Haque's Health Hacks
Haque's Health Hacks with Dr. Anita Haque
Haque's Health Hacks
EP #1: Intro to Haque's Health Hacks: Small Steps to Big Changes
Dr. Haque kicks off the Haque's Health Hacks Podcast by sharing her mission to transform wellness through small, manageable steps rather than overwhelming lifestyle overhauls. Drawing from 21 years of chiropractic experience and a personal health journey that began at age seven, she offers a refreshing perspective on preventative care.
Future episodes promise to explore posture in the digital age, sustainable nutrition approaches, exercise strategies, flexibility for injury prevention, biological anti-aging, and insights from various health experts. Ready to transform your health through small, consistent steps? Subscribe now and join Dr. Haque on this journey to optimal wellness.
Welcome to Haque's Health Health Hacks podcast, your trusted source for wellness, fitness and healthy lifestyle insights. We believe in empowering you with knowledge to take control of your health. Join us as we explore the latest in self-care, share expert advice and guide you on your journey to optimal well-being. Let's embark on this path to a healthier you, together being. Let's embark on this path to a healthier you together.
Charlie:Welcome to episode number one. I have the honor to introduce Dr Haque. Dr Hawk, how are you doing?
Anita:Doing great Thanks so much.
Charlie:I'm so excited. Well, I'm excited for you and for your listeners. In case you're wondering who is this guy, I am the producer, slash co-host of the podcast, but obviously you are the reason I'm here. You are the star and, most importantly, for your listeners and viewers, you're the one who has the hacks and really going to help your audience. So I'm thrilled for you and looking forward to it.
Anita:Awesome, thank you.
Charlie:Yeah. So what do you say? Because I know you, but you're going to have listeners from all over the place and this is going to be their first episode. How about if you just give your listeners an idea of your background and then we'll take it from there?
Anita:Absolutely Well. First off, I am a by career, by trade, I'm a doctor of chiropractic. I've been a chiropractor for 21 years now and prior to that, though beyond just you know, working on back pain, neck pain what I really am as a student of health, my journey in health has started when I was a young, young, young individual, probably seven years old. I have been focused on wellness for my own self, and that has transcended into this journey of how can I get a little bit better every single day, and I use health as my journey to do that and share it with others, and that's kind of what we're here to do, hopefully.
Charlie:I love that point of getting a little bit better every single day and, as you know, I was in the health and fitness world. I had health clubs and it's so easy to get that I'm going to get back into health, right, the new year's resolution and you, you do too much, you it's, it's just it. You know it's that, those little steps, that that consistency that really gets you to where you want to. You know that end game of getting back to health if you're out of it, right 100, and I think you know what there's of like we want everything now.
Anita:We want a quick fix. We want Amazon Prime now, like deliver it now. Sometimes we forget that it's a process, it's a journey and there is no quick fix to really your health. It's just about advancing where you are, you know, to a better place. So, yeah, it's a great way to start to shift your mindset a little bit so that you don't get frustrated and give up. You know, because if you do too much too soon, that usually kind of blows up in your face, right?
Charlie:Yeah, pain injury just not fun, right, dr Huck? What do you love most about what you do in the chiropractic field?
Anita:Well, you know, I think I have a aha moment every single day that I'm adjusting patients, because what I love is that there are, a lot of times, immediate changes that a person will notice upon being, you know, touched upon their joint, being mobilized.
Anita:A lot of times they'll get up and be like, oh my God, I can't believe it, I'm getting better, I can actually move better, I can actually turn my head easier. So just every single day that I'm in there, it's just a reminder of why I'm doing what I'm doing, which is my goal to help people live their best life and you always live your best life when you feel your best and if I can help administer a little bit of that without drugs, without surgery, which is what chiropractic is. We're more hands-on approach. We're trying to deal with helping people through clearing out anything in their nervous system which is located in their spine. So if I can do that and help them achieve better health, you know I'm having a great day every day. So that's kind of what keeps me fueled and my passion going, my fire burning and helping others.
Charlie:Yeah, and you've taken it to the next level, right? You know this, this podcast, so I'm curious to know what. What was that inspiration? What inspires you to do this? I mean, you're extremely busy, and and then part two of that is what do you anticipate or what would you like your listeners to walk away with? You know, from your health hacks.
