The podcast you are about to hear is a private conversation between Leigh Walters and myself. I was checking in with Leigh after he completed the BuiltLean Program. Leigh is in his 50’s from Australia. He completely transformed his body losing over 20 pounds of fat and developed an exceptional mindset.
I’m excited for you to listen to this because there’s a lot you can take away. If you want to transform your body or simply get to the next level, this is pure gold. I want to thank Leigh for allowing me to publish this private conversion and share it with you.
Listen Now
Listen on Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts.
What You’ll Learn
- How Leigh went from loving chocolate to rarely eating it
- The eating tool he used to help transform his eating habits
- How weekly accountability helped him stay focused
- The online community he joined to stay motivated
- How following a proven system reduced stress & frustration
Transcript
Marc Perry:
Hey, guys. Welcome to the BuiltLean podcast. I’m Marc Perry, the creator of BuiltLean, which helps busy men with demanding careers get lean, strong, and functionally fit with exceptional energy. So the podcast you’re about to hear is a private conversation between Lee Walters and myself. I was checking in with Lee after he completed the BuiltLean Program. Lee is in his 50s, and completely transformed his body and developed an exceptional mindset. I’m excited for you to listen to this, because there’s a lot you can take away. If you want to transform your body, or simply get to the next level, this is pure gold. I want to thank Lee for allowing me to publish this private conversation and share it with you. So here it is.
Marc Perry:
How are you doing?
Lee Walters:
Exceptionally well. Yourself?
Marc Perry:
Awesome. I’m doing great. It’s great to speak with you. It’s been a little while, but I’ve of course been checking out my notes and obviously keeping up on how everything’s been going with you. So I was hoping, if it’s cool with you, just to pick your brain, hear how you’re doing, and see if I can be helpful.
Lee Walters:
Yeah, look. Everything’s gone really, really well. I’ve got the right mindset. Yeah, look. You gave me the tools. They’re all easy to use. Pick the right mindset, away you go. For the rest of it, it’s just history. It’s going to happen. It’s just A, B, C. It’s one foot in front of the other. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Marc Perry:
Right, actually, you’re right. I mean, this obviously what we chatted about. So in terms of the specific results you’ve seen, I’m kind of curious to hear what… Obviously you lost about 20 pounds. I’m kind of curious to hear what results you’ve seen.
Lee Walters:
Four of the six pack and a lot of again loose skin. I didn’t expect the skin to be as loose as it is for as long as it was, but I guess as you get older, it takes a lot less elasticity, just to lose that little bit of extra skin. But that’ll come. Yeah, just keep going. I’ll get the six pack eventually. Just the change in my habits have been incredible.
Marc Perry:
So talk to me more about that.
Lee Walters:
Right-o. Before, well… A block of chocolate or a pack of chocolate which is probably about three or four hundred grams, I would eat one of those in a sitting, no questions asked, and would not share. Now I can’t even stomach the look of chocolate. I don’t eat any cakes or pastries. If I have any bit of cake, it’ll only be what my mother’s cooked, because she’s 73 years of age, and she’s offended if I don’t eat at least one piece of her cake. So I don’t… It’s just nuts, a bit of popcorn, and that’s the go-to. I’m happy with that.
Marc Perry:
Okay, and that’s a pretty dramatic shift, that mindset shift. How did you go from loving chocolate and wanting to stuff your face to not wanting to look at it?
Lee Walters:
It was just a case of mindset. You say, “I don’t need this stuff. I don’t want this stuff,” and that’s how it has to be. Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. If I want it, I can go and have it. But I just don’t want it. I don’t feel like I need it. I knew it wasn’t doing me any good, but I just couldn’t help myself with sweet cravings. So I would, “Yeah, this stuff’s not good for me. I’ll leave it alone.” So I have.
Marc Perry:
Well, a lot of guys, they know it’s not good for them but they do it anyways. So what changed it for you?
