Introduction: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Wellness Surge podcast with Dr. Adeola Oke. Each week we discuss our wellness journey with real people like you and me. We have conversations about food, fitness, mental health, financial wellness, and much more. So you can get back to the real you .To make sure that you’re up to date with this and other wellness topics, visit wellnesssurge.com. Information presented here is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease. Please do not apply any of the information presented here without first speaking with your primary care provider. Now let’s head onto the show.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:00:34] Hello everybody, welcome to the Wellness Surge podcast.Today we have Uthman Khan with us and he will be discussing his wellness journey to reverse diabetes.  So Uthman is an academic Dean and Professor of Theology. He is a certified personal trainer and a certified nutrition and health coach. Alrighty. So he has too many distinctions and too many certifications for me to discuss today in the academic, fitness, and nutrition space. So. He’s well, covered. Alrighty. So Uthman, can you go ahead and introduce yourself?

Uthman Khan: [00:01:10] So my name is Uthman Khan. Yeah. I do have a little bit of an interesting journey. I focus a lot on my academics, um, because of my, my wellness and health journey. I started to shift my attention towards like -nutrition and healing and in that line. And that’s why I just started to just pile up on certifications and try to get like information and knowledge and stuff on that regard. Yeah.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:01:33] Yeah. When I saw it, I’m like, Oh my gosh, like, Whoa, more power to you. So good job. Alright. He’s going to talk to us about his wellness journey to reverse diabetes.

So if you don’t mind me asking this is a little- a lot of women don’t like this question, but, um, if you don’t mind me asking before you started your wellness journey, right? What did you weigh before?

Uthman Khan: [00:01:55] Um, well, it’s, uh, I was almost 480 pounds.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:02:00] Wow.

Uthman Khan: [00:02:01] I was huge. That was pretty big. It was, I was, it was hard for me to walk. It was hard for me to- I was limping all the time. I used to love the parking spots right in front of everything instead of  having to walk too far to get anywhere. It was a hassle to do anything.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:02:15] Okay. Okay. Alrighty. So obviously you can all see that he’s no longer 480 pounds, so he’s done something, right. Okay. So what made you decide to change? That’s the big question, now .

Uthman Khan: [00:02:26] I went through a whole bunch of like talk to different people, did a bunch of bunch of things to try to change. First. I tried to start doing like random exercise, but then, because I was so big, it was hard for me to do anything. So I couldn’t even, I couldn’t jump.

Like I’m talking about like skipping. I couldn’t even jump. I can’t walk. Walking is hard because it’s hurting my knees. I can’t do  any sort of workouts would be tough. Every personal trainer or anyone who’s into health and fitness. Um, everyone has their own opinion on what to do. So I would go to one person and I would just follow that and then go to another person, follow that.

And then most of them are contradictory …when it came to eating food… um… but after a while, I mean, you just like start to restrict. So then I started restricting my calories. And when I start restricting my calories… I’m it’s it’s it’s- it works good for one day. And then the next day you’re just hungry and then you get more and more hungry and then it just doesn’t work after that.

So, so much, so much stuff out there. I realized that what’s out there is not actually good for you. So after a while, what happened is I started to feel well, I went to the doctor and the doctor. …I don’t know what the doctor did, but he, uh, he acted shady. I’m not kidding. What he did-He’s likeI need to get a blood test for something.

And I was like, Oh, okay, cool. I went and got my blood test done and he’s like, and he, and he did the diabetes blood test. I don’t think I was, I went for diabetes. I don’t know what I went for. I went for something. And, uh, when I went to get that blood test done, he’s like, well, your, your A1C is very high. Um, he’s like, we’re going to do it.

We’re going to do a test again after three months, I was like, okay, cool.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:04:00] Um,  so what was your A1C?

Uthman Khan: [00:04:02] Just,  I think 10.7 or something, or 10.3 or 10 point around there.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:04:07] Okay.  Alrighty. So for people that don’t know what that means. 10.3 means you’ve got full blown diabetes. Okay.

Uthman Khan: [00:04:14] So, so, but then, so I didn’t know anything, a blood test.

So I did a whole faster, whatever. Then he’s at three months later he was like, come back and do the test. Um, we’re going to do a test again. And I was like, I guess he told me, he’s like, well, you’re on the- he might’ve make it sound nice. He’s like, well, you’re on the verge of diabetes. So I was like, okay, that’s cool.

