I used to think health optimization was a distraction from real work. Then I hit a wall — not a dramatic burnout story, just a slow, creeping decline where I was sleeping poorly, thinking slower, and running on willpower instead of energy. Running seven projects on caffeine and stubbornness has a shelf life. I found mine somewhere around age 33.
So I did what I always do: I went deep. Read the research. Tested things on myself. Tracked what actually moved the needle versus what just sounded impressive on a podcast. Two years later, I have a routine that genuinely works — and a graveyard of abandoned biohacks that didn't.
Here's the unfiltered version.
The Foundation: Sleep Is Not Negotiable
I know. You've heard this a thousand times. But I'm going to say it again because almost every entrepreneur I talk to — in Unfiltered Advice sessions, in my communities, in casual conversations — is chronically underslept and pretending it's fine.
It's not fine. Sleep deprivation doesn't make you tougher or more productive. It makes you dumber, slower, more emotional, and worse at every single thing you do. The research on this is overwhelming and unambiguous. After a week of sleeping 6 hours a night, your cognitive performance drops to the level of someone who's been awake for 48 hours straight. You just don't notice because your ability to self-assess also deteriorates.
Here's what changed my sleep:
A consistent schedule. I go to bed at 22:30 and wake up at 06:30. Every day. Weekends too. This was the single biggest improvement. Your body's circadian rhythm is real, and it rewards consistency more than anything else.
No screens after 21:30. I charge my phone in the kitchen, not the bedroom. I read a physical book before bed. This sounds quaint and old-fashioned. It also works better than any sleep supplement I've ever tried.
A cold bedroom. We keep the bedroom at about 17°C. Coming from Switzerland, I'm used to cool air. But the science backs this up — your core body temperature needs to drop for deep sleep, and a warm room actively fights that process.
No caffeine after 13:00. Caffeine has a half-life of about 5-6 hours. That afternoon coffee at 15:00 means you still have half the caffeine in your system at 21:00. I learned this the hard way after years of wondering why I couldn't fall asleep despite being exhausted.
I don't track my sleep with gadgets anymore. I did for a while — Oura ring, Apple Watch, various apps. The data was interesting but ultimately just confirmed what I already knew: when I follow the basics, I sleep well. When I don't, I don't. The tracking became another source of anxiety rather than a solution.
Morning Routine: Boring but Bulletproof
Let's talk about the 5 AM wake-up trend. I tried it. For about three months, I woke up at 5:00, did a cold shower, meditated, journaled, and worked out — all before my kids were awake.
You know what happened? I was exhausted by 14:00 every day. Because I wasn't going to bed at 21:00 — I have a wife, a life, and things to do in the evening. Waking up at 5 AM when you go to bed at 23:00 is just sleep deprivation with a motivational veneer.
My actual morning looks like this:
06:30 — Wake up naturally (no alarm most days because the schedule is consistent).
06:45 — Black coffee and 15 minutes outside. Not a meditation retreat. Not a gratitude journaling session. Just standing in my garden in Friesland with coffee, looking at the sky, letting my brain wake up. The morning light exposure matters — it sets your circadian clock for the day.
07:00 — Breakfast with the family. Eggs, whole grain bread, sometimes oatmeal. Protein in the morning keeps my energy stable. I used to skip breakfast because intermittent fasting was trendy. More on that below.
07:45 — Exercise. This is the non-negotiable part. I train 5-6 days a week, alternating between strength training and cardio/movement. Sessions are 30-45 minutes, not two-hour gym marathons. I train at home with kettlebells, a pull-up bar, resistance bands, and a rowing machine. No gym membership needed.
08:30 — Shower, then work. My most important creative and strategic work happens between 09:00 and 12:00. That's my peak cognitive window, and I protect it aggressively. No calls, no emails, no meetings before noon if I can help it.
That's it. No ice baths, no binaural beats, no 47-step morning protocol. Boring. Effective.