Lee Walters:
Your program. The mindset. You just go, you just committed to doing something, commit to doing it. You don’t have to. I haven’t had any alcohol in, shit, probably three, four months. I’m not interested in that. I’ll be going on a cruise in three months, so I’ll have a couple drinks there. No milk in my drinks anymore. Just straight black tea and straight black coffee. No sugar in any of that. If you’re going to have porridge or oats or whatever, it’s a little bit of salt in there, just to add a little bit of flavor, a bit of dried fruit in amongst it. That’s good. Food tastes incredible when you don’t have a bin heap of sugar tossed in on top of it.
Marc Perry:
Right. Just give me a second. I’m taking notes. This is good stuff. I mean, of course, I’ve been through a similar transformation myself. I helped guys with adjust to how food tastes. Right. It’s true. The taste buds get hijacked. A lot of people get used to sugar and salt. Very, very salty, very, very sugary. But if you just… There’s a little bit of an adjustment period, but then all of a sudden you’re like, “Wow. Real food tastes good, too.” Right?
Lee Walters:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, get home and Michelle, she doesn’t mind cooking. So when I’m actually home, mine is probably fairly easy because where I work, I can very easily can control about no distraction of the supermarkets or anything like that. I can tell the chefs what I want and they’ll cook it for me. They’ll cook up for a week in the veg. So the meal prep in advance is a big thing. I can get a weeks worth of food, pick that up on Sunday night, and that’s it for the week. I might go back and get cakes and pastries and biscuits and any manner of things, and ice creams. No, I just don’t bother with it. I know it’s not good for me, so I just leave it well enough alone.
Marc Perry:
Right, right, right. Okay. So essentially, meal prep in advance. You did that with the meal prep. I’m kind of curious. Did you look at the goal sheet every day or no? Did you fill it out?
Lee Walters:
I started. Yeah, I started and I got probably half, three-quarters of the way through it. Then I just got to the stage, I got into a rhythm. I finally thought, “I don’t think I need this anymore because I’m actually comfortable with what I’m doing.” Like I said, it’s just starting all over again. Get out of bed, go to work, breakfast, lunch, tea, gym, back to bed. It’s routine. It’s a cycle. It’s wash, rinse, repeat again. But it was just so simple, I didn’t need to think about it. It had become automated. It had become a way of life. There was no need to keep on going back to the goal sheet, because I knew what I was doing was working, because I had dropped so much in the first month and a half. I did do it for a month and a half, and I thought, “Yeah, I think I’ve got the hang of this.”
I knew what I was looking for. I was looking for any signs that I was starting to stray off the path, which I didn’t. I was looking for any changes in my sleeping habits, which I did have, but I’m fine with them. Yeah, no. Everything’s fine. It just worked out really, really well.
Marc Perry:
So it sounds like you thought filling out the daily eating plan log, it was useful for the first… You think it was useful. Is that correct? Was it important?
Lee Walters:
Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. But you had to have a measuring or tracking tool, but I got to the stage now where excuse me, you don’t possibly use one, because it’s just so automated. It’s like getting out of bed and brushing your teeth. It’s just something that happens as a daily routine. That is what it is. You just becomes so accustomed to doing it, it’s just second nature.
Marc Perry:
So in other words, filling out the daily eating log every day, it helped you just build the habits, and you didn’t have to do a bunch… It just kind of helped you build the habits. Is that correct?
Lee Walters:
Yeah, yeah. That’s it. That’s it in a nutshell. It helped me build the habit. It’s just, if you keep on doing the same thing for long enough, it becomes just second nature to do it. So that’s what I did. I just kept on doing it until I felt comfortable enough that, “Oh, yeah. I went more than a couple days with… I haven’t filled out the log, so I’ll go back and I’ll fill the log out.” Then go, “You know what? Yeah, I didn’t need to go back to it, because I’m actually getting used to the idea of what I’m doing.” I had to reach that point where I didn’t need it, because it was just an automated response.
Marc Perry:
Right, right, which is cool. But in other words, just so you know, some guys, they’ll fill it out for a couple days and then they’ll stop. I guess, my question to you is-
Lee Walters:
Oh, really?
Marc Perry:
Yeah, no, of course. So my question is, one thing I was considering doing is, for guys who have even more extreme challenges in motivation issues… Because when I talked to you, you were just like, you were ready to make a change. You were 100% committed. So for guys who maybe are a little bit on the fence, maybe just overseeing them and making sure they fill it out every single day could be useful to help them build habits. I don’t know. You tell me.
