The Life Of Bryony - Davinia Taylor: How to Rewire Your Brain, Heal Your Gut and Feel 10 Years Younger

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

MY GUEST THIS WEEK: DAVINIA TAYLOR This week, I’m joined by Davinia Taylor—author, entrepreneur and biohacking enthusiast—who’s on a mission to help people feel better in their bodies, minds and lives. We talk about how Davinia went from hangovers to cold plunges and beef collagen. Her new book Futureproof shares practical ways to reclaim your health, from balancing hormones and improving your gut to lifting weights and eating proper food. She explains why Sunday roasts are underrated, how to build muscle in your 40s, and what to do if you feel like you’ve gone too far to come back. We also explore the link between stress and food addiction, why cravings are not your fault, and how even the darkest days can be turned around with a few simple actions. Whether you’re struggling with low energy, overwhelmed by the wellness world, or just curious about living a more vibrant life, this conversation is honest, uplifting and full of realistic advice. Roast dinner optional. LET’S STAY IN TOUCH 🗣 Got something to share? Text or send a voice note on 07796657512—just start your message with LOB. 💬 Use the WhatsApp shortcut: https://wa.me/447796657512?text=LOB 📧 Prefer email? Drop me a line at [e-mail]. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who might need a little encouragement to feel good in their body again—it really makes a difference. Bryony xx BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE 📚 Futureproof by Davinia Taylor A refreshingly no-nonsense guide to biohacking your health, energy and mood—starting with the food on your plate. CREDITS 🎙 Presenter: Bryony Gordon 🎙 Guest: Davinia Taylor 🎧 Content Producer: Jonathan O’Sullivan 🎥 Audio & Video Editor: Luke Shelley 📢 Executive Producer: Mike Wooller 🛠️ Studio Manager: Sam Chisholm A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode of The Life of Briony is sponsored by Asda, celebrating 60 years of great family value. That's Asda Price. Hello from the podcast show, today on The Life of Briony, can you rewire your brain, heal your gut and feel 10 years younger just by eating roast dinners? Divina Taylor went from red carpets and hangovers to cold plunges, collagen, building the UK's first biohacking HQ. Her new book is out this week and she has got plenty to say about addiction, burnout, aging and why your cravings are probably not your fault. I mean, they're just not your

fault. If you've ever felt stuck, sluggish or just done with feeling like crap, this one's for you. So the body is put on the earth to thrive. You can literally survive some of the worst addictions and come back feeling tip-top better than before you picked up. My chat with Divina Taylor coming up on The Life of Bryony. This is a paid advertisement from Asda. You know those weeknights where everything feels like a rush? Homework's finished, bath time chaos, kids running riot… and somehow, you've still got to make dinner too. It's the classic parenting juggle.

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That's Asor Price. Tavenya Taylor, welcome to the life of Brian E. I don't know why I did that accent. Probably to make me feel at home. Yeah. Causey. I'm really happy to have you on Tavenavinia, because this podcast has a lot of listeners who are much like me in that they are probably women of a certain age who want to feel good about themselves, but don't really know how to start, and maybe don't even think they're

worthy of feeling good about themselves. Does that yeah that makes perfect sense and also they've been told that oh you're a woman of a certain age therefore that's how you feel now sluggish and underwhelmed and a little bit insecure and that's that's it now love which is kind of what doctors say really. Yeah. We are literally fighting against the system and desperately trying to feel good. I wanted to get you on because you are, you're sort of the queen of biohacking, right? And you are all about feeling good. Feeling good. Regardless of where you're at. Where you're at, what your age is, what your mindset is. And your, is this your third book, Future Price?

