Diagnosed With Parkinson's at 27, He Became a World Record Holder & American Ninja Warrior – With Jimmy Choi

27:07Yes, I was walking around with a spreadsheet in 2010 because there was no AI back then. But people can do it today with AI on their phones and the devices, right? Back then, I had a flip phone. Come on, right? But that is the hardest part, is to remember to note what you're feeling. And you don't have to be perfect, but consistency. You have to be consistent enough to see the data. The data has to be consistent, right? But it doesn't have to be perfect. you know so uh i always tell people i'm not telling you to be some kind of bookworm you know like you got to stop every every 15 minutes to to mark down what you got to do if you miss one it's okay but pick up and be consistent and just pick up where you left off don't don't beat yourself up if you miss one just keep going right and then when enough time has passed you have enough data points to make something meaningful, educated guess.

28:11Right?

28:12Shawn Stevenson:And that's it. Seems very logical, you know, but again, and today we have an added curve ball of being very distracted. There's like so much going on, this constant, you know, input, constant barrage of information. And so to take back control of your thinking and your mind and your focus is another task in and of itself. But the truth is, if your heart is beating, you can get better. You still have an opportunity. And so I want to talk about specifically, you getting involved in some of these different trials and trying to figure things out and seeing the impact, the output that would result from you doing exercise was really transformative in particular.

28:56Shawn Stevenson:And so we've had and one of my best friends and colleagues is really responsible for this movement of muscle-centric medicine, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, shout out to her. And understanding how there's this chemistry involved when you are utilizing your muscles. Before we even got started, you were talking about the use it or lose it paradigm. And so I wanna ask you about specifically, how was utilizing exercise impacting your experience with Parkinson's? Well, you know, I think it comes down, it's very simple, actually, if you think about it. Parkinson's is, it's a movement disorder, right? But there are aspects, other aspects of Parkinson's that are non-motor.

29:44And I want to stress that because whenever people think of Parkinson's, they always immediately think about tremors and things like that. but there are other areas of Parkinson's that gets, that affects the body. But exercise is also, it's also very helpful to all of those, not just the movement side of it. And I think what's what's painfully obvious, but not obvious to everybody is, is just like you said, the move it, lose it mentality. Parkinson's tends to rob those of us living with a disease, our ability to move. And it's not necessarily that we're weaker. And it's not necessarily that all of a sudden our joints become less capable.

30:35What's happening is that the chemical imbalance in the brain, the lack of dopamine is causing confusion in our muscles. So our muscles are contradicting each other. And that creates the stiffness, that creates the cramps, okay, which is also called dystonia. And that is what's limiting movement. And that's what's causing the uncontrolled twitches. It's not necessarily that your muscles aren't capable of moving, and that your joints aren't capable of the load, right? So I find that using exercise to force some of that movement, the bigger, powerful movements, to force that movement, to force that range of motion in the gym ultimately helps you because it trains your nervous system to know that we can still do this, right?

31:22Now it's how do I bring this out to everyday life from the gym? So that's why I feel like I need to be very targeted when I train in the gym so that I train so that I am extending my ability to, my range of motion, my not necessarily speed, but more consistency in the way that I move, more of a balance from unilateral movements, using unilateral movements to create more balance. And then also to have better awareness of the space around me. right and i think the gym can do all that and all of that can transfer to your everyday life but you just have to understand exactly how that's happening and i'll give you an example of this um i was falling a lot right to the point where i was using the cane and one point this is right even when after i started running i had very different methods of like keeping myself from falling and we can talk about all these different methods but one particular one that I wanted to highlight is that I started asking myself, I'm falling so much in real world, what can I do in the gym that will help me to be safe if I fall?

32:43And how do I get back up? If you think about it, that's a burpee, right? It's a controlled fall to the ground and then pushing yourself back up. Now, when I started doing burpees, I was only able to do four or five at the end of a recession, right? But I was doing this so much. I was doing it every day. Remember that 10 % rule now, right? Five this week, six next week, whatever. Eventually it became like 30, 40, 50, and even more. And when pandemic came, everything shut down. There's nothing to do at home except more burpees. But my point is the burpee, what started out as a desire to learn a life-saving skill for me in case I do fall, I became so good at it by doing it so much and leveling it up, adding additional levels to it, that it gave me an opportunity to break a world record for a number of burpees, a number of hand-released chest-to-ground burpees in one minute.

