Tony Miller is a 62-year-old financial executive from Long Island, NY. During COVID, he ended up piling on the pounds and wasn’t exercising. He felt like an old man when walking up the stairs. His tennis game was suffering as well. Using the BuiltLean Transformation program, he dropped over 20lbs and now moves like one of the young guys when he plays tennis.
What You’ll Learn
- The moment Tony knew he had to make a change
- His #1 regret after losing the weight
- How his wife helped him stay accountable
- What his friends said after he lost the weight
- How his eating habits have completely changed
Listen Now
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Transcript
Tony Miller: I’m 62 years old, why is it such a struggle just to climb the stairs and maintain my balance? I wasn’t working out, my legs were weak, and I just felt… I’m like, “I feel like an old man.” And I remember thinking, “This is just not right, something is going on here, this is ridiculous, something’s gotta give, I can’t keep doing this, I don’t wanna live like this.”
Marc Perry: Hi, I’m Marc Perry, founder of BuiltLean, and I just did a podcast with Tony Miller, who’s a 62-year-old BuiltLean client, he dropped over 20 pounds and is really an inspiration for his family, his friends, to stay fit as you age. Here it is, I hope you enjoy it.
Tony Miller: Here, glad to be able to share any information that might hopefully be encouraging or helpful to anybody else watching this, listening to this.
Marc Perry: Awesome, awesome. And so first question, Tony, is… Listen, a lot of guys maybe they’re in high school or college, you’re super fit, you’re an athlete, nothing can stop you, and then things start to change. Right? And then…
Tony Miller: Absolutely.
Marc Perry: So can you tell me a little bit more about your background and how things started to shift or when they started to shift? Of course, I’ve read a lot about… I know about you, we’ve coached you, but just for people listening, talk a little bit about your background.
Tony Miller: Well, I guess for a lot of people right now, 2023, COVID happened. And I think for me, even before COVID, actually, things started to change job-wise. I worked for a large investment bank and actually changed jobs, went to a smaller firm, and the responsibilities shifted with that. I took on more responsibility, a lot more responsibility, so the hours spent working just became tremendous, so that was the first shift.
Marc Perry: By the way, can you adjust the camera just so we can see you? We wanna see your lovely face, Tony, so.
Tony Miller: Alright.
Marc Perry: Continue. Obviously, more responsibility. By the way, I’ve heard that before, so continue.
Tony Miller: Okay. So took on a lot more responsibility workwise. I mean my kids are grown, so that wasn’t an issue. So with increased responsibility, it meant less time to do some of the things I’d enjoyed doing before: Play a lot of tennis, I liked working out, even if the working out part of it was not very regimented and disciplined. The fact was I was playing a lot more tennis, and most of that just got pushed to the side because of work responsibilities. Then COVID happened and somehow with COVID, you figure, Okay, you’re at home, you’re gonna have more time to go to the gym and so on. Well, somehow that just did not happen. For some reason, it felt like I was working way more hours working from home than I did when I was going into the office. Just couldn’t disconnect. Not to mention you’re at home, the kitchen is right downstairs, so whatever that brought with it happened to me, so within a space of… Beginning of 2020 to the next couple of years after that, I just started gaining a lot of weight. Yeah, fine, I’m at home, I could go for walks, but that wasn’t consistent, but that’s really what happened, that’s when it took a turn for the worse for me, and I just blew up.
Marc Perry: Right. So a major lifestyle change as a result of COVID is what we’re getting at?
Tony Miller: Yes.
Marc Perry: Okay. And what else changed about specifically your eating and your exercise?
Tony Miller: Well, okay. So not exercising, I’m not playing as much tennis as I used to, whatever singles tennis I used to play, now I’m playing doubles. Couldn’t find guys who wanted to play singles anymore, and that happened, I guess was starting to happen even before COVID. Seemed like once guys get to past 40, 45, for some reason, they don’t wanna play singles anymore, so we started playing more doubles, so my activity level dropped. I’m eating the same, if not more, because I’m at my desk all day. And it’s funny, my wife sent me a picture once on my phone, and it was a picture of a guy sitting on, excuse me, a toilet working, ’cause she says, “That’s probably the only time I ever get up, barely to go to the bathroom.”
