As a vegan, I’m always getting asked how I’ve stuck to an entirely plant-based diet for all these years. Which is really just another way of asking, “How do you stick to a diet?”

The answer? It has a lot to do with detoxing. But, really, that’s just the beginning.

The better you treat your body, the more you feed it real food, the stuff that’s bad for you slowly becomes less and less appetizing.

And it’s not a mental thing. It’s a real physical change.

Before I describe what I mean, though, let’s do a quick refresher on what a detox actually is.

What’s a Detox?

You hear a lot of detoxes these days (mostly in the form of expensive powders and juices designed to shed pounds quickly and easily, all with virtually no effort on your part). But, a detox is really much simpler.

A detox is, at its essence, a process of cleansing your body and bloodstream of the toxins that we’re surrounded by each day.

Here are some of a detox’s benefits:

1. Your body’s natural detoxification systems are reset
2. Free radicals, which contribute to premature aging and other bad things, are eliminated from your body.
3. Your immune system gets a big boost.
4. Your organs get happy and start working better.
5. Your overall health and life improve.
6. You get rid of some of your old bad habits and start with a clean slate to begin building newer, better ones.

So, as number 6 above shows, when you’ve done a detox, you’re primed to build healthy habits. And part of that process also includes the fact that you’ve essentially gotten rid of all the junk in your system and your body feels good. From there, because the detox has shown your body what it’s supposed to feel like, your body will naturally take over from there. Feed it good food and it will let you know. Feed it garbage, and it will let you know that you shouldn’t have done that.

Listening and the Physical

I used to love french fries. But after detoxing often and sticking to a plant-based diet, if I eat a french fry now, my body will let me know. Loudly.

And that’s the key to maintaining a healthy diet. Staying in tune with your body. Feeding it what it needs. And, when you screw up, it will let you know.

And, again, it’s not purely a mental shift. No, it’s a physical one. An honest-to-gosh gut reaction in the most literal sense.

It’s an amazing transformation, one that you definitely deserve to experience, no matter where you are in your health journey!

The post Why Detox Has to be Part of Your Diet appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

Two Sides of “Together”

Part of the reason it’s hard to change your diet is that food in our culture (and most others, for that matter!) is such a communal activity. Sunday dinners with grandma. Christmas dinner with the whole extended family. Your first date at an Italian restaurant. Even at the office, people tend to congregate… that’s why we have something called “the lunchroom.”

All of which is fantastic! It’s a pillar of tradition, of how we do life together.

But when you’re making big dietary changes and no one else around has made that decision for themselves, it can be difficult not to stand out. Not to have them look at you a little funny. Not to have them question what you’re doing.

Another big part of this difficulty draws directly from human nature. When we see one person making a big life change in our group, our natural response is, first and foremost, suspicion. People tend to look at their own habits and get a little defensive.

Like, “Who are you to say that there’s something wrong with the way I’m living my life, including the food I’m eating?”

As humans, we want change. But, we also want that change on our own terms. And when someone within the group makes a change, it can be seen as a direct criticism of the group itself.

It’s a natural response. A human response.

And here’s the thing…

It’s going to happen.

Preparation is key

That’s the first thing to know when you’re making a big change. You are, one hundred percent of the time, going to get some degree of blowback from your friends, family, or co-workers.

Going into those situations with your mind in the right place will allow you to stick to your plan and also diffuse most of the conflict that might arise.

The other side of the coin, though, is that you can’t get healthy alone. You need a supportive community around you, pushing you forward, living through the journey with you.

Find a community that has your best interest in mind, people who can guide you. It’s key to your success.

The post How to Handle Resistance When You’re Making Positive Changes appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

It came out of nowhere. I was in the middle of a consult with a potential new member when it started.