33:44And I did that. I broke that record in 2020. Now, would I ever been able to do that if I didn't start doing burpees? No. Would I even be able to start, would I even have started doing burpees if I never asked myself the question, what can I do in the gym that's going to help my everyday life? And the answer is no. Right? So that's kind of how, this is how it is for me. When every time that, everything that I'm doing in the gym has to be meaningful for me. Whatever it is that I'm trying to do in life, whether it's just moving better with Parkinson's or, you know, I, you know, nowadays I'm helping my son.

34:22So I need to get stronger because my son also has a neurological disorder and I need to help move him around. So now I do a lot of strength training, you know? So I'm doing, you know, doing things in the gym that matters to my everyday life. And I need to make sure that they transfer. I love that.

34:39Shawn Stevenson:Just even that thinking is going to take you so much further than just even focusing on the aesthetics piece, which the aesthetics tend to come following the function, form following function. And recently, which I was just walking into the studio, hearing you talking about this with my guys, you just did a certain insane number, from my perspective, of burpees to muscle-ups. First of all, a burpee's hard enough? A muscle-up, a fraction of our population could even do a muscle-up. but you were doing a burpee into a muscle up for how many reps did you do 51 reps on my 51st birthday come on man that's i mean yeah like i i i know that i'm kind of half joking about being a superhero but like you're really just a real superhero is somebody who's really just demonstrating what's possible and standing up in the face of adversity you know and doing it in an exceptional way and sometimes making it look cool.

35:43Shawn Stevenson:All right. And you know, you have all of these just checked off. And you know, I want to ask you specifically because with that thinking of how can I train myself to adapt to the conditions? What are the things that I want to be good at doing? If we think like that, you're talking about a recipe for longevity as well. Oh yeah. You know, and thinking about that in terms of our training is completely different than just like, I just want to lose some weight. i want to you had a purpose behind what you were doing yeah no it's a lifestyle it has to be a lifestyle um parkinson's diagnosis changed my life what am i going to do what am i what changes am i going to make in my life to adjust to that right if if i don't make it a lifestyle then it becomes this let's let's bring this back to wellness and and just regular fitness i don't want to say regular.

36:37Maybe that's the wrong word, but let's just bring this back to wellness and fitness. The term yo-yo dieting, right, is popular. Everybody knows what that means. Even if you're not in fitness, you know what that means. You lose weight, you gain it back. You lose weight, you gain it back. And why, when you look at people that it happens to, I don't want to say everybody, but I want to say a majority of them is because they've made dieting just a fad, right? Oh, let me try low carb for the next three weeks and then as soon as they lose all that that water weight essentially right they take three bites of a piece of cake half of it comes right back right i'm exaggerating it's not half but um but that's the yo-yo diet effect right because that person didn't make a lifestyle change to maintain that weight loss right so for me it's whatever change that I'm going to make has to be a meaningful lifestyle change.

37:37It can't be a fad. I can't do it. Now, I'll be honest, if something just isn't working, yeah, you switch course, abandon, you make changes, but you learn from it, right? But whatever changes that you make, it has to be a lifestyle, sustainable change. So, you know, living with Parkinson's, For me, it's if I'm not making a change in the way that I live, that is going to positively support what I'm trying to do. Then, you know, is it worth doing? And, you know, if I abandon it, am I really getting benefits from it? You know, so it's just constantly thinking back into that and making sure that we, or me, making sure that I'm trying to do the right things for myself for the longevity of things.

38:37Because there's no cure for Parkinson's. The best thing that I can do for myself is to make sure that my body is prepared for the long fight so that when a treatment that does come along that is disease modifying or can be classified as a quote unquote cure, my body's ready to receive it in the best form that it is at the time. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.

39:01Shawn Stevenson:Truly, like this is one of the most special parts of this conversation. We do not leverage our own psychology, you know? And if we have a big enough why, it's not gonna be a matter of getting, motivating yourself to get out of bed and work out or to make certain food choices. if we just take the time to find out what is that inner motivation that really, where we don't have to push ourselves, we're getting pulled by a vision for you, your family. And also again, just being able to see what's, you've just been unlocking more and more doors. What tends to happen is you start to put more legs under that belief about what's possible when you find that why.

39:45Shawn Stevenson:And so also, just mentioning a potential treatment or discovery that may come in the near future here, what we do know now, what you've already activated is the solid amount of science we already have on how exercise can potentially slow down, significantly slow down the progression of Parkinson's, if not arrested or put into somewhat of a remission to where it's not progressing or getting worse. and you've been activating that in multiple levels. And so I wanna touch on this a little bit more because you mentioned earlier about the dopamine factor of this. So we know now, of course, like just the function, you training your body to be able to do certain things, number one.

