September 19, 2023 • 27 mins
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Dr. Wells Podcast, where we venture into the realms of health, wellbeing, and peak performance.
This week, we are honored to host Dr. Dwight Chapin. Dr. Chapin, has an extensive background as an award-winning chiropractor, team chiropractor for the Toronto Argonauts, and health advisor to employees at many companies including The Globe and Mail.
In this episode, we delve into the heart of Dr. Chapin's new book, "The 7 Wellness Rituals." This book serves as a playbook for anyone to unlock the secrets to sustained health and wellness. Through the lens of 21 world class experts in different fields, including the likes of Jann Arden and Dragons' Den investor Jim Treliving, we explore the rituals that have paved their way to success and wellbeing.
In this episode we explore the science and stories behind the 7 Wellness Rituals that can elevate your life.
You can learn more about Dr. Dwight and the book at https://www.7wellnessrituals.com/.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hi everyone, Welcome to my podcast where I explore the
science of health, human performance, and ultimate
potential. My name is Dr. Greg Wells and
I'm a scientist with a PhD in Human Physiology.
I've served as a professor in Kinesiology at the University of
Toronto and is a Scientist in Translational Medicine at Sick
Kids Hospital. I've also worked with dozens of
(00:22):
Olympic level athletes through the Canadian Sports Center
Network. In this podcast, I do my best to
take complex research and make it understandable and actionable
for you to improve your health and wellbeing, and perform to
your true potential at whatever it is that you care about the
most. In each show, I chat with
(00:42):
leading experts in the field of productivity, sleep, nutrition,
Physiology and psychology, as well as some of the most
exceptional performers across all disciplines.
Together, we explore the amplifiers that propel us
towards high performance and overcome the obstacles that
challenge us. Ultimately, I want to share 1%
(01:03):
gains that can make a massive difference in your life.
Thank you for listening in and Ihope that you enjoy this
episode. Let me know your thoughts and
comments on social at Doctor Greg Wells.
All right, let's dive in. Hey everyone, welcome back.
It's great to have you with me for another episode of the
podcast For each week we ventureinto the realms of health,
(01:24):
wellbeing and peak performance. This week, I'm honored to host
Doctor Dwight Chapin. Doctor Chapin is an extensive
background as an awardwinning chiropractor.
He's the team chiropractor for the Toronto Argonauts of the
CFL, and he is a health advisor to employees at many companies,
including Canada's national newspaper at The Globe and Mail.
(01:45):
In this episode, we explore the science and stories behind the
seven Wellness rituals that can elevate your life.
This book serves as a playbook for anyone to unlock the secrets
of sustained health and Wellness.
Through the lens of 21 world class experts in different
fields, including likes of musician Jan Arden and Dragons
den investor Jim True Living, weexplore the rituals that have
(02:08):
paved the way for their success and well-being.
I'm super psyched to have DoctorDwight on the show, known him
for many, many, many years. I think that he has a unique
ability to communicate powerful ideas, but in a way that are
understandable and actionable, which is one of the main reasons
why, of course we're having him on this show.
So with any further delays, please enjoy my conversation
(02:30):
with Doctor Dwight Chapman all about the seven Wellness
rituals. Doctor Joy, thanks for joining
us. My pleasure, Greg.
Good to see you. Yeah, it's good to see you too.
I am coming to you from the sideof the road right now, from a
campground on the side of the highway.
Clearly it looks like I've caught you at work, which is
amazing and super psyched to talk to you.
Your new book is out, Seven Wellness Rituals.
(02:52):
I'm so excited to get into it. But maybe you could just give
everyone a a bit of background about your, you know, your
background of your expertise, how you landed on on all of this
and what led to you writing the book.
Sure so. I'm a chiropractor practice in
Mississauga ON and next year marks my 25th year in practice.
(03:12):
And I do wear many hats, so I have a family practice.
But I'm also the onsite clinician for the Globe and
Mail, and I'm the team chiropractor for the Toronto
Argonauts. And I've always been passionate
about selfcare, helping people craft a formula for selfcare
that will advance not just health but also performance.
(03:32):
And when we got to the end of 2020, I noticed a huge shift in
patients mindset. People were coming to me with a
sense of frustration and purposeand a desire to really move
their selfcare strategy in a different direction.
They wanted to come out of the pandemic with with purpose and
meaning, and they wanted to feelbetter, move better, think
(03:54):
better, to be better. And so it was an opportunity to.
Bring the science of Selfcare tolife.
And I thought the best way to dothat would be to write a book
about best practices but share stories of those of individuals
who walk the walk, who really have crafted a formula for
Selfcare that would stand as a good example for for the rest of
(04:18):
Canadians. And I'm.
And I'm very proud to say that, Greg, you're in that book and
you joined that, that group of mentors that we pulled together
for this project. Yeah, I know.
I was super honored. To be a part of it.
And obviously to, you know, justbe associated with some of the
people in the book is so cool. I'm so deeply grateful for that.
Now obviously we get to share that with all of the people who
(04:40):
listen to this, which is amazing.
But tell me about someone else that not me.
Tell Tell me about someone else that was inspiring and why they,
why they inspired you and what you learned from them.
Right. So what I wanted to do with the
the mentors that I brought to the to the table in this project
was was first of all I wanted toget a group of individuals that
were from a variety of differentindustries, right.
(05:01):
So we have leaders from business, sport, media,
entertainment, healthcare, education, variety of different
ages and backgrounds and I wanted to showcase that these
aren't. Masters of clean living like
these are people that have livedmessy lives and had to figure it
out and and what I'm really passionate about and one of the
(05:21):
lessons and take homes for me inthis project was just how these
individuals craft their formula and work at it.
