A man who reached almost 20 stone after transferring his addiction from drugs and alcohol to food found a way to lose five stone thanks to seven simple words. Brandon Kaitschuck, now 32, became addicted to drugs after starting marijuana at 15.
From Addiction to Rock Bottom
Brandon said: “I found that drinking and drugs were an easy temporary fix to feeling bad all the time. I found pretty quickly that I could get high and still perform.” He studied Mandarin and would do homework while smoking weed. “I would literally get high all day. I went to class high, studied high - and I still got high grades.”
He added: “By day I would be getting perfect grades in the advanced classes, hanging out with these really nerdy kids. Then after school I would hang out with people who had dropped out of school and were all addicts.” Brandon started using harder drugs and says, “It is a surprise that I am still alive.” When he ran out of fentanyl and could not make it to a test, everything collapsed. He decided to come clean with friends, family and lecturers and get help.
“I emailed them saying ‘Hey, I'm a drug addict, I gotta go to rehab’,” he said. For years Brandon was in a cycle of rehabilitation and backsliding. He often looked like he was doing well and got a job in sales, but says “I was just destroying myself”.
The Turning Point
Brandon ran a marathon while addicted to drugs, and later trained for triathlons, half Iron Man events and eventually a full Iron Man. Some mornings, he would use before work. “I had my laptop open, I would be high, feeling fine, and I just kept calling, kept setting meetings. Sometimes I would do drugs during the day - when I was working at home. Some nights I would be out drinking 15 or 20 beers. It got to the point that I just hated myself.”
As he got older, he struggled at work. “The withdrawals were so bad, and I would be shaking. I loved my job and the people I worked with, but I would end up so ill I’d have to take time off.” Brandon had a premonition that he would continue drinking heavily until his sixties, drying out every few years before falling off the wagon again. The thought made him sick, so three years ago he decided enough was enough and sought professional help.
“I really was at rock bottom. I was so sick of myself and who I had become.” He was recommended a therapist named Mohamad, who had helped him years before in rehab. Mohamad was blunt, demanding, and deeply effective. He gave him seven words that changed his life. “He was just very direct with me,” Brandon remembers. “He told me: ‘The problem is you don't respect yourself.’”
Transferring Addiction to Food
He worked hard to stay off drugs and alcohol, but his addiction quickly transferred to food. He found he could order from multiple takeaway places at once and eat it all. “I could call Uber Eats and order McDonald's, KFC, pizza, sushi - whatever I was craving - and just indulge in all of it at once. I was super impulsive.” At his heaviest, Brandon, who is 6 foot 1, weighed 19.5 stone (123 kg).
So Brandon locked in. Out went the takeaways and in came lean beef, chicken, rice, fish, quinoa and vegetables. He weighed everything he ate and kept training. Within eighteen months he’d lost five stone and has since kept it off. Brandon leaned on his Christian faith and the unwavering support of his family, friends, and coworkers. “I'm not proud of who I was or the things I did, but I am endlessly grateful for the grace I was shown,” he says. “I wouldn't be here without God and the people who stood by me.”
Achieving the Impossible
The healthy routines he had tried to build during his addiction finally took root. He channeled his intense drive into extreme physical discipline, taking on a full Iron Man. He completed the 140-mile race, despite suffering an injury when, on the third mile, Brandon stopped to help lift a golf cart off a volunteer who had fallen down a hill. The heavy lift caused a hernia, but Brandon pushed through the pain.
He also focused on other things he loved, like playing saxophone, performing onstage - although this time without alcohol to calm his nerves - and travel. He learned new languages, including conversational Indonesian while living in Bali, and Spanish, which he picked up working in coffee shops in Colombia. Brandon also set up Sphynx Links, a strategic advisory healthcare firm. He has repaired his relationships with his parents, who spent tens of thousands of dollars on his rehab.
“I couldn’t have made all these improvements without my faith in God and Jesus Christ and the incredible support system of family, therapists, friends, and coworkers who never gave up on me. I simply wouldn't be here without them.”