Yes, this is number three and also a trilogy. Love it. Like a bit Lord of the Rings. Yeah, a little bit. But instead of going for the ring, what we're going for is... Just a little bit of light at the end of a very dark tunnel. A little bit of pep in the morning. Yeah, that's it. So biohacking, if anyone doesn't know, it's basically, it's just kind of like a space agey word for hacking into your biology really quickly. So being able to sort of sleep better,

have energy on command, buffer stress so you don't feel it too much. And if you do, it disappears. That's what it is. It's hacking into your biology because we live in a world that isn't actually very healthy for our biology. They call it an evolutionary mismatch. So you've got the 21st century living with all the convenience, etc. But we've still got kind of primitive bodies based on maybe 10,000, maybe 20,000 years ago sort of biology. And this is where this sort of like mismatch is.

So for example, something like cold water exposure that you're a fan of. I love a bit of cold water exposure. Only the past two generations have we experienced warm showers and we're all like freaking out about cold water. But if you think about like homeo sapiens as like how many millennia we've been on this planet exposed to cold all of a sudden, literally our grandparents got warm water. And it's like, wow, that is a complete, literally our grandparents got warm water. And it's like, wow, that is a complete change.

And we're already like, oh my god, it's like a massive big deal. When really your biology has evolved with it for some reason, we have utilized that cold to create things like, so in the winter season, for example, the Nordics, the Vikings, always exposed themselves to water when they didn't have sunlight. And research is now saying that that is creating vitamin D. I mean, it is quite nice hot water though. Oh, it's great.

I love a hot bath. I love a hot bath. I love reading in a hot bath. I've even got one of those things that go across the top of it and I put all my prattie stuff in. Oh, yeah, like a bath, a bath board. Yeah.

And I, you know, I do enjoy that and I put a load of magnesium into it. And that's another hack. I'm just gonna just mic drop hacks all the time. Because magnesium citrate belongs in the bath, not in your mouth. Yeah, because it causes diarrhea, which is not gonna relax you.

Oh yeah, so because people do... So this is what I... Yeah, everyone's like, I take magnesium. Yeah, but which one? There's loads of different magnesiums. Magnesium citrate, magnesium sulfate in the bath, great because it sort of transdermally is absorbed. So it avoids the digestive system.

So you won't poo your pants. Right, so, but what's the magnesium you want to be taking? If you wanna relax, like for restless leg or just general anxiety, biglycinate. But listen, this is the thing. Like we all to feel good. Yeah. And quite often we don't feel good because life isn't set up for us to feel good right now.

No, no, not at all. And so this is why I wanted to get you on because you're no-nonsense and you cut through all the bollocks. And I wanted to kind of get you on so you can talk about your new book and we could just go through a few of the principles that are really important. So the key ones that aren't too kind of overwhelming so people can get started and just start putting little changes into their lives that might make them feel better. But I want to start by talking about because often when I go on like obviously social media is full of wellness gurus it can be quite overwhelming now like what's true what do I believe what not but what I like about this book

is that it's quite simple right and it just breaks it down into principles. So I thought, let's go through them and let's start with aging and how this is not something we need to be afraid of. No, I mean, you must agree, as you've got older, mentally you've got freer. I mean, that's what it right. Oh my God, I feel much better as I get older. Really, if I really knuckle down to it, like when I was in my twenties,

I physically felt actually awful. I can't look at nightmare. Because I was hungover and coming I physically felt actually awful. I can look at nightmares. Because I was hungover and coming down the whole time. But not only that but it was just like the pressures to do X, Y and Z, get married, have kids, do this in your career, look like her, be like her, you know, get these qualifications. There is so much on like a 20 year old regardless of generation. It's like you've got a really and the responsibility for the rest of the trajectory of your life seems to be set then I mean you and I obviously did a major fuck up and really hit rock bottom kind of early doors really so what we're just talking about

is we are both addicts yeah recovery you are nearly 16 years sober yeah like let's just let's all give a big round of applause. Thank you very much. I want to talk about this with you because one of the things you talk about in your book is how when you were in your 20s I was very much white wine and drinking. White wine vodka. Beer didn't get me as much but I would take that on a very last course of action and weirdly nicotine didn't get me either. As soon as I put the drink down nicotine didn't. So I was pretty lucky with that accessibility because alcohol is freely accessible, drugs are not, so it was pretty easy to access my drug of choice which was white wine, particularly when Tesco is open 24x7. We've spoken about this loads and you, like me, we both took it to another level and we

did our best to really damage our bodies, right? Yeah. But what I find so fascinating is you talk about taking this biological age test, right? And you are, so you're 47. I'm 47. You're 47 now. Chronologically 47. Chronologically 47.

