Easy Hacks To Improve Your Wellness

From mental health to physical fitness, healthy living doesn’t have to be complicated.

Small changes can make a huge difference in how you feel, and simple tests can offer surprisingly big insights into your life — as we learned all throughout this year.

Here are 10 of the best health hacks TODAY.com discovered in 2023. We hope they’ll help you thrive in 2024!

Just 11 minutes of daily walking improves health

It doesn’t take a lot of time to get healthier. Just 11 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking, can reduce the risk of developing heart disease by 17% and cancer by 7%, a review of studies found. This amount of daily exercise also comes with a 23% lower risk of premature death.

A separate study found walking 8,000 steps just once or twice per week can be enough to significantly reduce the risk of death over 10 years.

Wall squats can lower blood pressure

Exercise can lower blood pressure without medication, so experts have been urging doctors to prescribe it for people with hypertension.

But what kind of exercise is best? A review of studies suggests it’s isometric exercise, where you put tension on the muscle without contracting it, particularly the wall squat.

It’s simple, but incredibly intense. The lead author of the review suggests doing four wall squats lasting 2 minutes each, separated by rest intervals of 1 to 4 minutes. This should be done three times per week to help lower blood pressure.

Try the sit-to-stand test to see how healthy you are

Start in a standing position, then sit down cross-legged on the ground, and then stand up again — all without using your hands.

This simple test is an effective indicator of health because you have to have strong cardiovascular health, good balance, agility, flexibility, and core and leg strength to be able to complete it, says says NBC News medical contributor Dr. Natalie Azar.

Tart cherry juice can help you sleep

After the remedy went viral on TikTok, experts told TODAY.com that tart cherry juice could be worth trying as a natural sleep aid — but only after checking with your doctor.

Tart cherries contain melatonin and tryptophan, which help with sleep because they increase the amount of melatonin in the body, according to Cleveland Clinic.

Small studies have found adults who drank tart cherry juice in the evening had increased sleep time.

Select a brand that doesn’t contain added sugar and consume it with other foods that can induce sleep, such as cheese, high in tryptophan, or almonds, high in melatonin, advises Bonnie Taub-Dix, a registered dietitian nutritionist.

Try pickle juice to stop muscle cramps

Athletes sometimes sip pickle juice during intense bouts of exertion because it can make muscle cramps less severe.

Pickle juice doesn’t prevent muscle cramps from developing; rather, it stops them from happening in the moment, researchers tell TODAY.com. The acid in the brine triggers a nerve reflex in the throat, which sends a signal down the spinal cord for the cramp to stop.

Next time you get a muscle cramp, try drinking a tablespoon of juice from a jar of vinegar-based pickles to get relief.

Silent walking can help you feel calmer

The mental health practice involves going for a walk alone in nature, free of distractions and in a place without crowds.

The idea is to “be mindful of each breath and each step, listen to the sounds of nature around you, feel gratitude for the sun kissing your skin, and use the time for reflection,” Lalah Delia, author of the mindfulness book “Vibrate Higher Daily,” tells TODAY.com.

Zen Buddhist monks have long practiced silent walking under a different name, walking meditation, she adds.

The health benefits include reducing stress, having a deeper connection to yourself, and lowering blood pressure and heart rate.

Which alcohol is ‘healthiest’?

No level of alcohol consumption is safe for health, the World Health Organization warns. But if people choose to drink alcohol in moderation, there are some preferred go-to options, experts say.

One of them is a glass of champagne or sparkling white wine, which has about 100 calories. Go for dry white wine, or dry sparkling wine, which doesn’t have added sugar like a lot of other drinks, nutritionists say.

Stop midlife weight gain with a simple food swap

When it comes to weight creep after 40, starch is a bigger problem than sugar, researchers found.

They advise focusing on “carbohydrate quality” — swapping certain carbs for others.

People who eat more whole grains, fruits and non-starchy vegetables gain less weight in midlife than their peers who indulged in a sugary, starchy diet, a study found.

The ‘bird test’ can tell how long your relationship will last

The test, which went viral on TikTok, involves pointing out a bird to your significant other and observing how they react.

If they respond with genuine interest or are otherwise curious about why you’re paying attention to the bird, there’s a good chance you’re in a strong, long-lasting relationship, proponents of the bird test say.

If your companion is oblivious to the bird, however, the relationship is supposedly less healthy.

Get rid of clutter with Swedish death cleaning

The new year is all about new beginnings and letting go of old habits and things that weigh you down.

That’s where Swedish death cleaning can help — a concept Swedish author Margareta Magnusson has introduced to the rest of the world. “The idea is that we should not leave a mountain of crap behind for our loved ones to clean up when we die,” she writes in her latest book.

When cleaning, people often have a hard time getting rid of items that really should be thrown out, but have sentimental value. If that’s the case, take a picture of the item, thank it, then let it go, she advises.

“Keep it bare and orderly. … That’s the way of living. Don’t amass things,” Magnusson tells TODAY.com.