Alkaline Forming Diet, Being Happy, Healthy Attitude

The Right Mindset for Beating Back Pain

Churchill MindsetEarlier today I tweeted a very true quote by Winston Churchill.

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  – Winston Churchill

I see evidence of this everywhere. I meet people with back pain and other pain, and without preaching, I try to help them by telling them what I have learned.

But many are under the impression there is nothing they can do for their pain. They say stuff like “yeah, that’s a good idea, but it wouldn’t apply to me, because you see, I have __________.” (whatever other condition that prevents them from doing any exercise, for example).

Since I took action to get out of my “Back Pain Jail”(!) I am no longer thwarted by limiting beliefs. If you want to say something is not possible because of X, then do something to conquer X.

If you can’t conquer X because of Y, sort out Y before that.

I’m sure there’ll be a Z too, and an A, and a B and a C.

But be diligent. Just keep going until you have conquered them all!

With regards to pain relief, an alkaline/low carb (low GI) diet and low impact regular exericse are the two ways to start.

You CAN do it, but not if you keep coming up with reasons why you can’t.

As well as health quotes and funny quotes, I also tweet super quotes from high achievers from many walks of life, as not only are their quotes inspirational, but they are living proof that they overcame their obstacles.

People who built great empires had THOUSANDS more obstacles to overcome than you do in your battle against pain. And actually I shouldn’t use the word Battle as that implies hard work. It’s not difficult, if you remain consistent and do a bit each day.

Another great quote I love is:

“It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop.”  – Confucius

That quote especially applies to becoming pain-free; just don’t stop.

If you are lacking energy, and the last thing you want to do is exercise, no matter how little, try cutting down on carbs and sugar/fructose, and make the calories up by eating healthy oils, nuts, avocadoes, and beans.

I’ll cover this in more depth in another post, but it’s a start in banishing the zero energy that a lot of pain sufferers have, and the number one reason a lot of people can’t get started.

So anything is possible, as long as you have the right mindset to begin with.

The best of health to you

Paula

Best Exercise, lifting, quick tips

Do THIS When Bending to Prevent Back Pain!

prevent back painHere’s how my clumsiness reminded me of a super little tip you can do that makes a big difference if you do it every time you need to bend down, so you can protect your back.

I broke a glass this morning in the kitchen. What a clumsy clutz!

So I did the old glass breaking ritual. You know the one:

  • Put some footwear on!
  • Tell the dog to stay in the living room
  • Get emergency newspaper
  • sweep up the glass into a dustpan
  • vaccuum the area
  • vaccuum the sweeping brush!  – etc, etc…

It was when I was bent down to sweep the glass into the dustpan (with my bum in the air!) that I was aware I was tightening my tummy.

This was a great tip I found worked a treat when I was really suffering with back pain. No matter how much we avoid bending down, we can’t avoid it sometimes, can we?

But you can take some of the pressure off you back by tightening your abdominals, so your tummy is doing all the work. When I lifted myself back up, I found my gluteals and thighs were also tightened. I’d got so used to doing this a few years ago, I have probably done it ever since.

I know I do it when I put the dog’s collar on, and when I scoop her poop too!

Not that it does any harm to continue it. It’s important to do everything you can to prevent back pain in the future, so what better time than when you are not in pain? It’s also a great trick to try when lifting is unavoidable too.

For more great tips on how to strengthen your core and back muscles and utlimitely protect your back permanently, have a look at the back pain exercises pages up at the top.

Have a great day – and don’t break stuff!

Paula

 

Photo by .Larry Page

Sleep

Don’t Increase Back Pain by Oversleeping!

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Oversleeping back painDid you know you can worsen you bad back if you oversleep? I carried out an experiment on the connection myself. More on that later.

At first, I wasn’t sure if this was just me or not. But I have asked a lot of other back pain sufferers too. And they all say their back pain is a lot worse if they oversleep. So I did some research and oversleeping does have a detremental effect on chronic back pain, as well as a whole host of other conditions, such as depression.

I knew oversleeping wasn’t good for us, as I always felt a lot worse after oversleeping myself. I have several books on sleep and it is stated in all of them that you should be consistent and aim for 7  – 7 hours 30 minutes of sleep every night.

I have found that you can maybe stretch to 8 – 8 hours 30 minutes, if you have a rough night the night before, but even if you only have 3 hours or fewer, you should not then have 9 hours or more the following night to try and make up for those lost hours. It will not make you feel better. It’s best to increase your sleep gradually. Especially if you suffer from insomnia. You need to feel tired at the end of the day, and insomniacs never do, because of poor sleeping patterns.

In my free 5 Day course, there is a section on Sleep, and another bonus section on how to stay organized enough to optimize healthy sleep patterns. Sleep is so important. But most people don’t realize just how much. And oversleeping is just as dangerous as undersleeping. Some experts even say that people who regularly oversleep are at risk of death; mainly from stroke, but also several other causes too.

Just sticking with back pain, it is not clear exactly why, but the subject of sleep is a very mysterious one. We still do not know everything about sleep, and its effect on the body and mind. As you know I strongly believe in the mindbody connection, and anything that increases the effects of depression is not good news for chronic pain sufferers. Low mood has very strong implications for chronic pain.

People (often with depression) who insist they need 8 hours or 9 hours of sleep a night, are very mistaken. They have simply never been able to stick to a healthy sleep pattern to discover the truth, and they are sleeping themselves into an early grave.

