Jude Sullivan – Fitness Pastor – Helping People Discover What’s Possible For Themselves & Atomic Change

Transcript

Welcome to the EU World Order Showcase podcast.

Today we are talking with Jude Sullivan.

Jude is a fitness pastor.

I'm really excited to find out about the story behind that, so let's.

Bye, Jude.

All right.

How did you guys?

How doing Jill?

Come to be that.

I'm doing good.

So the fitness pastor, you know, I only wish I was smart enough to be.

Able to think, think.

That up myself, but I I wasn't.

So a few years back I was in one of the lead researchers in a well-being study that was being done and the focus of it.

Was on developing.

Validation for the use of mindfulness meditation in the field of health and well-being.

And so my job was to organize, create and organize, and then kind of run what they called an active control to study against the meditation.

And so the meditation has specific parameters around it.

And So what we had to do is we had to match the commitment level in terms of the.

Amount of time.

That they are in a class. How much quote UN quote homework that they had to do with, which is actively engaging in whatever group that they were a part of. And every week we would meet. So it was an 8 week.

It was actually a year for each subject to be involved, but the actual protocol with us lasted 8 weeks, and so the group size was maybe about 15 people.

So within the eight weeks of time we had the opportunity to be able to get to know each other.

Become what I would say somewhat intimate with one another.

And just kind of, you know, get real, you know, kind of in those group situations you might have your guard up and for some people they're they managed.

To keep it up.

The full amount of time, but for those who are willing to let their guard down and invest.

You know in the process, you know, those are the people who actually I think, you know, reap whatever the seeds that they've sewn into that and so.

My job was basically as a a lead facilitator in this group that we, you know, put together and.

And so we had 10 years of being involved with a whole bunch of different groups and.

I don't know, maybe 3/4 away through this process we came to the end of one of these eight week sessions and one of the women was so kind. She came up to me.

And she goes, you know Jude.

You just you just remind me of a fitness pastor?

And yeah, it really warmed my heart.

I thought that was like one of the best compliments I ever got.

And so it for me it kind of resonated because my faith is very important to me and so where I felt like I was intersecting what I do with who I think I am, I think that's what people want.

You know, they want to have that.

Meaning and purpose associated with what they do.

So you're not just doing something and then you live outside of what it is.

That you do.

It kind of felt like the that intersection occurred.

And so when I when I got home that night, shared that.

With my wife and.

She got, she goes.

You need to keep that.

And you know, for me, I was like.

Well, yeah, duh.

I guess I should.

So owning the label.

Owning the label and using the label, I guess you know people can't see me, but I she my wife for Father's Day.

She made me this T-shirt, which says the fitness passed her on it, so it's kind of a unique thing. It helps people.

Identify me.

You know, if they don't remember my name, which is again is somewhat unique as well.

Maybe outside of my generation, you know, The Beatles are pretty popular, and so they remember hey Jude.

I know.

Like, yeah, every time I address.

An e-mail to you.

I just rings through my brain.

Yeah, which is common.

But I you know it's.

That people remember that, you know, it's, the remembering things.

You know, there's usually something that's warm.

Hopefully that goes with it.

I guess it go.

Go the other way as well, but.

The fitness pastor for me was something that again, just really helped resonate.

You know who I am with what it is that I do, especially with the people that I'm invested in.

So let's circle back a little bit and give us a little background.

On what it is.

That you do.

Do and how you got.

Started because your story is really interesting.

Right.

So I'll try to keep it brief.

But you know my I I feel like I stumbled into what I I do.

I I cannot say I had a plan.

You know, I for all the people that write books that say, you know, you need to have a plan, you need you just go like this.

You know, I I'm not that guy, you know.

And I really felt like God was kind of walking me through this.

And I.

You know, thankfully was.

Saying yes, you know, at the critical moments and just stepping.

To things with faith, you know, and the points where it maybe didn't seem like there was something obvious to move into.

But to kind of.

Make a long story as short.

As I can.

You know, I came into health and well-being as a profession because of my father and the people that he was working with, they.

They worked on the similar projects together they.

Talk about their families and.

They heard through my dad that I was struggling, not really knowing what I wanted to do when I was in college.

In my early years and, you know, kind of floundering and one of his colleagues said, well, has Jude ever heard of this new field called exercise science?

You know, the one thing they did know is that I was a pretty decent athlete in high school and I like to work out.

You know things of that nature and.

So when my dad relayed that to me, I'm like, I like.

I never heard it.

But that sounds kind of cool.

And so I looked into it and so on.

The campus that I was going to school, it was in the School of Education, so that meant I had to.

