Serve to Win

Watching Novak win the US Open today brought me back to when I first saw him play in person at the US Open in 2011 and I was like who is this guy? He had a different game than what I was used to.  Watching him on TV you noticed he played differently but in person it was even more confusing.  I love watching tennis and played in high school.  When I watched him that day in person I wasn’t sure if he was bringing to the court a Serbian way of playing or just his way.  I wasn’t sure if his wins were pure luck or actual skill.  Did he have an actual strategy or was he just that fast and flexible as he literally skidded from side to side at the baseline? 

After reading his book, Serve to Win, I know now he had a strategy and was playing differently because he was accentuating his strengths which happened to be his speed and agility which he attributes to only having after giving up gluten.  Before giving up gluten any major tennis match he would lose his endurance and start making errors but once he gave up gluten he became number one in the world in 2011 and continues to go strong 11 years later, winning Wimbledon just a few months ago in July.  

What you eat makes a difference in your health and your performance.  What you eat can make the difference between being number 1 in the world versus number 2 and Novak is a walking testimonial of that.  The idea of going gluten-free was introduced to him by a doctor who uses muscle testing.  We use homeopathic test kits in the office to muscle test the body for all sorts of foods and toxins but what this doctor did was put a literal piece of bread to Novak’s body and his arm went weak showing Novak he is sensitive to gluten.  

Novak couldn’t believe what he was feeling.  He describes the first time he gets muscle tested in the book as mind blowing.  I can’t imagine what it felt like for Novak to be muscle tested, for his arm to go weak. We innately want to be strong but Novak’s life dream depended on the strength of his arm. He also writes about how hard it was to give up gluten for his family owned a pizza parlor.  Bread was his life, literally.  He writes, ‘‘The idea of giving up bread and other gluten content, foods that are so precious to me, so ingrained in my life, my family, and my culture, was scary. I’m sure you can relate.”  He went threw withdrawal.  His family thought he was crazy but he was determined to give it up for 2 weeks.  After 2 weeks the doctor told him to have a bagel and see how he felt.  Novak was miserable and since then he has never had gluten and this was 13 years ago.  

The book is an easy, enjoyable read.  Novak gives reference to one of my favorite books, Power Vs Force, that explains more about muscle testing.  For more about Power vs. Force watch this video https://youtu.be/tFH_LoR1syM of my explanation. He even explains that if you muscle test with your cell phone as a party trick the radiation from the cell phone will make your arm go weak and it’s fun to watch people’s expressions.

There is a section of the book titled New Food, New Life where Novak explains the Chinese medicine theory that not only does your body have an innate biorhythm but so does each of your organs at a different time of day.  I already knew about this Chinese medicine theory of each organ having a different biorhythm and believe in it.  For example Heart is weakest at 11pm-1am and strongest 12 hours later 11am-1pm.  So sleep during this time is so effective for restoring the body.  It is also why medical doctors say that after a heart attack if the patient makes it through the night then their chance of survival skyrockets.  

The book has meal plans, great recipes and chapter 6 is about mindfulness.  He titles it ‘Training the Mind’.  Novak gets it.  How important it is to manage stress, what stress does to the body and how important mind AND body health are.  The body cannot heal if the mind keeps stressing out.  It’s that simple.  He then shares easy mindfulness tips that can make a big difference in your life.  If you need motivation on your healing journey I highly suggest this quick easy read to inspire you!

Keto Green

I am truly saddened by the state of human health in today’s modern society and frustrated with our medical system that has not been addressing the underlying reasons we are getting sick. Chronic diseases are the number one reason that our lifespan is getting shorter, despite access to top medical care. Through my medical practice and research, I’ve come to understand that systemic inflammation and hormone imbalance is the common denominator in diseases like heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cancer and others. What is the the main reason why one would have inflammation? The answer is in the food we eat. As scary as that sounds, the reality is that we have control over it. That what you eat makes a difference and that the incredible reality is that you have the power to prevent and even reverse symptoms of aging and degeneration, and achieve optimal health and longevity. I know this to be possible because I see it every day in the office.  

I love muscle testing to get specific biofeedback from the body on what foods to eat or not eat to help patients with all sorts of symptoms.  Headaches, infertility, skin rashes, allergies can all be helped by what you eat. To help patients eat low-carb and more veggies my favorite book to recommend is Keto-Green by Anna Cabeca.

In the book she explains how it works to eat low carb and put the body into keto. It’s not like the original Keto diet because it doesn’t have dairy in it and does a lot of veggies and healthy plant-based fats. Vegans and vegetarians can do the Keto-Green diet too. She tells you exactly what to buy to stock your kitchen with Keto-Green foods to cover all of your bases.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) model over previous decades has pushed the low-fat diet paradigm, which has led us down a dangerous path. In the end, more and more individuals and health experts are realizing that this dietary false assumption was actually making us sick and fat, not to mention leaving us hungry, cranky and deprived. Thankfully, science has solidly proven that healthy fats are definitely not what is making us fat, and in fact is necessary and foundational to human health and hormone balance. The real culprits are excess carbohydrates, refined carbohydrates and sugars that contribute to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and many other chronic diseases in modern day society. For 21 days I have tested all of the recipes from the Keto-Green book and rest assured, they are easy to follow (the average dinner takes 30 minutes to make) and they won’t spike blood sugar. You’ll adopt a plan that keeps you truly satiated while supporting weight loss, fat burning, hormone balance, alkalinity, and better health.

A good general rule of thumb when grocery shopping is to stick to the perimeter of the grocery store, as this is where the real foods live. By real foods, I mean fish, meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds and (for some) high quality dairy. You might peruse the inner aisles for oils and a few other ingredients for your kitchen, but in general you’ll be looking for unprocessed foods that come from nature. As the well-known health writer Michael Pollan eloquently asserts: “don’t eat anything your great grandparents wouldn’t have recognized as food.”

The book gives you a list of 16 food types that you can eat, carefully chosen for their ability to burn fat, balance hormones, keep your body in an alkaline state, promote a healthy gut microbiome, support cognitive health and much more. If you are looking for better health and want to reduce inflammation and/or balance hormones I highly suggest Keto-Green diet.