As we look forward to 2023, it’s time to start making a nutrition plan for the year!

This doesn’t necessarily mean changing our diet or how we eat in our daily lives, but optimizing our nutrition. And a new year is a great time to start paying attention to our nutrition!

As you know, what we put in our bodies is extremely important in ultimately determining or dictating what we can expect from our body. Whether that’s from a performance standpoint, how you feel every day, what type of energy levels you have, how your skin feels, your nails, your hair, etc. is going to be impacted by what we put in our body.

When we focus on nutrition, you know, what does that mean? There are so many different diets and different ways to go about eating that people subscribe to. From being vegan to being pescatarian, eating plant-based foods, eating paleo, eating ketogenic, having meal replacement shakes, there are many nutrition plans to choose from. 

But what’s most important is finding a nutrition plan that is right for your lifestyle and your body. 

Let’s talk about the steps to creating this plan for you.

1. Eat Real Foods 

First and foremost, you need to try and prioritize eating real food. Preferably, the fewer things that come out of a package, the better off you’re going to be. Eat foods that have a very small ingredient list on the label. The less ingredients, the better!

Think about a banana. That only has one ingredient, and it’s banana. It’s also very good for you and full of nutrients that your body needs. No matter what type of diet plan you subscribe to, that is almost always one of the first recommendations that’s given. Real foods have been around forever, and processed foods have not. Think about that!

2. Consider your Protein

Where are you getting your protein sources, and how much protein are you consuming? Whether you’re talking about maintaining a certain body composition, maintaining strength, preventing decline and muscle loss with age; protein is extremely important. 

Proteins are extremely important for satisfying or satiating us from an appetite standpoint, because protein digests a little bit slower in our system. It’s going to make you feel full for longer. It’s also going to help you maintain your level of muscle mass, or potentially build muscle mass on your body and help you burn more calories. 

So, where are you getting your protein from? How much are you eating?

We typically recommend eating one gram of protein per pound of body weight, if you’re regularly exercising. This could also be your lean body mass, and we recommend working with your doctor or nutritionist on the specifics, but that’s a general rule of thumb.

We also recommend getting your protein from meats, veggies, and other real foods as opposed to primarily protein powders or any sort of processed foods. 

3. Decrease Processed Sugar Consumption 

So after you eat real food, after you dial in your protein, one of the other more important things is decreasing, or trying to virtually eliminate processed sugar that you are consuming. 

Think of things like donuts, candy and cookies and other things that generally come in a package or have a lot of processing that goes into it. 

Sugar is addictive, and not the best for our bodies; especially when it’s processed and added to foods. Want some sweetness in your life? Add honey, fruits, and natural sugars into your diet instead. 

If you try eliminating or heavily decreasing processed sugars from your diet, it’s basically guaranteed that your body will feel better in general. It’s challenging, but you can absolutely do it. 

4. Practice mindful eating

Mindful eating means not considering what you eat when you eat it. It’s all too familiar to sit in front of the TV, veg out on some chips, snack on whatever is in the pantry when you’re bored, and eat a bag of candy without even realizing it. 

Enjoy the time and the food that you’re eating. Stop eating when you’re full. These are ways to practice mindful eating instead of zoning out and eating whatever is available without giving it a second thought. 

Eat until you’re satisfied, not overly full, and put away distractions while you eat. Enjoy your food. 

5. Stay hydrated

There are so many hidden calories and hidden added sugars in the drinks that we consume. Soda, juice, energy drinks, iced coffees, you name it. 

That’s why it’s important to stay hydrated with water instead of sugary alternatives, because water is what will truly keep your body hydrated. 

You want to consume half of your body weight in ounces of water per day. If you aren’t close to this right now, do not try to accomplish this tomorrow. Just make it a goal to get better about staying hydrated each day. If you sweat and lose water during the day, try supplementing it with electrolyte packets in your water or electrolyte supplements. 

These five action items towards building the best nutrition plan for your body may be gradual steps. Working towards the nutrition plan that you want and deserve is a process, and you’ve gotta start somewhere! 

Try these five things out in 2023, and let us know how it’s going for you. If your nutrition is thriving, we definitely want to know. Good luck!

The post New Year, New Nutrition Plan appeared first on Physio Room.

Simply put, you get what you pay for.

At Physio Room we choose to put your needs first as opposed to the needs of the insurance companies.

There are 3 things we consider when looking at how Physio Room approaches physical therapy to make sure you get what you need.

Quality over quantity
Performance-based
Cost

Let’s dive into each one.

Quality over quantity. The truth is, out of network PT can provide a MUCH better experience for you as the patient. That’s because the patient is the client.. not the insurance company. When the insurance is the client, all of the focus is taken away from you. How so?

Well, in the medical system, the insurance companies actually determine the rates… which means you may not actually know the cost of the care you’re receiving until well after you’re done. Unfortunately, in the world of physical therapy, reimbursement from the insurance companies is quite low. As a result, clinics are incentivized to see multiple clients at the same time to generate more revenue. This ends up hurting the patients, and the providers in the long run.

The truth is, you can’t get the same quality care when your therapist is seeing 2-5 other people at the same time, and therapists feel the burden of more clients, becoming burned out with their career.

