Posts Tagged ‘Spinal Decompression Maple Ridge’

This is me every day. If I didn't have powerful tools at my disposal, I wouldn't survive.

Do you ever feel that instead of life getting easier, it seems to get more complicated?   Do you ever catch yourself thinking “remember when things used to be simple?”

This year, I made a commitment to step outside my comfort zone and expand my reach.  As I did, I noticed the challenges seemed to pile up.  Trying to juggle running one of the Greater Vancouver’s largest Multi-Disciplinary Healing Centres, while having a busy patient load,  all the while speaking, writing, and coaching—and trying to balance all that with my married life (Happy wife- happy life)—let me tell you it isn’t easy.  I know you are busy too–going through your own specific challenges… if you have kids you’re probably thinking “Nima, you think you’re stressed now….wait until you have children!”

Breakthrough moment

I remember a time back this summer where I felt like my back was up against a wall.  That the world was caving in.  I remember feeling overwhelmed with the stresses of life… it was affecting my sleep and my relationships and overall enjoyment of life.  I then had an “aha” moment.

In every moment, you are either in crisis/survival mode or you are in a growth/repair/creation state.  You can’t be in both at the same time.  I had been bogged down so much that I stopped practicing what I preach.  So as the saying goes… “those that can’t do… TEACH”… I decided to turn my “mess” into my “Message”.

I started writing about the stress I was going through.  I started researching what these uninspiring, repetitive, destructive thoughts were doing to my mind and body.  What I discovered changed my life.   I poured my thoughts onto paper.  I realized that I could turn all the knowledge I had in my brain, organize it into a simple format—and then teach it to others and help save some lives.  But first I had to practice what I preached.  Let me explain to you what I mean.

What is stress?

In an ever-changing environment, you’re either adapting to the changes, or you are resisting them.  Stress comes from an inability to ADAPT to a changing environment.  It’s really that simple.  Yet so difficult.

Stress can come from being married to a woman for 10 years and then one day discovering that her work as a grocery store attendant was really a cover up for the CIA.  Stress can come from discovering that a relative you have been on bad terms with has suddenly died, and you are now faced with the guilt of not mending things in a life that’s way too short.  Stress comes from all of a sudden being faced with a change in your life.  But pre-historically, we didn’t have to worry about work, marital issues, financial problems.  Our main challenges were about finding food, and avoiding becoming food, or attack by another tribe.  Either you adapt to the changes in the environment, or you die.  Period.

As a Chiropractor in Maple Ridge, I have to be keenly aware of this reality when a patient shows up in my office.  I can see it in their eyes, I can feel it in the tension in their spine on palpation… Most people are in a chronic fight or flight state.  For months to years at a time.  You don’t have to look to hard—if you examine the overall state of health in our society, we’re on a progressive downward spiral.  I can remember a few weeks this year where I layed in my bed in a state of fear and panic about the challenges I had to face every single day.  It got so overwhelming that I had to step back into the basics.

What’s in store for you in 2011

It was exactly what I needed.  In this 5-part series called “Stressbusters”, I show you specifically what tools and strategies I used.  It was so fulfilling, I had to share it with the world.  My goal is that you will participate with me over the next several weeks as each episode is launched, and give me feedback on how you’ve been progressing.

My mission is to share with the planet the truth—that chemical imbalances in the mind and body that produce illness are mostly under our control.  This can only happen if we first realize the power that lies in the choices we make in how we eat, move, and think—and the state of connection between our brain and the 70-100 trillion cells of our body.  Since Dr. means “teacher” it’s my intention to teach the world this truth.  I want to teach you to become a better adapter to the inevitable changes of your life.

I’m also going to be starting a new series of workshops at the end of each month at the Westgate Wellness Centre called “Stressbuster Workshops” where I will teach powerful tools that I’ve learned to help me overcome the adversities of life.  And I never run out of opportunities to use the tools with the setbacks I perceive every day.  Every great teacher I know has one thing in common: They are students—and so as I learn more tools, I expand my reach and teach more.  It’s been a fun ride so far, and I’m ready to help people take it to the next level in these fun and dynamic workshops.  January 29^th we begin with “Getting excited about your depression”.  We’ll be adding more workshops as the year unfolds, but some more topics will include

Overcoming grief, heartbreak and loss,

The dynamics of anxiety and depression and how to transcend it,

Finding your values and understanding the values of your loved ones,

Overcome relationship conflicts

Letting go of Past Trauma

How to not take things so personally

Stress, Food Addictions, and Weight Loss

I can’t wait to teach this stuff.  To be honest everything I teach is really for me.  I guess it’s true—those that can’t do—teach.  And selfishly, as I teach you to become a better adapter to the inevitable challenges of life– I heal and adapt to my challenges too.  Enjoy the first episode.  Many thanks to Nina from Oh Just Peachy Studios for her great work and guidance.

It’s finally over.  This is the first time I’ve ever participated in a competition like this.  Originally, it was Paul’s idea to get off his derriere because it seems that if he didn’t tie in his lifestyle change to his highest priority—his internet blogging business—then he would continue his downward spiral towards obesity and poor health.  I was up for the challenge—I mean—who couldn’t afford to lose a few pounds and lean up?  I got on board so that I could experience first hand the challenges that people face when trying to change their destructive habits and lose weight and get healthier.  Boy did I ever get more learning that I bargained for.  I will share and summarize with you some of  those strategies.  In fact I’m now going to dedicate my life to teaching them.

