Ask HN: What's the best biohack you've found?
As a founder, I've noticed I continuously have less and less time to focus on my health. I'm interested in what biohacks other people rely on to stay (relatively) healthy while super-busy!
1. Mostly cook your own meals, eat mostly vegetables, fruits, nuts, some dairy (milk, cheese), maybe rice, and meat. Learn to use various spices so even if you cook bell pepper and onion and chicken three days in a row, it all tastes different. This requires < 30 minutes a day to cook and eat and clean (if single) and ~30 minutes a week to shop. Meals cost < $5/person/meal.
2. Walk or cycle everywhere you can, take the stairs and not the elevator (though if in a high-rise this may not be as reasonable). You have to think, not just act, this is a time to do that.
3. Don't skip exercising. Look into HIIT if you're truly time constrained, it's about the best bang-for-the-time exercise approach out there. Focus on bodyweight if you don't have time for weightlifting or other exercises. For a couple years I pretty much just did crunches, pushups, squats, and dips for 10-20 minutes each day. I wasn't the fittest I've ever been, but I wasn't bad off. Your back will thank you, too.
4. Sleep well, getting too little sleep is a surefire way to exhaust yourself and ruin your ability to make critical decisions.
5. Drink primarily water, for caffeinated drinks avoid sugar.
The food and exercise take up < 1 hour a day. Walking and cycling can actually save you time if the alternative is a short drive + parking. And you can always think while doing these activities. If you have underlying health issues that impact any of this, find alternatives or consult a doctor, don't let illness and injury persist if they can be resolved.
I don't know what "carbs" and "sugar" really are in order to make informed decisions. What does my body take from the foods i consume, how does it take it?
Do we really need to consume that much meat (or even at all) comparatively to the past?
What are "processed" foods and why they are bad? How does the processing of food makes them unhealthy?
I have some answers to most of the questions above, but do i really have informed answers?, no i don't feel i do.
1. It satiates me. Satiation is critical to avoid overeating. Having veggies and rice with a smaller meat portion at dinner, I don't want dessert as much. If I have those leftovers for lunch the next day, I don't get peckish in the afternoon as often. And if I do (like these days since I've gotten back to exercising in earnest), I pull out the pistachios and eat a handful and I'm good.
2. Setting aside exercise, I am consistently at a healthy or at least healthier weight eating this way. If I eat like this and avoid candy and soda, my weight is under 200 without any exercise and more often around 190. On my frame, 180-190 is a healthy weight and 190-200 is an ok weight (it's a healthy weight if I'm doing strength training, but I don't do that anymore so it's too high but not awful). If I exercise regularly, my weight will reliably be between 180-190 (190-200 if strength training).
3. I physically feel better eating this way. Less sluggish, better sleep, more energy when I do exercise (which is regularly these days, but hasn't always been). And all of that also leads to an improved mood (which is very critical for me as someone whose had issues with anxiety and depression).
4. Every health metric is better for me at this weight, again even before exercising (with exercising the numbers improved even more). My blood pressure dropped from 135/?? to 110/?? (forgot the bottom numbers presently, it's in my records somewhere). My cholesterol dropped from 250 to 150-180. My A1C (blood sugar) measurements went from "prediabetic and almost diabetic" to normal (I've forgotten what the specific numbers were).
5. It's inexpensive if you're willing to put in the time to cook and can find a good store with good prices. In the US Southeast I found Fresh Market to be a great source of everything I ate except rice (prices were too high). Their produce, meat, nuts, and cheese prices were as good or better than the big chain supermarkets. I went on Tuesdays when they sold chicken and beef for $2-3/pound (versus more normal $5+/pound prices).
(2-4) should probably be first, really. Those are the primary reasons why I have tried to maintain this approach to eating over the years. Diet and weight have a major impact on quality of life. What diet works for you, though, I don't know. Try some things out, find the metrics that you care about (for me: sleep quality, energy during the day, those various health metrics) and see how the diet impacts them. You can experiment on yourself. Try different diets (and exercise routines) to find things you like and can stick with and that improve those metrics you care about. I have read up on a lot of nutritional guidance and exercise guidance because I use that to feed into my self-experiments. A lot of it seems contradictory, it's annoying. I don't care. I tried various things until I got into my current approach because it works. I continue to do it because it has continued to work (for about 9 years now). If some advice or guidance seems obviously misinformed (eat only meat and cheese! embrace the gout!), don't do it. Otherwise, if you're still hunting for ideas that work for you and you can sustain, give it a shot for a few weeks, worst case you get nothing from it or feel a bit worse for a short period, then you drop it and find something else or go to your old routine.
I feel better, my health metrics improved, and I'm able to do the things I want without struggle, then it's working. If one or more of those weren't true, I'd try something else.
Additionally I have invested in a small home gym setup (bench, adjustable dumbbells, and a yoga mat) and followed Matt Might's least-resistance philosophy approach to muscle building [1].
The first sentence of the thread makes me wonder if the low-hanging fruit (or "biohack") in this case, is to get away from this situation.
It's boring, but stay hydrated!
If you are sensitive to being hyper/attention deficit with caffeine but still feel like you need it consider taking it with l-theanine.
If you find yourself relying on caffine and you want more control, stop drinking coffee or soda and take pills/measured powder doeses. It's taboo, but you want to isolate it from the conditioning of the ritual/taste/mouth feel. If it turns out you really want those things there are ways to get them that are healthier and often they are just as powerful as the drug itself.
Be intentional with your daily habits. It doesn't matter what you do, but daily rituals have a lot of power over establishing your attitude and mindset. Be mindful of what your habits cause in you, and change them if you don't like it.
Caffeine and other addictive stimulants will require escalating dosage with time. You can quit every few months to partially reset that. Returns diminish and if you find yourself here, rethink your life.
By default, if you feel weary rest for a few minutes then re-evaulate. If you never let the endorphins wear off you never know how badly you have hurt/worn out yourself. This goes for a lot of things, take a few minutes sit and be mindful to see what your body needs.
Keep up your core strength. You need it for everything and it saves your back.
If you take a hard spill/fall. STAY DOWN for a few minutes if it is safe, until your heart rate falls down and you can actually take an inventory of your body without endorphins running through it. This will consistently result in injuries being less severe. You can do a lot of extra damage to yourself while endorphins are painkilling you.
Additionally, grip strength training has helped me a lot preventing wrist RSI.
Personally I like farmer’s walk the best and keep a gripper on my desk.
#2 get your hormones checked, testosterone/estrogen, tsh, etc. These gradually decrease with age, and imbalance is bad. This is more "controversial" but TRT treatment works, is proven with several studies and there is a big big line between supplementing Testosterone vs abusing it - something like 100-250mg injected a week is therapy levels while 500-1gram a week is not and considered "abuse."
#3 patterns and patterns. Your health is within your control, going for convenience can be harmful and also "expensive" vs having meals prepped, gym/workout time scheduled and having your body checked for preventable or treatable disorders. A pinch of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Also, take a fiber supplement. The gut- brain connection is a real thing and a little fiber can go a long way to making you feel great
Dehydrated brains make bad decisions.
Strawberries are 5 calories each. Eat them instead of whichever processed carb snack you usually eat.
... can also use it while driving.
I actually got mine from a chiro - there must be a precise diameter required for the spine - 14.5cm hard foam.
- Changing my food environment to be more health-focused. I.E. don’t have sweets and alcohol at home.
- Using a meal prep service. Something like Blue Apron, or a health-focused community cook where I picked up weekly meals.