I mean, it's almost one of theirgreatest assets and greatest
points of pride and in achievinggood health and success, the
effort and the deliberate intention that they bring to
bringing their formula together.Was really inspiring for me.
(05:43):
So you don't have Jim Tree livings in the book.
Phillip Crawley, Publisher CEO of the Golden Males in the book,
Silk and Lowman, Olympic rowers in the book.
Phillip or sorry, Jim Leach, former president in of Ontario
Teachers Pension Pinball, Clemens Jannard.
And I mean, so there's a real mix of individuals that really
(06:04):
opened up their lives to me and and showcase not just their
approach to selfcare, but their.Their discipline to that
practice and and how they prepare and and recover from
peak performance events. Isn't it interesting that like
straight away you like are into hey, it's messy, it's a process,
it's a practice. It's not like it's perfect at
(06:28):
the end, like this is something that people work on.
Some days are good, some days are maybe not as not as not as
successful, but it's. All part of of crafting this
life. I love that that's like your
your key take away that you launched straight into.
I think that people need to givethemselves a sense of of not
just purpose, but forgiveness and kindness and and their
(06:50):
approach to self-care. Like a lot of the practices that
we talk about in the book, you know, they're not rocket
science. Like we need better quality
sleep. We need to prioritize our rest
and recovery. We need to look at how diet
influences our our health and performance and risk of disease
and how do we manage energy? How do we move?
How do we practice resistance training and and mental fitness?
(07:12):
How do we bring play into our life?
I mean, these are all concepts that most people can appreciate.
The difference, Greg, is that we've got to convert these
practices from habits into rituals.
And so what's the purpose? What's going to get you off the
couch to to go for a walk after dinner with your spouse or your
neighbor? Are you chasing a movement
(07:35):
tracker or or or daily count? Or is it because you've got a
family history of heart disease that you want a higher
performance level? So so regardless of whatever
your your your motivation is, it's the conversion to to
hardwired to linking these practices into a hardwired
approach in your daytoday routine.
And I think you need to fall down enough to figure out
(07:58):
exactly what your body needs andand figure that process out.
I mean, all of the mentors told me that it's it's taken time to
to figure it out. So I wrote this book to try to
help accelerate the readers experience in crafting a formula
that's built on best practices and the the evidence that
supports it. Can you give us an example of
(08:18):
shifting from or crap? Are you basically going from not
just a habit? To an actual ritual.
Maybe we'll pick sleep or nutrition, but how do we do
that? How do we, you know, make this a
part of our lives and give us anexample of of what that process
looks like? Sure.
So when I sat down with Jim TreeLiving and and talked to him
(08:41):
about his process, I mean, his early formula was work hard,
love your work period. Like that was the extent of it.
He loved his work when he was building the Boston Pizza
empire. He just would outwork everybody
and he had tremendous success early on with that approach.
But of course that's not sustainable.
(09:01):
And so it it literally almost killed him and he was forced to
take a hard look at his formula.Now, of course, he has a very
robust formula that practices all of these seven Wellness
rituals that are that are in thebook.
And and so for for Jim, one of the priorities that he had to
figure out was was ritual. I call Ritual 1, and that's
prioritizing sleep, rest, and recovery.
(09:23):
And so if you're if you're coming to sleep and your
perspective of sleep is that it's an inconvenience that if
I'm chasing my To Do List and I just can push through a little
harder, a little longer that I might just get a little bit more
done today. And so I'm a little bit more
tired tomorrow. And that practice over the long
term as you well know, leads to insufficient sleep syndrome and
(09:46):
is linked to all kinds of of chronic health issues and so the
conversion of. Using sleep to your advantage to
boost health and away from sleepbeing this idea of some type of
of inconvenience or or time suck.
It starts with understanding what does sleep do for us from a
biological perspective. How is it that with sleep the
(10:08):
brain detoxifies and actually gets rid of memory, important
impairing proteins and and elevates cognitive function and
creativity and elevates mood andsupports immune function and
helps us regulate our weight? And so when we understand the
biology behind what sleep does to lift our health, then all of
a sudden the why behind the practices to make healthy sleep
(10:32):
a more of a of a ritualized practice, it gets a little
easier. Like there's a little more
weight behind the decision. So OK to to get my nervous
system firing properly, I'm going to start winding down an
hour before I want to be asleep.And I understand the the purpose
and the the influence that that calming my nervous system down
(10:53):
has on on my ability to to not only get the amount of sleep I
need, but the depth of sleep that I need.
So it's kind of a roundabout answer to your question, but I
guess the purpose I'm trying to make it is that I want people to
to understand their Physiology and the power that their choices
have, their daily choices have on their Physiology.
(11:13):
When you understand how the bodyworks, it becomes a little bit
easier to prioritize the ritualization of these
practices. You know, quite often we hear
about these people and we associate them with success.
And you know, we have listeners from all over the world.
But let me tell you, like everyone that who's mentioned is
like an epic musician and epic athlete and epic business person
(11:36):
here in Canada. And what I'm curious about is.
What they thought about her or how they approached mental
health, because I know that doesn't matter how success,
quote, UN quote successful that you are.
We struck with people have been struggling and I know that so
many people listening to this podcast reached out and asked
(11:56):
for more interviews about mentalhealth and let's talk about
mental health. And I believe that we need to do
that. So what?
What did you discover around optimizing mental health?
What practices maybe you know? Seems to be a consistent
pattern. Or what did you discover around
that? So I thought that this is
another one of the key take homes takeaways in the book was
(12:19):
that the all 21 of the mentors featured, they all had a very
clear understanding of where they were, where they were
operating on with respect to their stress response curve.
