5 Easy Hacks to Start Today
The New Year is quickly approaching. You have parties to attend, gifts to purchase, decorations to put up, and holiday meals to prepare. It can be a little overwhelming. All this stress can lead to fatigue, irritability, poor sleep, and weight gain. To fight back and make it to the start of the new year in better shape than you are now, incorporate some, or all, of these 5 easy bio-hacks into your daily routine.
1. Restrict Eating to a 10 hour window. For example, if you eat breakfast at 9am, then your last bite of food will be 7pm. Take advantage of your morning cortisol spike which gives you energy, and ride that out until 9am, or even 10 am. Restricting your eating window in this way will give your gut plenty of time to digest and recover and will allow your body to go into “fat-burning mode”. Stopping eating 3 hours before bed ensures you get deep, restorative sleep. Feel free to drink black coffee, tea, or even coffee with a bit of butter or MCT oil (blended) in the morning before your first meal since these will not spike insulin or interfere with fat burning.
2. Sea Salt. First thing in the morning, drink a glass of water with ½ teaspoon of a good quality sea salt, like Redmonds, Celtic, or Himalayan salt. LMNT is also a good choice. You can add in some fresh squeezed lemon juice and/or a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and some stevia. Sea salt will help increase blood volume, boost your mood and energy, reduce headaches, and will make it easy to fast until 9 or 10 am.
3. Get outside. Within 2 hours of waking up, get outside and expose your eyes to morning sunlight (even if its cloudy) for at least 5 minutes. This will help to reset your circadian rhythm, telling your body it is time to be awake, and making it easy to fall asleep at night. You will notice an improvement in mood and an increase in energy throughout the day. A quick walk around the block is all it takes. If you have a dog, a baby or a small child, take them with you.
4. Move after meals. Move for just 10 minutes after each meal to boost your mood, eliminate post meal energy drops, reduce blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, and speed digestion. Don’t think of this as exercise. It is simply moving your body so that the energy you just consumed from food is shuttled into your muscles instead of hanging around in your blood where it can cause chronic inflammatory health issues including diabetes. Take a walk or do some air squats.
5. Cold exposure. Take your normal hot shower in the morning, and at the end switch the water all the way to cold. This will be uncomfortable at first so it is ok if you only leave it on cold for 10 seconds. I promise this gets easier if you stick with it for a few days. Work your way up to 30 seconds, or more. This resets your dopamine levels giving you a big boost in mood and motivation and is a great way to start the day and ensure you tackle your to-do list. Not a morning shower person? Fill a large bowl with ice and water and submerge your face in it. Work up to 30 seconds (taking breathing breaks when needed).
Add these to your daily routine and right away you will have more energy, more motivation, improved sleep, and less stress. If doing all 5 seems daunting, pick 2 and do these for 7 days. Then pick another 2. Let me know how it goes!
To learn more bio-hacks and how to lose 10 pounds in 30 days, feel better and have unlimited energy check out the BURN Fire-starter Program right here. The BURN Fire-starter program includes the BURN E-book, workbook, and one 30 minute coaching session with me. :)