40:34Shawn Stevenson:Number two, the activation and utilizing those muscles and our muscles being essentially a very powerful potential endocrine organ if we use them, producing this chemistry, because it's not dopamine acting in isolation, even the dopamine that you do have, it's also interacting with cortisol and with serotonin and with these myokines and with, you know, it's this entire, you know, looking at the human body instead of these isolated parts, it's this miraculous chemistry set. And you're getting so much benefit, not to mention the endorphins, and just you feeling better, just the mental part of it.

41:19Shawn Stevenson:That's it, yeah. So I'm saying all this to set you up to talk about even the experience of exercising and the community that you've built around that, and how that affects our neurochemistry, and you just feeling better and having the temperament to keep pushing forward. How important is that piece? No, I think you hit the nail right on the head is that dopamine doesn't act alone, which is why a dopamine replacement therapy alone isn't a cure for Parkinson's, right? Because there's other stuff that's going on. And I think when you think about it from a lifestyle point of view, for me, a lot of times what's happening is that when I'm sharing the things that, when I share information online about, hey, this is my lived experience, I'm not telling people this is, you need to do exactly what Jimmy's trying to do, right?

42:22I'm telling people what's possible. I'm showing people what's possible for a person with Parkinson's. This is what's possible. And what that has become is it has sparked a lot of conversation. It sparked a lot of ideas exchanged with other people living with Parkinson's that are doing things their way, but they're seeing similar results. Or other people that are doing it in a completely different way that I haven't, I've never thought about. and I'm learning from them, right? So we're bringing together this collective thought process and we're collecting information from the community in terms of Parkinson's to really gather information that can be helpful to other people, right?

43:11And I think what's great about this is that when you're, at least this is how I feel, When you're able to get the feeling that you're helping somebody, right? And somebody is vice versa, gets the feeling that they're helping you. I think in that sense itself, there's something about the human mind that releases these extra chemicals. And it could be endorphins. It could be serotonin. And these are things that all work together that creates sort of the, they call it the runner's high. When you run so much, you feel like you're happy running. They call it the runner's high. And that's serotonin just extra in your brain.

43:56And I think having a community around me, sharing ideas and sharing information and pushing each other along. and the having the the gratitude of of of having the support system outside of yourself yeah is very important and and it does help with your mental health side of of living with a chronic disease and you know you mentioned that um it it's not always about just like motivation it's all It's understanding the psyche behind things. But all of that doesn't start until you can deal with sort of your inner demons, right? And I think, and when I say that, I've had to deal with depression. I've had to deal with apathy early on in my Parkinson's, and I still do today.

44:55I'm not gonna say it's completely gone away, but I think the community around me has definitely helped with that helps me sort of bring you out of the darkness, so to speak, because you have this support system around you. Yeah.

45:11Shawn Stevenson:A lot of people who've experienced a chronic condition, chronic pain, it can be very isolating, you know? And it's interesting because, you know, just knowing your story and even, you didn't even tell your wife about the diagnosis for three months. for three months. Three months I didn't tell her. And of course, just kind of taking on the burden yourself mentally of like, I'm just gonna push through this or ignore it or whatever the case might be and not really talking about it. And it's so beautiful how when we open up and share our concerns, how we feel about a thing and how isolating we might feel.

45:52Shawn Stevenson:It's amazing how people are there for us if we allow them to be. That's it, yeah. You know, you got, you have to allow people in.

46:03One of the things that I, that I, I pushed the idea of being open as soon as you can, because I took, it took eight years for me. I've been on that side of the coin and I don't want to go back. And I really want to help people understand that that's not the side that you want to live in. because here's what happened when I finally opened up. When I opened up, I realized that people are 99 % supportive. You're going to have that 1%, right? There's nothing you can do about it. And it's best if they're out of your lives, okay? But 99 % supportive. People are understanding. People actually want to help you if you allow, if you can articulate how you would like to be helped, right?

46:52I hate it when people treat me like I have a disease, but I haven't told them how I want to be treated, right? Until I've opened up and I tell them this is how I want to be treated. And then I find that most people treat me the way that exactly how I ask. So being open, allow that. And here's the biggest part about being open. You remove the rumors and all the talking that's happening behind your back. You're not there to tell people what's going on. So all they can do is they see you from the outside and they can only make assumptions as to what's going on. And they'll come up with their own conclusion as to what's going on with you.