[laughter]The fact was I was just working long hours and I would just get up, go eat, come back, get up, eat, come back, sometimes she’d bring me something to eat. And sometimes that my eating habits was totally thrown off, sometimes I wouldn’t even eat lunch. And then late in the evening, when I tried to disconnect, I’d go downstairs because I’m just ravenous at this point… And I used to order out a lot, one of these apps, whatever you use to order foods or I’d go pick something up and I’d always get more than I needed to eat. And the excuse was, Well, this is for when I can order or I’m busy, I just have it on reserve. And I was overeating ’cause it never stayed for the reserve for the tomorrow, whenever. And I was eating late. I just fell into a really, really bad place with food. And my mom used to have a saying when I was younger, “The more you eat, the more you’re gonna wanna eat.” And that’s what was happening, my appetite became real wide. And it is funny, when I was a kid… People are not gonna… I could not gain weight, I never ever in my life had to worry about gaining weight. I remember at one point, they had to put me on medication just to gain weight.
Marc Perry: Wow.
Tony Miller: And then as I got older, that totally changed, whatever happened to my metabolism, I’m totally flipped. But my mindset hadn’t changed with it, Okay, you’re gaining weight, you need to do something. I still had the mentality of a young 20-year-old or teenager, but my body was different, so I couldn’t eat the way I wanted to eat. I never counted calories or was ever concerned about what I ate in my life, but…
Marc Perry: Interesting. So let’s talk about… Okay, so when did you hit that point where you’re like, “I’ve gotta make a shift, it’s like something’s gotta change.”
Tony Miller: Climbing the stairs to go upstairs or go down the stairs. Okay, I’m an older guy now, I am not trying to tell you my age but I’m 62 years old, and going up the stairs, going down the stairs, my back hurt, my knees hurt, I felt lethargic, I just felt this, “Why is it such a struggle just to climb the stairs and maintain my balance?” I wasn’t working out, my legs were weak and I just felt… I’m like, “I feel like an old man.” And I remember thinking, “This is just not right, something is going on here, this is ridiculous.” And it felt like just climbing the stairs, just going up a flight the stairs to go upstairs or to go down to the kitchen. And one day it dawned on me, No, something’s gotta give, I can’t keep doing this, I don’t wanna live like this. And I just got really frustrated with myself. And I said, “No, it’s time for… ” Well, in addition, I remember going to the doctor for my annual checkup because my job required it for insurance coverage so I could get preferred rates. And I remember the doctor using this terminology, “prediabetic” in the same sentence with my name. I’m like, “What? Pre what?” “Prediabetic.” I’m like, “What do you mean prediabetic?” “Nothing you gotta worry about,” he says, “but I’m gonna put you on this medication.”
Marc Perry: Sure.
Tony Miller: I’m like, “Okay.” And then several months later I went back and he used the term “prediabetic” as well and he says, “How is that med going?” I’m like, “Okay, I’m taking the meds.” And he said, “Okay.” And he got the blood tests, sent the results a week or so later, my cholesterol was back, it was down. My cholesterol was high, I was prediabetic, and it was at that point I said, “Okay.” It was like November, December that year when I did that, and then it was on a January timeframe that in my mind… I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions, but I said, “Okay, I gotta do something,” and I think that’s when I reached out to you guys.
Marc Perry: I was just about to ask you. Okay, that’s a powerful… So a lot of guys, they get that kind of conversation with their doctor and that sometimes is a big impetus for them making a change. And so original question is, How did you find out about BuiltLean originally? Was it from my dad?
Tony Miller: Yes, it was from your dad.
Marc Perry: Oh my god. That’s hilarious.
Tony Miller: Yeah, it was from your dad 15 years prior to that.
Marc Perry: That’s amazing.
Tony Miller: Yeah, I always had your business card, he gave it to me, it was in my wallet, and quite honestly, it was like I’m like, “Have this for… Save this for later, this is my backup plan.”
Marc Perry: That is hilarious, man. And so it’s January, what made you be like, “Let me reach out to Marc and BuiltLean and his team.” What was the spark where you’re like, “Okay let me reach out to BuiltLean?”
Tony Miller: Well, I had subscribed to get your information, so I was following you, I would read your articles, which I thought was very interesting, very well informed, I was never a fitness guru or anything, I just did it. I used to over the years. But your articles, very interesting to me, the thing was it never just addressed working out. I would read some of your articles that talked about food, eating, exercise habits, lifestyle habits in terms of discipline, your mind, things that you would do, just stuff like that. And I found it also interesting.