Transfer into that school and.

So I started, you know, the process of taking classes and courses in that.

But I knew I didn't want to be a physical education teacher per say, you know, in in like a school district or anything like that.

And so the next step for me after I received my bachelors degree was to go into Graduate School right away.

So at by this time I starting to think, well, maybe Med school would be something I want to do.

Or whatever but.

I knew at least I wanted to get a masters degree, and so I did in what was called at the time clinical exercise Physiology.

And so this is like mid 80s.

It's a term.

That you know, is pretty prevalent now, but at that time it was somewhat.

You know, obscure.

What is?

What is that actually what does?

It mean.

So, so the training, the training from an academic perspective was how do you use exercise to help patients who have a clinical diagnosis, typically coronary heart, every disease you know or you know.

They may have had a heart attack.

Back where they're at risk, they have they have a number of risk factors.

And So what we did is we utilized exercise prescription in different formats to help people be well and it could have been after event.

And so for many people.

My dad was.

One of these people actually.

Which was kind of again, I don't know if it was a coincidence, but it kind of happened at the same time as I was going through school.

My dad had a heart attack and then he was he had to bypass surgery.

And so I'm.

I'm watching all these things in real time with my father as I'm actually going through, you know, the actual academic stuff, so.

So I got my masters degree and at that time.

Again, this stuff was not very common and so one of the first sports medicine programs in the whole country was being, you know, put into place with a medical based model.

And so I had started kind of volunteering there, you know, just kind of wanting to know what they.

Do and you.

Volunteering is fun, but it didn't pay the bills.

So as a struggling.

Student I didn't have a lot of time to do stuff like that.

But I did make connections and so when I was walking on campus, I bumped to one of the people who actually was working there and said, you know, we're going to be hiring again.

You might want to put your resume in and so I did. I was hired and so that started my journey. 35 plus years working with that organization and various.

Parameters you know working like I said, with these very ill patients working in health, Wellness and fitness.

So people wanting to get fit and or healthy or you know be kind of the week.

Warrior type motivation and then working with high level performance and athletes.

You know, collegiate professional athletes as well, individual sports and team sports.

And we are doing a lot of research as well at the time.

So we were working.

In the field of body composition at that time and was doing a lot in in terms of helping athletes safely reach weight limits for their sport without it compromising their health and trying to find a way to measure that for them.

And so.

Did a lot of groundbreaking work with that and I I started at that time again, my dad was becoming more ill.

He went from having heart disease to becoming a diabetic, and then he developed cancer.

And so which is kind of the saga of the American adult these days, unfortunately.

Those are going down that path, yes.

Yeah, yeah.

And so I was like, you know, this medical model doesn't look like it's working the way they profess it does.

And there's gotta.

Be something different and so you know, in my own seeking and looking, we also developed a program which was for alternative and complementary care, something that people could.

Maybe touch into in addition to seeing their healthcare practitioner for, you know, traditional medical.

And so that was really exciting for me too, and that's how we got onto this. Ohh mindfulness well-being a journey.

But what I found with that too is that it sounds good and it looks good on paper.

But in terms of actually getting the integration of integrative health to happen in the, you know, the mainstream medical model right now is very challenging.

You know it's such a systematic.

This effort having people in the in the program and then referring and diagnosing or it's.

Seemed like in the 80s there was kind of a divergences.

It's when the chiropractor started coming into.

Being a thing.

I mean, now you can find a chiropractor easily, but I remember back in the 80s it was difficult to find a chiropractor.

Act came into being, and so we had more autonomy in terms of being able to decide what we wanted to put into our bodies.

And so that's kind of the good news.

You know, the bad news is that since it is unregulated, there's a lot of.

Crap up there too.

And so, you know the average.

Jane or Joe it does take work to kind of sift through that.

And vet you know.

What what's actually considered to be a quality?

Product and how do you discern, you know, what's real versus what's marketing?

You know per se.

So I I think that and.

Then you know the.

Welcoming into the mainstream of other adjuncts like massage therapy, a lot of these, you know, really started in the sports medicine realm.

So you have active use of these modalities and so it it's kind of like a trickle down phenomenon where you bring it into mainstream health and then it kind of works into.

You know more of a clinical practice.

As well, so massage.

And body work was a big one.

Acupuncture has started to become well respected, especially again with cancer patients who are actively being treated with various forms of chemotherapy.

You know, nausea is a big side effect with that type of treatment, and acupuncture has been found to be a very effective counter punch, so to speak.

The effects of, you know, treatments like chemotherapy.

