Showing posts with label Biohacking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biohacking. Show all posts

Tuesday, 26 November 2024

10 Ways to Biohack Your Diet


Dave Asprey, the founder of “Bulletproof Coffee” and the “Bulletproof Diet”, is a proponent of biohacking and a self-proclaimed biohacker. He defines biohacking as, “using science, biology, and self-experimentation to take control of and upgrade your body, your mind, and your life. To become a “superhuman” version of yourself without becoming overwhelmed, stressed or feel like you need to give up”. He created his entire bulletproof program around this mantra.

 

Here are 10 effective ways to biohack your diet according to the research provided by Dave Asprey and his Bulletproof Diet program. 

 

Eliminate Sugar

 

Eliminate added sugar from your diet. Soft drinks, processed foods, and flavored yogurt are a few examples you can get rid of that are loaded with added sugar. Sugar increases your risk of developing type two diabetes, increases inflammation in the body, decreases energy levels, and promotes weight gain. Ditch those added sugars and switch them to something healthy like naturally occurring sugars found in low glycemic fruit like berries.

 

Increase Your Vegetable Intake

 

Eat 6 to 11 servings of organic vegetables every day. Asparagus, bok choy, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, kale, and spinach are great options. The more vegetables you can get into your body the better.

 

Eliminate Grains and Gluten 

 

Avoid gluten and grain such as corn, oats, and barley. Most of these foods have a negative effect on the body. They cause inflammation and an overgrowth of bad bacteria in the gut and can be a leading cause of candida or yeast overgrowth.

 

Keep Fruit Intake Low 

 

Reduce your fruit to about two servings a day and always eat whole organic fruit. Stick to low sugar fruits as much as possible such as blackberries, coconut, and avocado. 

 

Eliminate Processed Food

 

It is no surprise that processed food is bad for your health. They are loaded with chemicals, sugar, unhealthy fats, and sodium. Processed foods also are high in synthetic additives, colorings, and flavorings that cause many health problems. 

 

Eat Grass-Fed Meat and Wild-Caught Seafood 

 

Choose grass-fed and wild-caught seafood. The quality of your meat is important for optimal health. These foods are high in nutrients, healthy fats, and are usually free of added hormones and antibiotics. Plus, they fill you up so that you eat less.

 

Eliminate Legumes 

 

Legumes are beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts. These should be avoided because they are usually low in nutritional value and prevent your body from properly absorbing protein. They stall weight loss and contain harmful chemicals like BPA; a carcinogen commonly found in plastics.  

 

Eat Healthy Fat 

 

Your body depends on healthy fat such as omega 3s and omega 6s for survival. 50 to 70% of your calories should be from healthy fat; mostly saturated fat. Grass-fed butter, avocados, and grass-fed meat are all examples of healthy fat. 

 

Supplement Where Needed 

 

Dave Asprey suggests to always supplement with food first and only supplement with vitamins when needed. Determine what supplements you need by getting a blood test first or paying attention to any symptoms you may be having. Always avoid multi-vitamins as they are usually low in quality and are not balanced. 

 

Cook Your Food Differently 

 

Eat your food raw if possible or slightly steamed to get the most nutrients from your food. For meat eat it boiled, baked, or lightly grilled. Avoid burned or blackened food because it can produce carcinogens. 

 

As you implement these 10 diet hacks track your progress in a journal or on an app on your phone. Take note of the changes that are occurring in your body, so that you know what benefits you are receiving and whether these hacks are right for you or not. Remember to eat until you are satisfied and listen to your body. Don’t under or overeat, let your hunger be your guide. 

 


Friday, 22 November 2024

5 Advanced Biohacking Techniques


Now that you have mastered the basic steps in biohacking it’s time to amp it up. There are truly endless possibilities when it comes to biohacking. This is because biohacking involves making daily changes that improve your wellbeing by doing whatever needs to be done to get to reach your ideal health and performance goals. The following five biohacking techniques to advance your journey will help get you on track.