But your biological age is 20. Yes. I went on this other podcast right with Catherine Ryan, and it's called What's My Age Again. They did the same test on all of us, all of the guests. So there's me, Joanne McNally, Ramesh Ranganathan and then halfway through the interview, they tell you your biological age. Now, I was convinced that because of all the drinking and drugging and eating disorders and just the terrible ways over the years. And the stress and the stress. Yeah, like a sleep and all that.

OCD, all of that. I was convinced that my biological age would be around about 156. And it blew my mind. Gotten down. When Catherine opened the envelope and lo and behold told me my biological age was 26. I can actually believe that because our bodies, regardless of what you've done and that's what I tried to make clear in my book, regardless of what you have done and not through choice because addiction is not a choice by the way, it's a body's way of coping with a certain

situation and boom, like I said earlier, it's a body's way of coping with a certain situation. And boom, like I said earlier, it's an evil, loose and remiss match. So for me to be exposed to so much alcohol was just catastrophic for me. However, it fast tracked me into rock bottom and then got me sober very early in life. But it's like the body wants to heal. It wants to survive. It doesn't want to punish you. It's not judgmental.

It's like, okay, we've got rid of that addictive or that inflammatory ingredient, be it food, be it gambling, be it behaviors, be it alcohol, be it drugs, whatever, we've got rid of it. Now let's quickly repair and let's crack on with what we were meant to do, which is thrive. So the body is put on the earth to thrive, not to punish you in some sort of like godly type fashion and it will forgive you really quickly, you know? You can literally survive some of the worst addictions and come

back feeling tip-top better than before you picked up. And I think this is really important to let listeners and people watching know because there may be people tuning in who think, you know, and I think we know exactly how this feels when you're in a dark place and you think, what's the point? I can't see how change is going to happen. Or what the point of that is, because I've messed it up completely. Or you think I've gone too far, I can't ever get health and well-being back. And me and you are proof with our biological ages. With our addictive personalities that were literally young wild things.

It's possible. That's what I want to say. Well, like Jim Zed, we can be utterly imitating too. But you say in the book, you talk about people who are like, oh, I don't think I, you know, the gym's not for me. It's different. You know, like there's all these things and I'm not gonna say excuses we give because they're not, they're genuine reasons that society has,

that has shown us to be true. Well, particularly women, because it's the idea of putting on too much muscle, bulking up, taking up more space, being bigger, you know, it's been rammed down our throats as that is too macho women shouldn't have muscle they should do I don't know Pilates and be very delicate and disappear. Well women shouldn't be big at all. No they shouldn't be big at all apparently but the reality is the more muscle you have the more resilient you are to fight something like cancer which is affecting like 50% of the population

I'm gonna get cancer so you bet if you want to fight it and get over it fast you want to be as muscle dense as humanly possible because it actually affects the immune system. The more muscle mass you have, the better your immune system. This is a paid advertisement from Asda. Jo, I'm not a natural in the kitchen. I panic when it gets to dinner time, I don't know where to start. Can you tell me, have you always felt confident in the kitchen or did you have to learn to? Listen, you're not alone. Many people struggle with this and I also used to find it really

difficult but I think the more you cook, the more experience you get, the more confidence you get and you can really learn to love cooking. But yeah, look, I've got four kids under six. It's stressful. Food has to be quick, simple and easy. And that's why, you know, I love sharing recipes on recipes and knowing that are going to do just that and get people actually cooking and doing it often. Four kids under six, I have no excuse. You've teamed up with Asda for Joe Wick's Meal Picks. Can you explain what that is? So Joe Wick's Meal Picks are a series of recipes that I've created to make, you know, food