It's really interesting how the different modalities are kind of.

Kind of getting traction and they're getting traction in in a way that you can kind of shop for the thing that you need, whereas back in the 80s before all of this, you were really at the mercy of whatever doctor you went to.

When we're trying to get answers to questions and it it was just really beginning cancer and you know, heart disease had already been making it rearing its ugly head, but.

Just the progression of the way.

Some of these chronic diseases have.

Gone and then the ability for people to get help specific to the thing that's troubling them is pretty amazing.

Just yeah.

You know, we're probably the same age or similar age.

So we remember things.

And that the people that are in their 40s, they were kids back.

Then and so.

It really didn't resonate with them.

As much as it the massive changes in in the way health is managed.

In in America anyway, yeah.

It's pretty interesting so.

Yeah, the, the systematization of.

It is kind of.

Started to roll through it though, so again, these integrative health practitioners become a slave to the system, so that then they're they become bound to what the system says they can provide.

So again, you know it's a good idea and concept in terms of execution.

I think what people find who are in the system they.

Have some limited.

You know the practitioners who are able to live in a private practice, not bound to a a healthcare system, a PPO or HMO or something like that.

The medical industrial complex.

Yeah, maybe more effective potentially because they can help, you know, guide.

A person you know through different choices rather than saying, well, this is what I can offer you.

Because this is what the.

System tells me I can offer for you.

Right.

And you've moved from being really medically?

Attached put it that way to being more independent.

Right.

You want to tell.

Us a little bit about that, Sally.

So I retired from my.

Quote UN quote day job.

It'll be two years this November and a part of it I could have continued there.

I love the people that I worked with, you know, so many people come into that space.

These because they have a genuine heart, caring for people and wanting to help people, but it does wear you out and it, you know, the burnout situation.

You know, people talk, hear about it with nurses, but I think there's a lot of, you know, different disciplines within the healthcare system that just get, you know.

Train wrecked because of.

You know this tension that they feel so.

You don't have suicides in.

I think I.

Yeah, and.

I think I was, yeah.

I was to that point.

You know, I wasn't suicidal or anything, but I was just like I, you know, there's other things that, you know, the culture in in my perspective and my opinion became ultra toxic.

And you know, some of these peripheral elements, you know, just became too much to want to even have.

To deal with it.

I just didn't want to deal with that anymore.

When I'm trying to work with.

And so I think I'm really good working with people, whether it's individuals situation or working with, you know groups.

But I I just couldn't do it in the system anymore.

So you know, I made the decision to hang it up.

You know, I I'm grateful for the time that I spent.

I learned a lot.

I I have very value.

Professional and personal relationships that came out of that I love those people, you know, deeply.

But it was just time for me.

And again, I think.

To say it was maybe a God wink too, to say, you know, I've got something that I have and planned for you, but it's not going to happen in this place.

And so I that that's kind of where I'm working through right now.

So what do you do right now?

Right.

So we have a bunch of, so I it's me and my wife together.

So I'm the fitness pastor, but, you know, she's really the entrepreneurial spirit.

She's been an entrepreneur.

You know, all her life.

You know, she has her, her own health journey.

It won't steal too much of the Thunder.

But, you know, she had a spouse.

Who succumbed to cancer?

And so she became very disenchanted with the medical system because of, you know, everything that she had to go through with that.

And so it was kind of funny you.

Know when we met.

It's like I don't really like the healthcare system very much.

It's like that's OK.

I hope you like me.

And so from a business perspective, you know that that's where she's always had that autonomy.

And I had to.

Kind of work.

Out of this corporate, you know mindset of you.

Know having rules to follow and doing things you know ABC and you know now we.

We our own boss.

We set the you know the standard at night and then we become our own employees during the day.

And so my role right now is twofold.

So I do work with the direct sales company where we deal with NUTRIGENOMICS.

So you know you're mentioning disease before.

You know the medical model right now is create a diagnosis.

So you have this idea of what this person is dealing with and then you have this whole constellation of symptoms.

And so they start attacking the symptoms.

Well, that's great.

You know, the symptoms are gone, but you know symptoms and I'm including.

Disease is still growing.

Yeah, I mean, I include pain as one of these you know the that's your body trying to communicate.

If if you if they suddenly vanish, yeah, like you said, I think.

And then my dad was a perfect example of this.

It's like, well, I just went to the doctor.

I have my new set of medicines, you know?

And I'm.

I'm great.

And you know.

It's kind of funny because people said, yeah, but when I take came off the medicine, I was surprised comes my blood pressure went back up.

It's like because you're not addressing.