That morning, I’d woken up feeling a little weird. I was in a good mood and life was good… but something was off. Then when we were sitting in a consultation (which is a totally normal daily occurrence), I felt a sensation that I’d never experienced come over me. I was suddenly panicky—as if something was really wrong. I felt this strange wooziness like I was going to pass out. I could no longer focus. It got so bad that I had to leave the room.

I was terrified. My thoughts were racing. I felt like I was in an episode of The Twilight Zone. The people around me could see me but had no idea what was going on in my body. I felt like running away and I had no idea where I was going.

I excused myself, leaving Dr. Dangovian to continue the consult, and walked out into the hallway where I proceeded to pace back and forth. When being inside became too overwhelming, I went outside.

I needed air.

I needed something.

Nothing This Extreme

After pacing around the building outside I had this overwhelming feeling that I needed to leave. I went inside and told my brother Curtis (our office manager) that I needed to leave, I was having a panic attack, but I was going to be fine. Then I went to my car.

I started driving. I didn’t have a destination in mind. Instead, I just felt like I needed to go somewhere. I kept telling myself if it didn’t pass I would go to the emergency room.

After I had been driving for a few minutes, Curtis called me and asked if I could walk him through how to finish up paperwork from the consultation I excused myself from. I started explaining to him the steps and then told him I was going to come back to help. He asked me if I was sure, and I said yes I can do it.

It was such a strange feeling. I had a heightened sense of awareness of my thoughts and the sensations in my body but I had no idea what was happening or where it came from. I was able to distract myself from the feelings and thoughts when I focused my energy on a familiar routine, but as soon as I allowed my body and mind to become still, the overwhelming feeling of panic came back to me. I was sure my blood pressure was through the roof. I was sure my heart was racing.

If you have felt this you know exactly what I am talking about. And if you haven’t you will never fully understand what this experience is like.

I’d experienced episodes of anxiety in the past, but nothing this extreme.

Dr. Dangovian called me right after the consultation ended. He wanted to check in with me because I would never just bail on a meeting. He was worried that I’d had a family emergency. When I told him about the experience, he said, “What if we took your blood pressure right now and it was normal?” I told him that I knew it wouldn’t be normal. He replied that he knew exactly how I was feeling.

“If it happens again,” he said, “don’t try to run from it. Instead, lean into it.”

That thought hit home with me. Built into us is a “fight or flight” response. When I started feeling this overwhelming sensation that I was going to pass out… I got up and started pacing around to “run away” from the feeling. When my thoughts were racing in a circle of “impending doom”… I distracted my thoughts by diving into a daily routine.

I was not allowing myself to feel what was going on. I was too afraid of what feeling it would lead to.

But, I knew he was right. I also knew that if he thought something life-threatening was going on, he would have taken action. This gave me the reassurance I needed to lean into the thoughts and sensations.

The sensations of panic started to disperse the moment I began to allow myself to feel them. The thoughts kept coming, but I just observed them without judgment.

For the next few weeks I had moments of heightened anxiety, but to be honest, I felt grateful for them. I started viewing each moment as a blessing.

Why? Because my body was telling me to pay attention.

I allowed myself to really experience all the sensations. I started listening to my body at a completely new level.

Round Two

Some background: for as long as I can remember when things are going exceptionally well… I freak out. It seems counterintuitive… you should freak out when things are in crisis, but that’s just not how I am wired. In the weeks leading up to my panic attack, things weren’t just going well—they were going GREAT.

My Dad had some minor health issues come up, which is stressful and scary, of course, but we took care of everything early, which, over the long term, is a blessing for his health. Everything we were going through was even strengthening our relationship. Business was going great. We were in a steady flow of expansion. One of our team members would soon be going away to school and our other team members were stepping up into new roles and doing amazing work. With all that was going on, I couldn’t have asked for things to be any better!

In the past, I would start feeling moments of that “impending doom”… like, what if this all goes away and I lose everything? I would isolate myself for a day and then dive back into work to distract my thoughts. I would make myself so busy that I didn’t have time for that feeling.