Who won?

Here are the gruesome before and after pics, as well as the final weigh in shown above .  I started at over 172 pounds, and I ended up with 161.2.  I realized that I could have even done better if we had a bigger “why” and a tougher goal to reach.  Anyone can lose 10 pounds (or 6% of their body weight) if they really wanted to.

As you can see… 10 pounds doesn’t look significantly different.  But it did account for my clothes fitting much looser, especially my pants.  It’s nice to not feel as self conscious about my gut anymore.  Still there is work to be done.

We went to visit Peter at bodycomp.ca for our “progress report” scan.  Since we did our first body fat scan 2 weeks into our competition, I had already lost half the weight—it would have been great to see the difference if we got the scan before it started.

The results were quite revealing.  It showed that even though I lost around 5 pounds since the scan 6 weeks ago, I also lost .7% body fat– around 2.5 pounds of fat off my mid section.  This picture underneath shows what that looks like approximately. I promise you I wasn’t sucking in my gut!

BUT….I also lost around that much muscle!  BUSTED!

So the revealing fact is—IT REALLY DOESN’T MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WEIGH.  It’s all about body composition.  These scans tell more the truth of the story.

Taken from Paulymath.com-- the fat I had lost around my mid section was the equivalent to 5 of these sticks of butter!

Here’s the truth:  I didn’t go crazy with the muscle building, as surprised as you may be from seeing the pictures  I didn’t increase my workout routine. In fact due to some trips– the workouts decreased.  I was finding that the early morning workouts didn’t work for me, so I did what I did before—worked them into my schedule and didn’t really change that—except because of my schedule they lessened.  So this competition was mainly a dietary shift for me to get over my carb addiction. My exercise regimen was simply to get my body moving, heart rate pumping, and get a healthy dose (minimally) of resistance exercise.  Plus, I wasn’t packing in the protein like you should if you want to increase muscle mass.  From the results of the scans, my muscle mass even decreased around my legs– as a result of me reducing my resistance workouts.

The scan reveals to me that if I want to trim down and put on muscle, I can do so easily (if I have a big enough “why”)— i.e. If Calvin Klein wanted me for their spring underwear catalogue (and pay me big bucks to do so), here’s what I would do:

1)Increase my protein intake with protein shakes.

2) Start doing more heavy duty interval sprints

3) Add in a day or two extra days of resistance exercises for entire body

And then the fun part is to do a scan six weeks later to see the change.  The most empowering part of doing the scans is that it gives you ongoing feedback so that you can see how your daily choices impact your overall results.  Plus, if you’re lucky enough to get a great guy like Peter—he’s a wealth of knowledge about diet and exercise to maximize the results you are looking for.  He works with some elite people who make it their business to look the part.

Your body is a dynamic process that is still unfolding

In other words, if you look in the mirror RIGHT NOW, then what’s staring at you is your history.  From your body weight, to muscle mass, to your financial situation, to your relationship status, even your overall health—everything staring back at you right now is a result of the choices you’ve been making up until now.

“Should I eat the salad or the french fries?”

“Should I spend my money or invest it in myself?”

“Should I be in this relationship because I want to—or is it because I’m afraid of being alone?”

“Should I watch TV tonight or exercise?”

“Should I take these pills or actually try to SOLVE the problem I’m taking the pills for?”

We live in a society where we love to blame our current life situation on others– our parents, our employers, or on the government, and give external influences all our power to hold us back.

The body scan was an “aha” moment for me—To know that I have choices in how my body heals, grows, and re-creates itself.  It’s happening to you right now.  You lose 10 million cells every second, and every second you regain 10 million more, but as they grow, they are gathering information from the environment, and that will dictate if the cells grow towards strength, balance, and health, or towards imbalance, illness, and disease.  I ask my patients this all the time:  Right now, which direction are you heading towards?  (FYI—the stressful thoughts we have actually cause the cells to move towards illness and disease).

So are you going to go crazy on carbs again, Nima?

I think we’re all working towards finding a healthy balance of eating mostly the “right” foods.  I estimated that over the past 8 weeks, without an increase in my exercise, I ate 95% perfectly as a paleolithic hunter gatherer would, with a couple of trips I took where I wasn’t a very good boy, and I still managed to lose weight.

I’m going to stick to my plan:  Eat 90% of foods that are REAL, start with the real stuff (salads, proteins, chicken, meats preferably from organic sources), and then portion control the carbs.  Instead of binging on cookies once a week, and then punishing yourself, why not just stop at 3 bites and stick to that?  Repressing your desires leads to some ugly manifestations.

What’s most impressive to me is that Paul seems to have really caught on and has become inspired to make a permanent healthy change in his life.  I’m going to publicly challenge him to keep it up.  He admitted that before the competition, he was drinking 4 cans of coke per day.  PER DAY!  That’s around 32 teaspoons of sugar.  That’s just in his drinks.  Never mind the other habits.  He cut that down dramatically, but admits he didn’t cut it out.

