I believe in providing everyone with support in times of need. Even the strongest walks of life can’t do everything on their own.
From brain tumor patients to brain injury and disorder patients, I am raising funds for direct patient funding/care. Not research or awareness, although I believe those have their place. But funding for the people that need the help now and can’t wait for a scientific intervention and are already plenty aware of what’s going on. They need help with home expenses, treatment options and funding, healthy food, lifestyle choices that they can implement, and just someone to resonate with and not feel alone.
Being in the shoes of brain tumor and brian injury patients, I know this all too well. I’m grateful to be alive and thriving even with 4 brain tumors. I’ve combined my passion for bmx, nutrition, fitness, mindset practices, and supporting those to live as healthy and happy as possible into a touring live event around the world with the mission to inspire change and raise support for those in their biggest time of need.
Click this Link to learn more and see how you can help my mission along with The Athlete Recovery Fund. 💚✌️
“True love is a soles recognition of its counterparts in another” Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers
Corny, but true.
The woman responsible for the majority of my content, helping me organize my businesses, keeping me sane, my ying to my yang, adding spice to my life, joining me in exploring new possibilities in personal and business life and development, having in depth life conversations about consciousness, aliens, and all things related health, fixing my body when it gets injuries, and so much more. It goes without saying I’m truly grateful for our relationship and I look forward to all the greatness coming our way that we’ve both worked so hard to create, both individually and together. I firmly believe in a support network in your immediate life and @jciake is a major component of that. Thanks for all you do, what’s to come, and for being you.
Starting & operating my own health coaching business, continuing to work on my non-profit event with the Athlete Recovery Fund, and prioritizing my training, I haven’t been able to ride as often as I’d like. But that’s ok because I’m still riding and maintaining a professional level.
With time, priorities change and life is always evolving. Although I ride at the same level as when I was solely providing for myself off BMX, there’s no pressure to ride any way other than what I want. I still love it as much as ever and push myself to maintain that level with some progression mixed in.
That being said, it’s a really cool feeling to be pursuing new found passions of promoting nutrition, fitness, and mindset techniques to help people become as well as they possibly can while utilizing my love and hard work over the years to bring this information to the people in a fun and exciting manner through BMX
Moving forward, I’m still creating partnerships with brands and corporations to fuel my riding/training lifestyle while being able to reach more people along the way with my passion for healthy living. As for competing, if it makes sense then I’ll compete. If not, I don’t NEED to.
I’m in a really cool place in life where I have nothing but gratitude for the opportunities my hard work and experiences have led me to along with the belief to make it all possible.
I used to drink copious amounts of soda when I was a teenager-early twenties because it was cheap and I was addicted to sugar.
Nowadays, I value my brain and performance on and off the bike so much more that I prioritize my health by staying hydrated.
Did you know quality salt helps you stay hydrated? Not the white table salt that’s heated, treated with chemicals, and stripped of all important minerals that contribute to hydration. I use Redman’s Real Salt
I add a pinch or two to my water during riding/training and in my protein shakes afterwards. I also add some throughout the day on all my food. Tastes better and helps the body in so many ways beyond simple hydration. 💚✌️
We, as BMX athletes, fail more times in a day than people are willing to in a lifetime. BMX teaches us how to get up when we fall and try again. Not to look at it as a failure, rather a learning opportunity.
The difference between “failure” and “success” is the information we gather and the choices we make moving forward. It’s all just information for us to utilize to reach our next success.
Assess what happened and how you want to move forward. This applies to any aspect of life. Success is not easy, quick, or overnight for anyone. There is a lot of background effort to reach that success. Yes, some success are easier than others. But, that’s also built off of the foundation created over time.
When you fall down in any respect of life, don’t be discouraged. Be motivated to use that as an opportunity to learn and grow. Just like any trick, success takes patience, effort, and conscious thinking and self-awareness. 💚✌️
People think success is easy for some or “over-night” for others. FALSE! Success is a constant work in progress or practice, if you will.
It’s day in and day out choices we make to better our lives. It’s a constant effort. It may looks “easy” to some, but that’s because they enjoy what they do.
When you lead a path of little to no resistance, have gratitude for your life, work hard to be the best you can be, visualize the life you want and take action towards it, success is inevitable.
Set a goal, have a WHY or purpose for that goal, visualize and take action, and believe in yourself. That’s all it takes. 💯💚✌️
-Josh P.
People are scared to talk about depression for fear of being judged. As someone who has gone through it and gained a new perspective on what depression is compared to sadness, I found that most confuse the two.
The difference between sadness and depression is…sadness is from “happens stance,” as in whatever happened or didn’t happen to you. This could be loss, circumstance, grief, or whatever it is. Depression is your body saying “fuck you, I don’t want to be this character anymore. I don’t want to hold up this avatar you’ve created in the world.”