So they had developed a talent to use stress to elevate
performance when needed. So this, this idea of stress can
(12:41):
be enhancing, it can elevate performance.
We can we can improve cognitive,mental health and physical
health and performance when we tap into that stress response
and stay on the left side of thecurve or that stress response
curve, but they also understand that they're going to hit their
peak and so. So again, physiologically, what
does that look and feel like? What are the early triggers that
(13:03):
indicate that performance is starting to tap, tap, or tap out
or reach their plateau? And then they will strategically
create a rest and recovery period so that they can reset to
position themselves yet again for another peak performance
event. And so it's, it's all right.
How do you feel when you're at your best?
(13:25):
How long can you sustain that peak?
How long do you need to to to dial it back and and be able to
to push forward again and so everyone's formula there or
experience with that that changein elevation and performance
decline in performance. It's different, of course, but
you can train your mind and bodyto recognize those symptoms and
(13:45):
and then deliberately call yourself into the stress
response at times when you need to.
So it was, it was there was consistency there there was a
there was a very deliberate and intentional use of stressed
elevate performance. But I think the difference is
that these folks had figured outjust exactly how to manipulate
their Physiology and prepare themselves for peak event By
(14:08):
queuing up sleep, by queuing up the the nutritional practices
that they need before and after a peak event, By carving time
out to to process the event before strategically pushing
themselves through. I mean, you talked to me about
the value of just going for a walk after a peak performance
event to collect your thoughts and dial your Physiology down.
(14:29):
That's you working yourself backdown the stress response curve
so you're strategically ready togo again if need be.
Yeah, it's really interesting that that post event protocol is
almost become more important forme than the pre event protocol
to be honest, even like right now, you know, I had three
events this morning. And I already can feel the
(14:53):
adrenaline, you know, leaving mysystem.
And I've got to have a plan in place for making sure that
there's healthy fuel on board tomake sure that that adrenaline
crash, that insulin rush crash is not going to lead to some
patterns that maybe aren't serving me in the long term.
So I really appreciate that these people apply.
(15:15):
A lot of intention to the practices that they put into
place in and around performance moments to enable them to
perform well but maintain their mental health at the same time.
Does that make sense? Am I reading that the right?
Way. Yeah.
And they're not chasing success and then trying to figure out,
well, where the self-care fits in, right.
(15:37):
Like Greg, one of the things that you shared with me, that
I've shared with many people is your 123 Rule.
So one hour a day, two days a month, 3 weeks a year, you put
that in your calendar and you are off the grid.
You are working on prioritizing yourself care by putting that
practice in. So I start my day every day with
(15:57):
a movement ritual and that just connects my mind and my body and
it makes me feel physically strong but also mentally ready
to tap into the day. And I end my day with a 10
minute meditative practice. So those are my bookends of
selfcare every day. That's not a serious time
commitment, but it's it's how I show up in my day and make sure
that I'm investing in selfcare. And then I work my fitness and
(16:19):
my nutrition and my movement practices in and around that as
it relates to to my job and where I am in the world.
But there's this commitment to bringing Selfcare first.
Doctor Robin talks about it not being selfish.
It's science. Yeah, exactly.
I love that line. It's not selfish.
It's like 00 K carry on. You speak about play and that's
(16:41):
something that's come up quite abit recently.
I've heard it from a number of different people.
And I love the fact that we're giving ourselves permission to
have fun and that that's actually part of the
conversation around high performance.
Like, how cool is that? Right.
Yeah. And it's often the first thing
that goes right when we get busyand it's a real mistake, you
(17:02):
know, when we incorporate. Play we really shift not only
our our mental health and mood but the research shows that we
have a significant impact on thequality and the health of our
relationships, people that are the most important to us in our
life. And so when again we're we're
looking for opportunities to bring a smile or laughter to our
(17:26):
relationships and to our work colleagues and to our our
clients and patients and. And the individuals that we're
speaking to and podcast like this?
That means smiles are contagiousand the the ripple effect of of
positivity with respect to health and performance is
undeniable. You know, simply having one
thing in your calendar every month that you look forward to,
(17:48):
to spend time with someone you enjoy spending time with, doing
something that's perhaps a little bit unpredictable and
offline. Is is a wonderful added
component to selfcare strategy. Yeah, I just love having fun,
right? Like just doing stuff that's
fun. Stay.
During one of the talks, I showed a video of my daughter
(18:11):
rock climbing and she goes up and she hustles her way to that,
you know, the top. And she touches the top and she
repels back down and she lands, places her feet on the ground
and turns around and looks at meand the camera and just is.
Meaning. Yeah, in happiness.
Yeah. And my gosh, we need so much
(18:31):
more of that in our lives right now.
Yeah, you know, I'll share a quick story with you and this is
in the book that they on one of the days I was writing the
chapter on play I I got into a tough part of the chapter and I
wasn't sure how I wanted to moveforward and I was running late
to get to a friend's BBQ, so. Wanted to get that chapter done.
(18:51):
Wasn't going to happen. So I walked away from my
computer and I went off to this barbecue and it's in the back of
my mind right, trying to work through this this tough section
and get to the backyard and and my my friend's three-year old
son comes up to the group of adults in the backyard and he
grabs my hand and he says let meshow you the potato bugs.
(19:12):
And I didn't This this boy's name is Gavin.
I didn't know Gavin. I just knew from stories his dad
had shared with me that he was really.
This little kid and and so I followed his lead and he walks
me down this garden path in the back of their backyard.
And he goes to this big boulder and he lifts this boulder up and
underneath this boulder are these three potato bugs and a
slug. And he's just like his mind is
(19:34):
blown that these bugs are still there and he's sharing this like
universe that he had discovered with me.
