“Without exaggeration, nowhere compares to Ultimate Performance. I’m always eulogising U.P. to people. I was blown away by the discipline, precision, and attention to detail.”
The stress of being a lawyer had taken a damaging toll on Daniel’s health.
He’d been pulling long hours across a seven-day week, selflessly prioritising the needs of his clients.
But the 38-year-old lawyer’s weight had slowly crept up to 100kg.
And his overeating was of detriment to both his personal and professional life…
It affected his relationship with his friends, and compromised his requirement to analyse, evaluate, interrogate, brainstorm, and think outside the box for a living.
Refusing to take another step down this path of self-sabotage, Daniel joined Ultimate Performance.
Undoing 35 years of bad habits wasn’t going to be easy, but through collaboration, accountability, and plenty of encouragement in the gym, he’s proud to say he’s now in the shape of his life.
A 24kg weight loss was everything he wanted and more, but perhaps his biggest victory was the change of dynamic within his work-life balance.
It’s helped him realise what matters most in his life – his health. And it’s ‘sharpened his pencil’ – making him even more driven and motivated in his career than before.
Here, he explains how such profound changes were made possible with Ultimate Performance…
Can you remember what your body composition was like before working with Ultimate Performance?
I started around 100kg, now I’m 76kg. My motivation to join U.P. was driven by the fact that throughout my twenties I was very athletic, I played sports to a high level and always prided myself on being quite athletic.
Then my career took over in my early thirties and I fell out of shape more and more. Psychologically, once I’d hit the 100kg mark, that was enough, and that was the point where I realised that change needed to happen.
How did your poor lifestyle choices affect you in everyday life?
I didn’t have much energy at all.
I felt really out of shape, which lowered my confidence as well. My body image was poor and it was bleeding into my mental state.
I was highly stressed, over-eating as a result and leaning into bad habits. It made me feel sluggish and it affected my performance in my professional life. I used to slump at 3pm all the time.
Now, my energy levels are consistent.
What impressed you the most during your time with your trainer?
The biggest thing for me was how much I got out of the sessions. I came away from my first session feeling broken and thinking that this is the new bar that I’m going to have to meet.
I’d never worked out that hard in my life. I was blown away by the discipline, the precision, and the attention to detail.
At the start of the process, I said that I wanted to be able to lift my body weight, which I can now comfortably do.
I can see that there’s been a change in my body composition, muscle, and fat loss. In my late twenties, I got to a place where I was doing unassisted pull-ups, but this has definitely surpassed any of my previous personal bests in the gym.
Without exaggeration, there is no comparison to U.P. I’m not hyperbolizing. It is genuinely true. I’m always eulogising U.P. to people. I needed help with my training regime and a complete overhaul of my diet.
U.P. did that and much more. The support has been incredible, I feel like I’ve got a cheerleader there, and it feels like a team effort. I’ve been blown away by the depth of knowledge as well from the trainers with the topics we cover in health and fitness.
Do you feel that you were supported from a psychological perspective throughout the programme?
The biggest difference for me has been the mental approach. There’s been a really helpful focus on the psychological side of things. When you’re going through this process you face a lot of challenges. It felt like a therapy session at times.
There are moments when you’re alone, hungry and you feel like there’s nothing left in the tank, but it has been very collaborative and encouraging. You’re only going to get the result if you put the effort in. Having that support has helped me through the difficult moments.
What challenges did you face along the way?
I have an incredibly sweet tooth and I was used to overeating, so dealing with the calorie deficit alone was hard enough. That’s been a huge challenge.
But my trainer’s been on hand every step of the way, day or night, and has gone above and beyond to develop strategies on how to form new habits around that. That’s been fundamental because I wouldn’t have remained in a deficit otherwise. It is still a work in progress as I’m undoing 35 years of bad habits.
Work, for a long time, had become very demanding and it was seven days a week. It manifested in a bad back, which made everything harder. It was making me miserable when combined with a calorie deficit. Again, my trainer was excellent at recognising that and we’d work together to get through that period.
What impact has your transformation had on you on a personal and professional level?
I’ve got more energy than I’ve ever had and I’ve sorted out my sleep cycle, which has been a huge game-changer. This entire process has lifted my standards across the board.
I was disciplined, driven and highly motivated before, I’d done well in my career, but this has been the icing on the cake where it has really sharpened my pencil.
It’s made me more mentally alert. I’m feeling great physically, I’m feeling agile, and I’m full of energy. That has allowed me to be more focused on my career, with my friends and family. I’m more present.
But, on reflection, the biggest impact it’s had is it’s made me completely reprioritise my health and fitness so that it is number one on the call sheet now.
I’m proud to say that I’ve never missed a session. I’ve travelled all over the world in the last year and the first thing I do, which is now my level of obsession, is find a gym and plan it out.
If you can’t take care of yourself, how can you expect to take care of other people? How can you expect to do your job? I had those conversations with clients when they push back saying, hang on, it’s middle of the day, and you’ve gone for two hours. I said, you want a better lawyer, right? You want a better business partner. It has been instrumental and I’ve made the most seismic changes to my professional life.
It overrode some very significant business decisions, led me down a new path, because I don’t want to violate or compromise my new health and fitness principles. They are far too important.
When I set out on this process the most important thing to me was getting a six-pack, and that’s been a fantastic by-product and I feel great about that. This has set me up for long-term change and it’s now driving my life forward.
If you feel weighed down by responsibilities at work, a U.P. transformation can fire you back to your productive best. Start your transformation today.
- We show you the best, we don't show you the worst.
- We show you people who follow the plans, not those who are all talk.
- We show you those who inspire even us with their commitment to their results.
- You cannot get results exactly like these. You are unique and that means you can only get your own best possible results.
- Your results are a function of time spent following the plan; your genetic response to the right exercise and diet program; how hard you train; how consistently you come to the gym; how disciplined you are with your diet; & your starting point.
- Oftentimes the lower your starting point (poor fitness, terrible body composition) the better your results.
- We cannot do the work for you and the results you see here are a testament to the work ethic of our clients.
-
Our reputation is that we are the best trainers in the world for helping you to unlock your potential, & we can lead you to the door, give you the key, even turn the handle and push the door open, but we cannot walk through it for you.
In the end the result is down to you.
Like these results? Send us your details in the form below to receive information about our programs
