The Simple Hydration Habit That Ends Lower Back Pain. Solving loneliness and business challenges starts with the same practice.

Lower back pain can feel like a life sentence, but sometimes the fix is so basic it’s easy to ignore: water.

We walk through why dehydration can show up as stiffness, spasms, and aching in your low back, and how spinal discs depend on steady fluid intake to stay resilient. If you’ve tried stretching, mobility work, or “perfect posture” and you’re still hurting, this conversation gives you a simple starting point you can test today.

From there, we zoom out into the bigger theme I come back to again and again as a health, sleep, and stress management coach: most recurring problems don’t need a smarter hack, they need better basics.

We apply the same “foundations first” approach to relationships and business.

Finally, I share the 3 nutrition coaching questions I use before any advanced diet plan or supplement: for long-term health, longevity and ideal body weight for life without diets.

If this helps, subscribe, share it with someone dealing with back pain, and leave a review so more people find the basics that work.

What’s the one foundation you know you’ve been skipping?

https://calendly.com/angelashurina/executive-momentum-360

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Promise

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hey guys, and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Sharina. I'm your host. I'm your partner in change, personal and collective transformation, your master health, sleep, and stress management coach, executive coach 360, and just someone who is really passionate about the process of human change, the process of human evolution, the process of learning more about and unlocking and using our human potential. So together we could create the most extraordinary life experiences for each other, creating more positive impact and fulfillment in the real world. Today, guys, by the end of this podcast, you might figure out the solution to your lower back problem or someone else's if you have a family member or a friend who's suffering from it. You also might figure out the issues that keep recurring in your business or the loneliness that you might be experiencing, whether that's from the lack of true friendships or community or your other half, your loved ones' relationships in your family. I know it's a big promise, but stick with it. It's gonna be a short podcast and it's gonna give you one of the most fundamental insights that you that if you carry it through your life, it will help you to solve a lot of problems, if not all of them, at the same time quitting or getting out of this sort of red race, or just a race that sometimes feels like going on and accelerating in our today's world, where things are just you know keeping keep piling up on our plates and keep changing and uh faster and faster, and just more and more stuff keeps popping up in our world, and also because we are so much more connected, it just more and more of it comes into our immediate awareness, right? So, all of these problems, all of the things we're gonna talk about today, and it's gonna be a short podcast with a fundamental insight that will help you to again resolve, make better ease, and completely solve quite some issues, starting with a lower back pain issue, which is quite common for people. And yes, there is obviously a huge benefit from being active and going to chiropractors and doing stretches and foam rolling and doing yoga and all kinds of mobility exercises, but also there is this basic thing that is drinking water. So let's start with solving lower back pain with a simple glass of water, and then we continue to extrapolate the main insight. And also, you're gonna learn what you need to focus on in your healthy eating efforts, in your nutrition efforts for your health, for your longevity, for great energy levels, and to maintain uh ideal body weight for life without thinking about all the I don't know, drugs and macronutrient

