My Health Setbacks and How I Overcame Them

How I Got My Health Back and Kept Wrestling

You know when you just barely wake up in and you feel super groggy? Imagine feeling that like 24/7. For the past 10 years and more, that had been my life.

No matter how much I slept, I was exhausted. I had a constant brain fog and couldn’t remember things. My stomach couldn’t handle eating anything without making me suffer after and I was in pain in all my joints. All the time.

Not great for a guy trying to make a living out of his body in professional wrestling.

Doctors diagnosed me with everything under the sun. Depression. ADD. Exercise-induced asthma. Chronic fatigue.

Turns out, I have freaking lyme disease (borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto (the U.S. strain), with Basesia and Erlichia coinfections to be exact). Basically, lyme disease messed with a bunch of my body systems so that my guts always hated me. I was in 24/7 constant pain in most my body, I couldn’t remember much and had brain fog like I was a dementia patient. The worst was I felt like I hadn’t slept in weeks, every hour of everyday, no matter how much I had actually slept. Everything in my body has to work overtime and its put my body through more hell than wrestling ever has.

Sometimes just getting my body to function felt impossible. Getting out of bed seemed impossible. But I kept trying different things from prescriptions, to changing eating habits, to workout habits, to sleep habits etc. It took a long time—and a lot of trial and error. ALOT. 10 plus years of it unfortunately

Eventually I figured out what foods I could eat without hating myself later. Energy drinks helped with the exhaustion at first, but soon I was drinking five of them a day plus a preworkout supplement to get by and it was really messing up my adrenal glands.

I finally figured out a few things that worked for me. A few habits and supplements that helped me keep the crazy pace I set for myself.

I used to be sick ALL the time due to Lyme affecting my guts/immune system. I haven’t been sick since October and I believe it’s from Core Complete. All the vitamins and nutrients I was missing from my digestive system are finally getting past my guts and lyme and into my body. I never was big into multivitamins until I used this and grew my hair back and healed my ribs in record time. I hated being bald!! 

My brain fog that prevented me from focusing is gone now without the use of pharmaceuticals I was prescribed, thanks to Neuro.

V3 took over for my energy drinks. Rather than trying to down all the crap just for an hour of being awake, I am able to take one V3 in the morning and one in the afternoon to keep going all day. Plus it has coconut water and a mood enhancer which helps me at the gym while working out. I destroyed my adrenal glands with energy drinks so this being a healthy alternative has helped tremendously. 

I am not a morning person at all. But I have been using Sleep Micromyst which puts me out within 15 minutes. I won’t say I was surprised that it worked to knock me out quickly since I was always falling asleep anyway, but what did surprise me was that I was able to wake up feeling like I actually got some sleep. Remember I was tired 24/7?  I have been able to keep waking up at 7 am for my workouts without having to hit the snooze button 20 times. Prior, I was having difficulty pulling myself out of bed before noon.

Speaking of the 7 am workouts, I have to make sure that I am always getting in better shape for everything that I am trying to accomplish but more importantly for my health. There is always progress to be made. That means that my poor muscles are also always getting beaten up. In the ring and out of it. Renew helps my wrestling and gym pains and aches go away. Even better though the aches and pains from the Lyme in my joints have subsided. 

I was also recommended a product called Monolaurin from a colleague of mine. He beat cancer and said this helped him. I was skeptical but after so long of trying to get my health back I literally was trying anything that had a glimmer of hope to make me feel better. (I was even recommended and tried drinking turpentine. Desperate times call for desperate measures.) I wouldn’t recommend that but the Monolaurin I believe has helped my immune system, pain, and fatigue when I get flare ups and is something i still use today.

Wanting to get in great shape for Lucha Underground, I started taking a weight loss product V-slim and co-created a support group on facebook called The Healthy Living Journey. I was able to lose 15 pounds in three weeks, right before “Lucha Underground” season four started to film. I know what its like to not get anywhere with your health. If I had better guidance from the beginning maybe I would have found my health ailment sooner, maybe not. Yet, if i can help someone get their health back sooner rather than later, ill take that as a win

The Facebook group shows people what I’m doing for my health and gives my workout videos, recipes, supplement recommendations, and motivation I use to keep myself healthy. Im proud to say this group has helped many with their health goals, which may be one my proudest achievements seeing these people succeed. I helped my friends mom loose over 50 pounds and feel better than she has in years. That is one of many examples that makes me smile from ear to ear

Lyme disease is still an ongoing thing in my life, but these habit changes and supplements give me the boost I need to pretty much survive. All the products (except Monolaurin) use liposome technology so it gets past my Lyme and guts and have helped change my life. If it worked for me it might work for you. If you know anyone with a disease. Show them love. Its hard but if you try hard and long enough its so WORTH the fight to get your health. Stay strong and keep fighting!