simple and quick and easy to help families, you know, that are on a budget that have lots of kids and that are stressed and time poor to put healthy food on the table and do it in a way that's enjoyable, that's sustainable and that's achievable. They're created with kids in mind, but the whole family can enjoy them. Is that right? Yeah, these are recipes that I've designed for the whole family to enjoy. You know, they're simple, there's very few ingredients. You can get the kids involved as well, make it fun, like come together and enjoy cooking because it can change your life in so many ways. Which of Joe Wick's meal picks would you suggest someone like me cooks first to boost their

confidence? I would give my sweet chilli chicken thigh stir fry go. It's really simple, ready in about 10 minutes and it tastes delicious. Tell me Joe, how do your recipes make people feel less intimidated? Is it their simplicity and the kind of clear steps involved? One thing I try and achieve is that I try and get people cooking and make it, you know, not daunting and intimidating, make it just fun and a bit kind of accessible because we don't have much time on our hands, we're stressed out, we're running around, we've got kids,

we're looking after other people. So actually, if I can make it quick and simple with few ingredients, then it's achievable. And that is really the aim of the whole sort of as the meal picks ideas I've got. Okay. So what about making mistakes? Is there joy in making mistakes and can cooking be forgiving and fun? Listen, I'm always burning things. I'm not, I'm not a great chef, you know, I'm a cook, but I'm not the best of cooks. So I always say, look, it's okay, there's a little bit of burn. If it's a little bit charred, it's more flavorous. It might not look the most presentable, but I think you've got to be kind to yourself. And if you're someone who hasn't cooked, you can really learn to love it. You just got

to start building your repertoire up and try a few different things. And by the end of the month, you've got maybe three or four recipes you've learned, and that's going to give you more nutrients in your diet, you know, a varied diet, and it's going to be fun. You just got to give it a go and take the first step. Thank you so much, Joe. To find out more, just search Joe Wick's Meal Picks on asda.com for simple, quick and tasty midweek meal inspiration from Asda and Joe Wicks. So that's the first way in which you can hack your biological age muscle. Yes, because which age really matters. Your biological age. Exactly.

You know, so obviously aging makes you more susceptible to diseases like diabetes, like Alzheimer's, like even obesity. The longer you are on this planet exposed to certain environmental factors, you are going to be more susceptible to the big diseases, right? So if you can reverse your biological age, you're just safeguarding yourself. And whatever anyone says to me, because I often go against, say, the Eat Well plate, I'm like the opposite of what the Eat Well plate says. I don't have all these grains constantly. I don't have all these whole grains and these pastas and beans and lentils.

You just live on steak, don't you? I have loads of steak and I will have, yeah, loads of steak. Oh, no, but I love it. And you also- I have bone broth and loads of, but I have a load of fat as well, which is like, you mustn't have fat. But I'm like, wow, it really actually works with my brain and it actually gives me energy that doesn't make me feel shattered 15 minutes later, like beans do, and it doesn't make me fart all the time. I guess it's being able to listen to your body, isn't it? Because everyone will have different

things that work for them. You know, like you were just talking about how, you know, a lot of fat works for you and I was thinking I could definitely live on a diet of like skin on chicken thighs. Without question that's one of the healthiest things you could have. Avocados, just like I could just like I will and this disgusts people but I'm happy to put it out there because I've put out far more disgusting things than this. I eat the fat on the steak. Yeah, that's what you should do. Really? Yes, it's got all...