Depression is your body and mind going into deep rest. Your body feels it needs to be depressed. It needs deep rest from the character you’ve been trying to play. Depression comes about when there is an imbalance and/or resistance with your inner true self and the version of you you’re trying to hold up to societal standards and what you think “they” want you to do, say, or become.
As you know, I am a huge advocate for nutrition and exercise. It is not only for physical well being, but also your mental health. When we make positive choices within the three pinnacles of health (nutrition, exercise & mindset) they play a fundamental role in the health of our mitochondria. The mitochondria are the “powerhouses” of our cells that create the energy our body, and most importantly our brain, uses to function called ATP. When the three pinnacles are weakened or out of balance, they compromise the strength of our mitochondria resulting in less energy production which creates anxiety, depression, fatigue and overall dis-ease.
Once I began taking my fitness and nutrition seriously and I let go of what I thought “they” wanted me to do, say, and/or become, and just did what I felt deep down inside to be true to my loving inner voice, the depression, anxiety, fear, and worry all stripped away little by little the more I stayed true to myself and followed my gut and my heart.
I’ll say this again and again, do what you love and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Take care of your body. You know best and so does your gut. 💚✌️
WHY we do anything is a million times more important than what we do.
WHY is the driving force behind what anyone does, whether they are conscious of it or not. Whether they like what they do or not.
There is a reason WHY they set out for that path and the more conscious we become of our decisions, the more we can navigate to the lives we want.
Find what you want to do in life and be conscious to your WHY. It will help navigate your path to success and keep you motivated in times of doubt. 💚✌️
For as long as he can remember, Josh Perry has lived off adrenaline. “I started riding a bike when I was 3,” he tells PEOPLE. “When I was 13, I went to ramp parks. I got my first BMX bike, and I loved it.”
He loved it so much that he decided to turn BMX riding into a career. Going Pro at 16, he entered his first contest. At 20 years old, he won his first event in Joplin, Missouri. His prize: a Harley Davidson.
That same year, he competed in his first X Games, the annual national event that focuses on extreme sports and airs on ESPN.
Things were going well. “I was looking to progress in my career,” he says. “I got a good start and was excited to travel, compete and make videos.
A Frightening Diagnosis
But his plans came to a screeching halt in March of 2010. After a fall while training, he had to get an MRI. When the doctor came back into the room, Perry sensed that something was wrong. “There was a weird energy in the room,” he says. “The doctor came out and said that I had a brain tumor on my left side. He said, ‘If it doesn’t get taken out, you will die.’ ”
In retrospect, Perry knew that something had been wrong. “I was getting the headaches in mid-2009,” he remembers. “And then I had some blurry vision.”
Still, the news was devastating. “My first thought was, ‘I can’t ride anymore.’ But then, I had to focus on preserving my life.”
Perry had an operation at Duke University in April 2010. “It was supposed to be a five-hour surgery, but it took longer,” he says, but the surgery was successful.”
Almost immediately, he noticed an improvement. “I wasn’t getting any more headaches. My vision was back to normal. I wanted to ride again.”
A Discouraging Recurrence
With the surgery behind him, Perry began to practice. Within three months, he was back to his old tricks – but the surgery had taken a considerable psychological toll. “That took two years to get my confidence back,” he says.
And then, tragedy struck again. In 2012, he was doing some BMX demos in India. “My mom messaged me, saying we needed to talk about a recent scan I had done. I knew instantly that something was wrong.”
Sure enough, Perry learned that there were two more blueberry-sized tumors in his brain – one in the right side, and the other in the rear. “They were near arteries,” he says. “Traditional surgery wouldn’t work.”
Instead, Perry had Gamma Knife treatment, a new procedure that bombards the tumors with radiation. Again, it was successful: the tumors have shrunk considerably and continue to get smaller.
A New Motivation
While Perry’s life still includes regular brain scans – his next one is in November – he has resumed his career. “I’m ready to keep riding and competing, making videos and succeeding in the BMX world,” he says.
My message is bigger than that,” he continues. “I became a science nerd when it comes to nutrition. People are torturing themselves by eating processed foods. Fast food isn’t really food at all.”
“I don’t know what caused my tumors,” he says. “Could it be from living near power lines? Or what I ate? Or head trauma? I don’t know. But what I do know is that people are killing themselves if they live miserable lives when they have the ability to change it. That includes how they eat, and how they live.”
“If there’s a message I’ve got, it’s that you can’t live in fear or dread. No one knows how long they have. So everyone, including myself, needs to try to live a happy, healthy life. We’ve only got one.”
