What's up with the Caveman talk?

The Caveman diet, also known at Paleolithic diet, hunter-gatherer diet, or stone-age diet, is a dietary regime based on the idea you should consume only what our Paleolithic ancestors did.   My patient's know it as the Duke University Medical Center Lifestyle Diet.   Agriculturally-developed plants such as grains and fruit orchards  have only been around for 10,000 years, so proponents of the diet believe our physical systems are not suited for this “modern” diet. If you want to be a strong, lean warrior like your Paleolithic ancestors, than you should be eating a diet comprised of non-starchy vegetables, lean meat, and fish.  I've said this before, The Nu Beginnings Program is not a weight loss diet but a lifestyle regimen, although if you are carrying extra fat, you will lose this by following this program and eventually reach your ideal body weight whatever that may be. 

So, What did they eat again?

Again, non-starchy vegetables, lean meat,  fish, nuts, berries. And no calorie counting, no measuring, they just ate as much as they wanted and stopped when they were full.

What didn’t these old school ancestors of ours eat?

Obviously pre-packaged, mass-produced foods, but also salt, sugar, dairy, grains, legumes, beans, and Twinkies.

Sure, Twinkies are bad, but whole grains and beans are healthy, yes?

Grains, legumes, and beans were not cultivated in the 2.5 million years our ancestors roamed the world, not until the development of agriculture 10,000 years ago, so by caveman standards, they don’t make the cut. But that’s not the whole of it. These plants might not be as healthy as we think. Grains, beans, and legumes need to be either soaked, boiled, or baked before being rendered edible, and are actually poisonous in their raw states. Even with boiling, we still experience some of the toxic effects after eating a big bean burrito, and wheat and gluten allergies and Celiac disease also seem to suggest we might not be wholly suited to consume these.

Poisonous? Serious. 

These plants coat their grains, beans or legumes with a toxin to discourage predators from eating them. Most of this is neutralized by cooking, but not all, and some individuals are more susceptible than others to the effects of the remaining chemicals. These plants also contain what are known as “antinutrients,” substances known to interfere with the body’s ability to absorb nutrients.

But dairy is healthy, just look at those Got Milk? commercials. 

Consumption of milk is also wrought with a history of allergies and health problems, from lactose intolerance to glucose intolerance. Entire modern races are lactose intolerant, not just a few wimps here or there who can’t handle their tall cold froth.  Dairy also is loaded with a high insulin index.

Yours in Health!

Dr W

Get Outside and Play! Yes...Even in the Dallas Summer

Play is extremely important and play is NOT just for children.  Even without kids of your own, playing is something we all need to make time for.  What does play do?  Play is a natural part of our existence and playing reminds us that life should be enjoyed and having our noses constantly to the grindstone does not produce the quality of life that we all are striving for.

What does play need to look like?  Whatever you want it to! Be silly, dance, summersault, jump, leap, throw, swing, climb, live! Do not treat play like exercise but like a game – and a way to express yourself and you will accidentally end up getting in a workout without even knowing it.

Next time you find yourself at the playground with your kids, leave your phone in your car and your worries at the gate and really play with your children.  Do not feel inhibited by what others might think about you because honestly, who really cares – most likely others will be jealous of what an awesome parent you are for paying so much attention to your little ones, and you might inspire other families to play!  Suggest an activity for your kids to try that is challenging, fun and new; show them how to do it, and then do that activity with them and make it fun – remember this is PLAY!  It’s so great for your kiddos to see you in action.  Leading by example is the best way to instill the importance of having an active lifestyle.

Challenge yourself by getting outside of your comfort zone.  When was the last time you attempted to swing on the monkey bars?  Do you remember how freeing and fun it felt to simply play a game of tag?  Go for it, don’t hold back, and let yourself just be in the moment.  You will develop a new relationship with yourself and your loved ones that will make your family bond stronger and your life more complete.  Play is therapeutic, essential, and downright fun.

Have a wrestling match with your significant other.  Yes, it sounds silly, but that’s how play should be.  Get some sidewalk chalk out and make a giant game of hopscotch and practice your jumping and balancing all while having a great time outdoors.

I've asked this before, Are you  INSPIRED, ELATED and ALIVE????

Dr W

Stop The Insanity With Weight Loss.

Five simple steps to health and proper eating;
1.The calorie theory is wrong.It is NOT as simple as Energy In/Energy Out
2.The current diet advice is the cause of the global obesity epidemic.
3.The ONLY way to lose weight is to work with your body NOT against it.
4.Weight gain and loss also depends far more on carbs consumed, than calories, or fat consumed.
5.Overweight people are not greedy, weak-willed or in need of a psychiatrist. They are victims of the wrong advice.

