Reverse New Years Resolutions

3 Ways to REVERSE Resolutions and get what you want more easily

I want to thank you for the privilege and your trust in working together towards your health needs. Wishing you a happy new year filled with health, vibrancy, a sense of peace, prosperity and a renewed zest in life. Photo Credit: Jernej Furman

The new year is a time we all like to make resolutions, but regular life happens and then somehow it is another year again! What has not worked, probably wont' work. It is probably a waste of your precious efforts to try to do the same thing that didn't work and get disappointed. So how about we shake things up and REVERSE things. Let's flip it upside down. There is a high chance it will be easier. And it will work. 

1. REMOVE ONE THING. If you are someone who on your ideal day, you can think of 6 good things to do for your health but none of them get done, because they are all good, but too overwhelming...how about you not add more. You may be already overwhelmed with life. Adding more things to do is just more stressful. Let's do the opposite. REMOVE one thing that can benefit your health. Choose just one thing to keep it simple. You can pick one thing to REMOVE for one week, or one month, then change to something else. Here are some ideas for you, remember, be nice to yourself and just pick one. 
-Remove sugary drinks, soda, or coffee
-Stop staying up late at night
-Take out one snack during the day
-Stop fearful thoughts
-Turn off the TV half our before bed
-Take out carbs in 1 of your meals

2. ADD ONE THING. If you are someone who is tired of people telling you not to do something, this one is for you. All the restrictions makes you feel like doing it more. It feels like a reward to have what you cannot have. Instead of doing the "do nots" for health, how about just add something that is beneficial for you. You can make progress this way too. Remember, be nice to yourself and just pick one. Here are some ideas:
-Eat 2 cups of vegetables daily (instead of focusing on restricting foods, just get in 2 cups of good stuff)
-Drink 2 glasses of lemon water daily, then 6 cups of regular water. 
-Meditate for 10 minutes
-Tell each person in your household one thing you are grateful about them
-Before you sleep, praise yourself for 2 things
-take your vitamins consistently

3. WHY. "Because my doctor said", "because I should", "I better..." just makes me feel like it is all a burden. Who really wants to do something for these reasons? Why do you want to get healthy? Why is health important to you? What will change in your life if you had your health back? What can you have that you don't have now because of your health? Ask yourself these questions. A deeper purpose that may be even bigger than yourself, can be a beautiful motivator for you to take the steps towards what you want. When you have the "fire" and the inspiration, you'll love to do it. It will be easier. It will be more successful. 

And if you need some guidance and specific direction on how to get there with your health, I am honored to be there for you. Happy New Year! 

To Fast or Not to Fast?

There are so many diets out there and intermittent fasting is really popular now. On the contrary, for some people it’s best to consume protein within one hour of waking, otherwise your blood sugar will be a roller coaster the rest of the day.

If the blood is too low, then you may feel fatigued, lack of concentration, “hangry”, or even lightheaded. But if Photo Credit Marco Verch your blood sugar is too high, extra sugar gets turned into FAT by your liver. So having a properly managed blood sugar is important not only for your waistline but may be key if you are having problems losing weight.

What’s wrong with insulin resistance, or borderline hypoglycemia? When the blood sugar dips low, it triggers your body to secrete cortisol (a stress hormone). Low blood sugar is a stress to the body. But that does not mean to keep eating carbs or sugar to prevent the hypoglycemic dip because doing so will cause a rebound effect of triggering the low blood sugar dip. Generally eating proteins and healthy fats keep your blood sugar steady, which is good.

Cortisol imbalance can create feelings of anxiety, stress, lack of focus, increased inflammation, immune suppression, hormone imbalances, fatigue, and cause your body to gain more weight especially in your belly area. So eating in a way that works with your body’s physiology is very important when it comes to your health, living longer, mood and if you are wanting to lose weight. What about fasting?

After 12 hours of Fasting the body secretes growth hormone. What does GH do?

• Stimulates fat loss in a process called lipolysis. “lysis” means bursting of cells. So essentially it explodes your fat cells and kills them.
• GH prevents aging and keeps you looking young. GH stimulates your body to secrete IGF-1 which stimulates new healthy cell growth. If you have more breakdown of cells and tissues (catabolism) you age. If you have more regeneration (anabolism) it is anti-aging and anti-inflammatory.
• GH involved in healing which fasting will trigger

You can simply achieve this by eating an earlier dinner, sleeping for 8 hrs and then having a breakfast after 12 hours of your last meal.

After 18 hours of fasting autophagy is induced.

 “Auto” means self and “Phagy” means eat. What does Autophagy do and what is good about it?

