[music]
Alright!
This is John Kohler with okraw.com, today
we have another exciting episode for you and
this is one that’s just really cool, I never
thought this would happen, I’ll be getting
to interview one of the world’s foremost
free runners right here, Tim Shieff, you know
I never even knew what free running was, actually
I’m kind of embarrassed until like yesterday,
and my friend Kevin said “John, that’s
like a kickass free runner”
[music]
So we’re here today so we’re going to
ask Tim just a few questions about free running,
diet and lifestyle.
So Tim, first tell me what parkour and free
running is actually for my viewers that don’t
know either.
Yeah, so parkour free running originated from
France, [inaudible] and he learned it from
his father, but it’s basically efficient
movement.
It began, he trained fire fighters to be efficient,
it’s being strong to be useful, it’s getting
from A to B as fast and efficiently as possible,
so if you have to save someone’s life or
run away from a problem, you can do that efficiently
so we train our bodies, strength like a lot
of bodyweight training, and it’s developed
over the years to have a bit more gymnastics
involvement, so we jump between rooftops and
things like that, and it’s practice, because
it’s a fun passion, but in an emergency
you could do it as well, but then we start
to add some somersaults and tricks to make
it a bit more creative and flavorful, the
people on YouTube and people who watch it
and enjoy it a bit more.
Yeah I mean some of the tricks on his channel
is incredible, I’ll put actually probably
a little bit of his video clips in here, and
so you guys can see what he does, and I encourage
you to check out his channel, and I mean it’s
just insane.
So Tim, how long have you been involved with
this free running?
I’ve been free running for about eight years
now, about eight and a half years, since January
2005.
I’ve won two world championships in that
time, I’m off to [inaudible] next month
to judge a competition as well and yeah, [inaudible
] I made a career out of doing what I love,
it’s a dream come true for me.
So Tim this is kind of a trick question but
not really, what’s the one thing that you’ve
done in your life that has improved your free
running capabilities without actually even
training or getting out there and practicing?
It is a trick question John, you’re right.
It’s being vegan, it’s the best decision
I’ve made in my life.
Beyond career, beyond my own happiness or
anything, it goes so far beyond that.
Being vegan is not about me, it’s about
the planet and the world, and [inaudible]
people say here, it helps you as well, I’ve
become a better athlete since I became vegan.
It’s incredible, it’s fun.
So what have you noticed by becoming vegan
and eating a fruit and vegetable based diet,
I mean what differences have you noticed like
you’re able to jump longer, you recover
faster, I mean tell them.
More energy, I had tendonitis in my ankle,
my Achilles tendonitis, my knees were getting
pretty, not bad but I’d feel them at the
end of a long day of training.
And you know, it’s the inflammation from
eating the animals, eating the meat, they
got inflamed, I would change to a vegan diet,
plant-based diet, they went away.
The more I go towards 80/10/10 well I lost
15, 20 pounds as well of fat that I didn’t
need from the meat and other food that I was
eating at the time and the more I head towards
80/10/10 the more [inaudible] the more agile
I become, the more my strength to bodyweight
ratio is, you know I don’t feel like I’m
losing any muscle but if I am, I’m still
getting stronger through it because I’m
losing more fat than muscle so remaining,
I’m a better athlete than I’ve ever been.
Yeah I mean awesome, Dr. Doug Graham said
specifically to me, and he told me this many
years ago, it’s about strength to weight
ratio, I mean especially when you’re jumping
long distances man, the longer you need to
jump, the less you weigh, you don’t need
to be as strong to jump further.
And if you’re as strong but less weight
you can jump further.
[inaudible] I mean it’s all about being
agile, and it’s such a thing, it’s from,
it came from childhood you know, every kid
plays around, and every kid if they thought
about it would want a strong strength to bodyweight
ratio, they wouldn’t want to be able to
bench 200 pounds or anything, they wouldn’t
care about that, they just want to be able
to have fun with their bodies and be playful
and crazy and that’s what we do, as an adult
I do an advanced version of the kid on the
playground.
Wow man, that’ super-great.
One of these days I hope to at least be able
to do a flip or somersault like you do man,
nonetheless like over big 20 foot car ways
and parking garages man, that must be super-dangerous.
I’ve never broken a bone.
People always say that to me, I think you
practice, you start low you start slow, you
progress at a comfortable pace, I like to
think I’m fairly, I apply a lot of intelligence
to what I do, I always enjoyed math and physics
and things like that, so I’m pretty on point
when it comes to planning things and knowing
my abilities and that, it really trains your
abilities, you know within millimeters whether
you can make a jump or not, and that’s what
it comes down to.
