Champions Mojo
Welcome Masters swimmers, triathletes, and anyone striving to live well and swim well! Hear powerful interviews with world-class champions, leading experts, and everyday heroes—sharing tips, tools, and stories to boost your motivation, training, and life performance. Hosted by Kelly Palace, elite Masters swimmer, author, and former NCAA Division I head coach. A podcast that champions you!
Champions Mojo
From 300 Pound Chef To Ironman Triathlete: Will Liebig, ENCORE EP 289
In one of our favorite episodes as an encore we find out: What does it really take to move from 300 pounds to a 9:15 Ironman without losing your love of great food and a full life? We sit down with chef-turned-triathlete Will Liebig to unpack the habits, community, and mindset that reshaped his health over a decade. Will is open about the grind: he swapped isolation for master swimming, built cycling and running tribes, and embraced the 80/20 training rule—keep 20 percent truly hard, keep 80 percent easy. The gains came not from punishment, but from patience.
Food is a highlight. As a classically trained chef, Will rejects fear-based nutrition and shows how fats like olive oil, butter, and cream can fuel endurance when paired with smart timing, portion control, and macro awareness. He eats smaller meals throughout the day, anchors a larger mid-day plate, often skips starch at night for better sleep, and isn’t afraid of fasted zone-2 when the plan calls for it. He also defends cheat days as motivation, not failure—a double spicy Bloody Mary after a race or a well-plated steak dinner cooked sous vide because satisfaction matters.
We also explore resilience. Will shares the setbacks that tested him—career shifts, grief after his father’s passing, and a brush with body dysmorphia—and how he course-corrected by eating enough, tracking with intention, and leaning on his wife, Lisa, for logistics and encouragement. That partnership turns races into shared adventures and keeps training sustainable. Expect practical coaching cues, real-world nutrition, and the reminder that big change demands a wider timeline. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a quick review—then tell us what habit you’ll commit to for the next five years.
Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.
It's just been a slow, arduous process of making sure you commit to what you want to do and get into it. The best part is being a chef, I have the nutrition side of the things down. I know what I need to eat, when I need to eat them, and how much you need to eat them, even though I have a lot of good cheat days too.
SPEAKER_01:Hello, friends. This is Kelly Palace, host of Champions Mojo, your place for better health, resilience, and master swimming. I'm taking a short break from recording new episodes of Champions Mojo for two exciting reasons. First, I'm launching my latest book, False Cure. It's a whistleblowing investigative journalism book about a denied health epidemic. If you'd like more information on that, it's in the show notes. The second and most compelling reason I'm on a break is here at Champions Mojo, we're preparing for the January 2026 reboot of powerful new weekly episodes with expert guest interviews, inspiring topics, and tips to take your mindset, health, and personal performance to the next level. We will be announcing some exciting partnerships with show we will be announcing some exciting we will be announcing some incredible partnerships with the show, and I guarantee what we have in store for you will empower you and keep your mojo strong in the new year. While I'm prepping all this great stuff, we've selected While I'm preparing all this great stuff, we've selected some of our shows. While I'm preparing some of this great stuff, we've selected some of our best shows ever for an Encore series. My hope is that if this is your second time listening to this episode, you'll take away even more insight and motivation. Or if it's your first time, you'll love this episode as much as everyone else did. So settle in and enjoy this Encore presentation in its entirety. We are so excited today to hear from our special guest, Will Liebig, who has experienced the highs of crossing the finish line at an Iron Man race to the lows of facing self-doubt and setbacks. Will has experienced it all. He's here to share his insights, tips, and lessons learned from this transformational journey. So whether you're a seasoned athlete, a fitness enthusiast, or someone looking for motivation to overcome personal challenges, you are in for a treat. Maria, what else can you tell us about Will?
SPEAKER_00:Will is a former professionally trained chef who once weighed 300 pounds and has now become a high performing Iron Man triathlete, currently tipping the scales at a lean 174 pounds. That's right. If you did the math, that's well over 100 pounds. His journey is nothing short of remarkable, and we're thrilled to have him share his story with us. Will welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_03:Awesome. Thank you very much for having me, ladies. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, we are we are so delighted. And Will, we got to start off by saying you are a high performing triathlete, but Will is like elite. I know I've heard of a couple of your triathlons, but tell us first, like what is the within the your Iron Man, well what's your best performance that you've ever had in Iron Man?