What’s been inspiring to me is to hear your stories.  I’ve had many chiropractic patients in Maple Ridge and beyond and readers of my blog tell me that this competition I’m participating in has inspired them to take action to lead healthier lives.  Many have lost weight and started exercising themselves.  That’s huge for me.  I guess Michael Jackson was right:

“If you want to make the world a better place

take a look at yourself and then make the change.” -MJ

Dr. Nima’s tips to get you started on losing weight and changing unhealthy habits:

1)   Start by ADDING.  If you are ready for the suffering involved in the first few weeks of cutting carbs and junk cold turkey, and your why is big enough, then be my guest.  Otherwise you will fail.  So start by adding salads, veggies and some fruits BEFORE you reach for the junk.

2)   Plan your meals.  If you don’t plan what you’re going to be eating that day—and when, then you when your blood sugar gets too low, your will power is GONE.  You hear me?  GONE.  And what’s readily available to you when the cravings come?  You guessed it… starbucks and McDonalds.  There goes your whole day.

3)   Research “Paleolithic” diet.  You can pretty much paleolithically all day and you won’t be suffering any cravings.

4)   Start moving, and increase your motion.  If you want to really burn the fat, then do your research in “Burst” or “Surge” or “Interval” training.  It’s all the same thing.

5)   Observe your stress and learn tools to overcome it that don’t involve medicating or self medicating.  Be healthy for a cause that’s greater than for yourself.  Otherwise your unhealthy habits and addictions will take you over.

This is exactly why I’m now expanding my reach to inform the world in a very simple and fun way about the devastating effects of stress on the body, and strategies we can use every day to overcome it.  Stress is at the underlying root cause of most food addictions and weight gain as well as every other health problem… so why not learn to attack it from it’s root cause?  I present to you in the next couple of days….the beginning of my 5 part series called “Stressbusters”.  Please feel free to retweet, comment, like, and share.  And let me know what else you would like some guidance and information on!

Holy cow.  Just look back on this year.  All the stuff you went through.  The ups, the downs, the highs and the lows.  If you were like me, you had some pretty high highs…. And some low-low’s.

For me, 2010 represented a huge growth cycle for me.  Things are always transforming around the office, new staff, some amazing transformative breakthroughs in healing with some patients, and some pretty bitter disappointments (just like in your life as well as mine).

We just had our staff Christmas party.  I sat down with each of the people I work with and asked them all the same question.  I’m going to ask you the same.

“What did you learn from your experiences in 2010?”

The answers were all different, but profound, and they are universally true, so I would like for you to gain wisdom from the wisdom gained by my team this past year.

“I learned not to take my health for granted”.

This was from someone who spent a great deal of the early part of the year injured, so she couldn’t work.  She started taking better care of herself, put her own health as a priority, made some better choices which supported that, and saw the transformation.  Notice how it was through this challenge that she learned her lesson.

“I learned that life is short, and to let go of needing to control every part of my life”.

This was shared by my assistant Bobbi, who’s little baby (who happened to be the cutest old dog) Hyde suffered a rapid decline of health.  She was by his side every single day for the last few months of his life and came back with her usual amazing spirit after he passed away— only to realize that when one baby was gone—another was on the way.  She’s used to being in control of all areas of her life and this was something that her and her partner didn’t have in the immediate plans.  Big lesson.  Notice how this learning can only occur through a challenge of this magnitude.

There were some other lessons that were drawn from the challenges my team was facing in their lives:

“Our family’s struggles brought us closer”.

This one team member’s family dug themselves out of an unexpected debt by sticking together and planning and strategizing.

“I need to maintain a good sense of balance”

This was something that one of my team said she realized after trying to do too much of one thing. 

“Also, instead of putting off things, I’m now taking action.”

“I learned to stay present”

This last one was what one of my team said after going through some health and well-being challenges with her daughter.

After seeing the effects of Parkinson’s disease gradually take over his ability to move, one of our team member’s husband said that he is

“letting go of my need for control”

and he’s learning to

“Allow”.

Pat, after digging deep to find herself in a theatrical role she had to play this year as a hobby, said what she learned from that challenging role was to

“Be authentic to myself.”

One of our team’s wives faced some health challenges that rendered her to be unsafe to drive a vehicle.  Her lesson for this year was

“I can be who I am and not have to follow society’s ideas of who I should be.”

So now I present you with Westgate Wellness Centre’s Secrets to fullfillment that has been learned from 2010.  Let’s have some fun and call it “Westgate’s 9 commandments to abundant wisdom.”  Remember, these people, special as we all are, don’t possess anything different than you possess within yourself.

Westgate’s 9 Commandments to Abundant Wisdom gathered from 2010:

1)   Do Not Taketh Thy Health For Granted

2)   Thou Shalt be aware that life is Shorteth rather than Longeth.  We will all be deadeth some day.

3)   Thou can’t possibly be in controleth of every aspect of lifeth.  So Alloweth.

4)   Thou Shalt Maketh thine struggles an opportunity to bringeth thine family togethered. (?)

5)   Thou Shalt Maintaineth a sense of balance in thine lifeth.

6)   Thou Shalt raise yourself off thine asseth and taketh some action.

7)   Thou Shalt stay present.  Good lucketh with that one!

8)   Thou Shalt be authentic to thineself

9)   While Thou art being thine authentic self, be not overly concernedeth for the opinions and expectations of others.

The 10^th commandment I saved special for you.  It came from my grandfather, who’s almost 91 years old.  I asked him the same question: “Grandpa, what did you learn in 2010?”