Marc Perry: Cool.
Tony Miller: So I’m like, “Okay, if you’re gonna do something, this is the way to go.” That’s what I said to myself, for me, because I always found your articles very informative and stimulating mentally.
Marc Perry: Cool, cool, cool. Okay. And so let’s talk about you signing up and where you were. And so obviously, you’re in this place where you’re feeling lethargic, you’re feeling old. You’re like, “Oh my gosh, this is… ” You feel old, you feel sluggish, your eating is a little bit out of control, it sounds like it’s not quite in control. And so are there any other challenges when you started the program? Any concerns when you started the program. You’re like, “Can I do this?” What were your thoughts?
Tony Miller: Interesting, well, also what had happened was a few months before that I changed jobs, so that heavy schedule with that other firm was no longer on me. I changed jobs, got back into a situation. And the motivation for that also was I was just working too hard, putting in too many hours, and I’m like, “Something’s gotta give with that.” So once I made that change, I’m like, “I have no excuses now.” So the impetus was I had time, and one of the first thing I was gonna do with some of the time that I bought back was, I need to take care of myself. So I decided, “Okay, now that I have the time and I don’t want to be on any medication that I don’t have to take if I don’t have to take it. If there is some alternative way of doing this, let’s pursue that. And that was really the impetus for me. Give it a shot, see if you can get this corrected without meds. Yes, it’s gonna be work, you have the time, let’s give it a shot. And I reached out.
Marc Perry: Awesome. And so let’s talk about your results. Listen, your first week, you might have a little bit of that kind of nervousness, you’re like, “Is this gonna work? Is this gonna work?” All that kind of stuff. Overall, what results do you see of the program? You can talk about your results.
Tony Miller: Well, I think when I first started, my expectations for… I was gonna do whatever the program required for me to do, that was just my mindset. Years before, I had worked with a personal trainer many, many years before that when I had some medical situation going on and I really wanted to get well. So I knew for me, I was never going to get the results that I wanted to get doing it on my own because there were times when I tried that and I knew me, so I needed to put myself in a program where I felt I was going to be held accountable, where I needed to have metrics, measurements, expectations were laid out, that I needed to follow this and it was gonna be tracked and it wasn’t just up to me to just track it arbitrarily.
So when I saw what the program entailed, when we talked, I saw that it involved food and eating. That was probably the most stressful part of this for me more than the working out because I was always a very physical person, I thought that some point, I could get up to speed with the exercising and all of that. But the food part of it was like, “Oh boy, here we go.” I remember this. But I’m like, “You know what? You probably haven’t gotten success on your own up to this point because you haven’t really addressed that part.” My relationship with food was just not good.
Marc Perry: So how did it change?
Tony Miller: First of all, it changed because I wanted the results, it changed because I saw laid out how I should be eating, maybe some of the things I should be eating, some of the things I should not be eating or eating less of. And once I saw that, it all made sense. So I decided, Well, let’s just do this and see where you get after doing it. Give it a chance, give it… ” And that’s what I did. So yes, I had to get on some of the calls that BuiltLean hosted on Fridays, I believe it was. And I would get on those calls, I would hear other guys talk and I would just listen.
I remember at times saying, “Oh boy, I’m really in now. Can I step up?” But I was willing to give it a shot and step up. But it was interesting hearing some of those guys talk through the changes they had to make mentally, whatever. And I’m like, “Okay, okay, I can do this,” and I started changing. And I mean the biggest thing for me, one of the big… I wouldn’t say “the biggest thing,” but sugar. I remember, Okay, start small, make the easy changes because it was not difficult, stop putting sugar in your coffee, don’t put sugar in your tea, stuff like that. So I started making the changes. And once I started making the changes, my appetite adjusted. Okay, I didn’t miss the sugar anymore. Okay, I remember I said I was never a calorie-counter. I would probably get a couple of oatmeal raisin cookies, and we had something at the house. And that was one of the things. My wife, she understood, but she needed to work with me to a certain extent to create an environment that would help me to be successful. But we had something, either at our house or somebody else’s house, and somehow dessert was in my refrigerator and it was prepackaged. And I remember picking it up and looking at the label, and just one piece of this dessert was like 500 calories, I just went beserk. I just put it back and I just stepped away.
