Author: JoshPerryBMX

JL & JP 1-Year

Almost 3 years ago @jciake and I met and she became my athletic trainer.

We instantly bonded over sarcasm and shit talking one another in a fun, competitive, yet loving manner during hours of rehab for my knee surgery she helped me with.

While we were both seeing other people at the time, our routine sessions of athletic trainer and athlete / rehab led to a sort of friendly/sibling kind of relationship. We pushed each other to grow in various areas of life while always making one another laugh every time we saw each other.

Today marks 1 year that Jackie and I became a partnership in life that involves still being best friends but also sharing our lives together.

We still challenge one another to the max, mentally and physically, every day but have also joined forces to create amazing success and support with one another in terms of personal life, business, fitness, nutrition, spirituality, adventure, and so much more that I don’t think either of us ever fathomed becoming a reality from the beginning.

I’m thankful for all Jackie does for me and the rest of the people in her life. I’m thankful to share an amazing and prosperous life with someone I truly love and see as my best friend. I’m thankful for the challenge she provides for me to grow mentally, spiritually, and physically every single day. I’m thankful for the countless hours she’s worked with me to help me becomes a better version of myself while being paid to do so (rehab at the beginning) and on her our time (now). I’m thankful for the ups and down my past has come with because it’s led me to finding my equal yet total opposite of my self. I’m thankful for this photo being captured on a fun day with friends and family. And, I’m thankful for all that’s to come from our non stop efforts to progress in life.

From rehab to romance, from operating a business to fun, from being lazy together to adventure, I love you, Jackie Lauricella!

-Josh P.

📸 @johndfleck

Resistance

It’s the vision that allows us to keep moving forward in life even when we don’t feel like it.

Resistance doesn’t feel good but that usually means one of two things: either you’re on the path to a new outcome and resistance is appearing because of new actions, which triggers the ego to go into “protection” mode from a unknown outcome. Or, it’s because you’re doing something you don’t believe in to fulfill someone else’s vision.

Resistance is where people usually get stuck. They either give up when they feel any resistance because they fear failure or their ego is so strong in protecting them from the unknown that they settle for suffering in the moment because it’s familiar, even though it’s undesirable.

Are you taking action to get one step closer to living your vision, and what resistance do you see show up regularly? 💚✌️

-Josh P.

📸 @jciake

17 Year Old Risk

When I was 17, I had a landscaping job making really good money for how I was.

I was being trained in school and on the job to run the business until I started my own one day. Pretty much, I was being set up for the all mighty American dream: to work hard and support myself and a family one day.

But something didn’t feel right. Landscaping a yard didn’t make me feel alive the way riding ride. Laying sod didn’t set my soul on fire.

If was getting old then, what happens in 30-40 years? It was then I made the choice to drop out of high school in pursuit of my dream.

I was young. I was inexperienced and I didn’t care what my teachers or anyone else had to say. I had a dream. I had a vision and that’s all I cared about.

Luckily my parents supported me emotionally but were unable to help finically. So, I made the most logical decision at the time and at the age of 17, I moved 13 hours south from Cape Cod, MA to Greenville, NC risking all the comfort of my family and well paying job at home.

I was on my own with no real guarantee of making money in the near future. But, my vision kept me motivated and the willingness to never give up and always take action in the direction of accomplishing my goals to live my dream despite brain tumors, major injury, depression, abuse, heartbreak, and financial instability.

What do you envision for your life and what are you willing to do, sacrifice, or put up with to see it come true? 💚✌️

-Josh P.

📸 @jciake

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.