SPEAKER_03:It's definitely been a build in progress, obviously, with a lot of endurance sports. This is coming up on my fifth year doing this. And I just completed my third official full Iron Man distance, and that was Iron Man, Maryland last year in September. And I did that in nine hours and 15 minutes flat. Wow. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So that's it.
SPEAKER_03:And that's what I definitely like to tell people. It's not an overnight thing. You have to slowly work into it. You have to build to that goal. And that's the real key behind interim sports is consistency and time in the saddle, time on your feet. And just I my my big thing is I have to make a commitment to myself. So I have to commit to something.
SPEAKER_01:So nine hours and 15 minutes for an Iron Man is just incredible. And it's that is just that's just incredible. What what is that? 2.4 mile swim, 112 bike, and a 26.2 in a marathon.
SPEAKER_03:Yep. Yeah, in a marathon.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. I might be lucky to do the marathon in nine hours. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:That's kind of what I was that was that's what I was thinking. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, and yeah. Well, and that's what I would definitely really like to say is everybody can do it. Everybody can do the Iron Man. I mean, a big story that I definitely got inspired by was Chris Nikich, who's the gentleman who has Down syndrome. And he was at my very first Iron Man. Um, and he was on the rack right in front of me, and his story is amazing. So, again, anybody can do it. So don't short yourselves. I know you guys could do it if you wanted to. So wow. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:So, well, we do know that we have a lot of master swimmers that listen to Champions Mojo, and we all three met through master swimming. And could you start with telling us how did you find master swimming? And where does that fit into this overall transformational journey for you, master swimming?
SPEAKER_03:So, master swimming I found early last year after a pretty good spout of doing a whole lot of swimming by myself. And I was a lifeguard for the city of Melbourne. I worked on the beach for years. So swimming was in my background, but I um I was putting myself sort of in the hypothetical hole, I guess you could say, swimming by myself and not having any community around it. So actually, I was starting to hate swimming. I was not happy with swimming. And so I started to reach out to a couple of triathletes that I knew, Ed Donner and a couple other guys, like that said, hey, BJ is always there. Check out the master swimming. And I really felt uh felt and I found a giant sense of community with this group. And the good mornings we get in the morning motivate me. And it's really, really nice to have a great group of individuals to to see as much as I want in the mornings Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturdays. So, and more than anything, it starts my day on those days. Those tougher days, Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, are tougher days to get going, and that really helps me. So it's great.
SPEAKER_00:Do you have community in your in cycling and running as well? Or you those are solo?
SPEAKER_03:I do a lot of cycling by myself, but I have recently found a nice group of gentlemen and ladies that go from Starbucks. It's called the Starbucks Saturday ride. And the big thing was I didn't have a road bike for the longest time. I just had a tri-bike and a lot of roadies, I don't know if you know the bike scene, but a lot of roadies will sort of persecute you for having a TT bike in the in the road bike scene scene. So I finally got a road bike this last year and and I started branching out into a nice group called the Starbucks riders. So and then and then the running, I do a lot of solo, but I do a lot with a group too. So it's sort of individualizing everything. The best swimmers, the best bikers, and then the best runners. So that's really helps me get all the tools that I need. So to do the racing.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think we have to ask the question of the hours, you know, how did you go from being this chef who was pretty overweight to this lean mean triathlon machine? I mean, what inspired you? How long did it take? Give us the whole rundown.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it was definitely a long process, I would say 10-year plus process. And it's had a lot of ups and downs, being that my wife was in the kitchen, we met. We met in culinary school. She actually sat right in front of me, and and we uh we went all the way through culinary school. And then obviously, you get into the kitchen. And the big thing is we came out of culinary school in 2008. So if you can imagine what was going on in 2008, um, a lot of time on your feet, a lot of working, and then obviously there's a lot of partying involved with the kitchen too. You don't just go home after you're done in the kitchen, you go out and have a drink, and uh so obviously I was drinking a lot of beer and I was uh eating a lot of butter because I was working a saute line. And uh and basically I started dating my wife, and my roommate at the time was a bodybuilder. He was actually going to his co uh culinary school, and he's you need to come and start you're seeing this new woman, you need to start doing gym work. So I started going to the gym, and then I started going twice a week and or twice a day, and I literally over the holiday break from school, I had lost like 40 pounds. I it just fell off. Again, he had me working pretty hard, my roommate. And I think it was mostly because I was courting why I wanted to really have a