He’s like- just change your diet three months from now, we come back, we’ll do another test. So within three months, it’s what testing are red blood cells. Right? So within, within three months I did some crazy changes. So I started eating whole wheat…. mainly they’re changing everything to brown, whole wheat, just eating earlier dinner.

And you name it all. All of the, all of the good stuff. And it didn’t really make an impact because when I went to get her blood test, after that, they went up to like 10.8.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:05:01] Oh gosh.

Uthman Khan: [00:05:02] So nothing, nothing worked. And I was like, I did all the good stuff. So then that’s when he gave me Metformin and he said, yeah, you have to take Metformin.

I was like, okay, cool. On my way, home from the doctor’s- and he’s like, you have diabetes,.  To me, it was like an announcement like- ‘Dear, sir, you’re now have diabetes’. And I was like…, he gave me the medicine and, I had it in a little, little bag.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:05:29] How old  were you, how old were you when all this started?  Like at the time you were diagnosed with diabetes.

Uthman Khan: [00:05:35] 2016. I was, I was probably- Oh no my age! I’m going to give away my age now, but that’s okay. I don’t remember how old, how old I was. Um, I was probably 31 or 32-

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:05:50] Okay. -Around that. That’s a pretty young age.

Uthman Khan: [00:05:54] Anyways, on my way home.  – I live in Edmonton, Alberta now, but I used to live on the other side of Toronto. And he was in another city on the other side of Toronto.

So it was like a 45 minute drive. So I was on my way home. , I was doing what you’re not supposed to do. which was like, Hey, Siri, what is the side effects of Metformin? And I started researching and watching videos and everywhere. Everything was not good, but I was like, can I lose weight with Metformin?

And so my weight keep in mind my weight wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t an issue at all, because I was like, well, I’m 450 pounds who cares? Not like I can, I’m going to lose weight, but then, but the doctor did tell me. He’s like, well you might die within a year, especially that you can’t really feel your feet, like all of the signs of diabetes are that you have diabetes.

So it was like you bad stuff might happen to you. Um, so you better straight -straighten out or you can take Metformin and I’m like- is it gonna help me lose weight? And he’s like, yeah it’ll probably help you lose weight. I’m like, Oh, cool. I’ll lose weight still.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:06:52] That’s a big wake up call though. Right?

Uthman Khan: [00:06:55] You’re a 31, 32. And someone tells you, you can’t feel your feet. That means, man, you  are on the way to losing those feet. If, if it gets an infection or whatever- and they tell you, you may die within a year, that’s a big deal right there.

I actually talked to a doctor as well. I’m like, well, again, there’s a lot of cheerleading doctors out there.

Right. And I don’t like that, but that would be my advice. Find someone who’s like kind of straight with you and don’t feel bad when they’re straight with you. Like my feet used to hurt. I used to get up in the morning. I couldn’t walk properly. I used to be like limping and stuff. And I used to have to let the blood flow down to my feet to be able to, to walk and.

getting up in the morning was a good maybe half an hour, just to be able to get the blood flowing. Anyways, what happened is the doctor that the other doctor said, ‘Oh no, that’s fine. It happened once in a while, your feet, um….’

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:07:44] NO he did NOT!

Uthman Khan: [00:07:46] Cheerleaders. Right. So I felt really. Now I’m thinking about it. I’m like, well, that’s the reason why I went to go study it all myself on my way home as I was researching, I just realized I’m like, I don’t want to take any medicine because the side effects are really bad. And they also gave me another medicine for my cholesterol, which was apparently high.

So what I did is I was like, okay, if I take this medicine and this medicine, both of these medicines, this is going to totally clash with one another. I’m going to die sooner than the diabetes, the medicines are going to kill me. So I decided to reverse everything , by myself. And so that was my wake up call that, that, that right there was my wake up call, but it wasn’t to lose weight.

I still didn’t care about losing weight. It was just about the diabetes, because I didn’t think I can lose that much weight. I didn’t think that I wasn’t gonna lose 200 pounds, 200 pounds. I don’t think that’s even possible at all to lose that much weight. Yeah, I’m happy with my weight. I just want to be healthy at this point because it’s like, it’s a priorities at this point. Cause it’s like you weigh a lot, but you’re going to die. So what would you rather focus on? Focus on- Not dying. Yeah

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:08:50] Wow. Yeah. I’m like, cause I have patients that do have diabetes and they’re like, I’m pretty strict on them and  I’m like, You got to be, you have to be strict because it’s a matter of you losing your feet or losing your kidneys or stuff like that. So I’m really happy you did not go with the cheerleaders telling you that, Oh, it’s not a big deal or you’re no, you’re 31 years old.

