September 15, 2023 • 9 mins
Author Jimmy Peña talks new book and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're on with Mario.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Lopez Teba Mario Lopez joining me all in studio, author
and founder of Pray Fit and a friend of mine,
My guy Jimmy Benya. Welcome to the show man.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I've been good, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thanks for taking the time to come. We were recently
hanging out at my golf tournament earlier this year and
you got to kick with Michael Benya another Panya.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It was awesome. I was like, we're cousins.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
He's a real nice guy and I appreciate you always
coming to support. Congratulations on the new book, Finding Respite. Yeah, man,
that sounds nice. Wait what was the inspiration for this one? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, you know this is book nine?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Is that right? Book nine?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, it's the first self publishing book I've ever done.
But it's number nine.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
That's for you.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
We're getting up there. We did some books together.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We of course, we did some books together. We'll have
to do some more later on as I hit the
fifth level. Because you know what, you're going to get
a kick out of this this morning, for example, I
did it on an interview because your boy is going
to be on the cover of AARP.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Why are you laughing?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Here's the thing. I'm embracing it.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Why are you laughing?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, Well, because.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm embracing it. Because that whole dad Bod narrative and.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
The whole fifty or over the hill. I want to
squash all that. Just because you're hitting the fifth level.
You should still be rage against the dying of the light.
That's exactly it, man, That's exactly it. We should still
be now. Listen, we got to start monitoring and maybe
dialing back on certain things. But there's no way you
still can't look and feel your best right.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
You're still gonna fight. You're still gonna fight.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's a faith battle, that's exactly it. So talk a
little bit about the book and the message exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So Finding Respite, you know, unlike some of the books
that we, you know, wrote together, this is not a
how to book. Finding Respite is more of a it's
more of a diary. It's it's not a it's not
a roadmap of how to navigate health and fitness and suffering.
It's more of a compass.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Uh. You know.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
David Brooks talks about the idea of suffering really well.
He says, suffering is like having, you know, you get
thrown down through the floor of your soul through a
cavity below, and then you go through that floor and
then you reach another cavity until you're in this unknown
world that you can't you can't control anything down there,
and it's like you're in a straight jacket. And that's suffering.
(02:22):
And so I talk about faith and fitness meeting grace
and stuffering. You know, I come from the fitness world,
you know I come from and then I helped, you know,
launch the faith in fitness world, and then I went
through some tough stuff physically, you know, you know, some
of the woes from the spinal disorder.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Which is ironic because you were in that space prior
to you dealing with it. Suffering, I can.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Say absolutely, And it wasn't like the normal, like we
we grit through, we can gut through suffering. This I'm
talking about life altering, disorienting, suffering. And so I wanted
to write a diary that kind of looked at it
from a health and fitness point of view. What happens
to the fitness minded when suffering occurs. And so I
(03:05):
broke it up into three sections. First, suffering breaks us
and then suffering shapes us, and in the end, suffering
sends us and that first section suffering breaks us. Talks
about going through those floors of our soul like David
Brooks talks about, and really it's one of those things
like you can't fight through you can't like your achilles
and you remember your Achilles injury. How can you forget right?
(03:26):
Imagine imagine your whole body being an Achilles tendon that's
torn and you can't do anything about it. Ever, who
would want to be around Mario if he could never train,
like you wouldn't want to be around yourself.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I'm still pretty charming, I have to say.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Actually, when he did that, he had a peg leg
for a while, so it was kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, that wasn't the only
thing I've torn. I've also turned my rotator, Kevin. I've
also turned my biceps, so I too, not to your degree,
and it's different, but I to know about setbacks and
overcoming them, and it does become more of a mental
battle and somewhat of a faith battle too. And you
say health is a faith battle.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, and that's true. It's a faith battle and it's
often fought privately, painfully, and with worn out tools. You
know you're you're those injuries that you talked about, they're
like mile markers. You get you have to take the
off ramp and and heal and then you get back on.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Sometimes good analogy.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Sometimes we encounter situations that prevent us from ever getting
back on. And So during the years that this kind
of this book was being written in my mind and heart,
I was able to engage and be exposed to kids
and families impacted by special needs and disabilities. Traveled the
world uh providing wheelchairs from Brazil to Israel, Romania, Uganda,
(04:40):
and then here locally helping kids with respite programs and
families impacted with disabilities. And so through the whole decade,
as I'm leaving the fitness industry and encountering suffering and
going through chronic illness, it spoke to me like health
is a gift. Health is a gift. You don't you
don't deserve health, but you can definitely waste health. You
can't take it for granted, you can't say absolutely. And
(05:02):
so I thought, you know what, why don't I write
this book, this compass of a book and kind of
show this different stages that I have found and it's
in those in that dark place where we're shaped like
because you know what, suffering brought out the worst in me.