The disease, they're just.

They're making it go away.

And so again getting back to nutrigenomics, what we get to is the root causes.

So things like inflammation that developed from oxidative stress.

And oxidative stress is insidious.

Because it is something that develops from anything from, you know, the obvious things would be not exercising, eating too much or eating very poor quality food.

But it's also what is my mindset, you know, how am I?

Talking to myself.

What are my relationships like?

How positive are the relationships that I have in?

My life.

There's just a whole host, you know, it's the environment that we live in.

You know, the concept is now epigenetics.

How are my genes interacting with what's happening in the environment?

And are my genes expressing in in health in a healthy way or an unhealthy?

Way so oxidative stress is one of the effect of our mitochondria.

So the mitochondria are like the engine.

Of your car.

And so if our engine in our car isn't running well while our car is not going anywhere, and so we have thousands of these mitochondria in our cells.

And if they become compromised, the cell becomes compromised and all.

Remotely, organs can start to have a a hard time too, so it's a big area of research right now.

And you know when people hear mitochondria and energy, they just think of how amped up.

And am I, you know.

And so some people think, well, if.

I don't have energy, I.

Need to amp up and they make the wrong decisions by stimulating themselves rather than maybe.

Looking to get more rest or or looking to recover more and so mitochondria health is A is another one and then the final one is.

How well your body, the cells of your.

Body go through their normal lifespan and their life cycle and how well they do that in a healthy way.

So autophagy and how well they can duplicate themselves without all the garbage being copied forward as well.

And so the NAD and Certum ans within the cells, the proteins within the cells that are also in the mitochondria.

Not a coincidence.

How will those function can also play a role in how well the cells are are are working together.

So the three of those things is kind of the trifecta, we call it Tri synergy.

And so if we can get those three working together, it amplifies your body's ability to defend itself. So when I think of health, I don't think of, you know.

Being Superman or Superwoman, you know 24/7 365. It's like, you know, life is real. You know, we get kicked and we get, you know, hurt. Sometimes we do get.

Yeah, but if we can compress the amount of time that we're experienced at or the intensity that we have to deal with that, that's a win.

You know, you just want to be resilient so you can come back and be even better, you know, and so immunity and immune function kind of gets all wrapped up.

Into all of this as well.

And then I I do work with people, you know, one-on-one I actually for those who are interested of your listeners, we have a free exercise class that we run here.

I it's out of our home and so you can do it from your home.

We do it on zoom.

And we meet on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM Central Standard Time, and basically the philosophy of movement that I espouse is moving in three planes of motion and getting people to know that they can do more than just have to walk forward or sit.

Down and so.

People just it just kind of you.

It you just love to see the all the stars start to pop around their eyes and around their head when they realize.

How much more of them that there is than what they're allowing themselves to be and movements is a great way to actualize that.

You know you can do this with your mental health and your mindset as well, but to actually move in a way that you're not accustomed to doing, or maybe you haven't done since you were a little kid.

And realize you still have it.

That's a great thing.

And I just love to see that.

But it what it does and it outside of the class it feeds it, it feeds you into what you're doing during your regular test during.

Your day.

And so you all of a sudden you're looking for excuses to move more, to do more and to be more.

Over the course of your day.

And that just helps your whole mental health and makes you.

Happy. Literally.

Totally walk.

It's amazing how it's all connected.

To the grocery.

Store with our wagon and people look at us funny, but it's fun.

Why aren't you driving?

Why even why you dragging a wagon?

And I have to.

Our grocery store.

For so I know and some people drive that anyway.

Isn't that something, you know?

Yeah, but that's a perfect example, Joe.

And I'm glad to hear you say that.

You know, cause it's the little.

Things like that that add up.

You know, it doesn't have to.

Be a big thing.

To have a big impact, you know, just little small things like that.

That's just the best.

That you just incorporate into your life and make it.

Well, well done.

You know, make the everyday things fun as you're moving.

Have you ever read the book?

Atomic habits by James clear.

I have not.

I will write that down right now atomic.

Yeah, I atomic habits.

He does a wonderful job of kind of breaking down, you know, when we want to change patterns that we have in our lives.

I'm not even going to call them habits, just but just.

Patterns, you know and.

How all you just want to kind of give just a little less friction to the things that you want to do.

And you want to give a little more friction to the things you don't.

Want to do and you just kind of, it's just again, it's like what you just said, these little tiny things and it it adds up over time and that's the reason for the title.

It's atomic.

It's the smallest level of change that that has, you know, think of the atomic bomb can have the.

Biggest massive impact in your life and so I.

