2014 More Than Just Weight Loss - Week One

Get ready everyone! We are beginning a journey to experience improved health and happiness and perhaps shock you with results that may be unexpected. As you've heard me say before, this program has been running for four years now and I have have seen countless people lose weight, inches and most importantly, significantly reduce or eliminate their health symptoms. 

This is truly an amazing program and the reason why both myself and my wife participate every year.

Now to the nuts and bolts. This will be your blog through the program. This will allow you access to post questions and comments for me as well as interact with others in the program. There are many "More Than Just Weight Loss" veterans in the program as well as other health practitioners so the conversation on the blog will provide a high value. Also Lynda Buitrago, who is my partner in my office, will be sharing her expertise with you along this journey. She is also in the program with us and a veteran from last year.

As each new week begins, we will start a new blog. We have many in the program that are not starting on the same day so this will create ease of navigation for all, regardless of when they begin.

Each week I will post the supplement requirements for the week and sharing other news and tidbits to help you along the way. Please check in regularly for new posts and share from other participants. I will share that while the blog is not essential to your success, I do find that those participants that use the blog regularly consistently enjoy high levels of success.

Also remember the keys to this program. Allowable/avoidance foods, anti-inflammatory, liver detox, gut/brain connection and immune support. These will be your keys to health and happiness.

One last note. It does add an ease of navigation if you become a member of this blog. You can take care of this is the right header.

So here we go...

Wellness for the World,
Glen

Are You Having Fun Yet?

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

Are you having fun yet?

Image from Northern Sound

If you are like most of my new clients that answer would be no. Even when individuals share that they have a good focus on health and wellness, they are often forgetting to think of health and happiness.

Far too often I see those focusing on health and wellness creating life styles that are far too rigid. I am sure you have seen these people. They don't ever eat or drink anything considered bad for them. They spend more time at the gym than they do their family and friends. They spend much of their time going from one wellness consultation to another. And another huge point to make is their happiness is thought to be derived from something that can be measured rather than felt. 

Good luck with that...

It's funny that I have had people email, phone or simply mention to me in person that they cannot believe I make comments on my articles or social media about margaritas, putting up before and after photos with an inflamed belly before a program and a lean midsection after. Here's the deal. I am just like you. A human being, a person and someone that likes to have fun. I don't do everything perfect and I do not teach my clients to do this either. In fact, every person that I know that is doing everything "perfect" is so rigid and dysfunctional that they are anything but happy, thus anything but healthy.

Sure, I do not eat any of my cross reactive foods, and I've got a lot of them. I do go to a gym

Our Familly

a couple of times per week and I do seek assistance from other health professionals to maintain my health. Beyond this though, I focus on what is fun for me. I play tennis and golf once per week, ride my Harley, hang out with Dawn (my wife) and Ruben (our boxer), play cards with the guys, play board games with our friends, hang at the pool, hit the hot tub and so much more. Heck, I even make the best margarita ever with all fresh ingredients. I am over the top intolerant to corn so I cannot use any of those mixes. And even though I have multiple intolerances such as gluten, corn, rice, almost every grain, dairy, yeast, coffee and more but my wife has still figured out how to make an occasional chocolate cake and cheese cake that I can actually eat and I love them!

So to make it simple, I have fun!

When a client of mine is falling into regular mental/emotional or other health challenges, I often ask them what they do for fun. Do you know that about 90% of the time, they don't have an answer and you know why of course, they don't have any fun.

So let's make a pact here today. Let's make 2014 the year that you not only focus on health but health and happiness. And think about it, what good is health if you're not happy?!?!?

Here's an easy start. Make a list of at least 10 things that you like to do that are fun for you. Here's my sample list.

1. Golfing
2. Tennis
3. Snuggling with my wife watching a movie
4. Playing with Ruben
5. Board games with friends
6. Having my killer margarita with friends
7. Riding my Harley
8. Hanging at the pool
9. Most anything with my wife
10. Most anything with friends

So guess what was the hardest part of this list for me? If you guessed stopping at ten, you are right. I could have kept going and going...