• Gets rid of Advanced Glycated End Products (AGE) which are bad. You get AGEs from burnt foods, charred foods, fried foods, smoking etc. AGEs are carcinogenic (cancer causing) but after 18 hours of fasting, Augophagy is triggered allowing your body to get rid of AGEs.
• Gets rid of Amyloids. Amyloids are bad molecules found in aging or chronically inflamed people’s brains. They are associated with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.
• Starts to eat away at abnormal cells or cancer cells.
• Augophagy of bad microbes such as molds, yeasts, bad bacteria, viruses etc.

You can simply achieve this by skipping 1 meal.

After 24 Hours of fasting

• Inflammation starts to decrease. Many autoimmune, allergic or other inflammatory conditions get a chance to heal.
• You may start to switch to Ketosis, a state the Ketogenic diet aims to induce. Ketosis allows you to burn fat as fuel rather than glucose (sugar). This helps with burning fat, weight loss.
• BDNF is stimulated to start repairing brain cells. Thinking may start becoming more clear. And this may have long term effects of preventing age related memory loss.

You can simply achieve this by skipping 2 meals.

Most people can easily prolong all the benefits listed above by extending the fast to 36 hours, which is basically skipping 3 meals plus the time of a night of sleep. Never fast without drinking water. Sometimes it is beneficial to supplements with certain nutrients or protein during a fast, sometimes not. If you suffer from medical conditions, are very depleted, fasting may not be the best for you initially without supervision. But fasting may be one of the keys to support healing. Some people do well on a weekly fast, intermittent fasting, ketogenic diet, FODMAPS diet, anti-inflammatory diet, blood type diet and many other methods. If you are confused as to what is best for you and your health goals, please contact me and we can discuss how I can help you.

How to Get Rid of the Quarantine Weight

Are you looking at your scale after a few months of the stay at home orders and not liking the number on the scale? It may feel hard to lose the weight, but if this is something you desire, the way is there. And maybe there is a better way than what you’ve done before. Photo Credit TipsTimesAdmin

So you want to lose weight and you want it to work. You may have lost weight before but it felt like so much work. Then gained it all back. So you don’t feel like trying again if your efforts are so high for it not to last right?

Let’s talk about what works. If you were told about a method that sounds a bit unconventional, are you willing to try it if it worked? Are you someone who tends to reject ideas and miss out? Are you someone who likes to consider new and better ideas? Imagine if you were living in the early 1900s and made your travels by horse and buggy, and someone told you, you can get from California to New York in 6 hrs, would you believe it then? Sounded impossible back in the 1900s then but we now fly this route all the time without thinking it is impossible.

Back to losing weight, most patients ask me to help them with a “diet” to lose weight. The problem most people have is difficulty sticking to a diet, not that they absolutely do not know what to eat. I would say most people have some idea of what foods to eat to lose weight but the hard part is sticking to it, or that it is too much work, or they gain the weight all back.

Here’s the part that most people do not think of when wanting to lose weight but is key to getting more lasting results. In my practice, a few sessions to remove unconscious sabotaging beliefs have made a huge difference in successful weight loss. Doing it this way also makes losing weight feel easier, because what causes you to fight yourself is removed. I dropped 8 pounds myself during the quarantine in 4 weeks time, without feeling like a did much. You can as well!

For example here are some un-helpful beliefs some patients had that after they were released allowed them to lose weight and keep it off:

• I’ve worked hard today, food is my reward (So why would you take your reward away?)
• today was stressful food makes me feel better (If food is mostly your way to cope with stress, it will be hard to fight your body’s desire for comfort)
• I feel empty: food fills the void (Do you keep eating even when you are not hungry? It’s more an emotional void than hunger)
• People who looked good when I was growing up got it easy. I felt judged by my looks when growing up. I need people to love me no matter how I look. (Need to prove value of self not based on looks, so with this belief, it sabotages one’s desire to achieve a desired body.)
• I have been violated in the past. This trauma makes me self-conscious of my body. (Until the trauma is healed, the extra weight can subconsciously feel “safer”)
• I feel like people are looking at me, or judging me. I feel vulnerable. (Sometimes weight is a protection from being seen).
• I’ve been stressed (people often hold burdens as extra weight, and stress increases cortisol which increases belly fat)

There are numerous healing techniques I use to help patients identify and release their unique unconscious beliefs that block them from successfully losing weight. I want to give back, and make a video to walk you through getting rid of a belief that gets in the way of losing weight. I’d love to hear from you. Please respond to this email, with what mental/emotional/belief system is hindering you from losing weight. I will select one of your responses (no name will be mentioned), and do a healing video next time. Email me and we could be working on yours.

Are you Dehydrated and Don’t Even Know It?

Do you have fine lines on your face? Do you feel tired and foggy brained? Well that can be a sign that your cells are dehydrated.

Are your eyes or face puffy? Well that means there is a bit of edema where the fluids in your body are not INSIDE your cells where it should be, but outside the cell where it should NOT be. This is another sign that your cells are dehydrated. 