How long are you going to live with that though? So, wow. So thank you. So what exactly did you do because. It went from 400 and something pounds. He lost about 200. That’s a huge amount of weight loss. What did you do exactly? How did he achieve this insurmountable, this enormous goal, right? How do you do that?

Uthman Khan: [00:09:36] That’s why I started, um,. So I’m on my way home. You know the research I came across… um, I came across a doctor. A diabetes doctor, she was actually a, an obesity doctor. Her name was Sarah Halberg. And, um, see, I don’t know if she’s an advocate of the keto diet. I don’t think she is because she’s a medical doctor and normally medical professionals are not advocates for the keto diet. Maybe not!

It depends on who you’re talking to…

This was back then. Cause the keto diet wasn’t even popular at that time. It wasn’t, there was no such thing as the keto diet then. So that’s what I, as thinking about it right now, I was like, Oh my God, it’s so popular. Cause I stopped I’ll tell you what it is. So I wanted to watch a video of hers: How to reverse diabetes naturally, it’s a very very, very famous, uh, Ted talk that

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:10:34] I saw it.  I saw it.

Uthman Khan: [00:10:36] I heard it and I was like, Oh my God, this is so awesome. I can do this. And then say, I it, I watch it. And then she had the, I’m not going to spoil the video.

You can watch it yourself. But, um, she had the five rules of eating, but the one rule that was the hardest group. Which was the no GPS rule, no grains, potatoes, sugars . It might seem easy when you look at it, but  when you will actually put it in your plate and you start looking at it, you’re like: Oh my God, there’s always going to be some grain there.

Those potatoes eventually for me, translated into starchy vegetables. So carrots, et cetera. But who cares about that? I stuck with removing potatoes. And sugars is anything that’s sweet, anything that’s sweet. So keep in mind a cake has grains bread has grains. Anything that sugar would be what you put in. So you’re basically stripping your food of anything.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:11:31] No rice?

Uthman Khan: [00:11:33] No rice. Nothing. So again, this was, it’s a drastic approach right here. Right? But then she said, you want to reverse it? This is how you’re going to do it. I started to follow that you believe it or not. Within two months I lost 30 pounds. Whether to it.

And I realize now it was water weight, but it’s still okay. My face went in and I was looking small. I was able to actually walk a little bit more without sweating, like crazy. I still remember. I was like 33 pounds. Yeah. I’m smaller now.

That’s amazing! I don’t care if it was water weight!

I’ve been there. I remember I reached 410 and I was like, yeah.

So happy about this. So then four, four, nine, four, eight, seven 60 watching the thing going down on the scale. Right. And then, so a lot of, a lot of that. So that’s what I started with was this, this particular diet, there’s a few rules. I can’t remember what they are, but one of them is eat when  you’re hungry, don’t eat when you’re not hungry, simple rules.

If it comes in a box, don’t eat it. Food. Doesn’t real food. Doesn’t come in a box. Another one was eating real food. So I think process, if you have read the ingredients, don’t even bother touching it. And then another one was a no GPS rule. There’s a few of them. She mentions five rules of eating. And I really promote that when I talk to my own clients who have diabetes, I’m like, Hm.

Five rules of meeting follow this. And they’re like, well, where do you get this from? Like Sarah Hallberg. And I even, I even called her out. She called me out on Twitter as well. And if I ever could get, get to Indianapolis, I’m going to go see her because I made a huge change. Like she doesn’t even know, but you made a new change.

So she got the Huff post article that I sent you. And then she actually messaged me. She was like, Oh, thanks so much for like calling me out and stuff. I’m like, I’m going to give credit where it’s due. I kept it doesn’t matter what anyone says. But this is what I went down to this dietary approach, which was very low carb her’s philosophy was if carbohydrates is what’s causing you to your diabetes because sugar causes diabetes.

So therefore remove that. And then in the video she talks about not conspiracy, but like a few points there. It’s very, very interesting. But then she also says that nutritionists have said that you have to eat almost 150 grams or 120 grams of carbs per day. But she was like, why would you do that? If you have, if that’s what’s causing your sickness.

And then when I researched it, I realized that carbohydrates made up of H2O and carbon, right. It’s picked that that’s all that it is, which is exact same as fat, well, few differences. So like if the body can create that H2O and carbon, it very, very simple and it can create it to the amount that you need.