So do I have fun because I am special? Are you kidding me, I am just like you, no better and no worse. I simply focus on having fun and you can too. So make your list and don't stop at 10. When you are feeling a little down and out, instead of feeling sorry for yourself and doing the whole "woe-is-me" thing, take out your list and do something fun.

How important is the list? Look at how much fun you are having right now in your life and this will tell you how bad you need a list. Remember, out of sight, out of mind. Make this list, have some fun and recognize that health without happiness is not health at all.

Yay!!!

Love New Info!

by Glen Depke

Why do I do countless amounts of research and attend workshops/lectures even when I feel like I could be doing delivering the workshop/lecture rather than being an attendee? I do this for the hope of the golden nugget. You know, that little bit of new information that can change someone's life. 

Well, I have some new info to share.

I remember learning functional healing while I was working with Dr Mercola in his office in the Chicago are. Joe (Dr Mercola) had connected with one of the leaders in functional medicine, Dr Daniel Kalish, to teach us his protocols to provide a higher level of success for the patients in Dr Mercola's clinic. I remember one time Dan sharing that he can look at similar labs, as far as dysfunctional, yet witness two completely different expressions of symptoms. He mentioned that one of those factors is exercise. In Dan's years of experience in functional medicine, he shares that those who exercise can ward off symptoms much easier than those that do not exercise.

To understand though, when you are looking at adrenal results overall, it is important for everyone to include movement (exercise) into their daily routine. I was taught that those with a stage II or deeper adrenal issue should limit their exercise to anaerobic activity. You know, weight training, gentle flow yoga, stretching and a casual walk or bike. This was due to the fact that a elevated heart rate for and extended length of time could actually worsen adrenal function.

Your hearing it here first. Based on new information and research I am changing this recommendation, so hear you go.

I am still in agreement that an extended length of a raised heart rate would be a challenge for the adrenals but high intensity training for short periods could actually assist your circadian rhythm and overall hormone balance while also raising growth hormone and assisting in developing new neural pathways. How about that?

So what do I mean high intensity training for short durations?

This is doing a particular movement for with extremely high intensity for at least 1 minute but up to 5 minutes. As an example, I jump on the treadmill for 5 minutes to warm up prior to lifting weights. Now that I understand the full benefits of the high intensity training, I did a slow jog at 3.5 miles per hour for the first minute, then I kicked it up to 7 miles per hour for 1 minute, knocked it back down to 3.5 for a 2 minute recovery and the last minute back up to 7 miles per hour. For me personally, 7 miles per hour is really pushing it and that is what's needed. Others may push it at less and many others will look at 7 miles per hour as slow, but it is important to know your limits and push just beyond for that 1 to 5 minutes.

The exercise does not need to be running though, you could do this on a bike, rebounder or other exercises. The key it to do short high intensity for 1 to 5 minutes. Here is a recommendation that is in my Fundamentals of Health that I provide for new clients.

High Intensity Training (3 times weekly)

• Do as many pushups as possible for 60 seconds and rest for 2 minutes
• Do as many crunches as possible for 60 seconds and rest for 2 minutes
• Do as many squats with a ball against the wall for 60 seconds and rest for 2 minutes
• If you are able repeat this for one more set

Often the question will come up in regard to what heart rate is targeted for high intensity training.  To get your maximum heart rate you can use this formula.

220 - (your age) and 70% of more is high intensity. So as an example, I am 49 so 2220-49=171 and 70% of this is about 120, so this is my target heart rate for this training. Remember though, this is only for 1-5 minutes maximum.

I also want to be very firm on saying, more is not better. If you do this to excess you can drop into an over training syndrome and end up creating poor health rather than improved health. I also want to be clear that while there are definite benefits to high intensity training, this is still creating oxidative stress in your body. With this said, it is then essential to take antioxidants to counter this stress.

Let's go one step further for some. If you find it very difficult to wake up in the morning and get your day going, do 2 minutes of high intensity exercise within 10 minutes of waking up. This can assist with neural connectivity and help reset your circadian rhythms and increase morning corsitol production. This can be a huge boost for so many.