relationship with Lisa, and uh and that happened, and then and then obviously we went off and we moved to California for a couple years, and uh and the weight sort of went back up again, and then because I was working for gracious retirement living, which is basically taking care of the older generation, and uh, there were cookies every day, and there was rolls every day, and all the different things that you love to eat, and the weight went back up, and then we decided we we did our three-year California experience and came back to Florida, always end up back in Melbourne, Florida somehow. I don't know how. And uh, and basically that was 10 years into our relationship, and we were sitting on a beach in Tampa, and I looked at her and I said, Hey hun, why don't we get married? And 10 years after after we were together for 10 years, she said, Of course. But I made a deal with her. I said, We need to get in shape before we get married. We need to be more just overall better health. And it's funny, but that and I say it's funny, it's sad, but my grandparents had just passed away. And the one thing my grandfather always said to me when he was alive was, Will, you're such a good looking guy. Why aren't you in shape? And I always contribute his words, still always in my head, that I wish he could see me today because I've literally gotten in shape like he wanted to. So, but the thing that I related it at that when I started working on a lot was my grandpa rode his bike five miles a day until he was 96 years old. And that work, he did it every day consistently. You have to commit and you have to be consistent. And my grandma swam in the pool for an hour every day until she was 95 years old. So, again, that sort of worked it in. And my wife and I decided to start doing this boot camp at Health First, and we did the boot camp and we did the boot camp for two months, and the weight was just starting to fall off. And I was swimming and I was biking. And then my uncle, Tony, he was a collegiate cyclist, and my cousin was a collegiate cyclist and said, Hey, why don't you start riding with the cycling guys? So I rode with the cycling guys a little bit, and then he says, You're doing so well at cycling, why don't you throw the running in there and go try a triathlon? So I started doing a triathlon, and all this time we were losing weight and the weight was starting to really come off. But then I found triathlon and I really enjoyed it. And my first triathlon ever was the uh the pineapple man. And then I did the boardwalk right after that, and the rest is history, and then it was Iron Man's and my wife logistically getting all the different races together and all the different things. And again, it's just been a slow, arduous process of making sure you commit to what you want to do and get into it. So, and the best part is being a chef, I have the nutrition side of the things down. I know what I need to eat, when I need to eat them, and how much you need to eat them, even though I have a lot of good cheat days too.
SPEAKER_00:So that would be my next question is I think most people struggle with the weight loss part because it's so hard, it seems hard to eat well consistently. Do you have any do you have any words of encouragement on that?
SPEAKER_03:I think the biggest thing is you you that I've found, and it's truly all what you put in your mouth. It's if you can drop the sodas, and you and that was the first thing that went is I had to stop drinking soda. So I stopped drinking soda completely and I found an alternative. And you just have to drop those. Um, I don't want to say sugar is like the devil or anything like that. Sugar is amazing, but you just have to limit it in your life. And and but at the same time, it's going back to cheat days. You have to have those cheat days. You can't be on, not even the most professional athletes are on seven days a week. They have to have that one recoup day, and you have to reward yourself. You have to have that self-reward that really keeps you motivated and moving. So, but it's all what you eat. It's getting your macros down, getting your calories, and uh and don't eat too little. I suffered for that r really bad for a really long time. I had I had a pretty good case of body dysmorphia. I just wanted to be really lean, really thin, and I was actually making myself sick. I really was. So I even had my spleen was all telling me the blood tests were telling me I wasn't doing the right thing and this, that, and the other thing. And I had to pull myself back from that and really focus in on what mattered. So, and that's overall health. I would say it's about being overall healthy. Don't you don't have to be too skinny, you don't have to be out of shape, but you just need to be healthy. That's the key.
SPEAKER_01:So, Will, was there s like a time during this overall transformation that you had a really rough time?
SPEAKER_03:Yes. I had a really rough time about gosh, it's coming up on four years now. When my father passed away suddenly, it was it was very it was a tough time because I always used food as a crutch. Um, especially when I was in the kitchen. You would get done with a heavy, hard day, and two pitchers of beer were was nothing. I just drank two pitchers of beer. And again, that I don't want to say I was ever uh had a problem with alcohol, but I I did drink a lot and and that sort of spiked up a little bit when he passed away. I mean, because that's sort of just how I griefed. But then it was more of a it was more of a you've done all this work to to regress again and to go back to where you were is not where I want to be, and again, just have to re refocus your mind and and go back out there and do it, do it like he would want you to do it. So, or what how he wanted me to do it.