And isn't this like, totally cool?
And his to, to your point, like the smile and the expression of
love and joy and wonder and curiosity on his face just
captures this chapter. So, like, as you move through
your day, whether you're practicing gratitude, whether
(19:57):
you're practicing just being still when you're if you're
practicing, just the idea of of of stress can be enhancing.
It doesn't have to be debilitating.
If we start recognizing what ourstress triggers are and making a
conscious choice to react or notto react, we can find joy and
curiosity and wonder in our daysthat I think a lot of people are
(20:19):
missing. And the the research around the
ripple effect that this has on our our health and risk of
disease is overwhelming. So having fun and playing and
and and tapping into positivity is is a powerful tool.
I'm going to challenge you a little bit.
You talk about movement for longevity, but you also talk
(20:41):
about protecting your strength. And one of the classic, you
know, discussion points in Physiology over the years is
cardio or weights. Alex Hutchinson even wrote a
book about about that particulartopic.
So I'm going to throw that out at you.
You have to pick one. Cardio or weights.
What are you doing and why? Well, I would.
(21:01):
I would answer that question with it.
It depends. If you're 40 plus resistance
training has to be in your formula and by doing some
resistance training you're also going to get a significant boost
in cardiovascular health, but you're also going to help to
limit the the muscle loss that is associated with disuse and
(21:23):
and aging. But there are other advantages
too, obviously to cardiovascularhealth and disease prevention by
making sure you're working in some some cardiovascular
training. So it would depend on sort of
the life stage and circumstance of the individual was at.
Of course, I tell my patients that I'd like to see a little
bit of both when it comes to themovement practices.
(21:46):
I think if we could break up theidea of fitness needs to belong
in this bubble of a 30 minute spin class or a 30 minute
Pilates class. And like, how can we get away
from that idea and just incorporate movement, regular,
varied movement in our day. And if that varied movement is a
combination of activity that elevates heart rate but also
(22:08):
challenges physical strength, balance, coordination, movement,
these things have a profound effect.
When coupled together, I find that we can get further, further
along as opposed to going all inin one camp or the other.
Yeah, I know. I.
Love that and obviously that is the correct answer.
Does depend. And at different life stages and
even different times of the year, you can shift your focus
(22:31):
and get some tremendous gains regardless.
What are you working on these days?
Like you've done this work, you've interviewed these people,
you've broken it down, you've created the structures.
But what's top of mind for you? Like what are you working on?
How are you applying this to your own life?
Because you're busy. You have a business, you have a
lots going on. So what's what's going on with
you? Right.
(22:53):
So you know, I have to, I have to share.
When I when I met with these 21 individuals, it was one of the
best years of my life. I mean, I honestly felt like it
was a master class in life. Like with every conversation I
had with these individuals, I was just like learning all of
these gems. And I think the timing of when I
was writing this book, most of the mentors were themselves in
(23:16):
isolation or at home in the early days of the COVID
pandemic. And so it gave me a very unique
access to their to their lives at a time when they were wanting
to share. And I was also coming through
the first six months of managingmy practice in COVID, which was
a very high stress time. Patients were coming in with all
kinds of different things that typically would not find their
(23:37):
way into my office or had would have been triaged higher up the
chain. So in applying the lessons
learned, the seven Wellness rituals to my life, my focus was
one on making sure that I was dealing appropriately with a my
family history of heart disease and elevated cholesterol.
I had become quite complacent inmy fitness routine and somewhat
(24:02):
cocky that I had it figured out.And when I figured or when I had
testing done just in advance of my 50th birthday, I realized
that no, my genetics had a good hold of my cholesterol levels.
And I needed to make some radical changes to my stress
management, in my practice, to my sleep rituals and to how I
(24:22):
was the choices I was making with food as well as with
training to get my cholesterol back in check.
And I'm very proud to say that after 18 months of working on my
formula, my cholesterol levels are at an all time low and I am
no longer at risk. So back I had a discussion with
my cardiologist and he and he said you know do I don't get to
(24:43):
have these conversations very often but I want to congratulate
you. You you know you've renewed my
faith and primary prevention. So when you ask what I'm all
about right now, what's motivating me, it's it's really
about sparking conversations of the value and the importance of
self-care and just how importantit is for us to recognize the
(25:03):
power our choices have on healthand performance.
And that's why conversations like this and your podcast and
your reach, Greg is just so important.
Well, I. Really appreciate that and I
really appreciate you taking thetime to.
Share your wisdom with, you know, the people that hang out
here with me every week and it means the world to have people
like you in my life and you knowthat just to share wisdom.
(25:25):
So it's it's super cool not to mention the fact that you're,
you know, your business partner is Doctor Emily and she's, you
know, a big part of my experience growing up and
coaching athletes and stuff likethat.
So it's a great big family and super happy to have had you here
to talk about your book. Where can people find out more
and connect with you online? Sure.
(25:45):
So the book is called Take Good Care, 7 Wellness Rituals for
Health, Strength and Hope. It's available in Indigo at
stores across the country, or online or on Amazon.
And you can find more information at 7 Wellness
rituals.com. That's great.
Thank you so much, Doc. I really appreciate it.
Great to speak to you. Really appreciate you taking the
time to hang out with us. Yeah, you bet, Greg.
(26:05):
All the best. Thanks for tuning into this
episode of the Dr. Greg Wells podcast if you found this show
informative and helpful. Check out my blog at Dr. Greg
wells.com for additional insights and resources on Health
and Human performance. I update the blog a couple times
a month to stay up to date on the latest tips, articles, and
(26:28):
videos. Be sure to follow me on social
at Dr. Greg Wells. My goal on social is to keep
your health and Wellness and positivity at the forefront of
your mind, and so I would be thrilled to connect with you
there. If you found this episode
helpful, please consider subscribing to the podcast.