Oh, that makes me feel better. No, it's got all... it's got bioavailable fatty acids, it's got all fat soluble vitamins, it is absolutely a super food, and being able to eat more ancestrally, meat and two veg, rather than these weird hocus pocus vegan plant-based fucking chemical shitstorms that you see bloody everywhere in meal deals. So basically, live on a Sunday roast. Live on a Sunday roast. So, but I think this is interesting because I'm kind of fascinated in that notion of food

addiction because I totally get it. And I totally, you know, we talk about when you get sober, it's a bit like whack-a-mole, you know, one problem goes down and another goes up. And for me, definitely for, and I've spoken about this before, like binge eating disorder, and we've done episodes of the Life of Bryony on it, was something that really got me. And I also, you know, but I felt kind of like, why can't, it's a bit like drinking, like,

why can't I eat like a normal person? Or why can't I,'s a bit like drinking, like why can't I eat like a normal person or why can't I and you know for me and people find it really difficult to kind of understand this like for me in a way the food was a much harder nut to crack than alcohol or cocaine or even smoking because it was like I don't have to do any of these things to live, but I do have to eat to live. What I think has happened as a society, particularly since the late 70s, is we have had Bliss Point Foods introduced to our diet from when we were toddlers, and it has hijacked our relationship with food as being something that sustains you.

They are hyper-palatable commodities that literally are owned by five big companies. They use mathematicians, not dietitians, to design their food on a bell chart which by a combination of vegetable oil, salt and sugar, they will assess where the highest point of addiction probability is and they will sell it to you. It is the ultra processed food. I mean, basically, I think it was Philip Morris, who back in the 80s, they were the biggest tobacco company. They literally bought up companies like Kraft, you know, Kraft, obviously, you know, Cheese, but they make tons and tons of things. And they created Bliss point foods. So

anyone who has a problem with overeating, please don't blame yourself. It's like being raised on cigarettes when kids were little. I think my dad said that he had a toothache and his mom said, have a cigarette. So that was like, that was way, way back in the fifties. It's our equivalent of that. And so we, we, we don't even know. We, we actually still call ultra processed foods, foods. They're not, they are little equivalent of that. And so we don't even know. We actually still call ultra processed foods, foods. They're not, they are little pockets of addiction. They're drugs and they are guys, and they're marketed in the guise of treats

and go on, reward yourself. I can't reward myself with a glass of wine. I can reward myself with a fizzy drink, but not a glass of wine because I know that key alcohol ingredient will light me up in a way that I cannot describe and I will have to have another because I'll be scared of coming down from it. Now ultra processed foods work on a very similar mechanism, it's still raising up dopamine but we have access to it and we've been giving it in the form of cereals, in the form of like sandwiches,

I mean it's the perfect combination. Yet you're told you have to eat everything in moderation on a hyper palatable food by doctors. And you're like, mate, this is mass addiction. And we've got to acknowledge it for what it is, you know. And so there are key ingredients and key combinations that have been designed to light you up. So you are definitely going to become a binge eater, particularly being predisposed to addiction anyway. So it's not your fault it was designed

that way. So let's let's it is all addiction. Let's go back to the person at home who is struggling and wants to feel better. What are the basic things that you would advise someone to do with their lives, the simple changes that they can make that will start to make a difference? So it was for me, reading the label and on the back, not the front, which now requires me to have readers in the supermarket or have to take a photograph and zoom in because eyesight is now going, which is a shame. So it's literally looking for how...

What they've put in there. So if I see ingredients... Processed the food is. Yeah. So if I see things like multidextrin, if I see sunflower or rapeseed oil, if I see any of the sugars, I'll generally put it back because I know it's going to trigger me into an addictive behaviour. It's not going to satisfy me within 15 minutes of me consuming that product, I'll be off. So, but this is basically, isn't it? It's eating whole foods. Yeah. I mean, you can't overeat steak. You know?

Can you not? No, you can't. Of course not. You start to feel full. Yeah, exactly. Which is crazy because we generally don't feel full. It's true. We can feel bloated, but then we carry on. So as our grandparents, I suppose, would have eaten, which is cooking home meals, stew, then it's back to the Sunday roast.

It's back to the Sunday roast. Every day of the week. Every day of the week. Can I just say I could totally get on with, that is basically how I eat. Which is meat and two veg. Yeah. I eat serious nutrition, like eggs, like bacon, like avocado, and then I'll have the dinner with the family, you know?

