15 health hacks to start now!
If you’re looking for ideas on healthy lifestyle tweaks, we’re here to help with 15 easy ways to boost your health and wellbeing. Which one will you try first?
By Julie Penfold
15 health hacks to start now!
If you’re looking for ideas on healthy lifestyle tweaks, we’re here to help with 15 easy ways to boost your health and wellbeing. Which one will you try first?
By Julie Penfold
1. Wake up feeling refreshed
Every night, your brain moves through sleep cycles that each last 90 minutes. You feel most refreshed when you wake at the end of a cycle as that’s when you’re closest to your normal waking state. Check out The Sleep Charity website for more information to help take the guesswork out of identifying your best times. For expert advice on sleep, check out the sleep module on My Expert Health Coach via the app.
2. Start your day with water and lemon or lime
Try to avoid overloading your system straightaway with caffeine. Instead, experts advise the best way to rehydrate after a good night’s sleep is with warm or cold water and the addition of energising, vitamin C-rich lemon or lime. It’ll kickstart your digestion and boost your skin and immune health.
3. Have a cold water burst during your morning shower
Turning down the temperature to cold for 15 to 30 seconds is great for your health. Firstly, it can increase alertness and mental clarity. It can also increase your metabolism, reduce inflammation and ease any post-exercise soreness. The goal is to gradually build up your tolerance to 60 seconds.
4. Get more done with a minimal to-do list
If you’re prone to creating long to-do lists which make you feel overwhelmed, this psychology expert hack will really make a difference. Instead, create one that focuses only on the top two tasks you want to get accomplished each day. You can move to three tasks, if necessary, but never more than this.
5. Keep fit while watching TV
If you find it tricky to make time for exercise, try keeping fit while you unwind at home instead. From marching on the spot while watching your favourite TV shows to squeezing in a steps-based dance routine or using your sofa as a stretching aid during an ad break – it all counts to improve your fitness! Check out the Benenden Health App for fitness routines you can do at home.
6. Ease stress by relaxing your vagus nerve
Vagus nerves are the main nerves of your parasympathetic nervous system, which controls body functions such as digestion, heart rate and immune system. They run from your brain to your large intestine down the left and right side of your body. By stimulating your vagus nerve, you can calm your flight or fight response and reset in an instant. Start by looking straight ahead, then turn your head to the left and look as far left as you can until you feel an urge to sigh or yawn. Return to looking straight ahead and repeat on the other side.
7. Swap salt for herbs and spices
Reducing your salt intake is good news for your heart health. One of the best ways to cut down is to switch salt for flavour-packed herbs and spices. For example, try ginger, rosemary, dill, parsley, basil, tarragon, garlic, turmeric, cumin, paprika and Cajun spices.
8. Reduce your alcohol intake using zebra striping
Zebra striping is a handy trick that’s helping more of us to cut back on how much alcohol we consume. The idea is that after drinking an alcoholic drink, you next drink a glass of water or a soft drink or mocktail. According to a recent report, a quarter of people are now zebra striping on every night out.
9. Embrace silent walking and meditate on the move
This is a wonderfully simple, restorative practice that helps you tune into the sights and sounds of nature all around you. By combining mindfulness with gentle movement, it helps you to experience gratitude, relieves stress and invokes calm.
10. Manage screen time with a tokens system
A mum on TikTok devised a tokens system to help her young son spend less time in front of the TV. Now, her son will choose a TV token when he wants to watch his favourite programmes and his mum will set a timer to enable him to enjoy his dedicated screen time.
12. Start buying frozen fruit and veg
It’s estimated that 8.2 million shopping baskets of fresh fruit and vegetables are wasted every year because we’ve bought more than we can use. As well as cutting down on food waste, these fruits and vegetables are frozen soon after harvesting, which locks in more nutrients.
13. Hydration when you need a boost
This dietitian dehydration hack works wonders as it helps to replenish electrolytes too. Blend together: ½ cup frozen peaches, 1⁄3 cup pineapple, ½ tsp grated ginger, ¼ cup Greek yoghurt, 1 cup spinach and 1 cup of coconut water or orange juice plus a pinch of salt.
14. Start the gratitude journal habit
Regularly reflecting on what we feel grateful for in our lives is a wonderful habit to form. It can be as simple as just focusing on the one thing that’s stood out for you each day. What’s key is to identify why you appreciate your one thing so much.
15. Have fresh flowers and reap the happiness benefits
Having flowers in your space not only looks good, it can also make you feel good, according to research from Harvard Medical School.
The presence of flowers can help to decrease anxiety and worry and boost your mood and mental wellbeing.