Why Dehydration Triggers Back Pain

SPEAKER_00 3:36

split diets and ketos and low carbs and elimination diets and all of this complexity. Believe me, the solution to most of the issues that you're trying to solve with advanced nutrition is actually a lot simpler. So let's start with lower back pain. I'm reading to you from Google AI mode. Dehydration or not drinking enough or the right kind of fluids is a surprising but common culprit behind lower back pain. Your spiral, your spinal discs, the shock absorbers between your vertebrae are composed of roughly 75 to 80 percent water. When you are dehydrated, these discs, so discs, you know, in your spine, in your back and lower back, those discs lose fluid, causing them to shrink and reducing their ability to cushion your spine. Insufficient fluid intake also causes the surrounding muscles and fascia, that is the uh thin uh layer of tissue which holds all of your muscles together, also prote uh helps to put in not put in place but keep in place all of your internal organs as well. So that surrounding muscle tissue and fascia the uh loss of fluids cause them to tighten and spasm, leading to increased stiffness and discomfort. A little bit more about how hydration affects your spine in general. Shrinking disks, discs rely on continuous fluid exchange to maintain their plumpiness, dehydration accelerates wear and tear, making discs brittle and more prone to bulging and rupting. Muscle spasm, just like a calf or thigh muscle, the muscles in your back are highly susceptible to painful spasms when deprived of adequate fluids and electrolytes. And electrolytes are those things that keep the electricity in your nerves going and firing, nerves firing. And those are things like salt or sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, which you're supposed to get inadequate amounts from your food, but most of us never get them, especially if we train more and sweat, etc. Stiff fascia. The connective tissue webbing the supports that webbing that supports your cells becomes sticky and tangled when underhydrated, severely limiting your mobility and increasing pain during daily movements. Rehydration, you disc replenish their water reserves primarily at night while you are at rest, which means steady hydration throughout the day is crucial for nighttime recovery. I always recommend to my clients, your day must not start before you drink half a liter of water. When you drink water, especially after overnight fast, when your all of your muscles and all of your bones and discs and all kinds of tissues were dehydrated for so many hours. You need to replenish that before you do any sort of movement, exercise, anything. Otherwise, you are getting into exercise in this dry mode, which is so injury promoting. I like whenever I hear that people don't drink that half a liter of water before their morning training, I'm like, what are you doing? You should not like leave your house. Like your eyes should not open before you drink that water. Yes, you can drink your your coffee if it works for you, but before that coffee, that half a liter of water. Plus, coffee is one of the diuretics. Coffee, alcohol, sugary, soft drinks, they cause body to lose fluids, right? So you need that water before your coffee. Otherwise, it's like you are dehydrated throughout the night, you drink coffee on top of that, dehydrate yourself even more, and then you go training or start your day and spend half of the day in that state. That is just such a bad practice for you before eating healthy, before anything else. That has to become your number one priority in the morning. Drink that water, put that half a liter of water on your nightstand, on your kitchen counter, buy your coffee, wherever you don't forget it. Uh, you're you are a water creature, you are made of 70% and more of water. You need to replenish that consistently and timely. And again, after, especially after overnight dehydration, you need to get that first thing in the morning. The important basics of hydration, timing is important. Start early. The second thing is the right amount. Shoot for two liters, you know. The excess, you'll pee out. Most of it, most of you need that or more. But water is not enough. So when you drink that first water in the morning, it is highly beneficial if you also add at least a little bit of salt that pulls the water out of your stomach, into your blood circulation. Electrolytes are needed not to just uh sort of keep your nerves and urine spiring, but also to pull water into the right places inside of your blood and inside of your cells, out of your digestive tract, which you know where you put your water by drinking it. So, electrolytes are also very important. I drink my water, half a liter of water in the morning, and I make sure to have like the on the tip of a teaspoon, like really generous pinch of pink salt, sea salt, the those are two salts, natural salt that I recommend, but even just the regular salt, whatever you find, is better than nothing. And plus, I always recommend to get some electrolyte powder so that you consume on in the first part of the day on a regular basis. Get a any more natural electrolyte powder with sodium, magnesium, potassium, calcium, might have additional stuff, just make sure it's sugar-free. Nobody needs added sugar in their water. And again, shoot for those two liters and start early with that half a liter and a pinch of salt every single morning. What else? Eat water-rich foods, um, like fruits, like vegetables, and the amount I'm gonna tell you in just a minute. Really rich in water and the right kind of liquids, fruit, vegetables are things like cucumbers, watermelons, oranges, also soups and stews add to your hydration, also tea, especially herbal tea, it's also things like milk. You know, your body does get fluid from that. It's not uh, you know, the most hydrating fluid. I'm probably not gonna be drinking it in the morning or during my activity, but it still adds to your hydration a lot. If you drink, if you let's say you eat a lot of soups uh throughout the day, you and you'll eat a lot, a lot of fruit and vegetables, you might be covering a lot of your flu fluid requirements in from those as well. So, again, to recap water drinking basis to eliminate lower back pain, a lot of injuries, and a lot of also things that yeah that are related to your mental performance, your focus, your ability to pay attention, your ability to process information, your ability to learn and remember and be in good mood, all of that actually depends on really good hydration practices. Your brain is, I think, like one of the most watery organs in your body, and even 2% dehydration, which is super easy to reach, will make your brain cognitive performance uh measurably worse. So, water hydration or hydration basics, start it early, 500 milliliters or half a liter. Um, you know, if you can't do it, at least a huge glass with a generous pinch of salt, shoot for two liters a day. It doesn't have to be all water, eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, and you know, soups and different liquids that are not duuretic, meaning like coffees or sugary stuff or alcohol, will add to hydration. And that's about it, guys. Start early, shoot for the amount, get your electrolytes in, and your lower back pain might go away almost instantly. That actually happened to two of my clients who specifically complained about lower back pain. And once we started drinking water, it went away after like a couple of days, right? So it is a very powerful, and again, as AI says, dehydration is a surprising, surprising but common culprit behind a lower back pain.

