April 11, 2019

Meet Danny Page

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Danny Page.

Danny, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My story began at an early age in life. December 24th, 1984 was a night I will never forget, yet has forever changed the direction of my life. My parents were preparing to go to Christmas Eve mass and my sister Wendy, who was 14 years old at the time, was teaching me how to use a calculator. We had just opened our Xmas eve present a few hours ago, it was a Poleroid camera (yes, I am dating myself, lol) and I was snapping pictures of her as she was teaching me. I will never forget that blue ice pack on her forehead though, she was complaining of a bad headache the whole evening, but it just seemed mild, so my folks packed up and headed off to mass and it didn’t seem like moments later, that Wendy let out the most ear piercing scream I had ever heard at five years old. She began kicking and screaming and I did not know what to do, so I held her in my arms and cried my eyes out as she began to lay empty in my arms. It seemed like an eternity before my folks arrived back from church and when they did, it was a moment I will never forget. They grabbed her and left as fast as they could, and I will never forget the sound of my father’s truck leaving our house. It sounded like a death machine, leaving for a place unknown.

It was hours before anyone showed up at my house and this was one of the most traumatic times of my life, being left alone, not knowing what happened to Wendy, not knowing where everyone had gone, and wondering, “did I have anything to do with this”? More and more people came to my house, they began pouring in, bringing food, teddy bears, toys, and gifts. My parents didn’t come home till about 8 am Christmas morning and when they arrived, they took me to their room, sat me down on the bed and tried their very best to explain to me what Wendy would not be home for Christmas but I couldn’t understand. I was more interested in the presents and three wheelers under the tree. Even through all of the funeral services and gravesite burial, I don’t believe that it ever set in, at least not till I was a bit older.

As I began to grow up, it did sink in though, questioning myself – ‘could I have done something to save her’? Could I have called someone? We didn’t have 911 back then, but could I have done anything?’ The guilt began to set in and my family was very emotionally detached from the whole situation – it was an off limits topic for both my parents, which made it very hard to heal from, so my healing came through excelling at sports and schooling. I strove to be very best at everything I did and this resulted in the positive accolades that I so badly was seeking from my folks, which just pushed me harder to be a perfectionist.

From USS Olympics Swim Team to Team Captain of all sports teams, to winning bodybuilding shows, I never lost – in my mind, it was just not something I could even comprehend. Right out of high school, I began a full-time commitment to Arizona State University, majoring in nutrition, bio-mechanics and business communications. As if that was not enough, I also began my first business right out of school and still to this day own and operate it. I worked full time, attended school full time and bided for my parent’s approval as often as possible. I graduated with honors five years later, The next step was the construction of my first home, a grand bachelor pad atop Las Sendas Mountain, in NE Mesa. It was a design I had drawn up in a college class while daydreaming in my steno note pad, and to see the construction begin from the purchase of my first lot to the ultimate construction of my final project – it was literally a dream come true. Negative edge pool, swim up bar, the best sound system around, fogging system throughout the back yard and not a single fashion statement missed inside. It was truly a dream come true, all manifested by sheer intention.

This was the beginning of my life when I began to look for my purpose and why, work was fulfilled, education fulfilled, but there was still a piece of my life’s puzzle that was missing. That piece with my family, the disconnect, the lack of care and the not knowing about what happened and it was an empty piece that I longed for. I met my wife not long after and fell immediately into love with her and her beautiful daughter, Keely who was five at the time. It wasn’t long before I created an opportunity to really bring our lives together and I began building my first home. As a perfectionist, you could only imagine that it was not your typical home, it was a 1.5 million dollars custom built home with some of the most spectacular views money could buy. All of my dreams were set, I was freshly out of college, running a fitness training company called TeamCore Fitness Group that was based out of Scottsdale and Mesa and Gilbert, madly in love and had the home of my dreams. The white picket fence lifestyle couldn’t have been more surreal for me at this time of my life.

