It worked so well I bought the Company
“Mr. Pearce, we will be able to make you walk again, but life as you know it, is most likely over. You can never take a chance and ride motocross again; no skiing or snowboarding, and stay away from running, the pounding is too much for your spine.”
Even though it has been almost two decades now, I can still hear those words like they were said yesterday. Life as I knew it was over. I did not want to believe it, but after the surgeries and months of painful rehabilitation, there was just no denying the constant burning in my left glute and hamstring and the total numbness in my left foot, and keep in mind that was after I got “better.” For the next 15 years or so, I often wore a back brace, walked with a limp and just got used to feeling like my left foot had just left the dentist.
That was life for me. I stayed active as best as I could, lifted a lot of weights and did what I could, but cardio with a totally numb foot was hard, my leg would just go out from under me if I ran or walked too much and after riding a bike for more than 10 minutes or so, the numbness turned to almost unbearable burning. So the years ticked by and I ballooned up to just over 270 lbs. I have always been a pretty big guy, but I am talking a 215-220 lb big guy, now 50 lbs over weight, I was tired a lot, lethargic and bored. Over the next years I endured dozens and dozens of epidural injections, and I certainly am not proud of it, but the truth is I almost always had a pocket full of pain pills and was trying every type of therapy known to man. That was how I got by, that was my life. Every “specialist” and medical genius out there basically told me, “that’s the breaks - hey at least you are walking” and for that I was very thankful. It just was not me; the quality of life I loved so much was gone. Pardon the pun but as a guy who had been very athletic my entire life this was a “hard pill to swallow.”
Then in a chance encounter about 4-5 years ago I met a guy at our gym who eventually introduced me to Master Herbologist Bob Nikkel. I remember when he first asked about my injury and told me he had a guy that could help me, I think I said something to the effect of, yea right; I don’t want to go see your witch doctor! I said, I have had the best medical minds around work on me, your Mr. Tree Bark and Berries isn’t going to be able to do anything to help! To say the least, I was skeptical. Reluctantly, after weeks of prodding me, I agreed to go meet “Dr. Bob.” I was impressed from the moment I met him, because as anyone who ever has met him can tell you, you can see in his eyes that he wants to help, that he is a healer. Bob asked me to tell him everything I could about my injuries, all of my treatments, the medicines they had me on, my diet etc.
After about an hour, Dr. Bob said, “well they were right about a couple things, you are a mess, and you’re stubborn as a mule. But despite the pain, you continue to fight through it every day to do what you can, and that shows me you have the will to get better, if you really want to.” Even though he already knew the answer, Bob went on to ask me how many years have I had been on the western medicine. I answered about 15 or so. He said “and has it fixed you so far?” I said no, not fixed me, but it helps cover up the pain somewhat so I can get by. I will never forget the “gotcha” look on Bob’s face at that moment and he said, “It helps you get by? YOU don’t seem like the kind of guy who is happy with just getting by so let me ask you, if you gave their way 15 years to work and you have admitted it hasn’t, will you give my way 6-8 weeks if you thought it could actually help you get better? “
I said yes of course. Bob said, “ok, but you have to understand these are not prescriptions; you can’t take them now and expect to feel them in 10-20 minutes. We are not tying to mask the problem; we are trying to fix it!” (Remember those words for later… FIX IT!) I will never forget them
He showed me a series of pills, powders and supplements that he said would help repair the damage to my back, not just the skeleton, but the muscles, tendons, ligaments and everything that needed fixing. He explained exactly how I had to take it, changes I had to make to my diet and exercises I needed to start doing to get more range of motion back. He warned it would be painful.
But then he said, “Not yet, you’re not ready for these yet. YOU have 15 years of western meds built up inside you and we have to get them out 1st, we need you to stick to a full body cleanse for 30 days, you have to do it, or my healing supplements won’t work properly.” He explained that the complicated series of pills and powders I needed to take must be taken exactly right if I wanted to get better, that at the end of one month I would have cleaned all of the toxins and build up out of my colon, kidneys, liver and pancreas, my intestines and stomach etc. He warned me that for the first week, such an aggressive cleanse may mean sticking close to the bathroom.
