If you haven’t heard the term biohacking, you’re not alone so today I’m sharing some simple tips to help you biohack to support your wellbeing by controlling the controllables. Biohacking is the future, and its development has been rapid and recent.
Biohacking will impact your life sooner or later — and maybe it already has. If you’ve taken steps to better understand your body, your DNA, and your potential, that’s biohacking. If you’ve pursued ways to improve your physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or cellular health, that’s biohacking.
Biohacking: In a Nutshell
Biohacking is using science and technology to become the absolute best version of yourself. Essentially, it’s using all of the tools we now have at our disposal to improve our lives. Modern science is addressing every potential concern, inconvenience, or physical limit facing human bodies today. We are learning everything we can about our own biology, as well as finding ways to “hack” that biology.
“Hacking” has long had a negative connotation. But as you probably know, we now use “hack” to define any type of creative optimising. For example, when you find a creative solution to an everyday problem you may call it a “life hack.” A tweak to how furniture is assembled from the manufacturer’s instructions is an “IKEA hack”—you get the drift. Hacking is creative problem solving to help improve one’s life, and biohacking turns the focus on our bodies and biology. The simple tips to help you biohack which I share below will help you take control of your own biology.
Biohacking: Why?
Biohacking has actually been used for centuries. Human beings have always looked to maximise their performance, from the days of hunter-gatherers to modern Olympians. It’s not just about being bigger and faster, either. It’s about whatever is important to you and your body’s functioning. Science and technology are focusing intensely on biohacking to change lives.
Biohacking: Taking Control of the Controllables
Nutrition has been a foundation of health and medicine from the Dark Ages. And now we know so much more than the Dark Ages. Of course, we all know not to overeat or to forget fruits and veggies, but nutritional biohacking is so much more important than that. Biohacking nutrition means identifying desirable goals we wish to achieve, then creating a nutritional portfolio designed to achieve that biological outcome. Controlling lifestyle controllables such as what goes in and on your body is the simplest and most immediately applicable form of biohacking to great effect.
This is why nutrigenomics is a fundamental part of biohacking a healthier life.
Simple Tips to Help You Biohack
Here are some simple tips to help you biohack and control the controllables:
1. Always make the healthier choice
Don’t let an overabundance of food choices overwhelm you. Instead, try to break your choices down into two options — and then make the healthier choice. Choose chicken over fattier cuts of meat, a dark leafy green salad over iceberg lettuce, or a piece of whole fruit over a chocolate bar. This makes food decisions infinitely simpler.
2. Eat in seasonal technicolour
Many of the healthiest nutrients in fruits and vegetables (these are often referred to as phytonutrients) come in bright, vibrant colours. Your goal at mealtimes should be to make your plate as colourful and as seasonal as possible.
3. Stay hydrated
Drink plenty of clean, pure water. The amount we should drink varies from person to person, but we’re all equipped with a built-in hydrometer. Pay attention to the colour of your urine. Clear or slightly yellow is good – and we should be visiting the loo every one to two hours.
4. Skip sweet drinks
Say no to fizzy drinks and fruit juices. Fizzy drinks are basically empty calories. And yes, even though fruit is good for you, fruit juice has been stripped of fibre, until it becomes a high sugar, high glycaemic drink. In fact, studies are showing the same negative health consequences between fruit juices and other high sugar beverages. And I know what you’re thinking: diet drinks are also bad for you. These drinks are usually associated with obesity because they trigger overreacting and snacking. Sorry, not sorry.
5. Move your body
Yes, I’m referring to that dreaded eight-letter word, e-x-e-r-c-i-s-e. But exercise doesn’t have to be a chore if you choose activities you actually enjoy. Remember how much fun it was to play as a kid? Just think about exercise as play rather than a workout.
You don’t have to look like a bodybuilder or spend hours in the gym to significantly improve your health. Something as simple as walking 30-60 minutes daily during the majority of the week will yield measurable improvements in your health.
6. Support your sleep
- making dinnertime earlier in the evening and avoiding heavy, rich foods within two hours of bed. Spicy or acidic foods can cause stomach trouble and heartburn.
- doing the pillow test. Check that your pillow hasn’t reached its sell-by date and still gives your head and neck the support you need. Test your pillow by holding it out longways in front of you. If you’ve got pillow droop, buy a new one!
Find more sleep tips here from a Professor of Sleep Science.
Check out more wellbeing tips in our community on Facebook where we’re creating a movement to empower everyone to support their wellness by sharing tips from around the world: It’s All About Fabulous You