It’s knowing – a lot of people, you show
them a gap and they say, “I could probably
do it, but I don’t want to,” you know?
And it goes from that probably to that knowing
because you trained your body and you know.
Wow.
So I bet one of the really important things
for you is knowing how to fall properly right,
so you don’t break anything, I just fell
off a ladder actually three weeks ago, and
I broke my arm.
And that’s no fun.
No but you’re recuperating fast right?
Yeah recovering pretty fast, it’s been about
three and a half weeks, and I got a little
bit of mobility in there and I’m using it
a little bit but not too much you know.
Yeah I think the important thing is, how we
progress as free runners is knowing how to
fall, that really is it, because when you
know, if I don’t make the jump what can
I do at that point, how can I save myself,
then you know you change the movement to the
safety movement and then you’re safe.
It’s the same when you teach someone a handstand,
I do a lot of handstands and I teach people
as well, they have to be able to overshoot
the handstand and lose the fear of falling
over from the handstand before they can master
the handstand.
If people don’t commit all the way they’re
never going to experience the whole problem
so you have to practice falling in a safe
environment and you know if you fall in a
dangerous environment you can still save yourself.
Wow.
But nonetheless, definitely an excellent showing
of his abilities that he’s learned over
the years to just get stronger and I’m glad
he’s turned to a plant-based diet to take
it to the next level.
Yeah.
Really excited.
This has become the passion for me now, I
started, free running was my passion and then
it becomes your career and it changes slightly
and I needed, I was looking for that new passion
that new hobby that sparks me and veganism
was that hobby and [inaudible] it benefits
my physical body and it benefits my career
as well as being a passion I enjoy and I get
to come to places like the Woodstock Food
Festival and meet people like John and other
people and [inaudible] this community’s
amazing and I’m really happy to be part
of it.
So Tim besides just your athletic performance
that has increased on a plant-based vegan
diet, what are some other reasons why you
actually chose to go plant-based?
Yeah [inaudible] no animals needed to die
for you to eat, if you’re truly a happy
person, your happiness shouldn’t depend
on the death of another being.
That’s as simple as it comes, if you’re
really happy and you love yourself, no one
else needs to die, no other being on this
planet needs to die for that happiness to
continue.
You can find that within yourself anyway.
So that was it for me.
I thought really if I love myself and I’m
happy, then I don’t need no animals to die.
I couldn’t [inaudible] myself, I’d never
want to, and the fact that I’m healthy without
it, it makes no sense that people keep doing
that.
Wow.
I mean another big thing I want to talk to
you about Tim, as a professional, winning
athlete, you’ve won all these titles, and
everybody always says “Man, how can you
get enough protein eating only plants,”
but you’re still kicking ass even better
than before, I mean there’s MMA fighters
that are kicking as because they’re vegan
MMA fighters I mean, the vegans are kicking
ass, not the meat eaters.
The vegans are kicking the meat eaters’
ass.
So you know, tell us about the protein and
do you get enough protein man are you withering
away, come on man what’s up?
I’m struggling John, please could you give
me some advice on the protein?
I just eat the greens, eat the greens you
know?
Get at least one solid green meal in a day
and try it, maybe go for a month on it, and
see if you feel any weaker.
I not once have felt weaker on this diet,
not once I’ve not really, truthfully to
eat any protein, I don’t have vegan protein
shakes, I don’t take supplements.
That’s great.
I just eat a vegan diet and I remain strong
I’ve not once, everyone in the Western world,
they get much other deficiencies before they
discover a protein deficiency, you know there’s
much bigger problems, and overeating protein
is a much bigger problem than undereating
anyway, before the [inaudible].
So today we talk a lot about vegan diets,
but I really want to make a differentiation
here because you know, in my opinion not all
vegan diets are healthy.
So Tim tell us about the kind of vegan diet
you recommend, actually you eat yourself that’s
getting you the results you want.
Yeah, so I just try and fill up on fruit and
veg, and I’m not strictly raw vegan, this
place has really inspired me, I know when
I do eat raw vegan I feel a lot better from
it and [inaudible] then the better I feel,
so when I’m strong enough and I’m self-disciplined,
I do that.
But in other times of weakness, I try to just
get the fruits and veg in before I then binge
on the [inaudible ] fries and the sweet potato
and the nuts, you know I like the nuts, and
coming here has really opened my eyes I want
to cut them out.
But that’s it.
If you’re making the transition, find nuts
that you enjoy.
Eat lots of sweet potato.
Eat the greens and the fruits before you then
go on to eat the bad foods that you know aren’t
as good for you but that are still vegan and
you enjoy them, you can finish a meal with
them, so you finish with something that you
enjoy the most, but you fill up on the other
stuff so you’re not going to binge out.
