Kimberly has transformed her life in remarkable ways, overcoming the challenges of rheumatoid arthritis with an unyielding attitude and dedication to fitness. Today, she shares her journey to inspire others to follow in her footsteps and achieve success.

We discuss in this interview:

• Kimberly’s initial struggles with rheumatoid arthritis and how it impacted her daily life
• The importance of maintaining a positive attitude even when feeling overwhelmed
• How commitment to self-responsibility and fitness helped her eliminate rheumatoid arthritis symptoms
• The role of a supportive coaching program in Kimberly’s fitness journey
• Her strategic use of physical therapy to bypass joint issues and build strength
• The effective combination of a plant-based diet with regular exercise
• Techniques to manage stress positively to enhance overall well-being
• Kimberly’s daily workout routine and the milestones she achieved in the gym
• Her focus on building strength as a key factor in managing inflammation
• Future goals for total physical transformation and maintaining optimal health without medication

Clint – Have I got a treat for you guys today. One of my favorite people in the world right now, Kimberly, has joined me today to talk about how far she’s come with her rheumatoid arthritis and she has come a long way. One of the themes of today’s episode is going to be around attitude. Kimberly’s attitude is amazing, and this area is often weak for a lot of us when we’re struggling, we don’t have a lot of energy. We feel that there’s too much information online and it’s overwhelming, we don’t know where to start. But when you’ve got the right attitude, which is no matter what I face, I’m going to make it happen. I’m going to take self-responsibility and do everything in my power to get rid of pain. Well, that works, and Kimberly has been amazing on that front. She’s been part of our coaching program for the last six months, and we’ve just embarked on our second six months together to get even fitter, even stronger, even healthier. But she has no symptoms anymore. So Kimberly, welcome to the podcast. So excited to have you here.

Kimberly – Thank you so much. I’m so glad to be a part of this, because I really want everybody to be as successful as I have been. You know, I just want this for everyone. And if I can tell them a little bit about how I did it, then I think if they follow the path, follow your program, they’ll get it. So when I first started, I had a lot of pain in my hands. I couldn’t make a fist. I couldn’t ride my bike good. My fingers were really stiff. When I woke up, I couldn’t do hardly anything with them. And then my knee, um, my left knee and then my right foot all had pain. My wrist, oh, yeah forgot about my wrist. My wrist I couldn’t do certain motions at all. Like I couldn’t put my hands flat on the ground, like to do a push up. Whereas before, you know, I was diagnosed with RA, I could do all of those things. Then I get RA, then I couldn’t put my hands on the ground. My one arm was my right arm. I couldn’t make my hands go flat. And my I couldn’t make the it be a square. And now I can do all of that. And especially like over my head, I couldn’t do that at all. When arm would be just hanging like this and this, I couldn’t do it all the way up, and now I can do all of that. So that’s a real big win for me because it really took a lot out of what I could do. Um, you know, being able to do like ride my bike, that was a real hard thing. I couldn’t hold on to the handlebars and keep my arms straight; one was always bent. And then I couldn’t make the circle around to hold on. And then every time I went over a bump, I could feel every single bump in the road.

Kimberly – So all of those things were terrible for me. And then I do all the all the pull ups. I started with the hang. I could hang one minute and then Clint said, start with the shrugs. So I started doing the shrugs and then, um, I just progressed from there. I got a personal trainer, which really helped me, even though I don’t really need one, because I’ve actually done a figure show before when I was 45. And so I’m very used to the gym and very knowledgeable about how to lift weights in that. But I felt like I needed somebody to help me do specific muscle groups because for me, I really needed to work on like my back, my arms. I was injured 30 years ago. So I bring all of those weak muscles in with the RA taking all of my muscles. And a weight loss like you would not believe. I lost so much weight. So my muscles deteriorated even more. So I really wanted to build back and build them back better and stronger, faster. So, um, yeah, so I got a trainer and we just pounded it. We just did all the exercises that Clint has in his repertoire of the face pulls. He was real big on those. Um, you know, of course the bicep, we did a lot of bicep. We did a lot of back and it was just one thing after another and build, build, build. I had a few setbacks, not RA-wise, but like I got a cold, I went on vacation, you know, little things like that. But I just said I’m going to just push through everything. If I can do it, even if I couldn’t do the whole half hour when we started, I said, I’m going to go, I’m going to put 100% in and just see where it takes me. And, you know, half an hour isn’t that big of a deal when you’re in the gym trying to work on this muscle, this muscle. So just putting on the clothes, getting there, that was half the battle. Then the other half was just doing something. And I do that all the time.