Luckily for me, my work allows me to help other people which is extremely rewarding. The downside to that is… it is very easy for me to justify sacrificing my well being to help others. (I am always working to achieve that healthy balance).

When I had the panic attack, it was almost as my body was saying I AM GOING TO BE LOUD ENOUGH THAT YOU CAN’T IGNORE ME!

The second one was far worse than the first. I was getting ready for bed after a relatively uneventful day. Suddenly, the feeling came back. And it was even louder. My heart was racing. That nameless dread was back, this time with a vengeance. This time, I felt like I needed a non-biased opinion that this was, in fact, anxiety and not something worse.

I drove myself to the emergency room without telling anyone I was going. The whole way there, I tried to take Dr. Dangovian’s advice. I tried to lean into the fear. I tried to force myself not to fight it, but instead let it wash over me, fill me, let it do whatever it was that it was doing and then (hopefully) pass. But no matter what I did—no matter how hard I tried to lean into the fear—it only got worse.

The attending doctor finally confirmed my suspicions and said that yes, it was a panic attack. His aloofness about what I was experiencing actually made me feel calm. He essentially said, “All you need is Xanax.” Now, of course, I wasn’t going to take it! There are natural ways to deal with anxiety, but knowing that it was anxiety—and that I was experiencing a panic attack—allowed me to feel peace.

Since then, I haven’t had any full-blown attacks. But I still feel one kind of waiting along the periphery sometimes. Overall, both experiences were terrible.

But, here’s the thing…

I am super grateful for them.

I learned something significant.

The Lesson

I’ve talked to members who’ve struggled with anxiety in the past. In those conversations, I was able to speak reasonably intelligently about causes and solutions. But now I understand that I didn’t understand their experiences. Not really.

It’s the same thing with friends and family members who’ve had heart problems. They’ll express their apprehension about getting a stent put in, for example, and since my business partner is a cardiologist, I’m able to describe exactly what’s going to happen and reassure them that it’s a relatively simple, relatively low-risk procedure.

But I didn’t understand their fear. I didn’t understand their worry. I didn’t understand how it feels when you think you’re dying. But, now I at least have an idea. For all the terror, for all my inability to just lean into the fear and embrace the experience in that moment, I got something very valuable out of it.

I have more empathy. And for that, I’m eternally grateful.

Want to learn how to calm your anxiety naturally? Download your free eBook here: The 7 Habits of Highly Healthful People: Cultivating Awareness

The post A Lesson in Leaning in appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

Most everyone wants to lose at least a little weight. But fad “diets” aren’t the answer. Instead, you have to start in a completely different—and deeper—place to find real health.

I recently had a woman come to one of our Wellness Dinner Seminars. She’d been struggling with her weight and some other serious health concerns for a number of years. She was skeptical if anything would ever work for her, but she was desperate for a change. When she left the seminar, she was excited and ready to enter our Healthful Evolutions program.

But a few minutes after walking out of our office, she walked back in with a worried expression on her face.

When I asked her what was wrong, she said that she thought we had a great program but she was going to try to solve her health issues in another way. When I asked what she meant, she said that she’d talked to some people outside (who had just come to our seminar for the first time as well) and they had convinced her to try a diet they’d just read about. I didn’t press her very hard… but I did want to know what she was going to try. And honestly, I was worried she was heading down a path that would not get her to her goals.

“It’s called the Plant Paradox Diet,” she said. “My friends said it’s supposed to work.” I wished her luck and told her she was always welcome back.

That encounter has stuck with me. Honestly, it makes me sad. Why? Because I know she’s not going to find success with that—or any other—”diet.” (As an aside, if you’re interested in Dr. Stephen Grundy’s Plant Paradox Diet, as well as all the various “lectin blockers” he sells at a premium on his site, watch this—and then read this—first.)

All fad “diets” promise only one thing. That you’ll lose weight. And, often, people do lose weight… but only for a little while.

