From Brain Fog to Mental Clarity: The Life-Changing Journey of a Single Dad

 I have a feeling a lot of your clients are entrepreneurs. That's my makeup. It has been for 30 years. Yeah. We have the habit and I work with a lot of them myself. We have the habit of being very driven and we run ourselves into the ground and we build a model that kicks butt and we can see some financial returns, but we're leaving a wake of destruction in our personal lives and our own wellbeing and self care, and it's not a sustainable model. Hey guys, it's Dr. Ryan. And today we're going to talk a little bit with a patient of mine, Jim, who's been a patient of mine for about a year. And he's going to talk a little bit about his experience with SUMA UP. Jim, why don't you go ahead and get started? Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, what you do, some of your hobbies. Thanks doc. My name is Jim. I'm from Miami. I've been down here about 40 years, originally from the Midwest. I have made my living in commercial real estate for a long time and have recently transitioned to being an executive life coach, which is a very much a passion project of mine working with High net worth, high, highly driven achievers. I want to add that I'm a single dad and have been for about a five year period. And so just juggling running multiple businesses and being a dad in my off time, just trying to make all that work was a very hectic thing to do. To juggle and I'm just grateful that Doc, you're in my paths crossed because I don't know if I would have made it through all that in a very, very healthy manner if we wouldn't have teamed up. Well, I'm glad you recognize the value of myself and the clinic. I think you're putting a little bit too much emphasis on what I've offered because you've made some incredible changes that I think have just awakened in you, which you intrinsically had. But we're going to get into that in just a little bit. So, Jim, what I'd like for you to do is just take a few minutes and tell us a little bit about your experience prior to working with Summa Up and myself. What were some of the goals that you were trying to accomplish and what were you really looking to improve upon? Doc, it's interesting because I didn't really come to you thinking. Boy, I'd like to really lean out and take my physique to the next level. I really came from a point of despair. I am a life coach. I have motivated people and coached up people and led groups. For the last three decades, but in my own personal life, I was struggling and I was at a point where there was really not a whole lot of hope. I felt like I was spiraling down where my health was such that I just didn't have the energy levels that I needed. To manufacture the life that I was craving and that I wanted and, um, that was having an impact on me and I had brain fog and I wasn't sleeping well and this had been something that had been going on for years and just getting worse and worse. And the less energy you have, the less opportunity you have to find creative solutions to dig your way back out. And so it's compounding. Circumstance that I found myself in. And so when a friend actually mentioned to me that he was a client of yours and that he was about three months in and really liked the journey, he thought it was something that I should consider. Now at that time, I was about a six, one and 212 pounds, which doesn't sound like it's that overweight, but to put it in perspective. I think that's a BMI of about, let's see, I think that was like 28 at the time and to put that in further perspective, 30 is obese. So I was carrying a lot of extra weight. I was low on energy and which then made it hard to get into the gym, which I've had a history of being in the gym in the past. But I was just in this season where I couldn't find back out. And so the idea of hooking up with a program with somebody who could coach me through and show me the path forward was appealing. Yeah. And I'm glad that you mentioned that. Number one, a lot of my patients, they encounter these roadblocks, these situations, the problems in terms of mental clarity, their energy levels, their physique, and it's very difficult because it's an extreme block in terms of them achieving their goals. And I also am glad that you recognize that whereas your BMI indicated that you were not technically. Obese, there was something amiss. And that is something that we're recognizing. There's a term called normal weight obesity, where you may have a BMI that is normal, but you're still somewhat unhealthy. And it's primarily because your body fat percentages may not be where it needs to be. And I'm glad that you recognize that very good. Yeah. And that's true. And in the category of overweight and the upper realm. And so I was on the doorstep of climbing higher. And I wanted to make sure that I didn't, but it was also that my, the physical was affecting my mental and emotional realm. And so it was this circumstance that if I didn't lock down the physical, that I wouldn't be able to make progress in the areas that were important. That's true. It's the whole idea of a strong mind, strong body, which I think in functional medicine, we take to heart. A lot of the components that go into Uh, being healthy from a physical aspect, a low body fat percentage, markers in which your, your risk for developing atherosclerosis are reduced. Translating to mental clarity because many times things that affect perfusion to your heart or to your kidneys also affect perfusion to your brain. Things that cause systemic inflammation and can cause joint pain will also cause systemic inflammation in the brain. So having a nice healthy body is obviously correlated to performing optimally from a mental state. You did mention that you found out about Summa up from a friend of yours and very thankful that individual referred