If you have any comments or questions on this subject feel free to leave a post below.

Is Your Liver Screaming Too?

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

Well, the holidays are behind us and if you are like me you may have enjoyed a bit more alcohol than would be normal for you. On top of the alcohol there may have been some other issues for you. Potentially some food choices with "who knows what" as ingredients? Or maybe you either live in or visited a cold weather region where you were stuck inside breathing stale contaminated air all day. So what does all this mean to you?

It means it's time to be nice your liver.

If you have been following Depke Wellness for some time, you already know that I am not a fan of moving into detoxification too quickly. I have listed some bullet points to refresh your memory to why detoxification too quickly is an issue:

• Most individuals with chronic health issues are simply too weak to go through an aggressive detoxification program
• Many that are in a detox program are doing so with a less than optimally functioning blood/brain barrier
• This poor blood/brain barrier function will lead to detoxification symptoms such as headaches, body aches, fatigues and so much more
• Due to the fact that our world is so toxic, most push detoxification too quickly
• Some people are actually too lean to detoxify in a healthy way

This is the reason why I incorporate a liver detox along with a whole health building program in "More Than Just Weight Loss."

Before we move on, first understand that your systems of detoxification and elimination include the:

• Liver
• Kidneys
• Colon
• Lymphatic system
• Skin
• Lungs

We'll first discuss the liver, understanding that your liver is going to actually address approximately 80% of detoxification in your body through a phase I and phase II detoxification.

Phase I liver detoxification is often referred to as bio-transformation. Within this bio-transformation, enzymes change the biochemical structure of toxins, drugs, etc., which are fat soluble into water-soluble metabolites. This process  is governed by at least 50 different enzymes and this primary enzyme system is known as the cytochrome P450 (CP450) system. Simply put, toxins are converted to water soluble metabolites. These metabolites are usually less active, but they can be even more toxic than the original toxin. It is important that these metabolites are processed and excreted. If not, they will accumulate in the tissues of the body rather than in the bloodstream. These can be deposited in the fatty tissue, connective tissue and/or nervous system tissue. As a side note, storing toxins in connective tissue and/or nervous system tissue can be a very painful experience but generally only and issue for those that are very lean.

I remember years ago when I was working along side Dr Mercola, we had a young woman (maybe late 20's or early 30's) come into the clinic that moved as if she was in her 80's, and I mean an unhealthy 80's. You could actually see that pain on her face with every step and when she hit the chair in my office, she burst into tears. What you do not know is that she was very health conscious, very lean and fit. Just prior to coming into the clinic, she had all her silver amalgams removed improperly and this released a significant amount of toxins (mercury) into her body. Because she was so lean, there was not much fat tissue as a storage for these toxins, therefor connective tissue and nervous system tissue were the point of storage. I cannot begin to tell you how upset and distraught this woman was.

During phase II liver detoxification or also known as the conjugation pathways. Through different metabolic pathways, amino acids, sulfur, vitamins, minerals, and other natural substances bind or conjugate to the metabolites from the Phase I enzyme process so that they can be eliminated. If the nutrients needed to conjugate the toxins are in low supply, the toxins re-circulate as new toxins that are sometimes more toxic than the original toxin. You can tell that your phase II conjugation is sluggish if perfumes or scents start to create symptoms for you. 

Also understand that hormones, natural waste products, medications, and fat-soluble vitamins are also broken down through the liver detoxification process.

Now as far as your kidneys are concerned they receive 20% of the blood pumped to the heart. As the blood flows to the kidneys they remove wastes and then return the processed, purified blood back to the body. Waste material and water leave the blood and enter the urinary system. Toxins then end up in the urine.

Within your lymphatic system, the lymph fluid picks up nutrients, hormones, waste products, bacteria, and cellular debris. Then your lymph nodes act as a toxin filter and the lymph fluid is circulated by physical activity (especially rebounding), deep breathing, massage and dry skin brushing.