SPEAKER_00:So he got to see you do triathlons and he he did.
SPEAKER_03:He actually the last triathlon he got to see was Iron Man 70.3 Puerto Rico, which was an absolutely amazing trip. We had a great time, and and he was really, really happy for what I had accomplished, and and I know he's he's watching, so that's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01:So, Will, take us on the chef journey just a little bit, because obviously you've alluded to the fact that you were eating a lot when you were a chef. You're in a new career, but you still enjoy cooking. How do you balance that temptation or the fact that you and Lisa are chefs and that you cook a lot? How do you balance that being around food and wanting to cook with this new life?
SPEAKER_03:I think again, it goes back to the timing of the week. Fridays are our our Fridays and Saturdays are like cheat days. So, so where we go and enjoy really, really nice meals. Or as we're going on these different trips, when we were out in St. George, we went to Las Vegas and of course we went to a beautiful steakhouse and had that's my favorite thing to do is to go find the biggest steak possible and then to eat it. So and and again, rewarding myself and rewarding the hard work is what it's all about. I always laugh in the pool when I was actually talking to Benjamin today about it and uh and the good old Lane Four. Um, I don't know if you know Maria about Lane Four yet, but there's a bit of a camaraderie going on there. But Benjamin.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, wait, they all wear matching suits.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, we wear matching suits, whatever. And uh no, Benjamin has has just come back after a little bit of injury, and I was telling him what I love to do after a good race is my favorite drinking is to have a double bloody Mary, extra spicy, and that you have to have those rewards because if you don't have them, you're you're not gonna enjoy yourself. But I think more than anything, it's again just choosing those right foods and building some fun dishes at home. And I don't know if you guys know what sous vide is or not, but I've been messing around with a sous vide machine a lot.
SPEAKER_01:And yeah, no, no, you gotta explain it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay. So sous vide is basically it's a long, a lot of things these days are sous vide, but it's basically cooked in water at a certain temperature for a really long time, and it makes anything you cook super tender. So, like we did pork chops this last weekend and uh and bone in pork chops, cut our own pork chops, and then sous-vide them for 12 hours and basically infuse them with all these spices. And again, it it that gives me the sense that I'm still in the kitchen where I get to cook up a really nice meal and have the sides. And I my wife and I plate because I'm always the guy that prepared everything, and then I would turn around to the pass, which is where you plate everything in the kitchen, and Lisa was always there because I was terrible at plating. I was I would just throw the sh the stuff on the plate, but she makes it look beautiful, and obviously you eat with your eyes before your mouth.
SPEAKER_01:So we need to drill down on that because that is just like what explain plating.
SPEAKER_03:So it it's it's where you obviously have your three main components, which is the center of the plate item, which is your meat or your protein, and then you have your starch, which is your risotto or your mashed potatoes, or your polenta. We love doing polenta, and and then obviously your vegetable, you always have to have all three items. And that's the other big thing that I like to stress is everything has to be in in in portion in unison. And when you're plating it up, what makes it beautiful? You get some height on the plate, or in this case where you're doing pork chops, you have a nice bone in the pork chop, and that's sort of the flair that brings the height to the plate. And again, just makes it makes it look more appetizing before you consume it. And and again, I'm very traditional French trained, so it's a lot of heavy cream sauces and lots of butter. I love I love butter. Butter is my favorite thing in the entire world. It's butter, cream, and butter. Those are my three maybe with you. And I mean, and that's what it's all about. And and that's the sad part is that that's the other thing that I will stress is don't be afraid of those things. They're wonderful for you. They the whole 90s and early 2000s, oh fat everything. I eat a ton of ton of olive oil, ton of butter, ton of cream, and that really that's a huge fuel in an endurance sport. So make sure you're getting all that in into your diets.