As you read this, you’re probably asking yourself, wow, good for him, but this is just like every other happy ending story isn’t it? Not quite, because as I sat there looking at the white picket fence, there was a piece of me deep inside that wasn’t right and when I explain it to people over the years as I have shared my story, it truly became the pivot point for my life in so many ways. What was missing was this disconnect from my parents, since a young age, I was always vying for their attention in so many ways, yet the only way I could get it, was by doing some miraculous event or win, and that became so tiring for me. It seemed for me that I did all this work over the years, from winning everything in sports, to achieve the very best grades, to getting married and building the home that not even they could have imagined and yet, it was as if it wasn’t enough. I will never forget the day I decided to sit down and speak with them. I had horses at the time so I was in my western wear and cowboy boots, red long sleeve flannel, my cowboy hat, and boots and drove to their home in my truck. It was raining that day, so similar to the day of Wendy’s funeral, thundering clouds, dark and grey. I parked and went inside and sat down and looked at the two of them and asked, “what happened between us?”, “why have you two never been a part of my life, other than giving me anything I asked for, and providing for me, but where have you been, emotionally, physically, where have the hugs been, the I love you’s”? It took every ounce of courage I could muster to ask these questions, not knowing what the outcome would be and my father sat for a moment, paused, gazed over at my mother and said this to me, something I to this day will never forget. “Dan, I wish it was you that had died that day, not your sister, I wish it was you that left this earth and not her, I loved her so much, and she was my everything, and every activity, trip, you name it son that I did with you, was because of your mother right there, because she asked me to!” This was like a dagger in my heart, I literally could not breathe or think, I wanted out of that house so bad and never wanted to come back. Could this really be how he felt? This was the first time I felt he had really been honest with me, and my poor mother ran to her room and shut the door, she had nothing to say to back me up or support me, so I did just that, I left and never looked back.

The pain of this began to really set in for me, growing worse each week, not speaking to them and feeling like my value in this world and everything I had worked for from school to sports, to business, to my home – were all a waste, as they didn’t matter anymore to me. He had ruined them all in my eyes with his judgments of me and lack of care for who I was in this world, and no matter how hard I tried to clear it up in my head, I just could not let go of it. He had broken my heart and my spirit and my will to keep going.

I was never a person that drank much, but I began to go out in Scottsdale, Old Town specifically and drink on Thursdays and Fridays and Saturdays, meeting new people, connecting with old friends from college and going down a path I had never been down before, but it felt good, because I couldn’t feel anything – I was numbing the pain with the alcohol. Three nights out a week turned into more frequent visits and time out, which meant less time with my family and less time at my company. My temper grew, my care for what matter diminished and I literally began to tear my whole world apart, bit by bit, piece by piece. It didn’t take long for this go getter to ruin everything, and when I say everything, I mean it. My business suffered badly, my wife decided she had had enough and we split up, and I really let my health go, something my whole world revolved around. I was the walking talking billboard for health and wellness since I was a young kid, I could do anything with my body, any sport, and I looked like a greek statue, but this time was different, I just did not care anymore, so the building came down all around me.

The apex of it all was after we were divorced, my ex and I decided to meet for dinner after dropping our daughter off at a sleep over. She chose a place that I frequented often so they knew what I liked to drink and poured me a double the moment I arrived. We had a nice dinner, were social and getting along fine, until I began to over indulge, and then the wheels came off the bus. One of the waitresses said something that I felt was scrutinizing of me, and that set me off, with over 12 drinks in me now, doubles I have you, I lost it. I started an argument that led the two of us outside, and we argued and yelled and screamed, ending in me going to the car, grabbing my pistol and laying over top of her with it pointed to my head, asking her, “is this what you want? Is this what will make you happy?” I wanted to end it right there and now, I felt like my whole life was a fake and fraud and everything I had done for my family was a waste – I couldn’t see at the time what I had done for myself, I was asleep to it basically and felt like I was at the end of my rope. Unfortunately and fortunately – for me – there were so many cameras around the restaurant and witnesses, that the police were already on the scene and before I could pull the trigger and join my sister Wendy in heaven, I was tased and on the ground. The next thing I remember I was in a police car, handcuffed both feet and hands, and I was sitting in a parking lot awaiting a pick up by a county to be sent to a bigger jail in downtown PHX. The weirdest thing about this whole night was this – I was taken to a random gas station for three hours to sit in a police car and wait to be picked up, but this gas station was miles away from the incident and it was the station directly across from the entrance to my sister’s graveyard. We backed into the spot, so all I could see was the name, the gates of the entrance and the tree next to her plot. It was like nothing I could have ever experienced or explained to anyone, I was speechless.

I was shipped off to 4th Ave Jail where I was processed and locked up. Charges were all held and I did not have the money to make bail nor did I have anyone to help me out. I was stranded, alone and lost. What had I done? What had my life come to? Was this really the easy way I wanted to take out. Being locked up for the time I was, gave me plenty of time to really put life into perspective and make some big decisions on how I was going to move forward upon my release. I chose to live my life to the fullest and use this as the biggest wake-up call to date for my entire life, something I would never take for granted ever again. I will never forget the moment I was released – I called the doors I walked out of the Freedom Doors. As I walked through them, I remember thinking to myself, I have nothing. No home, no phone, no wallet, no money, no family, nowhere to go, and it’s 2 am in the middle of downtown Phx – what am I to do? But I had an ah ha moment – I realized I have control over nothing in my life right now – but 1 thing, my health. This became a part of my business, my story and my teachings I share with the world – as a pillar of my I Believe Statement. It was so powerful though, even though I had nothing else in my life, I had control over my health, and that was powerful in itself.