Here's some more tidbits on detoxification:

• Respiration: breathing (gas exchange), coughing, sneezing, clearing mucous
• Skin: sweating, sebaceous gland secretion, tears, Epsom salt or sea salt baths, dry skin brushing
• GI System: liver function, gallbladder, bowel and intestinal tract function
• Kidneys: acid/alkaline balancing, urination, hydration with filtered water
• Circulatory and lymph systems: blood flow, lymph circulation, and immune function

With all this in mind, you will likely understand why I include 3 weeks of liver detoxification in the "More Than Just Weight Loss" program. It is so interesting every year to watch the participants in the program. Some, like myself, dump quite a bit right away due to the fact of most of the weight being inflammatory. Others may lose more weight in the second to third weeks due to challenges in their digestive system. But the last couple of years I've seen the percentages grow for those losing the bulk of their weight toward the end of the program due to the increased liver function. As mentioned, this is so interesting.

If you want to learn more about the "More Than Just Weight Loss" program, click here. This has the potential to change your life forever!

Aches, Pain, Stiffness, Why?

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

You may know of someone that suffers from one of more of these challenges.

• Do you find regular joint pain a part of your daily life?
• Are regular body aches beginning to annoy you regularly?
• Is your body stiff when you wake in the morning or after sitting for some time?

If any of these are a challenge for you, it is likely that you are suffering from chronic inflammation. If this is your challenge, I do not have to tell you how this affects your daily life, your mood, your health and your happiness. The unfortunate reality is that most with chronic inflammation live with daily aches, pain or stiffness. For those that do not recognize this expression, look at this question.

Did you also know that chronic inflammation is a key component at the core of basically every chronic illness?

With this said, I don't want you to get the impression that inflammation itself is the problem. The true problem are the triggers for this inflammation and the ongoing feed back loops that continue this chronic inflammatory state.

We can first look at the triggers.

• Mental/emotional stress
• Gluten and other cross reactive food intolerance
• Infection
• Obesity
• Chemotherapy
• Addiction

The primary triggers that we see with clients on a regular basis are the first three that are in bold, stress, food intolerance and infection. Obviously a major aspect of eliminating your inflammation is tied directly into reducing or eliminating your triggers, but that's not all. Once chronic inflammation has been your "friend" for a longer period, you can potentially develop one or more of the following feed back loops that continue this inflammation. These feed back loops are listed below. 

• Understand that chronic inflammation will often inhibit phase I and phase II liver detoxification pathways. This occurs due to the fact that the NF-kB state can create a suppression of cytochrome P450. This suppression leads to a compound hepatic biotransformation, thus activating hepatic end products. It helps to understand that biotransformation is the process of rendering fat-soluble compounds to water soluble compounds so they can be excreted via the urine, feces and sweat. Hormones, toxins and drugs undergo hepatic transformation by phase I and phase II pathways in the liver and are eventually eliminated by a phase III pathway. A significant key though to this biotransformation, phase I, phase II and phase III pathways is the initial release of cytochrome P450. As noted above, chronic inflammation suppresses this cytochrome P450 thus inhibiting the entire liver clearance pathways. When this occurs, further inflammation is initiated and round and round you go. Simply put, the chronic inflammatory state leads to a multiple challenges within the liver, thus leading to more inflammation.  
• Chronic inflammation can also cause and increase in fat cell production. This increase in fat cells leads to insulin surges which in turn leads to insulin resistance. And guess what this leads to? If you said more inflammation you are right on.
•  Another challenge created by chronic inflammation is the creation of leaky gut. Leaky gut occurs when the tight junctures, or openings, in your small intestines that allow your macro-nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and and co-enzymes, actually become enlarged. When this occurs, whole food substances will be allowed through these tight junctures and lead initially to an autoimmune reaction. As this autoimmune reaction continues this can lead to a true TH-17 response AKA, tissue destruction and your guessed it, more inflammation.
• Last but not least, when you are living with chronic inflammation, your body may respond by raising cytokine production. Cytokines are proteins secreted by immune cells that act on other cells to coordinate appropriate immune responses. When these cytokines are responding to chronic inflammation, this often leads to autoimmune disease and more inflammation.