47:33And a lot of times, especially in a professional setting, right, those conclusions aren't going to be favorable to you. So do you want other people's perception of you to be their own conclusions and their own preconceived ideas without understanding exactly what you're going through. If you allow them to understand what you're going through, you remove all of that. And that removes a lot of stigma and it removes a lot of isolation because now people are more willing to engage with you instead of being tiptoe elephant in the room kind of response. Yeah. I have a question with this.

48:08Shawn Stevenson:Is there a space where you can have openness and communication and acceptance to support with being mindful of not having a victim mindset? Yes. It was really hard for me to find that. Right? It was really hard for me to find that initially because I think human nature is to show compassion, but maybe in a way of overpassionately initially because we don't understand what's going on. So there are Parkinson's communities where it's like, no BS, this is what we talk about. right? You understand me, so we're not... There's a lot of those spaces around online. But I think the bottom line is that a person living with any type of chronic illness, any type of disease that's incurable, so to speak, they have to create that environment for themselves.

49:18And I think you have to actively do that by sharing your stories, being open and letting others in. and only until then in my own inner circle i think that's exactly what i have and i'm grateful for that and it wasn't always the case because it wasn't until i started opening up that i have that open communication with my own inner circle and i think everybody has to somehow create that for themselves it won't come naturally because we all we all want to feel sorry for somebody we all want to, right? That's how we initially act. And I understand that and it's okay. But if you truly want people to understand exactly what you're going through, it's share without oversharing.

50:03You know, don't make it about yourself. But when people ask questions, you give honest responses. And when you are having difficulty and you need help, you ask for it. And I think that goes a long way. When you're becoming transparent, other people around you will take that better and they'll know how to, they'll finally be able to kind of dial in exactly what level of sensitivity that they can express around you.

50:36Shawn Stevenson:Yeah. And I would imagine a part of that equation is how you are feeling about yourself and not feeling sorry for yourself. Yeah, yeah. that's probably the biggest, the hardest point, right? It's like initially, I think in my first eight years, there's a lot of anger, a lot of depression. And I don't, I used to not talk about this, but I've been talking about a lot more. But I did try to hurt myself, you know, early on in those first few years. And it just wasn't, it's not the place to be. And I've been there and I don't want to ever go back. you know but it also but i don't think i could be here where i am without first dealing with those demons the first dealing with that those feelings of depression and of uh worthlessness and um you know exactly like the feeling of that the world would be better without me you know um and it's very selfish way of thinking right uh but at the end of the day would my family have been better off without me?

51:44I don't know. I don't think so.

51:48Shawn Stevenson:Thank you for sharing that, man. Yeah. Thank you. Our cultural beliefs around shoes and footwear is going through a renaissance right now. In our quest for ultimate comfort, we've lost our focus on real human function. Our feet are special, but not in an OnlyFans kind of way. Our feet need love and attention. Your foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, 19 muscles, 107 ligaments, and each foot has over 200 ,000 nerve endings. And it's all there for collecting data about your movement to send that information up the kinetic chain to ensure that your movement responses to your environment are appropriate.

52:36Shawn Stevenson:It starts from the ground up. Our modern shoes have essentially muted so much of that information and disrupt thousands of these data signals. And as a result, we have epidemics of foot dysfunction, ankle injuries, knee injuries, and more that can be rooted back to our modern footwear. Now, don't get me wrong. I love and enjoy our modern styles of footery, of footwear. I've got a variety of different shoes that I like to wear for different occasions. But today, my mindset has changed dramatically when it comes to my footwear for prehab and rehab for my feet and overall movement. Every single day, I spend time in my general walking practices and in my training wearing my Palovas.

53:28Shawn Stevenson:Paloovas have science-backed five-toe functionality, a wide toe box, and most importantly, for a mindset like mine, they're actually stylish. When you compare Paloovas to some of the other five-toe functionality, wide toe box footwear out there, they're really in a league of their own. And right now, if you go to paloova.com forward slash model, you're going to get 10 % off when you use the code model at checkout. All right. They got incredible styles for a wide variety of functions as well. They've got their cross training footwear, which I wear most often. They've got their hiking footwear. They've got their kind of casual just going out, throwing on the palubas just to go out, grab a bite to eat kind of footwear.

