Entrepreneurs must ensure that their health is their number one priority. If you are not healthy in both body and mind, your business will not exist in most cases. I believe that a “good’ or “super productive” day is something that we manufacture through preparation and a series of healthy habits that gets our mind and body fired up to take consistent action on our entrepreneurial journey.
What is biohacking? Biohacking is a fairly new practice that has the power to lead to major changes in all areas of our life. By exploring and experimenting with our biology through food, supplements, exercise and other health practices we can tweak the human body to function at it’s best for optimal performance.
Here are 20 simple, low cost or free biohacks to keep entrepreneurs like you consistently feeling great and performing at your best. Try a few out and see how you get on!
1. Drink More Water
Since your brain is mostly water, drinking it helps you think, focus and concentrate better and be more alert. As an added bonus, your energy levels are also boosted.
2. Get Grounded
Earthing provides your body with an abundance of electrons from the Earth. The scientific research and hypotheses related to Earthing point to a major impact on the inflammatory process as a result of this electron transfer. You don’t need a grounding mat to get grounded, walking barefoot in nature can be just as beneficial.
3. Drink High Quality Coffee, MCT Oil & Grass Fed Butter (Kerrygold)
This concoction is full of healthy fats that will keep you satiated, energised as well as improving cognitive function and shrink your waistline. The AeroPress is a great contraption for that coffee shop taste from home.
4. Start Foam Rolling
Self message through trigger point foam rolling will get rid of knots and tightness in your muscles, de-stresses your body so it can work more efficiently, increases flexibility to avoid injury and increases blood flow so you recover faster from workouts.
5. Take Cold Showers
Cold shower therapy is one of the healthiest modes for your body to regulate your internal temperature and it actually strengthens your immune system. Cold showers lead to whole-body contractions which squeeze lymphatic flow through the system faster removing metabolic waste products and environmental toxins out of the skin.
6. Sprint
Sprinting can improve your learning ability and brain function, cardiovascular health, fat-burning capacity and muscle fitness and endurance. It also packs a lot of bang for your buck in a very short amount of time.
7. Do Creativity Drills
Explore way of working your creativity muscle. Try writing down as many ideas as you possible can each day and then add five more. Before long you’ll be an automated idea generating machine.
8. Supplement on D3 or Natural Sunlight
Optimising your vitamin D levels can help protect against cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, infections DNA repair and many metabolic processes. There’s also a strong correlation between depression and a lack of Vitamin D. Get the DMinder app to know the best time to get out in the sun.
9. Take Omega 3 Fish Oils / Eat More Salmon
DHA is one of the good fats found throughout the body. It’s a structural fat that goes straight to the tissues such as those in the brain, to keep them functioning to the best of their ability. DHA is like brain nutrition, and the brain and eyes have significant requirements for preformed DHA.
10. Eat Brazil Nuts
Selenium found in brazil nuts has been found to improve the immune system against bacterial and viral infections, against cancer cells and herpes virus, cold sores, and shingles. Tim Ferriss managed to triple his total testosterone by supplementing with brazil nuts alone! PS: Optimal testosterone levels are super beneficial in men and women.
11. Get Your Greens
Plant chemicals called phytochemicals can reduce inflammation and eliminate carcinogens, while others regulate the rate at which your cells reproduce, get rid of old cells and maintain DNA.
12. Offer Free Hugs
Hugging releases Oxytocin, a hormone that does everything from making you feel good to helping you feel connected to others. It also increases hormones that help fight infection. So, basically, you’re boosting your immune system because you’re feeling too good and healthy to get sick.
13. Do Headstands
Headstand increases blood supply and stimulates the pituitary and pineal glands in the brain, glands that are responsible for growth and sex hormones. Our growth, health and vitality depend on the proper functioning of these two glands that control the chemical balance of the body.
14. Meditate
The benefits of the relaxation effect were found to increase with regular practice: the more people practised relaxation methods such as meditation or deep breathing, the greater their chances of remaining free of arthritis and joint pain with stronger immunity, healthier hormone levels and lower blood pressure.
15. Give Blood
Regular blood donations help to keep the levels of iron in the body in check, especially in males. This has been shown to reduce heart disease. Though iron is an essential element for the proper functioning of the body, excessive iron build up can result in excessive oxidative damage.
16. Switch Your Smart Phone To Aeroplane Mode At Night
Sleeping with a phone nearby boosts your radiation exposure just a bit, which can prevent an optimal sleep cycle. Smart phones affect deep non-REM sleep, which leaves less time for blood flow to be directed to your muscles. Therefore in the morning, you may experience lack of concentration, soreness, and focused performance.
17. Wear Blue Light Filter Glasses Before Bed
Light suppresses the production of sleep hormone melatonin by blocking blue light from entering your eyes two hours before you hit the pillow will start your production of melatonin early so you’ll nod off much faster.
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18. Eat A Teaspoon Of Raw Honey Before Bed
During the night, your brain uses a lot of energy. One efficient form of brain energy comes from sugar stored in your liver, called liver glycogen. Your brain taps your liver glycogen before hitting your muscle glycogen (stored sugar in your muscles), so having a little extra sugar before bed can help your brain function better at night.
19. Try A Bed Of Nails
A few minutes of lying on this mat stimulates acupressure points up and down your back to ease your body into a deep relaxation response. This acupressure stimulation quickly increases blood circulation, which then causes your body to release endorphins and beneficial hormones in response. The meridians along the spine and shoulders boost relaxation and increase deep restfulness which in turn gives you more energy upon waking.
20. Find Great Friends
It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how talented you are, what skills you have, where you are born, or which family you came from. If you want to be healthy and successful in all aspects of life surround yourself with great people.
21. Breath Like The Ice Man (Wim Hof)
Controlled hyperventilation can boost your immunity and strengthen your nervous system by oxygenating your blood and cells.
Can you think of any others to any to this listen? If so leave your suggestions in the comments below and I’ll add them in to the post!