How Sam Parr Handles Panic Attacks—Plus 4 Interesting Health Insights
At 33, entrepreneur and host of the My First Million Podcast Sam Parr has already established himself as a business leader and investor of the future.
In a recent Hone Community AMA, Parr sat down with Hone Health founder and CEO Saad Alam for an honest conversation around overcoming his alcohol addiction, the steps he took to create—and sell—an eight figure business, and how he built healthy habits to keep his physical and mental health in check.
Overcoming Panic Attacks
Despite hard work to nail down a successful health routine, Parr’s candidness about his struggles with panic attacks—which 11 percent of Americans experience every year—was an inside look at what the humble entrepreneur is still working on.
“I’ve had this panic disorder that I’ve worked really hard to work on but there’s still things I don’t like to do,” Parr said, including flying, subways, and enclosed spaces.
“It’s the next thing that I need to overcome, but it’s the hardest thing I’ve had to overcome,” he said.
When the panic attacks kick in, Parr remembers that, “even though I feel horrible right now, in three minutes I’m going to feel better. I just have to make it to that mark.”
One key strategy Parr uses is deep breathing to calm the nervous system down. “There’s a certain type of breathing where you take a huge breath and then you breathe fully out your mouth, and then blow one more time to calm down your nervous system,” Parr said.
He also takes ashwagandha and magnesium. Ashwagandha is shown to improve stress and anxiety management while magnesium can benefit stress-associated mood and anxiety, and may improve your quality of life (1,2).
Even with these strategies in place, a panic attack is “pretty debilitating”, but, “you have to go through one in order to improve it,” Parr said. “You really have to face your fear.”
“I’ve done a really good job in life of overcoming issues and systematically taking an approach to reverse engineer how to improve and that’s the one thing that I have not kicked its ass,” Parr said, “so that’s what I have to do next.”
Parr has some awesome health habits in place to help him get there. Here’s a few he incorporates into his daily routine.
He’s Nailed Down Nutrition
One step was hiring a nutrition coach through the company My Body Tutor, which keeps you accountable for your daily nutrition while providing tools to improve.
With mindful eating practice, Parr put less focus on sugar and learned to prioritize when to enjoy a sweet treat. But learning about macronutrients, especially protein, was key.
“I try my hardest to eat between 150 and 200 grams of protein a day and I track it all in [the] MyFitnessPal [app],” Parr said.
A typical meal looks like 0.8 pounds of pork with spinach and two pieces of bread, but his favorite thing to eat is “one pound of chicken and one pound of cauliflower.” And if he’s feeling dessert, he’ll eat “lots and lots of fruit,” instead of processed foods,” Parr said.
He Lifts Heavy
“Heavy weightlifting changed the game for me,” Parr said, in particular squats.
“Having a coach and working on squatting, that changes my whole body,” he said. “I only do one rep max maybe once a year, but training as if I’m trying to increase my one rep max, that has been quite game changing.”
Strength training not only improves your body composition, but also builds stronger bones, maintains joint flexibility, and improves balance.
He Loves a Good Ice Bath
Parr is a fan of morning ice baths and typically plunges in 45 to 50 degree Fahrenheit water. “I do it for 10 minutes, three days a week,” almost always at 7:30 or 8 a.m., he said.
He typically doesn’t ice bath on the days he works out, but will sometimes plunge in the morning using The Cold Plunge and work out in the afternoon.
Don’t be surprised to see Parr in the tub with a cup of decaf coffee. “I’ll just sit there for 10 minutes and it’s magical,” Parr said. “It’s addicting.”
Why’s he do it? It wakes him up, improves his mood, and gets him “pumped.”
He’s Tried Semaglutide
Parr says he’s been testing with semaglutide. Originally used to treat type 2 diabetes, research shows semaglutide is effective at increasing weight loss in adults with overweight or obesity (3).
Through testing for around eight to 10 weeks, Parr found it completely erased all desire for sugar.
He describes the effects of semaglutide as someone who can eat one cookie and feel satisfied. “I know what enough feels like,” he said.
One commenter even chimed in the chat saying he’d been using semaglutide for over a year and that it was “amazing.”
You can watch the full AMA with Sam Parr—which covers more on his journey to sobriety, his approach to building a successful business, and more health habits—by joining our Hone Community today. It’s easy, free, and full of great information around treatment and how to live a healthier, longer life.
References
1. Salve, J.; et al. (2019). Adaptogenic and Anxiolytic Effects of Ashwagandha Root Extract in Healthy Adults: A Double-blind, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Clinical Study.
2. Noah, L.; et al. (2021). Effect of magnesium and vitamin B6 supplementation on mental health and quality of life in stressed healthy adults: Post-hoc analysis of a randomised controlled trial.
3. Wilding, J.; et al. (2021). Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity.
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