you. There's always some level of trepidation when starting a clinic. What finally made you say yes and say, Hey, I'm gonna work with this guy. I trust Dr. Ryan. Yeah, I dragged my feet a little bit. I didn't come running in mm-hmm. , but I believed there was just too much riding on it. It was the type of thing that I could not afford not to move forward with you. My future was depending upon getting this squared away. And if I was at this point where I couldn't muster up adequate self care to turn the ship around and to get to a place where I could actually be, uh, kicking ass, which is what I'm geared to do, then I was going to be in trouble. And so the investment was one that I just really felt like, yeah, it's a stretch, but also... I can't think of a better thing to invest in. Yeah, I think, and this quote's really attributed to Warren Buffett, Price is what you pay, value is what you get. We try to strive and ensure that you get the utmost value from the product, from the clinic, uh, membership, from the resources that we offer. And I'm glad that you recognize that, because we pay for many things in life, but at the end of the day, it's all about the value you want to get. And hopefully it's a lot of value from this program. We're probably a little past the halfway point and I would make this decision 10 out of 10 times. It's a no brainer hindsight. And at the time I didn't come in half hearted. I just needed to really think it through. And then once I did it, it really just made a lot of sense to me that I can invest in a lot of things. But if I'm not investing in myself, I'm not putting myself in a position to have the life that I'm created for, so go after it. So we get grateful. This is a pretty generic statement, but I think it's very applicable to a lot of my patients who are entrepreneurs. Without health, wealth doesn't matter. If you can enjoy the fruits of your labor because of decreased exercise capacity or chronic illness, heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, dementia, none of that really matters. Yeah. And doc, I do want to add that if. I have a feeling a lot of your clients are entrepreneurs. That's my makeup. It has been for 30 years. Yeah. We have the habit and I work with a lot of them myself. We have the habit of being very driven and we run ourselves into the ground and we build a model that kicks butt and we can see some financial returns, but we're leaving a wake of destruction in our personal lives and our own wellbeing and self care. And it's not a sustainable model. And so, um, it just makes sense to hop aboard, uh, on your program to me, you know, yeah, I'm, I recognize everyone has a couple of pillars for the foundation of their life. Health is one of them. Wealth is one of them. Family life, et cetera, and other things, hobbies, et cetera. But I just. My goal is to ensure that pillar is set up because if any one of them is crumbling, the whole building will collapse, right? Let's talk a little bit about the changes that you experienced after you joined the clinic and I am gonna brag on you a little bit. I have just been so impressed with your progress. When you first came to me, you were rather concerned about some of your markers in relation to your cardiovascular profile, in particular your apolipoprotein B, your CRP, your total cholesterol, your LDL, and you would notice that, Hey, I need to make a change in this. And you were not really interested in utilizing conventional medications like statins. And I told you, okay, let's see what we can do in terms of diet. And you've done a tremendous job utilizing our diet and supplement exercise program to improve these things. Your apolipoprotein B, as we know, is a pretty big marker for cardiovascular disease. It went from 194, which is quite unhealthy, to 88, which is very healthy. Your CRP, which is a marker of inflammation, went from 1. 1 to 0. 8, which is excellent. Your triglycerides went from 85 to 54, which is very good. And your LDL went from 180 to 100, which is just about normal. It's excellent. And then finally, your hemoglobin A1c, which was not bad to start, got even better from 5. 1 to 4. 9. From like a biomarker standpoint, you've seen some tremendous improvement and you see it in your physique as well. As you had alluded to, you started at 212 with the program, but you've lost a significant amount of weight. You've gone down to 189, but a lot of this has been adipose tissue. I think you had mentioned earlier that you lost seven inches off your waist and that's shown in your pictures. Whereas you went from this to this. Right. You have a nice V taper and your waistline is much reduced, which is amazing. And so I think I'm just so proud of the changes that you've made while being a client of the program. Thank you. Thanks doc. I think a big part of the journey for me was changing the lifestyle. So the first three months were hard, not because of what I was, what I was doing in the workouts or trying to stay faithful to the supplements. But changing the nutritional intake and being consistent in the workouts, it just took a while to change. And actually, if I was starting in a low energy spot, was starting to build and get the momentum and the lifestyle and the habitual behaviors that allowed me to really start then getting traction. And then once we were underway, we started really seeing some stuff happen. Yeah, I like that term traction because that's really what we're trying to create for a lot of our patients. They know what to do. The, this is a sentiment shared by a lot of my patients, clients, that, that, uh, the process, the idea as to what they need to do is quite easy. The implementation is difficult and gaining traction is hard. Whether a diet, exercise, supplement, medication regimen, we try to make it as easy as possible. You'll still have to do the work. If