Lee Walters:
Yes, now I look back that you need to do it. You need to hold yourself accountable. Nobody else can do it. I mean, you can always hold accountable if it means filling out the log on a daily basis for three months to get that habit formed, well, that’s what it needs to be. They need to have some accountability. They need to be able to track what they’re doing. If you can’t track it, you can’t measure it, it didn’t happen.
Marc Perry:
So here’s another thing. A lot of guys, they’ll just fall off on let’s just say the exercise, and then everything falls off. So it’s like, “Oh, I can’t do the exercise, then I just can’t follow the program.” It’s all-or-nothing mentality. So were you able to do the workouts the entire time, or were there any situations where you were like, “Okay, I’ve got to take a little bit of time off.”? Tell me about that.
Lee Walters:
Look, down here at the moment, it’s winter. I’ll tell you what it is in degrees Celsius. It got down to one and two degrees Celsius, which is not flash. It’s not great. The gym’s not heated. It’s hard to leave a heated office, to go back to get changed in a nice heated room, to go to a cold gym. It took a bit of pushing to get it done. But I did it because I knew what I wanted. I wanted to change. I needed to have that change. So I didn’t force myself to do something that I didn’t want done, but I knew I had to do it, so I just went and did it. Just go, “If this is what it needs to be, this is what it needs to be.”
Marc Perry:
Well, here’s the thing. You know I had that pregame checklist? Before you get into the program, I had a checklist for you to do. One of them is to create and complete a goal sheet. It’s like, “Here’s my vision, and here’s what I want, and then the reasons why it’s important.” I mean, did you view the reasons why your goal was important to you regularly? You’re saying you had to do it. What helped motivate you? Two questions: number one, did you fill out and view that goal sheet regularly? The one where it had the goal and the reasons why. Number two, where was that “I have to do it” coming from?
Lee Walters:
The goal sheet, I filled it out a couple of times. Then I just sat there and I just looked at it and looked at it. I thought about it and I looked at it and I thought about it. I didn’t fill it out after that, because I knew what I wanted. You gave me the tools to get started and head in the right direction. You gave the right path to head. So I thought, “I think I’ve pretty much got this. I know what I want. I’ve got the tools to do the job, so let’s just go and do the job.”
Marc Perry:
And the vision, in terms of what you wanted, I have it down here. I know what you told me, but what do you want? What did you want or do you want? What was the inspiration?
Lee Walters:
Oh, my gosh. I can’t remember. It was like three months ago. I’ll say it all goes through the head in three months, but I knew the basics of what I wanted. The basics of what I wanted was a six pack. I wanted to look good and feel great. Haven’t quite got the six pack, but I feel incredible, and I look pretty bloody good, too. The head’s still ugly, but that’ll never change. But the rest of the body has just had a massive transformation.
Marc Perry:
So in other words, I think what’s really interesting about this, is you had an actual vision in your head.
Lee Walters:
Yes. I knew what I wanted.
Marc Perry:
So that is what I want to talk about. That is the difference. Because a lot of guys have these amorphous things like, “I want to get to a healthy weight.” If some guy tells you he wants to get to a healthy weight, there’s a zero percent chance he’s going to get results, in my opinion. What does that mean? Who gives a shit? He doesn’t give a shit. He’s just saying that, because he’s desperate. But I guess what I’m getting at is you had that vision, and that… So when you were looking at the goal sheet, you were thinking, I’m assuming, about the vision. You were thinking about why this is important to you, correct? It sounds like it almost seeped into your system, so that you didn’t constantly have to look at it, because it was there. Right? Is that correct?
Lee Walters:
Yeah, it was a burning desire. It’s something I’ve been wanting. There’s a picture of you, standing in a pair of shorts, and you’re kind of looking off on a 45 degree angle, with a six pack. I’m kind of going, “That’s not like a Marc there taped on my shoulders. That’s mine.” That’s just all I did. I just transposed my fucking busted ass head onto your body, and going, “Yeah, I like that. That’s what I want. That’s what I’m going for.”