His response had me in stitches with laughter.  He said “There’s no more lessons to learn.  The challenge is trying not to forget what I’ve already learned.”

It’s actually funnier in Farsi.  But I’m sure you get it.  His body is weakening but his mind is still sharp as a tack.

Stay tuned… on my next posting I’ll update my transformation challenge and share the lessons I’ve learned in this pivotal year of my life.  Some of my lessons will help you too, I’m sure.

I’m asking for your input:  What lessons did 2010 give you?  What challenges did you go through to learn them?  Please post a comment below.  You never know how your lesson will help someone else.

There’s only a little over 2 weeks left in the competition.  Paul just posted on his blog that he’s reached his target already… he’s already lost 6% of his body fat by weight measurement (if you recall we through out our body fat % scale as it’s a piece of useless inaccurate crap).

I’ve reached my initial goal as well—but like many things in my life, I suffer from the “it ain’t good enough” disease.  I wonder if there’s a pill for that—maybe I should create one and market it.  Does anyone share this disorder with me?  No matter how good you do, it just ain’t good enough– More on this later.

Have you found your soul mate but are now trying to change them every day?  Are you earning the dollar amount that you had in mind 10 years ago, but still it’s not enough to make ends meet?  Or in my case, did you reach a goal—a weight loss challenge and still manage to find a way to beat up a part of yourself for it?  Or am I the only one with this “disease”?

I just recently came back from a retreat/course with other Doctors of Chiroractic.  I knew that sticking to my paleolithic hunter-gatherer diet was going to be difficult while on the road, but I didn’t think it was going to be this impossible!  One of the doctors who was there was a gal from Boston who was a regular follower of my blog.  I would catch her looking at my plate when I took a dessert and shaking her head and saying “what about your competition?  I thought you were off carbs!  That looks like carbs to me!”  My first reaction was to say “shut up b____!”  but then again that was probably the carbs talking.

First time I was up in this altitude 8600ft for so long. I was wondering why a 30 second walk to the conference center was causing me such grief.

The course was called “Total Solution” in the Mountains just outside Colorado Springs… Designed as a retreat, plus a training for Westgate Wellness Centre’s brand new “Insight” machine that measures how your body is storing stress, and how your body’s adapting to stress.  The reason why I bought the machine is because I’m branching out in my influence to become an authority and expert on my favorite topic– Stress.

Since we all know that 75-90% of the reason why you are visiting the doctor is because of Stress, I want to specialize in early detection of the devastating effects of stress—both in the Nervous system, and globally throughout the body.   This machine called the “Subluxation Station” does just that.  If I can catch it early and measure how your autonomic nervous system (the part of your Nervous System that is responsible for your stress response) is functioning, we can work out a strategy that will enable you to move towards balance, before you’re forced to do it after a devastating diagnosis of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, you name it.  We can make lifestyle recommendations to correct something even before it shows up in a blood test.  How frikking cool is that?

This 5-day course was to train me on how to use the technology and interpret the results so I can be a better doctor to my patients.

A few of my new "TS Bastards" family. I love them all-- SMTO (some more than others)

Let’s just say I got way more than I bargained for.  This turned out to be a personal development seminar as well.  Not only was it enlightening for me, but I would watch doctors from around the world, young and old, break through some of their own personal stories that have held them back.  I would even help coach some of them through their stories until they got to the point that there’s nothing they would change about their lives.  It was uplifting for all of us.  I made some lifetime friends.  I love them all—some more than others (that’s our little inside joke).  The biggest aha moment I had was a bit of a breakthrough for me, and I thought it was so valuable that I wanted to share it — for those of you having challenges with your relationship with money.  Have you ever found yourself to be in a “Scarcity Mentality?”– in other words, fear that you don’t or won’t have enough?  That’s been my biggest challenge for the past few years even though I know it’s absolutely ridiculous.

I pride myself in constantly striving to grow and learn more about myself and become a better communicator.  I have read countless books and taken courses on personal growth, on business success, on relationships, on money, on health… but the one thing that plagued me was the disease of “never enough”… because I discovered that despite all my efforts, I still struggle with a “scarcity” mentality… fear of lack.

I watched my father work for great companies that started to struggle in difficult economic times throughout his career, which drove me to want to be my own boss.  I watched my family’s nest egg disappear with the collapse of the stock market in the earlier part of this millenia.  I graduated with a $100,000 student debt (that was 10 years ago remember) at the age of 25 and felt it was a dark cloud that followed me around.  Pretty crazy how strong my scarcity mentality has been.  I’ve been in denial about it all this time.

The upside of my perceived scarcities

Now, my scarcity mentality has had it’s benefits:  I’ve managed (along with my staff and associates of course) to turn the company I own around—when I first started at Westgate, the previous owner was borrowing Peter to pay Paul.  He would often ask me to hold on to my paycheque a few days before depositing it.  Slowly, over time, Westgate started to turn around, and now, 3 years after I bought the clinic (another huge debt I took on), Westgate Wellness Centre won the 2010 “Business Excellence Award—under 20 employees” category with the Maple Ridge Chamber of Commerce.  The fun part was knowing that all the other companies nominated are run by patients of mine.  (or should I say former patients?)  We’ve had the most successful year in the history of the clinic.  So what’s holding me back from letting go of my scarcity mentality?