So there's like, I don't count calories at all, I count chemicals. And I know if I'm gonna have, say, some biscuits or something, I know I'm kicking off a craving for the rest of the day. Okay. And I just know that's me, and it's just kind of like with alcohol,

but to a lesser degree. And when I wrote my first book, It's Not a Diet, I suggested people do like a food diary because some things will trigger you into overeating. The reason why so many of us reach for carbohydrates if we get a dodgy email or something just happens like, I don't know, your husband's been a dick or the kid you had a phone call from school. The reason why we reach for a sandwich almost instantaneously is your biohacking but you are, it reduces stress, it reduces stress by having

carbohydrates, increases serotonin and it makes you feel cozier in a stressful situation. That's why in work you're constantly reaching for the sandwiches, the meal deals, the crisps, the carbohydrates, the sugary drinks, whatever it is, it's all carbohydrates, it's all glucose, it all damp, it all softens the blow to stress. So ultimately over-eating carbohydrates could be just a response to stress. So don't freak out about it, we just need to manage the stress more. If you manage the stress, the cravings aren't going to be there in the first place, which

is like me with alcohol, I don't get the cravings anymore. So it's actually easy peasy, I'm not white-knuckling anymore. I'm just like not even interested, it's not on my radar. I'm doing something else that's completely compulsive and probably more expensive. So so that's food. But then let's talk about strength training, especially as we're both women in our 40s. And you hear a lot about the importance of strength training. So cardio is not as as you say in the book, cardio is it's obviously great because there's dopamine here but actually what we need to be doing is

building muscle and protecting our bones essentially. Yeah and I find like weightlifting really boring and I hate counting. I mean, I'm, I mean how pathetic is that? I get to five and go, fuck, now what? Five, and then my mind's gone and then I've forgotten. I forget I can't do it. So I've got a little hack, which is similar to like the running one. So people who say, oh, I can't run, I can't run.

Everyone is born to run predominantly, you know? We are, even if you've got, even if you've had your lower leg amputated or whatever, people can run, you know. Look at wonderful Millie Pickles. Exactly. Do you know what I mean? There is literally no excuse. However, psychologically you say you can't run and that's just a lack of dopamine.

And probably a bit of mental scarring from cross country in fourth year or something awful like that that happened to us when we were kids. So what I suggest to people, um, when they're starting out their running journey, like me, I wouldn't hardly run a bath, never mind run the park, you know. So I came up with this strategy. I had three songs, three of my favorite songs that gave me goosebumps. And I used to put songs like Huey Lewis in the News on, you know, from Back to the Future with Junior Disco or Dirty Dancing, just stuff that really took me back to a time when I

maybe I had energy and I would do three songs, so that's like 15 minutes, and I would walk the verse and jog the chorus. And before I knew it, I was running marathons too because my body remembered from when I was running as a kid, and it's that DNA doesn't forget the proteins start, it's already got the blueprint for the proteins and the body remembers and you will all of a sudden your cardiovascular system will stretch, your legs will become more resilient, maybe have a couple of days of DOMS which is delayed muscle on sex soreness but your body remembers because you've done it as a

baby, you've done it as a child, you've even done it as when you were dancing, your body remembers to move and it never forgets. So you can get back into running and the same goes for strength training. So there is, it's called muscle memory. The body has never forgotten that DNA expression, that protein expression. So your body still encodes for that muscle synthesis. So as soon as you start building muscles, like, I don't know, five reps a day, just

lifting some weights, five reps a day, within a week, your body's pumping out proteins to make muscle because it never, ever forgot. Tell us why we want to build our muscle strength. Muscles are just so good at burning excess glucose. You know, excess glucose in the body causes inflammation, excess glucose in the brain causes dementia, excess glucose in every cell can cause cancer, it feeds cancer. So being able to burn off excess glucose when you're eating it is brilliant. Also, it is great for the immune system. It's actually the biggest organ in the body, not skin,