Athletes of all kinds focus on building and maintaining a healthy and productive mind-body connection. Generally, this means managing mental stress as a tool for enabling maximum physical performance. As a BMX freestyle athlete, I’ve spent years developing a mind-body connection that allows me to overcome both physical and mental obstacles. This connection allows me to push through fear and becomes adept at making quick, intuitive decisions that help me to achieve my goals both on and off the BMX course.
Several years ago, I had a transformative experience that made me realize the mind-body connection has more than one dimension, and that taking care of yourself physically is essential to having a healthy brain.
In March 2010, I was told I had a brain tumor that required immediate surgery. I was fortunate that the surgery went well and that I was back on my bike within two months of the procedure. But that wasn’t the end of it. While performing in India, I learned I had two more brain tumors. I didn’t have a choice in the diagnosis, but this time I did have a choice in treatments.
Tapping into the mind-body connection that I’ve honed over years of BMX training, I put my fear of the tumors aside and focused on identifying the best treatment option. After doing some digging on all the options out there, I decided upon radiosurgery with Gamma Knife – a non-invasive treatment that uses focused beams of radiation to destroy tumor tissue without the need for open brain surgery. The Gamma Knife procedure was incredibly simple and I was back out on my bike six days later. I’m always somewhat surprised that, when I tell my story, most people aren’t familiar with Gamma Knife. It’s an important treatment option for people with brain tumors and other neurological disorders.
My brain tumor diagnoses were a real catalyst for thinking about how I could better care for myself. I started to think about factors that impacted my brain health and were in my control and realized that food and nutrition might play an important role in helping repair the damage from the tumors and the head injuries I had suffered in the past. To be honest, up to that point in my life I had made some pretty unhealthy lifestyle choices.
Committed to finding a healthier path, I learned about the work of Dr. David Perlmutter, a top-notch neurologist, and fellow of the American College of Nutrition. He has a unique perspective on the brain and how the food we eat affects it.
Inspired by his work, I undertook a yearlong program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I took what I learned in the program, combined it with the knowledge I’d gained from Dr. Perlmutter’s work and applied it to my own day-to-day nutritional choices. I began eating fermented foods like sauerkraut and kombucha, got rid of the added sugars, starchy carbs and gluten, and started including more healthy fats like avocado, coconut oil, grass-fed butter and ghee, and extra virgin olive oil.
With these changes, I lowered my total carbohydrate intake by about 80 to 90 percent. I also started taking probiotics and got serious about my fitness – which became a key priority after going through an ACL reconstructive surgery. I’ve also found that getting enough sleep, being grateful for what I have and finding strength in helping others are all good for my soul and for my brain.
My mornings went from having a bowl of processed cereal loaded with sugar and conventional cow’s milk, toaster strudels, cheap pasteurized juice, soda, pastries and even more horrific foods, to starting my day with a large amount of water, a bulletproof coffee and a healthy breakfast consisting of lots of healthy fats (avocado and coconut oil), quality protein (organic, pasture-raised eggs) and low-starch veggies (broccoli, red cabbage, mushrooms and onions) with spices (black pepper, pink Himalayan sea salt, garlic and turmeric). I ditched the cheap recovery protein shakes and swapped them for Garden Of Life’s non-GMO, organic, gluten-free protein and various other supplements. I’ve also added Barleans organic and wild-caught fish oil to my meals. My lunches and dinners have the same basic components as my breakfasts, and I find that healthy fats add delicious flavors and keep me satisfied.
From adopting these healthy eating habits, I have seen great changes take place. I don’t oversleep, and I look forward to waking up and starting my day. I have significantly reduced my body fat and see even more definition in my muscles. I feel stronger and more energized throughout my whole day on and off the bike. In addition to feeling better physically, I’m able to think more clearly without the constant brain fog and forgetfulness that I experienced before adopting better eating habits. Importantly, this clarity of thought has really improved my ability to assess my emotions and be realistic about my life. Perhaps the best result of the changes I’ve made to my diet is that I know I’m doing everything I can to protect my brain’s health today and for the long term. This knowledge allows me to live in a constant sensation of gratitude, peace, love, and happiness.
The moral of my story is that being diagnosed with a life-threatening situation isn’t always the worst thing that can happen. In fact, any “negative” diagnosis, challenge, failure or obstacle can be a positive experience if you allow yourself to see it that way. In my case, my brain tumor diagnoses helped me see I was making lots of decisions that were taking me further and further away from the healthy lifestyle I needed to have. It took the prospect of death to make me open my mind to change. It’s now my mission to help others become aware of the changes that they can make to improve their lives, without having them go through the challenges I’ve experienced.
Strangely, my brain tumor diagnoses ended up being blessings in disguise, and I am beyond grateful for all that I have learned from them. I am proud of who I have become and the choices I am making to take care of my mind and my body, and I am honored to have the opportunity to share my story with you.
The connections between our minds and bodies are truly powerful. Take care of both, and you’ll be able to live life to the fullest.