Anita:So, you know, I've actually always envisioned one day having the ability to have a conversation where we can talk about topics that are on top of mind, and I hear them all day long, from patients asking me tips on sleeping advice, immune system, eating better, getting more hydration, how to get stronger, how to exercise beyond back pain. So these little health hacks are things that I'm actually sharing with patients and I'm being asked on a daily basis. So, over the years, I've been, you know, asked by a lot of my closest family and friends when are you going to do a podcast? Why aren't you sharing this information? And you know, to be perfectly honest and transparent, I think I was a little bit, you know, overwhelmed thinking am I going to be able to do this? You know, just with my time constraints as well, as you know, am I going to be able to bring something? That's really great, but I felt that it was the right time.
Anita:Now is the right time, instead of waiting five years from now, because of the encouragement that I'm receiving, as well as the need, the thirst for little health hacks that I think patients and people around want to have.
Anita:That's easy, simple to do, without having to buy another thing or go visit, necessarily, a provider. So that's kind of what I want to get out of you know for my listeners is you know little tips, things that are in your everyday life. And then I want to take it a step further, and how I want to do that, charlie, is I want to empower our listeners by giving them multiple perspectives on some of these topics, by bringing in other experts or guests that might offer you know, advice, other health hacks that I can learn from that they can also maybe hear about my perspective, someone else's perspective, and then maybe make a better decision, an educated decision on you know how they want to proceed with a certain topic. So perhaps it's weight loss, perhaps it is, you know, helping you know them get more energy, so we can bring on guests that might bring even more to their lives and as well as mine. So that's what I'm hoping to achieve.
Charlie:Well, I'm excited I get to kind of kick back and listen to all this information. I will bring my notepad with me, yes, please. So not everyone is familiar with chiropractic, and you mentioned actually a few moments ago about the spine. I forget how you put it exactly, but the spine is the center of what I you put it exactly, but this, the spine is, is the center of what I yeah, let me rephrase that.
Anita:So, basically, your nervous system, which is your spinal cord, your brain and the nerves, that's what contains your nervous system, is contained. The nervous system, or the the spinal cord rather, is inside all the vertebrae. All, uh, you know up and down our chain, okay, so out in between the vertebrae, all you know up and down our chain, okay, so out in between the vertebrae, are those little nerves. They're like telephone wires. It's basically how your brain connects to all your muscles, tissues and organs. It's kind of like your spinal cord and your nerves are like a telephone system. I know what does that mean to like people who have cell phones? Only right, I can show my age, right over those telephone wires. Yes, you and I remember that.
Charlie:I get it.
Anita:Information highway, rather right from the brain to the body. So since it's contained inside the spine, my job as a chiropractor is checking the spine for interference to those nerves. What does that mean? Well, those vertebrae can misalign. Sometimes you get pulled out of alignment because of, you know, repetition of motion.
Anita:Maybe it's an injury, it could be a car accident, it could be sitting at your computer in bad posture every single day for hours, or your phone right, causing issues in your neck, and that can cause, you know, kinks to the telephone wire or that information system, meaning that vertebrae can shift. Put a little pressure on that nerve and guess what can happen. Sometimes you can have neck pain, sometimes you won't, sometimes it's just little less functioning of that nerve to all those organs and tissues. And guess what? There are no symptoms to that. So my job is to find that, correct it, meaning realign it so that nerve is free and that way the body is able to communicate properly, brain to the muscles, tissues, organs and vice versa, and therefore the person can optimally function. You can breathe better, you can, you can hear better, you can move better. All of it is all contained in that information system.
Charlie:Love it, love it. Wow, good stuff. Thank you for that.
Anita:Maybe a little bit too much right.
Charlie:I get it. You know, and that's the beauty with the podcast, you know, in this rush rush world, right, and especially I hate to pick on the medical side, but occasionally we need to go to see a medical doctor, which is very important, need to go to see a medical doctor, which is very important, but I feel like you know it's, I have like three minutes to get everything out, you know, because the next patient's waiting, and then the next one, the next one, and then you leave the office, you go, oh geez, you know, I meant to ask this, right. So the wonderful thing about the podcast here and certainly that's not you obviously you spend the time with your patients and you know the medical world. They're kind of in that box. There's not a whole lot they can do about it, right, because it's run by, really, the insurance companies.
Anita:But yeah, that's the problem right there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Charlie:They're just trapped and I know I who, literally they have a stopwatch and if they don't get out of that room with the patient within a certain amount of time, they're dinged, and you know it's anyway. How did I get down that rabbit hole? I wanted to ask you.
Anita:No, it is a challenge for sure, and I'm with you, charlie, where there's a time and place where you need surgery or you need a medication. But I like to empower my patients by saying if there's a way to get healthier without those things through your lifestyle, let's try to approach it that way first, if possible.
Charlie:Yeah, yeah, so let's then talk about, in your opinion, why do you think it's so important and this may sound like an obvious question but for people to prioritize their health and wellness in their everyday lives health and wellness in their everyday lives.