I lasted about 4 days and then had to go on a business trip, please excuse my language but Bob was right, I felt like I was crapping crayons from the third grade, there was stuff coming out of me that scared me to death. I knew I could not travel like that so I stopped doing the cleanse. About 7-10 days later Bob called me to check on me, which really impressed me. I told him the truth that I had stopped and he reprimanded me telling me if I would have just kept going another 26 days the worst would be over and my body would have started getting used to the cleanse, but now I had to start all over again. He asked me “do you want to get better or not? “
I did, I really did, so this time I stuck to it and after about ten days the worst was over and by the end of week 2 I noticed my pants were getting real loose. I stuck to the program, watched my diet and by the end of the 30 days I had dropped almost 30 pounds! That’s right! Almost 30 pounds! That alone took a lot of pressure off my spine but the numbness was still there, then Bob started me on the regiment of supplements to FIX IT!
Within just 2 weeks for the 1st time in many years, I woke up one morning and put my left foot on the ground and felt the strangest thing… it was the ground, I could tell it was carpet, I could tell hot and cold, hard and soft, I had feeling back in my numb left foot that I had not felt in a decade and a half.
That started me on a mission, I started working out like I had years ago, I became insatiable, I trained 3-4 hours a day and dropped back down to a rock hard 215 lbs. I felt so good again. I was back, every aspect of my life was better, I could do whatever I wanted, I could play with my children, that year I skied again without pain and then I decide to take a trip to Europe, it was just a few years after 9/11 and at the airport they took away all of my supplements . I was not that worried, I had been pain free for months, I felt great and off to Europe we went. I believe it was the eighth day, we were in Prague and I woke up and felt that same old burning sensation down my leg, my left foot was numb again. It literally gave me a very nauseas feeling in my stomach. I knew that feeling all too well, it was back. The next 4-5 days were hell for me; I had brought no pain pills because I never wanted to ever take one again for the rest of my life at that point. To make a long story short, I flew home in tremendous pain, I landed at Denver International at about 9:30pm and the 1st call I made was to Dr. Bob. I drove exhausted from the flight to his house and got more of the supplements so I could start right away so I could FIX IT! It took about 9-10 days but once again, it just kind of went away and I have never gone off of them ever since.
It was after that that I decided I wanted to buy this company and try and take Bob’s knowledge of healing and my meager knowledge of business and marketing and create our new functional water systems. The idea was to take all the great products we had and start out by defining the customer 1st and then attacking their needs with everything we had in our arsenal of proven products. That’s how we created our functional water systems.
Today we have seven of them being sold with over a dozen more scheduled for release and in the next run will be the combination of pills and powders that Bob gave me as a total body cleanse but now it is all condensed and works the same over just 12 days instead of 30 this great product is called Cleanz +
Next is the complex series of vitamins, supplements and minerals he used to FIX my actual problem which we have given to hundreds of other sufferers all with great results, this product will be much simpler to follow and stick to as everything you need to FIX IT is under one convenient cap and in the delicious drink, guess what it is called… yep… FIX IT! I know it sounds like a cliché’ but, these products did really work so well I wanted to buy the company, but the company was a mess, so we bought the assets and the name and most important of all Dr. Bob’s formulas and knowledge.
About a year and a half ago, I decided I wanted to get my son and daughter into the sport I had loved so much for so much of my life, the sport of motocross, I love the brutal, demanding nature of the sport, the hair raising adrenaline rush and the full on competition. I went to buy them each a new bike and at the very last minute I said, heck, throw that Honda 450 on the trailer too. Since then, I have been enjoying my 1st love as far as sports are concerned as often as I can. I get to spend great quality time with my son Ryan and daughter Taylor and I would not trade that for anything.
Although it sure seems like I was a lot faster 20 years ago and I have decided that the bikes must be slower now a day’s… you know what, on the average day at the track, I still pass a lot more guys than guys pass me and being only 2 years away from a half a century old, I will take that as good enough for me. I believe in our products, I believe in our mission and most of all I believe Life Won’t Change Until You Change Your Life! Give us a chance, maybe we can help to change yours.
Richard Pearce
President & CEO
Hard Nutrition