54:15Shawn Stevenson:They've got their new golf shoe as well. And their new court shoes for things like pickleball. All right. So they've got a wide variety of styles and functions. for you to enjoy. So again, start showing your feet some more love. Go to paluva.com for slash model for 10 % off storewide. That's P-E-L-U-V-A.com forward slash model. Use the code model at checkout for 10 % off storewide. And now back to the show. Because again, there are many people listening who've had similar feelings. And, you know, this is just, again, a testament to going through the fire and figuring things out and understanding, you know, again, like, you know, there's this great sentiment about, you know, sometimes life's hardest lessons are given to its greatest angels.

55:13Shawn Stevenson:And, you know, you mentioned earlier about this desire that we have and the meaning that we get from giving and from supporting others in contribution, it really is a need. Like it's a psychological need that we have to be able to contribute to our tribe. You know, today our tribe is very different, you know, what it looks like, but we need to feel like we matter and that we can, you know, provide, you know, something and contribute in a way. And what I gather and what a lot of people should be getting today from you is that no matter what's going on in our lives, somebody else is dealing with something worse, you know, in some kind of area of their lives.

55:56Shawn Stevenson:And so to hold that compassion, but also hold our capacity to serve and to help others, no matter how bad it is for us, because that is a powerful part of that recipe for us feeling better and for us being able to contribute more, you know? And so, you know, that's one of the big takeaways that I had. As soon as I just got into your story and into your world, I was just like, man, there's a lot of stuff that I'm just like, you know, complaining about or whatever, like if Jimmy can do it, honestly, like I could do it. And so even when I walked into the studio today, I'm like, I gotta get my muscle ups together at a different level.

56:33Shawn Stevenson:Cause I can do muscle ups, but burpee muscle ups, like what the hell, you know? So it's just inspiring for me to like, there's more that I have to give that I'm not tapping into. So, you know, I appreciate you. No, I appreciate you saying that too, because a lot of times I do think to myself, like there are other people in the world that have a worse off than I do, right? So it's all relative, right? I think any of us dealing with any kind of adversity in life, I don't think we should, I don't think we should, you know, immediately thinking, oh, poor me and this and that, is that everybody has their own version of adversity.

57:16You know, like this is a terrible example, but this is the one that I can come up with that's silly enough to make a comparison. Like if there's a professional money counter in the world, right, that person gets a paper cut. That paper cut to them could be the end of the world. But to you and I, that paper cut is just a paper cut, right? Don't handle lemon, right? But to the professional paper counter, or professional money counter, that's the end of the world for them, right? So it's all perspective. It's all, you know, what everybody's dealing with in their own lives. Like that paper cut isn't any worse to that person as Parkinson's might be to me, right?

57:56So, you know, it's all relative. And I think it serves everybody in our best interest not to judge other people for whatever it is they might be dealing with. And instead, let's all lift each other up. Let's be supportive. And let's be that community we all want to be.

58:16Shawn Stevenson:Obviously, but maybe not so obvious, when it comes to getting results with exercise, with our training, it's the consistency piece. It's not something you do every now and then. And that's gonna require us to show up. And so I wanna ask for you personally, what's more important to you? The motivation to show up and get the work done or discipline? Ah, that's a good question. Cause I, I always separate the two. I think they're two different things. With, with a lot of times motivation is to me, it's things like I talked about my family. That's my motivation. But that's family, that's life, right?

58:59And that motivation isn't always going to be there because some, some things in life is going to trump that over, you know, it's going to, the importance is going to be there. to be more important in that point in time. Now, discipline on the other hand is, is, is something completely different. Discipline is, um, a regimen. Discipline is a machine that you've created within your own schedule. And, um, I think having a, I think having discipline, right, without relying on motivation i think that's kind of where where i am uh i know i've got to i know i've got to work out every day to keep my body moving to keep to try to stay the best that i can um uh you know ahead of this disease um so i can be there for my family right for those who motivate me for for the reasons that motivate me um so it's kind of for me it's kind of a double-edged sword but i don't think you, I don't think if you're trying to make a lifestyle change, you can do it with motivation alone because it's going to end, right?

1:00:08You can't get it every day. You can get it everywhere. But when you have the discipline, that is a never ending feed of, of push that you need to get into the gym every day. Yeah.