Anita:Because I think that you know, one thing that we forget about is we wait till the house is on fire, and that's meaning crisis care. You don't want to wait until your car breaks down to get that oil change. You don't want to wait until the carbon monoxide is going off before you get the alarms. I mean just basically, a little bit of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Maybe you've heard that statement before, and that goes with our health and wellness in our everyday lives before. And that goes with our health and wellness in our everyday lives. And you know, what's really, really interesting is it doesn't take that much truly to get healthier.
Anita:If you just look at it as a little bit of a block every day and that's kind of one of my hacks that I'm going to be talking about today is just little blocks, little steps as opposed to that big mountain. So if you did that every single day, hey, maybe I could drink a little bit more water today. Maybe I could actually have a bit more of a positive attitude today. Maybe I could actually do a couple of stretches today. Maybe I could get outside and walk for 10 minutes, even if I'm not hitting the gym and doing everything I said I was going to do.
Anita:So it's that little bit that I think, if we just prioritize small things that are easy to say no to because you're like I don't really need to do this, but if you actually said yes to those things, that's actually how you keep yourself out of trouble. You know, with having more health catastrophes or crisis care, which you know and when you do get to crisis care, that's when you're really dealing with more of your life having to be focused on your health. You can't do certain things. Your quality of life really does diminish because you can't do the things you wanted to do before you know. So, and I think that's why it is important for people to prioritize their health, because when you do wait until you have to prioritize it, it usually can ruin parts of your life and ruin parts of certain relationships. You know, whether it's in your, with your kids, your your, your your spouse, I mean it affects everything how you feel.
Anita:So that's kind of why, and also, you know the statement I seen patients that go through retirement. You know your health is your wealth. That statement there is very, very huge, because sometimes you know you wait until, like, wait and I have time, I'll go to the doctor when I have time, I'll exercise. When I have time I'll focus on eating better and then when you wait till that time happens aka maybe retirement it's too late. You know you have to kind of take care of that fire first and you could have avoided that maybe if you just put a little bit attention and that's what I'm hoping to empower to the listeners here is like what little things can you do? Starting today, starting right now? That's easy. That will actually move the needle a little bit.
Charlie:Yeah, that's great. How about your personal life? I mean, what do you do to stay healthy and stay balanced?
Anita:Well, I think there are three main things for me. I need to move right, eat right and think right. Those are like the three top concerns Moving right, thinking right, eating right are like top. And obviously sleeping right right. You know you need your rest.
Anita:So, for me, I try to really follow what I preach, which is try to do those little things, and it didn't happen all in one day. This is a journey. Like I said, I'm still working on being my best self every day. What else can I do to get better? So, for me, I wake up first thing in the morning and this is a quick little health hack that, for you listening, you can do this immediately. I always go to sleep with some water by my bedside. Sometimes I get you listening, you can do this immediately. I always go to sleep with some water by my bedside. Sometimes I get, you know, mouth is dry in the middle of the night. But what I really want to do is, first thing, before I even get, you know, into the bathroom, I'm downing as much water as I can to hydrate my body, get my body more thirsty for water. So I you know doing that.
Anita:I take my vitamins every day. I try to stretch, even for five minutes in the morning and before I go to sleep, I focus on eating as many nourishing, healthful foods. At least 80% of what I eat, I'm looking for, you know that like foods that are going to make an impact on making me better. And then I let myself live that 20% every day to have that piece of chocolate or have that indulgence where I might need it or crave it. You know so.
Anita:And then in terms of thinking right, so we know, eating right, moving right, thinking right I like to set my mind in the morning, while I'm having my little sip of coffee, I'm reading something that's empowering. I read from a stoic book, I read my goals, my daily affirmations. I set the tone right so that I can also bring that, you know, forward to the world, forward to the people that I'm connecting with my patients. That way again, it's always you got to redo it. It's just like taking a shower every day. You got to redo these things every day. It's, it's nothing's everlasting, it's always a journey. So that's kind of a gist of what I do.
Charlie:To summarize, Love it, love it. So hydrate first thing. And you know I, the percentage of the population that walks around that that dehydrated is ridiculous. I mean, it's probably 90%, right, so that's. And I find like, if I ever find I don't know if there's any truth to this, correct me if I'm wrong, dr Hawk, but you know, if I find like in the afternoon my energy is kind of waning and I'm just kind of feeling maybe like nap time, I'll lay on a glass of water and I find that that just kind of brings back the energy. Is there any science to that or is that just my there's absolute science to that.