Marc Perry: Like, “I didn’t see anything.: That’s hilarious.
Tony Miller: But stuff like that. And I remember what I was supposed to eat in terms of calories, estimating calories at each meal. This was like well over half of the calories that I needed to have for a meal. I’m like, “This is crazy, no wonder I’m outta control.” Because prior to BuiltLean, I could have easily had two pieces of that piece of dessert and not even think about it, that would’ve been 1000 calories with no nutritional value. My brain started to change in terms of how I was looking at food, and that was one of the first things that happened. And immediately, I just made that shift mentally that I’ll never go back to that, and to this day, I haven’t gone back to that. I’m not saying I don’t have dessert, but if I do have a piece of dessert, it’s with the mindset that, Okay, I know what I’m doing and I’m gonna have to make up for this somehow for the rest of the day, maybe need to do an extra 15 minutes in the gym or something. I’m not as careless.
Marc Perry: Not mindless.
Tony Miller: Right. It’s not mindless.
Marc Perry: It’s mindful. Right? It’s like you know what’s going on, which is powerful.
Tony Miller: Correct.
Marc Perry: Okay. Cool.
Tony Miller: Absolutely.
Marc Perry: And so as you’re making this transformation, can you talk about the final… I think you… Was it you lost 20 pounds? Is that…
Tony Miller: At least 20 pounds, I think I started the program… I started the program at 238 pounds.
Marc Perry: Right, and so your height is…
Tony Miller: I’m 6’3″.
Marc Perry: Yeah. A very tall guy.
Tony Miller: Yeah, 6’3″, and I was about 238. Actually, I was heavier than that before the program, but I had already… Every January, I do a fasting thing, so I was coming down from over 240 pounds. So by the time I started BuiltLean, I was about 238, and I got as low as 212 pounds, actually.
Marc Perry: Wow. Wow. That’s a huge change.
Tony Miller: Yes.
Marc Perry: Huge change.
Tony Miller: So right now, I’m about 215, 216.
Marc Perry: Okay. Nice, nice.
Tony Miller: I think I feel a lot better, my knees feel a lot better. Matter of fact, this fall, which I haven’t done in seven years or more, I signed up for singles tennis in the tennis league, I had stopped playing singles. Got my butt kicked on Thursday, but was all good… On Wednesday, actually. But I’m back on the court playing singles, I feel I can do that now, I’m gonna build up to it, but yeah, I’ve dropped the weight, so I’m willing to take on challenges that I would never have thought of before.
Marc Perry: Nice, nice, I mean that’s phenomenal, that’s what it’s about ’cause before, you were feeling old, you were feeling like everything was hurting, and now you’re in a place where you’re literally getting back in the game, you’re doing great, which is incredible, that’s huge. And so I’m curious, What did you like most about the program?
Tony Miller: What did I like… Honestly, this is gonna sound crazy maybe, I like most about the program, the consciousness it brought to me about eating, it was the biggest challenge before and the part where I felt like I was gonna struggle the most, and I did struggle. But this awareness around how I ate, what I ate, maybe not so much when I ate, and I can still improve about when I eat because sometimes I still eat a little bit too late at night. I think I need to watch that. Not that the program talks so much about when I ate but being way more conscious about what I’m eating and how much I’m eating. I can never go back to what I used to do, and that’s been riveted in me just over the couple of months that I was in a program. I’ve made that mental shift and I can never go back to that.
Marc Perry: Interesting. And so as you know… I imagine you’ve done some other programs in the past, what have you tried and why didn’t it work for you and help you make this change?
Tony Miller: Well, okay, I worked with a personal trainer sometime in the past, that worked up to a point, but there was never any discussion of food. I was on my own with that. Anything else that I did, it was maybe an application that I would pay for, internet based, but it was up to me to log the information, there was nobody touching base, no FaceTime with anybody else saying “Hey, Tony, how’s it going?” Nothing like that, it was just me going to the gym, maybe doing some exercise routines, whatnot. What was missing in most of this other stuff was accountability, I was accountable to myself pretty much. That does not work for me. With the personal trainer that I worked with some years in the past, that kind of worked because I knew that if he’s at the gym waiting on me, 5 o’clock Thursday evening, I needed to be there, so I would be there. But what was missing was the food part altogether, not being educated as to how to eat, what to eat and so on. And I would read stuff on the internet myself and try to educate myself on stuff. But that’ll take you so far, and it’s just so much stuff out there that’s not properly researched or well informed, you need somebody who… That’s their business to tell you that. So that didn’t work long term. And then again working the job and doing all the things that I do for my job, that stuff easily got pushed to the background, where if it’s dependent on me to go do what I needed to do, I gave other things priority over that, so.