The only essential, like they’re all essential. They’re there they’re all macronutrients, but the most essential and the highest on the list is proteins. Which a lot of people don’t realize how important proteins are, but eating food outside. The amount of protein that you’re getting is very limited.

People are eating less than 40 grams, 50 grams of protein per day. And their cards are summing up over three, 400 grams of carbs. So it’s like, you’re not going to get diabetes. I don’t even know what you’re going to get. So this is going to happen. So I wanted this eating approach for a good two, two years.

What that did for me is I started to drop weight a lot. And then at that point, Uh, my wife said, well, maybe you should consider looking into getting some insurance for yourself and leave this and that. So then I contacted SunLife and I moved to Edmonton, so I talked to one of my doctors and he said, okay, well, you’re gonna have to get your blood blood work done.

And I have PTSD from blood work. I don’t like it at all because it’s just anxiety. I’m like, Oh my God, blood work blood blood blood. So anyways, I was like, Sure, whatever I did my blood work and my eight, my, my A1C was at 5.3.

Whoa. Okay. All righty. Let me break that down. You went from 10 point. I can’t remember the number.

Yeah. 10.3 10.8. Right.

Around there. Yeah.

Yeah. Two, 5.3, 5.3 means no diabetes. Okay. So you went from full blown diabetes to no diabetes. That is amazing, but just going to clap right now, that is amazing. Seriously. That is amazing. 

Many doctors don’t believe that he can reverse diabetes. So he’s like, we’re going to go another blood test, but go off your diet.

Three months later, just eat normal, eat potatoes, rice, whatever, blah, blah, blah. So I was like, okay, I did that. I went off. I was like, Oh my God, this is awesome. This takes cake. Oh my God. This cake is so awesome I’m happy about it. Did another blood test after that, then it was 5.3. So in other words, even, even with the, with the recycling of the blood cells and everything, it was gone.

And I was, so when he told me he was like, he was like, congratulations, you don’t have diabetes. And it was like exactly the opposite of what I was told when he started..Not the same doctor. The other doctor had said, you have diabeties. And I was like, so happy, like the blood work I went, did I, I copied it! People don’t understand how important this is to me.

It’s I copied it. And I’m like, I was going to frame it or like, but then I kept it on , my files. And I have it right there. It is always on my desktop, my, my, my blood work from that day, because. It’s a huge change. Anything can kill you, but this is one of those things that really make a crazy impact on you.

So I went on this diet, what I did change with this diet that it went on, which was the five rules of eating. I followed those. I mean, I kept on going on them. Then I started to introduce carbs. And then as I started to introduced carbs, I was back to normal and everything kept going pretty good for me.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:16:57] Okay.  So let me break down what he just said. Okay. Alright. So he did the blood test. He was 5.3 when he wanted to get life insurance. Right. And then he went back to eating, normally eating his starches, grains, all that stuff. Three months later, he went back to check it. Why they check it in three months is because the blood cells recycle right. The old cells die and new blood cells come on. And so if he had. That if he was like, if it was all a fad, right. If it was all the dia- was a fad and he now has new blood cell, he should be able to, he should develop, he should have diabetes. Right. But he did not, he was still 5.3, which meant this whole diet, this way of living, had totally changed his system.

That is amazing. Okay. But it’s just amazing. So you did all this with diet, no exercise,

Uthman Khan: [00:17:47] No exercise at all. Because when I started exercising, things changed for me.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:17:51] Ooh,

Uthman Khan: [00:17:52] It changed for the opposite. And I was like, what’s going on? See, this is part, this is part two of this awesome book that I’m writing. I’m just joking, but…

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:18:02] Seriously, you need to write a book.

Uthman Khan: [00:18:05] So I’ll just give you the five rules. I actually found it here. It’s like basically  Eat food, that the way it comes, if it doesn’t light low, fat, or fat free on it, it stays in the grocery store. That was the first rule. Number two: Eat real food. Eat real food. In other words, what the, for me, what the Prophet (SAW) would considered to be food?

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:18:25] Yes.

Uthman Khan: [00:18:26] That’s what you eat. What, um, anyone, what? Any individual who doesn’t know about boxed foods what they would consider food like a cave person, but they will consider me food. That’s where you eat something. Something that is considered real food. Real food and real food doesn’t come in a box, right? Rule number three: Eat, what you like, if it doesn’t taste good, don’t eat it. Number four: Eat when you’re hungry. Don’t eat when you’re not hungry. Then number five: No GPS. That’s the five rules of eating.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:18:55] Okay. It’s not easy. It’s not— it’s good.