But, let’s actually dig a little deeper here.

Can losing weight help you’re overall health? Sure, in certain situations. But, does just losing weight mean that you’re healthy?

Not at all.

And that’s what made me so sad about this interaction with this woman. She needed to lose weight, of course. But the weight was just a symptom of deeper issues. And the “diet” she chose to pursue isn’t going to help with any of those underlying issues. If anything, in her situation, that fad diet is probably going to only exacerbate her underlying problems.

When you’re looking to get healthy, to be around longer for your kids, to find happiness and live life to its fullest, weight loss can never be your primary goal.

Why?

For two main reasons. First, going on a fad diet doesn’t work to begin with. And second, that’s not how we’re built as humans.

Reason #1: fad diets don’t work

For evidence why this first reason is true, take a look at the following statistics (all pulled from here):

• The average adult American attempts a fad diet four times per year
• One in four Americans give up after less than two weeks
• More than 97% of people gain the weight back within three years
• 65% of people who even “finish” the diet end up regaining at least as much back

From all of these statistics, a couple things become clear. First, Americans go on fad “diets” a lot. Now, couple that information with the fact that we are only growing more and more obese. Add in the following statistic and you’ll begin to get an idea of why weight loss can’t be your only goal:

The diet industry pulls in $61 billion annually.

Why don’t fad “diets” work? Because they’re marketed to us constantly… and then designed to fail. Every time.

Because, what would happen if they worked?

For one, we wouldn’t be, on average, trying a new one every three months. And, what’s maybe even more telling, we certainly wouldn’t be spending tens of billions of dollars on them if the first one got the weight off and kept it off.

Reason #2: Here’s How we, As People, work

For the second reason as to why weight loss can’t be your main goal when considering your options, let’s just take a quick look at how we all tick.

First, know that I have been there… so no judgement! Newton’s first law of motion goes something like this: For people sitting on the couch dipping into a family size bag of Sour Cream and Cheddar Ruffles, something has to make them get up and decide not to live that way anymore.

(I’m paraphrasing the physics here, of course, but you get the point.)

Meaning: There needs to be a reason you want to lose the weight. We need to connect to a purpose to give up the chips. Otherwise, why not? They taste good!

Now, let’s take a look at some of those potential reasons. For one, maybe summer is coming up, and you want to go to the beach. Or two, maybe that 35th high school reunion is just around the corner, and you want to shed some of the extra pounds before you see your old classmates. Whatever it is, there are plenty of (perfectly legitimate!!!) reasons to want to lose a little weight. Nothing at all wrong with that.

But here’s the question: What happens when that event is over? Nine times out of ten the answer is that you regain all the weight you lost and you’re no better—or healthier—for it.

Why? Because your goal had both a time limit and an expiration date. Once both of those are exhausted? You have no reason left to keep the weight off.

By the way, that’s what the diet industry is counting on. They love the short term. The myopic makes them tens of billions of dollars each year.

Getting back to Newton, the way we as humans work is that to change, we need a reason. And for long-term, life-long change to happen? That reason needs to be a big one.

Going on vacation matters. I totally get that.

But it’s not your ultimate WHY.

WHAT WE DO AT THE WELLNESS TRAINING INSTITUTE

That’s really what separates what we do in our programs here at the Wellness Training Institute from every other program out there.

First, we find your WHY.

And second, we focus on every part of your health. Health is more than weight loss. In fact, weight loss is really just a tiny part of it. If you’re ready to make the changes you need to make, and you do the hard work of making the changes you need to make, of course you’re going to lose weight.

But that’s not ALL you’re going to get. That’s honestly just the start.

Instead, you’re going to take a journey that will change you forever. And along the way, you’ll find happiness, life, health, and community.

Going on vacation matters. I totally get that.

But it’s not your ultimate WHY.

You’ll get out of the dieting loop. You’ll have the freedom to know what your body needs—and why.

