My ‘stop me in my tracks’ moment came a few years ago when I collapsed at Finchley Road Tube Station in London on my way to work. One minute I was standing on the station platform, and the next thing I knew, I’d blacked out and collapsed on the floor.
It was the culmination of years of stress, striving for things I didn’t actually want, not taking care of my physical or mental health and being on a constant treadmill of seeking more whatever the cost.
Weirdly in hindsight, I carried on into the office to do my day at work as usual! However, I immediately knew that I was going to make some big changes to my life. And that’s what I’ve done over the past few years.
However, I also knew I had a lot to learn about what kinds of changes would help improve my physical and mental health. I wanted to make changes based on the science, things that have been tried and tested over many years.
So I completed an online course in Wellbeing, Health and Nutrition at Harvard Medical School and became a certified coach through the Jay Shetty Certification School. This helped me understand both the how and the why of making a big life change.
I also started learning about elements of bio hacking – this is something I quickly realised was a very loosely used term and has very much become used by overly sponsored influencers who are more interested in selling products than using tried and tested methods to help people improve their health.
A few years later and I have completely changed my approach to my life and my health. I’ve reversed my physical and mental health decline and have actually aged backwards in biological terms – I’m 47 but now have a biological age of mid 30s.
I’ve created a whole new approach for myself which has transformed the way I feel physically and mentally and it’s been done through focusing on tried and tested basic pillars that support my wellbeing, rather than gimmicky bio-hacking products.
As a 47-year-old dad of two, believe me if I can do it, so can you. And the best news is it doesn’t have to cost a thing to make these changes.
I have tried every part of the bio-hacking spectrum from hyperbaric chambers, red light therapy, inner healing, mushroom coffee, every damn supplement out there in my journey for peace and alignment, but what I have come back to is the simple stuff in life – get the SIMPLE FREE THINGS in life right, and you won’t need anything else.
Here are some simple ways to bio-hack your health for free:
1. Alter your baseline and build stronger foundations
This is all about hitting the pause button on your life, re-evaluating where you are, asking yourself challenging questions about what you truly want and how close you are to achieving that in key areas such as your career or business, finances, health, relationships, having fun.
When making any kind of change we firstly need to know where we’re starting from.
From there we can identify the parts of our life we’d like to change… and then we can set new goals and, importantly, action steps to help us achieve those goals.
2. Focus on lifestyle medicine
The key pillars of exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress resilience, positive social connection, and avoidance of risky substances, if integrated into daily life, will lead to optimal health outcomes for you.
Let’s look at each pillar (it will be a whistle-stop tour but will hopefully encourage you to find out more)
Nutrition
We need to stop dieting and remove ‘good and bad’ associations with our food. Some key principles when it comes to food are…
A. Consume the whole food found as closely picked from the ground as possible.
B. Focus on nutrients for a healthy eating pattern, not just the calories.
C. Eat until you’re 80% full only, don’t have to finish the entire plate… pack it away for lunch the next day.
D. Watch out for ultra-processed foods… the ones that are usually heavily packaged and designed to keep us wanting more. The nutrient content is often minimal after all this processing.
Exercise
A. Choose to walk where possible – at least 30 minutes a day.
B. Incorporate one high intensity work out a week.
C. One lower intensity (Zone 2 workout).
D. Resistance of muscle work.
Sleep
Science tells us we should aim for 7-9 hours a day of sleep. The following tips can help improve our sleep health…
A. Do not eat within 3 hours of sleep as your digestive system will disrupt it.
B. Start your sleep routine a couple of hours before using stress resilience techniques such as special teas, magnesium, reading a book, blue lights and devices.
C. Maintain a cool temperature in your sleeping environment.
Stress resilience
Stress can impact all parts of our body – so here are some key stress resilience techniques you can try…
A. Deep breathing helps to control the fight or flight responses and helps you to slow down rest and recalibrate.
B. Mindful eating and being around a supportive community e.g. eating as a family.
C. Recognising signs of stress before they hit your brain i.e. through your gut feeling… and implementing relaxation techniques before the stress levels grow.
D. Expressing gratitude which helps shift to a more positive mindset.
Social connections
The people in your life will impact everything. If you work with toxic people, leave the organisation, if your mates are constantly dragging you to the pub, get rid of them.
Remember, you’re the sum of the 5 people you spend most of your time with, so surround yourself with people who support you and help you feel good or maybe who are even on the same journey as you.
Alcohol and smoking
My advice is if you don’t drink alcohol now, then don’t start. If you do drink alcohol then do it in moderation. Alcohol is an example of substance use disorder including loss of control, anxiety and withdrawal. Alcohol is empty calories, leading to inhibition and bad habits.
Interesting fact about smoking – even after one hour of quitting, people will have a reduction in blood pressure. 24 hours after quitting, a decreased risk of heart attack. Nine months after quitting, the risk of heart attack is down by 50%.
In summary, the only person who can truly improve your health is you and believe me. I can say from experience that it’s so worth making those changes to feel better, live better and enjoy life more.
I believe people look too much at lifespan (the number of years they live) and don’t pay enough attention to their health span (the number of years of decent health they have).
Life expectancy is about 80 years on average, but for most people only about 66 of those years are relatively healthy.
My advice to you is don’t wait until your body tells you something is wrong, like I did. Start now and make some simple changes that, over time, will transform your health and the way you feel.
Check out more from Sanj at letsgrowyoung.co.uk