1:00:23Shawn Stevenson:And speaking of getting into the gym, you know, there's a big difference between just getting there and getting through reps and actually getting the most out of the time that you're there. And I think it's even more important for people who are dealing with things, physically, mentally, to really get the most out of the time that they spend working out. Can you talk about that? Yeah. One of the things that... I see a lot of people working out online. And I learn a lot from all these people. but when I see people getting into the gym like in real life getting to the gym and they're just we all look on the board and whatever your trainer has today written up on a board 10 reps of xyz 15 reps of xyz right we go in there and we do the 10 reps and 15 reps and we're done but nobody really at least sometimes it seems that no one's really trying to figure out whether or not you're doing 10 quality reps or 15 quality reps, right?

1:01:28Especially when you get into these hybrid training, bootcamp style workouts. You've got 30 seconds to do as many squats, bodyweight squats as you can, right? And then you look over and they're like, oh, I did 35. And again, did you really? Because I only saw about 15 degrees of bend in that knee, right? Whereas the person, another person next to you is going ass to grass, right? And I only got five or I only got 10, right? So I think that's very important. It's a very important distinction. Are you going to the gym to just get through the motions, to get through the reps? And if you so, if that's what you're doing, you're doing the same thing every day and every day and every day and every day.

1:02:11Are you really getting better? Are you really getting stronger? Are you really getting the most out of your training time? time. People always ask me, Jimmy, what do you do? Like people with other people with Parkinson's, like, Jimmy, what do you, what do you do in the gym? I used to tell people, oh, I start my day off running five miles and then I do 50 pushups, a hundred pull-ups or whatever it is. I stopped telling people that because they'll be, they'll think, okay, I should do exactly what Jimmy does and I'll go and I'll run five miles or I'll go and I'll do a 50 pushups and a hundred pull-ups or whatever.

1:02:44But when you look at their reps, they're doing half push-ups and half pull-ups. So are you really getting the full range of motion that you need with your disease? That's my point. And also when I start telling people, hey, I start my day running five miles, I've lost 90 % of the audience. Nobody likes running, right? Not nobody, but most people hate running. So they're not going to run. So they're not going to run. They're not going to do it. Right. So I think it's important that the quality goes. And so nowadays I tell people the science behind Parkinson's related training is that it's scientifically proven or data has shown that you can slow progression of the disease if you do 30 minutes of high intensity training, four days a week.

1:03:38That's it. Four days a week is all you need, but for 30 minutes, four days a week. High intensity training is defined in the study as hitting your 80 to 85 % of your max heart rate. So that study followed a bunch of people with Parkinson's and there's three groups, one that did the 80%, one that did some exercise and one that did none. The group that showed statistically zero progression over six months was the group in the 80%. Right? So that's what I tell people now. I said, look, that's what the study suggests. And for me, my fitness level is different than you, but you can work to it. So right now I do 45 minutes minimum of 85%, right?

1:04:22And it's not 45 minutes from the time I walk into the gym and then walking out and 45 minutes later and I say that I'm done. And it's 45 minutes of total time at 80%, 85%. So the clock stops when my heart rate drops below 135. And the clock starts again when it goes above it. And then I don't stop until, so sometimes that might take an hour. Sometimes that might take two hours, right? So I think that's what I mean by getting the most out of your training sessions is that make sure you're going in there to do the work that you need to do to improve whatever it is that you're trying to improve. and a lot of times just getting through the reps and saying that you've done it you've done it that's not the same as true training in my mind at least i love it it's it's a little bit of akin

1:05:10Shawn Stevenson:to some you know junk food snacky you know yeah versus the real whole food nutrition you know which which is a great segue into you know if you could speak to what you've discovered for yourself, again, in your own context. And I know, again, a lot of this does translate over to other people as well, but just what you found to be helpful as far as managing your symptoms, slowing the progression when it comes to the nutrition side, because we're spending a lot more time interacting with food than even being in the gym. Right. My philosophy is different. I've done it all in my last 16 years you know, when I, after the fall with my son, I tried all the different fad diets.

1:05:58Now, let me back up. I don't want to call it fad. Some of them aren't fad. Some of them are lifestyles, right? I've tried mind diet, which isn't a fad. I've tried a Mediterranean diet. That's not a fad. But I've also done, quote unquote, the faddier diets, right? Like Atkins, right? Because I don't want to lump Atkins with carnivore, right? Not necessarily because they're different. But I've tried it. I've tried carnivore. I've tried keto. I've tried, what is it? The caveman diet. I've tried, I will say it was a short-lived stint, but I tried vegan. I've tried it all. And to be honest, none of those, and I gave it a good chance.

