My weight ballooned after I gave up drinking. Here’s how I finally quit both addictions

David Wilson pictured before his weight loss, at 18st 12lb (left) and after losing over 4st on the Human Being Diet

David Wilson, 60, is single and lives in Stamford. He’s father to an adult son, George.

Quitting booze six years ago was the making of me. I was 54 and it didn’t just save my life, it got me a new job: helping other people make the break too. But while I was busy being a supposed role model to others, behind the scenes all was not as well. As is often the case with former addicts, I’d simply swapped one craving for another kind.

Before January 2019, I was drinking a litre of vodka a night, my cholesterol levels were through the roof at over nine, and my blood pressure (184 over 126) was officially called a “hypertensive crisis”. I’m lucky I didn’t drop dead. (And yes, like everyone else, when the doctor asked “how much are you drinking?” I’d shrug “I like the odd drink.”)

Thankfully, after over 40 years of heavy drinking, I successfully gave booze the boot. But what no one really talks about is the fact that life doesn’t miraculously become perfect when you’re sober. The reason most of us end up abusing alcohol (or drugs) is to blot out some kind of pain. But even when you remove the toxin, its still there, lurking in the background.

Before giving up alcohol in January 2019, Dave was drinking a litre of vodka a night and his blood pressure was a ‘hypertensive crisis’

My career soared

The freshly sober will evangelically promote the message “life is rosy now”. They’re not lying, because initially that is true. In sober circles they call it the “pink cloud” – the high you feel when, post-withdrawal stage, life seems brilliant.

A few weeks after being dry I was buzzing. Up at 6am, sweating it out on a turbo trainer in my mate’s garage. I did the London to Brighton bike ride, then London to Paris. I lost over 3st (down from 21st) and I felt unstoppable.

What’s more, I’d relatively quickly gone from being “Dave the Carpet” on a makeover TV show, to straight-talking “Sober Dave” on Instagram. People related to the fact I wasn’t some smug influencer running a daily 10k; I was just a big tattooed bloke telling it like it was. The year after I launched my podcast One For The Road, which also did surprisingly well, then came the book and it snowballed. I had a new purpose.

Yet my personal life was in tatters

But while all that was taking off, behind closed doors my personal life was slowly falling apart. Admittedly, there were already cracks in my six-year-old marriage when I was drinking. Midlife marriages can be complicated; I had four step-children and my ex-wife had undergone cancer – more than once. I can’t have been easy to live with, and fundamentally we were cut from different cloth. Stopping drinking wasn’t a miraculous cure-all. My issues (a complicated childhood, a turbulent relationship which led to me constantly getting absolutely plastered, sleeping rough for four nights on the beach and culminated in the pain of my mum’s death in 2018) were all still there.

Once sober I started seeing life in full 4K, realising what I did and didn’t want. So by 2022 my marriage was over and we’d separated.

I packed my bags and left our London house, we both knew it was for the best. But it was unsettling, especially without alcohol as my trusty crutch any more, and with all the financial stress divorce brings. After moving around in-between rentals and hotels for the next year or so, I eventually bought my own place in the East Midlands. But I didn’t have many friends there, so apart from work (I now coach people online as well as give talks in schools, companies and for the Blue Light professions) life could sometimes feel fragile. I’d take Rosie, my dog, out for long, lonely walks thinking about life. But here’s the truth – while I’d remained sober throughout an emotional roller-coaster, I’d secretly swapped the booze addiction for a sugar one.

No one admits that swapping one addiction for another is incredibly common. Whether it’s food (like me) or shopping, work, exercise, social media – we all reach for something, people I meet in recovery circles all say the same thing. We’re all a bunch of hypocrites because we’re all human!

I swapped my beer gut for a food belly

Portion control was a problem, I thought I was being healthy having a weighty bowl of granola and Greek yoghurt in the morning, but I’d ladle on so much honey that breakfast alone was probably 700 calories. The bowl would weigh a tonne. Or I’d eat cinnamon buns, or wholemeal toast but slathered with peanut butter.