That helps us out a ton and leave a review and your
feedback. Is greatly appreciated and helps
(26:50):
me to continue to produce valuable content that's relevant
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episode with your friends and community.
That helps a ton as well and that brings this week's show to
an end. I look forward to seeing you in
the next episode. Have a great week everyone.
Hi everyone, Welcome to my podcast where I explore the
science of health, human performance, and ultimate
potential. My name is Dr. Greg Wells and
I'm a scientist with a PhD in Human Physiology.
I've served as a professor in Kinesiology at the University of
Toronto and is a Scientist in Translational Medicine at Sick
Kids Hospital. I've also worked with dozens of
(00:22):
Olympic level athletes through the Canadian Sports Center
Network. In this podcast, I do my best to
take complex research and make it understandable and actionable
for you to improve your health and wellbeing, and perform to
your true potential at whatever it is that you care about the
most. In each show, I chat with
(00:42):
leading experts in the field of productivity, sleep, nutrition,
Physiology and psychology, as well as some of the most
exceptional performers across all disciplines.
Together, we explore the amplifiers that propel us
towards high performance and overcome the obstacles that
challenge us. Ultimately, I want to share 1%
(01:03):
gains that can make a massive difference in your life.
Thank you for listening in and Ihope that you enjoy this
episode. Let me know your thoughts and
comments on social at Doctor Greg Wells.
All right, let's dive in. Hey everyone, welcome back.
It's great to have you with me for another episode of the
podcast For each week we ventureinto the realms of health,
(01:24):
wellbeing and peak performance. This week, I'm honored to host
Doctor Dwight Chapin. Doctor Chapin is an extensive
background as an awardwinning chiropractor.
He's the team chiropractor for the Toronto Argonauts of the
CFL, and he is a health advisor to employees at many companies,
including Canada's national newspaper at The Globe and Mail.
(01:45):
In this episode, we explore the science and stories behind the
seven Wellness rituals that can elevate your life.
This book serves as a playbook for anyone to unlock the secrets
of sustained health and Wellness.
Through the lens of 21 world class experts in different
fields, including likes of musician Jan Arden and Dragons
den investor Jim True Living, weexplore the rituals that have
(02:08):
paved the way for their success and well-being.
I'm super psyched to have DoctorDwight on the show, known him
for many, many, many years. I think that he has a unique
ability to communicate powerful ideas, but in a way that are
understandable and actionable, which is one of the main reasons
why, of course we're having him on this show.
So with any further delays, please enjoy my conversation
(02:30):
with Doctor Dwight Chapman all about the seven Wellness
rituals. Doctor Joy, thanks for joining
us. My pleasure, Greg.
Good to see you. Yeah, it's good to see you too.
I am coming to you from the sideof the road right now, from a
campground on the side of the highway.
Clearly it looks like I've caught you at work, which is
amazing and super psyched to talk to you.
Your new book is out, Seven Wellness Rituals.
(02:52):
I'm so excited to get into it. But maybe you could just give
everyone a a bit of background about your, you know, your
background of your expertise, how you landed on on all of this
and what led to you writing the book.
Sure so. I'm a chiropractor practice in
Mississauga ON and next year marks my 25th year in practice.
(03:12):
And I do wear many hats, so I have a family practice.
But I'm also the onsite clinician for the Globe and
Mail, and I'm the team chiropractor for the Toronto
Argonauts. And I've always been passionate
about selfcare, helping people craft a formula for selfcare
that will advance not just health but also performance.
(03:32):
And when we got to the end of 2020, I noticed a huge shift in
patients mindset. People were coming to me with a
sense of frustration and purposeand a desire to really move
their selfcare strategy in a different direction.
They wanted to come out of the pandemic with with purpose and
meaning, and they wanted to feelbetter, move better, think
(03:54):
better, to be better. And so it was an opportunity to.
Bring the science of Selfcare tolife.
And I thought the best way to dothat would be to write a book
about best practices but share stories of those of individuals
who walk the walk, who really have crafted a formula for
Selfcare that would stand as a good example for for the rest of
(04:18):
Canadians. And I'm.
And I'm very proud to say that, Greg, you're in that book and
you joined that, that group of mentors that we pulled together
for this project. Yeah, I know.
I was super honored. To be a part of it.
And obviously to, you know, justbe associated with some of the
people in the book is so cool. I'm so deeply grateful for that.
Now obviously we get to share that with all of the people who
(04:40):
listen to this, which is amazing.
But tell me about someone else that not me.
Tell Tell me about someone else that was inspiring and why they,
why they inspired you and what you learned from them.
Right. So what I wanted to do with the
the mentors that I brought to the to the table in this project
was was first of all I wanted toget a group of individuals that
were from a variety of differentindustries, right.
(05:01):
So we have leaders from business, sport, media,
entertainment, healthcare, education, variety of different
ages and backgrounds and I wanted to showcase that these
aren't. Masters of clean living like
these are people that have livedmessy lives and had to figure it
out and and what I'm really passionate about and one of the
(05:21):
lessons and take homes for me inthis project was just how these
individuals craft their formula and work at it.
I mean, it's almost one of theirgreatest assets and greatest
points of pride and in achievinggood health and success, the
effort and the deliberate intention that they bring to
bringing their formula together.Was really inspiring for me.
(05:43):
So you don't have Jim Tree livings in the book.
Phillip Crawley, Publisher CEO of the Golden Males in the book,
Silk and Lowman, Olympic rowers in the book.
Phillip or sorry, Jim Leach, former president in of Ontario
Teachers Pension Pinball, Clemens Jannard.