Marc Perry:
I think that’s great. By the way-
Lee Walters:
That picture-
Marc Perry:
Continue.
Lee Walters:
Sorry.
Marc Perry:
No, continue.
Lee Walters:
No, that’s what it is. I was just kind of fucking put my head on your shoulders. Just visualized it. Yeah, that’s what I’ll look like. That’s what I’ll look like when I get all this body fat off. That’s how I’m going to look. Yeah. Just doing a Google search around and Jason Statham, same thing. Cut his head off, put my fucking head on his shoulders. I’m kind of going, “Yeah, I think I could live with that.” Between the two, I’m looking more like your shape, which I’m more happy with, because I’m not a bulky person, never will be a bulky person, muscle-wise. I don’t want to be. I want to be athletically fit. But the best… Because everybody’s looked at me and gone, “Wow, you’ve made a change.”
I actually had to go back to the doctor to get cholesterol tablets. My body produces too much cholesterol. Walked in, sat down. She’s like, “How’s it going?” “Great. Grand. Fantastic.” She said, “You’ve lost weight.” I said, “Yes, I have.” She said, “How much? What do you weigh?” I said, “I don’t know what it is today.” So I went and climbed up on the scale. It was 69 kilos, and she’s going, “Wow.” She said, “Good on ya. That’s were you need to stay.” I said, “Yeah, no worries,” and got off the scale.
But I’ll tell you what. There’s a lot of naysayers out there that will try to pull you back down. “Oh, you look too thin. You’re going to blow away.” Fucking “blah, blah, blah, blah.” Just ignore them.
Marc Perry:
Dude, give me a second. You’re preaching to the choir right now. Give me a second. As you could imagine. Give me a second. I love that you’re going to blow away. You’re going to blow away. That’s great, because you know what? Even just for me, it’s my mom or especially if a guy’s wife looks at him and is like, “You look skinny,” it’s like a thunderbolt to his whole body. He’s fried. He’s over. He’s going to get fat again. You know what I mean? It’s over. So the fact that you kind of… How did you have the mindset to overcome that? Because probably one thing with the program is… I have so much information in my head, it’s outrageous. I don’t want to overload people with information, although that is one of the key things, is overcoming the subconscious barriers. You just overcame a subconscious barrier just because you wanted it badly. I’m kind of curious. Was there anything else going on? How did you overcome that?
Lee Walters:
Well, when you’re told, “You’re too skinny. You’re going to blow away,” you’re right. It did kind of stop me. I looked at him and quite a bit of a grin and sigh, I said, “Yeah, no worries,” and continued on my path because it’s about me. It’s not about what they think or what they see. They don’t know. I actually did a weekly photo, did a photo of myself in the mirror every week. So where I started out and where I finished inside 12 weeks. This fine person, who happens to be my partner, said, “What’s that photo?” Because I had a nice little album of them and she said, “Oh, nice.” She said, “I want to have a look.” So I said, “That’s where I started and this is where I am now.” This was probably about three weeks ago and she went, “Wow. Oh, okay.” She was the one that said, “You’ll blow away.” She said, “Wow. Okay.”
Marc Perry:
Who was this? Who was this?
Lee Walters:
This was my partner.
Marc Perry:
Oh, wait. You said your partner told you that? Ouch.
Lee Walters:
Yeah, just like the wife.
Marc Perry:
No, I get it.
Lee Walters:
She was the one that said, “Oh, you’re going to blow away.” I said, “You’re right. I told you I was going to be [inaudible 00:18:08], but you don’t know what I’m doing.” She said, “Yeah, but I’m just fucking losing way too much weight.” I just took back, “I know what I’m doing.” I’m just going to ignore the white noise that they’re making, and when she saw the photos, she just went, “Wow.”
Marc Perry:
No, the weekly… Right, so you took the weekly photo in the mirror. Okay. I was just trying to think. Then so when she saw the photos, she was impressed is what you’re saying, and she-
Lee Walters:
Yeah.