you follow the plan, it'll, it'll work. I will. I do want to just step in. on that and yeah, different opinion just a little bit because you said knowing what to do is easy, you know, and it's, it's really the execution and having somebody to actually guide you through that execution. But I would, from my perspective, they were equally as hard. I didn't know what supplements to take. How my nutritional intake should really unfold and what that would look like. And then actually I had been working out throughout my life, but the programs that we're on now are more thorough and they're changing up. I have somebody that's looking at my physique and making adjustments accordingly. All of that was a great value to me. I don't want to minimize the fact that the regimen that you bring in, the program that you bring in, or just anyone could stumble across. No, these were things of great value to me that I did not know. I'm glad that you mentioned that. I think macros are macros, but I do agree. If you were to ask me about some of the specifics when it comes to commercial real estate, I would, I'd be pretty, pretty uncomfortable really wading through that world. Yeah, we talked a little bit about the changes you saw in your biomarkers. You saw some, we talked about some of the changes you saw in your physique, but what about some of the changes that you saw in terms of your business, your career and your relationships with your friends and family? Let's talk about that. So if we're starting from the changing of the physique. It's been nice to get positive affirmation and compliments about the progress that I've made. That's just a nice thing. Selfishly, from a little bit of an ego standpoint, it's just nice to be affirmed that the effort you're putting in, people are taking note of and Very encouraging. So I just want to acknowledge that, but that's not really the whole point of the journey. That's just a nice little bonus. The changing of the physique is great. But when I really came into the program needing, when you asked me what my priorities were, Yeah, it was really focused around energy and mental capacity, like I had lost, I had Gained brain fog and lost clarity somehow along the way and whatever the lifestyle I was living. And that was utmost importance because that affects my ability to produce and create and be an entrepreneurial and interact with others and to be fully present and bring the full strength of who I am into those relationships. And all of that was being hampered by where I was and all got. Yeah, a lot of these things are all connected together and I'm glad that you touched upon that. That is something that I also try to ensure individuals improve. Their energy levels, we want them to be consistent throughout the day, mental clarity. It's very important to think clearly and be able to process information quickly. And then finally your mood, right? There are so many ups and downs in an entrepreneur's life cycle, or at least in terms of their business. And being a default optimist is so important. Sometimes that can be very difficult. There are supplemental changes, there are hormonal changes that you can make that radically improve that aspect. So good, I'm glad that you're noticing that. Very good. And I do want to comment on that a little bit, Doc, in that I remember our first time that we analyzed the blood work and that was a real eye opener for me because while I have a primary doctor I see often, I never walked step by step through the blood work. We get pointed out, hey, keep the cholesterol in line or something, but I didn't get to really have somebody coach me up and teach me about everything. And if I had depressed mood, you could point and go in your blood work. See this DHEA. You see what that is? That actually has an impact on some of what you're feeling. So you, you trying to go to an antidepressant or anti anxiety medicine or something versus bringing in natural supplements to boost up what is already in your body. makes more sense. And so I just want to acknowledge that because if there are guys out there that are evaluating the value proposition to what you have to offer, it's huge. Yeah. This again, the purpose of this interview isn't to denigrate conventional physicians. I am a conventional physician, but more so that. Your primary care provider is probably hampered by the fact that number one, he or she can only spend so much time with you, maybe 15 minutes per session and that insurance based model and their, their patient schedule probably is huge, right? They don't have the time to do a deep dive and really investigate other therapies outside of what's considered. conventional like, you know, antidepressants SSRIs. And so, you know, yeah. So I'm glad that glad that you also pointed that out. Good. Good. I want to be careful that what I'm communicating above my primary and we not only I've been in this patient for I'm a friend of his, but there's only so much he can do and the level of service that we're talking about in hopping in the program versus me seeing my primary even quarterly is night and day. The ability to hop on the phone or. Text you with a question or have you actually as involved in my journey as you are, we're talking to two different things here. Yeah. And that's, that, that is really wonderful. I think there's a place for conventional medicine, obviously, if you fracture your femur, I'm going to be like, but in terms of reducing risk for chronic illnesses, and I agree having someone that you can text, you can talk to whenever it comes to certain medical issues. I think that's quite useful. Okay, so you did talk about some of the changes you saw in terms of your business career and the fact that your family and friends are commenting on your new improved physique. Were there any other benefits that you felt came from working with