Take a look at this picture. Absolutely incredible changes happen within your body with fat loss. It's not just about your waistline...  Call us @ 469 727 7246.  We can get you started on your journey.  

Train Like A Caveman

When it’s workout time at Nu Beginnings Dallas, out comes the boulder, club and loin cloth. Ok, maybe Dr W is embellishing a little but if you are looking for a bike or tradmill you've arrived at the wrong office (Yes, we do normal physical therapy with the expected equipment but for weight/fat loss it is very different).   

Nu Beginnings mimics our ancestral (caveman) regimen replacing contemporary "working out" withreal-life movements that our Paleolithic ancestors used to survive: pushing, pulling, lifting, squatting, bending, walking and the occasional high-intensity sprint.  

As a current patient stated the other day. "I feel like if I went back to a regular gym, I wouldn’t see these kinds of results and I’d get burned out," she said

Ancestral exercise, which for Nu Beginnings patients includes a diet component heavy on meats, poultry, seafood and vegetables and forsaking dairy and grain, slowly has crept into the mainstream in recent years.  I  just recently posted a video from NBC here on this facebook page. 

When humans began planting crops and building societies after nearly 2 million years of hunting and gathering, we betrayed our genetic dispositions. And as technology has improved — from elevators to email — we’ve only done ourselves a greater disservice by becoming more sedentary. We’ve made up for it with a misguided exercise industry focused on marketing rather than health.

Forget Cardio.  Toss the treadmill. Ditch the recumbant bike.  Use the elliptical as a clothes rack.

Instead, do as our Paleolithic ancestors did: walk. At least one to three miles a day, plus maintaining a low level of activity throughout the day.

We were born to walk, migrate, climb, forage — all these things that are low-level aerobic activities.  We were not born to be carbohydrate-munching sugar burners.

Ancestral exercise also places emphasis on short bursts of weight-bearing intensity, however, such as pushing a weighted sled or pounding a tire with a sledgehammer. The most dedicated adherents create backyard gyms that can involve carrying rocks, lifting tree branches and using "adult monkey bars" for chin-ups, climbing and dips.

At Nu Beginnings Dallas, little emphasis is put on classic cardio work. Dr Wagle believes in the movements of the past and anything that fits biomechanically with what we do as human beings.  Want to get super strong and lean...ditch the treadmill!

Train Like A Caveman!!!

Exercise is Medicine.

Exercise is Medicine.  Fact.

I actually view exercise as a drug with regard to being properly prescribed and having proper dosage,  And it's one that you can readily substitute for some of the most common drugs used today for things like diabetes, heart disease and depression.  All of these conditions will improve with exercise and with the help of an experienced team like Nu Beginnings.

Nearly one in four people in the US have type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, 35% are overweight and it is my experience that most of them could be reversed with the appropriate diet and exercise regimen -- exercise being the crucial key.

How Exercise Changes Your Biochemistry

In a study, the researchers measured the biochemical changes that occur during exercise, and found alterations in more than 20 different metabolites. Some of these compounds help you burn calories and fat, while others help stabilize your blood sugar, among other things.

Essentially, being of a healthy weight and exercising regularly creates a healthy feedback loop that optimizes and helps maintain healthy glucose and insulin levels through optimization of insulin receptor sensitivity.

And as I've explained on countless occasions, normalizing your insulin levels is the most important factor for optimizing your overall health and preventing disease of all kinds, from diabetes, to heart disease, to cancer, and everything in between.

It runs neck and neck with vitamin D3 as the two most important physical elements that you can do to improve your health.

This is also good news for those who are out of shape or overweight, because although it may take a little longer for you to correct your biochemistry, this same positive feedback loop will continue to create ever increasing health benefits as you persist and get fitter and leaner.

Best of all, just 10 minutes of BRISK exercise led to beneficial biochemical changes that were still measurable an hour later. And this is where what I have to say next comes into play.

Increase Your Exercise Benefits by Ditching Traditional Aerobic Cardio

Walk into any gym and you'll see most of the people crowding around the aerobics equipment, but there's actually a way to exercise that is FAR more effective than aerobic exercises like walking or running on a treadmill or elliptical machine for an hour, and it's called high intensity interval training (HIIT) that we personally tailor and prescribe in the clinic with the Nu Beginnings program.

It has been my personal experience that using this approach is far more effective than traditional cardio for a number of reasons that I will describe below. I was able to use this to help me lose over ten pounds of body fat and get my percent body fat down to 20% (yep, I know I have a ways to go…) , but my goal is single digits.

Exercise to Increase Your Levels of the "Fitness Hormone"

One of the major reasons I am so enthusiastic about HIIT is that it can actually increase your growth hormone level.