I found a place to lay down under some cardboard boxes that night with some other homeless people in a roadway behind an iron fence, it seemed safe and the best option for the time being. There was no judgment of me, I had no judgment of them, we were just human beings existing together, in harmony, staying warm and safe and resting. The next morning I figured out a way to get back to East Mesa and began to reach out to friends and ask for help. I didnt want money, I wanted into a mens’ rehab home where I could work for my room and board. I wanted to hand outs, I wanted to rebuild this on my own, for me, not for anyone else. No approval, just sheer hard work and determination for me and my own value. I found a men’s home in East Mesa off Brown Rd and 48th Street. There were 12 beds, 11 full and 1 available. I had chores to do every day, prayers, group workshops, AA meetings, it was a lot of work, but I was all in. I was able to restart my business as well. My clients loved me and understood what had happened and came back in full support of me to get the doors opened and back up to full speed. I loved my job and was the very best at it in my own eyes, but now I approached nutritional counseling and dietetics, along with performance coaching and personal training, and mental coaching from a whole new level – I was doing it for me, from a place of true integrity, not for someone else or to gain approval from others (parents) and this allowed me to operate from a place of alignment, integrity and power and my business began to grow overnight. I was able to get a car, I had a safe place to live and healthy meals, and a good support team around me. What I wasn’t aware of though, was what was going to happen at the men’s home. I found my speaking voice, I became a leader in this household and found my voice to speak up, share my story, share my knowledge to others and began to help these 11 men through their own issues and problems. This is where the Danny Page public figure that now shows up everywhere on social media, was really born.

It was like I had found a whole new gear in life. Humble like no other after losing everything, transparent as could be because I believed in sharing and showing who I really was at all times, honest and straight forward, the truth is what sets you free and my voice was growing louder and louder and sharing to more and more people. I was able to reconnect with my wife and daughter and we rebuilt our lives together one day at a time. I had a lot of trusts to rebuild, but it was worth every ounce of energy I had. The most amazing things in life were happening though, my life, my family, my business, my speaking voice to connect with others, was just growing like leaps and bounds and I couldn’t be happier. It was if all of the storms of life were behind us and the seas were clear sailings ahead, I just couldn’t see that far ahead of me, but all in all – it seemed great.

My family and I had always stayed at Mission Beach in San Diego. From the time Wendy was alive till the current day, I spent as many summers there as possible, and after all, we had been through, we wanted to get back to our old memories created there. I had a sinus infection before we left and never had I done this but wanted to feel good for the trip, so I hit urgent care and they gave me an antibiotic, something I hadn’t really used much at all in my life. I took it for a few days before the trip but something didn’t seem right. My stomach began to hurt and my bowels were torn up, so bad that I researched the side effects to see if this was ok, and it appeared to be but my symptoms seemed to worsen by the day. I finally quit taking it before we left because I couldn’t go long without needing to visit a bathroom. 2 days later we packed up the suv and headed to San Diego for our trip. I will never forget the drive over, my daughter followed me in her jeep, this was her first long drive since turning 16, so I was so proud to see her in my rear view mirror, yet so embarrassed that I had to stop every 30 mins or so to use a restroom, I just couldn’t figure it out. When we arrived at the beach, I was the typical active dad, running the beach, playing games, swimming, biking – but not this time. This time I was either in bed or on the couch. In pain, gastro pain, light headed and not feeling well at all. I knew something was wrong and I couldn’t figure it out. Was it the medications? Something else? I barely made it through the trip and 2 days after getting back home, I drove straight to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale and checked myself into the ER and sat there for 48 hours and they kept coming back with “we can’t find anything”? How frustrating was that, so I drove home, crawled into bed and became defeated. This didn’t last long because I knew something was wrong so I began to research the very best in GI care and health in the area and found my hospital, packed my bags knowing it would be awhile before I came home, and drove there alone and checked myself in. They put me into the ER and it wasn’t long before I was being rushed to ICU and put on morphine. My room was cordoned off and they told me I had C-Diff, which you get from taking anti biotics and it kills all the good bacteria in the gut and the bad takes over. It’s highly contagious, so I was quarantined off and not allowed to have any visitors. This was hard to be alone, but I couldn’t eat anything, it would go right through me and my weight was falling quickly. They were pumping me full of all sorts of anti biotics, meds, pain meds, and it was awful, but it still seemed like we were missing something. We just didnt know what it was at the time. I went in for multiple MRI’s and Colonoscopy, endoscopies, and nothing was showing us anything but C-Diff. So the doctors began treating me for C-Diff and away we went, but after a few days, zero improvements if anything I was going backwards. The pain was worsening, and I was losing weight at such a rapid speed, they didn’t know what to do. So, more tests and more tests and finally the bleeding inside my colon let up enough, the medical team on board could clearly see I had Crohns Disease and Ulcerative colitis – along with the C-Diff. It was one of the worst cases they had seen and I had already lost over 50 lbs in less than a week. I hadn’t eaten anything in over ten days nor seen anyone but medical staff and nurses in protective uniforms so as to not get infected with anything that I was carrying.

