Making small changes to your diet, exercise routine, and how you sit and stand during the workday can make a big difference in your health in the new year.
Could you share a short list of some basic healthy habits most people should try to adopt this new year?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, absolutely. New year is great for New Year’s resolutions, which typically ties into health, right? I can’t tell you I’m an expert on how to build a habit. However, obviously, as a practicing physician, we absolutely know the healthy habits we should be following through on: eat well, move well, think well, right?
But if you are really focused on improving health outcomes this new year, a book that I read, which is great, is James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. In which he kind of goes through all the framework and essentially physiology and all the things that come with building habits. However, if you read that book, it’ll tell you how to build a habit.
The habits you should be doing: Hydration is key. America is the number one fatigued nation in the world. So, we’re all under hydrated. A good rule of thumb in the new year, or today if we’re listening, is to figure out your body weight in pounds, jump on a scale, divide it by two, and then that’s how many ounces of water you should be trying to drink a day. Hydration is key to physiology, how we feel, how we function. Tissue that’s hydrated functions a lot better than dehydrated tissue. That’s a really good one.
Another one is movement. We should be trying to move at least 20 minutes a day, every day. Continuous movements, so that can be anything from just going for a walk to some big exercise. Motion is lotion. Obviously, we discussed on previous podcasts that can help limit stress, improve physical and physiological outcomes. Moving is really key. I’d say those two big ones.
And then, managing your spinal health. Think about your posture. For example, sitting in flexion, that creates a mass amount stress and tension in spine. Flexion is your chin being down your chest and you’re looking at your phone. That’s going to pull your head forwards, straightening your neck out, which is going to drive symptomology over time in the neck and the head, the upper back. The same in your lower back. When we’re leaning forward, same thing. It strains the spine out, increases stress and tension in the spine.
Be aware of your posture. Posture is a window to your health. Focus on some postural improvements that have basic spinal mobility throughout the week. Doing exercises that are going to engage those postural muscles, using your sit-stand desk at work, taking some posture breaks during your workday and really managing your posture. If you’ve got good posture you’re going to feel and function a lot better than someone who’s in poor posture.
What are some easy ways to incorporate more movement into a daily routine, especially for those with busy schedules?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, time’s a commodity we don’t have enough of, right? It’s really difficult when you have got a high-level job, you’ve got a family to provide for and take care of, to really fit it in.
But you just start it with really basic stuff. Just pick some really basic exercises and pick a number that you’re going to do once a day, every day. I’m going to do 10 air squats, I’m going to do 10 push-ups, I’m going to do 10 crunches, I’m going to do 10 banded seated rows. I’m going to do that before I get in the shower every morning. Then build that habit and then increase the reps to 20.
Then next thing you know, it’s again, I’m going to go walk for a mile as well as doing that. You just want to kind of start with just some really easy basic stuff you can just do anywhere. Then you obviously want to just get that habit rolling and then just kind of build around that habit.
Start small, start simple. You don’t need to run a marathon on day one. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Just pick some really foundational stuff that’s going to benefit you. Again, walking a mile, some squats, some lunges, some push-ups, things of that nature.
Start with a low number, pick a target, follow through on it. Then obviously as you build that habit, just ramp up how much you do, reps and time and distance.
We know stress affects our overall health. What strategies can individuals use to manage their stress effectively?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, so stress is manifested in several forms. We’ve discussed this multiple times over the last few podcasts. Thoughts, traumas, toxins. Thoughts, a really stressful work environment, even a family member. Toxins, poor dietary habits, being overly medicated. And stress can be big traumas that you struggle to avoid, right, become unhealthy and rear-ended. But then there’s micro-stress, being pinned behind your desk.
For us, we practice in downtown Chicago and our patient base is the corporate athlete. Let’s focus on the micro-stress that comes from corporate America as being sedentary, essentially.