Uthman Khan: [00:19:00] You’ll learn.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:19:01] Yes. You need to have a lot of self discipline to be able to achieve that.

So yes, you need a medal. Good one.

Uthman Khan: [00:19:08] So then I start working … what was I- how was my work out? When I started working out. What happened is at first, my weight dropped, my weight dropped from 320 to 280, and then at 280 it stopped and it just stopped. Like, it didn’t go anywhere. It’s just stall.

And it stalled like that for almost two years, almost. A year, year and a half, two years. And which is for me, I’m used to seeing it, just go down, down, down, it just stalls. And I’m like, what’s going on? I’m working out, I’m running and doing whatever it is I’m doing. I started even doing boxing and stuff and nothing was, nothing was working.

So then I went in and talked to a sports nutritionist and I said, tell me what’s going on? So what she told me, she said, you need to start eating carbs. You need to fuel your workout. If you’re not going to fuel your workout, the body’s not going to- So then she put me on a plan where I was eating carbs before my workout eating carbs after my workout.

And, uh, I’m, we’re talking almost 350 grams of carbs per day. Almost 200 grams of protein. Per day and you believe, and almost like 60 grams of fat, that’s pretty low. You believe it or not. Within four months I dropped 50 pounds. Just straight down, which is, which is very amazing to me. And I just kept on dropping, dropping, dropping because of that.

And it’s very, very strategic. So that’s when I realized, you know what I need to study. I need to understand this because one lifestyle catered to one diet and the second is switched my lifestyle. Another diet needed to come in and this diet wasn’t helping me out. Even when I’m doing, even when I’m doing boxing.

So I’m different. I’m just blocking this typical boxing punching punching punching . When I was eating a very low carb diet, I know it has a low carb diet when I’m eating this low carb that I was able to go for three hours, but my punching was maybe like this three hours I can, when I say it like this, I mean, I’m exaggerating, but I was able to go for three hours when I was started eating carbs, my punches were so much harder.

But my energy level was very les s. So I was able to go for 45 minutes, very intense. And wasn’t like basically high intensity workout. That was hard for me to do. On a low carb diet. Now what’s interesting is for me, it was, it was this eating pattern that I was following. And then all of a sudden this keto diet became really popular and I started researching it and I’m like, well, what’s this keto diet because I was getting into nutrition and studying it now.

Right. I actually enrolled into nutrition and it was into a school and I’m a nutritionist. So what happened is I started to research and research about that cure that cure, this is interesting. I like that. They’re technically doing what I’m doing. This is an interesting day. Oh, they’re lowering their protein a little bit.

Whoa. Wow. Whoa. This is interesting. But body goes into ketosis. Ah, that’s what’s called keto diet, I think a whole research on it and uh, it became so popular and I was like, wow. It’s. So it started gaining so much popularity when I started walking out of it, which was interesting for people to like, but this is the way how come you’re leaving it.

And I’m like, because I can’t do it with my workouts. It’s not going to work out. I mean, I started gaining weight in my workout when I was doing like heavy workouts on a low carb, I started gaining weight. I have noticed this, that I went up from like two 80 back to 300 and I was like, Oh, I can’t do that.

No, no, no. So I needed to change it up. And now what happened recently, I started to feel a little bit lethargic. I’m like a year ago. So I was like, you know what, I’m just going to go back on a low carb diet. I felt really good when I was on it for like a month. So then I went on a low carb diet and. I was shocked.

I told my wife it’s so interesting how the keto diet has made such a change in the world that I can find low carb on the shelves. I can find this is low carb. That’s low carb. When I was doing it, I have to like make recipes in my head and figure things out. I still have original recipes, like. Put things in my head and like make stuff up.

But now it’s like go to the store that’s low carb. There is restaurants catering to low carb, which was so interesting! Over there, I was like, I would like a burger without a bun. And they’re like…. how’d you do that? Now they actually let us wrap it back then. I remember they were just putting the burger in a little box and giving it to you.

Now it’s a whole art and I was like, why wasn’t this there? 

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:23:37] Oh my gosh,

Uthman Khan: [00:23:38] It really funny now. So the one thing that when I started to work on, I needed to change my  approach. And then when I studied the science around it, I realized, yes, I do need to change my approach. If I’m doing like powerlifting, like squats or deadlifts and stuff, I can, I’ll be able to deadlift 350 pounds.