Marc Perry:
Because you know what’s so ironic about this is you’re just losing a bunch of body fat. You know what I mean? You’re just taking the fat off. You’re not necessarily getting skinny. You know what I’m saying? I don’t know. Anyways…
Lee Walters:
Yeah, I know exactly what you’re saying.
Marc Perry:
Yeah. This is a huge thing, especially when you start getting… Again, you’re in the six pack range, so anyways… Moving on, in terms of the reasons why this is important, you mentioned it was an unfulfilled goal, and it was just something you were like… That was the thing. It was an unfulfilled goal and you just really, really wanted it. Were there any other reasons that really pushed you or what?
Lee Walters:
Look. I hadn’t found the guide to help me walk down that path. That’s when I started doing… There’s a million and one different fucking programs out there, and they’re all puffing themselves up to the [inaudible 00:20:19]. They’re just monster guys out there that look absolutely incredible. So either they’re Photoshopped or they’re on the juice. But I wanted something I knew there was no bullshit, there was no hype. Consistent results over a long period of time, which you’ve got. That’s why I came to your program, because quite simply, you’ve got consistent results over a long period of time. It’s not Photoshopped and it’s not steroids.
Marc Perry:
Right. So by the way, we’re going to getting to where you are right now, and helping you get to where you want to be in a second. So I was just going to ask… I have a bunch of questions here. We actually covered a bunch of it, so I’m just going through it. A couple more things. You mentioned the workouts and they could be harder. What did you mean by that?
Lee Walters:
I think it’s probably a more self-limiting thing than it is actually the program.
Marc Perry:
That’s fine, and by the way, it’s-
Lee Walters:
Maybe-
Marc Perry:
Continue.
Lee Walters:
Maybe it was just my interpretation of it, because I got to the stage where I was thinking… This is probably a little bit too… The way I saw it was, I actually had a great workout in the gym. I got back to my accommodation and had a shower and I had tea, and I felt like I’d never actually done it. That was kind of like the disappointing thing. I felt like, “You haven’t done anything. I don’t feel a thing at the gym.” The next morning I’d wake up and I’d feel amazing, and I’m going, “Still don’t feel like I’ve been to the gym. Still don’t have any muscle soreness.” So I’m kind of going, “Yeah, I don’t know.” Look, the results are proof in the pudding, but it just felt like… maybe it’s all the rubbish that was floating around inside my system that was making me feel like I’d actually done something. Out of breath, getting tired muscles, and all the rest of it. I mean, maybe that’s possibility part of it. That’s not so much rubbish floating around your system to clog up the fat loss and muscle growth.
Marc Perry:
Right. So in other words, it wasn’t completely destroying you, and that’s what you expected. You expected to be in a pile of mush by the time it was done, versus it was something that was more manageable, and you just got your results anyways.
Lee Walters:
Yeah, I got results, and I didn’t actually have to lift 300 pounds in dead lifts, and bench press the same, and walk out a broken lass. But I got the results with less effort, and that was… It seems a little bit strange.
Marc Perry:
Right. So what about the workouts would you like to make harder or would you like to improve? I’m just curious. Or what would be better for you, in your opinion?
Lee Walters:
Look, for me, because I’ve been playing around in the gym for a little while, I just basically… I’m doing a lot more body weight stuff than I ever used to, and find that that’s more beneficial for me. I actually had a go on Monday night, and ended up, just because I wanted to see what would happen, the first set of pushups was 80. Then by the time I finished for the session, I’d done like 300 pushups. I thought, “Wow. It wasn’t that long ago I’d be struggling to do 20 in a row, let alone 80.”
My skipping is improved. I like to skip to warm up, because I don’t like running and there’s nowhere to run where I won’t actually get run over by somebody. So I skip. I’ve gone from basically struggling to skip 50 skips to now 550-600 skips, just as a warm up. So there’s been a huge increase in my fitness levels. That’s actually… The poor dog at home. I’m going to go home. The poor dog, practically wear the legs off of him, because we walk that much.
Marc Perry:
Interesting. Okay, so in terms of… Were you doing the three strength circuits workouts a week? Or were you doing anything else on the other days? What did that look like?