And I mean, so there's a real mix of individuals that really
(06:04):
opened up their lives to me and and showcase not just their
approach to selfcare, but their.Their discipline to that
practice and and how they prepare and and recover from
peak performance events. Isn't it interesting that like
straight away you like are into hey, it's messy, it's a process,
it's a practice. It's not like it's perfect at
(06:28):
the end, like this is something that people work on.
Some days are good, some days are maybe not as not as not as
successful, but it's. All part of of crafting this
life. I love that that's like your
your key take away that you launched straight into.
I think that people need to givethemselves a sense of of not
just purpose, but forgiveness and kindness and and their
(06:50):
approach to self-care. Like a lot of the practices that
we talk about in the book, you know, they're not rocket
science. Like we need better quality
sleep. We need to prioritize our rest
and recovery. We need to look at how diet
influences our our health and performance and risk of disease
and how do we manage energy? How do we move?
How do we practice resistance training and and mental fitness?
(07:12):
How do we bring play into our life?
I mean, these are all concepts that most people can appreciate.
The difference, Greg, is that we've got to convert these
practices from habits into rituals.
And so what's the purpose? What's going to get you off the
couch to to go for a walk after dinner with your spouse or your
neighbor? Are you chasing a movement
(07:35):
tracker or or or daily count? Or is it because you've got a
family history of heart disease that you want a higher
performance level? So so regardless of whatever
your your your motivation is, it's the conversion to to
hardwired to linking these practices into a hardwired
approach in your daytoday routine.
And I think you need to fall down enough to figure out
(07:58):
exactly what your body needs andand figure that process out.
I mean, all of the mentors told me that it's it's taken time to
to figure it out. So I wrote this book to try to
help accelerate the readers experience in crafting a formula
that's built on best practices and the the evidence that
supports it. Can you give us an example of
(08:18):
shifting from or crap? Are you basically going from not
just a habit? To an actual ritual.
Maybe we'll pick sleep or nutrition, but how do we do
that? How do we, you know, make this a
part of our lives and give us anexample of of what that process
looks like? Sure.
So when I sat down with Jim TreeLiving and and talked to him
(08:41):
about his process, I mean, his early formula was work hard,
love your work period. Like that was the extent of it.
He loved his work when he was building the Boston Pizza
empire. He just would outwork everybody
and he had tremendous success early on with that approach.
But of course that's not sustainable.
(09:01):
And so it it literally almost killed him and he was forced to
take a hard look at his formula.Now, of course, he has a very
robust formula that practices all of these seven Wellness
rituals that are that are in thebook.
And and so for for Jim, one of the priorities that he had to
figure out was was ritual. I call Ritual 1, and that's
prioritizing sleep, rest, and recovery.
(09:23):
And so if you're if you're coming to sleep and your
perspective of sleep is that it's an inconvenience that if
I'm chasing my To Do List and I just can push through a little
harder, a little longer that I might just get a little bit more
done today. And so I'm a little bit more
tired tomorrow. And that practice over the long
term as you well know, leads to insufficient sleep syndrome and
(09:46):
is linked to all kinds of of chronic health issues and so the
conversion of. Using sleep to your advantage to
boost health and away from sleepbeing this idea of some type of
of inconvenience or or time suck.
It starts with understanding what does sleep do for us from a
biological perspective. How is it that with sleep the
(10:08):
brain detoxifies and actually gets rid of memory, important
impairing proteins and and elevates cognitive function and
creativity and elevates mood andsupports immune function and
helps us regulate our weight? And so when we understand the
biology behind what sleep does to lift our health, then all of
a sudden the why behind the practices to make healthy sleep
(10:32):
a more of a of a ritualized practice, it gets a little
easier. Like there's a little more
weight behind the decision. So OK to to get my nervous
system firing properly, I'm going to start winding down an
hour before I want to be asleep.And I understand the the purpose
and the the influence that that calming my nervous system down
(10:53):
has on on my ability to to not only get the amount of sleep I
need, but the depth of sleep that I need.
So it's kind of a roundabout answer to your question, but I
guess the purpose I'm trying to make it is that I want people to
to understand their Physiology and the power that their choices
have, their daily choices have on their Physiology.
(11:13):
When you understand how the bodyworks, it becomes a little bit
easier to prioritize the ritualization of these
practices. You know, quite often we hear
about these people and we associate them with success.
And you know, we have listeners from all over the world.
But let me tell you, like everyone that who's mentioned is
like an epic musician and epic athlete and epic business person
(11:36):
here in Canada. And what I'm curious about is.
What they thought about her or how they approached mental
health, because I know that doesn't matter how success,
quote, UN quote successful that you are.
We struck with people have been struggling and I know that so
many people listening to this podcast reached out and asked
(11:56):
for more interviews about mentalhealth and let's talk about
mental health. And I believe that we need to do
that. So what?
What did you discover around optimizing mental health?
What practices maybe you know? Seems to be a consistent
pattern. Or what did you discover around
that? So I thought that this is
another one of the key take homes takeaways in the book was
(12:19):
that the all 21 of the mentors featured, they all had a very
clear understanding of where they were, where they were
operating on with respect to their stress response curve.
So they had developed a talent to use stress to elevate
performance when needed. So this, this idea of stress can
(12:41):
be enhancing, it can elevate performance.
We can we can improve cognitive,mental health and physical
health and performance when we tap into that stress response
and stay on the left side of thecurve or that stress response
curve, but they also understand that they're going to hit their
peak and so. So again, physiologically, what
does that look and feel like? What are the early triggers that
(13:03):
indicate that performance is starting to tap, tap, or tap out
or reach their plateau? And then they will strategically
create a rest and recovery period so that they can reset to
position themselves yet again for another peak performance
event. And so it's, it's all right.
