At every visit, we spend time on what you eat and how it affects your healing. This is diet and metabolic health coaching. Pain is not only about the injured spot.
What is diet and metabolic health coaching?
At every visit, we spend time on what you eat and how it affects your healing. This is diet and metabolic health coaching.
How does it help?
Pain is not only about the injured spot. High blood sugar, extra belly fat and constant snacking keep the whole body inflamed, and inflamed tissue heals slower and hurts more. Stress and poor sleep add to it. Small, steady changes in what and when you eat can make every other treatment work better.
What happens during it?
A conversation, not a lecture. We look at what you ate, what got in the way, and one or two changes to make before the next visit. If your physician orders an RQ breathing test, we use your results to set the plan.
Our eating protocol, step by step
Food is medicine and information for your body. Food is for real hunger, not boredom. Every patient is different, so your physician tailors these steps to you. You get the written protocol at your first visit, and we go over it at every visit.
Step Step Step: walk after you eat
Walk for 10 minutes after every time you eat or drink anything, even if it is just water.
Step 1: Stop all vegetable oils
Vegetable oils are also called industrial seed oils. There are no vegetables in vegetable oil. Read every food label, and do not eat food with any vegetable oil listed. Do not use spray-on oil.
- Olive oil
- Coconut oil
- Butter or ghee
- Avocado
- Duck fat
- Tallow
- Canola
- Corn
- Soybean
- Crisco
- Margarine
Step 2: Stop sugar and sweeteners
Stop anything that tastes sweet, including juice, soda, diet soda, candy and chips. No artificial sweeteners. Allulose is probably safe.
Step 3: Sleep
Get at least 7 hours of unbroken sleep every night. No TV, phone or computer in bed.
Step 4: Supplements
Your physician may suggest krill oil, vitamin D3 with K2, or homemade SIBO yogurt. Ask before you start anything new.
Step 5: Choose your plan with your physician
For people who are just starting, are not sure which foods feed their inflammation, or have weight to lose and are stuck.
- Eat twice a day only.
- Eat as much beef, chicken or fish as you want. Butter and spices are fine.
- Meat, cheese, eggs, butter and salt.
- Drink only water.
- SIBO yogurt may help.
Stay with it for 4 to 12 weeks. Then add back one food per week, as long as it fits the Live Health Protocol.
How to live healthy and lower your pain and inflammation every day. The more vegetable oil and sugar you eat, the worse your pain and inflammation. If you feel tired or get muscle cramps, you may need more salt.
Eat real food
- Meat: beef, pork, chicken, fish
- Whole eggs
- Green leafy vegetables
- Seeds and tree nuts, like almonds and macadamia
- Water, coffee, unsweetened tea
Do not eat fake, factory-made food
- Grains and starches: cereal, grits, oatmeal, rice, rice cakes, pasta, potatoes, bread
- Processed food with added colors or flavors
- Fruit
- Nuts that grow in the ground, like peanuts and cashews
- Soda, juice, diet soda, and creamer in coffee
Eat inside a time window
Eat all your food inside a window of less than 8 hours each day. As you get used to it, shrink the window by one hour each week, down to 4 to 5 hours a day. Breakfast is the meal most likely to make you overeat for the rest of the day.
Move every week
Your physician sets your walking and strength plan, with at least 150 minutes of activity a week. Staying strong protects your muscles while you heal. If you smoke, we help you stop.
What should you tell us first?
- If you take insulin or medicines for diabetes or blood pressure, changes in diet can change how much medicine you need. Your physician manages any medicine changes.
How long does it take?
Part of every visit.
What to remember
- Walk 10 minutes after every time you eat or drink.
- No vegetable oils, no sugar and no sweeteners.
- Eat inside a window of less than 8 hours a day.
Show us you have it: At every visit, tell us what you ate, when you walked, and how you slept since your last visit. We go over it again at your next visit, and you can ask us to explain anything a second time.
Read more: why pain sometimes will not heal, metabolic health and healing, the RQ breathing test.
This is part of our physician-directed physiotherapy program, where a physician orders and supervises every treatment and no treatment starts unless a physician is available right away.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP. Board Certified in Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, Interventional Pain Management, Addiction Medicine, and Obesity Medicine. Last reviewed October 18, 2026.