Basic Solution to Loneliness and Business Growth

SPEAKER_00 12:35

The next one, and let's extrapolate the main insight of today's podcast right away. But stay tuned for the rest of the podcast because you're also gonna learn what as a nutrition coach I focus with my clients on when it comes to eating habits first and foremost, before even thinking about any advanced strategies, GLPs, peptides, uh, intermittent fasting, keto, or some elimination diets. Before all that, three habits that we work on before thinking about that, and it solves 80% of all of your issues with food and body weight and everything forever, right? So stay tuned for that. Before that, the biggest insight of today's podcast is about basics. Most of our problems, guys, like 80% plus are solved by doing the basics with our body, our health, things like hydration, that is the basic, without which do not get into any advanced stuff because it's gonna give just temporary relief and ultimately the problem will come back if the basic is not addressed. For things like business or relationships, it's the same. If you are struggling with loneliness or not having the quality, the depths of relationships that you would like in your life, the basic is the basic unit of building relationship, is not the next app or AI advice on how to be good in a relationship or find the right people. The basic element of building relationship is getting out there and spending time with people who are potentially like-minded, people you care about, whether that's your family, whether that's your community, whether that's your friends, you can't hack it with an app. You actually need to get a little bit uncomfortable and spend your very precious time on people you want to develop relationships with. If you don't spend the time, don't expect any depth. You can't hack it again with some app or some therapy work. I'd recommend substitute your therapy for actually spending time with the people you want to develop the depth of relationships. And believe me, from my experience, personal and professional, it will work a lot better than most therapies. Uh, business. If you're trying to build a business like I am, do not skip the basics. And the basic unit of building almost every business is talking to your customer who you want to serve, instead of asking AI to figure it all out for you, giving you some generic output about population in general. Sit down with your customer, talk to them, ask them about their pains, their needs, how they experience that, how they would like their problem to be solved, what they care about. Instead of building a course or a solution, thinking that your customer needs this advanced stuff, ask them what do you actually care about? What helps you solve the problem that you are having? Very often, those are not the same things that you as an expert think about. So sitting down with your customer and talking to your customer without your assumptions, without your sort of I know better thing, talk to people, talk what they care about. This is the foundational unit of building a great business that lasts, actually serves a need, the real need, and that grows without you again trying to apply some advanced funneling and marketing strategy. Like, have you talked to your customer? Like that is the first question, like hydration for your lower back pain. Doing the basics, that is the insight, the theme of this podcast. Before getting into some advanced strategies of solving that problem and hacking it, ask AI like what the what are the foundational basics of this thing that I'm trying to do? And when you do the foundational stuff consistent, again, more than 80% of the things that you are struggling with will not just go away for a month or a season, but forever, as long as you keep doing the basics, kind of like brushing your teeth is the basic of keeping your teeth without further problems. If you don't do that, no amount of visits to the best dental clinic will help you. So the same with the foundational stuff in every area. If you if you have if you keep having problems in a specific area, there is a huge chance that the problem is not doing the basics consistently enough. And speaking of doing the basics consistently enough, that is the last point of today's podcast. Nutrition.