Day after day, I spend in the hospital and more meds, more iv bags and still no light at the end of the tunnel, and it was growing dim for me on my end. About the 7th or 8th day, a new dr came in from the University of Arizona, I will never forget that man, till the day I die. Two friends of mine had masked up and came to try and cheer me up, and there he stood eye to eye with me, and he said, you do know they are preparing you for surgery don’t you? I said, Surgery?!!!! What do you mean? They are going to take and remove a portion of your small intestine and your colon Danny, they are prepping you for surgery because you are not improving. I was devastated and literally lost it and asked everyone to leave and broke down in tears. How could I operate and function in my normal life with a bag tied to my waste? How could I do this? I couldn’t take it, I was beginning to give up and that night in the hospital was the longest night of my life. I couldn’t sleep and I begged God to take me, to end it all and just let me go be with Wendy again. I had fought through so much in life and climbed back up top so many times, I just couldn’t see getting out of this one, and wanted to just check out. I tried unplugging myself from all the feeding tubes and wires, but the alarms went off and they came in and subdued me and plugged me back in and gave me a shot to put me at ease. The next day the same dr came in and he said, I heard you had a rough night? I said yes, this surgery isn’t for me, I don’t want it. He said this, you know, there is a new drug out, a hybrid drug that the hospital doesn’t have, nor will your insurance pay for it, it’s expensive but I have seen it work for someone else recently, and it was a miracle. I looked right at him and said, I don’t care what it costs, I will find a way!

$1100.00 a pill, 2 pills a day, 20 days of the medication. I about lost my mind when I heard the cost, but it was my only shot. He wrote the script and my family went to CVS and filled it. It was the largest retail transaction CVS had ever had in 1 day! So I took my first pill, then my second and my third and my fourth, and by day 3, I felt remarkably better, to the point that I asked the nurse for a menu to the cafeteria. You must remember I hadn’t eaten in a very long time and now had lost over 61 lbs, so food was like a new thing to me. I will never forget the taste of that first peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The chef’s name was Jose who answered and took my order, he said they were closed but knew about me and would make an exception, which to my delight was 2 PB&J’s and a huge glass of water! I was like a little kid at Xmas morning again, happy as could be. I spent another five days in the hospital building up my strength and slowly putting food in and weight back on, but from the crossfitter and strongman I was pre-disease to now, I could not walk the entire floor of my hospital room without a walker, wheelchair or assistance. I knew I had a long road to go, but I was alive and that light at the end of the tunnel was back on.

Once home, I was pretty out of it. I laid in bed not knowing what to do, feeling like a victim at times, sorry for myself at others, and it wasn’t long before my wife Becca came into my room and looked at me and said, ” you need to get your butt outta bed and go to work, if you stay down, you will go back down, and your clients will see it and go away, so be a man and get out of this funk and go do what you do best Danny!” I was pissed and hurt at first, how dare she, she didn’t know what all I had been through or what I was going through, but then it clicked, maybe she’s right and maybe this is just what I needed to hear. So, I grabbed my keys, threw on a hat and drove to my barbers. I was all over the road at times just not all there, but I made it and walked in and got a haircut and shave. I felt like a million bucks after, it had been weeks since I had been cleaned up so I no longer looked like grizzly adams!

