Category: Brainstorms

Steak Dinner

Food is information. Food is medicine. Food is a hormonal experience.

Food signals our brain to reactive to it very complexly and specifically. Food can help fight, reverse, and/or prevent disease. Specific foods and qualities signal specific hormones, which affects and dictates so many critical responses in the body.

Here is a typical dinner of mine that Jackie usually cooks us. Grass-fed local steak, cauliflower rice, and broccoli all cooked in grass-fed butter with spices.

A Blender Bottle m full of filtered water is by my side every day and for times of “indulgence” one of my favorites is Zevia, which contains no sugar or any other junk. 💚✌️

Gratitude & Perspective

Not happy with your life and want a “better one”? Be grateful you even have one first.

It’s ok to not enjoy where you currently are in life. It’s ok to want more. It’s ok to want to progress with any and every aspect of your life. It’s ok to strive to become better and better every day.

But, I find it much easier, effective, and quicker to obtain the life you desire once your first become GRATEFUL for the life you live today. No matter what your reality is, shit could always be worse.

I was 21 and had just made my dream become a reality, living as a professional BMX athlete and training with the best in the world. That’s when I was told I had a massive tumor taking up the left side of my brain. Not gonna lie, at first I thought I was dead then that shifted to fear, anger and a victim mentality of “why me” and ” what did I do to deserve this”?

After the emotional roller coaster, I shifted my perspective to gratitude to still be alive and to become a survivor that turned all the negatives into fuel to continue living my dream no matter what!

When you can shift your perspective from lack, fear, craving, and greed to gratitude, the path reveals itself and it becomes a hell of a lot easier and sweeter. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

Keto Friendly Beverage

16 months ago I was diagnosed with 2 new brain tumors, totally 4 in my skull.

That’s when I took the “ketogenic diet” serious and started studying and applying it 100% in my life.

Not just the foods but the lifestyle around the keto benefits, which includes; proper training (no chronic high heart rate training), mindfulness practices (meditation, stress management, doing what I love every day), optimizing my sleep by getting 6-8 hours a night, eating specific foods at specific times, not having specific stimulating lights from screens (TV, iPhones, etc.) in my life at specific times before bed, and learning new things to keep my brain adapting and promoting neuroneogenisus (growth of new neurons and networks).

That said, @kevitadrinks makes an amazing low-calorie and low-carbohydrate beverage full of probiotics and flavor. It’s what helped me kick my sugar/soda habit that I had years ago and keeps cravings at bay. A great choice for those looking for a tasty beverage while watching their carb intake for utilizing keto or living in the keto-adapted lifestyle.

The ketogenic diet is not just a fad or get quick results one and done type of plan. It’s a lifestyle shift that takes time to adapt to properly and takes commitment but should never entail suffering of any kind and isn’t always a long-term plan, more like a tool to utilize when necessary. It doesn’t happen over night and can take 21-days to 6-weeks for people to adapt properly depending on their past history and genetics. The goal is not to be in ketosis. The goal is to become fat & keto-adapted and use ketosis as an annual clean up and day to day tool that can be easily implemented.

This ensures that your body and brain knows what to do with all the ketones it’s producing, burns stored body fat, no longer depends on a constant supply of carbohydrates/glucose, and helps fight disease, slow the aging process down, supports the brain, improves sleep quality, reduces inflammation, and so much more.

It really comes down to hormone control from the choices we have every day, which is what we choose to put in our mouths. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

Adversity Cultivates Success

I was 21 when I was told I would never ride my bike again.

That’s the day I was also told I would die unless my head was cut open to remove a massive tumor taking up half my brain. Even then, I still had a chance I may not make it out alive.

This was one of the many challenges I have faced in life and not the first circumstance that put the fragility of my life into perspective.

I later learned, life is full of gifts in the form of adversity and it’s all a matter of perspective. I have overcome injuries, financial instability, abuse, cancer, heartbreak, living in my car, on couches, or in hallway closets, and even depression.

What most of us don’t seem to see, is that we all have choices. We have a choice to believe the things we’re told or to dismiss them as noise. We have a choice to see all of the abundance and success within our lives, or we can choose to see the failures, set-backs, and the things we lack in our lives.

