I don’t want anything from anyone—no fame, no money. I just want to do my thing, maybe even become famous for making juice! I’m saying this so you understand my motivation for sharing these thoughts.
I want my voice to come through the way it does when you sit down in my store or when we were skydiving together years ago—unfiltered, real, and a little reckless. I’m finally finding my voice, and it feels like the right thing to do, not because I’m chasing something, but because it’s simply who I am.
Exercising consistently has been my passion since I was 15. It started as a way to manage chronic anxiety and became the backbone of my strength—mentally and physically. For years, exercise consumed my life, but over time, it evolved into something deeper.
In 2017, I found a new dimension in hot yoga. Unlike other systems I had tried, hot yoga helped me connect with meditation and breath, unlocking a profound mental and physical discipline I didn’t even know I was missing.
Movement has always been about more than just fitness for me—it’s about harmonizing body and mind. Every mindful movement, every act of compassion, becomes a form of living yoga. I want to live with this vigor and mindfulness as long as I can—hopefully even leaving this life at 100 years old, upside down in a headstand.
In the '90s, my life was built around adventure—rock climbing, ultimate frisbee, skydiving. After my first tandem jump in 1992, I spent 13 years skydiving, racking up 2,300 jumps, founding PIER Media, and even surviving a brutal landing accident that left me with two broken feet. Despite the risks, I kept going until I retired from the sport in 2005.
Muay Thai boxing took over next. I trained and competed for several years at Five Points Academy in New York City, pushing my limits while maintaining a plant-based diet—a lifestyle choice that’s stayed with me ever since.
Fitness for me has always been a calling. The discipline, the adventures, the accidents—they were all part of the process that transformed a shy, scrawny kid from Brooklyn into someone who could embrace risk, movement, and presence.
Today, my life looks different. Yoga is my foundation, practiced 4-5 days a week. I still shadowbox, walk with a weighted backpack across New York, train with kettlebells, and occasionally run or cycle. My dreams of caves in India and fights at Lumpini Stadium still flicker in my mind, but I stay rooted in gratitude for modern comforts like hot showers and clean water.
I’m not chasing enlightenment, and I’m not chasing titles. I respect my teachers and mentors, but I’m happiest being an honest student of life—continuing to learn and stay open.
Traditional hot yoga, in particular, gave me a structure that fits. I understand its complicated history, but the practice itself—26 postures, intense heat, total presence—is what changed me. It’s movement therapy for the mind.
I’m sharing all of this not because I believe my story is extraordinary, but because maybe something in it can inspire someone else. I write partly because it’s good for Google SEO—but mostly because writing keeps me accountable to the person I want to become.
Movement, meditation, humility, discipline—that’s the real message. Not perfection. Not mastery. Just showing up every day, breathing, moving, staying present, and doing the work.
I’m thankful for every adventure, every injury, every teacher, every lesson. And I’m excited to leave the past behind and move forward—as a husband, a father, a juice guy, a yogi, and a beginner in whatever life brings next.