All without depriving yourself of anything. All without having to starve yourself.

And all without having to finish your next fad diet only to have to start the cycle once again—and feel the shame the diet industry knows will bring you back, once more, with your wallet open.

You need a plan. You need support. You need a guide.

That’s how real change happens. And that’s what we offer.

The post Why Weight Loss Can’t be Your Only Goal appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

March 1, 2018

Fad diets don’t work… but here’s what does.

What always shocks and frustrates me as a practicing cardiologist is that if all the peer-reviewed medical and nutritional data that’s become available over the last two decades were accurately relayed by the mainstream media, it would spell the end of the fad diet craze.

Why?

Because fad diets don’t work. You might lose a little—or even a lot—of weight. But only for a short time.

The weight almost always comes back.

(As evidence for this claim, see this article in Scientific American that compares a number of studies that show this is true. I don’t agree with all of the conclusions made by the “expert opinions” contained in the article, but the results of the studies themselves are telling.)

Instead, the media takes a snippet of information from a study, blows it entirely out of proportion, bends it into whatever shape is going to get the most eyeballs on it, and spreads the confusion far and wide.

But even beyond that, “skinny” doesn’t equal “healthy.” You can be as thin and trim as physically possible and still have incredibly serious medical issues that aren’t outwardly visible.

How to be Healthy

As a medical professional, I can personally attest to this fact; I see it all the time in my office.

The only way to truly get healthy is to focus on your overall health. When you do that, weight loss just happens.

We say it all the time: The only way to get healthy is to swap out your bad, unhealthy habits for new, healthy ones. The problem with this universal law is that we as impatient Americans don’t want to believe it. We want instant results.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. But this inaccurate way of looking at our health isn’t your fault. Not at all. We’ve been sold this lie for our entire lives.

The truth is that when you’ve spent decades building unhealthy habits, they’re not going to disappear overnight. It takes time. It takes effort.

And most importantly?

You need a plan.

That’s why I created the Wellness Training Institute back in 2009. I would see patient after patient come through my cardiology practice and 99% of them had serious conditions that shouldn’t have been inevitable. Their conditions were all a result of lifestyle choices.

And I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to help them beyond just handing out pills or putting in stints. I didn’t want to just manage their conditions anymore. I wanted them to find true and lasting health.

Healthful Evolutions

Our Healthful Evolutions program is designed to do just that.

We provide a plan and process that takes you from wherever you are now in your health journey and move you, step-by-step, toward health… more health… and even MORE health!

When I’m asked how exactly the process works, I can describe the process. I can give you the bullet-points. (I can even point them to this post by our Wellness Director Nicole where she lays it all out in detail.)

But here’s the thing…

We know what works. We know what steps to take to get you healthy and live your best life.

But, after having thousands of members pass through our Healthful Evolutions program, we know that no two experiences are going to be the same. You are unique. You might need to focus on one area of your health far more than someone else, even if your conditions are virtually the same.

Because of that, I suppose you could refer to Healthful Evolutions as “the program-less program.” Don’t get me wrong, there is a definite structure to our programs, but we get great results because every part of our program is tailored specifically to you.

It’s also a program you can go through while you live your life. Again, it’s all about habits, and those new healthy habits need to happen within the scope of your day-to-day existence. It also needs to happen within a supportive community.

So, What Does This Mean for You?

Now, let me ask you a question:

Why wouldn’t you want to go all in on your health?

You only have one life, and you are worth it to live that life to its fullest.

There’s a TED talk from last year by a guy named Jon Bowers who makes a compelling argument for why we should strive for perfection in our lives. He manages a delivery truck service and gives this example: What happens when his drivers only give 99% effort? Someone dies.

So, take stock of where you are in your healthy journey and decide today to take the dive. Go all in on your health.

On your happiness.

And ultimately?

Your one and only life.

The post The Program-less Program: Why Healthful Evolutions Works appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.

September 19, 2016

Why should you eat plants?