Yes, I realize that many athletes are injecting this illegally to achieve fitness, but it is expensive and fraught with side effects.

HIIT, on the other hand, can actually cause your growth hormone to increase naturally, without any of the expense or side effects.

In order to better grasp the benefits of HIIT, you first need to understand that you have three different types of muscle fibers: slow, fast, and super-fast. And only ONE of these muscles will impact your production of a vital hormone called HGH, or human growth hormone, which is KEY for strength, health and longevity.

Currently, the vast majority of people, including many athletes such as marathon runners, only train using their slow muscle fibers, which has the unfortunate effect of actually causing the super fast fibers to decrease or atrophy.

In fact, neither traditionally performed aerobic cardio nor strength training will work anything but your slow muscles. These are the red muscles, which are filled with capillaries and mitochondria, and hence a lot of oxygen.

Next you have the fast type of fiber which is also red muscle, and oxygenates quickly, but is five times faster than the slow fibers. Power training, or plyometrics burst types of exercises will engage these fast muscles.

The super-fast ones are the white muscle fibers. They contain far less blood and less densely packed mitochondria. These muscle fibers are what you use when you do anaerobic short burst exercises.

High intensity burst training is the form of exercise that will engage these super fast fibers. They're ten times faster than slow fibers, and this is the key to producing growth hormone!

As you reach your 30s and beyond, you enter what's called "somatopause," when your levels of HGH begin to drop off quite dramatically. This is part of what drives your aging process.

It has been my experience that nearly everyone over 30 has dramatically abnormal levels of this important hormone because they begin leading increasingly more sedentary life styles. 

Children and most animals in the wild do not run marathons or lift weights, they move at high speeds for very short periods of time and then rest. This is natural and what optimizes the production of growth hormone.

The higher your levels of growth hormone, the healthier and stronger you're going to be. And the longer you can keep your body producing higher levels of HGH, the longer you will experience robust health and strength.

Benefits of HIIT

Once you regularly participate in these 25 minute exercises about twice a week (exactly what we do in the Nu Beginnings program), most people notice the following benefits:

• Lowers your body fat
• Dramatically improves muscle tone
• Firms your skin and reduces wrinkles
• Boosts your energy and sexual desire
• Improves athletic speed and performance
• Allows you to achieve your fitness goals much faster

Dietary Recommendations to Maximize Growth Hormone Release

To maximize your growth hormone release you need to:

• Get a good night's sleep
• Avoid a high fat meal prior to exercising
• Drink plenty of water
• Eat healthy carbs (think vegetables) and high quality protein
• Optimize your vitamin D levels
• Avoid sugar, especially fructose

The last part is absolutely crucial.

If you consume sugar or fructose, especially within two hours post-exercise, you will increase somatostatin which will in turn obliterate the production of growth hormone!

This is yet another example of why gulping down sports drinks that are chockfull of high fructose corn syrup can do your body more harm than good, and will just shut down your body's production of HGH and negate many of the benefits from your exercise.

Dr Wagle's Six Rules for Injury Prevention

Dr Wagle's Six Rules for Injury Prevention: Injuries used to be an inevitable side effect of exercise. No longer! Learn and adopt these rules and you will never get injured again.
1. Be Balanced; Almost everyone has muscle imbalances when a muscle on one side of a joint becomes too tight while the muscle on the opposite side gets weak. It can be corrected. Focus on stretching muscles that are overactive and strengthen the muscles that are under-active. This week, I will be posting a "DIY" to fix and cure these imbalances.
2. Take the time to recover; Most overuse injuries are a failure to recover from the stress and inflammation of exercise. I personally do ice baths and it makes a huge difference. My patients know I'm a ice fanatic that accelerates muscle repair, reduces oedema, inflammation and improves performance the next day.
3. Practice before you play; Weekend Warriors...I could write a book about you. Here is my advise. Stay active all the time. Minimize unaccustomed exertion until your body is conditioned. Use a program like Nu Beginnings to become lean, strong and flexible so BBall with the guys doesn't land you flat on your back.
4. Know when to call it quits; Know your limits. Seriously. MOST INJURIES ARE PRECEDED BY WARNING SIGNS. Listen to your body. It's smarter than I am.
5. Invest in equipment that fits; Poor shoes, poor exercise equipment causes problems. Fact.
6. Warm up with dynamic moves; NOT FAN OF STATIC STRETCHES. Outdated crap. Stretch like we teach you in the clinic. Dynamic, ballistic, balancing movements prepare your body for the hunt and battle. This is how we were designed so we are properly warmed up with blood pumping movements that increase the body's temperature.

Let's keep the injuries down and prevent costly treatment. Share this with your friends.