which we get told at school. I found that fascinating. I know. And it is an organ. And it talks to the bones as well. I mean, they all interact and bones, oh my God. I definitely 10 years ago was not thinking about my bone strength. But last year I had a stress fracture in my skin. Yes, you did. I remember. And that really knocked my confidence in my body a bit because it was like what? And that was just from overuse, from wear and tear of training. And it's so

interesting that we don't think about these things until we have to or are forced to think about them. And you make the point in the book about how falling is really dangerous when you're older. 60% of women don't survive six months after a fall. I mean, what? Because the knock-on effects of being immobile, being stuck in a hospital, not being able to move and your lymphatic system,

everything closes down, the muscle mass just disintegrates. So for us, a fall and a fracture is a death sentence for the majority. And that's crazy. And that's why, you know, when people say, oh, she's had a fall, as when you're younger, you're like, oh, shut up.

Get back up a bit. Yeah, and I'm always falling over. You know what I mean? But the reality is that's why it's like on elderly people's radar, because the likelihood is you're not coming out of hospital again. Now we can totally hack around that. And I'm talking people over the age of 80.

So there's a guy in Leeds who I really like, him and his wife, he's called Gary Rhodes. He has, because the industry standard is called a Dexter scan. Yeah, I've heard about this. Right, and to be honest, that has got the monopoly and everyone just takes it as gospel. And there's a lot of false positives of you having osteoporosis when you don't. Okay. Which is making a lot of people come away from training. And that is crazy.

In fact, if you want to increase your bone density, you better be training even more. But what do you do if you are bedridden? What do you do if you are just stuck at home? What do you do if you're too anxious to go outside or join a gym with the bros? What do you do? Well, he's got a machine that is built on it. I think it's called BoneStrong and there's a few in London, there's a few up north and they should be in every single doctors across the UK considering we're an aging population who's getting worse and worse at self-preservation. But all you have to do for just seconds is push. Push against a pressure and you're in a seated position just like I am now. I'm just like sat down on a chair and it almost looks like a

sat down bicycle you know like a seated bike you know which I've never bothered with. But you just literally push against a weight and you are in your safest position, which is slightly bent. So if you were to fall, your arms wouldn't be straight, they'd be slightly bent. And you hold this for seconds, I think it's between five and 10 seconds, and that is it.

And that creates enough pressure in your body to generate osteoblasts, which then feed into the bones and increase bone density. Now his grandmother was 80 odd and she had severe osteoporosis. She did this, I think for about six weeks, she got a driving license back and then she started going to bingo again. And that for someone who was isolated, I mean that independence just to be able to drive safely again because she got her bones back in line and she felt more robust. The confidence, the mental health implications of that are off the charts.

So if there's someone listening and they are too scared to leave the house, because that's the reality for some people. Yeah, massive reality. But they want to start looking after themselves. Is there something that you can do to like little things you could do in your house without having to buy anything like little squats or... You can easy do squats if you can. You know, I mean, maybe do a challenge or something with your family.

I mean, 20 year olds aren't as strong as maybe we were back then, you know, because people just don't move anymore. I mean, there's one hack. I just said, move your bin, move your bin into a different room, just so you're naturally jumping up a bit more. And it's, we are so sedentary and I do it in my office. I've got a wheelie chair and I'll just wheel across the office. I love wheeling across the room.

I know it should be for the fun, but you know, but it's like these little tiny hacks. I mean, when people are saying you've got to do 10,000 steps point some people aren't doing one You know and that could make a phenomenal change, you know move just more that is the tiniest thing I can recommend I think also I have learned that My brain is very much I wake up every morning and my brain wants me in a funk It wants me there in the funk. It wants me not to get out of bed because then it has me in a kind of vice-like grip where the worst bits can kind of get control of me, the obsessive-compulsive disorder, the alcoholism, the addiction, the

depression. And you know, like in a way, the whole kind of thing to get well and be in recovery has been like trying to hack, it's like biohacking your brain. It totally is. So getting up and moving is my way of going, okay come on, because even if I don't actually manage to do anything for the rest of the day, I have that. Yeah. And that's something to feel good about. What's the first thing you do in the morning? In the morning I just very much I need to just get up and go because I like it's kind of I can't explain I don't

want to get up and go that's not instinctively how I feel but I know I have to. So get rip the plaster off get up. Yeah and I have to do everything in the morning. Not everything but like yeah I the quicker I can get up go, the more I get done in a day. And of course, days are not all about getting loads done, but I definitely have to, I can't exercise in the afternoon. I can't. No. I'm like looking at these maniacs after work going for a run.