I can dead lift 350 pounds, but on a low carb diet, I’m dead lifting 250. I have a carb add some carbs before, get that energy. And then I’ll deadlift 350 pounds. And if I do want on a low carb, if I end up having to deadlift at 350 pounds or whatever, um, I have my body’s going to be very sore after. That’s going to be very sore. It’s going to soreness is going to last for three or four days with carbs, the soreness last two days, max. Wow. So what would I understood that the nutritional changes then it was so eye opening for me.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:24:31] So this is just telling me you need to work with professionals. All right.

Uthman Khan: [00:24:32just don’t because you need to figure out, realize that. Certain things request certain types of diet. I didn’t know that. So this is like a huge eye opener for me. And yes, I’m hoping to get a personal trainer very soon and fitness coach to help me achieve my health goals, um, in that respect. So. A lot of people don’t have the type of tenacity you have.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:24:50] Okay. So how can people do this and not get frustrated about the whole process, especially with when you’re trying to, you’re doing so much exercise or you’re not even budging on the scale. That’s very frustrating.

Uthman Khan: [00:25:07] That was, that was frustrating. Yes. It’s not as hard as if you’re the only one in your family doing it.

That’s the hardest thing. So we’re talking for talking birthdays. If we’re talking  Family visits if you’re talking restaurants. I mean, I remember like my heart was like, Oh my God, I can’t do this. I’m only a few times on like, I have to do this it’s determination. But, um, I went to a restaurant, um, with my family and they ordered, they ordered this like fresh bread.

And at the smell, I was like, Oh, I need this, but I’m like, no, I’m not going to do this. It’s gonna be it’s gonna be hard. So that’s the biggest, the biggest temptation. Um, is that I always say break it up into two weeks. Those, the Atkins diet that was thinking the, that two week approach or something like that, which the two week, the first two weeks is what will set your mind into a particular diet.

And you have to really be firm on it because your body is not used to it. Your body’s, your body’s switching, its eating pattern. Your brain is rewiring itself at this point and you’re going to get headaches. You’re going to get. Why do you not used it? You’re going to get headaches. They’re going to get, you’re going to feel like you have coronavirus.

You gonna get all of those simply to coming and feeling headaches and sweating, and you’re going to be in bed. Sometimes he would shaking. I was in the hospital. I had PDs. Right? So like all of those things will happen, but, and then, and then when you go to the hospital, then they’re going to give you orange juice and a little sandwich to it.

And I’m going to be like, I’m not going to eat them. Then they think you’re crazy. Also, I’d be like, look at this person won’t eat our foods, but whatever, but you have to be very, very firm. The main thing. How I accomplish a lot in my life is I set goals and I stick to those goals. It’s hard to do. I didn’t have any support.

I mean, when I say support….support means people pushing me to do it. No, my wife was there and she was  just supporting me. Sure. She was like, yeah, good. You’re doing it. Awesome. Right. Supporting me from that point of view, but I didn’t have anyone pushing me towards it. I needed to figure it out myself.

It’s I understand it can be hard for people. It can be very hard for people, but. I determination is one of those things. If you, if you want to, if you want to die early, then continue doing what you’re doing. And that’s what I told myself, I’m going to die early. So I can’t do that. I need to be there for my kids when they grow up.

So a lot of these points that motivate you, these are the things that I start to focus on that doesn’t have to do with anything else. It’s just in your head. It’s just in your head for example, last night, um, Last night. I was sitting down during this quarantine, I did gain a little bit of weight. I can tell.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:27:48] That’s why I’m getting a fitness coach now!!

Uthman Khan: [00:27:53] I did gain a little bit. So I was like, okay, I can’t do this. Ramadan is over in Ramadan. Every Ramadan. I normally gain weight, even though I’m eating less. Um, which is a little bit of a myth, but I, um, as to why people say all kinds of weird stuff, but I do gain a little bit of weight. So this Ramadan just finished an I’m gonna set myself a schedule. I’m gonna take this interview with you. And as soon as I’m done changed my clothes, go to the garage and just do some kickboxing. So that’s already in my schedule to put it in. And this coffee over here is my pre-workout.

This is going to give me energy. So I, that’s how I plan my day. I’ll be like, yeah, I’m going to do this. I’m going to do that. I don’t care. What’s going to come in the middle. That’s how it’s going to happen. And, and then when I set my mindset the night before I wake up and I’m like, yes, take on the day. A lot of people, they, a lot of people, what they start doing is they don’t set their mindset at all from the beginning. What they, they’re not because of their mindset at all. They’re going to take it. They’re going to just take it as a day goes, they’re like, okay, we’ll see what happens if that’s the first step to failure. The first step of failure is not prep. Not preparing. I’m not talking about bodybuilding, preparing your meals.