myself in the clinic? Really keeping a keen eye on your intake and the quality of that intake. And then that's combined with good supplements that are backfilling these categories. You start to see things like, I was struggling maybe because I had some extra weight on me, but I was struggling with inflammation. My knees were always aching and it was really an issue. Just walking to the car and stuff. I would feel it and it would come and go and I would be on like an anti inflammatory and trying to tackle it that way. But then as I got on the program, I recognized it just occurred to me like, Hey, I don't have any inflammation going right now. Like I used to like, okay, I don't think that's a coincidence or my asthma isn't kicking up quite as much or people would notice that, Hey, your skin looks different. I'm like, what the, this is a little femme for me, but thank you for the compliment, but I'll take it. I'm just vain enough to. Like, thank you for saying that, but I think it's, I think it's all a result of just really bringing good stuff into the body and the body reacts to having the extra care. And so it shows up in all different ways. One aspect that we really spend a lot of time on when we're constructing diets is really trying to prevent certain things that we know cause inflammation. Avoiding gluten, dairy, meats, high in saturated fats, and actually vegetables, utilizing markers like your CRP, your ferritin levels, and looking at your white blood cell count to ensure that those inflammation levels are dropping, right? And that's really key. So. So. So. So. I'm glad you noticed that. And I have a lot of patients that suffer from autoimmune conditions. So my patients have had rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Hashimoto's, uh, thyroiditis, their symptoms resolve after they got on a diet and optimize their hormones and improve some of their vitamin levels, it's remarkable. And they don't need to use biologics or other medications that we typically use that have a slew of side effects are able to come off of them. It's really cool. Yeah, that's great. You know, I, I'm grateful for Doug. I'm just grateful for where we are. I'm excited about the backside of our time together and the progress that can be gained. And I think that it was hard fighting in the trenches. And now I'm at this point where it is lifestyle and The habits are in place and they don't feel as like as much energy is required of me to actually be on the program and I'm loving the extra energy. I'm loving the extra focus because. Then the sky is the limit if you can actually run clean and be enthusiastic and pop out of bed ready to kick some butt and that's a result of the program. Yeah, it's incredible recognizing the potential you have. A lot of people when they hit their 40s, are like, Oh, well, I mean, I got to slow down. I guess I'm on the downturn, but I've had this realization happen to many of my patients where. They don't really see themselves slowing down. It's just smooth sailing for many years. And we'll see how things turns out and turn out in terms of longevity, but there is a large co there's a large contingent of physicians and professionals and experts in the anti aging longevity field to think that we'll get to 120, 130, 140, 150. What are you going to do with the extra 80, 90 years of life? It's pretty crazy, right? Yeah. I'm going to have some fun is what I'm going to do, but we did. mention, I don't know at the top of the show, if you mentioned my age, but I'm 59, I'll be 60 in December. So I'm at that point where things were starting to drop off and energy levels were to be expected. And Oh, guys, my age are talking about all their aches and pains. And. It's nice to be actually proactive and intentional fighting a lot of that. And then the added bonus is that I happen to find myself single, you know, uh, through some and to actually be going through all this while being out in the dating scene that doesn't stink. Given the fact that you are a single dad, and if you're out in the dating world, if you're a healthy, fully optimized individual in their forties, fifties and sixties, you'll find that Yeah. Compared to your peers, there are very few people like yourself and you'll probably have many more options than you know what to do with, which based upon our last meetings you've you've mentioned. So that's wonderful. It's wonderful. You're good in that area and I'm grateful. It's a wonder I have opportunities. Yeah. Okay. So closing up, what would you tell someone who's watching this and uncertain about joining the program? What would you tell that individual? Yeah. First of all, I understand the skepticism. I get it. It's good to not just go with whatever you're thinking, Oh, the coolest glittery thing is out there. But I would say it's a no brainer. I would say absolutely hop into the program. You won't regret it. You have some work ahead of you to do. I want to acknowledge that this is the type of program. That can impact not just your physical realm and your body physique, but that can impact you in ways that will affect relationships and your work life and your ability to be, uh, creative and empowered and to experience. You know, that joyfulness that life has in store for you. So I would do your due diligence, but in my mind it's a no-brainer. I would recommend that you hop aboard and, um, give it your all. 'cause you have one life to live and you're worth it. So go for it. Wow. I know I can accept all of that, but I'm really happy you feel that way. And like I said, I do think for the right individual you can make some incredible changes and I'm glad that. You've seen that personally. Okay, Jim, thanks so much for sharing your story and thanks so much for being a patient. Doc, thank you for all that you've done for me. It's greatly appreciated. All the best to you.