Kimberly – Now it’s like ingrained in me. I get up, I do the same routine, I sneak off to the gym, work out, and then my whole day is perfect and I have no RA pain. So it has been a total win for me. Like this program is the way you want to go. I love it, love it, love it. I tell everybody about it. That has RA and you wouldn’t believe how many people do have RA because like in the gym, I’m very vocal about it. They’re like, oh, well, you can really do that. And I said, and I have RA and I take zero medications. And they’re like, really? How do you do that? I said, well, I found this program, Clint Paddison and I have been able to stick to the diet, stick to the exercise, which is huge. Doctor Jacobs says, um, building biceps got her better, you know, like that’s what her little thing is. And it’s true. If you work out, you build strength, you’ll get better. There’s no two ways about it. So diet, exercise, and sleep are super important and then decrease your stress. And those four things have worked for me tremendously. And I work the program. If Clint says do the mouth care? I do the mouth care. If he says take the supplements, I take the supplements. I have done the whole program pretty much every single thing that he said to do. I did it because, hey, it worked for him, so it’s going to work for me too, and that’s my attitude. I like found him. I said, he can do it, I can do it. And that’s what I do. And I, and I put 100% in 100% of the time. Like that’s the most important thing. I don’t go, oh, well, today I’m just going to have a piece of cake. Well, no, because piece of cake is going to cost me and it’s going to cost me dearly. I’d rather move be able to do what I want to do, you know, like ride my bike, go to the gym, go out with my friends and be able to move instead of have a piece of cake, you know? And I have even found, um, with whole food plant based, you can have cake. You just have to make it whole food, plant based cake. So there’s lots of things out there that you can do that I do with the diet I have done for a long time and it has been perfect. So I still get my treats. I still have my little things. You know, sweet potatoes are very sweet. That’s why. So I use them for frosting. I make fudge brownies out of them. You know, there’s a lot of things that you can do.

Kimberly – And, so yes, that’s the fun that I’ve had with it is eating good, exercising even more. I’ve gained weight, I’ve put on 10lbs since December 11th. I know most people that are girls would be like, oh my God, really? You’re excited about putting on weight? And I’m like, yep, I am, because that means I’m getting stronger, I’m getting better, you know? And the muscle that I’ve put on has been unreal. I mean, before I couldn’t. Oh my God, 5lbs, doing a bicep curl with 5lbs in the beginning, like maybe doing it ten times, you know, and I was like, oh my God, I can, I can hardly do it. I couldn’t make the 11th time, you know, it was really, really hard. And now I’m doing 20lbs sets of 15. And that’s just bicep curls, and that’s one of my weaker things because this bicep has been like maybe a little torn. So I, uh, lap pull downs or 85lbs now. And I mean, I have just like soared, you know, I weigh 125lbs. So if I can get to 125lbs repetitiously, I should be able to do multiple pull-ups. I have one under my belt already. The wider ones. And now I’m going to do. I can do about one and a half, maybe two if you count my giraffe neck going over the. But I’m going to do them, that’s what I really wanted to do. My trainer, um, put a video and we put it in my journal and um, you can see that I, it was a clean sweep. It was like straight up there. And that was my second attempt, my first attempt it wasn’t clean. It looked like I was really struggling. And then he goes, just do it again. I said, okay, I’m going to get Zenned. I’m going to get into the moment. And then I got up there and I did it. So it was like such a good feeling after hard work and everything. And so now I want to do more. I want to at the end of this six months, I’d like to be able to do at least three total clean swipes. Like that’s my goal. Because I’m already so far into it, you know? I think that I’ll be able to do more. So yeah. So I’m really excited, really excited to keep going and get my markers down, that’s one of my things I want to do is because I have no RA pain and I haven’t had pain for a little while there. And I have a very stressful life, extremely stressful. And I just work within the stress. I look at it as like, there’s stress that’s always bombarding me. And what I do is I put up my little force field and I say, yes, stress, you can come to this amount, but you don’t have to come and affect me. So that’s I try to do like that. And that way I keep a really positive attitude about everything. Even the stress, I think of it positive, like I’m supposed to be learning something from this or this is a challenge, so let’s rise to the challenge. And that really helps me tremendously to think of everything as positive, as positive you can get, even when it seems difficult and hard. The more you put your attitude of positivity, the more positive things happen to you. And I’m just a firm believer in that. If I’m feeling really down, then change it, go do something that makes me feel good. And so if I’m getting really good results out of the gym, go to the gym, lift a little bit or stay in your house and do a few reps of something, it will make you feel better. That’s how movement is, it makes you feel better.