Marc Perry: That makes perfect sense. By the way, it’s a reflection of priorities. Another thing is if you don’t really wanna do something, you’d be like, “Something else is gonna take priority.” Right?
Tony Miller: Right.
Marc Perry: I hear you, I hear you. And so obviously you’ve done the BuiltLean workouts, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the workouts and how they’ve worked for you.
Tony Miller: Well, on the workout front, I remember when I first started doing the work, I’m like, “Oh, this is easy.” And then started getting into it. And then maybe it was after the first week, I realized, “Wow, this is not as easy as I thought.” By the second week, it started picking up. I’m like, “Okay.” And then I started observing the videos, looking at the form, and I realize, “Okay, I’m really not mirroring the form that I’m seeing here.” I was cheating, but I didn’t realize I was cheating. But I was like, “I’m gonna get my money’s worth out of this. Let this work for you.” And then as I started trying to conform to what I was seeing in terms of how the workouts are actually being done and trying to maintain the intensity, the time between the breaks, between whatever, just trying to follow the video, I’m like “Okay, this is going to be a challenge, I really need to stay true to this.”
And as I started getting into it, yeah, of course I didn’t see result within the first week, two weeks, whatnot. But after the first maybe three weeks or so, I started feeling stronger, especially in my lower body. And that was big for me, the stability in my legs because I was starting to almost believe that at 60 years old, 61, going on 62, that this was normal, maybe this was acceptable. And doing the workouts and hearing some of the discussion, I realized, “No, this is probably not normal or acceptable.” You don’t have to believe that because you’re getting older, that you should be losing strength or feel unstable. So don’t believe that, just follow the workouts and see what happens.” And by maybe two, three weeks in, I started feeling more stable in my legs, and then that was encouraging. So it’s a little bit of encouragement, it was more impetus to, “Okay, get into this.” And I really tried to do the workouts and not cheat.
Marc Perry: And so one challenge a lot of guys have, and I know you certainly have, and everyone has, this is like people around you, “Hey, I’m feeling old, this is not working out, my age.” Everyone’s complaining about their age around you. So it’s like it’s in your mind, you’re like, “Wait.” Then you start making these same excuses and then… You know what I’m saying? So you went against the grain. And the cool thing is by being part of BuiltLean and by hearing a different perspective, you’re able to not listen to everyone else.
Tony Miller: It’s funny you should put it like that, I was playing tennis. You know I played tennis. And the guys I played tennis with in Roslyn, they’re all older than me. This one’s having back surgery, this one’s having knee surgery, this one’s having hip surgery, and I was falling into that mindset. Once I got with the BuiltLean program and started hearing them talk and getting results, immediately I got turned off from listening to that tennis group and some of what those guys are going through, I’m like, “That’s not gonna be me.” That’s what also changed mentally in my head.
Marc Perry: That’s huge because that’s, by the way, that’s one of the mental blocks, guys saying, “Oh, I’m too old to do this, I’m too old and I’m too old.” And it’s like that starts becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s like, “Oh, I’m too old to do this,” then you don’t do that and then you go downhill. So that’s powerful. Cool, I was gonna… That’s definitely a challenge because, as you know, the obesity rate keeps on going up. People are having more and more trouble and challenges as they age, and so you’re bucking that trend, so well done. I also want to give your wife a shoutout, by the way, because she sternly helped support you.
Tony Miller: Absolutely.
Marc Perry: And I want to ask… I want to ask your thoughts on that because, listen, most of the guys who we work with and a lot of the guys that are married with kids, and it’s like if they don’t have their wife onboard, that could be a big challenge. So I want to hear a little bit more about like your wife supporting you and how you helped her get on board, or she was just already on board? Like how that worked.