It can bring out some of the worst character traits
that showed my pride, my anger, my lust. I mean,
it really just brought out those things to the surface,
(05:24):
and so it breaks us. It can shape us, and
then it ultimately it can send us. You know, if
I get up off the canvas, which by the grace
of God I did I realize, Huh, I was too proud.
It humbles you and getting up off the canvas is
a gift of grace. I couldn't get up on my own.
And that's what's those those days of suffering taught me
and so broken.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
God pick it up.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So those are those days, those days of suffering taught me.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You know, I often say here on the show that
health should be your number one priority because if you
don't have that, what good is anything else? And I
think in those times too, I really do feel in
those times of darkness and when you're down and whatever
your struggles may be, you need to turn to something
that's a little stronger and bigger than you. And spiritually,
(06:17):
for me, that's made a lot of sense. If someone
is looking to to maybe find something to to to
search for something bigger than them, to maybe serve others,
to even help themselves, but they don't.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Know what to start, what would you suggest, Well, to
your point, nothing will drive you to something stronger than
pain and suffering. Nothing will drive you to God like suffering.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Even if you don't believe you're somebody starts praying real
quick when they get when they you start getting in
a dark place, all of a sudden, you trust start praying,
really start.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
You start realizing, you know what, I'm pretty small, I'm
pretty frail, pretty in need of God and others, and
so you start leaning on I think a big mistake
that we make is that we we think that we're
you know, we can gut through it, or we don't
need help, but or you don't look to the right places.
In other words, like I said, it doesn't always work
out this well this way. I was talking to a
(07:11):
founder of a charity, and I was telling in fact,
I mentioned you and some of the projects that we've
done over the years and all the things, and I
mentioned my pretty much my whole resume, and then he
looked at me and he says, you know, you've done
some really cool things, but what would your life look
like if it really turned out?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I'm like, what a slap in the face was that? Seriously,
and he was making a point of you know, you
might be at your halftime now make it work, and
I didn't. It didn't click with me then, But now
I know I wasted so much of my health on fitness.
I wasted so much of my good days focusing on me,
and I think that's a mistake. And I want others
(07:45):
to realize, hey, listen, yes, take care of yourself, but
make certain that you're serving others while you're at it.
While you do it, and get involved with your local
community like you do with the Boys and Girls club,
Get involved with your church, get involved with community, do outreach.
That's what I would do differently.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
The same time. It sures you and you feel better
and it builds you know what I mean. And I'm
trying to do that more with with my kids now too.
So that's a great message of the book I know
is available on audible. Did you read it yourself?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I did?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Was it was it difficult to sort of revisit those times?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
It was emotional it's it's it was pretty tough. You know.
I'm an emotional god. I'm sentimental, you know, as you
know by the way, coming up on your fifth level.
Two years ago, he said, Hey, pen I'm gonna take
you out for your dinner, your fiftieth dinner. I'll be
fifty two. Hey, for some reason, you didn't have to
write a book to come in here.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Brandy, I told you you and Bobo your wife are
invited any time. Sounds like, yeah, I have been, see
ben Yah. See another thing. That another thing that I
and listen and I get happy when we're both really
really busy. Because you're busy means you're working when a
lot of people aren't. And I'm happy about that. I'm
(08:57):
happy that and I feel blessed to be working when
I know a lot of people aren't. So that's the
only thing. It's not like I blow off my dad, Panya.
You know what, Oh Benya, I'm just.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Showing on the couch.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Screwped yea no, no, no, busy kids, life goes in
the way. But I'm telling you right now on air,
open invite you pick a weekend. Let me know it's
got to a weekend because I don't go out on
school night anymore. It's got to be a weekend Friday
and Saturday.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
At some point in the next ten years, it'll happen Friday.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
We'll do a double birthday thing, but my tree deal.