That’s just boring. You know, make rice and chicken every day. That’s the worst thing in the world. I don’t even know why they do that. But what I do is every single night  I have an app on my phone. I’m not going to promote random apps right now, but I Mark out what I’m gonna eat for dinner. What am I gonna eat for lunch? What I’m going to eat for? Um, breakfast, what I’m going to eat for my two snacks. I have a mark of how much protein carbs and then I just, I write it all down. So I know exactly what I’m eating tonight for snack, for dinner, for lunch. And it’s actually very, very yummy.

It’s a lot more tasty. Like from my wife, she reached into my plate and ate something from my plate. She was like thats so yummy!! I’m like exactly! Rule Sarah Halbert’s rule. Only eat that, which tastes good if it doesn’t taste good, don’t eat it. I make sure that that’s what it is. I prep my food and prepping my food, helped me start preparing a lot of things in my life. So for example, setting goals, creating a to do list and following through with a lot of those things that it really has, it’s really helped me out waking up early and just getting on with the day. That’s really helped out.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:30:00] Okay. Wow. Yeah. So this is that’s important because I, I’m also of the opinion of planning your work and work your plan. Right. So that’s exactly what you’re saying. And so I think that’s, I think that’s very important points. Do you have any other thing,you want to make sure people get away from all of this?

We’ve talked for a long time. Very interesting discussion. I could go on all day, but is there any one thing that stands out to you that you want to make sure people get from all this? I have already gotten one. Plan your work and work your plan. So any that you will like

Uthman Khan: [00:30:30] Building off of that..

There’s a few things that I do . Number one is when you’re planning your meals specifically, start from dinner. Don’t start with breakfast. I always start with dinner and then I go backwards. I do my dessert or dinner and then lunch and then breakfast. I always do it that way because sometimes if I’m planning breakfast, lunch, and then I’m like, it’s dinner time.

And I’m like, Oh man, I don’t have enough food. I don’t have enough calories or food or whatever to eat at dinner time because I’ve already ate. I ate everything already during the day. If I know I’m… if I’m going to go to go out to eat, which I hate going out to eat now. But if I was to go out to eat at a restaurant, I will look at their menu beforehand and then Mark down exactly what I’m going to be eating and mark it beforehand.

Wow. It’s, there’s a few, there’s two things. One is your health and one is your finances. There’s two areas, health and finances. We’ve let the world and society dictate how we should be spending it or how we should be using it. And that’s the worst thing we can do. Um, ourselves, our bodies and ourselves, as well as our wealth was given to us for us to take charge of, and within all religions, you’ll find verses in the Bible and the Koran different verses that, talk about yourself and your wealth, your self, and your wealth, your self, and your wealth. We have certain rights on ourselves. We have certain rights on our wealth and I feel like what we’ve done is.

We’ve let society decide how our health should be, and we’ve let the financial managers and society decide how we’re wealth should be. And if we take that in our hands, we would be a lot more wealthy and using our wealth properly. And number two, it would be a lot more healthy and using our health properly.

That’s like one thing that if there’s something that we want everyone to take away is that one point over there and then planning, really plan it out. If you don’t plan it out, then you’re, you’re setting yourself for failure. And this is your health, the way you plan a trip, because you want it to be successful.

Well, plan your health because you want it to be successful as well. And it’s really tough to do it. It’s not easy because we’re not used to it. But when you start doing it, it’s one of those pictures, you know, they say, once you see it, you can’t unsee it once you’ve done it. You can’t turn away from you. You just can’t. You really can’t because you try to turn away from it. You’re like no I can’t.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:32:53] Wow, this is profound. This is profound. This is amazing. Alrighty Uthman. So how can people get in touch with you after the show? If they will, like to ask you for help or if they enroll you to be their nutritionist or whatever, stuff like that. So how can they get ahold of you?

Uthman Khan: [00:33:09] I do have a website, so I am in the midst of my education. I actually went, I went ahead and I started to study healing. So I am a sports therapist, so I’m not a physiotherapist, but I’m a sports therapist. So I’ve worked on professional athletes. And so I work with a lot of athletes, I have a whole team that I work with, that the website that I use right now, where anyone can get in contact with me.