Tony Miller: Well, first of all, the eating part was where she helped me the most, I’d say, because I told her basically, “Look, I’m cutting out the sugar, all this dessert and stuff. I’m done with that, I’m not doing that anymore.” And I just gave her big picture what my eating was going to be like. I said, “They tell me I can have as much vegetable as I want.” She’s a gluten-free person, she really doesn’t eat meat, but she knows that I always love to eat a good steak and whatnot. But I told her, “I’m going to be cutting back.” She says, “Great, now you won’t go to this Tex-Mex place anymore.” She would say. While I started a BuiltLean program, maybe I went to the Tex-Mex place once or twice, and she said… So she would tell me, “I thought you were going to cut that out.” So she would catch me up, so to speak, or point fingers. “I thought you said you’re… ” I’m like, “Okay, you’re right.” So early on, she helped me to toe the line, then she started cooking differently, and she would actually put the food on the plate sometimes for me, not often, so I’d get a lot more vegetable, I’d get smaller portions of meat or chicken.
And so she really helped me in that regard. She knew I’m an island boy, I grew up in the islands, I love my rice and beans. She knew I had to cut that back. So she would put a lot… Cook a lot less rice or not cook rice maybe more than once or twice per week so it wasn’t there to be eaten anyway, but she always cooked a lot more vegetables, and she would cook more fish. So she started preparing meals that was more consistent with how I needed to eat, and that was a big change. And she would remind me, “Okay, you said you weren’t going to do this, you said you weren’t going to do that.”
Marc Perry: Nice.
Tony Miller: That was helpful, not that I didn’t know, but just knowing she was watching or observing, like, “Okay, that’s good.”
Marc Perry: I wish we could say, yeah, she was on the BuiltLean payroll and that she was… And we were feeding her, telling her what to do, da, da, da. That’s great that she really helped you. And that’s an important thing. Like what advice would you give to a guy to help their wife get on board if they’re maybe not quite on board?
Tony Miller: I think you just need to have that conversation with them upfront. Just lay a big picture for them, how you need to be eating so that they’re aware of it and try to… By telling them that… Like for my wife, she would not put me in situations where I would be compromised, so she wouldn’t buy certain things because I told her. And she’s my wife, she loves me, she cares about me, she cares about my health, and she’s a much smaller person than I am and she saw that I definitely was not the healthiest that she’s ever had seen me, so she was concerned and wanted me to get it corrected as well. So was not a big deal for her to get on board in that regard. And seeing that she’s generally a healthy eater and I was not, it was not a problem she had. So she was glad to see that I was now willing to more or less fall in line with more where she was, because she always criticized my eating, but I never cared. That was my situation.
For another guy, it might be a different situation for them in terms of how their partner eats, but from the perspective of my wife, no, she was glad to see that I was willing to take that in hand and try to control it some, so she worked with me to make that happen. But I think for anybody, if they educate their partner, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Marc Perry: Okay. And so a couple of more questions is, what do your friends and family think about your transformation? Like what have they said? What’s been the feedback?
[laughter]Tony Miller: I laugh because my son-in-law, he’s had his ups and downs with this and he’s tried different, I don’t call them dieting fads or anything, I remember once he was doing, this is one where you eat mostly high fats.
Marc Perry: Keto.
Tony Miller: And a lot of pro keto. It worked for him, but like within a matter of months after that, he was bigger than before he was on keto. I remember trying the keto thing, probably almost ended me up in a hospital, my cholesterol was through the roof, so that didn’t work for me. Not to stray too much from your question though, he saw me and like months afterwards, he was like, “Wow, you look really good.” His wife, my daughter says, “Daddy, so do you plan on losing more weight?” Because I guess she looked at me, and I don’t know if they live in New Jersey and I’m in Eastern Long Island, so we’re in a Zoom call, and maybe she saw my neck or saw that I would just slim down, and she was a little bit concerned. “Are you losing… Do you want to lose more weight? I think you look fine.” And then they saw me in person and they were like really surprised, like, “Wow!” So from immediate family, I could hear them obviously seeing the results. For me, because it’s a gradual process, maybe it hadn’t dawned on me, the changes that had taken place in terms of the weight I’d lost, but they obviously saw it. And people at the gym, the guys I play tennis with. Remember one of them, some comment like, “Oh, you’re disappearing, look at you.”