So based on what I am saying, it may sound hopeless and I hear you. Thankfully though, it is not hopeless. I know this personally, because I lived with chronic inflammation for decades before I finally overcame this issue. My inflammation was due to an initial injury followed by years of consuming intolerant foods and life's stressors. Here's my story for your education.

During this video, I mention the "More Than Just Weight Loss" program. During the six week span of this program, my knee pain was actually eliminated because for the first time in decades, I was able to eliminate my chronic inflammatory state. This too can be you.

Follow the link below to get more information on your potential of walking away from aches, pain and stiffness.

More Than Just Weight Loss

Your Reset Button!

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

Wouldn't it be nice if we could hit a reset button and most of the symptoms of our poor health choices could simply go away? Oh, and especially after all the stress, poor food choices, too much alcohol and too little sleep of the holidays. Heck, just over the Thanksgiving weekend I personally put on 10 pounds. Two Thanksgiving dinners, a birthday party and some alcohol at each was obviously a disaster. All with Christmas, traveling and New Years yet to arrive. 

Yikes!

Well thankfully, there is a reset button and I hit it every year after this holiday mess. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the holidays. I love to be with people, the engagement with others, the yummy food and even the occasional Christmas margarita. It's really not a different margarita, just a homemade margarita made around Christmas time. LOL!

As you can imagine, this leaves me a mess just as it does the rest of you reading this article. So what do we do?

Hit the reset button!

For me this is the 6 week "More Than Just Weight Loss" program. I have done this the last 3 years in a row and I am already craving this time again. You may ask, why do I crave this and what is it all about?

First of all, most of us gain weight at this time of the year and while a percentage of this is fat, there is often a significant weight gain accompanying an increase in inflammation. The weight gain isn't even the biggest issue with weight gain, but the aches and pains of inflammation are actually the more significant challenge. In addition to weight gain and inflammation most of us are also dealing with a gut/brain issue due to the holidays. Eating intolerant foods, alcohol affecting your brain function, stress and your lack of sleep are all feeding the gut/brain issue.

Along with this immune system function takes a hit. This is due to a couple of factors. Number one is the fact that about 70 to 80% of your immune function actually originates in your gut, so when there is a gut/brain connection issue, there is an immune issue. Secondly tied into the inflammation, this chronic inflammation actually creates an immune dysregulation that can be scary. Scary because this can lead to multiple chemical sensitivities and the shut down of apoptosis, which long term can lead to cancer. Another factor that is huge for the immune function is the lack of sleep that leads to a weakened immune function also.

Lastly, how about our livers' screaming out at us after the holidays. Heck, daily living is enough of a stress on our liver. Throw some alcohol, stress, poor food and the typical response to dealing with a hangover are all so taxing to the liver. Ouch!

So in the end, you know what to do? Hit the reset button!


The 6 week "More Than Just Weight Loss" program really isn't even a weight loss program. Don't get me wrong, if you have inflammatory or fat weight to lose, this will happen, but the program is actually quite different. It is actually a  gut/brain supportive, immune building, liver detoxifying, anti-inflammatory program.

The first year I did this I lost 16.9 pounds, last year I lost about 12.4 (don't remember exactly) and this year I hope to lose about 9 or 10. But more important than the weight loss and the fact that my pants will be a bit more comfy and I will get back into the "skinny" pants again, I will feel amazing! 

That's what feeds my drive for this 6 week program every year. I LOVE feeling amazing! Don't you?


Find out more about the 6 week "More Than Just Weight Loss" program.

The Perfect Storm

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath

So what is the perfect storm?

The holidays of course!

I know, we like to think of the holidays as a time for giving, spirituality, joy, love and so on. Think about it though. What do you often recognize during the holidays? Stress, less sleep, poor nutrition and far too much alcohol. Now I'm not asking you to not enjoy yourself, but let's look at how we can quiet this storm a bit.