I'm like, what are you doing? I very much, 6, 7, 30 PM. I'm in an ideal world. I'm in bed with you watching Motherland. Yes, I know. Having our Sunday roast. Yes, in a souped vessel. Wonderful with a bib. Yeah, a bib. Lovely. With a grounding mat. Yeah, I've got a grounding sheet on my bed. I do love all of this stuff because I think as well there's this thing about

it which is for me as someone who has been in very dark places where I haven't been able to do anything and especially when you you can feel so powerless over your those dark places and you can feel like the the darkness and the depression is in charge of you, do you know what I mean? I think there's a thing about getting into things like, I'm gonna do an ice bath, I'm gonna take this supplement, right? And you know, there's all the cynics in the world who go,

oh, it's a load of bollocks, but it isn't to me. It isn't to me because it makes me feel like I'm doing something. Exactly. I have to feel like I'm doing something. Exactly. I have to feel like I'm doing something. I have to have action. I have to take control of the world. I have to attack the day.

And this is something I always heard someone say, attack the day, don't let it attack you. And so these are my ways, and I don't know if this resonates with you, these are my ways of attacking the day instead of letting the day attack me. And sometimes the day will attack you and it's how you hack out of it. You know sometimes the morning didn't go according to plan, sometimes like the kids are ill or something's gone wrong or I've forgotten an email and I suddenly get overwhelmed and super stressed and in this book here I've actually done, you know how most books say oh this is what you're going to do to feel your best and they'll give you a schedule.

I've actually done what happens if the day is shit on a shit day, how do we hack out of it? Because I hate it when these wellness gurus come on and they've got all that like these lists and they're like meditating in the morning and they're going outside getting their morning daylight and they're doing a gratitude list and they're chanting with their crystals and everything,

which is great, but I fucking forgot the games kit again and I forgot the email and I've not found a pound for I don't know fucking be a trolley yeah whatever whatever and these things and things that take this brain out and under you know and so I kind of like in this book I tried to like acknowledge that some days a shit but what do we do with it? How do we get out of it? And sometimes it will be just turning the shower on cold for 15 seconds, just cause I don't like it.

And then boom, I'll come out and I'll go, okay, I just did that. I've buffered my stress. I've got a few more endorphins and let's go and find that pound for the trolley. You know, and sometimes it's like that and you can change the trajectory of your day at any point. You know, and that for me is the element of control

that often when your brain is working against you, that is what falls apart. Your decision-making is totally taken over by some other entity. And I think it has a lot to do with the pressures of 21st century living. And don't get me wrong, I love ordering things and it arrives the next day. I do, because I'm a compulsive shopper as well. But, you know, I think it is detrimental and sometimes just acknowledging that, you know, constant emails, mom's WhatsApps, the

whole shebang, just looking at, you know, how we all interact with each other. Sometimes we do need that little bit of hand holding and saying, actually, we're all having a shit day. This is how we hack around it. And it's not forever. I think that's a really powerful thing to say as well is that we're not really supposed to live the way that we live.

No, we're not. And it's ramping up. Do you know what? I'm going to make my millions with the roast dinner diet. It's going to come out. I mean, it's been around for a millennia for a reason. I don't do diets unless they involve only eating roast dinners. So, Vinyia Taylor, your new book, Future Proof, is out on the 24th of May.

Well remembered. I was like, when is it? That's because I have been eating a high fat diet. Yay! She's got her neurons working.