Stackable Habits to Hack Yourself Healthy

52 happy, healthy, stackable hacks - one for every week of the year - to help make small, achievable switches in your everyday life


When TV presenter and 'outdoor evangelist' Julia Bradbury heard the words 'Yes, it's cancer' in 2021, everything changed. What followed was not just a fight for recovery, but a profound journey into what it truly means to be healthy. She began to investigate her health from every angle, undergoing cutting-edge experiments and speaking to world-renowned experts, to write the number one bestselling Hack Yourself Healthy.

In this practical, empowering companion, Julia invites you beyond the surface of wellness. Because real health isn't just about exercise or eating well, it's about how you sleep, breathe, think, feel and connect with others and yourself. It's about the stories you carry, the habits you've inherited and the quiet ways your past shapes your present.

Blending lived experience with practical insight, this book offers 52 simple, stackable weekly hacks designed to help you move from surviving to thriving. From strength and nutrition to emotional resilience, rest, and reconnecting with nature, each small step is an invitation to create meaningful, lasting change without overwhelm or perfection. Physically, these hacks will help you build health span, adding to your muscle strength, flexibility, balance, and heart and lung power. Mentally, they'll help you protect your nervous system, to put down your phone and switch off the news, to choose a peaceful moment over more noise.

This is not a rulebook or a prescription. It's a gentle, honest companion for anyone feeling the weight of 'too much' in modern life. Through reflection, exploration and achievable shifts, you'll discover how to make space for what really matters and how small changes can lead to a healthier, more balanced, and more fulfilling life. You don't have to do everything. You just have to begin.

Julia Bradbury is a well-loved television presenter, author, nature advocate, charity campaigner and number one Sunday Times bestselling author of Hack Yourself Healthy and Walk Yourself Happy. She is best known for turning her lifelong passion for walking into prime-time TV with shows including Britain's Best Walks, Cornwall and Devon Walks with Julia Bradbury and Wainwright's Walks in the Lake District. She manages to bring the outdoors and nature into people's homes and lives, in a warm engaging tone. She started her television career as a show business reporter for breakfast television in Los Angeles, and came back to the UK to launch Channel 5.

She was a key member of the presenting team which turned Countryfile into one of the most watched factual programmes on BBC1 with millions tuning in on Sunday nights, and has fronted other flagship shows including Top Gear and Watchdog. In recent years she has also taken on a creative role, co-developing new series, as well as appearing on screen.

Following her breast cancer diagnosis and her recovery from a mastectomy in 2021, she made an award-winning documentary Julia Bradbury: Breast Cancer & Me about her experience. She has supported prostate, ovarian and bowel cancer charities for many years and also campaigns for better diagnosis, research and funding into the disease Endometriosis.

Having discovered that between 30%-40% of cancers are preventable, Julia is now determined to speak up for a more personalised approach to health care, embracing new science and taking a preventative and integrative approach to well-being. Her passion is the natural world, and her cancer diagnosis and surgery have motivated her to dedicate her time supporting the benefits of healthy living and the virtues of nature therapy. She is a devoted mum of three, and credits motherhood with inspiring her on her quest for healthspan.