When I rolled out the yoga mat onto her living room floor, she looked skeptical. When I brought out the tennis balls and uttered the words "self massage for gluteals and paraspinals" she started shaking her head. In the past two weeks, I have introduced this lady to relaxation and diaphragmatic breathing ("That could take YEARS to learn!"), cervical retraining, core stability exercises, and one memorable session during which I explained the role of the pelvic floor in lumbar spine support (stopping just short of interpretive dance). Each step of the way, I have taken a pain rating, and rather consistently, following my direction, her pain comes down to a zero out of ten. Last week, we discussed the roll of excess abdominal weight and the biomechanics of the back, neck and shoulders. I put her on a walking program and taught her how to monitor her symptoms. Today, she met me in the driveway, carrying a bag of fast food. Ladies and Gentlemen, Mrs. Chronic Pain America.
I viewed this as an opportunity for education, not a stinging defeat. I see many chronic pain patients during my week, and many if not most of them are morbidly obese and suffering from diseases of excess. Too many cigarettes, too much food, too much stress. Too little exercise, too few fruits and vegetables, too little water. Their bodies are bloated, stuck in states of chronic inflammation, stiff and sore not from fun and natural movement but from years of no movement at all. They carry around bags and boxes of pills, make the rounds from one prescribing physician to the next, stop to get fast food on the way home and wonder why nothing gets better. I have not met a patient yet who has been put on a reasonable reducing diet by a physician, or even referred to a nutritionist, and believe me, I ask. Every. Single. Time.
America is drowning under the weight of it's own gluttony. Inflammatory and autoimmune related diseases are on the rise, and a large percentage of this country is living with some type of chronic pain. That we do not connect this to the poor quality of what we are eating and drinking dumbfounds me. In a nonjudgmental way people I hope my patients can hear, I try to help them connect a dot between what they eat, excess weight, musculoskeletal biomechanics and chronic pain. Things can be better.
The biggie. I struggle with this myself, and I feel it is against a lifetime of programming. Too much food, too little balanced exercise, seem to be in the air we breathe in America. Comedians make fun of people who try to exercise and eat right. We have more bars than gyms, because bars are perceived as fun hangouts and gyms are perceived as muscle-bound gym rat hangouts. Meanwhile every single week, the magazines plaster on their front covers some secret or other of losing weight, which is either bad advice (usually little hints that don't go nearly far enough) or is ignored as we go out to the next bar and grill. I could go on for months, but you know already.
ReplyDeleteI STILL struggle with this. And I know better. I feel like I'm currently in two worlds, hanging on to my old habits half the time and embracing new ones half the time. To completely let go the old lifestyle of sedentary existence and bad, "filling" food choices seems so against the grain of what is ingrained.
It starts with getting off my butt.
Although I've always been interested in cooking and nutrition, I came to exercise comparatively late in life (well, 30's) and honestly, I came to it out of joy, because I loved the way I felt when I played. I was lucky in my DNA, I've never had a weight problem. However, I went the opposite direction, I gave my body too little of everything it needed, not good either. Finally, I found balance through play, happiness and noticing what felt good and what didn't. Be kind to yourself, truly kind. Change happens a little at a time. One different decision, and a dash more play in your day. Gyms are surprising places, I've come to love them, never thought I'd be a gym rat, but turns out I am. A run on the roads, pounding the pavement, relieves my mind. I sometimes struggle with healthy food choice, mostly a factor of time and work, and still, a bad day will send me directly to the Fettucine Alfredo, but I feel tired, sluggish and sleepy after simple carbs. I like to make cooking and exercise the best part of my day, the thing I look forward to, maybe you would like this too. You are on your way. Change is a process, and nothing is black and white. Your body, your mind, your taste buds, and your hungers will adjust in time. I think in our culture we are trying to fill other hungers with food, when what we really want is good sounds, smells, sights, touch, rest, laughter, all calorie-free.
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