 

Get a Blood Test 

 

Getting blood tests is essential to biohacking. It is the best way to know what is truly going on in your body before your body even has a chance to inform you that there is something wrong. Blood tests help identify the areas you need to improve from getting enough vitamins to managing your cholesterol to improving overall organ function. Each year you should test your blood sugar levels, cholesterol, vitamin levels and get a complete blood count. Notice any areas that are not in the optimal range then improve them by changing your diet and by adding supplements when needed. 

 

Advance Your Nutrition 

 

Advance your nutrition by starting the elimination process. Do not make the mistake of eliminating everything from your diet all at once though. Start with one area and work your way through each day or each week. This way you are sure to accomplish your goals. Plus, it makes it easier in the long run to make slower changes. A good place to start is by eliminating sugary drinks. Once you are feeling really encouraged drop sugar all together. Eventually, you will want to eliminate sugar, processed foods, and unhealthy fats. You can do this by replacing them with healthy fats, two servings of fruit, grass-fed, antibiotic free proteins and vast quantities of vegetables. 

 

Get Outside

 

Getting outside and embracing Mother Nature is a great way to improve your mood, health, and overall well-being. This is because it forces you to get moving and soak up vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D is essential for optimal bone growth. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to breast cancer, obesity, depression, andcardiovascular disease. Studies have shown that vitamin D deficiencies are becoming very common due to people being indoors more. The best way to get Vitamin D is from the sun. Start by getting at least fifteen minutes of sun a day. Use this time to go for a walk and avoid sitting down. According to a study by Harvard Medical School, being too sedentary is linked to early death. May as well get moving while you’re soaking up those rays.

 

Meditate 

 

Free your mind of stress by starting your day off with meditation. Find a quiet place to sit and close your eyes. The way you choose to meditate is up to you. You can let your thoughts run free or focus on your breathing. The goal of meditation is to find your inner calm and silence your mind from everyday stress and concerns so that you can go about your day in a positive frame of mind. Start with five minutes a day and see how it improves your daily life. Find a balance that you feel is optimal. Meditation hacks your brain and can lead to increased productivity, reduced stress, and even help curb unwanted cravings. 

 

Boost Your Exercise Routine

 

Now that you have tracked your daily exercise it's time to boost it up a bit.  Find areas that you feel that you are slacking in and implement new exercises to improve those areas. The best way to biohack your exercise routine is to do high-intensity interval training or HIIT. HIIT improves muscle tone and helps improve brain function at the same time. 

 

HIIT is simply alternating bursts of vigorous exercise with a short active rest period. For example, a high-intensity interval training routine could be one minute of sprinting with thirty seconds of walking or one minute of jumping jacks with a thirty-second walk to rest. 


Keep these techniques in mind throughout your journey. These advanced biohacking techniques will lead you to overall greater health with a better attitude and more productivity in your life. 

 


Tuesday, 19 November 2024

4 Simple Ways to Get Started With Biohacking


Do you have a desire to improve your overall health? Mind, body, and soul? Then biohacking is exactly what you need. Biohacking is making and experimenting with different changes to reach optimal health. The goal with biohacking is to have the increased energy while improving your productivity so that you can be your best self. 


Although it may sound complicated, it’s quite easy to get started. Here are four simple ways to get started with biohacking.

 

Identify Areas That Need Improvement

 

The very first thing you need to is to identify the areas you feel you need to improve. Do you feel like you get enough sleep every day? Do you need to lose a few pounds? Or maybe you just need better time management skills at work or with your social life. Whatever it may be, take a mental note or write it down. This way you know where to start and it won’t seem so overwhelming. The great thing about biohacking is that it is all about your individual path to overall wellbeing; no one else’s. 

 

Track Your Sleep

 

Just like most people in the world, more than likely you are not getting enough sleep. Sleep is one of the most important things for optimal health. Poor sleep can wreak havoc on your immune system and cause unneeded stress and anxiety. Not getting enough sleep can also lead to making poor decisions when it comes to diet and exercise. Lack of sleep is also linked to mental fog and underperformance. Studies show that lack of sleep increases your chances of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and depression. 

 

Track your sleep each night and make sure you get at least eight hours every night. Just remember, if you still don’t feel like you are getting enough with eight hours you can increase it until it works for you. Always keep track so you know exactly how much sleep you are getting each night so that you are aware if you need to improve or not. A great way to stay on track is to use a Fitbit.