Kimberly – So I’m, I’m really, really pleased with all that has happened. And I don’t know why God gave me RA. Nobody knows these answers to those questions, but I’ve had it for longer than I was diagnosed. I know that, and luckily I haven’t had so much that it has been absolutely debilitating. I’ve had debilitating events, but I haven’t been like years and years and years of debilitated, you know, I’ve been able to overcome probably because I found this program. I was diagnosed real quick after I blew up. I couldn’t use my hands at all, I was in tremendous pain. The doctors I went to probably eight doctors, they wanted to cut my knee. They wanted to cut my wrist. They’re going to send me to surgery. I’m going to have this elbow to wrist surgery and all this kind of stuff. And I’m like, oh my God, what is happening to me? I was in perfect health one day, the next day, all this. I couldn’t believe it. So my girlfriend was actually the one that diagnosed me because she put it all together. She said, you know, you can’t, you have, you know, pain here, pain here, pain. Here she goes. What’s going on? I was anemic, I was macrocytic anemia, you know, all these things were coming up. And so she put it all together and boom, she figured out, she said, go get yourself tested for an autoimmune disease. Did it. I found Clint, and the rest is history. The rest is a good story. After that.

Clint – It’s a very good story. It’s a very good story. Absolutely. I’m going to put you on the spot, we want to see your flex, can you give us a flex and show us the look at the muscles If you’re watching this on YouTube. Okay, look at Kimberly now. Does she look like your average rheumatoid arthritis sufferer? She does not. That’s why. That’s why she doesn’t have the symptoms of a typical RA sufferer. Okay, look at that.

Kimberly – I really got some nice biceps. So in the gym, they said that I was, um, the most muscular girl. That’s what. That’s what the guy at the front said. He goes, oh yeah, you’re the most muscular girl in the gym, you know that? I’m like, okay, that’s pretty good, huh?

Clint – It’s like the ultimate thing because again, like over and over again for the, for the 500,000th time, strength defeats inflammation. And so in our community, often, you know, on the live calls, I’ll say, remember what Kimberly’s doing, right? Kimberly doesn’t mess around. She hits the gym. She hits it hard. When she started with us, she had to be real cautious with her workouts because of the wrist pain. The wrist are the weakest link in the upper kinetic chain, so we had to really, really ensure she wasn’t irritating her wrist with downward facing dogs. Any kind of push ups sort of stuff. And once that was out of your sort of out-of-your-week-to-week lifestyle and we weren’t irritating the wrist. Then you started doing all of the distraction based exercises, which were putting strength around the wrist. You had take off and it was once you sniffed success. Boy, did you run with it. It was, it was awesome to watch.