Lunch might be four chicken thighs with jacket potato and salad (and I’d polish my halo), then I’d tuck into a huge steak and chips for dinner – enough to feed an entire rugby team. I wasn’t a bad cook, it wasn’t like I’d left all that to my wife during marriage, but I was naive about portion sizes and nutrition.

In the evenings, I’d come home from a long day talking to people about alcohol addiction and scoff a family-sized apple crumble with vast amounts of ice cream, nipping back for more until – ah, f--k it – I’d finish the lot. “I’m allowed treats, I’ve stopped boozing,” I’d tell myself. But just like my drinking had stopped being something sociable by the end, so too had my eating. It was something I’d privately binge for a dopamine hit, along with a huge dollop of shame.

I ballooned back up to 19st 8lb through comfort eating, yet all the while I was out there giving talks, helping people get sober. I felt like a greedy fraud.

Comfort eating and lack of portion control resulted in Dave’s weight increasing to 19st 8lb – close to his weight before giving up alcohol

I didn’t think it was very “manly” to diet, as us men generally don’t talk about it, but I tried that Zoe patch thing, tracking my blood sugar, logging everything in the app. After three months I got bored and thought “sod it – I’ll be a happy fat, sober influencer” and own it in my big elasticated trackie bottoms pulling them up to my man boobs!

But I wasn’t happy, I’d found my divorce quite traumatic, and even though I’d had a relationship after that, I hit a wall last spring, feeling a 59 year-old fat b-----d.

Plus I was a mess physically, I was out of breath climbing the stairs and my gut was by then hanging over my trousers.

Finding the right diet

So I was properly fed up and looking for ways to lose weight when I came across a lovely lady on Instagram, who explained how when we quit drinking – and sugar cravings start to take over – it’s very common for people like me to gain weight gain. And with that comes a higher risk of diabetes along with other health problems.

Dave with Petronella Ravenshear, creator of The Human Being Diet

Sugar, you see, isn’t just “empty calories” but in fact a substance that drives cravings, addiction and long-term health issues in itself. More than just the waistline, too much sugar destroys our liver, heart, brain, and pancreas, too. I started focusing on stabilising blood sugar and getting insulin under control – which I realised was exactly what I needed.

Signing up to what’s known as The Human Being diet was brutal at the start. I kicked off with two days only eating vegetables and drinking Epsom salts, so let’s just say the floodgates opened – I felt like I’d shed 5st on the loo. No one talks about that part!

The good thing about it is the rules are clear: three meals a day (always combining a protein with vegetables) and a five-hour fast between meals to maintain healthy blood sugar levels. This means more stable energy, diminished cravings and better moods (because we all know being hungry makes us grumpy).

Ginger chicken stir-fry from The HBD Cookbook - Photography by Andrew Hayes-Watkins

They seemed like the tiniest portions known to man. No oil, no sugar (including fake sugar and sweeteners) and no grains. You’re not allowed alcohol either initially, but that wasn’t a hardship for me. In fact, once you’ve gone through the extreme discipline of quitting booze, you’ve got the mental strength it takes for this kind of diet discipline. I followed the rules to the latter, with “no negotiating, no excuses” the same mantra I’d had for quitting booze.

And it was effective quickly, I dropped over a stone in 16 days. Within a few months, I’d lost more than 4st and was down to 14st 10lb. I could see my jawline again. I bought proper suits, stopped hiding behind baggy black jumpers. I started to feel proud when I walked into a room.

By late autumn in 2024, I was at 14st 10lb, which for my 6ft height I’m happy with, even if I go up and down a pound or two.

‘I started to feel proud when I walked into a room’: Dave weighed 14st 10lb by late autumn last year

Looking ahead

Now, I follow the plan but I’m not a robot. During the week I eat clean: salad and boiled eggs for breakfast, tuna and avocado on rye for lunch. No processed rubbish, no refined sugar. But I’m human. At the weekend I’ll have a cinnamon bun. It’s about balance. I’m not punishing myself, just not taking the mick either.