 

Track Your Diet

 

Chances are high that there are areas that you need to improve when it comes to your diet. Before you do anything major, write down in a journal or download an app on your phone, like MyFitnessPal, to track your diet each day. Do this for about a week so you know exactly what areas you need to attack first. While you track your diet take notice of any negative reactions experienced from the foods you are eating. Maybe you have sensitivities to foods you are not aware of. Take note so you can rid these foods from your diet first. 

 

Ultimately, you will need to eliminate from your diet sugars, processed foods, and any foods that are causing sensitivities. A diet high in veggies, healthy fats, and quality protein is your best choice. Dave Asprey, the founder of bulletproof coffee, raves about biohacking and created a great diet plan to follow called the Bulletproof Diet. 

 

Track Your Exercise

 

Take notice of how much exercise you are currently getting each week. Invest in a Fitbit or tracker so you can track your steps and the overall number of calories you are burning each week. You maybe be surprised that you don’t get enough exercise each day. Exercise is known to increase energy, promote better sleep, increases your confidence and self-esteem. Exercise also contributes to weight control and prolongs your lifespan. Once you have a general idea of what your daily activity is going to be, find areas that you feel will be easy to improve first such as getting 15,000 steps in each day.

 

Take these four simple steps and to get started with biohacking and improving your quality of life. As you can see, the term may sound overwhelming, but biohacking is actually very simple when you break it down and start slow. Track your sleep, diet, and exercise and use that information to improve your quality of life and your journey to overall wellbeing. 

 


Tuesday, 12 November 2024

Biohacking: The Simple Way to Reach Your Goals


There is a new buzzword floating around social media that by now you may have heard of; biohacking. But what the heck is it? Biohacking is a systematic approach to reaching optimum health. It is implementing small changes or hacks to improve areas of your life. According to Dave Asprey, the founder of bulletproof coffee, it is making changes in your life to becoming superhuman. 

 

Most biohackers strive to be the best version of themselves. Any areas of your life can be hacked whether it be physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual. The journey of biohacking is up to you and where you see the need to change. 

 

The following is a must when starting your biohacking journey: 

 

Assess 

 

What areas of your life would you like to improve? Maybe you simply need to fix your sleeping schedule. Perhaps you have a lot of stress that you would like to reduce or eliminate. Whatever it may be there are hacks that you can do to help improve those areas. Some common areas that biohackers target include improving happiness, productivity, diet, athletic endurance and mental performance. 

 

Implement 

 

Now that you have assessed yourself and know what areas of your life you would like to improve on, it is time to implement hacks to reach those goals. It can be as simple as tracking your daily exercise or taking an anti-anxiety pill. Whatever the hack may be it’s important to start doing them right away and track your progress as you go along. 

 

Document and Evaluate

 

Although implementation is the key to biohacking the other area of importance include tracking your results and evaluating them. This way you can be sure that the hack you implemented is accomplishing the goal you had in mind. Maybe the hack will improve other areas of your life that you were not aware of. Take a just a few moments out of your day each night to record any little thing you have noticed throughout your journey. At the end of each month create some kind of challenge such as a test to see if the hack you implemented has truly made an impact. For example, maybe you wanted to increase your stamina. Before you implement the hack test your stamina and then in a month do the same test to see if you’ve improved. 

 

Adjust

 

Once you evaluate your results it is time to determine if the hack you implemented provides the results you were hoping for. If not, adjust the hack or implement a brand new one. If you received benefits from the hack determine if it is worth continuing or not. Obviously, if the hack didn’t produce the results you were hoping for it may not be worth continuing. 

 

Repeat 

 

If there are more areas in your life that you want to improve to reach the goals that you have set for yourself add more. If what you are doing is working keep doing it. Once you have mastered the hacks that you implemented you may even want to take it one step further. The choices are truly endless.  

 

Biohacking is a never-ending journey. It is not a fast-track system to optimal health or the perfect life. It is a cumulation of lifestyle changes that take work and dedication. Implement, evaluate, adjust and then repeat until you reach all your goals. You can truly accomplish whatever it is that you want to with biohacking.