ll finish work, go get our two grandkids and go straight to the caravan in Bridlington.”
So amazed by the results, Richard convinced his wife to join Ultimate Fitness – as well as encourage his five children to get fit. “Claire never thought she would like it but she’s been there three months and she loves it and sees it as a safe space,” he said.
“I’m getting my younger wife back! She’s got more life. Since I started doing what I’m doing, every single person in my family has a gym membership now.”
Richard is keen to encourage others too to get fit too and try Ultimate Fitness. “If I hadn’t had a heart attack, I would have just rolled into grandad life and probably gone up to about 16 stone,” he said. “But this has given me another body and another life.”