How do you feel when you're at your best?
(13:25):
How long can you sustain that peak?
How long do you need to to to dial it back and and be able to
to push forward again and so everyone's formula there or
experience with that that changein elevation and performance
decline in performance. It's different, of course, but
you can train your mind and bodyto recognize those symptoms and
(13:45):
and then deliberately call yourself into the stress
response at times when you need to.
So it was, it was there was consistency there there was a
there was a very deliberate and intentional use of stressed
elevate performance. But I think the difference is
that these folks had figured outjust exactly how to manipulate
their Physiology and prepare themselves for peak event By
(14:08):
queuing up sleep, by queuing up the the nutritional practices
that they need before and after a peak event, By carving time
out to to process the event before strategically pushing
themselves through. I mean, you talked to me about
the value of just going for a walk after a peak performance
event to collect your thoughts and dial your Physiology down.
(14:29):
That's you working yourself backdown the stress response curve
so you're strategically ready togo again if need be.
Yeah, it's really interesting that that post event protocol is
almost become more important forme than the pre event protocol
to be honest, even like right now, you know, I had three
events this morning. And I already can feel the
(14:53):
adrenaline, you know, leaving mysystem.
And I've got to have a plan in place for making sure that
there's healthy fuel on board tomake sure that that adrenaline
crash, that insulin rush crash is not going to lead to some
patterns that maybe aren't serving me in the long term.
So I really appreciate that these people apply.
(15:15):
A lot of intention to the practices that they put into
place in and around performance moments to enable them to
perform well but maintain their mental health at the same time.
Does that make sense? Am I reading that the right?
Way. Yeah.
And they're not chasing success and then trying to figure out,
well, where the self-care fits in, right.
(15:37):
Like Greg, one of the things that you shared with me, that
I've shared with many people is your 123 Rule.
So one hour a day, two days a month, 3 weeks a year, you put
that in your calendar and you are off the grid.
You are working on prioritizing yourself care by putting that
practice in. So I start my day every day with
(15:57):
a movement ritual and that just connects my mind and my body and
it makes me feel physically strong but also mentally ready
to tap into the day. And I end my day with a 10
minute meditative practice. So those are my bookends of
selfcare every day. That's not a serious time
commitment, but it's it's how I show up in my day and make sure
that I'm investing in selfcare. And then I work my fitness and
(16:19):
my nutrition and my movement practices in and around that as
it relates to to my job and where I am in the world.
But there's this commitment to bringing Selfcare first.
Doctor Robin talks about it not being selfish.
It's science. Yeah, exactly.
I love that line. It's not selfish.
It's like 00 K carry on. You speak about play and that's
(16:41):
something that's come up quite abit recently.
I've heard it from a number of different people.
And I love the fact that we're giving ourselves permission to
have fun and that that's actually part of the
conversation around high performance.
Like, how cool is that? Right.
Yeah. And it's often the first thing
that goes right when we get busyand it's a real mistake, you
(17:02):
know, when we incorporate. Play we really shift not only
our our mental health and mood but the research shows that we
have a significant impact on thequality and the health of our
relationships, people that are the most important to us in our
life. And so when again we're we're
looking for opportunities to bring a smile or laughter to our
(17:26):
relationships and to our work colleagues and to our our
clients and patients and. And the individuals that we're
speaking to and podcast like this?
That means smiles are contagiousand the the ripple effect of of
positivity with respect to health and performance is
undeniable. You know, simply having one
thing in your calendar every month that you look forward to,
(17:48):
to spend time with someone you enjoy spending time with, doing
something that's perhaps a little bit unpredictable and
offline. Is is a wonderful added
component to selfcare strategy. Yeah, I just love having fun,
right? Like just doing stuff that's
fun. Stay.
During one of the talks, I showed a video of my daughter
(18:11):
rock climbing and she goes up and she hustles her way to that,
you know, the top. And she touches the top and she
repels back down and she lands, places her feet on the ground
and turns around and looks at meand the camera and just is.
Meaning. Yeah, in happiness.
Yeah. And my gosh, we need so much
(18:31):
more of that in our lives right now.
Yeah, you know, I'll share a quick story with you and this is
in the book that they on one of the days I was writing the
chapter on play I I got into a tough part of the chapter and I
wasn't sure how I wanted to moveforward and I was running late
to get to a friend's BBQ, so. Wanted to get that chapter done.
(18:51):
Wasn't going to happen. So I walked away from my
computer and I went off to this barbecue and it's in the back of
my mind right, trying to work through this this tough section
and get to the backyard and and my my friend's three-year old
son comes up to the group of adults in the backyard and he
grabs my hand and he says let meshow you the potato bugs.
(19:12):
And I didn't This this boy's name is Gavin.
I didn't know Gavin. I just knew from stories his dad
had shared with me that he was really.
This little kid and and so I followed his lead and he walks
me down this garden path in the back of their backyard.
And he goes to this big boulder and he lifts this boulder up and
underneath this boulder are these three potato bugs and a
slug. And he's just like his mind is
(19:34):
blown that these bugs are still there and he's sharing this like
universe that he had discovered with me.
And isn't this like, totally cool?
And his to, to your point, like the smile and the expression of
love and joy and wonder and curiosity on his face just
captures this chapter. So, like, as you move through
your day, whether you're practicing gratitude, whether
(19:57):
you're practicing just being still when you're if you're
practicing, just the idea of of of stress can be enhancing.
It doesn't have to be debilitating.
