Making New Year’s resolutions is a waste of time.  I am all for setting and achieving goals, but resolutions not so much.

They never work.  Ever.

If you need any more proof than your own failed history (I’ve failed plenty of times too.) with resolutions compare the attendance at any gym in January with attendance in that same gym in February.  Why do we fail with resolutions you may ask.  We fail for two main reasons.

First of all, you need to set SMARTER goals, something I learned from Michael Hyatt.  Here’s what that stands for:

Specific. – If you say you want to lose weight that isn’t specific enough.  Instead, you should say you want to lose 25 lbs.

Measurable – Weight loss should be a wonderful goal to achieve because it fits well into this framework.  Do you want to know how you are doing?  Just step on a scale.  Want to know why you aren’t losing weight?   Measure how many calories your consuming and taking in.

Action Oriented –  Your goal should start with an action verb.  It should be something you do and have to act on.

Risky – Some people say the R should stand for realistic.  Mr. Hyatt says it should stand for risky and I agree.  If you don’t have to stretch yourself to achieve a goal, it’s going to be a lot easier to blow it off.  If you are overweight is it more exciting to lose 20 lbs or 5 lbs?  Which one is easier and there for less risky?

Time Keyed –  You have to have a deadline, or many deadlines in order to achieve a goal.  We as humans are master procrastinators.  If there isn’t a deadline, it won’t get done.

Exciting –  This ties into the risky segment.  I find it helpful to write down the key motivation(s) behind why I want to achieve my goals.

Relevant –  You have to set your own goals.  If you are losing weight because your spouse wants to, but you really aren’t motivated it probably won’t happen.  Also, goals have to be relevant to your specific situation.  If you have a baby in the house, you probably won’t be able to get up at 5:30 am to workout and have an extensive morning routine.  You just aren’t in the right season of life.

The second big reason that people fail to achieve their goals is that chronic pain and health issues get in their way.

A lot of goals in the New Year revolve around health and wellness.  Pain can get in the way of achieving those goals.

We are your trusted healthcare advisors.  We can help you get out of pain so you can achieve all your goals in 2019.  Give us a call at 507-345-1926 or click here to get started.

 

BLT’s are bad for your back.  Bet you didn’t know this, did you?  This piece of advice is not only based on years of experience as a chiropractor and years of schooling to become a chiropractor but on my own painful experience.

The old saying goes that doctors make the worst patients is so very true for me.  About 10 or 12 years ago I was helping move my fiance into a house she was renting.  The house was 150 years old.  If you have ever been in a house that old you know how the stairs are constructed:  narrow and very steep.

This isn’t a major issue until you are trying to move a full-size box spring up those stairs.  After a few minutes of pushing and pulling it was obvious to everybody in the room, except me, that it was physically impossible to move that box spring up those stairs.

I could tell that we were only 1/2 an inch away from success.  So I did my best Hulk impersonation and bent down, twisted a little to get a good grip, and lifted with all my might.  The box spring didn’t budge.  The stairs didn’t budge, but my L5-S1 disc sure did.  I felt a pop and crippling low back pain.

 

I did recover.  It took a long time, and I also re-injured my low back a few years ago.

So don’t be like me.  Don’t pretend to be the Hulk.  This experience has taught me several things including a handy guide I tell all of my patients, especially my low back pain patients.  It involves a tasty sandwich.

I tell my patients to avoid what I call the chiropractic BLT.  Bending, lifting and twisting.  You need to avoid especially combining those motions like I did when I was trying to be the Hulk.  Here’s an excellent Youtube video that shows what I mean:

So you see the headline wasn’t misleading, you were just thinking of the wrong BLT.  If you couple this lifestyle adjustment with regular chiropractic adjustments you will be amazed how good your back can feel, and how much more mobility and health you will have for the future.  Call our office at 507-345-1926 to schedule an appointment today!

In this video Dr. Shawn Andrews, a Mankato chiropractor explains how chiropractic care is often able to help patients suffering from acute or chronic vertigo.

Seeing a chiropractor during pregnancy is one of the smartest decisions you will ever make. Enjoy this video as Dr. Shawn Andrews of Andrews Family Chiropractic of Mankato, MN explains some of the benefits of chiropractic during pregnancy.

The chiropractor with the bad back.  Ironic isn’t it?  But that’s me.  Your friendly local Mankato chiropractor  As with most of my patients, I can trace my back problems back to my childhood.  I can remember even as a kid working on a farm in Iowa, having back pain that made it difficult to walk upright for up to a week.  But the major problems started when as a young, admittedly hot-headed, 20 something I tried to force a full sized box spring up a stairwell it wasn’t going to fit up.

I eventually got over that pain. It took awhile, but I was blessed by some great fellow student chiropractors that helped me get back to a pain-free state.

I even started to run half marathons, grow my chiropractic practice, and live a life free of low back. That is until about 3 or 4 years ago. I think that the combination of running and having ergonomically poor (for me) adjusting techniques finally caught up with me. This time, the pain was excruciating and went all the way down my leg into my right foot. I lost feeling in my right foot. I couldn’t do anything except lay flat on my back. It was awful. This is what my MRI looked like (hint the culprit is at the bottom disc between L5 and S1):

As bad as things got I did manage to recover without surgery.  I am not totally against surgery, but it should be done as a last resort.  (See this article for some information about back surgeries.)  Here are the top four things I did that helped me get over my disc herniations without surgery.

1.  Chiropractic.  This is the single most important thing you can do for a low back disc herniation.  We aren’t trying to “pop” the disc back in.  What we are trying to do is make sure that the alignment of the bones and joints and movement (function) of the joints is the best that it can be.  Adjustments help the body more efficiently heal the disc.  Your body has an amazing ability to heal itself, and chiropractic is essential in promoting disc healing.
2.  Have patience.  Healing a disc naturally with chiropractic care takes time.  I was off work for two months.  (That is partly because chiropractic is a very physically demanding job.)  I was on pain medications longer.  There was honestly times that I felt like giving up.  But I am so glad I didn’t.  I am pain-free without surgery and have resumed almost all of my daily activities.
3.  Know your limits.  You know that old saying “Doctors make the worst patients.”  Well, that is true for me.  Instead of working my way back to a full schedule I went back and saw 30 patients my first day back.  The next day I was back to square one.  So know your limits and listen to your doctor.  I also have not been able to return to running.  It is just too much pounding on my spine.
4.  Work with someone that works well with others.  As much as I would like to tell you that chiropractic is the only thing that you need to heal disc herniations (it often is) that wasn’t the case for me.  I also utilized pain medications, traction, and cortisone injections.  We did before, but more so now, work with other healthcare professionals for the good of the patient.

If you live in the Mankato area, click the contact us button at the top of the page and schedule a consultation with Dr. Shawn a Mankato chiropractor.