Congratulations on the book. It sounds great. You can get
Finding Respite on Audible or wherever you get books, Benya.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Thanks for hanging out Manu with Mario Lopez
You're on with Mario.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Lopez Teba Mario Lopez joining me all in studio, author
and founder of Pray Fit and a friend of mine,
My guy Jimmy Benya. Welcome to the show man.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I've been good, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thanks for taking the time to come. We were recently
hanging out at my golf tournament earlier this year and
you got to kick with Michael Benya another Panya.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It was awesome. I was like, we're cousins.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
He's a real nice guy and I appreciate you always
coming to support. Congratulations on the new book, Finding Respite. Yeah, man,
that sounds nice. Wait what was the inspiration for this one? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah, you know this is book nine?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Is that right? Book nine?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, it's the first self publishing book I've ever done.
But it's number nine.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
That's for you.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
We're getting up there. We did some books together.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We of course, we did some books together. We'll have
to do some more later on as I hit the
fifth level. Because you know what, you're going to get
a kick out of this this morning, for example, I
did it on an interview because your boy is going
to be on the cover of AARP.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Why are you laughing?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Here's the thing. I'm embracing it.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Why are you laughing?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, Well, because.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm embracing it. Because that whole dad Bod narrative and.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
The whole fifty or over the hill. I want to
squash all that. Just because you're hitting the fifth level.
You should still be rage against the dying of the light.
That's exactly it, man, That's exactly it. We should still
be now. Listen, we got to start monitoring and maybe
dialing back on certain things. But there's no way you
still can't look and feel your best right.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
You're still gonna fight. You're still gonna fight.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
It's a faith battle, that's exactly it. So talk a
little bit about the book and the message exactly.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So Finding Respite, you know, unlike some of the books
that we, you know, wrote together, this is not a
how to book. Finding Respite is more of a it's
more of a diary. It's it's not a it's not
a roadmap of how to navigate health and fitness and suffering.
It's more of a compass.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Uh. You know.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
David Brooks talks about the idea of suffering really well.
He says, suffering is like having, you know, you get
thrown down through the floor of your soul through a
cavity below, and then you go through that floor and
then you reach another cavity until you're in this unknown
world that you can't you can't control anything down there,
and it's like you're in a straight jacket. And that's suffering.
(02:22):
And so I talk about faith and fitness meeting grace
and stuffering. You know, I come from the fitness world,
you know I come from and then I helped, you know,
launch the faith in fitness world, and then I went
through some tough stuff physically, you know, you know, some
of the woes from the spinal disorder.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Which is ironic because you were in that space prior
to you dealing with it. Suffering, I can.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Say absolutely, And it wasn't like the normal, like we
we grit through, we can gut through suffering. This I'm
talking about life altering, disorienting, suffering. And so I wanted
to write a diary that kind of looked at it
from a health and fitness point of view. What happens
to the fitness minded when suffering occurs. And so I
(03:05):
broke it up into three sections. First, suffering breaks us
and then suffering shapes us, and in the end, suffering
sends us and that first section suffering breaks us. Talks
about going through those floors of our soul like David
Brooks talks about, and really it's one of those things
like you can't fight through you can't like your achilles
and you remember your Achilles injury. How can you forget right?
(03:26):
Imagine imagine your whole body being an Achilles tendon that's
torn and you can't do anything about it. Ever, who
would want to be around Mario if he could never train,
like you wouldn't want to be around yourself.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I'm still pretty charming, I have to say.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Actually, when he did that, he had a peg leg
for a while, so it was kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, that wasn't the only
thing I've torn. I've also turned my rotator, Kevin. I've
also turned my biceps, so I too, not to your degree,
and it's different, but I to know about setbacks and
overcoming them, and it does become more of a mental
battle and somewhat of a faith battle too. And you
say health is a faith battle.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, and that's true. It's a faith battle and it's
often fought privately, painfully, and with worn out tools. You
know you're you're those injuries that you talked about, they're
like mile markers. You get you have to take the
off ramp and and heal and then you get back on.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Sometimes good analogy.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Sometimes we encounter situations that prevent us from ever getting
back on. And So during the years that this kind
of this book was being written in my mind and heart,
I was able to engage and be exposed to kids
and families impacted by special needs and disabilities. Traveled the
world uh providing wheelchairs from Brazil to Israel, Romania, Uganda,
(04:40):
and then here locally helping kids with respite programs and
families impacted with disabilities. And so through the whole decade,
as I'm leaving the fitness industry and encountering suffering and
going through chronic illness, it spoke to me like health
is a gift. Health is a gift. You don't you
don't deserve health, but you can definitely waste health. You
can't take it for granted, you can't say absolutely. And
(05:02):
so I thought, you know what, why don't I write
this book, this compass of a book and kind of
show this different stages that I have found and it's
in those in that dark place where we're shaped like
because you know what, suffering brought out the worst in me.