I got my answer.  We had a brilliant young entrepeneur, who was a millionaire by the age of 26– he’s now 32– Garrett Gunderson (author of Bestseller “Killing Sacred Cows”) show up to talk to us about creating value for our clients and answer questions about the business side of our profession—the part that we often just neglect.  We assume that we have to be loving/caring healers, and that includes us having to become martyrs and not expect a fair compensation for the value we give in exchange (huge contradiction).  And when we start investing in stocks, mutual funds, houses and rental properties for the purpose of expanding our wealth, we are only distracting ourselves from our Soul Purpose.  In a nutshell, there were a few key things I learned that I would love to pass on that will help you:

Things to consider about your financial head-space

1)   Invest in your Soul Purpose.  This means invest in the expansion of your reach.  In my case, having a rental property and chasing down tenants for the rent is a distraction.  Investing in staff, equipment, and courses, coaching– all stuff that is in alignment with my mission and purpose will provide a MUCH greater return.  Are you investing in your soul purpose?  Do you even know what that is?  When would you like to find out?

2)   Don’t invest money that will put you in a scarcity mode.  That will affect your level of service.

3)   To get out of scarcity mode, put yourself deliberately in growth mode:   Exercise, meditate, do your affirmations, read books that expand your reach, and visualize every single day, and be grateful for what you have.  Don’t wait for things to change before you do what’s necessary for your growth. (Basic stuff– try it for 90 days and watch the magic happen).

4)  High level achievers are all unique in that they HIRE A COACH that they resonate with.  Read, study, go to classes and seminars, and watch your dreams start to unfold when you have the private instruction of someone you think has got what you’re looking for.  In other words, you wouldn’t hire someone to advise you on finances who is more broke than you are.  You wouldn’t go to a doctor who looks unhealthy– WOULD YOU?

5) Be grateful.  Have fun.  I know I said it before… it’s worth mentioning again.  Even though we all say we are grateful, we can always increase the moments in our day when we stop and become consciously aware of everything we have to be grateful for.  Why not have some fun with it?

Believe me, one of the greatest realizations for me was that if everything I had were taken away from me now, I would be telling you with great regret that “I had it all”.  You’d probably be in the same boat too.  I just had a patient tell me about all the stresses in her life– “I have 3 rental properties and it’s difficult managing tenants.”

Believe me, I know first hand the frustrations you can have with tenants– but why not start focusing on how grateful you are to have the ability to afford 3 rental properties?  Maybe you’d attract better tenants!

Body Transformation and Stressbusters Seminars.

Even as a fat man-- admit it-- I'm still a hot piece of tail.

(My dog is licking my face right now and wants to go for a walk.)  I have 2 weeks left before I have to post up some embarrassing shirtless pictures of myself– funny how I did that a few weeks ago and I had the most hits ever on my site.  What do I have to do to get you guys to pay attention– keep getting naked on my blog????

Paul has done quite well– he’s already reached his goal.  He had a survey on his blog that asked who looked hotter…. Me or him?  He was shocked at the reply:  5 people voted for him, 7 people voted for me.  I was shocked too.  How on earth did 5 people vote for his fat ass?  I have some major work to do.

Oh, by the way—the time has come—I’m going to be launching my Stressbuster’s video blog series.  My question to you is this:  Can you tell me other than stuffing your face with junk food—what do YOU do to manage your stress?  If I put together some seminars on food addictions, weight loss and stress– would you be interested?

See how you feel about an hour and a half after you finish some of this stuff. But damn, it looks good.

Mid afternoon…  You start to feel fatigue, cranky… You stare at your watch, wishing time would travel faster so you can get home to have dinner.  Only 3pm!  You don’t think you can make it.  You start to feel jittery, can’t focus or concentrate on your work, irritable… Gotta go to Starbucks or Tim Horton’s.  You get your latte or coffee with something to sweeten the bitter taste… and maybe a muffin (or my old favorite—Oat Fudge Bar from Starbucks, Boston Cream donut from Tim Horton’s, even McDonaldland cookies would do).

In the summer, I would take a break and have an ice cream cone from Baskin Robbins each day.  I would go months to years without it… But it just took one simple Gold Medal Ribbon cone, and it was over.  I needed it daily or I’d get cranky—classic example of an addiction. My cousin Ben makes fun of me all the time.  He says I like sweets so much that he was certain I had a vagina.  (FYI, Burt Baskin weighed over 240 pounds at his death, linked in part with a high consumption of ice cream over his lifetime, according to those who were close to him.  He died at the age of 54.  Irv Robbins was apparently more moderate with the ice cream and died at 90.)

Insulin and Blood Sugar Cycles….

Back to our lazy afternoon…. After you reload on the carbs that had crashed prior to that—only a couple hours after you finish lunch—you suddenly feel high and happy again.  Just in time for your insulin to kick in and bring the blood sugar levels back down to beneath comfortable levels.  And the unconscious desire to bring them back up becomes so strong, we aren’t even aware of it.  That’s the danger.  And add on a stressful day—an argument with your boss (or staff), run of the mill marital issues, and you are powerless over the yearning. No offence, but if you are fat, there’s a really good chance that you fall into this trap every day.  Do this over months to years and you’ve gained weight.  Make this your lifestyle for years and you have high chances of obesity.  If you’ve seen someone you haven’t seen in a long time and they’ve gained a significant amount of weight– chances are they are stressed if an injury hasn’t incapacitated them or they’re aren’t pregnant.  If the stress isn’t conscious, then chances are they have something buried deep inside and are using their fat to “cushion” themselves from the world.  This is not a conscious decision but can manifest itself as a food addiction or obesity.