Have you ever been at an appointment and shared that time with other people? How did that make you feel? You end up getting a lot less time and attention from your provider and may even be spending the majority of the time with an aide or tech rather than your therapist. Instead of spending 20 minutes with a provider, wouldn’t you rather have a full hour of undivided attention?

Being out of network allows us to focus on YOU, not the insurance company. That means you’re no longer sharing your time and as a result, complete your plan of care in much less visits! Not to mention the added benefit of actually building a relationship between client and therapist beyond just why you’re coming into the office.

Performance-based. Speaking of insurance companies, they usually have a say in how you’re treated. At Physio Room, we are 100% performance-based which means we focus on you and your specific problems. Let’s say you’re seeing a physical therapist for knee pain. In a traditional in network setting, they’re only allowed to address your knee.

At Physio Room, we’re able to expand on things outside of your knee like sleep, nutrition, stress management, etc; things that will actually help you move the needle forward in your life, in your sports, and in your activities (of course, while also addressing your knee pain). Many clients have multiple body areas that are bothering them…

We treat the client, not just the body part. There’s a big difference!

Cost. Most people feel like going through insurance is cheaper than paying out of pocket, especially for something like physical therapy. But that’s not always the case!

The biggest factor here is that you’ll typically see your provider for LESS visits when in an out-of network facility. Remember, this is because you’re getting more one-on-one time and quality care from your provider. We won’t need to see you 2-3x a week for many many weeks.

More time, more value, better outcomes. We work with you to get to the root cause of why your symptoms are there, get you out of pain and get you back to your activities as quickly as possible!

Did we mention knowing what you are paying for? Fact is, there is much less transparency with in network clinics. They can’t tell you upfront what it will cost to work with them because it will completely depend on your insurance company. As a result, you often end up receiving a bill after the fact, for an amount that you weren’t even aware of, sometimes it may even come as a surprise because you thought that therapy was covered by your insurance.

At Physio Room, we will tell you exactly how much you’ll be paying and what value you will get for that. No surprises. This is rare in the healthcare world. In fact, we guarantee that if you choose to work with us, we will help you understand why you are dealing with the symptoms you are, what we think the root cause is and what you should be doing about it.

Ultimately, we aren’t here to tell you to never go see an in network physical therapy clinic. We just want you to be aware of some of the key differences so that you can make an informed decision that is best for you. Even if you do end up spending less money in the cases where insurance-based clinics cost less, the quality of the care you get will typically match.

We want to help you solve your problems and we want to do that as quickly with you as we can. We also want to give you the tools you need to help you stay out of pain so you can keep enjoying the life you love!

Let’s get the conversation started on how we can help you solve those problems. Contact us here and one of our PTs will be in touch very soon!

The post In Network Care vs. Out of Network Care for Physical Therapy appeared first on Physio Room.

With over 40 muscles in your back, many get used when you’re doing an arm, back, or full body workout. Injuries in this area are common but they can be prevented with the correct movement mechanics.

Dr. James Stetson is a Movement Specialist and Chiro here at Physio Room who understands how it feels to suffer a harsh back injury in the gym. While deadlifting, before putting on a belt, he pulled from the floor and felt a pop in his back (oof, sound familiar?). From the moment he heard the snap, he keeled over in excruciating pain.

As he continued to move, Dr. James quickly realized that this injury was not one that could just be “walked off” like he hoped. That excruciating pain wasn’t going anywhere and he spent the next week laying on his floor, unable to move due to the pain that’d run down his spine.

Knowing that he wanted to get back to his normal range of motion, Dr. James continued to do small movements like press-ups, small rotations, pelvic tilting, and other small motions until he felt that point of pain. Within the week, he was back to playing golf and taking time to rebuild his movement patterns before returning to heavy lifting and his regular workout routine.

Through those small movements, Dr. James stuck with (and swears by) a few tips and tricks to help curb back injuries and lower back pain in general.

Everyone’s movement patterns look different in the gym and during day-to-day life because everyone is built differently, inherently moves differently, and does different activities that require unique movement patterns.

Before you hit the gym next, consider these tips from Dr. James to help prevent back injuries:

1. Neutral spine

Try to keep your spine braced during your workout. This is paramount to keeping your back strong and bypassing lower back pain. 

2. Tall chest

Keep a tall chest and show off your t-shirt. Pulling your shoulder blades back will turn on your lats and allow you to drive through your legs. 

3. Engage your glutes

Push your knees outwards to engage your glutes and create a strong core. Anytime you squat or deadlift, create external pressure between your knees by pulling them away from each other slightly.  

4. Push the floor away

Don’t pull on the barbell or whatever weight you’re pulling off of the floor. Instead, push the world away from your loading point. 

5. Finish tall

Don’t overextend or hyperextend. Stand tall, finish your reps, and get your shoulders slightly behind the barbell. 

Want to learn more about these 5 critical bullet points in detail and see Dr. James demonstrate how to bulletproof your back in the gym? Fill out the form to download our full EBook below for more information.

The post Avoid the “Pop” – Why It’s Important to Bulletproof your Back in the Gym appeared first on Physio Room.