I mean, anyone can email me anytime, but the website that I use for people to get in contact with me, it’s called Nutri fitness reform.  So nutrifitnessreform.com. Now the main idea is to reform fitness and nutrition over there. You can read up a little bit more about me as well.

There’s a whole body work section in there. And bodywork is where I do where I put healing through bodywork. I’m not a massage therapist at all, but I’m a sports therapist. So someone comes up like a lot of clients will come to me with injuries. Like I have a shoulder injury or I have a back injury or I’m limping.

Um, so what I do is I work on the connective tissue in the body. Connective tissue is not the muscle. So that’s why you come to me. There’s no pain. Like a massage therapist will go into the muscle or physiotherapist would dig into the muscle. I work at a, at a connective tissue level, meaning a lot more superficial, but when I work a lot more superficial, I get a lot more deep and I can get right to the bone because of that with no pain at all people, they come to sleep on my table.

So it’s a lot more, and that’s how I work with them. And, but this is all in person stuff. So if anyone’s in Edmonton, Get in contact with me that way.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:34:36] Edmonton Canada, right

Uthman Khan: [00:34:37] Edmonton Canada. Yeah. So West coast. Nutrition there is also nutrition that you can connect with me with. We have any questions, always I’m nutrifitness reform also has an Instagram page. Their Facebook is there, but it’s kind of dead, but I don’t know a new generation, not really using Facebook anymore, but

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:34:56] For nutrition they can do online with you. Right.

Uthman Khan: [00:34:57] They can. Yeah.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:34:58] Okay, cool. Cool, cool. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So this is really, really, really informative. Okay. And you talked about an email. Did you have an email address you wanted to share? 

Uthman Khan: [00:35:07] The email? So the email address, they can just quite literally just send an email to, to info@nutrifitnessreform.com. And then I will forward the email to me cause I have a whole team that working in the background. Sometimes I’m just walking around with people, following me with a camera.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:35:24] Oh, well, so it sounds to me like this whole journey has made giving you a whole different lifestyle approach and also a different way to market yourself. That’s what I’m getting from all this, right?

Uthman Khan: [00:35:37] Oh, I have a few things that I’m focusing on in my own life. It does nothing to do with nutrition and not even in my academics.

So that’s a, that’s my own focus. Um, nutrition and fitness, et cetera, is more of a hobby of mine, more of a hobby. So many times people come for bodywork. I won’t even charge them for a session. I’ll be like, eh, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it. If it’s nutrition that Eric, when it comes to nutrition, there’s a few things that I knew knew.

Um, first of all, I’ll take an intake form, which is very extensive because as you know, there’s no one size fits all. Like I was in that it was working. I switched to that. I started gaining weight when I should have technically been losing weight. So I there’s a whole intake form. And then I do a whole case study type thing on you where I will write up a whole holistic prescription.

I’m a holistic nutritionist. So I do a whole holistic prescription. So that normally takes up a lot of time. So that’s what I found that would cost you a little bit of a little bit of money, but body work and stuff. I’m not too interested. I mean, in taking money from that clients come they’re in pain. Why should I.

Take money for your pain, you being in pain, but if I’m ever in your area, if you need some work done. So let me know, besides that my regular, my regular job is my academics. I’m, I’m a, I’m an academic Dean of a college, an online college. So that’s why I normally do my work. I focus over there. I work about 20, 30 hours.

Like if you start planning your work planning, your life felt like to do listen and stuff. You don’t need to work 40 hours a week. I literally worked 20 hours a week, but that’s all I do work 20 hours a week. And then this nutrition stuff is this on the side. So when you’re working that way, it’s your life even becomes so much more easier.

That’s my main focus is on, um, theology and I’m working in academics from that.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:37:14] Awesome. So thank you so much. I learned a lot and I hope you did too. So thank you so much Uthman I hope next time, if I do invite you, because this was really, really informative. So if I hope, I hope next time I invite you, you’ll say yes.

Uthman Khan: [00:37:27] Okay.

Dr. Adeola Oke: [00:37:28] You have a wonderful day.

Uthman Khan: [00:37:31] Yeah. You have a wonderful day. Thank you

Ending: [00:37:37] Join our Wellness Surge Facebook community so that you can implement what we learned together. I am because you are thank you for listening and sharing your precious time with us. If you enjoy the show, then follow us and subscribe on iTunes, YouTube, or any app that carries podcasts. Have an awesome, awesome week. Best wishes to see you thrive.