SPEAKER_01:So that is fantastic. So, so the idea that like maybe that's why we enjoy eating out. You go to a lot of buffets or you serve buffet, like you have go to someone's house to eat, and it's just it's a buffet. So you just kind of sloping on your plate. But the idea of plating, I just love that. I love that you eat with your eyes first. That is really cool. So, gosh, Will, so there's so many things. So we kind of talked about your routine, which are your reward and you obviously work super hard, but what are some things that you think champions share, like some common traits that are important if people are going to achieve these really rich goals like you you have achieved?
SPEAKER_03:I definitely think, and I would definitely look to Mike Murder for teaching more of this too, but the hard is hard. You have to go hard for 20% of the workouts. And then obviously the rest needs to be easy. And for the longest time, especially earlier on in my triathlon career, it was hard all the time, that gray zone, that middle zone where you shouldn't be all the time, but I was always there. And once you figure that side of things out and you're able to literally go in, and that was the one that I can point in my whole time in triathlon, there was a time where we were over in Claremont and we were riding with a bunch of professional triathletes. And to watch them go for the first hour and a half at just conversation, relaxing pace, get out to where we were going to start our workout. And then all of a sudden it was bam. It was 10 by two minutes all the way, tons of hills, this and anything. But then after that was done, it was relaxed again. It was easy. So you definitely have to find that balance where you're not doing too much, but you're not doing too little. And I know you and I, Kelly, have definitely talked about that in the pool was you have to be able to hit those times that you want to hit to increase because then the margin as you get more fit and you get longer and longer, even that half a second is where you're gonna see it. And being able to produce that half a second more every single time is where it's gonna be. So, because we're all not supermen, but we can get close if we really work at it.
SPEAKER_00:Maria, did you hear that? I have a million questions to ask you. Your transformation is so inspirational and your incredible athleticism. But I think a lot of people, you know, it's confusing what to eat is confusing. And as you said, they used to tell us I grew up you're never supposed to eat any fat and didn't eat vegetables because they don't taste very good without fat. I'm curious with your expertise and food, what specifically do you eat? How do you manage, you know, day to day? I know you have cheat days, but a regular week with your busy career and you're all the hours you're spending working out. What do you eat and how do you manage to do that in a reasonable amount of time?
SPEAKER_03:The big thing that I really seen that has helped and worked a lot is the smaller meals more many times a day. So a lot of the time, my wife can protest this, I'm constantly got something, a bar, but eating eight to twelve times a day a smaller meal. And then you have that one larger meal towards the middle of the day. And starting with breakfast, I would say it's a lot of eggs, egg whites, omelets, scrambles. I love sardines. I know that's a weird one, but I love I had sardines this morning. That's my Wednesday meal. I'm pretty routine throughout the entire week of what I eat on certain days. That's obviously adding more carbohydrates into my diet towards the end of the week because obviously my most training is going to come on the weekends on Saturdays and Sundays, your long days, I guess you could say. But lots of eggs, and then I love tuna. I I eat a lot of tuna, shrimp, but but then as you get that big meal out of the day towards one o'clock, two o'clock, you go to more of a lighter meal at night where it's just a protein of some sort, being at steak and a vegetable, no starch at night. That's the one thing. And it's weird, but I've found that when I don't include starch in my diet at night, I sleep better. I get that, I get the starch during the middle of the day. So again, your body has a chance to use those carbohydrates before you go to sleep and then ready to go. So, and that that's another thing I will say is I do a lot of fasted cardio in the morning, especially when it's not a workout, like a hard workout where it's more of a zone two training or a zone one training. I do my best to just consume liquids in the morning. I'll have a shake in the morning or just drink my, I call it my uh my my beat thing. Uh everybody in lane four calls it my tiger's blood. So basically it looks like and and just just in enjoy that. And then again, but always putting that what you need in your body throughout the day. And it has to do a lot with with macros, how much protein, how much fat, how much carbohydrates. And obviously the biggest thing that I'm taking eating a lot right now is protein. So and uh and then still fats and then carbohydrates. So um uh, but yeah, it's a variety, and I think that's the one thing I like about being a chef is I can open up my cooler or my refrigerator and I can say, Oh, I can put this with this, so I don't always have to be going to the to Publix all the time or things like that. So, and lots of yogurt. I eat a lot of yogurt, so I probably eat a big tub of yogurt in three or four days. So that's another thing. So but uh yeah, it's just making sure you're and I know it's really elementary, but my fitness pal is amazing just by for tracking what you eat, so you can say to yourself, Oh, I've only got and I don't want to say calorie counting works for everybody, it sure doesn't, and don't be attached to it. That's just one of those processes that I have to do is literally input the stuff on my phone, say, Oh, here's what I have. So, but those cheat days I never input on my phone. So that's the key.
