Becoming healthy doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. You can incorporate simple and FREE health hacks into your daily routine to enhance your health and wellbeing. Even minor tweaks can make drastic improvements to your long-term health and wellness.
Today I’m sharing my 5 top free health hacks you can use to gain more energy, enhance your immune system and get your body back into balance for optimal health.
5 Top Free Health Hacks From a Functional Health Provider
Get Morning Sun
30 Seconds of Cold Water to Your Face
Intermittent Fasting
Avoiding Bluelight 2 hours Before Bed
Completely Cool Starchy Foods Before Eating
Get Morning Sun
My first free health hack is to get out in the morning sunshine. Going for a morning walk is the perfect way to wake up your body and get it going for the day. When you do this, it will help reset your circadian rhythm, leading to better, high-quality sleep.
This is because when the sunlight hits your retina, it sends a signal to your brain to produce cortisol. You want your cortisol levels to be the highest in the morning to give you the boost of energy to get through the day.
The issue I see with some health clients is that when they wake up in the morning, they still feel sluggish and have to drag their body out of bed. This isn’t normal! You should feel well-rested and ready to go when you wake up. For some of these patients, their cortisol levels are super low in the morning and high in the evening… exactly the opposite of what you want.
When you walk in the morning, you expose yourself to natural sunlight soon after waking. This helps your body and hormones get into a natural sleep/wake cycle. When your circadian rhythm is aligned, you’ll have deeper and longer sleep!
30 Seconds of Cold Water to Your Face
When you wash your face in the morning or jump in your morning shower, simply turning the water all the way on cold can help your health. How does this enhance your health?
The answer lies in your vagus nerve! Vagus nerve stimulation can not only activate your parasympathetic nervous system, putting your body into a rest and digest mode, but it also helps with weight loss.
Vagus nerve stimulation can increase the amount of energy needed by your body by activating your brown adipose tissue (aka fat cells that activate when you're cold). This can lead to weight loss, just by using COLD water!
Intermittent Fasting
Choosing when to eat doesn’t cost a thing! Intermittent fasting can help your body:
reduce the number of free radicals that cause damage to your cells
enhance detoxification processes
All of these promote optimal wellbeing and longevity!
How do you actually start intermittent fasting?
Because let’s be honest… starving yourself for most of the day does not sound easy or sustainable. So here are some fasting tips:
First, move towards a low glycemic diet
Quit snacking after dinner
Adjust your dinner time, so you finish by 7 pm
Push back breakfast to rach a 12-18 hour fast
Avoid Bluelight 2 Hours Before Bed
How often do you swipe through Instagram or Facebook late at night? If you’re not doing that, you’re likely to be watching Netflix, right?
The issue is that when you expose yourself to blue light, and the light hits your retina, it sends signals to your brain to start producing cortisol and stops melatonin production (which is needed for optimal sleep!). This messes up your circadian rhythm, making your nighttime cortisol elevated and morning levels low. Not good!
You should say goodnight to your electronics and screens 2 hours before you go to bed. This allows for appropriate melatonin secretion and won’t keep your cortisol levels high.
If you find this hard, you can get an automatic electrical cord that shuts off at 7-8 pm every night and plug in your wifi and television to it! This will help the entire home have a better nighttime routine as well!
You can use blue light blockers as well, but as this is a FREE health hack article, you can simply dim the lights in your home and avoid those super brightly lit kitchen lights to promote a normal circadian rhythm. You can even pick up a good book or take that time for some self-care like a yoga session or relaxing bath.
Completely Cool Starchy Foods Before Eating
Most people don’t know this fun, free health hack. When you completely cool starchy food, it converts more of the starch to resistant starch. Resistant starch is great for helping with insulin sensitivity, lowering blood sugar levels, lowering the glycemic index, and enhances digestion.
What exactly is resistant starch? Resistant starches are starch molecules that resist digestion, functioning kind of like fiber and act as prebiotics. An easy way to create them is by cooling your starchy foods. Once you cook up some potatoes or rice, place it in the fridge (or freezer if you’re in a rush). What I love to do is grab some premade rice out of the refrigerator and pour some soup on top!
These free health hacks are a great place to start creating a healthy lifestyle for yourself. Living a healthy and happy life that is sustainable, is all about making small healthy habits. Over time, continuing to add small healthy habits into your daily routine will allow you to feel full of energy and symptom-free for years to come.
Work with a Functional Health and Herbal Expert, Jessica Meyers
If you’re ready to take your health to the next level and are ready to invest in your health and wellness beyond free health hacks, apply to work with me. I’m Jessica Meyers, and I’m an Integrative Health & Herbal Expert that offers comprehensive health and lifestyle evaluation, connects you to the latest functional lab testing, and offers a fully supported path to get you symptom-free!
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