This is how most North Americans live.  I lived this way for years and got away with it because I never gained weight.  I would only suffer mentally/ emotionally and have mood swings… a small price to pay for the wicked rush.

Now that the evidence is there (although I can hide it well most times), and thanks to Paul and his fatness, it’s time to make a change.

I’ve been getting emails and messages from people asking for my “diet” because they want to do it too.  I still have a hard time calling this a diet.  I eat everything I used to—I just stopped refined, processed and white carbs.  I eat salads all the time, make spinach and banana/blueberry smoothies, I have spoonfuls of yummy almond butter, I eat traditional Persian stews that Maria or my relatives make, and I just don’t eat it with the rice anymore.  By the way– I suggest all of you try a Persian meal with Persian people, and DON’T eat rice or bread with the meal.  And watch their reaction.  They look at you like you’re committing heresy.  They get uncomfortable and try to talk you out of it… Half of them out of concern that you’re not getting enough food and you’ll grow hungry.  This is the point of view of my cute little grandparents.  Rice and bread is a staple for them.  The other half of the critics know they should be staying away from the carbs, and they feel guilty—but they want to drag you down with them so they push it on you.  That’s pretty much the way it works.  Has this ever happened to anyone… Or is it just me?

The problem with that is that even though it tastes good– creating an environment whereby insulin has to be secreted to bring blood sugar down is causing excess insulin in our bloodstream  (hyperinsulinemia).  And high insulin levels have been associated with advanced aging, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, among a variety of other things.  It’s bad news.   Sugar fits relatively well on the receptors for opioid in the body.  That’s why it’s insanely addictive.  That’s why heavy drug users are frequently sugar maniacs too.

The path to becoming more consciously aware– everyone’s journey.

Now that I just simply refrain from buying and consuming refined carbs and can sit and observe my cravings, I’m feeling how much writing about them helps me.  It’s like I’m looking inside at them and staring them in the face.  And the more I look the cravings in the eyes and say “so what?” I feel them fade away, and I go to bed, and the gut just keeps getting flatter.  I guess this is what Eckhart Tolle means when he says to use your suffering as an access point for the Now.  And I’m also enjoying this process– how I self reflect each day.  It makes the day become more of a spiritual experience.  Just being more present because I know I will have to be writing about it.  I think most of us suffer in general because we’ve lost the ability to pay attention to our lives and become observers.  Our lives are on autopilot and we don’t live in the moment.  It’s all unconscious. Imagine you lived every day like you were acutely aware of everything that was happening to you.  How much more conscious would you be?

“Do you look any different?”

The love handles you ask?  Still just chilling a bit.  They still wanna hang out and aren’t in any hurry.  Even still…Today, I weighed in at 166 pounds and 20.4% body fat.  6 pounds lost and 1.5% body fat loss, and it’s now only my fifth day.

I was hungry for quite a large part of the day.  I think I’m going to start snacking on veggies throughout the day—maybe an “elevate me” bar.  That should help.  Unless anyone else has any other suggestions that won’t wake up my sleeping pancreas?

Seeing that the holidays are fast approaching, I figure I’ll give you a tool for understanding your cravings throughout the day.  If you haven’t yet seen the video on my last blog post, please do so.  I can’t watch that video without my mouth watering.  If you want to cut on your carbs, then watch this following video and try to get connected with yourself and ask yourself where you think you are at with reference to this video.  Then, as you are aware, if your “why” is big enough, your resistance will go up.  You start to regain control of your own body.  “No, thank you” becomes way easier.  And you start to look better, feel better (I’m sure that eventually this carb monster will go away—will keep you updated on it).  Watch this video carefully.  It’s awesome.

Since I missed my flight to San Fran, I took it as a sign that I have to stay in town and be productive in other ways.  Will keep you posted.  Hope you like the video.

Please don’t hesitate to re-tweet, share, and recommend.  Will any more of you be joining in to make a change to the man/woman in the mirror?

A "Post-Adjustment" smile was the typical gift we would receive after sharing our gift

After returning from our ChiroMission trip in the Dominican Republic, I felt compelled to share our photos and videos to help raise awareness for the need for all of us to get out of our environments from time to time and look at the big picture in our lives.

We all go through our ups and downs.  We have anxieties, depressions, joy, pain, and it seems that we are in an endless pursuit of happiness.  This desire sometimes can keep us from being present and grateful.

I have a confession to make.  I had the busiest summer of my life.  I was working so hard at the office, doing so many talks, that it left little time for me to do other things I enjoy– researching, writing and traveling.  I was getting bogged down by the daily grind of running an office, managing patients, and staff, and there were some moments when I felt that I lost my connection to my purpose and mission.

So, selfishly, I decided to volunteer my time and my wife’s time to helping others.  The confession is, I did it all for my own benefit.  I did it so I could uproot myself from my current daily activities as a Chiropractor in Maple Ridge, and go somewhere that was extremely different than where I live, and experience life in an entirely different way, and get some perspective, and become an observer, and pay attention and be present.