SPEAKER_01:So we love MyFit Pal. Mark uses that every day. I mean, he's like constantly on it. So, well, before we ask the last question and play the fun sprinter round, Maria and I love to know about partnerships and people that really play a role in champions' lives. Tell us about your wife and your partnership and what that has really done for you.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I'm gonna just I'm gonna go just standard and say behind every great man is truly a greater woman by far. She is huge in my success. And if I didn't have her and she, and I will say, if she didn't come into my life at when she came into my life, I definitely wouldn't be where I am today. The logistics and the plane tickets and the hotels and this, that, and the other thing. And hey, we need to go see this and we need to see that. I just can't think of some of that stuff all the time. And she is amazing in that side. And I will say, that's the one thing that I'm really happy. And that's what we're trying to do is we're I want to go do the Iron Man's in certain weird places like Cork, Ireland. We want to go to Cork, Ireland in the next couple of years so we can go see Ireland and and things like that. So it's more of a what's the word I'm looking for? Like more of a cohesion that we like because she gets to experience some things, but then she also is a wonderful Sherpa. They call her a Sherpa. She's there to make sure I have everything. She comes out on her bike with the bike or with the run group and the mobile, we call her the mobile aid station, but she carries everybody's water during the summer. And she likes that side of things because obviously it's a great sense of community, but but at the same time, is she she gets a good workout in and uh and just likes being out there and enjoying it? So, but she's a huge part of my success, and I definitely wouldn't be here without her.
SPEAKER_01:Sounds amazing. Yeah, I know every time you do anything, you always talk about her. So I love that. So, all right, the very last question before the fun sprint around is there anything that we have not asked you that you want to share with our listeners?
SPEAKER_03:I just want to stress anybody can do what I have done. If you're having trouble getting over something or getting over a certain hurdle, it really just comes down to just refocusing and doing what you need to do and just being committed. Know that it's not gonna happen in two weeks. It's gonna take five years to get to where you need to be. We're so narrow-minded in this instant gratification. You gotta stick to it. You gotta find that community that that really helps you achieve your goals. Beautiful.
SPEAKER_01:Well, all right. And even though you are not a sprinter, Will, we know that you're gonna do a great job on these questions. Are you ready to play? I will ask the first few questions and then Maria. What do you consider the best sandwich?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, honestly, turkey, avocado, bacon, bacon, turkey, avocado. I love that. On marble rye bread with mayonnaise, homemade mayonnaise.
SPEAKER_01:Oh gosh. How do you make homemade mayonnaise?
SPEAKER_03:It's really easy. Eggs and eggs and uh oil. That's it. Boom. Whisk them.
SPEAKER_00:Do you have to worry about the I gotta ask this because I always want to make homemade mayonnaise? Wait, we yeah, we need to hear how do you make homemade mayonnaise?
SPEAKER_03:We need a whole recipe. It's really easy. It's egg yolks. It's egg. You could go three three egg yolks to a cup of oil and a little bit of a little bit of lemon juice or vinegar. So you just need it. I like to use olive oil or avocado oil, but you can use just regular vegetable oil if you wanted to. It just depends on what the flavor you're looking for. But the big thing is you need obviously the fat from the egg, egg yolks, and then you need a little bit of acid, and then just whisk it together. So you can do it in a food processor too.
SPEAKER_00:So and and how long does that keep? And do you have to worry about germs and the raw egg? You can keep that for probably about seven days, seven, eight days.
SPEAKER_03:But if you just make a small batch of it, if you just make a small batch of it and you're using it every single day, because when I do my tuna fish, I use that in there.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. All right, on to question number two. Okay. What do you own that you should throw out?
SPEAKER_03:Oh gosh, t-shirts and hats.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. What is the scariest animal to you?
SPEAKER_03:I don't like hippopotamuses at all. They're really scary because they got those big teeth. And I think that movie Congo back in the nine, it was the late 90s where the it ate the whole boat.
SPEAKER_01:Is there a celebrity that you would like to meet? And if so, who?