3 Nutrition Basics That Work Better Than All the Hacks

SPEAKER_00 17:33

There are so many hacks, supplements, peptides, GLP1 drugs, and all kinds of therapies and longevity protocols. And yet most of my clients who come to me don't do the three basics that we as health coaches are taught to start with, with every single person. We start our health coaching journey, nutrition coaching journey with three simple questions. And until we dial those in, we don't work on anything else because it doesn't matter what kind of supplements, patches, and drugs you put on top of lacking basics, the issues will keep coming up. So, what are those three basic questions in nutrition that every nutrition coach asks their clients if they're properly trained? A hydration. Are you hydrating consistently every single day? Just like we talked about how it is essential for lower back pain, it is essential for every single process in your body and in your brain. If you don't hydrate well and consistently, do not ask other questions about what's wrong, like with my health or my body, why isn't it working? It isn't working because you're not putting enough attention to the basics. Before you can run, you need to learn how to walk. The second thing is are you eating enough protein for your needs? For most people, I recommend 1.5 to 2 grams if you're super athletic, building muscles more, 1.8 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight if you have a lot of weight to lose, you know, 10, 20, 30 pounds, that might be a bit less. Then you calculate your lean body mass and adjust accordingly. But I would still recommend 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight at least, right? And you need to get it for breakfast and for dinner especially, and for lunch, also really good idea. But you wanna just like with water, timing matters, you wanna start early, overnight fast is a not so much of an issue, but it is a huge factor to consider, especially if you are 40 plus and you're trying to preserve your muscles and build your muscles, and you don't uh maybe you haven't done enough of resistance training and now starting out, protein is the foundational practice in nutrition and in healthy eating. And before you get your protein needs right, we do not move to anything else, addressing your cravings, etc. Most a lot of your cravings, a lot of uh things that people struggle with, like craving the wrong foods, come from the fact that people don't eat the right stuff consistently on a regular basis at the right time of the right quality, right? So protein needs. And the third question we ask our clients in nutrition coaching are you eating enough fruit vegetables, and then things like beans and whole grains, shooting for 30 grams of fiber plus vegetables, fruit, what is the recommended amount? 800 grams plus. So that is what you're building towards. Why 800 grams? Because it seems that if you eat that, especially from uh you know, quite a big chunk of vegetable intake, if you eat that from fruit and vegetable, you are satisfying your fiber needs, you are adding to your hydration and electrolyte needs, you are getting a lot of vitamins, essential vitamins, minerals into your diet. So that seems to be a really good amount to shoot for. I personally eat probably around two kilos to give you an idea. So 800 grams is an absolute minimum, but most people don't do that. So, hydration, eating your protein, eating your fruit and vegetables consistently and every day. It sounds simple, but again, most people who come to me, it takes a while to build to that and stay in that range. And most of the people then start losing their cravings, having a lot of energy, having all the energy to exercise, their mood, their mental state, uh their sleep, all the things all of a sudden become a lot better when once we dial in the basics. And so, again, back to the inside, back to the red through line on this podcast. Do not get searching. For some advanced strategies, health-wise or business-wise or relationship-wise, until you do the basics. And if you need to figure out the basics, ask any expert who is in your proximity what those are. Good experts, properly train, know what basics are, and that's where I start exactly. And the second thing, you do have AI. So ask, what are the basics of building like good business or a good relationship, etc.? You're gonna get a pretty damn good

Free Session And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_00 22:30

reply. Thank you, guys. Well, thank you guys for listening. Thank you for tuning in. I hope this podcast will at least bring you relief to your lower back pain if you have one. If you have any questions or would like to dial in certain protocols in your sleep, in your stress management, in your health, in your nutrition, in your mindset and emotional regulation mindset, there is a free session you can book complimentary as a listener of this podcast. So the link is in the show notes. It's a one-hour master health and executive coaching session. So again, feel free to book it or share. And if you have someone who is suffering from lower back pain, just simply ask them, are you drinking enough water? That's it for today, guys. I hope you had a really good experience listening to today's podcast with a lot of ahas and the next steps for you to improve your health relationships and business. And till next time, stay awesome and keep hydrated and growing.