If we start recognizing what ourstress triggers are and making a
conscious choice to react or notto react, we can find joy and
curiosity and wonder in our daysthat I think a lot of people are
(20:19):
missing. And the the research around the
ripple effect that this has on our our health and risk of
disease is overwhelming. So having fun and playing and
and and tapping into positivity is is a powerful tool.
I'm going to challenge you a little bit.
You talk about movement for longevity, but you also talk
(20:41):
about protecting your strength. And one of the classic, you
know, discussion points in Physiology over the years is
cardio or weights. Alex Hutchinson even wrote a
book about about that particulartopic.
So I'm going to throw that out at you.
You have to pick one. Cardio or weights.
What are you doing and why? Well, I would.
(21:01):
I would answer that question with it.
It depends. If you're 40 plus resistance
training has to be in your formula and by doing some
resistance training you're also going to get a significant boost
in cardiovascular health, but you're also going to help to
limit the the muscle loss that is associated with disuse and
(21:23):
and aging. But there are other advantages
too, obviously to cardiovascularhealth and disease prevention by
making sure you're working in some some cardiovascular
training. So it would depend on sort of
the life stage and circumstance of the individual was at.
Of course, I tell my patients that I'd like to see a little
bit of both when it comes to themovement practices.
(21:46):
I think if we could break up theidea of fitness needs to belong
in this bubble of a 30 minute spin class or a 30 minute
Pilates class. And like, how can we get away
from that idea and just incorporate movement, regular,
varied movement in our day. And if that varied movement is a
combination of activity that elevates heart rate but also
(22:08):
challenges physical strength, balance, coordination, movement,
these things have a profound effect.
When coupled together, I find that we can get further, further
along as opposed to going all inin one camp or the other.
Yeah, I know. I.
Love that and obviously that is the correct answer.
Does depend. And at different life stages and
even different times of the year, you can shift your focus
(22:31):
and get some tremendous gains regardless.
What are you working on these days?
Like you've done this work, you've interviewed these people,
you've broken it down, you've created the structures.
But what's top of mind for you? Like what are you working on?
How are you applying this to your own life?
Because you're busy. You have a business, you have a
lots going on. So what's what's going on with
you? Right.
(22:53):
So you know, I have to, I have to share.
When I when I met with these 21 individuals, it was one of the
best years of my life. I mean, I honestly felt like it
was a master class in life. Like with every conversation I
had with these individuals, I was just like learning all of
these gems. And I think the timing of when I
was writing this book, most of the mentors were themselves in
(23:16):
isolation or at home in the early days of the COVID
pandemic. And so it gave me a very unique
access to their to their lives at a time when they were wanting
to share. And I was also coming through
the first six months of managingmy practice in COVID, which was
a very high stress time. Patients were coming in with all
kinds of different things that typically would not find their
(23:37):
way into my office or had would have been triaged higher up the
chain. So in applying the lessons
learned, the seven Wellness rituals to my life, my focus was
one on making sure that I was dealing appropriately with a my
family history of heart disease and elevated cholesterol.
I had become quite complacent inmy fitness routine and somewhat
(24:02):
cocky that I had it figured out.And when I figured or when I had
testing done just in advance of my 50th birthday, I realized
that no, my genetics had a good hold of my cholesterol levels.
And I needed to make some radical changes to my stress
management, in my practice, to my sleep rituals and to how I
(24:22):
was the choices I was making with food as well as with
training to get my cholesterol back in check.
And I'm very proud to say that after 18 months of working on my
formula, my cholesterol levels are at an all time low and I am
no longer at risk. So back I had a discussion with
my cardiologist and he and he said you know do I don't get to
(24:43):
have these conversations very often but I want to congratulate
you. You you know you've renewed my
faith and primary prevention. So when you ask what I'm all
about right now, what's motivating me, it's it's really
about sparking conversations of the value and the importance of
self-care and just how importantit is for us to recognize the
(25:03):
power our choices have on healthand performance.
And that's why conversations like this and your podcast and
your reach, Greg is just so important.
Well, I. Really appreciate that and I
really appreciate you taking thetime to.
Share your wisdom with, you know, the people that hang out
here with me every week and it means the world to have people
like you in my life and you knowthat just to share wisdom.
(25:25):
So it's it's super cool not to mention the fact that you're,
you know, your business partner is Doctor Emily and she's, you
know, a big part of my experience growing up and
coaching athletes and stuff likethat.
So it's a great big family and super happy to have had you here
to talk about your book. Where can people find out more
and connect with you online? Sure.
(25:45):
So the book is called Take Good Care, 7 Wellness Rituals for
Health, Strength and Hope. It's available in Indigo at
stores across the country, or online or on Amazon.
And you can find more information at 7 Wellness
rituals.com. That's great.
Thank you so much, Doc. I really appreciate it.
Great to speak to you. Really appreciate you taking the
time to hang out with us. Yeah, you bet, Greg.
(26:05):
All the best. Thanks for tuning into this
episode of the Dr. Greg Wells podcast if you found this show
informative and helpful. Check out my blog at Dr. Greg
wells.com for additional insights and resources on Health
and Human performance. I update the blog a couple times
a month to stay up to date on the latest tips, articles, and
(26:28):
videos. Be sure to follow me on social
at Dr. Greg Wells. My goal on social is to keep
your health and Wellness and positivity at the forefront of
your mind, and so I would be thrilled to connect with you
there. If you found this episode
helpful, please consider subscribing to the podcast.
That helps us out a ton and leave a review and your
feedback. Is greatly appreciated and helps
(26:50):
me to continue to produce valuable content that's relevant
to all of you. Please feel free to share this
episode with your friends and community.
That helps a ton as well and that brings this week's show to
an end. I look forward to seeing you in
the next episode. Have a great week everyone.
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