Seems like kind of a dumb question, right? Our moms all told us to eat our vegetables, so it’s wired inside us to know that they are good for us.

Just knowing, though, doesn’t seem to be enough.

Without even including meat—in any form—into the equation, the American diet is at least 60% processed food.

That is a big number.

Here’s an excerpt from an article from Time:

In a study published in the journal BMJ Open, scientists led by Carlos Monteiro at University of Sao Paolo found that nearly 60% of an American’s daily calories come from “ultraprocessed” food, which Monteiro and his colleagues defined as food that contains ingredients such as flavors, colors, sweeteners and hydrogenated oils, emulsifiers and other additives that you wouldn’t cook with at home.

“Ultraprocessed” is now apparently a word.

And what’s interesting about all the things added into processed food is that, by definition, those things are even food!

Food is simply this: Anything that is consumed that repairs tissue and sustains growth. Yellow #5 does neither of those things. Artificial sweeteners DEFINITELY don’t do either of those things.

Which means that at least 60% of what we’re eating ISN’T EVEN FOOD.

The kid back in kindergarten eating horse glue in the back of the room was probably getting more sustenance from his snack than most of us are today.

So, if we aren’t eating food, what should we be eating?

The answer? Plants.

There are a lot of reasons why we should be eating plants. But life is short. So here are the two most important ones:

They Taste Good.

I have a theory. I’m not entirely sure that most Americans have ever eaten a GOOD salad. Most of the time, a “salad” for an American is a bowl of (artificial) Bacon Bits suspended in blue cheese dressing with a couple iceberg lettuce leaves floating on top, served at one of those steak houses with soggy peanut shells constantly underfoot.

That is not a salad.

And even if you go to the grocery store—and I’m looking at you too, Whole Foods—the vegetables there aren’t nearly as tasty as the ones from a farmers’ market, or ones you grow yourself.

I don’t think people know how good GOOD vegetables taste. And it’s not their fault… they CAN’T TASTE them because of all the processed food they are consuming.

This is not just a theory.

Good vegetables are delicious. And because our highly-processed diets have masked—or tainted—our actual sense of taste, a lot of people are missing out.

Want more great information about the foundations of a healthy life? Download the first installment of our NEW 7-part eBook series The 7 Habits of Highly Healthful People for FREE right now, right HERE!

They’re Good for You.

Just like mom said. She wasn’t lying.

The question is, however: Why?

Obviously, you know that vegetables contain vitamins, nutrients, fiber, protein, lipids, and tons of other stuff your body needs to keep being a body (as opposed to a corpse.)

But let’s take a more mathematical approach to this question.

Let’s talk about micronutrients.

Or, more specifically, let’s talk about nutrient density.

But first, let’s take a step back.

Let’s begin at the very beginning.

Why should you eat?

Answer: Because you’re hungry, right?

Well, then, why are you hungry?

Answer: Because your body needs nutrients and a host of other things to operate at even a minimal level, and hunger is just the word for the signal your body sends you when that nutritional deficit is getting too deep.

Which means that we eat to put nutrients and other good stuff back in our body. And when we have enough nutrients in there, our body tells us that by sending us a signal that we’re full.

This is why you can eat sugar or fat almost endlessly. Processed foods don’t contain enough nutrients, and so the body doesn’t send the “Cut it out!” signal.

So, the way we teach our Wellness Training Institute members to eat is to think about nutrient density. The more nutrients you can get per square inch of food you consume is important, because you can then eat less and actually get more nutrition into your body. And plants are very high in what are called micronutrients. There are a lot of them in a very small amount of food, so you get tons of bang for your buck.

When you think about food in this way, it changes your whole outlook on nutrition. And when you put it into practice, it will change your whole life!

So what nutritional changes are you looking to make in your health journey? What are your struggles? Comment and share below!

The post Why You Should Eat Plants appeared first on Wellness Training Institute.