A couple of things we can do. Sit-stand desk. Rule of thumb, start with sit for 20, 30 minutes, stand for 30 to 40 minutes. That desk is moving up, down, up, down, up, down all day. That’s going to provide some variance in your posture. Regardless of how good your posture is, one posture held for too long, prolonged it’s no good.
Next thing is taking some postural breaks during your workday. Muscles that control posture are intrinsic. They pick up on movement. If we’re not moving, they get weak and lazy. Let’s focus on those muscles. Doing some chin tucks where we’re drawing the chin back into the neck. It’s going to engage the neck and help keep your neck back. Do some exercises against the wall to engage muscles that sit between our shoulder blades to keep shoulder blades back. This is going to allow us to maintain good posture or improve posture depending on where you’re at.
If we have a spine that’s in alignment, we have good posture that’s going to limit the stress and tension we are putting into the spine, which essentially drives entomology. It can be pain or dysfunction that drive conditions that we discussed on an earlier podcast.
What are some simple dietary changes people can make to create some healthy eating habits in the new year?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, great question. Everyone’s different, right? Healthy habits can be because you obviously want to lose some weight. Some people might be trying to gain weight in the gym. It all depends on a case-by-case basis.
Here are some of the things we can really focus on. Hydration is really key. We’re actually the most fatigued nation in the world. We’re all under-hydrated, typically.
Rule thumb or a little bit of math, napkin math. Body weight in pounds divided by two is how many ounces of water you should be trying to drink a day. Start there.
The second thing is view your metabolism as a fire in your front room. You threw a ton of logs on the fire, it’s going to burn really bright, then it’s going to die down and then it’s not going to be a big fire because you’ve used all the firewood.
Instead of having three big meals, try and eat every two to three hours, smaller portions. Essentially, you’re eating less in one sitting, but you’re eating more throughout the day. Obviously, by doing that you’re going to keep that kind of fire just burning steady throughout the day instead of having these big fires that kind of blow up. That big kind of fire where you get a big fire, then it dies down. So just eat little and often readily throughout the day. Shorten up your meal sizes for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Then obviously eat some snacks between breakfast, lunch and dinner, just keep that metabolism going. I find that’s really effective.
How can regular chiropractic visits support the development of healthy habits and what should people expect during their first visit?
Dr. Luke Stringer: Yeah, great question. Obviously, our job as chiropractic physicians is to take care of the patient’s needs, whatever that is. Also, educating our patients on healthy habits, so eat, think well, move well.
By going to see a chiropractor making it known to your chiropractor that the focus for them is to educate you on things we should be eating well or things we should eat well to fuel your body. How to sit-stand at work. Things we should be doing during a workday to maintain good posture. Things we can do to manage emotional stress. These sorts of things should be going through a patient journey with a chiropractor.
We’re holistic in our approach. Holistic healthcare is educating our patients on how to eat properly and then obviously how to optimize your stress in the workplace.
A typical chiropractic visit for us, you’d come in, sit down with a chiropractor, do a really detailed health history consultation, figure out what’s going on, why is it going on, and put some goals in place. Follow that up with a very detailed exam, orthopedic, neurological exam, take some X-rays so you can see the spine and its structure. Then from that, take those clinical findings and the goals of the patient and create a treatment plan that fits that patient’s case.
Typically, again, our patients are coming in due to pain, but that pain’s affecting how they function. They’re not sleeping well, they can’t concentrate on their work, they can’t bend over and pick up their kids and play with them as they’d like.
Figure out a plan of attack to address those dysfunctions, deficits that are causing the pain and dysfunction. As we go through that journey, obviously then educate people. All right, this how you stand at work, this how you sit at work, you should be using sit-stand desk, take these postural breaks, make sure we’re getting this amount of water on to keep the tissue hydrated. It’s going to allow you to feel and function good. That’s typically how it kind of goes within our practice at least.
If you are interested in speaking with Dr. Luke Stringer visit www.southloopchiropractor.com or call (312) 987-4878 to schedule an appointment.
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