Stroke Survivor Bootcamp with Dr. Phil: "Jeff, a stroke survivor, talks about that day's bootcamp session"

In this episode of "Stroke Survivor Bootcamp", Dr. Philip Lamoreaux, OTD, OTR/L, CPT, speaks with Jeff, a stroke survivor who just went through a stroke survivor bootcamp session that day.  

NOTE: Be sure to check out some of the helpful worksheets that can be accessed by clicking here, or by going to www.StrokeSurvivorBootcamp.com.

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Hosted by Dr. Philip Lamoreaux, OTD, OTR/L, CPT, Stroke Survivor Bootcamp is a practical, hope-forward podcast for stroke survivors and caregivers, built to help you understand what’s happening, ask the right questions, and take back control one step at a time. Each episode blends real-world hospital and rehab guidance with clear, compassionate coaching so you can turn fear into a plan and progress into momentum.

For more information on signing up for a one-on-one Stroke Survivor Bootcamp session with Dr. Phil, just go to www.StrokeSurvivorBootcamp.com

Created & Produced by Christopher Ewing
Hang On to the Dream Foundation

Written by Dr. Philip Lamoreaux, OTD, OTR/L, CPT

Listen each week to the Stroke Survivor Bootcamp podcast with Dr. Phil, the OT Professor, where he will share with you practical tools, real stories, and the mindset to keep moving forward on your road to recovery! 

If you are a stroke survivor, sign up for one of Dr. Phil's Stroke Survivor Bootcamp sessions.  These sessions are proven to help stroke survivors regain more mobility following a stroke.  Just go to www.strokesurvivorbootcamp.com for more information.

If you are a stroke survivor, sign up for one of Dr. Phil's Stroke Survivor Bootcamp sessions.  These sessions are proven to help stroke survivors regain more mobility following a stroke.  Just go to www.strokesurvivorbootcamp.com for more information.

Transcript

SPEAKER_08 0:00

The comments expressed in this program are the personal opinions of the participants and not meant to diagnose or treat any medical condition that you may have. Please consult your doctor or healthcare professional before making any changes to your current medical routine. For those of you guys that have been watching this week's boot camp, you guys have been able to get to know Jeff. Do you go by Jeff or Jeffrey?

SPEAKER_07 1:09

Yeah, sometimes. It doesn't really matter.

SPEAKER_08 1:11

Depends on if uh someone's getting mad at you.

SPEAKER_07 1:14

Yeah, well, my um my mother um named me Jeffrey Ray Thompson, but I didn't really like that, so I changed my name earlier in life. Which is kind of silly now talking about it. But I went by London Jeffrey Thompson most of my life. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:37

Yeah. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_07 1:39

Yeah. And uh when I was a hairdresser, that worked for me because London was very easy to remember and it was um, you know, it was just kind of a stage name. So and I liked the name, and um I didn't like my middle name Ray because it was named after my grandfather who I really disliked. So I took I got rid of it and made Jeffrey my middle name. So yeah, a lot of friends call me Jeff, a lot of friends call me London, a lot of friends call me Thompson. So anything.

SPEAKER_08 2:14

So any one of those three will work. Yeah, any anyway.

SPEAKER_07 2:17

Thompson, Jeff, London, all of it works.

SPEAKER_08 2:20

Well, as you guys can already tell right from the beginning, this is gonna be this will be uh this will be a good one, and uh I'm I'm really you know this week has been been a good one, um, but just to kind of set the stage, um Jeff, Jeffrey, London, Thompson. Now I'm not gonna know which one to call you. You asked the wrong question. Um he uh flew me out to San Diego to come and do a uh six-day boot camp. Um Jeff, man, now I don't even know which one to call Jeffrey. That's fine. Yeah, I'm just gonna go with Jeff. I'm just gonna commit, I'm just gonna go with Jeff. Yeah. Um Jeff, uh I'll have you give a little bit of your your background, but Jeff had a had a stroke um about a little over three years ago. Yeah. And um and uh he'll get into the story of how he even connected with me. But uh one of the things that I wanted to try with this with this podcast is to have uh to be able to have both sides of the coin, right? Where you have an individual who's had a stroke, and then you have the person that's on the clinical side, because they're two different perspectives, and I think that especially as we go through today, um, and you know, as we go through today, we will be able to see both sides of the coin, and so I'm I'm actually really excited about that. Uh Jeff. Yes, sir. Tell us a little bit about your who you are. Um we don't need to go into the stroke yet, but we want to know who who you are. You know, tell us a little bit about your life and what made you you?

SPEAKER_07 4:13

Yeah, so you know, basically I was um when I was about five, I was taken by the state and put into foster homes. And between five and eighteen, I went through about 30 homes, which gave me, I think, a unique perspective on life, and um and uh one thing, you know, is it made me who I am, so I'm I'm not complaining about it, but it was just um it was a different kind of childhood. And then when I turned um 18 or so, I was uh then no longer responsibility of the state. I went out and I got into a little bit of trouble, but then I discovered that um I was a good traveler, so I started traveling um around the world, and it was really easy for me just to get up and go, not carry a lot of possessions, um, not um not really care where I was landing or when I was coming back. So travel kind of became my lifeblood. It was just really something I loved doing, and um and I ultimately have had two strokes um while traveling. And um I became a hairdresser uh around the age of 20, and I cut hair for a long time until I opened up a nightclub because my little brother was in a in a motorcycle accident and he didn't need me to take care of him. So I bought a local nightclub in uh Modesto, California, and I ran that uh and several other clubs and for about 15 years. And then I was uh went back to hairdressing, back to traveling, and uh I was um on my way to Vietnam uh going through Thailand when I had this stroke about three and a half years ago. And I I loved my life. I I really cherished my life, and I was very, very proud of what I had built for myself from basically nothing, um not having a lot of family, and um was just kind of a self-made man at that time. I had never worked for any other human and I only had worked for myself my whole life, and um I was proud of it. I was proud of what I had accomplished, and I was proud that I was able to travel the world and and do things that uh most people don't get to experience.

SPEAKER_08 6:46

Thanks for sharing you know your your background, your story. That's one of the things that you know, as I've gotten to know you a little bit more throughout this this boot camp, you know, the independence piece that comes, you know, it's it's you you want to be able to experience it yourself. And then the second piece is that I mean travel is travel is so crucial and critical in in just your your being, and that's something that you want to be able to get back to and be able to to to feel confident. I mean you've you still traveled, I mean that's one of the things that you still traveled a little bit.

SPEAKER_07 7:28

The thing is I had two main parts on my life because I didn't really have children and I didn't have family and I was not married at the time. Those two things is my work, which was hairdressing, and travel. And I would hairdress for three weeks a month, and I would travel for one to eleven uh seven to eleven days every month. And that was my life, basically. I would get up and travel for a week or two, and then I would come back and work for a month or so, and then I would take off again and travel for a week or two, and and I just thought I had the world by, you know, I just thought I owned the world at that point because I was making plenty of money doing a job that I absolutely loved, and I was traveling at the same time. So to me, I mean, nobody really had it better than I did, in my opinion. And even my customers, I would come in to cut their hair, and my guys would be, so where were you? And I'd be like, Oh, I was in Costa Rica, hanging out, doing a little surfing. Went with some pals to Thailand. We did New Year Thailand, uh, and my guy clients and my girls, not so much the girls, but the guys were just so envious. What you know, they're just like, oh my god, you have such a life. And I'm they're like, here I am making, you know, 750,000 a year, and and you're experiencing life, and I'm just working. And so I I felt like you know, I had really achieved what I thought was success. And that was being able to get up every single morning and deciding what I want to do and doing it. And the fact that I loved my job was just, you know, icing on the cake because I I didn't mind getting up and going to work. I was gonna say at that point it's no longer work. Yeah, it's it was such a joy. And then if I wasn't gonna go to work, and if somebody said to me, hey, you want to go hit hit up uh, you know, Australia and do some diving on the Great Barrier Reef, I was like, Yeah, I do actually. And I would just go and do it. And um, you know, and there were times when I found myself in Europe where I would just pick up a job cutting hair or try and pick up a, you know, get get a job doing hair on a movie set and experiencing that whole thing. And I just had the most perfect life, which was really why this joke um just really not that it doesn't affect everybody, it's just that the one thing I noticed about it was I missed I missed it. I missed my life.

SPEAKER_08 10:06

Yeah. We'll get into that in a little bit more detail. But you go to Thailand, or you're going to Thailand, yeah. And let's let's talk about you you had your stroke and then what like what happened at that moment.

SPEAKER_07 10:20

Yeah, I was in Thailand, I was sitting down to dinner with uh a friend of mine, and she's like, What's wrong with you? And I'm completely oblivious that anything is wrong with me. And um, she goes, Something's seriously wrong with you. I'm like, Okay. And I tried to stand up and I collapsed, and uh and it was really confusing, and I was being shoved into the back of a pickup truck and taken to the hospital, and the the hospital told me that I needed to pay them before they would take care of me. So another friend of mine, fellow hairdresser who uh I love to this day, went to his account and pulled out $18,000 and paid them. I was in ICU for about a week and a half, and then uh from ICU I went to a um care home basically where they had 24-hour nursing. And I hired a PT there and um I was up and walking pretty quickly and uh working out the best I could with what I was doing, um, missing home, feeling like maybe I wasn't getting the best treatment that I could have, and that if I made it home, I would be able to get better treatment. And um so then I got on a plane as quick as I could and got back to the US. And then you got back to the US and you I got back to the US and I'm broke and I have no job, and I um feeling very sorry for myself, and I'm staying with people, and and I was just I had nothing basically, and I I I was depressed, and then I had a friend in Africa that said, Hey, you should come to Africa. They're doing these amazing things with herbs, and they're you know, people are saying that there's a big cure going on here, and just come and basically drink these medicines and and you know, to help. And and he had a hotel at the time uh that he needed work done on uh as far as designing it. So I've been a bit of a designer hobbyist my my adult life, and so I said, Well, I'll come over and design your bar and your hotel for you. And um, so I went to Ghana, Africa for about a year, and the medicines made me sick immediately for weeks at a time, and uh it's not something I would suggest for anybody, but um, no cure, no nothing, no help, no uh training, no exercise, just what I could do myself. And I kind of fell into a very deep depression, and um I was very isolated and no friends, no family, just me in my room for almost a year straight. And uh actually that's where I discovered Dr. Phil on TikTok because when you're sitting around with a stroke feeling sorry for yourself, TikTok's very entertaining.

SPEAKER_08 13:32

Well, and it's entertaining if I'm if I don't have a stroke too. Yeah, still feeling sorry for myself to some degree, yeah. But I mean definitely, and that's one of the things, like it's there's so many so many friends and and individuals that I've met that had strokes, but I've met them through TikTok, and that's actually where a majority of you know the people that I've connected with, that's that's actually where I've met them. Right, you know.

SPEAKER_07 14:02

Um so you saw you saw uh a video or you saw a live, you saw Well, yeah, what I had Yamkaras is a few videos of boot camp, boot camp, boot camp. And it wasn't, I don't know if it was your videos or not that that made me type in the words, but I was looking for a reason to leave Africa and go to some place like Spain or something, so that I can just travel. And I figured, you know, that I could just travel and go to the an actual boot camp that um that was four strokes, and I wasn't even sure what I was looking at getting or anything. I just knew that I wanted to travel, so I was trying to give myself an excuse to do it. And you know the interesting thing about strokes is from the moment I had the stroke even till now, I your mind tricks you into thinking that you were better than you are, or you are worse than you are. So I, you know, I thought when I get back to America from Thailand, I'm going to do this, I'm gonna live by myself, I'm going to do this, I'm gonna do that. And it just wasn't the case. I mean, I was, you know, I was always letting myself down as far as where I was gonna be in my stroke and where I was gonna be in my life, and how my life was gonna transform and change back into what I had, and then it was realism hit you, and you know, I'm not going to be that person again, and depression would hit, and it was just a it's a whole blender of feelings and emotions, and um so I was just really searching for a way out of Africa and looking for a new destination. Then when I put in boot camp, then Dr. Phil's boot camp came up, and it really wasn't an interest. I was just sitting there bored, and and I'm like, and I reached out to him and I thought, well, I'm gonna tell him something that he probably hasn't heard, but maybe he has. And that is just how much I want to die every day when I wake up. Yeah, you know, and he's like, Well, how is your how how's your arm motion? And I'm like, what? And so uh, so you know, I just kind of corresponded with him a couple of times. I didn't realize that. Yeah, and I uh just corresponded with him a couple times and started watching some of his clients and and getting some of their reactions and kind of you know following them and saying, hey, what did you think of this guy? Did you have a good experience? And I got really a lot of positive feedback. So then I um I decided to get out of Africa, um, mostly because uh um I'm receiving receiving a disability and I can't be gone out of the country that long. So um a new law has made it so that I had to come back in order not to get kicked off my disability. So I came back to the US. I was very depressed again. I was talking to a beautiful friend of mine named Elliot, and uh Elliot's like, you know what? I'm not listening to this. Elliot has been through his own tragedy and his own um disabilities in in life, and he understood exactly how I was feeling. And he says, You're gonna come here and you're gonna live here. And I'm like, all right. Which just happens to be in a beautiful six-bedroom house overlooking, you know, San Diego and the ocean and the lakes, and that's beautiful. And yeah, so it it worked out in a big pool, and he's like, Oh, the pool's too cool. Let me heat it up for you. And I mean, so I really just got lucky and blessed to have him as a friend, and you know, I had um always cherished our friendship, but I didn't want to depend on anybody, and I didn't want to be a burden to anybody. So I got to uh San Diego and he's like, Okay, what do we need to do to get you better? And uh, you know, I said, Oh well, you know, I've been looking at this guy on on the internet named Dr. Phil. He goes, the Dr. Phil? I'm like, no, not the Dr. Phil. He's just Dr. Phil, he's an OT guy. And he goes, Okay, so what's that gonna take? I I go, I don't know. And I reached out and I said, Hey, what's it gonna take? And we started thinking about some dates and um got in the program. And then I I think I was only maybe waited around just because his timing and my timing, I only waited maybe a few weeks, yeah, about a month.

SPEAKER_08 18:58

I mean, so from my my side of things, right? This this whole, you know, I I get reached, I get people that reach out to me all the time. Yeah, I can imagine. Right. I mean, every single time I did do a boot camp, I get you know three, four or more people that are you know, they're contacting me and you know, they're asking, you know, how much is it gonna cost, and you know, what what's it gonna entail? Do you come here? Do I come to you? And so when you reached out to me, you started talking to me, like, hey, yeah, I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna do this, and I'm like, okay. And in our conversation, the thing that I experienced is somebody who has a lot of character, but a lot of drive. And so I was getting really excited for this boot camp. And you know, I uh you know, before we get to before we get to how you felt day one, or you know, just right before, right, will you kind of lead, you know, talk to us about what you were experiencing and feeling and leading up to the boot camp.

SPEAKER_07 20:02

Right. So um I basically left um Africa and came back to America just because of my sh the the amount of depression I was going through was extremely dangerous, and and my friend recognized it and asked me to come back. And so once I got back, he's like, Well, what are we gonna do about this? What what do you need me to do to help you do this? And what do you need to do for yourself to to get over this and to move forward and to get better? And so it came into my mind that I had uh you know talked to this Dr. Phil guy in Africa a little bit, and I'm like, Well, I'm gonna go back in and research that a little bit. And I had gone through all these things of uh what things I wanted to do is like the intercept shot out of uh Boca Ratan, Florida, and and some different things like that, and you know, those plans had kind of fallen apart. And so when uh I reached out to Doc, once I got back to the US, I said, Hey, I'm back, I'm back, I'm in the US now, and I'm thinking of doing this, and and how do we do this? What do we do? And he's like, Okay, well, and then we laid it out as far as he would be coming to me, uh doing it here in San Diego, which was a huge benefit to me. It took a lot of my fear out of you know where I would be, who I would be around, um, what I would be going through, just having him, just knowing that I was gonna be in the comfort of uh the home that my new home that I was in, and that you know, I had a pool here and I had all these things that I was going to work with. But you know, um the thing about it is that um I really tried not to have high expectations because I I didn't want to let myself down. So I thought, okay, maybe he's got something going on. I mean, he's dedicated to it. His clients seem extremely thrilled with him, and the patients that he's worked with have all given good feedback of what's going on. I'm not sure what to expect, really. And I mean, by the name boot camp, I figured, yeah, it was going to be some of that going on, right? So, like, I didn't know if I was gonna be gonna be yelling at me to get down and give him 10 or what the story was, but we worked it out, and he got here, and then it was just a matter of uh having him explain to me what we were doing and why we were doing it. And at that point, I'm like, you know what? My friend Elliot is actually the one covering this for me and taking care of this uh experience. I will not let him down 100%. If he's gonna if he's gonna join me in this, I will not let him down, and he will understand at the end of this that I gave everything I have to give to the process, hoping that that would lead me to a successful process. And then I had myself, and I'm like, I've been sitting laying in a bed for you know the better part of three years letting myself down. If I'm gonna do this, I'm not going to let myself down. I'm gonna give it everything I have, and if it works, great, and if it doesn't, at least I gave it everything I had for myself. And then there was Dr. Phil. And Dr. Phil was leaving his family behind coming to to help me achieve a goal, and uh I decided I'm not gonna let him down. So then there were the people on the live watching me go through the process, and I said to myself, I'm not gonna let them down. I'm gonna show them the most capable I can be at this process and achieving this process. So it was just a matter of of accepting that this was something that I was gonna do, and that I had to do it the best I could do it so that there was no excuse about why it didn't work or if it worked or you know, that I didn't put the energy into it. I didn't want anybody to be able to say, yeah, you just didn't work at it hard enough.

SPEAKER_08 24:37

Yeah, you didn't want to have that excuse.

SPEAKER_07 24:39

I didn't want that excuse. I wanted to to see and everybody else see that you know what, the guy worked at it hard enough. And so uh that's the way I took it on, and then you know, it was just a matter of uh getting to know Dr. Phil about the science behind it, and um not even understanding it at the point that we began, but about a day later.

SPEAKER_08 25:09

It took you like only one day.

SPEAKER_07 25:11

Yeah, about a day later.

SPEAKER_08 25:12

I think you snapped. You I got it. All of a sudden it made it like made so much sense, and and I'm excited for you guys to hear as we do dive into that. Um, I'm excited for you guys to hear Jeff's uh explanation of things because I love it from his perspective, and it's so it's it's you know, and I just wanted to you know go over the when I got here, right? I I I come up to this home and I I walk in and I meet you, and then immediately it's we do assessment, right? So before, you know, the only thing I've really seen leading up to this is you had sent me actually a video of you walking, and you I mean there were some really good things that that were there, some good foundational pieces that were you know, because of the work that you had done leading up to leading up to to now in your in your you know recovery.

SPEAKER_07 26:08

Yeah, I I I think it was it was important for me to try to impress you before you even started working for me. Yeah. I I wanted you to know that you know since I had returned to America, I had really made an effort to just start heading in the right direction from where I where I was doing in Africa and before Africa. So I think that you know you asking me for the video is like, okay, I'm gonna do what I can do to impress this guy and uh let him know that I'm serious about this. And um, and then I remember um you know trying to tell you about my walks and how much I had been doing, and then and then we just went into the assessment and and uh you know reality hit again because I don't really think I did that well in my assessment, right? It's like not as well as I thought I was gonna do. It's like okay, I'm gonna blow this guy's doors off.

SPEAKER_08 27:01

Well, I'll tell you, there's there is one assessment I'm crazy excited about because I mean I I mean just knowing what I know and what I've seen, I'm excited to see that uh what the score is tomorrow. Um but yeah, it's the let's I mean let's talk about the assessments a little bit because maybe some people are a little bit nervous about the assessments. So so there's really there's like five assessments, right? One is your perspective on your quality of life. There's a there's a bunch of questions there, and then there's uh an assessment that has you practice, like show me what how fast you can walk, right? What's your fastest walking speed? Right. When I asked you to walk fast, I mean you're from the outside, what it looked like is that you were just determined. Like you were determined, you were just gonna go for it. Is that what you were feeling as you were going through that?

SPEAKER_07 27:58

That's exactly. I just wanted to get it out there, you know. I I didn't want to uh yeah, I was just determined to basically I was again, I was just trying to show off as best I could. Yeah, and so that you would think that your job was gonna be easier, I think. Yeah, yeah, like okay, I'm gonna make this guy think that I'm like a you know, the golden student. Like it's it's just show my determination from the start.

SPEAKER_08 28:31

Those of you that have done boot camps, I am I've heard this same thing before, but like you can relate to what Jeff is feeling, right? Where it's like you know I'm thinking of uh like Peter and Anna and you know Serena, and there's there's so many, Shelly, there's so many that have done these boot camps that like I know that's something that like kind of goes through your mind is like I'm I I want to be I want to show that I you know that I'm I'm worth the time, right? Right? Yeah. And and and I just it's it's it's an interesting it's an interesting thing that that happens, you know. But when you started walking fast, I mean there there you you did a you did a great job with that. And it came down to the one of the tests, which is the hardest one, which is the balance while walking. So that's gonna be where you know you're turning your head left and right, and you're you know, you're you're walking uh and and you're and you're walking in a straight line, and there's a bunch of things that I ask you to do while you're walking, and that that's a hard one. But it also is one of the coolest ones that I think we typically see some of the biggest gains.

SPEAKER_07 29:52

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_08 29:53

And so it's it's kind of fun to see, or it's gonna be fun to see tomorrow where where you you end up. But so we we spend the first the first session is these assessments, and then also it's to introduce to you what it actually feels like to hit intensity.

SPEAKER_07 30:13

Right. Did we hit intensity the first day?

SPEAKER_08 30:16

It was I I believe I'll have to go back and look, but I believe it was like 15 seconds we hit intensity. Oh, interesting, and it was on the stairs, because we did stairs going up and down the stairs. Okay, yeah. And it was it was tw at the very end of that. And the the reason why I like to just tag that on at the very end is you know, just because I want to see what your heart is gonna do. But also I want I I think I think uh you know, with all of us we have similar I think people who go through the boot camp they have similar uh experiences, but there's this you think you know what intensity is, right? Right, you think you know, but then when you're looking at your heart rate, and your heart rate is gonna determine whether or not you hit intensity, not how you feel, it's different.

SPEAKER_07 31:10

Well, the thing we discussed early on was the fact that you tried to get me to gauge where I thought I was, and then you would compare it to my heart rate, and was my heart rate and what I was feeling telling the truth about where I was feeling, and we found out that that was pretty right on where I it was pretty close.

SPEAKER_08 31:33

In fact, uh you were, and it's kind of it's funny now, knowing a little bit more about your your perspective and approach, and that you wanted to like show that you were a star student, you know your approach, you were actually under reporting. So, meaning that what your what your body was feeling, you were saying it wasn't as bad, or it wasn't as much as what your body was saying. So I think that's kind of funny because that I mean so many that happens to a lot of people when they come on a boot camp. You know, they they state that and it's like, and I'm like, I I look at your heart rate and I'm like, oh I know how hard that is. Right. That's a lot, you're putting in a lot. But the thing that was cool was that you were accurate. You you you were the same either way, right? So you you know, and so what that does is it helps me start to understand that I can trust your reporting.

SPEAKER_07 32:27

And you know, the truth about it, and I think the reason that you you've touched on a funny point that you know, we all kind of want to impress you, it comes down to a simple thing. It's like I've taught many, many hairdressers to be hairdressers and to cut hair. The people that were excited about it and really got into it and really put all their energy and effort into it, I gave them more energy.

SPEAKER_08 32:54

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 32:54

So it's about if I want Dr. Phil to give me energy and to respond to me and give me the most he has, then I want to show him that I'm willing to do the same. And I just think that that goes a long way, whereas to you want to teach and you want to help people that are as enthusiastic about it as you want.

SPEAKER_08 33:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 33:18

Right.

SPEAKER_08 33:18

Well, and I think I let me let me kind of put a little another spin on that too, because I I always try to show up and give everything, right? No matter what, because from my end, people are paying me money to be here, and I don't want to leave and ever have it be where it's like it wasn't worth their money.

SPEAKER_05 33:37

Right.

SPEAKER_08 33:37

You know, number one, and number two, um, it's it I I think it goes a little bit more into if I'm not spending my mental energy on trying to pump you up and get you going, get you excited, I'm spending my mental energy on on how can I be creative and push and pull and and actually really, really maximize this for you.

SPEAKER_07 34:05

Yeah, which I I think is that one of the nice things about you is that you're always looking for my interest in order to drive me. Yes. People don't know that, but he's like he kind of feels you out, talks to you, and then finds something that he can click into that is going to make your interest a little bit stronger and a little bit more motivated.

unknown 34:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 34:30

I love that you point that because I mean that's Yeah. You didn't realize it's you're giving you're giving away too many secrets for everybody. No, no, but I mean I think that's important, right? Because not everybody is going to give effort for the same reason.

SPEAKER_06 34:44

Right.

SPEAKER_08 34:45

Right? Not everybody's gonna give effort just because they want to get back to walking. They're gonna want to give effort because of they want to get back to travel, they want to get back to uh picking up their, you know, being able to pick up their kids, they want to get back to having the ownership of, you know, here's here's one I was working with somebody, and they want to be able to get the ownership of feeling like they're they're they're the man of the house.

SPEAKER_07 35:12

Um yeah, that's a big one.

SPEAKER_08 35:13

You know, somebody who's married and you know his wife is emptying his urinal, you know, they're in their 50s, and his wife is emptying his urinal every day for for two years, right? That's a big one. And then when he finally gets to see that he has the ability to do it himself, oh, you better believe his wife's not doing that again. Because now he starts to feel like the man, he's doing the dishes, he's he set up, he's at the table for the first time, you know, those types of things. Yeah, and when you can tap into that, it becomes a life change. And that's that right there. I love that you pointed that out because my mind that that's you know, I just shared with you what I just explained is why I do that. Right. Because it allows for me to it allows for me to to make this more than it's just exercises that you're doing, and you're just going through you're going through crap. No, it's it's it's you are so it's not a living vulcan mind read or anything. Oh, I love that. Um yeah, so so we go through the you we the first few the first day really is both people are trying to feel each other's out, you know, feel each other out. Like, what is it that you're what is your you know, motive? And we try to do that a little bit before I even get here, but like w what is it that gets your heart rate going and what gives the effort and uh I don't remember what did we do in the afternoon on day one? It was uh we did the treadmill.

SPEAKER_07 36:48

Wasn't that the first one? No, we did the treadmill, I think, on the day two? Did we did we leave the house on day one? Ever. I think we just did accessory assessing and then um we did something because it wasn't the pool.

SPEAKER_08 37:05

Did we do my walk? No, it it was the it was the treadmill.

SPEAKER_07 37:12

Where at your hotel? Uh-huh. Okay.

SPEAKER_08 37:14

Yeah, it was the treadmill. And the thing that was cool about the treadmill, because here's the thing, you know, your mind, and this is one of the reasons as you guys as as we start going through this, you're really gonna be able to see where Jeff's mind goes, but like Jeff has a really incredible mind that he puts pieces together really quickly. It's it's it's really cool to to be around, and I love these conversations. But we were doing we were on the treadmill, and I had you walking forward. This was day one, okay. Day one.

SPEAKER_07 37:49

Yeah, I had you walking forward, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 37:52

And which I've done plenty of, and so it was kind of like standard stuff. You're like great, whatever. Um, and then I have you, while it's moving, I have you actually sidestep. So now you're stepping to the side and which is okay. Yeah, and standard. Jeff was doing really well with it, and then go to the other side. That was great. And then there became this moment where I was like, because I'm I'm looking for specific things because I always I always have to make the decision of is it worth the risk? Right? Because if I ask him to do something, he's going to try it. And if he's going to try it, is he going to let go enough to allow his body to actually do it? And am I going to have to catch him? Or am I going to have to like stop the treadmill? And you know, like, there's always going to be something. And one of the coolest things was when I then asked you to, I was like, you know what, he's got this because there were some certain things I was looking for. And I asked you to do a 360 while it while it was moving. I'm going to pass the ball to you because I want you then to explain what happened in your mind. Because something that was a moment that something connected.

SPEAKER_07 39:03

Right. Yeah, that you know, what happened at that moment is is amazing in the sense that it had happened to me before and I couldn't explain why. Um, where my body just reacted uh in the natural manner that it would have before my stroke. So I'm I'm doing my 360 rotations and I look down and I'm just tired at this point. I'm a little bit, you know, we're pushing my heart rate up, and I'm having a hard time focusing. And I feel it kind of, you know, I'm like, oh, this is starting to get irritating and uh a little bit exhausting, and you know what's going on. And this feels pretty normal as far as like I've been through this before. I've been through this PT before. I've been strapped to a ceiling where I was walking on a treadmill, and one PT is holding my hand and the other one's moving my foot forward for me, and it, you know, it's starting to feel a little bit average. Right? For real. Yeah. So um, but then I remember I'm looking down and I'm just trying to focus on standing up, just trying to stay upright, and I'm not feeling any fear or anything. I'm just exhausted and I'm trying to trying to focus on what I'm doing, but I'm having a hard time focusing. So my mind's kind of floating off. And then I look down, and my left foot, which is my affected foot, starts doing what it's supposed to do on its own. And I'm not even thinking about it. I'm just looking at it, going, whoop, switching over the front of my other foot, landing in front, and then coming back on the treadmill, and then my right foot is, you know, does what it does automatically because it knows what to do. And then boom, my left foot does it again. I'm like, whoa, that's you know, that's that's a new one. It's like it's doing what it's supposed to do without me having to think about it at this point. I because if I had to think about it, I didn't have time to think about it. It was the treadmill's going, and and my leg needs to do this in order to keep me standing upright, and it was doing it. And it was just amazing. And it was kind of a breakthrough for me at that moment. I go, okay. So now we are on. I understand this, you know. He's explained it to me, but I didn't really get it. But now, wait a minute, I'm breaking through. You know, this is kind of okay. This is what we're this is where we're heading. And then it was just on.

SPEAKER_08 41:43

So what was the piece that you like? If you could just just define it, what would you like what was happening at that moment?

SPEAKER_07 41:50

Watching my leg float from the back side of the the treadmill, crossing the front of my other leg, landing correctly, and then being able to move back with the treadmill as it goes. Was like, it was like that just happened. Automatically. Automatically. It wasn't a thought process because I wasn't in the place of thinking. I was too exhausted. And that's happened uh repeatedly through this process. And that was just the first time that kind of opened up my eyes to like, wait, okay, this is a different direction because I'm not being over-protected, I'm not being, you know, encouraged to take it easy, I'm not, you know, all these things that I had gone through previously. Um, and I'm like, I just had more change in, you know, a five-minute treadmill session than I had had in months of therapy before that. And I recognized the change, and that's kind of the breakthrough that he was excited to see that I was able to recognize that. And then, you know, I got off the treadmill and it's just like, okay, you sit down, I'm gonna do some things.

SPEAKER_08 43:06

I think that was hilarious because you actually started to stand up, and you know, in my mind, I'm always looking for when do I like pause because I don't ever want there to be a moment where it's a negative, right? Especially at the beginning, when you see it right and you get that, I don't want it to be a negative because what I don't want is for that the the incredible incredibility. I don't know if I just made up a word, but you know, the the amazingness of that moment, I just want it to be diminished, and so it's almost like, hey, let's pause. And so I was about ready to do that, and and you stand up, and I start to stand up with you because I'm like, okay, he's going. And you said, sit down. Right. And I was like, I was like, okay, here's my moment. Do I trust him? This was a huge trust. Building moment for me because because I you know, here I am, I'm I I'm liable, you know, like these things that if I can't because I I need to I can't believe you let me do that. I could I could have fallen and hurt myself. But there were some things that I you know I'm just watching and I'm like, and and this is what makes me different, and and what makes this process different or part of it is that because I see you and I know who you are, right? That's what made me decide I'm gonna let them do it. And so you go and you do it. Right. Right? And what it what did you start doing?

SPEAKER_07 44:39

I just started uh moving like you know, like I was ballroom dancing, basically. I mean, you know, in a much more of a stroke style, but I mean, I was just walking backwards and forwards, crossing my legs backwards and forward, making turns, making 360s, 180s, you know, just trying to go in every different direction, trying to trip myself up, basically.

SPEAKER_08 45:04

And there were some moments you made some mistakes. Yeah, and what happened?

SPEAKER_07 45:08

And I caught myself and and my legs worked the way they should have been working, and and I felt stronger and more stable and and better. And it was just I was searching for that magic moment again, you know, that just that like, okay, I want my body, I want to push my body not to not just sitting there thinking about okay, one foot in front of the other, but I wanted to push my body in a natural way where it would naturally respond. And I knew that that would give me a high. And uh from the way he explains it, it actually does give me a little, you know. Yeah, it gives you dopamine. Gives me a little dopamine when I do good like that, and when you succeed at something, and and my body was giving me the dopamine on its own. You know, it's like my body saying, Okay, that was good. I've got that. If you need that again, I'm gonna pull it out for you and use it again, basically. And so I was just kind of trying to trip myself up and trying to push the limits to what I could do, and and I did. And and um from that moment on, it's like, okay, I got this, I understand what this is about, and I and I'm gonna give it everything I can to move it forward in this direction like this.

SPEAKER_08 46:28

For more information or to sign up for a boot camp, just go to Stroke Survivor Bootcamp.com. I'm Dr. Phil, and I'll have more right after this.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

Stroke Survivor Bootcamp! Hi, this is Christy from Wheelchair Escapes. I specialize in travel for the disabled, making their travel dreams a reality. Besides planning your vacation, I can also arrange for special needs equipment to make your vacation experience even better. I have over 26 years of hands-on wheelchair travel experience. My husband has MS and he hasn't walked for 26 years. And we travel and fly with both a power chair and a manual chair, and you can too. I can assist with land vacations or cruise vacations. I do plan a group cruise twice a year, and that helps my first-time travelers know that they are not alone. I am there to assist. Besides my travel experience and special knowledge about wheelchair travel, I am paid by the vendor, not by you. Where do you want to go? Most likely I can help you get there. Please visit my website www.wheelchairescapes.com or give me a call at 603-382-3596. And let's start planning your vacation now. Thanks and happy travels.

SPEAKER_08 48:10

You want to maximize that. But the part that you, you know, in our conversations throughout this week is that you made that connection that if I have this BDNF that's flowing through my body, I want to get to the point where I make a mistake so that I can make that automatic correction because now it's it's that that uh my brain realizing that that's the pathway is going to be found quicker and it's gonna be there again next time. And so then it became kind of a theme of this boot camp. It was it was like, where can how can you find those moments of mistake to give yourself the opportunity to have this automatic response or reaction?

SPEAKER_07 49:00

Yeah, and I'll do you one even better than that. Great. So if I'm going to drive my heart rate up and put all this work and energy into it just to release this BDF, right? BDNF. BDNF. If I'm gonna put all this energy and work into releasing that into my brain, then I want to get something out of it.

SPEAKER_04 49:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 49:26

And I need my body to correct itself in order to get that to get that benefit. Just driving my heart rate up isn't the goal. My heart my goal is to get my body to respond and do what it needs to do to progress.

SPEAKER_08 49:46

Yeah. Right? And to to start to start making those connections, new, you know, new connections and and to make that pathway so that the next time something happens like this, it goes, ah, I remember.

SPEAKER_07 49:59

Yeah, that's the secret soup. And I that and and if I'm gonna put all this energy and effort into it, I'm not just gonna sit down afterwards and rest. I'm going to push it beyond that. And I and and those of you that seen me can see that that's that was my goal through the whole camp was just like push it, push it, push it until I can't go anymore, until Dr. Phil thinks I can't go anymore. Guess what? Go some more. And and and and just be aware that he's there to protect me and um that I'm not injuring myself. I'm not I'm in a safe space, but at the same time, I really want that uh chemical, the magic soup, I really want that to kick in and do something. I want to see it work. I want to all the you know, all the energy and effort has got to be rewarded somehow.

SPEAKER_00 51:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 51:01

And just driving my heart rate up and then sitting down and watching TV is no longer a choice for me. I have to push it. I have to, you know, I force myself to fall down so that I can get up. And through because my heart rate is where it is at that point, my getting up is now a learned process through my own mind that's connected to my brain instead of my thought pattern. Yes. Because my heart rate is where it needs to be. I've got the secret soup going on in my head, and now my body's responding and learning things because of that.

SPEAKER_08 51:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 51:42

Right?

SPEAKER_08 51:42

Yep. I I love see guys, I I I told you, I love I love like this is what's so fun is that you know, it is I love the way Jeff you know explains this and you know, magic soup. Yeah, I love it. Um now if we if we just kind of go through and let's uh we don't need to go through that's why you're here is to do the clinical. That's why, right? Right. Um but from from the uh the remainder of the boot camp, once once I find that moment, that's that's one of the things that I that I I I always try to explain to people is that once I find that moment where you at least see to whatever level you're gonna see it at as, right? Everybody's mind is gonna see it in a different way. You just happen to see it in a very good way.

SPEAKER_07 52:31

Yeah, so I have a question for you. Did you see it before I seen it?

SPEAKER_08 52:36

Well, that's where I do you remember when you went around and you stepped over. I like I like jumped up. I was like, yes, like that's you know, I make a big it's it's whenever you're watching a boot camp, it's the moment that I get so amped up. Right. Because what I need your brain to recognize at that moment is that was the moment. Gotcha. And so if you see it, yeah, if you see me go, yes, like it, you know, this that's that's it, that's amazing. Part of the response or the reason why I respond like that is because I if if you don't see it, I need your brain to give you a shot of dopamine because Dr. Phil saw it.

SPEAKER_09 53:22

Okay, right.

SPEAKER_08 53:23

Dr. Phil saw it was so it was good, and so then I want to find whatever that was again, right? Your brain just happens to like your your analytical brain that you you have, it just happened to make these connections in a way that you know that Right.

SPEAKER_07 53:39

I got I I understood the brain.

SPEAKER_08 53:40

It was unique to you, yeah. And and so then the rest of this time it just became this process of okay, how can you do that? And and it was nice because you then I kind of I I I want to describe you as like almost like a pit bull in some ways. As soon as you see it, you do not want to let go.

SPEAKER_07 54:04

Yeah, becomes pretty obvious to me.

SPEAKER_08 54:07

Yeah, and so um the next morning, the very next morning, um we did stairs, and stairs was crazy hard. Really rough on me.

SPEAKER_07 54:17

That was that was uh if you would agree, which means to me, what that says to me is that I need to go do stairs, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 54:25

Stairs, stairs is one of the best things that you can do. Um, it's also one of the suckiest things that you can.

SPEAKER_07 54:32

But then to today, um, we had a challenge on the stairs where I would take a double step. And no, you you did that. You I know, but I didn't tell you. I did say that, huh? He challenged me to take uh to skip a step. Oh you were you struggled. I struggled, it was huge, I couldn't do it. Think about that, and you're holding me like I'm pulling backwards, and you're holding me up, keeping me from falling, and I'm like, I don't know if he can take all this weight or not, and I had this huge fear, and I'm like, I cut it off right then. I'm like, okay, we're we're done with that.

SPEAKER_08 55:12

You're you're bringing something to my mind of like making that connection. I didn't realize like the the drastic change in just that alone. Exactly. Here's the question we did stairs, but then did we do stairs again?

SPEAKER_07 55:25

We didn't. No, we didn't, and that's why I'm saying is I cut it off at that point. I said, okay, that's enough of that. I told Dr. Phil, which isn't in my personality, but I said, enough of that. We're not doing that anymore. Right? And I wasn't even really that tired, or you know, and I was in a space of like my heart rate was up, but I wasn't exhausted. Frustration. And this is the beautiful thing. So this happens. So like I cut him off, and I'm like, okay, and no more stairs. I know I have to come back to it. I know I can't just give up on it, you know, get back on the horse kind of thing. So today we're working, and it's a half-mile hike up and down sand dunes. I'm exhausted. I'm throwing myself on the ground and you know, begging for a backpack to sleep on and sending him off on missions just so I can get some shut eye. And uh, and I'm just beat. I mean, this was this was we were in the red zone.

SPEAKER_08 56:30

I would say this is probably not even not even probably 100%. That is the most I've had somebody do in a session, and the hardest I've had somebody have to work for a long period of time, period.

SPEAKER_07 56:44

Right, and so I'm dragging this wood, you know, this wooden leg of mine through the sand, and it's it's it's hard. I mean, I'm really going through it. And then so we finally make it back to where I'm gonna get back on the sidewalk and walk back to the car. And I plan this whole thing out in my mind so that I couldn't give up and quit. I didn't want to stay close to the car, I wanted to get as far away from the car as I could. So um we get to this staircase and I go up the staircase and it's like boom. And then all of a sudden, because I'm on solid ground and I'm not in the sand anymore, my leg overreacts and shoots past, I skip a step automatically, right? And it's just like a little bit. Was it was your left or right? It's my bad leg. Yeah, it was my it was my affected leg, and it just automatically boom went up and skipped a step and put me on the landing on the very top step. And I'm just like, and Dr. Phil's like, did you see that? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_08 57:43

Yeah, I've seen that. Like just to set the stage, I'm nowhere near you. I'm exhausted, and I'm nowhere near you, right? You're about 20 feet behind me. I am because I'm filming. I'm I'm like, here you go, this is an awesome moment. You know, he's pushing himself and he's gonna go up one step at a time. You know, that's what I'm thinking. And you know, because of our experience earlier. I pulled my cane up, I wasn't using my cane. I wasn't using your cane, and then you get that left foot up there, and I was like, oh, like this is a this is a this is a moment because your knee is bent. Either I'm gonna go backwards, you're gonna come down, and I'm like, and I am not in the right position. I was like, like, did I trust? Like, I mean, there's always gonna be that piece in me. It's like, did I, did I really have I really seen what I needed to see? Right? And to where I can actually let him go and trust. And the thing that was so just I I cannot wait to show you that video because you put that leg up there and it powers you up. It did. It was like it was, it wasn't even like a it wasn't a second, it was like and it was it was from all that sand.

SPEAKER_07 58:46

Oh yeah, it was pushing through that sand, uh-huh, going up a hill through sand. That's that's you're sliding down as you're going. Right. And it's like, so you need to double up on your on your um follow-through because if you don't, you're you're not gonna make it. So my leg just did it on its own. And and I'm telling you, what that does is that tells my brain, you don't have to fear the skipping that step. You just have to do it, right? And and I got to the top, and it's like, wow, I can't believe that. I mean, I had to think about it almost like, did that really? Was that another one of those moments? Yeah, it was just that automatic, your brain just did it. Where you're like, okay, yeah, my brain just did it. And and my leg had the strength to do it, even though I had just did a half mile track. You're exhausted. And I'm exhausted, you know. I sound like a hippo in a crocodile pool. I mean, I just and it was it wasn't good. And and then, you know. But yet at the last moment, at the last moment, it pushed through.

SPEAKER_08 59:52

The one thing the only that was the only time, this entire boot camp that you said essentially, I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:00

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:00

That was the only time, yeah, two days before.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:03

I'm like, we're not doing that again.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:05

But that's what was so And then I did it again. But you your your brain, your body just so when you can learn to let go like that, and give and search for those moments of allowing allowing mistake, right, within whatever you're able to do. I was too tired to be scared. Right.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:26

I really was, I was just exhausted.

SPEAKER_08 1:00:28

And then it's kind of and in some ways too, there's a little bit of this that you know, I obviously have to gauge each person, but there's there's a piece of this that's like, have you ever heard the story of the general, you know, who you know, their boats, they get to a new land that and and they're going to conquer it, and everybody's off the boats, and he has everybody on the on the on the beach before they actually go and and into this battle, and he tur tells them to turn around and the boats are on fire. Oh yeah, no choice. And so then he so then he goes, basically, this you're here, you have no way to escape. And and and so in a way, that was a moment where that happened where it's like I'm not there, you're exhausted, your mind is just going, yeah, and it's just like there's no other option, but you're getting up that and you're gonna do it in that way.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:24

Yeah, and it, you know, it's basically um the same motion I had to go through on the sand dunes before that got me through that, but now that I'm on cement, it seemed you know 20 times easier. Yeah, and it wasn't any easier two days before it was terrifyingly um difficult. Something I didn't want to do, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:51

It was just so and then from the clinical side, the I'll just lay this out. Basically, you had just spent an hour on uneven surfaces that were making you have mistake after mistake after mistake.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:06

Also, and you were and your brain, your cerebellum, was making those adjustments because you had to catch yourself and you had to get there. And then you, in order to, you know, when you described it to me, and you said it uh just earlier, you'd get that leg up, and then you had to quickly step because if you stayed on that slow, you know, if you stayed in that position for a long time, it was gonna go down five, six inches, and it was get it was gonna make it harder, so I just had to push through in order so that the difficult the difficultness of of taking that next step up, the longer you waited, the harder it would be.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:44

And I knew that or I would fall.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:45

And that's what is so cool is that your cerebellum had been making those adjustments, and then that became the norm because as we kept going, it actually became easier for you to go up those up those hills. Yeah, it stopped being this thing where I was like, okay, I'm a little bit worried about it, you know, to like, oh yeah, like go up this one, you got it. I mean, I'm like, I'm in fact, it got so good. Like it was nothing, yeah. And and and it you you were getting so it became the norm so much that I go back to the car to the car, right? At one moment, I go back to the car because I forgot the water, you know, and and you get up and you start going, and you're still hiking up and over these these sand hills without me there, right? And and but that's that's the beauty of what a boot camp does, and what and what is the science behind that, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:03:42

And and the thing was so my leg had been quagmired into this very nice powdery sound, I might say. Oh, there's a lot of things. The beaches sand is phenomenal, but I had been battling through it, um, you know, just on the simple hills, plus being caught in kind of a tire track uh made it difficult sometimes. But I had reached the cement, which would be my normal ground that I would be standing on, and my body reacted to cement like it wasn't even a barrier. Yeah, it's not a these steps aren't a barrier because I just went through the sand dunes. Yeah. So these steps are are easy, exactly. Right. And my mind told me these steps are easy, and my mind put my foot where it wanted to go, and it had the power to do it. And you know, two days before I'm just like, I will never be skipping a step, I guarantee you. No, and then boom, it happened.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:44

I yeah, uh in fact, I I I believe we have it on video, so I've got to find that and and the and the and have it be where it's like I don't want to do that, and then the very last step, you're by yourself and you go up that right. That would be that'd be a great video.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:59

It was nice, it was a nice discovery, and it was and is exactly why I'm pushing myself so hard through this whole process. You know, I I I have a true feeling that Dr. Phil um wouldn't force me to um do 10 sand dunes. I could maybe I could I could talk my way out of it like, oh, I'm just so exhausted, I can't do it. I'm thirsty, I'm this, I'm that. But I actually looked for opportunity just to push it just a little bit farther. I mean, I wasn't really um I just wanted the I wanted those mistakes. I wanted to feel that feeling again. And yeah, and I and I went and I did. And there were times when I was jumping on one leg to keep balanced on top of a sand dune, and you know, I didn't make it, I didn't pull through, and and then I fell down, and it's okay, and I was okay, and everything was okay, and and then okay, let's see if we can't find a mistake. Going down this hill. Let's see if we can't push going down a little faster than taking small steps and leaning back. And, you know, I was looking for those opportunities for those mistakes to happen. And um it just happened. I mean, I just boom, I skipped a step, and I'm just like, whoa, there's that moment again, even more profound than the treadmill was the second step, you know, skipping a step and then force my. That means I had to take my my affected leg, skip a whole step, and then not only that, but I had to pull myself with that leg up onto the landing.

SPEAKER_08 1:06:38

And a lot of people, a lot of people, and this is the coolest part was that as I as I was watching it, a lot of people they'll like pull themselves up, and then they'll just like tense their leg. No, dude, you you like you you yeah, you used it like a step. And I was like, I I mean, I was I was I was in shock.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:59

Yeah, it was a beautiful moment. It's it's it's worth the whole thing. It you know, because I did push myself hard today.

SPEAKER_08 1:07:07

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:08

And but that one moment was worth everything I went from the time I stepped out of the car all the way down the beach and all the way back to the car. That one moment uh verified to me that this is working and I'm seeing progress. That one moment just really stuck it to me, just like, okay, that's what this is all about.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:33

Stroke Survivor Boot!

SPEAKER_00 1:07:35

Hey, it's Christopher Ewing. Joining me in other Stroke Survivors from across the country and around the world. During the Life After Stroke, Stroke Survivors Crew, May 11th to the 15th, 2026, aboard Royal Caribbean's beautiful Quantum of the Speed Crew, the quick leaves round trip to Los Angeles, California, making court stops to Catalina Island, Ensenado, Mexico. Stroke Survivors, as well as their caregivers, family, and friends are invited to join us as we just take some time to put the thoughts of stroke aside and just enjoy living life. So join us May 11th to the 15th aboard World Caribbean's Quantum of the Speed, leaving round trip from Los Angeles and making court stops in Catalina and Ensenado, Mexico. For more information, just go to www.testrokechannel.tv. That's thestrokechannel.tv. And remember, there's still a beautiful life after stroke.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:31

So just so oh yeah, it was you spent 70, 70 minutes uh with your body making that protein. Creating as many opportunities to get your your brain to make those adjustments. Now, let me ask you this now before we because tomorrow we're gonna do, we're actually going to evaluate, right? We're gonna we're gonna assess your um your skills doing the same tests.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:58

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:00

As you go into those, what are you feeling? And number one, and number two, how has that changed from day one?

SPEAKER_07 1:09:15

Okay, so this is the way I feel about my assessment tomorrow. Um the way I feel about my assessment is that I cannot fail. I love that. I'm already ahead of the game. I don't need the assessment to know. I don't need the assessment to know the improvement. I've experienced the improvement, I've seen the improvement. What the assessment tells me, I'm I'm sure that I'm going to look like a complete stud. Oh yeah. Yeah, without question. 100%. I'm gonna, I am really gonna like hit the ball out of the park, you might say. And I'm sure of that. But if I don't, you know, that's okay too, because I I really don't even care. It's like I know what I know, and I know I've seen the growth within the very steps that I take, and I I just feel the strength when I get up out of bed. Even though I'm beat up right now, my body is sore. I mean, I'm very sore right now. But I still feel the str I, you know, even though I'm sore and I've been through it all day, I feel like I have more strength than I had when I was just sitting around and laying around. I mean, I just feel strong, like like there's an extra bit of oxygen in my blood. And it's like I'm I'm I feel unstoppable right now, and and I know that my job now is to continue the program and the map that he set out for me and to continue to feel this way. And I am an honest believer that no matter what that says tomorrow, that if I keep working at this and doing the things that I've been taught to do by him, that in a year I'm gonna look back on this life and think to myself, you know, I should have done it a lot sooner. And my God, have I come a long ways, and my God, am I happy that I did it.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:15

Look to Kevin Redmond. He's over in the in Great Britain area. I would I would say where you're at, he was just he was maybe a little like barely ahead of where you're at. Just barely. A year and a half later, the dude is when he walks, it looks normal.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:42

Yeah, which I'm all about.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:44

Like I'll I'll show you.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:47

My vanity has taken a punishment from this.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:51

I'm telling you. But he does around 10,000 steps a day.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:57

I mean, he he puts in the work.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:00

All I know is he's gonna have to start watching my videos for inspiration.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:04

Yeah, I know, right? I'm gonna clip that part, send it to him. But you he it's it's just a it's it's in the it's this thing that if you if you put in the work, you put in the effort, and you now understand this this concept, oh my goodness, there there's no such thing as a ceiling, and there is there is a there is a place for you to go instead of my life sucks.

SPEAKER_07 1:12:38

And and let me go back again because I think this is extremely important, because a lot of you may be listening and looking at me and thinking, well, this guy's just a go-getter, this guy just doesn't know quit, this guy blah blah blah. Let me tell you right now that I had a very tragic event where uh you know most of my family was taken from me, and um my divorce, my my restaurant I had was losing money, and um I had a I was in a very bad spot earlier in life, um maybe 10, 12 years ago. I laid down. I didn't work at it. I didn't, I right, I pulled back, and I, you know, after I lost everything, I told myself, you know, it's interesting because some people in life, when something like that happens to them, they throw themselves into their work and they and they make themselves busier and they go to the gym and they try and change why am I the person that's so weak that when all these bad things happen to me that I just retreat and pull back and and you know I alienate myself and and all this. And and honestly, when the stroke happened, that's exactly who I was again. It's like I pulled back, I alienated myself, I felt pity about myself, I felt these things, and I have to thank Dr. Phil for this because I was still in that place, and um it's very um, you know, going through this process with him has created what you see, and you combine that with a little bit of hope and an obvious direction to go because that's what I was lacking. I really what I wanted from this thing was where do I go? Please tell me what I need to do. Please tell me what I need to do. Please explain to me why I'm not getting any better and what I need to do. So I was still in a place to where I was withholding, I wasn't working at it hard, I was barely doing what I needed to do. And then when I got into this program and I started to see the changes, that is the thing that lit me up. Because yes, I was gonna go through whatever process he told me to go through, and I was going to do the exercises I needed to. But once I seen that switch, once I seen my body respond to my needs naturally without me thinking about it, it clicked. And the minute it clicked, that's when the rest of me said, you know what? I'm looking for that moment. That's what I need, and this is gonna happen. And I just got so excited and I was unable to stop. I was actually unable to sit down and finish until I was exhausted and and the event was over. So we set a goal for ourselves to do 60 minutes in two sessions every day of being in the in the zone. And we went out this morning and and bypassed in one in one session, uh-huh, right? And it's just because man, once you get it, once you understand what's so different about this and what it really brings to the table, as far as your body showing you, hey, I'm taking care of you, you're not taking care of me.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:18

Getting your brain to tell you that and you understanding it and you being able to focus on that just made me into an animal. It just turned me into an animal, and I I just I couldn't get enough at that point. It's just like it was almost like an addiction of looking for my body to looking to make mistakes that my body would correct. Yes. And it happened. It happened on, you know, my very last step up a staircase. My body just took over and said, you know what? We're skipping this next step. And it did it, and it launched me to the top of the steps, and I'm just like, whoa. He's like, whoa. And I'm like, what just happened there? I've got to sit down. I'm exhausted.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:05

And I just remember coming up to him being like, seriously, do you understand what just happened?

SPEAKER_07 1:17:10

Yeah, I did. And that's the great thing about understanding it, right? Because if I hadn't been able to catch on to that and understand what I'm looking for and what's going on, I I could have missed that magnificent moment.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:23

And I want to point out one other piece. Because you're in that state, you're in that mode of like, I'm going to trust my body and it's going to do what it's supposed to do. When that happened, I have seen time and time again, and I have prevented somebody because I didn't see that they were committed to it. Where they they get themselves in a moment like that. What I've seen them do is they put their foot up and then immediately bring it back.

unknown 1:17:55

Right.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:56

But the sand dunes weren't letting me do that. No, no, no. The sand dunes do not let you do that, they do not let you cheat. No. And so by the time I got to that step, I'm like, I don't have a choice. Right. This is where I'm going.

SPEAKER_08 1:18:11

Man, I I I if you guys can tell, I mean, I could just talk with Jeff for hours and hours. We have. I mean, that's what we've we've been doing. But the one thing that I hope that you guys have found as you know we've we've been discussing and going through this this uh journey that Jeff and I have been on is a couple of things. One thing that came to mind as I've been kind of going through what we've talked about. One is that this is a collaborative effort. No matter what, if you do a boot camp, if you're a part of Dr. Phil's, you know, anything, it's gonna be a collaborative effort. Second is that um it's a process. You go through a particular structure, a particular process to where you come to realizations of things. It's not that you have to be there on day one, it's that you have to be willing to allow yourself to to to progress and to essentially you realize it and get there at the pace you're gonna get there. It just depends on how willing you're you're gonna be to, which is the third, allow mistakes to happen. Because if you stay in this state of fear, then you're there's there's there's two things that'll happen, two options. One is you won't improve after a certain point.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:41

You might improve, but it'll just be at a less than optional, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:19:46

Yeah, well, and then because you we don't because if you have fear, there's usually a limit that you're willing to push yourself. Right. And if that's the case, then the your neurons are not going to try to fire above that. Think about it like this. If you you know, so I uh a flea can jump 36 inches.

SPEAKER_09 1:20:06

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:07

I believe it's 36, it's in the 30s, which is massively high compared to its height.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:13

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:14

If you take a flea and you put it in a jar, put a lid on, the flea is going to jump like it's jumping 36 inches, but it's going to eventually hit the lid and it's gonna fall back down. Well, after some time, the flea ends up making an adjustment, and it only allows itself to jump right before, right before the lid. Gotcha. So then when you take the lid off, it has the capacity to jump six times that lit that jar, but it will only jump to the lid and it will never jump out. So crazy. And that is something that's this phenomenon that happens with stroke survivors. It's this thing that because of I believe because of fear.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:02

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:21:03

What happens is you you only allow yourself to experience a mistake to a certain level, and then guess what? That just becomes the the level that you're willing to allow yourself to go.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:17

Yeah, it's like the old elephant that that has chain around his legs. That's the other story. And you all you need to do then is put a string around their leg, and they just think that, okay, this is where I'm at. This is where I'm at for the rest of my life. And and I certainly learned that that's not where I'm at for the rest of my life, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:21:36

And that's what a boot camp is designed to do, right? Is to make it so that essentially I show you that you can jump out of that jar. Right. And that it's it's not the end of the world if you jump out of that out of that jar. The thing that I need is for you to come to a boot camp or come to if I ask you to do something, if you're gonna ask me to do, you know, ask me for help or ask me for guidance, you need to understand that I'm going to ask you to do something that's going to put you outside of that jar. And that is really difficult to just up and do, especially when the stroke and everything has kind of led you to not experience that. But I want to kind of close this episode. Um, I'll just say from my part first, and then I'll let you lead us out of this episode. The thing that I keep seeing over and over and over is that if somebody is willing to allow me to push them past this point, if they allow me to put them in a position where fear is facing them right just right in front of them. And if then they are willing to then step past that fear, jump outside of the jar, break the string, right? Right, then what happens is the only option is change. It's the only option. And so what has been really cool and what w I feel like we've been able to get some some great video and some, you know, and and just we have more things that we've been talking about and planning, you know, Jeff and I have, and um what I'm excited for is what we are going to be bringing you guys as we move forward. But it really, every single thing, yes, there's the science, there's all those pieces, but the psychological part of you having to be okay with jumping when you don't see the the landing point, or that you have to be willing to jump outside the jar. If you can get that, then the sky is the limit.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:01

Yeah, the physical is the battle, right? But the war is one in your head. It's like the war is up in your brain saying, I can do it, I believe in myself. The battle is step stepping over the the obstacle in the way. And yeah, we you can learn to do that, you can get better and better at that. Yeah, but that's if that's all you're gonna do, what's the use? The the war is one in the head, and the war is one in you telling yourself, I'm not only gonna do this, but I can do it, and I'm gonna get better at it.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:40

Yes, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:24:41

Instead of just the step-by-step of uh monotonous, like I don't know, just I just I was my brain was released, basically. It wasn't my body, it was my brain that was released. It was my body was doing the same things I had done before. And yes, I I actually was pretty lucky in my stroke that I was able to, you know, walk in a couple months and do a lot of things, and I had practiced being, you know, more agile and whatnot. And but I was still caught up in the fact that this was gonna be my life for the rest of my life, and I was depressed about it, and I was like, I'm never gonna be able to go on those incredible hikes I used to have all over the world. I mean, I was climbing mounts, mountains in France and the Alps, and I was doing things like this, and and I honestly I had lost the battle, I had lost the battle with my mind as far as where my body was gonna take me and where it was gonna be able to take me. And just in six days, I have that, I have, I've won that war now. I've won the war, and the battles are are gonna be easier and easier to win. The obstacles are gonna be easier and easier to overcome because I've won the war already, and the fact that I'm I know that this is gonna work and that I I'm going to get my life back. And and that that is what made this whole experience so powerful. I mean, not just, you guys, it's not just walking up some sand dunes. That's not what it's about. It's about releasing your mind and letting your brain and and showing you letting your brain show you that it's still there, it's still got your back. Right?

SPEAKER_06 1:26:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:35

Because it's failed you time and time again. Yeah, it has. But it still does have it's still there, it still got my back.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:42

I just didn't know it. I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't tell myself, okay, my brain's got my back. It's not gonna let me down. I did have one experience in Africa where I was giving some swim lessons, even though I'm stroked out and only have half a body, but I was giving some swim lessons to kids there because they're scared to death of the water. And one of the kids got in the deep water and she was not doing well at getting herself out. And my body just jumped up and dove in the water instantly and pulled her out, you know, on its own. And I remembered that experience when Dr. Phil was explaining this thing to me that you know, your body will react when it needs to react. It may not do it all the time, but once you believe in it and once you push yourself to getting your body to doing and reacting more and more, it's gonna start reacting more and more for you. And so that was the thing that I tied this to was like, okay, I'm I'm about to trip here, but guess what? My leg just pulled me out of it, or I'm about to go down, but guess what? My leg is pushing through, and my leg is pushing over it, and and that's what happened to. The final step. You know. Boom. I was on top of the landing. I don't know how I got there. It's just my body did it. And that is the war, right? That's the battle.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:13

I love it. I think we'll end there. Yeah. I think we'll end there and just remember. I mean, remember boot camp. With Dr. Phil. The biggest thing is really, we just want to make sure that we're taking just one step at a time because it really comes down to one step at a time. I love that.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:40

Breathe in. Every scar is around. Floor is cold, heart is loud, hands are shaking, but you stand your ground. Every stomach still a step you own. Sweat on your face means you show you.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:12

I'm broken, we say Dr. Phil calling one more up to go You hear your name, you let floor survivor, boot care. Come let the let go Fire in your muscles, blood in your soul.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:36

We rise, we all we rise up than before Stroke survivor, boot cam You can't left side, heavy right side light, brain rewiring in real time. Every slow step still award you in You fall on it, you stand on town You say it We say that you heal You say you say I'm scared We say that real Back to feel shall be on this making you clamps your feet before Stroke survival bootcamp Fire in your buttons But it goes we rise We fall Wey So higher than before Stroke survival boot camp You kick it down the door This is for the days you couldn't lift your head for the silent screen she never said Now shout it for the ones still lying in that bed I'm here I'm here I'm not done Strokes of the bouche