The next day, I was back at work, part-time, of course, but it felt so good to be back. I slowly worked my way back to full time seeing clients and patients again and had my full business back up and operating in no time. I still wasn’t 100% healthy though, and that forced me to dig deeper into my own knowing and understanding of nutrition to really help me heal. Western-based medicine wanted to keep me on drugs and meds for the rest of my life, but I walked into my six weeks follow up visit with my medical team and they looked at my labs and said that my labs were not good, that my insides were as bad as they were in the hospital if not worse, and I said, how can this be, all the meds you guys have me on? They had no explanation for me – but what they did have was a new drug to put me, a new drug to compensate for the other drugs they had me on, and what were the side effects? First and Foremost – Leukemia! I said to that dr then, thats it, I’m done taking all this, there has to be a better way, so I went back to my old school textbooks and began rereading all of my information on intermittent fasting and nutritional fasting. I read and studied and flew around the country meeting with the top integrative health doctors, to provide me with the support and guidance I needed to remedy this situation naturally and on my own.

Everything kept leading back to intermittent fasting and this was my bread and butter back in my school days, so I began building my own program and away I went. 6 weeks later, lab retesting came back 100% improvement and I had quit taking ALL of the meds I was on. 100% no medications and all through nutritional support and fasting – I was able to begin healing myself.

So, I have taken my knowledge and voice to help 1000’s online, also through corporate wellness, one on one counseling, and through many other methods, to teach and educate on the many health benefits of fasting and share my story with all that need or want to listen.

I have also grown my business in many other ways with my new found experiences on life both when I tried to take my own life and when the disease tried to take it it’s way – and by using my new voice, I have grown a large organic social media following of 170,000 followers, where I speak about fitness, nutrition, mindset, intermittent fasting, supplements, and over coming life’s challenges. I use public speaking and corporate wellness to help change communities of people who are longing for a happier, healthier lifestyle, and recently became an owner and the Fitness/Wellness Director for Earn Your Booze.

I couldn’t be happier in my life, after everything I have been through, I wake up with a smile every day and am grateful for every breath I take, and I share this with everyone I know. There is not a day that I drive to my work, that I am not 100% bouncing off the walls excited to do what I do. Not many folks can say that and for me, it’s my truth and I couldnt be more thankful.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
This is my favorite question in the whole world: What do I do? What I do is what I believe, and what I believe is how you show up for your physical health, is how you will show up for your business life, your family life and your spiritual life. This is true, I believe in this statement that I share all around the nation and its how I show up for people. When you really think about it, the moment you let your health go, its the moment that all of these three others of your life begin to fall apart and I see this time and time again with all of the clients I work with – their business is failing, their relationship, their spiritual connection with Universe or God – whatever it might be – one of these is failing and it can all be tied back to their health and them letting go of taking care of themselves in one way or another. So, this is what I specialize in – balancing peoples lifestyles – and – lives out and I do it with so many different people, from so many backgrounds.

Because of my illness, Im known very predominately in the industry for being the man behind intermittent fasting and also Gut Health and healing from Crohns Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, as well as IBD and IBS. Im kinda the go to when people are seeking help outside of the Western Medicine Approach, and I carry quite a bit of validity with me because I have walked the walk and talked the talk in both of these above-mentioned areas.

What sets me apart from others? The word Commitment. This word rings true when you hear my name. Its the number 1 word my team and I hear when we ask for feedback and its the number 1 word used to describe me when we do polls or anything like that on social media – and I strive to always hold true to this. I define commitment as this: There is nothing I won’t do, nothing I won’t say, and no place I won’t go to show up for whomever it is that I am working with and this goes quite far with that person, because they know they can trust in me and that I will never ever let them down.

I also want to mention EARN YOUR BOOZE – I am now an owner with this company and am taking on all of their fitness and wellness directives for the company – so basically I represent the EARN part of the entire company. I feel this company is so different in it’s approach to both fitness and exercise but a balanced lifestyle of drinking and eating too. Before you indulge, you earn it, and you earn it be exercising, swimming, kayaking, whatever your heart desires and then enjoy your frosty beer or spirit, whatever it is that fits your fancy, but the premise of the company is so fun and powerful and companies and people are eating it up! I’ve been asked to speak to both consumers and the employees and executives for many large liquor companies to offer education and corporate wellness for said people on how to create a healthy, balanced lifestyle while drinking, traveling, eating out, and enjoying life to the fullest and they absolutely love what I share with them. It’s crazy to think that EARN YOUR BOOZE and Danny Page is on the forefront of the wellness movement in the liquor and spirit industry and I am getting more and more calls by the day!

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were just starting out?
Nothing! I am where I am today, because of the choices I made yesterday – and – I wouldn’t change one of them.

ONE of my favorite personal quotes that I have written is this:
There is no over it, under it, or around it, when faced with a hard situation, you give up or you get through it” Danny Page – and it’s by getting through it, all of the ‘its’ that has made me the man I am today.

Contact Info:

Website: www.dannypage.com
Email: danny@earnyourbooze.com
Instagram: danny_page_
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedannypage/

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