One California dad is making major waves on the internet after he quit drinking and totally transformed his body and mind.
Cheyne Kobzoff spent years of his life as a casual drinker. In his early 30s, his drinking habit began to turn into a real problem.
Cheyne, a father and husband, would come home from his job and start drinking right away.
According to an interview with Tonic, he reached a point where he was putting away as many as 12 beers a night, plus a glass or two of wine with his wife when she got home. He wanted to quit, but couldn't quite summon up the will to do it.
Then, he finally drew a line in the sand and quit drinking cold turkey.
Like the young man who dropped hundreds of pounds by adding exercise to his routine, Cheyne made a commitment to change his lifestyle from the ground up and never looked back.
One year sober, Cheyne looks like a totally different guy.
Scroll through to see his jaw-dropping transformation.
Cheyne Kobzoff reached a low point in his life in early 2016.
For over a year, he had known that he needed to put an end to his drinking habit, but he just couldn't seem to commit.
Finally, he set an arbitrary date, March 23, as the day he would stop for good. He decided to document his progress and see what happened one year later.
So, just like he promised himself, on March 23, 2016, Cheyne quit drinking cold turkey.
One year later, he posted a picture on the social media site Reddit, showing how he looks after committing to ending his relationship with alcohol.
Yes, that really is the same guy.
Cheyne lost a whopping 53 pounds and totally transformed, body and mind.
Both pictures are the same pose and posture, and he uses a "selfie stick" to get the full body photos.
His before and after picture took off online, becoming a major inspiration to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. It's also one of the most popular posts on the Reddit site.
Here's a closer look at the "after" picture. Cheyne explains in his caption: "One year of no alcohol has changed my life. I lost 53 pounds and I'm 1,000 times happier."
Cheyne's new, sculpted physique is the result of cutting out the empty calories in beer and trading the oblivion of getting drunk for the natural high of running.
He also shaved of his long beard, curious to see his thinner face shape underneath.
Most importantly, his mind and emotions are clearer and happier than ever.
In an interview with Tonic, Cheyne explains that he reached a point where his drinking was getting really unhealthy.
He describes regular blackouts and drunken escapades on the weekends, and explains that he has a family history of alcoholism.
He realized that things were getting out of control in his early 30s, when too much was at stake for him to be drunk all the time.
In an update on Reddit, he writes: "I used to worry about if [my kids] got sick or hit their head and it was already after 4 o'clock? Who's going to drive them to the ER?"
So he set his date, March 23, and stuck to it.
He explains that it was incredibly difficult at first, and describes intense symptoms of anxiety that suddenly appeared without alcohol to quiet his stress.
Eventually, the anxiety built up to such a head that he just felt that he needed to get out of the house.
He walked out the door and took off, running a straight mile through his neighborhood. That's how he discovered exercise as the antidote to alcohol withdrawal.
He began documenting his progress and using the Couch to 5K approach. When he ran his first 5k under 30 minutes, he posted a photo online.
The beer gut melted away and his life transformed.
He summed up like this: "No more heart burn… My hair doesn't fall out. I can do pull ups, sometimes I have abs, I can outrun my dog if he gets out. I don't have white tongue or a bar tan. I don't stink like [a bar]. Pretty much LIFE IS PRETTY [EXPLETIVE] GOOD RIGHT NOW. Because I don't drink."
If you're inspired by Cheyne's incredible story, be sure to SHARE and spread the word about his amazing willpower and transformation!
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