We have a choice to give up or fight back to beat the odds. Prove people wrong and prove our support right. Some choices are hard to make. But those are the ones that mold who we are today. It’s these choices that make us stronger…and wiser…and allow us to grow. I believe it’s not the cards we are dealt, rather it’s how we CHOOSE to play those cards that determine the outcome of our lives.

Sometimes we fall down in life. It’s these falls that are some of the most important learning opportunities for us. Not failures; learning lessons on the path to success.

But, it’s how we choice get back up that defines us and determines our future. Not our past times when we fell down or failed. We’re defined by how we CHOOSE to move forward in life.

Adversity cultivates success and life is all about choices.

So choose wisely. 💚✌️

Be Proactive, Not ReActive

Starting the week off strong with a PR in hang power cleans (70kilo) and some @go_exxentric squats and 3 second decent bench press.

Be proactive rather than reactive! Take care of your body and mind as they work in a uniform reactive relationship to one another. Be pro-active when it comes to your health and goals with your life.

Don’ settle for the status quo and then react to negatives. Do what you can to prevent a negative from occurring in the first place. It’s never too early to take action towards your goals and your health.

I learned this the hard way. I blew out my knee in 2013 and decided to have it fixed in 2015. 2015 was the year I started to take this fitness bing serious in an effort to strengthen and protect my legs. The more I practiced, the more I experienced benefits in the mind and body. 💚✌️

A Clear Vision

I believe a clear vision is what creates the goal, which creates the motivation and the taking of action.

Our reality is a manifestation of our actions we choose to participate in on a daily basis.

The vision is what motivates us to take action every day and is what keeps us going no matter what challenge arise and doesn’t let us give up. 💚✌️

What’s your vision for your life? Are you making choices to take action that leads you closer to your vision?

-Josh P.

Most Protein Bars Are Candy

Marketing is a tricky obstacle for health enthusiasts.

Labels and words we’ve never heard of on ingredients lists trick us into think protein bars are “healthy” when they’re no different than a candy bar for the most part.

Containing glutenous grains, added sugars, poor quality protein, gmo ingredients, artificial flavoring, colors, and sweeteners, and other junk don’t qualify a food as “healthy”.

Thanks to doctors like Dr. David Perlmutter and other health advocates, the information on why these ingredients are detrimental to our health is abundant and clear.

Tag your favorite protein bar and share why it’s your favorite.

My favorites are @primalkitchenfoods and @gardenoflife. Loaded with quality protein, prebiotic fiber, and healthy fats. 💚✌️

-Josh P.

My Mission

My mission is to create support for those in need, direct patient funding for brain tumor patients, empower people to live as healthy as possible, and create faith, inspiration, and partnerships through sport, education, and story telling. 💚✌️

What’s your mission in life?

-Josh P.

Push Your Limitations

How do you push your limits and increase your potential in life?

I never thought weight lifting would be apart of my life or even half of the role it plays in my life today.

I got into fitness after I blew out my knee in 2013. That’s what I call being “reactive” rather then being proactive”.

Today’s it’s a passion of mine. I love the health benefits, of course, but I also love the challenge mentally and physically, learning a new skill, how it supplements my riding very well, and how the risk factor is not as high as BMX but sill presents that mental and physical challenge.

That said, here is a face of joy and relief as I successfully cleaned my highest weight so far (88kilos) and got it after just missing it on the attempt prior. I’ve come a long way his last year of introducing Olympic lifting to my programming and mobility as played the biggest factor. I had some strength, and it does keep increasing, but my lack of mobility held me back so much in terms of technique and form, which determine how successful my lifts are.

I’ve been working hard with Jackie and 919Spine to correct that and have been stoked! 💚✌️

-Josh P.

What’s In Your Hand?

What would you do if this was your scan result after an MRI following a sports related head injury?

My path to making my dream of becoming a pro bmx athlete come true has never been an easy one.

I know things that are worth having don’t come easily. I have overcome financial instability, injuries, cancer, abuse, heartbreak, and depression. If the things we desire most in life were simple, we’d already have them.

I am a firm believer that it’s not the cards were dealt; rather it’s the way we CHOOSE to play those cards that determine the outcome of our life. 💚✌️

Did you get dealt a shit hand of cards? How are YOU CHOOSING to play them?