Kimberly – Oh thank you. Thank you. Yeah. You, um, you solved all of my problems, though, because I was not going to give up my synergy class, which is yoga, Pilates mix. And I said, oh, I can’t like, skip that class. Oh, you’re asking me to give up my lifestyle there? It’s like, no, no, no. And you told me to make my wrist straight, so I do. I still do my class three times a week for an hour, and everything is done with weights on the ground, and I just hold the weight when I do a downward dog or when I get on all fours. I never put my wrist down ever. I can, but I don’t because Clint said, don’t do that. And you want to know what he’s totally right. Because one time I tried to do that, like just absentmindedly and I put my hands down and I was like, oh, that does not feel well to its it’s like when I first started, I would stretch them like this and oh, trying to analyze and make them. And Clint said, stop that. And I was very thankful that you told me that because as soon as I stopped doing all of that, my pain got so much better. Oh my God, it was so much better because I was going to the gym, I was doing those things, but then I was doing destructive things that I didn’t know, I didn’t know they were destructive until you told me. And then as soon as I took all of that out. Oh, that was a real win there because I didn’t have that. You reinjure them every time you do that. And the more you, you can keep away from doing that and just do the hanging because it pulls it apart. And when it pulls it apart. Oh, it feels fantastic. You don’t have pain. It gets stronger. Your whole arm gets stronger. Your fingers get stronger like I can. I can do my hand grip, no problem. I can hold on to things. I can open cans. No problem. Like absolutely zero problem. So yeah, um, those were really big wins that you told me to do is be cautious of those little delicate risks, and I do, and it’s worked so very good. Yeah.

Clint – One thing that’s really, really illustrative from what you’ve done is you’ve come to this already on a plant based diet. And so yes, we made the sort of, uh, sort of nitpicking like adjustments in the early stages where you went through the, the early groupings of the foods. But, I want to say that 90% of your complete transformation has come through the physical therapy. And let’s throw in a little bit, maybe through oral health optimization and some supplements and some, like you said, some stress reduction and sleep, but, uh, okay, so 80%, let’s say 80% of your improvements has come through relentless obsession about getting as strong as you can and navigating past the joint challenges that were there at the start, so that now you are immense, have immense strength without the joint pains. I mean, this is just profound; this is why the strength building is so crucial.

Kimberly – Yes. Yeah, I totally believe that too, because I really, I, like you said I was plant based already for five years and religious about it so that, you know, take the diet out of the cycle there. Sleep and stress, like I said, I always try to be positive. So those things, you know, but it was it hands down, it is going to the gym and I go every single day, like Monday through Friday for sure. I work out for probably two hours a day. You don’t have to work out for two hours a day, but my synergy class is one hour and I won’t miss synergy. So that’s my Zen time. That is my, you know, play the music, we play really good songs and we do a little dancing, like routine. Oh, it’s just wonderful. So no, that’s my get up in the morning and greet Kimberley Time. And um, then the other hour is in the gym working on goals of the program. You know, you said let’s do the pull up. So I really concentrated on doing the pull up. All the stages that you said, the hanging, the shrugging, the, uh, you know, all the face pulls, all the pull downs, everything, you know, the pullbacks, everything, everything that you can imagine. I did and then did more because, you know, the gym has an array of, uh, of different machines and different things that you can do and I do them all, I do everything and it has really paid off. And, you know, at first you start, you go slow because you don’t want to get injured, that’s a big thing. I do not want to lift too heavy. Then you learn to lift a little heavier, and now it’s like, wow, it’s leaps and bounds you know, like it’s not just at first, it’s baby steps. You just see little tiny baby steps going. And then all of a sudden you’re like, you turn the corner and boom, now you can do so much more than you did before. And it feels so good. You know, I always walk out of the gym feeling like I could take on the world. Like no problem is going to be there that I can not successfully handle. And that is from lifting the weights. It gives you that inner strength along with great muscles, but it gives you an inner strength that, okay, I can do this. And, I think that has really, really helped through everything because you need that for stress. You need that to make the diet work. You know, because you have obstacles all the time coming at you.