It worked.

We went to remote villages, schools, and even villages with Hatian refugees that were displaced there after the earthquake.  We were working in areas of poverty that most only see on television.  And as we “touched” the lives of these people– we realized that they were touching our lives even more.

I’ve now returned with a rejuvenated sense of purpose for the work I do each day in order to educate, to inspire, and to grow and develop in myself to assist in the transformation of the lives of others.

Here’s the video that Maria put together along with some of the fantastic photos she has taken which many of you have already seen on Facebook.  I wanted to thank her publicly and acknowledge what a huge part she had to play in the entire experience.  Without her there snapping photos and taking videos, I wouldn’t be able to share my experience with the world.  Thanks for all your comments and support.  More videos will be up shortly regarding a little orphanage we saw and were so inspired by– so please share this blog with others who would be interested, leave comments, and if you want to receive more blogs and info on health, diet, and stress management, enter your email on the side, and don’t for get to click on the “Like” and “Follow” buttons on the right hand panel.

I sit here in the Emergency room waiting for a doctor for my wife.  It appears that she’s having a severe bout of appendicitis or an ovarian cyst rupture.  Persistent, worsening pain in her right, lower quadrant, pain that comes in waves.  Touching her abdomen sends her through the roof.  She’s cursing at me like a sailor.

How ironic is this?  Me, one who is extremely critical of the medical system is knee deep in it—and turning to it for help.

Medicine’s genius is in FIRST Aid.  Emergency care to prevent impending doom is where the magic of the profession is.

People come from all walks of life in to see me, and a lot of them are in acute care… sometimes even emergency situations… A great majority of them, we as chiropractors help them along, make them feel better, teach them to live in better ways, and sometimes miraculously after an adjustment, or a series of adjustments, they feel like a new person.

But in this case, I feel powerless. My wife, now resting, was screaming, writhing in pain, so I have no choice but to turn to the First Aid experts to do what their major strength is—help prevent impending doom.  And I humbly step aside for them to work their magic.  This is likely going to be a surgical case.  Ironic that I make my living provide the means for my patients to avoid drugs surgery at all costs.

As I sit here in the Emergency unit, I’m surrounded by people who are at their worst.  As my wife is now high on morphine, she’s fast asleep, and I’m constantly interrupted by beeps and coughs and sounds of vomiting and moaning patients.  The staff here appear to be miserable.  I don’t blame them.  The long hours, the suffering they are surrounded with.  Our environment does have a great deal to do with our pain.

From my research, I know statistically that 75-90% of all problems that people are in here for are lifestyle related.  These are conditions related to how we eat, how we move, and how we think.  The major killers?  Diabetes, Heart Disease, Cancer, and Adverse Reactions to Medications.

I can’t help but think of how that means that about 8 out of every 10 people who are in here could have prevented their need for being here. What’s worse is that the majority of people who are around me are already on copious amounts of medication—I overhear them listing all the medications they are on.

Our doctor’s offices are jam packed every day because people aren’t taught the why’s and how’s of what keeps them healthy and what makes them sick.   That’s because the system isn’t equipped for that.  While there are many places to go to get a diagnosis and a treatment, there aren’t too many places that will teach you why you got there in the first place and what role YOU have to play in getting yourself out.  That is too time consuming, and it’s not very profitable for the drug industry.

Doing research, attending health conferences, changing my own lifestyle habits… I was made aware that the only way our healthcare system can survive is to have LESS SICK PEOPLE.

This, fortunately, is not in the hands of the sickness care “health care” system.  It is entirely in your hands.  It is in the choices that we make every single day in how we eat, move, and think that will determine if you will be dependent on the system (drugs and surgery) or you will leave the system to what it is really there for:  First Aid.

My focus has now changed from “treating symptoms” to “teaching and helping the individual create health.” Using the logic of turning on light to remove darkness instead of focusing on the dark, I teach classes now in my office about lifestyle—how to eat, how to move, and how to even think– because people still live under the illusion that their genes control their health.  Even though it’s now been proven in science that your genes are not your destiny (as was the “Central Dogma” of Medicine).  It’s now undisputable in the literature.   Your environment, (how you eat, move, and think), not your genes, determine how your body expresses health or disease.

Let me give you an example:  When you are under any stressor, from family, to work, to even dietary stressors like too much processed foods; your body goes through a “fight or flight” response, liberating a great deal of energy triggered by the lower brain into an emergency protective mode.  Like a tiger chasing a gazelle, the only thing on the mind is survival for both lion and gazelle for that temporary time—just until the chase is over, and the gazelle returns to safety.

The gazelle, 20 minutes later, returns to grazing, and the tiger returns and rests shortly after, but we humans are so intelligent that we have the ability to re-live that lion attack

over and over again, day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade.

Now, we don’t have to worry too often about being chased down by a tiger here these days—unless you’re on a safari… But we are programmed to react exactly the same for our own version of tiger attacks—Family stress, work stress, lack of feeling of control of our environment, insecurity, divorce, financial pressures, low self esteem, resentment, anger, victimhood.