Lee Walters:
No, just the three. Just the three. That’s all I do. Just go and do the three, but usually it would be on the fourth night or the fifth nights, I either travel or I’m tied up in a meeting somewhere. So I make sure that I’ve got the at least minimum, absolute minimum, three times a week. That was the gold standard. That’s the standard I stuck to.
Marc Perry:
Okay. So that was manageable for you to do?
Lee Walters:
Oh, God, yeah. It’s cold and wet and miserable over here, and it has been snowing. But yeah. Apart from getting out and getting into a cold gym, going in with goosebumps and leaving with goosebumps, because it’s that cold, no, it’s very manageable.
Marc Perry:
So in other words, the part that was more challenging was just getting over the excuses which a lot of other guys would have made. A lot of other guys are making excuses, versus just doing it a few times a week for 30 minutes, which most people can do if they don’t make excuses.
Lee Walters:
Well, I’ll tell you how my day starts. Over here at the moment, I was here at work at a quarter to four this morning, so 3:45 a.m. I leave at 5 p.m., so I’m basically doing 13 hours a day. I’ll go back to my accommodation. I’ll get changed. I’ll go to the gym. So I’ll spend half an hour, probably sometimes 45 minutes in there, just depends on what’s going on and what’s the battle. 45 minutes, come back to my accommodation, have a shower, have something to eat. I’m usually in bed by somewhere between 7:45 and 8. Then I’m back up again at the same time in the morning, back at work. So I don’t think there’s many people that can say that they’re fucking working that many hours a day on a consistent basis. Most of them are working eight, maybe 10 hours a day, if they’re lucky.
Marc Perry:
Right. All right, I guess you can do it. So in terms of… Your quick thoughts on the scoreboard. The scoreboard, it sounds like, was really good for you to keep the accountability. I mean, you tell me. Was that something that was useful?
Lee Walters:
Oh, yes. That was so useful, because… So again, if you cannot track it, you cannot measure it. So taking score like that, I found out, right-o, I knew what I had for that week, and that’s the result of it. I knew I was going in the right direction. So it helped keep me accountable, because I knew that I was going in the right direction. And it was measurable. The loss was measurable. So I’m going, “Well, I had no expectations to drop that much.” I dropped 11 centimeters off my waist. So none of it I would have understood or knew unless I didn’t fucking measure it.
Marc Perry:
Right. Okay, so you were okay with filling out the daily eating log and the spreadsheet? We talked about we could make it a little bit better looking. I guess what I was thinking about doing was just… There’s a progress tracker in the spreadsheet, where you can track your waist and everything. I was just trying to simplify things. I think maybe even separating out the daily eating log, making separate spreadsheets. So there’s a daily eating log, then there’s body stats. I guess my question… Sorry if I’m rambling…. Is, did you like how it was with everything in the spreadsheet?
Lee Walters:
Yeah, I love Excel.
Marc Perry:
Okay, so you just opened it up and-
Lee Walters:
Yeah, I just opened up and did it, and if there was a bit more color in it.
Marc Perry:
Right.
Lee Walters:
Just so it pops at people. I don’t know. That’s something… Look, I’m just a black and white spreadsheet person. That’s what I like. But if it had some colors in there amongst it, so it visualized and grabbed them. So it’s kind of like, “Oh, that was great. I went and saw something and it changed color.” Or it was, they know what they’re looking for, they just go, “Oh, bang, that’s the yellow screen, that means that’s me.” They can go, “Bang, that’s my red screen, that means it’s this.” Or I don’t know. It’s just a case of everything’s visual nowadays, and if it had some colors in amongst it, or some art or something like that, maybe it would be just a bit more visually appealing to the masses.
I don’t know if most people actually know how to use Excel spreadsheets. I think I’m sure most people do nowadays. It’s a fairly simple thing to navigate around.
Marc Perry:
In terms of the Facebook group, of course, it’s been a little bit hit or miss in terms of people engaging. I think you’ve done a bit yourself. I’m curious. Was it useful to be part of that Facebook group?
Lee Walters:
Yes. Very, very much so. It makes you feel like you’re not alone.
Marc Perry:
Makes you feel like what?