Let's look at the stress first. During this time of the year, one of the biggest issues is that many of us over commit and make promises that are almost impossible to keep. This is the most important time of the year to use the power of "NO." I "get" that you want to make everyone happy and make every gathering, but one of two things will most often occur. Either you do not keep your integrity of being somewhere that you have committed to or you are so completely stressed out because it ends up being another thing that you have to do. Yikes to both!

A reality during this time of year for all of us is the fact that there will be more stress than other times of the year. To assist with dealing with this stress I would recommend visiting www.DepkeWellness.com and registering for the complimentary 4 part video series on the home page. The fourth video will provide easy to use yet powerful tools to assist with the stress of the holidays.

The next area is lack of sleep. Very often during the holidays we just simply do not get to bed early enough. I would suggest setting some boundaries for the times you are going to leave your holiday parties and of course, honor those boundaries. If you have an agreement with yourself to leave the parties at 9:00PM you will still have time to be in bed soon after that and get a full nights' sleep. The challenge for most is that they do not set a leaving time. Just show up a bit earlier and hold your integrity to the boundary you set.

Another factor is trying to fit "things" in late at night. I would suggest that instead of adding extra work at night, which ultimately lead to a lack of quality sleep, simply get up earlier. This will still allow some extra time to accomplish your tasks, but this will also mirror more of a natural sleep cycle and likely provide you more energy and mental clarity through the day. Understand that it is healthier to sleep from 10:00PM to 6:00AM than it is to sleep from Midnight to 8:00AM. Got it?

Poor nutrition is often an issue for most during the holidays. This is not only poor choices such as too much sugar, gluten and alcohol, but also typically far too much of all of these. Now for those that know they have a gluten intolerance or other cross reactive food intolerance, the holidays are not a time to "sneak" some in. Remember that if these foods are an issue for you, eating them will lead to inflammation in your gut, a weakened immune system and adrenal fatigue. Now as far as the sugar and alcohol are concerned, if this is not a huge issue for you, go ahead and indulge. Understand though that having one piece of fudge or one drink will typically not be an issue for most, but have several drinks, many sweets and throwing in some gluten can be a HUGE issue for so many. To assist with proper absorption and assimilation of your food choices during the holidays, make sure you are using your 1,2,3 of Digestion.

Also, when you are thinking about alcohol specifically, the timing is very important. The worst thing you can do is walk into your party and start with a glass of wine or a cocktail. If you have this on an empty stomach, watch out! This is an issue because alcohol is actually absorbed right through the stomach wall and an empty stomach allows a quick trip to the blood and the brain. All I can say is, not good! So if you are going to drink, make sure this is after you eat and not before. One more trick is to also eat fat when you are drinking, such as nuts, cheese or guacamole. The added fat will slow the release of the liquid sugar you are drinking and help to normalize blood sugar for you.

I would also add the focusing on all your fundamentals of health during this time will assist you in quieting this perfect storm. Remember that you can easily receive the complimentary 4 part video series for your fundamentals of health on the www.DepkeWellness.com home page.

Here is a late entry info for you...

A study, led by University of California at San Diego sociology professor David Phillips, looked at 57.5 million death certificates from 1979 to 2004. It found 42,325 more people died of natural causes -- which make up about 93 percent of all deaths -- during the two-week Christmas/New Year holiday period than would normally be expected, given the typical winter increase in deaths.

 

There also were increases in every major disease group of 1 percent to 10 percent and in every demographic group of 3 percent to 9 percent. In particular, the study looked at deaths from natural causes in which the patient either was dead on arrival (DOA) at a hospital or died receiving emergency care, and it found significant spikes throughout the holiday period. In fact, the three days when the most people die of natural causes in either a DOA situation or in an emergency setting are Dec. 25, Dec. 26 and Jan. 1.

Thanks to Dr Dan Yachter at www.elevationhealth.com for sharing this info.

Begin your focus on quieting the storm today and you may survive the holidays like never before. Here's to a happy and healthy holiday season!