For just over a year in 2007 I kept a sleep-pain diary as I noticed a connection, and wanted to see just how much it affected me from day to day. I must say at this point that this experiment would not be accepted in any clinical way, because for my own sanity, I did not deliberately try to overlseep – or undersleep. I knew it wasn’t good to do that, so I just made a note of my pain levels as soon as I woke up, and throughout the day every day. The poor sleep patterns happened with no effort!

I would aim for 8 hours sleep in the beginning (this was before I learned that 7 hours 20 minutes was my optimum length of time to sleep) and my pain would often be a 5 or a 6 (10 being the most painful) when I first got up, and lower to a more acceptable level later in the day.

But on the days I overslept, even by one hour, not only would my pain be higher; – 7 or 8 – but it would remain quite high for the rest of the day too.

Once I learned this, I of course tried to control my sleep more, but we all fall off the wagon, and when I failed to stick to my routine, I would not be able to sleep. This would mess up my sleep patterns for up to two weeks. Yes! That’s how bad I was. I was very sensitive to just one night of poor sleep – there’s no way I could work night shifts for example.

So I got better and better at sticking to my routine, even if I did mess up occasionally, and the results were amazing. Not only would I be able to sleep beautifully most nights, my pain levels dropped considerably. This was before I implemented other extremely effective methods to relieve pain, so I knew it was definitely the healthy sleep pattern that was responsible for reducing pain.

I would strongly advise keeping a sleep-pain diary yourself. Try to keep one for at least 6 months, so you can get a really good picture of what is happening. And aim to find out your optimum length of time to sleep. If possible, try for 7 hours 20 minutes or 7 hours 30 minutes. It will not be far from that time.

And let me know your results here!

photo by Orin Zebest on Flickr

Best Exercise

Is it Hard to Stick to a Routine for Back Pain?

pain relief schedule-routineCombatting back pain needs to have a regular routine, and consistency. But the hardest part is getting started. As I have said previously, you only need to do a few minutes of exercise every day. But when you time this exercise is crucial. It should preferably be before any kind of physical activity. The chances are, your household and daily jobs are not necessarily what our bodies are designed for, so you need to give yourself a warm-up in order to loosen the muscles, so that they are better prepared for what life throws at them.

And gently moving about every day will build up strength in your muscles over time. You’ll be surprised just how quickly this happens if you stick to a consistent routine and do it every day.

A friend of mine recently painted her house. This involved reaching up to the ceiling, and bending down to paint the skirting boards. The only breaks she gave herself were to eat meals. She then had back pain. If she had gone for a short walk and/or done 5-10 minutes of low impact aerobics before the painting AND taken regular breaks, she would not have suffered back pain.

You can apply this advice, no matter what you have been told your back pain’s cause is (apart from severe recent trauma).

Image by ASurroca on Flickr

Back Pain at Work, Best Exercise

5 Tips to Relieve Back Pain

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5 back pain tipsBack pain, lower back pain and sciatica are some of the biggest concerns of employers, as they keep millions of people off work every day around the globe. In fact most adults will suffer some type of back pain at some point during their lives.

If you suffer from back pain, you may not realize it but you can alleviate a lot of the pain yourself easily. Even if you have received, or are currently receiving treatment, you can still help your recovery along with these 5 simple steps.

Tip 1
prevent back painDistribute your weight evenly. When standing, don’t put your weight more on one leg than the other, as you would normally when standing with a hand on one hip for example. Also if you must carry anything for any considerable length of time, choose a backpack style bag, rather than a shoulder bag. And wear it properly! How many times have you seen backpacks thrown over one shoulder? It completely defeats the purpose! You can buy lots of purses and handbags that come in the backpack style – you don’t have to look like you’re going camping.

Tip 2
Relax! I learned this one when learning to drive. Often, I was so anxious, my shoulders were almost up to my ears! And I wondered why my back pain was worse than ever, when driving. Relax your whole body, and move in a fluid, rather than a ridged way. You may have to remind yourself to lower your shoulders, but once you get used to it, you will be able to do it automatically.

Tip 3
Improve your posture. Some people will think that this tip contradicts the last one, but you can still maintain good posture, while staying relaxed. It is when we are sitting that we tend to slump, and adopt poor posture. But a lot of chairs do not help either. Make sure your chair has a full back to it, and if it is not an ergonomic chair, add a cushion or lumbar support to keep your lower spine in the correct position. Keep your shoulders back and your head straight. You should also have your thighs parallel to the floor and your feet flat on the floor, or on a foot rest.

Tip 4
Keep hydrated. Drink plenty of water in order to keep your muscles hydrated. Hydrated muscles are happy muscles because they are more flexible and stretchy, and less likely to go into spasm or get pulled or damaged.

Tip 5
Do gentle cardiovascular exercise as often as possible. Walking for around 20 minutes is the best type of low impact cardio exercise, as it is easy to incorporate into your day, and still gets the heart pumping. It gets you moving and warms up the back muscles, and if you walk slightly faster than you would normally, you will breathe better, which gets oxygenated blood to your muscles too. In fact you can still achieve this from walking at your normal pace, and simply breathing deeply.

Try using these tips regularly and you should notice a reduction in your pain. The most important thing is consistency and organization.

photo by cambodia4kidsorg