SPEAKER_03:Oh geez. Honestly, I would love to meet the trio back in the 90s, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone. So I wrote a little book back in the day when I was a kid called Abs. Arnold, Bruce, Sylvester. And I got a little monkey from Planet Hollywood. Remember they used to own the Planet Hollywoods? And I called them abs because I always wanted abs.
SPEAKER_01:So oh gosh. You might have a new nickname. Yeah, there we go. We'll call you abs. All right. What is the hardest swimming event in the pool?
SPEAKER_03:Ooh, for me, I would say it's the hundred, just the straight hundred free. I would say it's the 50 or the hundred because I'm just terrible at speed. You know that.
SPEAKER_01:So you can work on that. Yes. All right. So yes. Last one for me. What what's your favorite movie?
SPEAKER_03:Ooh. Um Terminator 2. I love that movie. I don't know. I was good to do that.
SPEAKER_01:I love that movie too.
SPEAKER_03:That's a great one. Tropic Thunder.
SPEAKER_00:What's your favorite smell?
SPEAKER_03:Oh gosh, lavender. I love lavender. So and that's coming from when I lived in England years ago when my uh when we were stationed over there, there was a giant lavender field right next to our house. So and I love that smell.
SPEAKER_00:Do you make your bed every morning?
SPEAKER_03:Uh yes and no, sort of. My wife is really into that. So yeah, she normally does, and I'm normally up before her, way before her, so she's still sleeping. Kickboard or no kickboard. Oh, kickboard. I'm a terrible kicker. I just need something to float on.
SPEAKER_00:So if you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
SPEAKER_03:Oh gosh. Oh man. But people are crazy. Billy Carrington. Because people are crazy. So, and that's a really good story. So it's a great story he tells in that song.
SPEAKER_00:So window or aisle?
SPEAKER_03:Middle seat, all the way. I I'm excited. I I love getting to know, and Lisa always sits in the window. So, but I like sitting in the middle because I like to meet everybody on the aisle. Actually, I'm really looking forward to flying tomorrow because I meet like everybody on the air. I'll take I'll talk to a brick wall if it'll talk back to me, Maria, all day.
SPEAKER_00:So the best answer I've ever heard. I you're changing my whole perspective on that, which I always get because my husband gets the aisle.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and this is why I can never get Mark out of swim practice because he and Will are the same. Like Mark is the same way.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I'm a social butterfly. I love I I mean that's my job now. I literally, I mean, I sell food, but that's my job is to go in and speak to people and to know people.
SPEAKER_00:So well, you're a delight. I'm sure people love to see you coming through the door. Okay, last question. Describe your life in five words.
SPEAKER_03:Crazy, uh up and down. I well, that's two words. It's been tough. It's been a tough life, but it's been a good life and uh and uh exciting. I love doing the things I get to do and and rewarding. I like I like to go and do things and then reward myself with fun afterwards, and especially fun with my wife. So that's great.
SPEAKER_01:Actually, Maria, there's one last question we didn't see there.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, we didn't. I'm sorry. Yeah. What comes to what word comes to mind when you dive in the water?
SPEAKER_03:Freedom. It's relaxing. It's relaxing to do that first. Well, and not rushing the warm-up anymore because I get yelled at by Benjamin at that one, and I like that little five things that you're not supposed to do in the pool. And I remember always rushing to the warm-up, and it's but no, freedom, just relaxing and going under the water, and everything's quiet. So love that. Beautiful, beautiful.
SPEAKER_01:Well, what a great time to spend with you and learn all these more in-depth things about you. You are definitely an iron man and an inspiration. Awesome. Thank you very much, ladies. It's been wonderful. So, Maria, there it was. Our beautiful interview with Will Liebig. What an what an amazing human being. Just so inspirational in so many ways.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I say this frequently, but I would have loved to have three more hours with Will.
SPEAKER_01:I know, I know. He's just great. So, what was your first takeaway?