My girlfriend today said to me very politely and everything, but she was like, I think that your diet is not working for you, that you need to eat meat and you need to, you know, because she thinks I’m too skinny, you know? And I was like, yes, I want to gain weight. I would like to put on probably another 10lbs of muscle and I’m not fat, I didn’t say I was just going to gain weight. I want 10lbs of muscle on me. And um, I can do that through whole food plant based and she’s, you know, skeptical. Oh, you need to do this. And I said, you don’t understand because with RA, we cannot eat like the rest of the world does. And especially a Western diet. I might get away with an Asian diet, you know, not fried, but an Asian diet. But in the West we just eat too much processed foods, too much oil, too much fried foods. Just that’s how it is, you know? But I choose to not do that so that I have a great lifestyle. You know, I have to give up to have. So what? I do it and I give up that to have great muscles be able to move every day, pain free is a real big plus for me. So I will do whatever it takes to make that happen. You know, before my hair was falling out, you know, and I was having, I mean, I was skinny 115lbs on a girl that’s five, seven with muscle, you know. So that and then I was losing my muscle that was destroying me. I’m losing my hair, that was destroying me. And my hair loss wasn’t from methotrexate because I had never taken the drug. I haven’t taken any RA drugs. I took prednisone when I had that first attack, I call it my diagnosis. And actually it was almost, um, one year this month because I remember my full blown episode with Saint Patrick’s Day, we were at a party, i could not walk. I was walking with my husband’s arm because I wasn’t going to use crutches or a walker. I just was walking on his arm and I had to hold my hands really straight on his arm because my hands were so inflamed and so I could hardly use a fork to eat like, that’s how bad that was during that time. Then the prednisone, of course it helped, but I didn’t have a diagnosis until like a month later. And then after the diagnosis, then I was like, oh, you know, this is what’s going on. And then I really started the internet search. And that’s when I found you a few months later in September, and I was like, okay, I have to do this because this guy has been through so much and he came out on the other end successful. I’m like, I can do it too, just show me the way. And you did, you showed me the way. And I’m like, okay, that’s the way. And I listen to you every single time I get on and I’ve only missed a few of your recordings, you know what I mean? Like when we go live and do Zoom and it’s because like my mom’s in the hospital or something like that, I don’t have internet over there, but I listen to you and you say, build strength, build muscles, work out like every single time we get on. That is what you say. You don’t say, oh, don’t eat sugar. You know, you say that every once in a while, eat the program. You say that every once in a while, but every single time we’re on your key words are build muscle, work out. Go for a walk, get in touch, every single time. So I was like, oh, he’s trying to tell me something here. He’s trying to tell me work out. Going for walks is great, riding your bike is great and all that. But building muscle trumps all of that. It really does because I was riding my bike 25 miles. Okay. Yeah. Remember I put in my journal, I ride my bike 25 miles. But you want to know what? That didn’t do it for me because all I did was lose weight and not get better. You know, like those were okay things. But when I really put my heart in going to the gym and I’m going to do that pull up, that’s changed everything. Getting my trainer going and just saying, okay, build muscle, build muscle. And then when you brought Cassandra on, I was like, how can I build more muscle with my food? You know? And she’s like giving me all these tricks of the trades and, you know, telling me eat more lentils. Eat more beans, eat balsamic vinegar on my food because I had a huge amount of digestive problems when I started.

I couldn’t even eat a tablespoon of food without looking like an Ethiopian child with these skinny arms and legs in this huge belly. Oh my God, it was awful, awful, awful. But I was able to get through all of that, and I’m sure it’s because I went to the gym. I am sure that is what’s because nothing else really changed. I was still doing the diet, still doing the same foods, still doing all of that, but working out. And then I started putting on weight and I knew when I started putting on weight, I’m like, oh, this is good. This is good. I’m feeling it now. Then I was able to really build muscle to do the pull up after I started gaining the weight. Yeah. December 11th, between December 11th and now I’ve gained 10lbs. So that’s, you know, that’s pretty good. So I went from like, I think I joined you in September 4th somewhere around there. Um, and I did the program and then I really, really, really got hot and heavy, you know? Um, I mean, I did all that you said, except I got a trainer and really busted my butt to really do that pull up. Like that was our whole, our whole thing to do. And yeah, and that’s, I could see a huge difference after doing that, really going up.