We re-live these emotions and repetitively wire our nervous systems with this damaging biochemistry, year after year, and our health falls apart—and we run to the doctor for an answer.  We line up in hospitals and in doctor’s offices.  And we end up spending more and more money, year after year. We’re reaching a breaking point, and simply can not sustain what we’ve created.   We call them chronic “medical conditions”, it’s but I can show you beyond the shadow of a doubt that 75-90% are simply the body making a

normal response to our lifestyle and thoughts.   And the system is designed in such a way that the only solution is in the form of a test, a pill or a knife, which has been proven to do a little to deal with the symptoms, and NOTHING to deal with the cause.

So what’s the solution to our long hospital waits (it’s now been 6 hours already and we haven’t seen a doctor—let’s hope her Appendix doesn’t rupture in the meantime–if it’s appendicitis)?  Simple:  LESS SICK PEOPLE.  And that, my friends, is not in the hands of a doctor.  It’s in your hands.  Everyone knows they should drink less alcohol, stop smoking, exercise more, eat more veggies, control our stress, etc.  But the problem with our system is that it doesn’t teach us the why or the how.

When you realize that you simply can’t express your health potential without exercise, and you are taught how to slowly incorporate it in your sedentary life, change becomes easy.

When you realize the processed foods we are eating are toxic, and how our cells respond to the deficiency of proper nutrients in our fast-food diets, and then we are shown how to overcome our food cravings, change becomes easy and the pounds start to fall off.

When you realize that just as your thoughts have the capacity to make you sick, your thoughts also have the capacity to help make you well—once you’re shown how to get out of survival mode and into creating the life you want, change becomes easy.

Sitting and talking endlessly about our problems re-creates the emotions, biochemistry, and physical illness patterns.  When we are taught how to overcome our fears, guilts, anxieties, and depressive patterns of thinking with some simple tools, we can heal the mind (and then the body) from all sorts of dis-eases.   Instead of blaming our current misery on what happened weeks to decades ago, we can learn to be grateful for what we have NOW.  And our biochemistry begins to change.

Far less costly on the system and far more effective than anything the system could offer, If these lifestyle changes could be bottled and sold in pill form, it would be the next blockbuster drug.   These changes have been shown to cure diabetes, reverse heart disease, and heal cancer.

But they’re not available in pill form.  They’re choices that require empowering yourself rather than being a victim to your environment or heredity.  A difficult choice for most of us, but without taking action personally on this STARTING TODAY, our collective physical, mental, and financial health has ZERO chance of survival.  It’s that serious.

It’s the reason why I’m dedicating my life to teaching how to create wellness and avoid the use of drugs or surgery, rather than treat disease.   The biggest challenge my patients face is not how to change–  It’s making the time to do it.  The hopeless cases are all the ones who “never seem to have the time”.  Even though they have all the resources I may offer at their disposal, from wellness chiropractic spinal care, to exercises, to attending classes on posture and stress:  “I’m just too busy.”  And then eventually their body seems to force them to make the time.  And I watch them deteriorate year after year.  So it fuels my passion to teach.  “Doctor” in Latin doesn’t mean “pill pusher.” It means “Teacher”.

Side note:  It’s now 2 in the morning, and the doctor has just come in and narrowed it down to 3 possibilities:  Kidney stone, or Appendicitis, or Ovarian Cyst Rupture.  Since CT scans have high levels of radiation, we’ve elected to do an Ultrasound in the morning.  Took us 8 hours to get to this conclusion—and now we have to wait another 7 hours for another test to determine the next course of action.  I’m staying with her in the hospital and I write this amidst the moans and screams of other suffering people.  My heart goes out to them because I know many of their problems are preventable if they only took the time to learn how. Here’s a list of how most of them could have avoided being here in the first place:

1)   If you want to be more alive than dead, eat foods that are more alive than dead.  Find resources to teach you strategies how to overcome your food addictions.

2)   When you wake up in the morning, don’t get out of bed without first thinking about all the things that you are grateful for, and what you would love to create in your day.  If you don’t take time to do this, your day will be filled with things you will be ungrateful for.  Guaranteed.  Re-program healthy brain/body biochemistry by THINKING WELL—Think better than how you feel.  Learn strategies to deal with the inevitable adversities of relationships and of life.  Everything begins with a thought.

3)   Keep your spine moving with exercise.  50% of all body movement nerve pathways are in the spinal joints and if it doesn’t move sufficiently, or it gets stuck, you could be in a great deal of trouble.  See your chiropractor regularly to keep it moving properly.

4)   Balance your movement and rest.  If you don’t get enough movement and exercise in your day, or you don’t get enough sleep—your cells become resistant to insulin—which has been shown to be the underlying root cause of all chronic degenerative illness—diabetes, cancer, heart disease, aging, osteoporosis, even mental disorders like Alzheimer’s and depression.

The hospital is a horrible place to be, but thank God it’s there in emergency cases like the one Maria finds herself in right now.  Doctors and nurses can be heroes.  But when we turn to doctors and nurses to treat diseases caused by poor lifestyle choices—we are playing with fire, and it’s a game we can’t win.  I’ve dedicated my life to teaching strategies on how to dramatically reduce our need to ever play.

P.S.  Turned out to be a ruptured ovarian cyst, and Maria is home recovering beautifully.  We elected for no surgery, and it turned out to be the right decision.  Many thanks to the doctors and nurses and Paramedics at Burnaby Hospital, and to our friends and family for their support.