1:06:42I was on keto for a good 11 months and then went right into a hardcore version of a carnivore diet. Immediately, like went from keto into carnivore for another 13 months. So two straight years. And like I said, I've done vegan. I've done all these other things. What I found is that while being on those diets, I felt different, right? In various different aspects, whether it's brain fog, whether it's my energy levels, whether it's my muscle composition that came out of it. I felt different in all those, but none of them to me was sustaining for my lifestyle or sustainable for my lifestyle because I have kids.

1:07:31I have a family to feed. I travel a lot. And when I do travel a lot and I have to feed my kids, I can't always adhere to, right? So it's not sustainable for my lifestyle. I'm not saying that that's bad for other people. If it's sustainable for their lifestyle, by all means, go for it. But also, remember I talked about keeping track of exactly how I'm feeling with my medication, with my symptoms and what I'm eating. I didn't see enough of a benefit or change to justify the amount of work I have to put to adhere to those diets. Right. But what I have found that in overall clean eating, stay away from the processed foods, right?

1:08:18Stay away from your potato chips and fried chickens and pizzas and things like that. And eat clean whole foods as much as you can for most of the time. It's much more sustainable. And yet my health benefits as it relates to Parkinson's wasn't that much different than when I was on those other diets. Right. So for me and my lifestyle, it's the best. It's just to stay clean, eat whole foods. But as I'm out watching my daughter play softball, right? I'm in the stadium and I have to have a hot dog because there's really nothing else around or nachos with some extra processed cheese. So be it, right?

1:09:00Enjoy your life. Enjoy your day. don't go out of your way to make things hard for you and those around you. Enjoy it, but then tomorrow I get right back into it. And I think that says a lot into how I deal with nutrition for myself is that being the most sustainable way that you can while staying as clean as you possibly can. And that's how I've been able to manage my nutrition. That's great advice.

1:09:31Shawn Stevenson:I think it's simple. Yeah, very simple, very practical. Oh man, like I could talk to you for hours. I could talk to you for hours. Is there anything else that you wanted to share today that can be helpful for everybody listening? You know, I think when it comes to your overall wellness and your overall fitness for everyone else that is on their fitness journey, I think it's very important to understand that your mind is probably as important, if not more important, than that barbell that you're trying to lift or that treadmill you're trying to run on. You know, movement matters, but your mindset, how you deal with, how you plan on going into your fitness journey, how you mentally prepare yourself for the life ahead, the grind ahead.

1:10:35I think that's more important than anything. And if you happen to be somebody living with a chronic disease or some kind of adversity in life, that mental side of it is going to add an extra layer on top of that, on top of everything that you're dealing with.

1:10:56And it's never a shame to get help from a mental perspective, right? But if you can get your mind strong, you can get your mind right, it'll take you a long way. Yeah.

1:11:07Shawn Stevenson:For you, I got to ask, what do you do to keep your mind strong? You know, I'm not a meditation kind of person. I think for me, my gym, the gym is my meditation, is my place of peace. I'm sure a lot of people that are listening can relate to this and maybe even yourself. is sometimes when you're doing something so hard in the gym, you close your eyes and you're getting through whatever it is that you're doing, right? Whether it is that someone running a marathon and just trying to close out those last additional, last couple of miles, right? They're just digging and grinding and going through. When you're in the gym and your trainer says, give me five minutes of low plank or give me three minutes of hollow hold.

1:11:59And you just wanna stay up in that hold as long as you can. You close your eyes and you kind of go into that little dark place, right? That's kind of my meditation. That's in that area, when I train to the brink, when I bring myself, bring my body to the brink, I kind of find peace with that. Some people might say I'm a little deranged for that, but I think it brings me a lot of peace because at that point it's just me in my head. And I can think about what's coming the rest of the day to either look forward to or whatever it is that I'm fighting, right? I know that at that moment in my own mind, it's just me and my head looking for that clarity.

1:12:43Yeah.

1:12:44Shawn Stevenson:It feeds into itself. Yeah. It's what I'm hearing really with you, you know, your mind and your body. And we've been separating the two, unfortunately for decades now, but there's a unification or a recognizing of the unification happening right now. And so, we really are, we are designed and our genes expect us to do hard things. You know, that's how we actually unlock these dormant capacities. Yeah. You know? And as we close out, I wanna give you one story about that. Yes. This was probably in 2019, I was at a charity event and this charity event was actually held Thousand Oaks. And it was at one of those kid jumpy place.