Sobriety taught me this: I needed to stop running away. From booze, from food, from myself. Now, I do what people call “sitting with my feelings”. I love my work coaching people through addiction and hosting a weekly sober group. I’m up at 5am, in bed by 10pm.

As I’m single now I’ve no idea how it will be if I re-enter the dating scene. I’m certainly never drinking again but if I go out for dinner I can treat myself to some nice peppercorn sauce with my steak at least. Otherwise can you imagine me on a date? “I’ll have a lime soda and your finest salad please and absolutely no pudding” – that won’t quite cut it.

Dave: ‘I’m alive, I’ve got purpose and I’m trim’ - Paul Grover for the Telegraph

Right now I live a clean, quiet, grounded life. When people come and tell me they’d still be drinking if it wasn’t for me it genuinely makes me so happy. I’m alive, I’ve got purpose and I’m trim. I love it.

I turn 61 this month. Life is full of ups and downs, but I’m in the right place to manage them these days.

As told to Susanna Galton

Dave Wilson (aka Sober Dave) is a sobriety coach, author and host of the podcast One for the Road, a bestselling book of the same name. Follow him on Instagram @SoberDave

What Dave ate before

Breakfast: Huge portion of granola, with fruit, honey and yoghurt

Lunch: Chicken thighs, jacket potato and salad (again enough for four people)

Dinner: 8 sausages and mash with peas and gravy, followed by apple pie and ice cream

Snacks: Toast slathered with peanut butter mid morning, the in the afternoon biscuits or cake

Drinks: Coke, milky coffees and teas all day

What Dave eats now

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs and salad

Lunch: Tuna, red onion on rye bread

Dinner: Small portion chicken breast and mixed veg, with no pudding apart from on my treat meal on a Saturday, which could be fruit and Greek yoghurt

Snacks: None, just 3 meals a day

Drinks: Black coffee with meals water in between

How to quit a sugar addiction

Blood sugar highs and lows disrupt brain function, which can make cravings, mood swings and fatigue feel unbearable, according to Petronella Ravenshear, creator of the Human Being Diet (HBD). “Restoring healthy blood sugar balance is key to weight loss and to breaking sugar (and alcohol) addiction,” she says. Here’s how to do it:

Start the day with hydration

Drink ½ a litre of water first thing on waking and another 1.5l before lunch, adding unsweetened and unflavoured electrolyte drops for energy if needed (e.g. Viridian Sports). This will help clear out toxins from the fat cells that have broken down overnight.

Eat breakfast within an hour of waking up

Waiting too long between meals can allow blood sugar to drop too low, making sugar cravings more likely.

Stick to three meals a day

In every meal, including breakfast, always combine one protein food, (e.g. fish, eggs, chicken or tofu) with a mixture of vegetables. Meals like eggs and salmon with avocado and tomato work well.

A breakfast recipe of green vegetables and eggs from The HBD cookbook - Photography by Andrew Hayes-Watkins

No Snacking – try a pinch of salt instead

Eating in between meals is not allowed, as there needs to be a five-hour fast, with water only, between meals. This helps maintain blood sugar levels which will diminish cravings and improve mood and energy levels.

If you’re feeling weak or light-headed during the fasting windows, put a pinch of sea salt on your tongue.

Food to strictly avoid

Grains, sugar, honey, sweeteners, alcohol and fruit juice, eliminate all fruit other than an apple, to be eaten with with one meal a day.

The drinks allowed

In between meals stick with only water, or black unsweetened coffee or tea with meals. When drinking with meals, adding apple cider vinegar helps with our blood sugar balance.

Avoid intense exercise

Don’t attempt any cardio (for at least the first 16 days) to minimise cortisol (the stress hormone) which raises blood sugar

Bathe in Epsom salts

Before bed, add a pound of Epsom salts to a hot bath, then soak for at least 10 minutes, dry off and hop straight into bed. There’s a theory these can draw out toxins – while that’s unproven, they do aid falling asleep because of the magnesium.

Prioritise sleep

Get as much rest as you possibly can – it’s when we’re asleep that we’re fat-burning and detoxing. And sleep deprivation makes us more like to crave sugar and carbs.

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