Wow.
Yeah it sounds like to me Tim’s eating what’s
called a whole food vegan diet.
Whole food, exactly.
I mean if you don’t want to get these little
pasta things that are vegan, I mean Twinkies
and Ho-Hos and Ding Dongs are vegan, but you’d
probably be a ding-dong to be eating those
things.
You want to just eat real foods that are found
in nature.
I mean if you can’t pick it off a tree,
it doesn’t grow on a plant, those are probably
things to eat if it’s made in a factory
and processed and all this kind of garbage,
you probably don’t want to eat it even if
it is vegan.
It makes no sense.
We’re the only beings on this planet that
cook our food to eat it, and we have to come
in communities like this to discover that
that’s the truth, and there’s so many
billion people on the planet that don’t
know this, and yet it seems so obvious once
you realize it and we are, [inaudible] we’re
the pioneers right now, this is the very beginning,
I say this is the very beginning but you’ve
been doing this for 18 years man, you’ve
been around.
So thank you to John very much for being there,
sticking around with it and showing people
like me that I’m going to continue to push
this movement, because we do not need to eat
cooked foods, we really don’t.
And whatever it takes you to transition, do
what you’ve got to do, it’s your journey,
it’s my journey as well, but I know what’s
right now, and that’s what I’m headed
for.
Alright Tim so what’s one good way the viewers
out there that’s watching this video can
start improving their diet today, what suggestions
would you give them that they can actually
start doing today to make a change for tomorrow?
Yeah, for me, the start I needed rice and
potatoes, I needed to do that.
To come from where I was coming from, the
more standard American diet with the meat,
I needed some staple that I’d enjoy because
to go to raw foods, I tried to go straight
to raw foods, I had a friend that did, that
was a big move and I understand that so yeah,
the sweet potato was a major transition, the
hummus, guacamole, things like that, have
hummus with the celery, carrots, even use
pita if you have to stick to the bread, but
just so long as you begin a cycle, and another
thing, don’t get upset if you get off track.
People get off track once and they go right
and say I’m going to go back to the old
diet, no you know what’s right, and you
knew in the first place when you tried it,
so go off track, that’s cool, let it happen
for a few days and then eventually just stick
with it, stick with the knowledge that you
know what you’re doing was right and you’ll
get back there, you’ll get back on track
and you’ll be stronger than before, and
I’ve done that many times, and every time
I come back, I’m stronger and more knowledgeable
than the last time.
Awesome, definitely excellent advice, what
I would like to add in there as well is you
know, whatever you’re doing now, you want
to just make small and incremental improvements
today.
So eat an extra apple, eat an extra salad,
have some rice and potatoes if you’re coming
off traditional standard American diets, so
bridge the gap and lead you into the right
place, and slowly but surely you’ll be able
to run and jump and be like this guy and some
of the acrobatics he does.
Now I want to remind you guys don’t do any
of that stuff without proper training and
instruction.
And Tim, if somebody wants to learn more about
you and your work and all the stuff you’re
doing, how can somebody get a hold of you
and check out your YouTube videos?
My YouTube channel is youtube.com/livewire,
one word, my Twitter is @timothyshieff, Shieff’s
spelled S-H-I-E double F, Instagram’s the
same, Facebook is Timothy Livewire Shieff
official.
Yeah hit me up, Twitter’s the best way to
contact me, I always check my mentions so
I can reply to you there.
I’ve done a couple of vegan videos where
I talk about the health benefits of being
vegan, why I chose to stop eating meat, and
I put a lot of points in that.
I even did a vegan breakfast cooking show,
and if you know Jamie Oliver he’s a chef,
I’m going to do some vegan cooking with
Jamie Oliver, so yeah look out for it coming
up, stay in contact, hit me up if you want
any advice if you’re also coming off of
the standard American diet, yeah keep following
John, doing the great stuff.
Alright.
Alright Tim, thanks a lot for the interview.
Thank you John.
And I want to just basically sum this up and
let you guys know I got into raw foods not
for my athletic performance, I was never really
an athlete or nothing, but I had a life-threatening
illness that I had to figure out to do something
different or I might be six feet under right
now.
So I changed my diet, changed my health, you
know that’s what I’ve done, but Tim has
changed his diet and improved his sport performance,
I mean, eating our natural diet which we’re
meant to eat, you know plant-based foods will
just work because this is what we’re meant
to eat, when we eat other things, it impedes
our progress.
So I’ll leave you with that thought.
So hope you guys enjoyed this episode, once
again my name is John Kohler with okraw.com,
we’ll see you next time and until then,
keep eating your fresh fruits and vegetables,
they’re always the best.