Anita:And a lot of times our fatigue is because we have lack of water. Also, a lot of our hunger, believe it or not, is because we have a lack of water. So sometimes you're eating food and you can solve. You know, if you're trying to cut back a little bit, you can maybe solve overindul. Know if you're trying to cut back a little bit, you can maybe solve overindulging if you actually drink more water. So there is absolute science. And you know what's funny, charlie's, most people in the afternoon, instead of going to hydration, guess what they go to? They go to another cup of coffee. And what?
Anita:is caffeine going to do, whether it's coffee, and energy, drink, tea, what? Do you do caffeine does. It dehydrates your body even further. So it kind of is counterintuitive and you're propelling the problem a lot of times. So you know, I suggest you know, if you are fatigued and you're thinking about taking a coffee or take, drink some water first, and then you know why not try that. It doesn't hurt. You're not going to, you know, damage anything by doing that and you're always going to benefit from it.
Charlie:So yes, Love it, love it, great hacks, all right. How about Dr Hawk? The podcast itself Was there? Was there a moment that made you realize and I know you touched on this earlier, or or you know a story surrounding the podcast that you decided, yeah, time to get this message out there?
Anita:Well, I think you know, for me, I was actually invited to speak on a podcast, a few of them recently and one of them that I recently did.
Anita:I kind of realized I needed to bring this podcast to fruition because the podcast hosts were asking me a lot of great questions about my health and well-being and how I share this with patients. And I had that moment, charlie, where I realized some of the things that I think is like everybody knows, or you know, because I'm living my own life, I'm in my own shoes and a lot of people don't. And you know, some of the questions that they asked really preempted me to say I got to get this going. I have too many people in my ear to do it. So it was really, you know, that shift around late last year, around December, and what better time in the new year to just let's, let's do this. Let me get out of my comfort zone, be brave enough to come out here, put my face out here, my voice out here, and share what I have to say and hoping that even if one person gains something out of it, it is absolutely worth it.
Charlie:Yeah, good for you, good for you. Yeah, it's not easy doing what you're doing and again, not only the taking the time out of the day, but putting yourself out there, and it can be a scary world out there at times, but we can't let the fear keep us from helping, right, yeah, yeah. So focus on that one individual that really can use your help and will benefit from it. And this podcast is a success use your help and we'll benefit from it and this podcast is a success.
Charlie:Thank you, yeah, so future episodes topics you know.
Anita:What do you have in mind, what do you see in future episodes? So I want to dive into, I think, what is important to you, the listeners, right and again, I get to get that feedback a lot just day to day from patients. So what I want to talk about posture, your position, your structure, your positioning affects your functioning and a lot of times we don't realize that until you feel lack of function or pain, right. So posture is so vital nowadays that we're looking at our screens constantly and when I say we, I'm talking about children at a young age are now looking at mom and dad's phone or getting their own devices, that they're just or they're gaming right their head's down and it's basically the brain and the body aren't connecting as well anymore. So I want to bring some health hacks about how to help your posture better in this information, technological day and age that we're looking at all the time.
Anita:I want to empower our listeners on how to eat better in ways that are not just this crazy diet that's unsustainable. I want to talk a little bit about what to do if you want to start exercising or how to level up your activity to improve. I want to bring tips on how to be more flexible, both body, mind and spirit, because we know that that flexibility is going to prevent injuries for people on their day-to-day. I want to talk about anti-aging, because we all are in this society of trying to look and feel our best and try to be as young as we can for as long as we can, but I want to bring that to our listeners.
Anita:On a biological function, on what can you do on your day to day, what are the little things that we can do to help improve that? And then, like I mentioned Charlie, I want to hear back from the listeners. What do they want to hear more about? I'm going to bring in some experts on mental health, physical health, acupuncture, things like that again outside the box that might again empower the lives of our listener little tips and things that can help them make better decisions on their healthcare. So that's a little tidbit of what I want to move forward and hopefully beyond that, based on what the listeners want.
Charlie:Yeah, yeah. You know that you raise a good point For your listeners. Are you cool if they reach out? You know that you raise a good point for your listeners. Are you cool if they reach out you? Know, comments and say, hey, I'd love to learn about X, or can you talk more about OK, OK?
Anita:I welcome, you know, the feedback listeners. You know messaging us. They can email us, they can get on our website, they can text us us and feedback is going to be really, really important yeah, awesome, awesome.
Charlie:All right, you teased us earlier in the episode. It is time drum roll, please, for today's health. What do you have?