It can bring out some of the worst character traits
that showed my pride, my anger, my lust. I mean,
it really just brought out those things to the surface,
(05:24):
and so it breaks us. It can shape us, and
then it ultimately it can send us. You know, if
I get up off the canvas, which by the grace
of God I did I realize, Huh, I was too proud.
It humbles you and getting up off the canvas is
a gift of grace. I couldn't get up on my own.
And that's what's those those days of suffering taught me
and so broken.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
God pick it up.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So those are those days, those days of suffering taught me.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You know, I often say here on the show that
health should be your number one priority because if you
don't have that, what good is anything else? And I
think in those times too, I really do feel in
those times of darkness and when you're down and whatever
your struggles may be, you need to turn to something
that's a little stronger and bigger than you. And spiritually,
(06:17):
for me, that's made a lot of sense. If someone
is looking to to maybe find something to to to
search for something bigger than them, to maybe serve others,
to even help themselves, but they don't.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Know what to start, what would you suggest, Well, to
your point, nothing will drive you to something stronger than
pain and suffering. Nothing will drive you to God like suffering.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Even if you don't believe you're somebody starts praying real
quick when they get when they you start getting in
a dark place, all of a sudden, you trust start praying,
really start.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
You start realizing, you know what, I'm pretty small, I'm
pretty frail, pretty in need of God and others, and
so you start leaning on I think a big mistake
that we make is that we we think that we're
you know, we can gut through it, or we don't
need help, but or you don't look to the right places.
In other words, like I said, it doesn't always work
out this well this way. I was talking to a
(07:11):
founder of a charity, and I was telling in fact,
I mentioned you and some of the projects that we've
done over the years and all the things, and I
mentioned my pretty much my whole resume, and then he
looked at me and he says, you know, you've done
some really cool things, but what would your life look
like if it really turned out?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well?
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I'm like, what a slap in the face was that? Seriously,
and he was making a point of you know, you
might be at your halftime now make it work, and
I didn't. It didn't click with me then, But now
I know I wasted so much of my health on fitness.
I wasted so much of my good days focusing on me,
and I think that's a mistake. And I want others
(07:45):
to realize, hey, listen, yes, take care of yourself, but
make certain that you're serving others while you're at it.
While you do it, and get involved with your local
community like you do with the Boys and Girls club,
Get involved with your church, get involved with community, do outreach.
That's what I would do differently.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
The same time. It sures you and you feel better
and it builds you know what I mean. And I'm
trying to do that more with with my kids now too.
So that's a great message of the book I know
is available on audible. Did you read it yourself?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
I did?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Was it was it difficult to sort of revisit those times?
Speaker 1 (08:15):
It was emotional it's it's it was pretty tough. You know.
I'm an emotional god. I'm sentimental, you know, as you
know by the way, coming up on your fifth level.
Two years ago, he said, Hey, pen I'm gonna take
you out for your dinner, your fiftieth dinner. I'll be
fifty two. Hey, for some reason, you didn't have to
write a book to come in here.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Brandy, I told you you and Bobo your wife are
invited any time. Sounds like, yeah, I have been, see
ben Yah. See another thing. That another thing that I
and listen and I get happy when we're both really
really busy. Because you're busy means you're working when a
lot of people aren't. And I'm happy about that. I'm
(08:57):
happy that and I feel blessed to be working when
I know a lot of people aren't. So that's the
only thing. It's not like I blow off my dad, Panya.
You know what, Oh Benya, I'm just.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Showing on the couch.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Screwped yea no, no, no, busy kids, life goes in
the way. But I'm telling you right now on air,
open invite you pick a weekend. Let me know it's
got to a weekend because I don't go out on
school night anymore. It's got to be a weekend Friday
and Saturday.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
At some point in the next ten years, it'll happen Friday.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
We'll do a double birthday thing, but my tree deal.
Congratulations on the book. It sounds great. You can get
Finding Respite on Audible or wherever you get books, Benya.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Thanks for hanging out Manu with Mario Lopez
Host
Mario Lopez
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