[laughter]So of course, once you start getting that comment here and there, from near and far, mentally, I’m like, “Okay, cool, this is awesome. People see it,” not that I was doing it for people, but it was encouraging that others had seen it. I remember there’s this guy, a lawyer guy I used to play tennis with, and this was like going back before COVID four years ago. I’m like, “You look great,” and he could move, I’m like, “What do you do? How do you stay so slim?” And he was like just offhand comment here and there, nothing that was really helpful or instructive that would help me to accomplish that. And I remember, no, I’m that guy, I’m the slim guy, I’m the guy that can move well on the court with these older fogies we played doubles with. So I felt like I was that guy for a change. And that was encouraging, I felt good.
Marc Perry: Nice, man, that’s phenomenal, Tony. I’m curious, what advice would you give for someone who is struggling where you were and on the fence, should they set up a free breakthrough call, and consider… Like what would you say to that man?
Tony Miller: I regret having not done this earlier, it took going to the doctor, hearing the doctor say what he said, feeling uncomfortable, being on cholesterol drugs. For me to finally say, “You know what? I need to take this in hand.” And there was really no excuse or no reason to not start earlier, and the earlier you start, the more you give yourself a headstart to getting to where you wanna get. Today, sitting down, having this discussion, knowing how I feel, knowing the habits that I’ve now formed and that I’m continuing to maintain, maybe not perfectly, but totally mindful, not mindless, unconscious of the improvements that I still want to make. I just regret that I didn’t start it earlier. And that’s me. For example, again just my perspective, I don’t like taking medication. To go to the doctor’s office and for the doctor to run through my charts and say, “Okay,” looking through, “oh, you’re on this. Right?” ‘Cause I was only on… He had put me only on one med. I’m like, “No, doc, not doing it anymore.” He looks up at me and he’s like, “No?” “No, I’m sorry, I’m not taking that anymore.” And he says, “Well, okay.”
And he wants me to get on a scale, I went, “No, I’m not getting on your scale, it’s not right because I’m watching my weight, measuring myself, like almost three, four times a week.” I said, “This is my weight, and at that time when I told him that, I had already dropped almost 20 pounds from when I was last at his office.” And I said, “And that’s why I’m not taking the drug anymore, because I’ve dropped the weight and I have made a conscious decision to change my lifestyle. And because I’ve made that decision, that drug is no longer necessary. And once my blood test and whatnot come back, I expect that I’ll never hear mentioned in the same sentence with my name anymore the term “prediabetic.” And he turns around, he looks up at me and he says, “Wow, good for you, nothing lasts forever, though.” Oh my God. I’m thinking to myself, “What? You shouldn’t be saying that to me, you should be encouraging me. And then he looks at me, the next sentence was, “You know what? I lost weight too.” I’m like, “Well, good for you.” That’s what I said to the doctor. The truth is a lot of… Too many guys don’t make the decision to take things in their hands, working, for example, like a program like BuiltLean, and that’s why doctors write the scripts that they do and give the prescriptions that they do because they don’t want you to die either.
So you’re either going to take the drug or you’re gonna do something like BuiltLean, but you need to do something. I would rather do BuiltLean than the drug. That’s me. So I don’t fault that doctor by any means, that’s his profession, that’s what he does, so you’re gonna follow them or you’re gonna follow this. I’d rather do this, it’s natural, it’s healthier, and if at some point, God forbid that I need to be on a drug, but I don’t need to be on a drug today. And he agrees, he said, “Okay, let’s just watch this.” He agrees with me, the doctor does now. And he says I’m no longer prediabetic.
Marc Perry: There you go, my friend, amen to that. Amen to that, we can end there. So Tony, man, wow, I really, really appreciate all that great information, and I think it’s really motivating for other guys. Whether or not they wanna reach out to us or just do it, it’s all good. I think what you shared is really powerful, super awesome. And huge congrats on you…
Tony Miller: Thank you.
Marc Perry: On you having the courage to step up and make a change because that’s the hardest part, is like having… Making that decision to be like, You know what? Enough is enough, I’m gonna make a change, I’m gonna do this now. So well done, my friend.
Tony Miller: I appreciate it, Marc, thank you very much. It’s really good talking with you about all of this. Thanks.
Send me more cards.