Think the book title is totally appropriate for.

For what he describes.

Yeah, I do too. That's.

It's just the little things.

Simple things you think about it's recognizing when what you're thinking about is not benefiting you and it starts there and then you make little decisions and those little decisions over time add.

Up to huge.

Changes in your life.

And your health?

Right on, yeah.

And giving yourself credit for it, you know, sometimes we think, well, that that wasn't much.

It's like you're already cut yourself down. It's like, why do we do that to ourselves? It's like, no, I made a little difference, you know? It's like the a 1% change, you know, over the course of a year.

That becomes a.

Big difference by the, you know, day 365, you know. So you know, definitely give yourself credit for those small changes.

My husband and I walk about 3 miles a day.

And it's it's our time in the morning.

We go pretty early now because it's summer and it's hot out there.

Great. Yeah.

But we walked in the winter time and we were laughing this morning because we say all these, we call them fair weather walkers.

Day when there was 6 feet of.

Snow everywhere and.

It was in my.

I didn't see.

You out here.

But it's fun and it's time that we stand together.

It is.

He's retired now so, and I do other stuff all day, but it's our time together.

And then we have in time in the evening and we take our wagon to the store.

My wife and I, we make a point of trying to walk at least five days a week together as well.

And so I Iagree with you.

You know, having a buddy is nice.

You know, it's OK to do it by yourself.

And I I'm not saying you can't do it if you don't have a buddy.

You know having.

I I don't want to even say it accountability, but you just knowing that there's somebody who who's gonna be there with you, that that's really important and that's why.

Our small group.

Sessions that we do together work as well.

You know people are essentially alone.

In their own home, but they know that there's going to be other people there, and if they don't show up for the.

Next three times or be like hey.

Are you OK?

Where you did.

Yeah, just checking in just to make sure you're OK.

And it it goes back to what you were saying about the little changes and or making it easier to do the things.

You want to.

Do when you want to go spend time with your spouse.

And we leave all of our electronics at home.

We'll be there in an hour.

Exactly, exactly.

You just focus on.

And that's another thing.

You do too.

Get you.

Be one with nature.

Without the electronics, it is possible it can be done.

Yeah, yeah.

Even if you don't even talk, just walking.

In the presence of somebody else's energies.

Yeah, yeah.

Gets your.

Get your juices going.

You feel better?

Well, we are, we.

We are social animals, you know, and community is kind of another big one.

You know, we call it vitamin C, which is connection.

So again, though, people who are tend to be struggling a little bit tend to isolate themselves more in a variety of different ways, and so.

Being out amongst people I think is really important.

I know sometimes people can feel lonely even in a group, but still it is important to be connected to other people and that's a good way.

To do it too.

Yeah, and when you're?

Walking in a community you do run into.

Other people.

Absolutely. And you do.

Make connections with other people in your community, along with the person that you're walking with.

There you go.

So what's the one thing that you would really like?

For people to take away from our conversation today.

Well, I hope they just get to know me.

You know, I if they're really searching for somebody who might be able to help them, you know, you're your own hero.

Yeah, I'm just a guy, you know.

And So what?

I like to help people do is actualize.

You know what's already in them and just help them realize that.

And so.

If you wanna reach out to me and have a conversation to see if you know connecting together would be worth your while, then that's great.

You know?

And so that's the purpose of me meeting you.

Even Jill is to just you know.

Expose myself to other people and have them become exposed to me and make connections.

I absolutely agree how can people get in?

Touch with you.

Yep. So again, you're going to like this. So my e-mail is 44. Hey, jude@gmail.com.

So I think it's memorable and just say in the subject heading either morning, social or work with you.

Yeah, yeah.

It is.

So I can obviously that'll get my attention.

But it will also help me know what it is that you know you maybe want to have a conversation about and then.

You can.

Have a conversation.

You know, I I'm not a sales guy, you know.

Working with somebody is a transactional process.

I get that.

But you know, it's got to be the right person in the right place at the right time.

And that goes both ways.

And so my I really seek to make sure that it's going to be a a good fit because you want to have results.

And So what can we do?

To get results.

And not everybody's your people but you.

Don't need to help everybody, you just need help.

That's exactly right.

That's exactly right.

So if I.

If it's not me, maybe I know somebody who I can maybe redirect you.

Towards, you know and so.

That that's the other way of of looking at it.

So yeah.

That's my philosophy too.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Jude.

It's been awesome.

Thank you, Jill, for the invitation.

I really appreciate.

It I'm glad we got to meet face to face and I look forward to maybe.

Doing it again soon.

OK.

All right.