Clint – Within the female group of our community, currently, Lisa, who recovered from Polymyalgia Rheumatica holds the record. She’s done three pull ups. She’s 71 years old. So you’re ten years what, 11, 10 or 11 years younger? Okay.

Kimberly – So two now? Yeah.

Clint – 62. Okay. Okay, so you’ve got her record in your sights, and I put that out there because I know how well you respond to a challenge. So your record is to get to three and then a fraction more. And then you’ll now hold the record for our, for our females in our community. Now your pull-up actually has had 107,000 views on our Instagram page.

Kimberly – Oh my God. Yay, yay, yay. I’m so excited.

Clint – That’s more than like, like the biggest football stadiums, right? Imagine like everyone at an actual Super Bowl watching you do that, like at an actual, the live one. So that’s a lot of people. So clearly there’s an appetite for people to be inspired by others with this awful disease who are doing things that are extraordinary. And that’s why I wanted to have you on today to to have a little bit of your the flavor that you present to the world, the attitude that you have, that kind of the energy and the view on all of this. The world needs more of you because it’s the way that you show up and the way that you make it happen that is so uplifting, which is why so many people respond to that video because it’s aspirational. Everyone wants to be able to do that, especially those of us who have a lot of health conditions, right, dealing with and that’s why it’s awesome. So let’s strive for more we never stop with the physical therapy. It never ends. Right? So I’m now trying to do a muscle up right, which is getting above the bar and pushing up over the top of the bar. Um, and so, you know, our mission is to get a second pull up and then a third, and then we just see how far we can go.

Kimberly – Yeah, I think, I think by the end of your program, like the next six months. Oh, I’ll be able to do it. I know I will because I’m, I’m almost there, getting, you know, I just have to develop my lats a little bit more is what we’re going for. My back just isn’t strong enough. So he’s trying to do that. And then my core develop my core because you wouldn’t believe it. But you need that belly strength in order to lift your arms and pull down with your looking upward like to pull back because the pull up, you know, you can do it like this, but that doesn’t work because that uses your arms. You’ve got to be able to go back and really pull towards the bar and look up and go. So we’re trying to get that all. You know, figured out for me and which muscles are need to be developed next to really get in there. But yeah, it has been just life changing has really given me a focus, a great focus. And so yeah, I’m going to focus on that more and um, in the next six months, I think I’m going to pull some good pull ups out for you. I’m going to I’m going to do it for you. Don’t worry, don’t worry. I’ll be like, yes.

Clint – It’s brilliant. Brilliant. And then I think the other thing we’ve got planned for the next six months in terms of your project is we want to see the we want to just basically see ongoing incredible CRP and SED rate that are so low that it looks like there’s no evidence of any kind of activity at all. Just to build this kind of sail off into the sunset kind of feeling. You haven’t been getting blood tests done because you’ve felt completely symptom-free. Okay so we just want to maybe get a couple under our belt over the next six months and then, uh, yeah, and then you’ll feel like you’ve completely, uh, you know, squashed this, this, this onset of RA has been squashed, and that’s a wonderful place to get to. So thank you very much, Kimberly, for coming on and having a chat and sharing some of your wonderful Kimberly Sparkle to the rest of the world. And it’s a pleasure to work with you and be associated with you and your energy. And thank you for all that you’re doing. It’s inspiring for everyone.

Kimberly – Thank you so much. You do so much for us. Let me tell you, doing this program, I’m so thankful for you finding it, doing it. Oh my God, you’re just wonderful. So thank you.