EP002 CrossFit, A Clean Diet & Recovery From Cancer, with Jason O’Hanlon

In this weeks episode of the hardcorejunkie podcast I’m chatting to Jason O’Hanlon from Clondalkin in Dublin, about Crossfit, clean eating…

In this weeks episode of the hardcorejunkie podcast I’m chatting to Jason O’Hanlon from Clondalkin in Dublin, about Crossfit, clean eating and the role both of these played in his recent return to health from a severe form of Leukaemia, a form of blood cancer.

In This Episode Jason Tells Us

• How he found out about his illness.

• The difficulties he had telling his wife Nathalia and his family.

• His amusing trip to the “Harry Clinic” to get the lads on ice!

• The earlier loss of a loved one to cancer in 2008 and how that inspired him to win.

• How being to dark places before prepared him for what was coming.

• The importance of CrossFit in his life and how it’s aided his recovery from cancer.

• The importance of a clean diet to his recovery from cancer.

• How a religious group in Brazil may have had a mysterious but positive involvement.

• How a positive attitude played a vital role towards his recovery from the illness.

In this honest and frank interview, Jason tells how he eventually, after months of struggling through workouts and feeling tired, decided to get checked out. Although inside he had a strong suspicion what was going on.

It was late 2013 when he began to feel the subtle effects of the illness coming on, but it wasn’t until early 2014 that things began to affect his normal life patterns.

I’m not just gonna beat it, I’m gonna make a fool of it, I’m gonna kick it’s fuckin’ head in. — Jason O’Hanlon

He attended St. Anne’s Ward in St. Vincent’s Hospital Dublin and was resident there for 5 months undergoing treatment. Now, thankfully he is attending as an outpatient after responding well to treatment and is back working and attending 06:30 am classes at CrossFit Ireland.

That’s the very short version. To get the entire interview check it out on Soundcloud or use the embedded player above.

A Lifestyle Recipe For Health Success

Going from the chats we had, it seems Jason’s philosophy for health is this; We never know what’s coming down the track for us, so to maintain a high level of general health and fitness, almost a professional level, makes total sense.

For had he not had that strength and level of health entering into that difficult time, he may not have come out the other side in as good a shape as he did, or at all for that matter.

A positive mental attitude and focus of attention is critical in any undertaking we make in our lives if we are to have the outcome we want, and my impression from knowing Jason for what has only been a short time, is that he has that in bucket loads.

For some of us it doesn’t come too easy and that is where our work is. No doubt he had dark days during his time undergoing

treatment, but I think he has offered us a remarkable example of how to deal with difficult life circumstances.

And he most certainly deserves the title; hardcorejunkie.

Larry G. Maguire

Hi I’m Larry, writer, artist and digital creative. I’m a Dad, Husband, hardcorejunkie and Doer of Epic Shit (as often as possible). I say, do what you love and nothing else. Fuck it! we’ve only one life, let’s make it count.

Like Connect Deeper? I write and produce a weekly podcast over at hardcorejunkie, I’d love to meet you there.

Originally published at hardcorejunkie.co on November 14, 2015.