Anita:So you know, the word for me that comes up on this health hack today is consistency. So my question to you all is what is something that you can consistently do that's good for you? And it could be something really small. So here is the health hack we are in an era of, you know, a lot of times I am guilty of this, have been in the past type A personality. I want everything to be perfect. I want, you know, and sometimes, when we wait for perfection, we never accomplish anything. So that ties into consistency. For the listener, Instead of striving for perfection, if you were like me, what can you strive for? That's progress, that little consistent effort.
Anita:Something that I offer patients on a regular basis is the following 72 hours, Okay. So if you're not sure what that answer is, what can I be consistent with or what can I improve a little bit? So what can you do for 72 hours instead of thinking of, like the rest of your life? Sometimes it's in the next 72 hours. I'm not going to allow myself to wake up in the middle of the night and go to the restroom. I'm not going to let my bladder take control of me. I'm going to control my bladder. Your bladder is just a muscle like any other muscle.
Anita:And your brain controls it, just like your brain controls everything else. So if, for example, you have an issue where you're getting woken up every night by your bladder right Knocking on the door saying release me, release me, I'm going to offer that suggestion for 72 hours, three nights in a row, can you wake up and tell yourself no, fall back asleep, don't listen to it. Fall back asleep and control it. Like I said, make that bladder tighter, stronger, because it is that muscle that can be trained.
Anita:And in three nights. It won't happen anymore. Maybe it's hey, I have an addiction to chocolate. I brought up chocolate earlier. You could tell I have a sweet tooth, or used to have a sweet tooth. I gave myself three days. Three days after dinner. I'm not going to indulge on that piece of chocolate. I'm going to. I'm going to be self-disciplined enough. I'm going to be self-loving enough to say I'm going to, you know, I'm going to say no, I'm going to brush my teeth. I'm going to do whatever it takes to tell myself make sure it's not easy to eat that piece of chocolate. After three days I don't even want it anymore. So that is my health hack today, something you can add into your life to progress your life. That maybe can become something consistently that you can do. Maybe it's something that you wanted to do but you just don't know where to start. So I'm going to empower you to start with that 72 hours. It gets easier after that. Okay, simple, simple trick, but it can be life changing.
Charlie:Wow, wow, that's good, yeah, and it's just the right amount of time where, like you said, you stop eating chocolate for three days and, if I have this right, your body chemistry really changes, does it not? It does, yeah, so the cravings kind of come down and it's not.
Anita:I got a job, absolutely yeah, it's just easier to think of things in small little pieces, as opposed to like that big mountain of thinking, oh, I'm never gonna eat chocolate again, or I've got to go on this huge diet and lose that 10 pounds, like that is overwhelming and intimidating. It's kind of like you're shooting yourself before you can start, sometimes by putting all this pressure you, you know, on yourself of saying I have to, you know, now just start. Small little things make big changes. That's what I want to empower our listeners to remember. And little things, you know, it makes bigger shifts, yeah.
Charlie:I guess the other thing it does is we can all do something little today, but if it's a big thing it's like well, you know, let me wait till next week, because next week will be a better week, or next month or next year. Always an excuse.
Anita:There's always an excuse to put things on. There's always an excuse to say I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it always. But that's what I said. If you shifted your perspective to just making it really simple for yourself, then you're more likely to do it and you're more likely to start seeing the benefits and the change. Definitely, yeah and it comes out right, like just like compound interest, right. You know you don't see the benefits right away. 20 years, you're like, oh my god, I'm a millionaire.
Anita:No, you know, that's what you want for your own health your own your life. Yeah, for sure well, that's great.
Charlie:Well, want for your own health, your own, your life? Yeah for sure. Wow, that's great. Well, I know we have listeners who are in your neck of the woods there. Do you want to share how they can get in touch and where you're located?
Anita:Absolutely so. I am in the Bay area. I'm in a town called Livermore, california, easy to get to. Everyone can find me online at haquechiropracticcom, which is my last name and the podcast name h-a-q-u-e, and when you get on our website you're welcome to contact us um our numbers on there. Anyone can even text that same phone number, that business number, and it will come right to me and I'll be able to answer any messages. And, yeah, we want to hear from you. Your feedback is so vital because knowing that you're here, you're listening, that maybe I can make a little change to help you improve your life is going to help improve mine.
Charlie:Awesome, awesome. Well, dr Hawk, this was fabulous. Congratulations. Your first episode is about to be put into the can and we will see you for episode number two real soon.
Anita:Awesome. Thank you so much, Charlie. This is so much fun.
Charlie:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to the Hawks Health Hacks podcast. We hope today's discussion has provided valuable insights into achieving and maintaining your health. Remember your well-being is our priority. Visit us at haquechiropracticcom or call 925-960-1960 to learn more or schedule an appointment.