Lee Walters:
You don’t have to be a trailblazer. It made you feel like you weren’t alone. You knew there was support there. You knew you had a group of like-minded people doing the same thing as you, and there was no judgment by anybody on anything. Yeah, no, it was great. It’s a personal journey, but knowing that support group’s in there if you need them, that’s invaluable. That’s a safety net.
Marc Perry:
Right. Okay. In terms of your goal now, you just want to continue getting the six pack? I mean, that’s where you are right now?
Lee Walters:
Yep, I want the defined six pack. The lifestyle that I’ve adopted now won’t change. I’m so incredibly happy with that. My moods are a lot better. I’m a whole lot fitter. I’m doing things, actually I spent four hours on a buzz cutter the other day, trimming up a hedge, and it was all overhead. By the end of the four hours, my arms were ready to fall off. Got up the next day. I thought, “This is going to sting.” Yeah, nothing. Good as gold. Blown over. Let’s go and do something else. Yeah, it was just incredible. I usually used to get so much lactic acid built up in the muscles and that. I’m just again assuming it’s from the rubbish that was floating around my system. But yeah, none of that happens anymore. It was kind of like, “Yeah, I shouldn’t feel this good.”
Marc Perry:
Interesting. All right. Do you have any kind of fears or concerns after the program, in terms of what to do next?
Lee Walters:
There is no end. That’s the be-all and end-all. There is no end. It was a start of a journey. It’ll finish when I die. It’s now how my life is. It’s like those who go through… There’s probably not a real good analogy, but those who lose arms and legs, you learn to adapt. And lose their sight or lose their hearing. You learn to adapt or you die. So I’ve adapted and moved on. Dinosaurs didn’t adapt, they died.
Marc Perry:
Right. So there’s no end to the program, which is the right attitude. What about the guys who are like, “Oh, it’s over in 12 weeks.” What would you tell them? Or what do you say?
Lee Walters:
It’s never over. The only time it’s over is when you stop breathing. It’s only over because you want it to be over. That’s the thing. It’s never over. It just becomes the norm. It becomes the way you live your life, and it’s a better way to live your life.
Marc Perry:
The fact that you had this vision and you didn’t put a time date on it, because I think one of the tricky things is, by the way, with the goal sheet, and I’m thinking about changing this, is… I’m like, “Okay, you want to hit this goal by this date.” Usually that’s a good thing, because it gets people to work, but when they don’t hit it, then they just fall off the wagon, so to speak. So I’m curious, was it the vision that helped you continue and not get too wrapped up in the time? Or how did you make that shift from, “Oh, it’s not just 12 weeks. It’s a lifestyle.” Does that make sense? Some people would just not be able to do it.
Lee Walters:
Yeah. Well, there’s a couple things that helped me get my head around it was more than 12 weeks. The first one was you’ve extended that 12 week transformation lane past the 12 week period.
Marc Perry:
What does that mean?
Lee Walters:
Well, you’ve got the dates on the left-hand side of the column on the Excel spreadsheet where we put our weights in. There’s more than 12 weeks’ worth of dates there. So that gives you, I think, “Oh, hang on a minute. There’s the 12 week mark, but it’s continued on.” So I just continued on putting the weights in. I don’t know if you did that on purpose or not, but yeah. You’ve got your 12 entries. The dates continue on down, on the left-hand side of that spreadsheet. So I kind of go, “No, I’ve got to keep on doing this.” So you can’t see the end date, or you can. If you take it and scroll down, you’d actually see an end date. But those dates went down for another 150 columns. People say, “Oh, there’s no end date.” If they can’t find an end date, they’ll just keep doing it.
Marc Perry:
Interesting. Okay, so in other words, I had the current weight and the target weight, and you obviously blew past it. By the way, the other tricky thing is, do you think the fact that the current weight and the target weight as a focus versus a visualization? I mean, they’re kind of both useful. Do you have any opinion on that? Because I think there’s a current weight, there’s a target weight, and the idea is you keep on filling out the spreadsheet until you hit your target weight or you go past it. At least that was my opinion. Of course, if you want to keep on going, that’s great. But that was my thinking. I’m curious if you have any thoughts.