I filmed this video for you while hiking in the desert. Watch it to see what you can do besides drinking water to keep your cells more healthy and hydrated. By doing this, you also slow down the aging of your skin. 

Hydration Video

Did you know that if you drink a lot of water but find that it “goes right through you”, you may not be absorbing water and dehydrated? This occurs very frequently with people who have adrenal fatigue, because cortisol steals away from aldosterone, which helps regulate water balance. Your cells are vital for keeping your body functioning well, so if your cells are not hydrated, you may experience fatigue, muscle aches, dry mouth, decreased immune system function, slower wound healing, and aging faster.

I explain what you can do in my video to keep water inside your cells. This is very important in order to stay hydrated, because many people make the mistake of drinking enough water, but if their body does not have the ability to hold the water inside the cells, they are still dehydrated. Click Here to Watch.

Get ENDURA Here.

What Herbs are Good for the Liver?

Many Patients have asked me what foods and herbs are beneficial to the liver or good for detoxification. Most people know about Milk Thistle but here are a few others. You can use these as teas, food, supplements and juice. For example you can use watercress in a chicken broth with poached eggs, or use watercress as part of a salad. Artichokes are great to eat boiled with a dip of your choice. Below are scientific explanations of how various herb and foods help the liver. Photo Credit stereotyp-0815

Milk Thistle: Milk thistle is the plant but silymarin is the active component that does the work in the body, so be sure your supplement tells you how much silymarin is in your milk thistle product. In addition to detoxifying toxins such as alcohol, Tylenol and carbon tetrachloride, silymarin can also bind to the outside of cells blocking toxins from entering cells. If the liver cells are damaged by toxins, alcohol, prescription medications, heavy metal toxicity, or excessive glucose, milk thistle can help in regenerating liver cells and speed up the healing from the damage.

Artichoke: Artichoke supports the liver by keeping the flow of bile moving. The liver manufactures bile, and bile is stored in the gallbladder. Bile helps to digest fats and healthy fats are important for cognitive health, and have anti-inflammatory effects. But unhealthy fat can accumulate in the tissue of the liver from excessive alcohol or carbohydrate intake leading to fatty liver. Artichokes stimulate the production of bile in the liver and then also encourage it’s release keeping the flow of bile moving. Studies show that artichoke helps to decrease fat in the liver, which may help fatty liver disease. Artichoke also protects the liver from damage from toxic exposure and hinders liver cancer growth in human liver cells. 

Watercress: Watercress increases phase II liver detoxification pathways. In the human body, we have 2 series of liver detoxification pathways, I and II. The toxin goes into the liver and enters phase I liver detox. What comes out of phase I is usually more toxic than the original toxin itself. Thus the toxic intermediate needs to enter phase II liver detox pathways. What comes out of phase II is safer to excrete and taken to the bowels, urine or sweat to be excreted. The problem is most of us have a deficient phase II detoxification system and therefore have a backup of toxic intermediates. Watercress, NAC, Indole-3-Carbonol are among some supplements that boost phase II liver detoxification. Watercress is great at supporting the body in excreting cancer causing toxins. 

Pomegranate: Pomegranate supports both the liver and kidneys in getting rid of toxins efficiently. It also helps to regenerate the liver, connective tissue/cartilage and skin. The medicinal ingredient in pomegranate is called ellagic acid that has anti-proliferative (anticancer) and antioxidant properties. It prevents toxins from binding to DNA, reducing carcinogenic activity of toxins on the DNA of cells. Some of the toxins ellagic acid prevents from binding are nitrosamines (found in cured meats, salted fish and beer), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (found in wild fires, burning of garbage, tobacco, eating grilled foods). It is a good idea however to avoid these toxins. 

What Supplement Contains These Herbs and Foods?

Adva Clear by Metagenics contains all 4 of the herbs and foods mentioned above, Milk Thistle, Artichoke, Watercress, and Pomegranate. In addition to what we mentioned above, Adva Clear also contains vitamins and minerals that are essential to a healthy balance of both Phase I and Phase II liver detoxification pathways. 

I generally use 1-2 capsules per day for liver support and 4 capsules per day for a mild liver detoxification. For those who want to do a more comprehensive liver cleanse such as a 10 or 21 day program, there are a few Ultra Clear formulas from Metagenics depending on your specific needs and Adva Clear is very helpful in minimizing and detoxification symptoms by giving more support to the body and liver in clearing the toxins that are pulled out of the cells by Ultra Clear. Click here to purchase Adva Clear and Ultra Clear. 

For a more specific detoxification protocol, please schedule a consultation with Dr. Emily Chan. In general, do not go through an intense cleanse if you are physically very weak, have blood albumin levels under 3.9, or in the middle of severely cold weather. Otherwise being proactive in keeping your body clean, protects not only your liver but also your cells and other organs from the aging process.