What is a “Biohack?” Essentially, a biohack is something you do to your body to speed up the process to a desired result. Take sleep for example. If you want to biohack your sleep so that you get all its amazing benefits. You could take melatonin, go to bed at the same time every night, use black out shades, turn off your wifi, mouth tape, etc. There are a lot of things that you can do to biohack your sleep.
There are some people who call themselves “Biohackers” and they use themselves as experiments to maximize their health and wellness. I do not want you to go to that level, unless you absolutely want to. But as the year is winding down and the Holiday Parties are ramping up there are 2 very simple biohacks you can do so the number on the scale does not increase as the year comes to an end.
Biohack #1 – Drink Water
I am not saying to solely do this. The majority of people will indulge with some alcohol and maybe even excessively do it. As you go about your day or even in between cocktails, drink water. The easiest way to see how much water you should drink, take your bodyweight and divide it in half. Whatever that number is, drink that many ounces of water during the day.
Easy example. Say you weigh 200 lbs. Cut that in half and that is 100. Your goal should be to drink 100 ounces of water every day. Most people are chronically dehydrated. Just doing this can help turn your health around. At the very least it can help fight against the diuretic effect of alcohol. Alcohol causes you to urinate more than normal. If you are replenishing this with more alcohol, this can cause a downward, hydration spiral. Throughout the day up your water intake. Ideally, you would drink water in between beverages.
Biohack #2 – Walk
There is a ton of research being done on the amazing effects of walking. The gold standard is to walk 10,000 steps per day, but you can still get all the amazing benefits by just hitting 7,500 steps per day.
Majority of us have smart phones which have health apps on them that track the amount of steps you take in a day. Are these 100% accurate, no. But, they give you a good estimate of where you are at. If you are hitting 10,000 steps on your phone or fitness tracker, you are in the ball park.
According to the Mayo Clinic, walking for regular activity can help reduce your risk of Heart Disease, Obesity, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and Depression. If you go for a 20 minute walk right after eating. This can help use up so of the access calories for energy.
People tend to get hungry after a long cardio or high intensity workout session. This is because these activities spike hunger. Walking is a low intensity form of exercise and does not spike hunger.
Just by increasing your water intake and going for frequent walks over the next week can help keep holiday weight gain at bay.
In Health,
Dr. Cody