Lee Walters:
Actually, what you said when we had our first initial conversation, and I said, “I want to get down to whatever it was.” I was kind of going, “Right-o,” and then when I got to it, I thought, “Oh, I’m here already. Oh, okay. Well, let’s just see how much further we can go.” Because I knew that I was only whatever partway through this transformation, I’m kind of going, “Well, I’ve got another four or five or six weeks, whatever it happened to be. Let’s just keep going and see where it ends.”
Marc Perry:
So here’s the thing. Some of the guys have more weight to lose, and by the time the 12 weeks is over, they still haven’t hit their target goal. Do you think the goal should be smaller? Do you see what I’m saying? What do you think it should be for them?
Lee Walters:
No, it’s set stretch targets. That’s the best thing. Set stretch targets. If you don’t achieve your goal, it’s no big deal. It’s not as if you’re going to die. It’s just a case of you just need to work on it a little bit more. Over a longer period of time, you will get there. It’s a case of most people, if you tell, “Oh, well, I’ve got 12 weeks, and I haven’t got to my goal.” But you’ve made that choice to change, because you need to change. You know you need to change. So you’ve taken a step in the right direction.
When you choose a goal, the right goal, it’s pretty much immaterial to the fact that you’ve actually recognized that you’ve got changes to be made. You’ve got an issue and you need to fix it. That’s to me, was… I realized I had an issue. I knew I had to fix it. I had no expectations of where I was going to end. I knew where I wanted to be, what the goal was, the loss was. But when I got there, I thought, “Well, let’s see how much further this can go, where this can go.”
Marc Perry:
Right, right. I have a couple more quick questions, but I’m just curious. Would you be cool with sending me some of the photos so far? I mean, just to see. So I can see the transformation?
Lee Walters:
Yeah, no. Happy to send you the photos. No worries at all.
Marc Perry:
Okay, cool. I was going to ask. It’s interesting… This conversation, it’s like this… You’ve transformed. A lot of guys I speak to, they might lose some weight, but you’ve had a full transformation, which is awesome. So I’m super, super pumped for you. I guess what I’m getting at is I think that you could seriously help other guys, in terms of make that transformation. So with that said, if you’d be open to it, I think some type of really quick testimonial. Or basically sharing a story as to what you did. Are you open to that? So basically it might be a quick video or photo?
Lee Walters:
Oh, most definitely.
Marc Perry:
Okay, cool.
Lee Walters:
Videos, no. I’m not real good with videos, but I’m more than happy to write a testimonial and flick you the photos out. Actually a moment ago, I actually had a look at the photos, and went, “Wow!” I said, “Don’t you love to smile?” I said, “At that time in the morning, no. I don’t smile.” This was like, I’d taken the photo at half-past three in the morning. I was fucking still fairly bleary-eyed when I take the photos, so I don’t smile. But the fact of the matter is, it’s not so much about what the head looks like, because it’s ugly. It’s a case of the transformation from being a pudgy person, who’s actually lost nearly two trouser sizes and one hat size. Yeah, it doesn’t matter I didn’t smile. The body transformation has just been incredible.
Marc Perry:
Right. Okay. Cool.
Lee Walters:
Actually, I’ll have a go at the video. I’ll have a go at the video. I’m not sure how it comes out, so I’m not going to say it’s going to be-
Marc Perry:
No, no. I get it. Listen, I totally get it. Videos are tricky and the lighting is a pain in the ass. But I can obviously give you a couple ideas. You can give it a go, and if it doesn’t go as you plan, that’s fine. You can give it a go. But I’ll follow up with more information. Okay, cool. Give me a second. Yeah, no, I think that’s great. Do you have any questions for me?
Lee Walters:
No. No, look. It was a big leap of faith, because the current exchange rate. You offered a fantastic price. Well, you double that, and that’s what I paid in my money. So that was a fair fucking leap of faith for me to spend that much money to make the transformation. So I wanted it and I wanted it bad. The money sort of, now, becomes totally immaterial, because I’m a happier, healthier, better looking person, body-wise anyhow. Yeah, life’s fantastic.
0 Comments