SPEAKER_00:The first takeaway, I think just listening to Will, he talked about that his life was full of ups and downs. And I just loved the I think some of us think we have to be happy all the time or kind of upbeat. And he here's this passionate guy who's extremely successful. And clearly he's had ups and downs with his weight, with his life, with ev with everything. And I think sort of just embracing the embracing that life is full of ups and downs, and we can look in in the down moments, we can know we're gonna come back up. I just I thought he was really I love listening to him talk about his just his passions and he would reward himself and just very passionate guy. Yeah, it makes me feel better because I feel like I'm that way to a degree too. So it made me feel better about myself. I always often put pressure on myself to just always be happy, and sometimes I'm not.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I loved that part of that ups and downs, which could have been a takeaway of its own, but we didn't there there were many more takeaways than just the two, but is the fact that he allowed himself cheat days. A lot of people think that if you're gonna be an Iron Man and you're gonna lose 130 pounds, that you're just you're always on, you're always rigidly dieting, and that that he had cheat days and that they're very important to him every single week. And on those days, he doesn't even record his what he eats. And so I think that's part of the ups and downs. So I love that. And yeah, my first takeaway, and I think for me, the overall arching theme of this is the power of love. This was a love story that got Will to go from a 300-pound out-of-shape guy that fell in love with his wife Lisa and really said, quote unquote, that he wanted to be in shape while he was courting Lisa. I think I think that and that she's been his inspiration. She's been on this journey with him, and that just we never underestimate that power. We, in fact, I think our last episode or second to last episode was the power of emotions and that love is the most powerful emotion. So I think that is my takeaway that when you find something that you love, whether it's a human or somebody helping you, that love can really help transform you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, agreed. Uh, it was beautiful to listen to him talk about her and maybe want to meet her because she's an incredibly she sounds like an incredibly lovely wife and supporter of his dreams. So yeah, she seemed an amazing woman. I agree with that.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. So your second takeaway.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you eat with your eyes first. That was a great quote from him. He talked about plating food, which is putting food on a rather than just serving yourself out of a bowl or something, but putting food on a plate in a beautiful way. And he described doing that. I thought that was I thought it was beautiful. And he talked a lot about food. He's a chef. And so the eating food that that looks good and has a three three-dimensional quality. I knew about plating, but I didn't know about this idea that you have you eaten the plate should have be a sculpture, basically. You should have three dimensions. I thought that was really cool. He he he talked about portion control on the days when he's not cheating and eating frequently. He gave some really good tips. And I think the last tip that I loved was you can make your own mayonnaise. I ate a lot of mayonnaise, and I know I know that's not really good for me because the oils they put in commercial mayonnaise aren't the best oils. And you can eat olive oil till you're blue in the face, and it's not going to hurt you compared to the whatever the oils, the soy oils that they put in and manufactured mayonnaise. So that was good. Yeah, a lot of good to me, just since I love to eat too and I love to cook, a lot of good kind of little tips on eat eating frequently during the day, eating one big meal early in the day, not eating too much before bed. A lot of good stuff in there about nutrition and still really loving your food. Perfect. You don't have to just eat dry protein all day and and broccoli with no butter.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Well, yeah, that as I I said, that plating thing really lit me up. I just thought it was great. And I don't know if I will be so adventurous to make my own mayonnaise, but I do know that they do make mayonnaise with olive oil, and I might switch to that. So they do have a healthier mayonnaise now. So my last takeaway was how important community is. And of course, I'm right along with Will. I really hate swimming alone. Like I just it just when I go down to the pool, if I have to do a workout alone, I sometimes literally sit down on the edge of the pool, put my cap and goggles on, and I've walked away. I've gone to that much trouble. And then I'm like, no, I just don't want to train alone. So the community that he feels with his all of his programs, but his master's swimming program, his cycling community, his riding community, uh his running community. Sounds like he's really into that. And it my takeaway is it's just not as fun to train alone.
SPEAKER_00:So true. And I train a lot with either just Jim or alone. It's fun to train with Jim, but it that's very motivating to remind me. We're traveling so much this year, it's hard to get into a community. But yeah, a bike ride, even a really hard bike ride with a group of my friends goes by so fast. There's a lot of laughter, and I'm gonna get up to to train with you hopefully a week after next. And so I'll get to experience a community in the pool. I often run alone, so it's a real motivating because well, I'm extroverted, and so to be with other people, it'll make it go by faster and I'll be motivated to push myself. So you're right, the community. It's worth the effort to work for it and to get involved in it.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Thanks so much for listening to this Champions Mojo Encore episode. If it inspired you, please follow the show, share it with a friend, and consider leaving a quick review. It truly helps. And don't forget, my new book, False Cure, is available at Amazon and Barnes Noble. I'll be back with all new episodes to help you live well, swim well, and keep your mojo going.