1:13:36And we had a charity event there. And this guy with Parkinson's came in. And he came in on a walker. And I'm sitting there on top of a foam pit with a rope. And he comes up to me. He goes, Jimmy, you inspire me. I want to know how you can do this. And I'm like, you can do it. He's like, what, right now? I'm like, yeah, right now. like he's in a walker and then I said yeah you can do this right now so his wife comes running I was like whoa what are you doing because I'm handing the guy the rope and I'm like I'm like it's a foam pit don't worry about it I said look I will personally come out go out there and pick him up and grab him out of there I said it's very simple all you want to do is grab this rope and I just want you to go for a ride swing to the other side and on the other side is a cargo net and I just want you to grab it if you fall you fall no big deal right just go for the ride enjoy it he grabs on his wife is just nervous and i said you might want to record this she goes okay so she pulls out her phone grabs the rope swings to the other side and what does he do he reaches out now he doesn't successfully grab the cargo net but he and he fell right and then we we get him out and then i told his wife i said when was the last time you saw him reach full extension in his arm because Parkinson's has a way of pulling us in.

1:14:54She goes, I don't think I can, I can remember when was the last time. So I showed them him and her at the time in the video. I said, look back. Okay. That movement is still there. And it was there because it was life and death for you. Right. Your brain wasn't thinking, right. It's there. Your body put all of whatever you have left into this. It shows you that that motion is there. Right. Now, what are you going to do to unlock it, you know? So I, I hope that was a very powerful moment for them. Um, but I remember that moment for myself because it teaches me that whatever it is that I'm still trying to do, it's, it's there.

1:15:35We just, we all got to just learn and find out how to unlock it.

1:15:39Shawn Stevenson:Jimmy, man, thank you so much. I appreciate you coming to see me and, and sharing your, your experience, your insights with everybody. It's been incredibly valuable. Can you let people know where they can follow you, where they can just get more into your world, get involved with any of the, you know, the missions that you're a part of? Yeah. So I can be found on social media, on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok, all the same handles at JC Fox Ninja. And then, you know, as far as my advocacy work is concerned, I sit on the patient board with the Michael J. Fox Foundation and also Rocksteady Boxing International.

1:16:17It's a boxing program, especially designed for people with Parkinson's. And I'm a motivational speaker full-time and they can find me via email, jimmy at thefoxninja.com. Amazing. Sean, I truly appreciate you giving me the opportunity to be here and sharing your platform with me. I'm forever grateful for that. Thank you.

1:16:37Shawn Stevenson:Oh, the honor is all mine. Thank you, Jimmy. I appreciate you so much. Everybody, make sure to follow Jimmy. I can't thank you enough. Thank you so much for coming to hang out with us today. Oh, I had a blast. Thank you. You got it. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. I hope that you got a lot of value out of this. I hope that this was a joy to listen to and just brought up so many incredible insights and reminders. And also just for me, again, finding out about Jimmy and diving into his world just really turned up the volume for me on the excuses that I might be carrying with me.

1:17:14Shawn Stevenson:And to remember again, the power of yes, the power of making a real decision and the power of finding a true why and something that pulls us, a vision that continues to pull us every day rather than trying to push ourselves to do the things that we feel we're supposed to do. And again, if you enjoyed this, please share the episode with somebody that you care about. Share it on social media. Take a screenshot of this episode. Share it out. Share your voice. Share your insights. Whatever this made you feel, I'm sure that Jimmy would love to hear any kind of aha moment or word of encouragement or insight.

1:17:57Shawn Stevenson:And if you're listening on Spotify, for example, you can leave a comment with this episode, which is really wonderful. Or just wherever you're listening, please make sure to share, share from the app that you're listening on. And if you can, if you want to hang out in the studio with us, pop over to the YouTube channel and check out the video version of this episode as well. And you can also see some of the feats that Jimmy has accomplished in the video as well. We'll be showing some of that. And, you know, again, I just appreciate you so much. I wanted to share something truly inspiring and life-changing and a reminder that many people are going through stuff.

1:18:37Shawn Stevenson:You never know what somebody's going through. We are so strong and we are stronger when we're together and when we are holding each other accountable, but also being there to support one another. And I'm grateful to be a part of your life and your story. And again, please share this out with somebody that you care about. Let's keep this message going, making inspiration and empowerment go viral. We've got some incredible masterclasses and world leading experts coming your way very, very soon. So make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon.