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Welcome to the Healthy Brain Toolbox. I'm Dr. Ken Sharlin, neurologist, and host for this show. In each episode, I interview influential people whose work impacts how we live and how we think. My guests are leaders in the health and fitness industry, physicians, scientists. Here, you'll find conversations that break down barriers, expand your horizons, and give you the tools you need to protect your health and nourish your aging brain.

Dr. Ken Sharlin 0:30

Welcome to another episode of the Healthy Brain Toolbox podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Ken Sharlin, and today my guest is JD Tremblay. JD is an ultra endurance athlete. A triathlete, speaker, author, and advocate for mental resilience and human performance. He's among an exceptionally small group of athletes worldwide to complete the, EpicDeca, one of the most demanding endurance challenges ever created, This consists of 10 Iron Man distance triathlons performed consecutively, 140.6 miles. and then 10 times JDS background includes engineering, military service, and leadership in extreme sport communities. His journey has evolved into a mission centered on mental health, resilience, and purpose driven living. He is the author of Hunger for more in Life, where he shares his personal transformation and a framework for pushing beyond perceived limits, overcoming adversity. And discovering deeper purpose. JD is the founder of the Hungry Warrior Academy and nonprofit focused on helping men achieve peak performance physically, mentally, and emotionally, while addressing the often overlooked challenges surrounding men's mental health. His core message is that true strength is not merely physical. It's built through mindset, vulnerability, discipline, and connection. JD, welcome to the Healthy Brain Toolbox.

JD Tremblay 2:17

Thanks for having me.

Dr. Ken Sharlin 2:19

It's very exciting for me to have you, just on a personal note, my own journey, as an integrative neurologist, one who brings the tools of functional and regenerative medicine into the clinic, actually began with my own experiences as a long distance athlete but I did have the opportunity to finish a few Iron Man triathlons and, it was during that period of time listening to, at, the Ben Greenfield podcast. I don't know if you know Ben, he's kind of morphed more now into regenerative and anti-aging medicine, at the time a lot of his focus was endurance athletics. He and I were at Iron Man Canada in WIS when it was at Whistler, and he attempted the Iron Man in ketosis that year. It was Ben Greenfield, and he was interviewing Dr. David Perlmutter, who had written his book, Grain Brain and I had that light bulb moment that everything I was learning to be able to put my body and my brain mentally, emotionally and physically through that distance, really could be applied in the clinic when it came to things like nutrition, recovery, movement, sort of movement as medicine and so forth and of course that important mindset. So it's an honor to have the opportunity to visit with you today and hear about you. I'm wondering if we could go back to the beginning and what your life was like before Ultra endurance and what set you on that path?

JD Tremblay 3:49

I grew up, in the northern part of Quebec, joined the military. I was 17 years old, served for over a decade after I went to get an integrated engineering, degree from the University of Western in Ontario it was always about, challenges and, hunger for more in life. I was always hungry to learn more. I also understood that I had some limitations and I needed to digest all of this information at, the appropriate rate. What I learned from the military was about mission driven. So they give you a task to complete. They don't care how you're doing it. All they care about is that you go from point A to point B. I carried that on to the civilian life, where in engineering it's all about systems and making the science functional for everybody. A lot of it has to do with mathematics. So I really enjoyed the program because it's about logic. It makes sense. One plus one is two. And so it did not matter that I had individuals beside me that did not even speak the same language. People that were from different backgrounds and cultures, we all spoke the same language when it came to math. And the logic of it was here we're gonna get this done and here's the project. I carried a lot from the military, a lot of civilians would think that the military has a lot of discipline. What the military gives you is a system and structure, and if you follow this set of system and structure, then you're able to achieve a lot more than the average individual. I think that's what you've learned through, all of your years. as an Iron Man,

Dr. Ken Sharlin 5:51

I'm sure the military you had fitness requirements. Were you at that point though, it's wonderful to be able to do 50, a 100, 150 pushups, but were you running were you doing marathons? Where was the moment where you said,"oh, I want to become an Iron Man, a long distance cyclist, a swimmer, a performance athlete."

JD Tremblay 6:15

I wanted to do it when I was in the military, but my pride kicked in. I had a bicycle. I went, to cycle downtown. I was in Victoria, British Columbia, I fell down because I did not even know how to unclip the pedals. My pride kicked in and I did not even touch the bike. I walked all the way home beside my bike with my cleats I said, I'm never touching this bike again. I did not want people to see me in a bad light. Little did I know that no one remembered that moment. No one saw me. not everybody had a cell phone anyway, so I could have went on to complete a lot of other triathlons. A lot of people are stopping themselves short from achieving their goals as a result of making decisions, based out of fear and not based out of faith, regardless of their religious background. It's based on making a decision to live in faith and not in fear. I didn't at the time, and it took me five years to do my first triathlon, I was going through a divorce and it was messy and one of my friends said, well, you already know how to swim'cause you are a diver in the military. You already know how to run because you've won a lot of competitions in running with the military and so you would just need to cycling, but again, my pride kicked in and what set me on that path, which became a blessing eventually, is that, during the divorce I did not have any money at all to even pay for a bus pass. And so I needed to get to work. and I lived far from the base, so I had a bicycle that I fell from five years before, and I decided to go in an alleyway and try that bicycle again and try to unclip. And it was so easy to do. I just, I should have started a long time ago. I wish everybody's listening to this and saying, this is really me. I wish I could just have started five years ago and challenged these fears, hopped on my bike. Finished my first sprint triathlon, and then, I joined engineering. In engineering, I had the mindset, that engineering was all about just brain and nothing physical. everybody in my class were young kids, but they were not the fittest of all. They were really in books and it was all about brains. But I just did not know how to join the two together. Not many people in my class, was doing it. So I started doing an Iron Man when I got to university, and I really enjoyed it. It transformed my mindset. And so that's how I got into, the Iron Man space. And then, I went to do an ULTRAMAN the year after because I enjoyed it so much. I wanted to push those limits to see how far I could go, that's where we're joining, forces right now. Because we talked before the podcast and you said that you did, iron then Penticton I did Ultraman Canada in Penticton, British, Columbia.

Dr. Ken Sharlin 9:58

That is wonderful.

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Dr. Ken Sharlin 11:55

This is a very comfortable, language, a language of sport, endurance, sports triathlon to both of us. I wanna make sure that the listeners or viewers understand what we're talking about is a race that starts with a swim, by a bike event. They're all connected. And then the run, and depending on there are different types of triathlons. You mentioned the sprint, there's what is called Olympic distance, the half Iron Man distance, and then the Iron Man distance. There's also something called a super sprint. Mostly those are the main distances at the Iron Man distance we're talking about, and the 2.4 mile swim. 112 mile bike ride. And then the run, which is the marathon, the 26.2 mile run. And these are connected in a physical space called transition. So when you finish your swim, you run up a ramp. Typically go to a tent where you can get your wetsuit off. If you're wearing a wetsuit, somebody's helping you, and then you run out in your bare feet, you find your bicycle, you try to get out of that transition as quickly as you can, getting on your socks and your bike shoes and your helmet running out, hopping on your bike for that bike distance. And then the same happens from the bike to the run but I wanna say that, first of all, I think all of us have fallen off our bikes, getting caught up in the clips, it happens to everyone at least once. And my embarrassing moment, I think I was only going about five miles an hour on the bike, and I like a nice bike, so it scratched up some of the components a little bit, and I was pretty unhappy about that as well. But we all fall off the bike but the other thing I think is, really important, and I know in your experience that first, that fall that preceded your triathlon, experience by several years, led to walking the bike back home. And I'd like to segue into that because whether you're in the Ultra Distance, which could be, a run that's 25, 50, a hundred miles, or more, or similarly, long distance, very long distance bike ride. with the runs and the bikes. I have seen, and I'm sure you have many athletes, they're not giving up. I'm sure you have seen this, I have seen people pretty much walk whole marathon or a very good part of it but there's only one way home. That's the finish line. only one way home. Right. And you make this commitment, you do all this training, and in a little pain but I think most importantly, that desire to never give up. Never give up, keep going. Do your best, just do your best Iron Man tradition. There are those, and you may be one of them. The elite athletes who are really there to place, maybe get invited to the world championship, but many people, their goal is to simply cross that finish line, which is why the midnight hour in the Iron Man is so important. When people in the last athletes come in to officially finish the race. What are your thoughts about kind of determination?

JD Tremblay 15:12

What are the positions in a race? So there are only three positions and the positions are based on, two acronyms and one word, which are DNS, DNF and finisher. Now, a DNS is, it means did Not Start, which means for whatever reason, you just did not step foot on the start line for whatever reason. And for the majority of these people, that reason is between both ears for the majority of them. Now, I'm understanding that there are some complication and some medical reasons, but for the majority of them, and I'm just talking about average here, so I understand there are outliers in any statistics. However, for the majority, it is a DNS because they have, put themselves in a mindset that they're either not capable of finishing it or for some reason they did not start because, they said, well, I already finished one, so why would I finish a second one? But they already registered, they already paid, they already did all of the work. For the EpicDeca, we were 10 that registered, six people were on the start line, meaning there are four people for whatever reason. they did not start. the second acronym is DNF. DNF is did not finish. So they set foot on the start line, and for whatever reason, they were never able to reach the last finish line or set that foot on the finish line prior to a cutoff, which the cutoff is, a timeframe that you have to complete that event in. So for the Iron Man branded event, it's 17 hours. If you finish it in 17 hours and you cross that finish line at 1701, you are not a finisher. You will have a DNF. For the DNF, they were not able to complete it, so i'm in awe about them for sure that congratulations, at the very least, you tried, you tried your best and for whatever reason, maybe you had a mechanical problem or a digestive issue. There are some issues that you just can't control either such as, weather or, certain equipment that you forgot to put. I remember one time, one Iron Man, I forgot to put a sweater and I finished the Iron Man quite late. It became extremely cold at night and, I was blessed because one person had in their bag an extra sweater and they gave it to me. I still have the sweater. I thank that person. I've never met that person again but that comes from being part of that community and enjoying yourself in the process of discovering your limits. That's part of your journey. You must, start. So if you get anything out of this message today, put the foot on the start line and aim for a DNF. If you can't start anything. And that can work for anything. you said, well, I did an Iron Man and it trickled down to other parts of my life, other parts of my practice as a, brain surgeon. So now the DNF for the EpicDeca. We were six on the start line and only three finished. And so on the DNF, we had three individual that, for whatever reason, they were unable to complete that event. But I'm amazed that they were able to, show up to the start line and give it their best. And then the third category is the finishers. We often praise the finishers for completing that event. Congratulation to the other two, finishing the, EpicDeca. But there's nothing really special about all of these people who finish an Iron Man. There's nothing really special about a guy who finished an EpicDeca. We. Had abilities on that day, we were able to finish it and maybe other people will be able to complete other events that are much bigger than others. At the very least, be inspired to start the race, whatever it may be, to have healthy relationships. Build your community, build your business start, you might not finish, try to do your best and aim at least for a DNF if you can. It would be better to get the finisher part. Those are the three categories that I would add to what you, mentioned about triathlon. we often praise individuals who finished. I wanna give a big shout out to all of the people who are putting up with us because we don't give them much credit because training for an Iron Man is often a full-time job that you're adding on top of your full-time job if you're not just an athlete, like this is your job. All of the crew, supporting us in doing these events, is a group of individuals that we're not giving enough. Encouragement or praise of all of the work that they're doing and putting up with our late night training changing our diet completely and doing weird tests like testing beet juice in the middle of the, of our breakfast. I remember my dad was like,"why are you drinking a liter of beet juice, in the morning? Like, this is your breakfast.", Like"yeah, I'm going working out dad". He was saying,"yeah, I'm never gonna become an athlete if it requires me drinking a liter of beet juice." So those are the three categories that I would say, are part of the race. And that could inspire some people to look at it from a different angle.

Dr. Ken Sharlin 21:30

For years, I must apologize that I have limited knowledge. I do have some knowledge about Ultra Distance events, but, considerable knowledge of triathlon itself. my point is you're talking about ultimately things like courage, and community. for those who've ever watched, I don't know if NBC still puts the world championships on they broadcast a condensed version two, three hour program. Every October or November, once the editing is done and when it's put on the United States television, I assume it's transmitted worldwide. You probably pick it up in Canada and so forth. are really human stories. There's some interest in the professional athletes, but by and large, a lot of the interest of the human stories. What's so remarkable about participating in these sorts of events are that the people who are there come in all shapes and sizes. They are people that you might pass on the street and if they told you they were training for the Iron Man distance triathlon, you'd say No. but they have their own hero's journey, right? They maybe survived cancer. there's one individual who's very, famous, in the world of Iron Man triathlon who competed while he had a Myotrophic lateral Sclerosis, a LS. Is known as the poet warrior. and there are other, there the father and son team, blocking on their name at the moment where the son had, severe cerebral palsy and father was ex-military. And would, pull his son through the water on the swim and pull him behind the bike and then, push him on the run. But my point is, you don't even have to have those kinds of stories. You just have to have that desire and that determination and truly, you do have to have a plan for training because injury is possible for sure. and then community, your community with whom you're training. I love this story about the sweater. I had a similar, situation in Iron Man, Cozumel where I had put a stash of my nutrition in a bag to be picked up at what they call a special needs station, about halfway through the bicycle, portion about mile 56. I didn't think about the fact that, it's very hot there, especially on the asphalt, and they had laid my special needs bag on the ground. a lot of the nutrition used in endurance sports is meant to deliver calories and, quick energy, but not necessarily high quality nutrition, although that has been challenged, by some. at any rate, all the food, turned into one melted blob inside my bag. It was not really edible, and so I thought, well, I'm just gonna have to make it. there are rest stops where they have bottles of Gatorade and what they call goos and things like that. And I'm calculating how many calories I need to take in every hour, how many grams of carbohydrates and so forth. But what was remarkable is someone reached into their bag, and they gave me a bagel with some peanut butter or almond butter. And, it tasted so good and it was such amazing sportsmanship, that We were all in it together. So it got me through that race and actually was my best finishing time. So those who are watching this interview, and they're challenged because this is the Healthy Brain Toolbox podcast by Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, or they have someone that's very close with them, challenged by these conditions. Multiple sclerosis, right? the message that folks get too often is, well, there's a limited amount that we can do. It's only gonna get worse. but in the world that I practice, I have many patients who reverse their disease. they get better from Alzheimer's, they get better from Parkinson's, they get better from multiple sclerosis. But it's kind of like the Iron Man race or the Ultra Distance race. You have to show up at the start line. You have to have that determination. And knowing that not everyone has the same amount of success, you have to at least be willing to take the first steps and to aim for the finish line. if you're not gonna make it by the, midnight hour, so to speak. how do you, translate some of that philosophy I wonder if you share those thoughts because now you have taken your work, your personal efforts and you're inspiring others.

JD Tremblay 26:15

Yeah, The word discipline. Many people just don't understand it. And then they would think that I am a disciplined person because I did all of these races Or maybe because I was in the military. So because I was in the military, definitely I am disciplined, which again, there's no data that proves that a military member are more disciplined than the civilian ones. What the military gives you, and that comes from a military vet, is that they give you a structure, they give you a system to follow. If you follow these set structure and that system, then you end up with discipline over time. So you're building those blocks over time. Now, the level of discipline that they give you is dogmatic. You will have to make your bed, for basic training, you will need to have an inspection every single day. And, you must wear a uniform. And so you're not really enjoying the process of having a discipline life. And, for the civilians, if I put it into, our words is, similar to a person being told by an influencer to have discipline by waking up every single day at four o'clock in the morning. But it's been discovered, through Chinese, traditional Chinese medicine or, other areas of, medicine. That organs operate at their peak at different hours of the day. And so if you are not a morning person, or if you are trying to regulate your energy to a peak performance, then that's the organ that you are working. For example, if you're trying to work harder, you should work, at an Iron Man, then you know you're gonna have to ingest a lot of sugar. If you want to have a peak, performance, then you should look at the time that the liver is operating or even the pancreas is operating at its peak because that's when you would have, the most, out of your workout. For discipline, the way I could. Use it in a way that it's very easy to understand is what is your non-negotiable. So I would not even have to ask anyone listening or watching or even you, you would know right away what my non-negotiable is. My non-negotiable is regardless if I woke up at three in the afternoon, at two in the morning, it doesn't matter. I will have done something related to fitness somewhere along my day. But what we tell people is build that discipline. Wake up at a certain time or, start running but what if you're not built to run? what if you don't want to run? What if you could regulate your energy to do some cooking? I studied, nutrition and anatomy for years at an institute to become a certified naturopathic practitioner. So now this is, one of our business where, that's what we do. We serve individuals, with, natural remedies to use the innate ability of the body to heal. So for someone who wants to lose weight, it's not necessarily, true to just say, go start running or go start swimming or increase your level of fitness, and that becomes your discipline. What they can do is say they enjoy cooking. what if you learn how to cook in a way that you decrease your caloric intake while still enjoying, nice recipes and then you can build a life that you can enhance the life of others by, cooking for them every single day. Now you are cooking, it works with whatever you put in is coming out and whatever you're using also is in the equation. what doctors would say is, if you increase your level of fitness and then, your calorie intake stays the same, then you're gonna lose weight, eventually, which is true. what if you don't increase your fitness level? You go for a walk. Then you decrease your calorie intake or you increase the quality of your calories that are going inside of your body. you, mentioned earlier, the type of nutrition that you have in a race, is not a natural type of nutrition everyone is going to ingest in a race versus in real life. So now you are learning a new skill. That non-negotiable has nothing to do with fitness at all. It's nutrition, but it's an example However, it's your non-negotiable. So you were built for it. do I enjoy cooking? Yes, but that's not my non-negotiable. So now you have a healthy body, you're building discipline. I love the fact that you talked about taking the lessons that you learn in an Iron Man and it trickled down to other parts of your life because it just proves the point. So hopefully it resonates with everyone. That discipline is built out of structure, and that discipline is based on your non-negotiable. So it's not about making your bed in the morning, it's not about going for a run when you not enjoying it. It's about doing something that you enjoy repeatedly. And what is that non-negotiable for you? So one action that everyone can do right now today. Pick up a pen and a paper. Don't have any distraction with TikTok videos and shorts. Listen to the podcast or pause it Pick up a pen and a paper and, note down, what is that non-negotiable. It might not even be fitness, but what you're building is a mindset block that you have discipline in that area of your life that is your non-negotiable, and then it trickles down to other parts of your life. Where now, well, yeah, I secreted dopamine because I completed something that I enjoyed. Not just making my bed or wearing a uniform or shining my boots or going for a run that I don't like. I enjoy running, I enjoy doing triathlon. So you understand that at four in the morning, seven at night. It doesn't matter in that 24 hour span, I will be working out, but that's my non-negotiable. So don't compare yourself to JD. Make it custom made for that listener, for that person that is watching. What is your non-negotiable? Instead of just thinking that everybody has discipline, JD does not have a lot of discipline. build discipline over time by following a structure and system, and that starts with finding that non-negotiable in your life so that you can enjoy discipline it's not about waking up at four in the morning or jumping in a cold tub at three degrees Celsius, or, trying to hold it and learning about how it affects testosterone. it's about learning how to build discipline. In your life so that it can trickle down to other parts of your life, your business, and enhance your quality of life And so that's the message that I would share with everyone, is about discipline and how to reframe discipline, have a different, viewpoint of the word.

COMMERCIAL BREAK 33:36

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Dr. Ken Sharlin 35:37

I wonder if as you discovered all this things and you're prioritizing the thing, that's your non-negotiable, the things that were somewhat more negotiable eventually also became non-negotiable as you discover the connections. You start off saying, you know, if I'm gonna train for this race, I have to have a good training plan. I can't skip too many days. I can't cut too many corners, and I enjoy the training, so that's okay. But I never prioritize sleep or I never prioritize my nutrition. I like food. I love good food, but I eat when I'm hungry. I don't necessarily think about it. Suddenly you realize it's not just about getting that long distance run in on a given day, right? Because if you don't get the sleep, it's that much more difficult. And so it raises the tide for these other things.

JD Tremblay 36:33

That's why, I wanna share the first step with people so that at the very least, it gets them to not be in the category of A DNS so that they can start immediately by today. That's the step one. And we both know, because we've done all of these races that they will be curious about the next step. But I did not want to, overwhelm everyone with all of the other discovery that they will have because sometimes we tend to overthink about all of these larger, complex systems. And, we use at the Hungry Warrior Academy, the acronym called BRAIN to explain, all of the systems. And then we analyze them in a more complex fashion, with all sorts of machines. We have EEGs and EMGs at the house, and then we test, our clients, with labs, and data. And so we're about the science and data and facts and logic. So the first step is just find your non-negotiable definitely. And, the second step in our DECA system is the energy regulation, which is the acronym BRAIN, which stands for blood chemistry, which a lot of people just think that it's, well, you would know it's about, glucose swings, hydration, not just water or the myth that because your pee is clear that you are necessarily hydrated. Maybe you have a malfunction of your kidneys. So that's another factor, electrolytes, inflammation. So this is part of the blood chemistry. you mentioned, recovery. So recovery is definitely a key factor. Part of the acronym BRAIN. So the R. A is attention. So based on tasks switching, which a lot of people are saying, well, I am able to focus on multiple things at the same time. Like chewing gum and walking. For the majority of people, they're able to do it. There are some odd balls out there that are able to, so I would go see your doctor if you can't do that. I'm not a doctor. I'm only a certified naturopathic practitioner, cognitive bandwidth. be understanding of how you, manage all of this attention on what type of information is received, who is the source saying it. meeting overload. That could play also into the attention for the BRAIN acronym. So a lot of people are just thinking that it's about, just keep going all the time by being a high performer, which it's not. It's about recovery. It's about attention, having quality over quantity. They think that because a high performer is a person that achieve a lot, they're always on the go. JD sleeps very good. This is one of my key factor if I have one advice about all of them, definitely recovery is at the top of the chain, inflammation. So we're talking about food, stress, even screens, noise. A lot of people, go to a doctor, get a prescription, and doctors are doing their job. However, sometimes the problem is not necessarily based on the organ. It got to that organ because of the frequency that is in your inside of your environment. And we're not just talking about some tinfoil type of 5G network. We're talking about real, frequencies that are inside of your environment. One guy, we were talking to him about it and, he said that he was in a marriage, but he did not wanna leave because, it's been working for all of these years. Now, again, the type of frequencies that are in your life now, whichever type of marriage you're into, then sometime it's the people. I'll take me as an example. I understood that at a young age I made some measures at the age of 17 to join the military, and the reason was because my parents were going through a divorce. I was living in two different homes and the environment was chaotic and unhealthy. I understood that at a young age, and I had to cut my parents out of my life for years until they, settled down and understood that they were breaking down all of the children in the house. So did that create a trauma? Well, I just use this situation to, understand how I can make better decisions. Did I make a good decisions to leave? Yes. Is it mandatory that you get a divorce? Not necessarily. What I'm talking about is discussing the type of frequencies that are in your house. This is a frequency. The way you're receiving it is also a frequency. And based on your experience or the type of values that you have in your life, that is the encoding or decoding system that is within the brain, that creates some inflammation inside of your system. This can hurt you at a physical level. They already proved it. So that's the level of inflammation.

Dr. Ken Sharlin 41:54

I don't know if you're familiar with this company. It's very established. The work is very scientific, very remarkable. The company is HeartMath, the HeartMath, technology, and this idea of coherence, between the heart and the brain, but coherence between individuals and the fields, the energy fields that we put out. We teach a lot of that in our practice where, my wife, Valerie is a HeartMath certified coach, and instructor. We've done some remarkable work, but I endorse, what you're saying about energy, we've talked about the non-negotiable as a foundation and then into things that. At first glance didn't seem non-negotiable, but as you embrace these systems, you realize that they're all connected and it becomes easier and more natural to take on other non-negotiables as we realize everything is connected. I wonder about the other side of all of this, because in your situation, going from a sprint to Iron Man to Ultra Distance. I sometimes say I am very grateful that I participated in these events, but I also sometimes think, you don't necessarily, I don't do them because they're good for me physically. there can be a lot of damage, that you can do to your body. You talk about clear urine. Is it because you're hydrated or you're in kidney failure and you can go into kidney failure during these events? Right. No doubt about it. My dear friend Dr. Terry Wahls, a few weeks back, we were at a conference together. She talked about something I'm sure you're quite familiar with, which is orthorexia and the tendency to recognize that food is medicine, but if we become so obsessed with this, I can't have this and I can't have this and I can't have this and I have to do it this way, ultimately it becomes potentially damaging instead of, healing. So whether we're talking about food or whether we're talking about putting our bodies physically through these very, very long distances, I wonder how you balance out danger and p erceived limits and how you apply these systems to say, we're gonna get there. You know, we're gonna get there, but we have to follow certain rules, we have to follow certain pace. I still have to listen to my body.

COMMERCIAL BREAK 44:19

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JD Tremblay 46:00

The first one I talk about in my book, is knowing the difference between pain and injury. pain, requires it for growth. if you are into growth, you will have pain. my best advice for pain is pick your pain. the example I could give is someone that stays on the couch and eats unhealthy foods for a long period of time. Eventually, their life will end up at the doctor's office and it will be painful. All of these treatments that you will go through will be painful. That is a pain that you chose. And then there are pain that you can choose also, which are to go for a walk to eat healthy. And to, exercise in a way that is based on your capacity without comparing yourself to JD Tremblay who finished an EpicDeca or swim, bike and run entire countries. You can start at your own pace, at your own level. Will it be painful? It's still painful at my level, and I'm competing in the trail half marathon World Championship, in two weeks, and I'm pushing 40. So is it painful? It is, and it'll always be painful. So the advice is pick your pain because it will be painful regardless what you choose, whether you sit on the couch or whether you, exercise and eat well. The way I could, reframe, everything around pain is Choosing your pain, which makes it even more precise, is if you are battling some form of mental struggle. let's pick something that is not gonna trigger anyone. You wanna quit smoking and, you have to work. You, you are going to go work out, so you're gonna get healthier but your main target is cigarette. You want to quit smoking, it's proven. There are lots of science around it and, a lot of people can attest to it. Oftentimes, your intake of food will increase or other parts of your life will increase and become somewhat of that addiction to replace that unhealthy behaviors, you want to quit smoking. But now people say, well, I wanna quit smoking. I wanna lose weight. I wanna be healthy. I want to, have a healthy relationship. Okay. Pick one. And it's the same thing when we train for an Iron Man. No one, there's not a single athlete out there, no matter what they will say. That is training all three sports every single day. we've trained on the same island as some of the elite, triathletes, with the team. we've trained with them. I've trained with Olympia, they're not training like that. They're not training every single day. Three sports all the time. you pick that one thing that you want to get rid of. You ensure that it's completely removed from your life. The science shows that it takes a minimum of six weeks to break a habit. I would say double it just to make sure, based on, joining special forces. If you just do the basic, there's very little chance that you're gonna make it into special forces. Because if you just do the basic and bare minimum, there's a high likelihood you're not gonna be making it on the other side. So, overdo it in that field, and don't really care about other parts of your life. Will you be gaining weight because you eat more? Yes. What is more important for you? Quitting cigarettes or eating more and gaining weight. So don't tackle five or six enemies at once, attention span is decreasing due to a lot of factors in our current, daily life. So I say pick an enemy, target that one. Don't really care about all the other ones You're gonna gain some weight, it's fine, okay, to a certain degree. And you tackle that cigarette. You make sure that it's completely crushed and out of your life And then you tackle other monsters in your life and that is how you can, Use your bandwidth. Okay? Bandwidth is like the lines, the boundaries of that frequency, right? Those boundaries, that's where you put that, right? You say, I wanna put 100% of my cognitive bandwidth on this one, and not focus so much on the massive food intake and it seems unhealthy, and I get it. It's unhealthy to eat a lot. I'm not for that, and I'm not advocating for eating so much and being out of control. However, if you're tackling cigarettes you're focusing all of your attention on one sort of evil in your life. And then you will, which takes a lot of your, bandwidth because you understand more of it, you learn more about it, and then you tackle other parts of your life. What I learned in triathlon, when we do a block, it's sometimes going with more swimming than running and biking. And then there's other blocks where it's more running, more swimming, and all vice versa, right? So it's more about tackling that one evil that you want instead of tackling 15 others, trying to, rearrange your entire life and be that perfect person and that perfect influencer. You tackle one evil. Don't focus so much on the other ones. Your life is going to change. And eventually, as we discuss in the podcast, it will trickle down to other parts of your life because you're doing that non-negotiable already as it is.

Dr. Ken Sharlin 52:09

Maybe you're journaling and you say, okay, we're talking about quitting smoking as an example. What do you notice every day as the cravings come or go. Like for example, I noticed that as long as I got seven or eight hours of sleep, my cravings for cigarettes, and I'm not a smoker, I noticed that my cravings were not nearly as bad. Now I'm not focusing on my sleep, I'm just noticing. And I'm making little notes along the way because we're promoting here this concept that lifestyle is medicine. Lifestyle is the way to live your long life, the longest and the fullest. I now talk a lot about just the brain span because we're living a long time, but we want our brains to keep up with the rest of the body, right? I notice, that when I eat a certain way, there's an old expression. You can't eat just one potato chip. Why? Because there's salty and sweet at the same time and they trigger certain hormones in the brain. You have one, and you really want another one and another one, even though they're not generally very good for you. okay, even though I'm trying to quit smoking, I will notice. My nutrition habits without making a big effort, just an awareness. Write it down. When you start to see patterns you say,"oh, well that's not too difficult to make a few adjustments, right? I will, go to bed earlier, get up a little later, or try to arrange the room in a way that's more conducive for sleep. I will keep the potato chips out of my house because if I focus on real food and I can just do that very naturally without that much effort, then my cigarette cravings are a lot better and a lot more consistent with what I'm doing." These other things sort of sneak in. It's not that we're saying ignore them completely, but not necessarily try to master everything all at once.

JD Tremblay 54:11

We use a similar system many people are talking about the same thing. the way it resonates with people, the way it encodes or decodes in their brain, fit well with a different individual. Our system is called Rise. You mentioned the R already, which is recognizing patterns I as identity. you must attach an identity to the goal that you want to achieve as a structure. So you create that structure around it, and then, you engage, which is the E in healthy habits.

Dr. Ken Sharlin 54:45

What do you feel like in the end, what is the big message? Is it about resilience in life? is the Ultra Distance event for you an analogy of life itself Many people who listen may be athletes but there may be a lot of people who've never even considered this sort of physical activity, which is not for everyone of course, but there's still a message there. what do you feel like is the message.

JD Tremblay 55:15

Definitely the ultra, what it gave me is humbleness to understand that I am human. There are limits. I still want to push them. I understand that everybody is on their journey, learning how to push their own personal limits. that's the message of doing and completing an ultra, distance event. Sometimes you even have a crew to support you The people are friendly and they're there for your success, for you to push your limits and know how to do it. That's why I would say even just for today, the message of it would be about discipline and finding. What is that non-negotiable so that you can get that journey started. Because now you might be really overweight and understand that eventually that non-negotiable is part of fitness journey. And we've seen massive transformation. One of my great video, the guy did not finish in 17 hours, but he was trying to lose a lot of weight and he did an Iron Man. When he got to the run, he was, seven minutes short of 17 hours. kudos to him because he started the journey. He did not finish. he wasn't a DNF, however, he still competed in it. He still followed what he needed to in order to inspire others. And I know that for me it was a large individual that somehow inspired me, because I said, well, if this guy's able to do it, then I am. So you're going to become eventually an inspiration to others. You just don't know about it yet. it will come, but you just need to do the first step.

Dr. Ken Sharlin 57:06

Well, folks, you've been listening to the Healthy Brain Toolbox Podcast. My guest today, JD Tremblay, the Ultra endurance athlete, iron Man, veteran engineer, speaker, author, and naturopath as well. He has a book called Hunger For More in Life. And if folks wanna learn more about what you do or connect with you, can you guide us in that way?

JD Tremblay 57:30

We have, hungrywarrioracademy.com. If we're not the right fit, that's okay. we wanna work with a certain target market and we have limited spots. we also have a, List of other collaborators, coaches, and psychologists and other individuals that we can refer you to because, we want people to get their success somehow. It's not just about, trying to get clientele, it's about getting people from point A to point B wherever their journey is leading them.

Dr. Ken Sharlin 58:04

Thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a real pleasure and an inspiration. I'm gonna get my running shoes on and go for a run now. Motivating.

JD Tremblay 58:14

Excellent. Thanks.

COMMERCIAL BREAK 58:16

Hi everyone. Dr. Ken Sharlin here with the Healthy Brain Toolbox. I'd love to hear from you. If you have general questions about brain health, neurology, or the science of keeping your brain sharp. Send them to questions@healthybraintoolbox.com. I'll be reading your questions on the upcoming episodes. Please remember, these need to be general questions, can't answer personal medical questions, or provide individual medical advice. So if you've ever wondered about brain health strategies, lifestyle tips, new research, or the future of neuroscience, send those questions in. I look forward to hearing from you and who knows? You might even hear your question featured on the show. Thank you for tuning into the Healthy Brain Toolbox podcast. I hope today's conversation gave you new insights to protect and nourish your brain. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with anyone looking to take control of their health. Until next time, stay sharp and keep learning.