Taking just 30 minutes on a Sunday morning to complete these five steps is my top tip for ensuring a healthy week.
Step 1 - You are what you eat
Nutrition is extra important when recovering from back pain or any other injury. Your body breaks down the components of the food you eat and later uses them to fuel and repair your body.
You know that shopping when hungry means you are more likely to buy unhealthy, processed and sugary foods. But instead of simply ensuring you don't shop when hungry, go a step further and make sure you are positively health focussed by watching a video or reading an article on the topic of healthy eating.
The five minutes spent getting into a healthy frame of mind will affect your food choices for the whole week. When opening your fridge you'll be confronted with healthy options. It is wise to ensure that some of your healthy option are also quick and easy to prepare.
When recovering from back pain or any other injury the people of Leyton, Leytonstone, Stratford and surrounding areas need proper nutrition. These foods will be used as building blocks by your body to carry out repairs.
Step 2 - Exercise
Next you're going to schedule your exercise for the week.
They key here is to know exactly what you intend to do and when you are going to do it. Personally I like online training programmes. They give you a programme complete with video demonstrations and tell you how many sets and reps you need to be completing. Put your workout times in your calendar. These are now protected - nothing else should be scheduled at these times. They do not change.
You have now removed any friction that might prevent you from working out. If you're experiencing back pain, sciatica, knee, hip or shoulder injury please make sure that your exercise programme is appropriate to your stage of recovery. If you're unsure about what you should be doing give us a call on 02030 961 900 or email leytonosteopaths@gmail.com for guidance.
Step 3 - Meditation
Take 30 seconds and schedule your meditation sessions for the week. Meditation can help your recovery from back pain, sciatica, knee pain, hip pain or any other injury. There is a mental component to rehabilitation and reducing stress levels helps improve your health in a plethora of ways. There are meditation classes available in Leyton, Leytonstone, Stratford and Walthamstow or you can use one of the guided meditation apps.
Step 4 - Information
Modern technology means that travel time is now an opportunity to listen to the information you want and need to hear. Your options used to be limited to whatever was on the local radio station in Leyton, Leytonstone, Stratford or Walthamstow. Now there are countless healthy lifestyle focussed podcasts and some that will discuss specific injuries like muscle spasms, back pain, sciatica, frozen shoulder, arthritis of the knees and hips or whatever else you may be suffering from. Spending five minutes creating your playlist on a Sunday morning leads to hours of useful information about healthy lifestyle and rehabilitation from injury being absorbed throughout the week.
Step 5 - Learning
Similar the previous step, the next one is simply to decide on the books you will read for the week. Go online and order something or select something from your bookshelf that you have previously read but want to re-read and place them on your coffee table. I am undoubtedly biased but I would recommend my book 'The Back Pain Recovery Plan - Your Step-by-Step Guide to a Healthy Back'. Although it focusses on back pain it has useful information that can be applied to recovery from any injury. It also has important lifestyle advice.
Now, making the decision to read something useful, expand your knowledge about pain and injury or watch the telly - it is much easier to make the healthy choice.
You still of course need to prepare the healthy food, do the workouts, complete the meditation, listen to the podcasts and read the books. But you have removed the need to decide whether or not to do them - these actions have become the default. Willpower is no longer required to make healthy choices.
Give it a try. Those 30 minutes spent planning your week can be truly transformational and set you on the road to recovery after injury.
Key Message: Planning is key to healthy week and making the right choices.