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I wake between 5.45 and 6.30am, depending on when my son Forest decides to be my alarm. I use the Eight Sleep system, but not to obsess over my sleep score — it’s more like a dashboard. If my recovery looks poor, I’ll adapt my training.
I try to be conscious of five to 10 breaths and stay in silence for two to five minutes before moving. It’s a tiny habit, but changes the direction of the day. Most of us wake up and immediately become someone with problems to solve.
Afterwards I take my son downstairs to play while I drink hot water and lemon. Then it’s 10 to 20 minutes of breathwork or meditation, some mobility, resistance training or Zone 2 cardio and finally a shower, which I make cold for the final 10 breaths.
Supplement-wise I keep things simple — creatine, omega-3 and vitamin D in winter. Breakfast is often Greek yoghurt, berries, nuts and seeds, or eggs; lunch is protein, vegetables and something colourful. Dinner is whatever my wife cooks, often Mediterranean-inspired. I’m more interested in metabolic flexibility than dietary ideology.
Movement is non-negotiable. Some days that is lifting weights; on others it’s yoga or walking through a forest without headphones. We’ve overcomplicated exercise; our bodies simply want to move in many different ways.
Recovery-wise I sauna when I can, do cold immersion twice weekly and breathwork daily. I think breathing is the most underused recovery tool. We spend fortunes on gadgets while ignoring the system we can consciously regulate at any moment.
I don’t try to eliminate stress — it’s not the enemy. Our inability to recover is. I use one or two minutes of breathing to reset my nervous system throughout the day. It’s like pressing save on a computer before opening another file.
Meditation is daily. Sometimes for 20 minutes or sometimes two. It has shifted from something I do to improve performance to something that reminds me who I am beneath performance. That distinction changed my life.
I’ve experimented with plenty of biohacking techniques: red light, cold exposure, nootropics, hyperbaric oxygen. Most of them were interesting, but honestly, the highest return on investment comes from sleep, movement, breathing, relationships and purpose.
I don’t always get screen time right, but I try not to let my phone become the first or last thing I experience each day. I think of my attention like a bee. Every day it’s tempted by thousands of flowers — notifications, emails, conversations and ideas. The quality of my life depends less on how many flowers I visit, and more on where I choose to land.
The evening is for my family. Once my son is asleep, my wife and I will often watch a show together then read or meditate. Sometimes we simply talk.
Great sleep is about the basics — a cool room, consistent bedtime, no heavy meals late and minimal alcohol. If your nervous system thinks it’s solving tomorrow’s problems, sleep becomes harder, too.