Exercise: What Moved the Needle
I've gone through phases with exercise — pure running, bodyweight-only, heavy barbell training, yoga, swimming, cycling. Here's what I've settled on after years of experimentation.
Strength training 3x per week. This is the highest-ROI form of exercise for entrepreneurs. It builds muscle (which matters more for longevity than most people realize), improves posture (critical if you sit at a desk), boosts testosterone and growth hormone naturally, and gives you a physical challenge that's completely different from the mental challenges of work. I use kettlebells, bodyweight movements, and resistance bands. Nothing fancy.
Cardio 2-3x per week. A mix of zone 2 (conversational pace — walking, easy cycling, rowing) and one harder session. Zone 2 cardio is what builds your aerobic base and improves mitochondrial function. It's the foundation of cardiovascular health, and most people completely neglect it because it doesn't feel like a "real workout." If you can hold a conversation while doing it, you're in the right zone.
Daily walking. I walk for at least 30 minutes every day, usually with my kids or while making phone calls. Walking is absurdly underrated. It clears your head, aids digestion, counts as zone 2 cardio, and gives you ideas you'd never have sitting at a desk. Some of my best business decisions have come to me during walks along the canals here in Friesland.
What I stopped doing: Long-distance running (wrecked my knees and spiked cortisol), CrossFit-style workouts (too much injury risk for someone whose body is their work tool), and any exercise that left me so destroyed I couldn't think clearly afterward. Exercise should give you energy, not drain it.
Nutrition: Simple, Not Perfect
I tried intermittent fasting for six months. 16:8, then 18:6, then one meal a day for a brief, miserable period. The results? I lost some weight I didn't need to lose, my energy was inconsistent, and I was irritable during my supposedly most productive morning hours.
Fasting works for some people. It didn't work for me. The lesson: don't force a dietary approach because it's popular. Pay attention to how your body actually responds.
What I actually eat now is boringly simple:
High protein. I aim for roughly 1.5-2g of protein per kilogram of body weight. This means eggs, fish, chicken, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and legumes feature heavily in my diet. Protein keeps you full, supports muscle recovery, and stabilizes blood sugar.
Whole foods, mostly. Vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, olive oil. I cook most of my meals at home. Not because I'm a health purist, but because my wife is an excellent cook and restaurant food in the Dutch countryside isn't exactly Michelin territory. Living in Friesland has its perks — fresh local produce, great dairy — and I take advantage of them.
Strategic indulgence. I drink beer (I co-founded a beer brand, obviously), I eat chocolate, I enjoy a good cheese board. I don't believe in perfection. I believe in a baseline that's good enough 80% of the time, with room for life the other 20%.
What I don't do: Keto, carnivore, juice cleanses, or any diet that requires you to eliminate entire food groups or carry a food scale to restaurants. These approaches might have clinical applications, but for a busy entrepreneur who wants sustainable energy, they're overkill.
Supplements: The 90% That's Wasted Money
The supplement industry is a masterclass in marketing. Most of it is expensive placebo. Here's the very short list of what I actually take:
Vitamin D (especially in the Dutch winter — Friesland gets about 4 hours of daylight in December). Almost everyone in Northern Europe is deficient. Get your levels tested and supplement accordingly.
Magnesium (glycinate form, before bed). Helps with sleep quality and muscle recovery. One of the few supplements with solid evidence behind it.
Omega-3 fish oil. For cardiovascular health and inflammation. I eat fish twice a week but still supplement because the research supports it.
Creatine (5g daily). Not just for gym bros. There's increasing research showing cognitive benefits, especially for people under chronic stress or sleep pressure. It's also one of the most studied supplements in existence with an excellent safety profile.
That's the list. Everything else I've tried — ashwagandha, lion's mane, various nootropic stacks, adaptogens, greens powders — either did nothing I could measure or had effects so subtle they weren't worth the cost and hassle.
Mental Health: The Part Nobody Talks About
Entrepreneurship is lonely. That's not a complaint — it's a structural reality. When you're the one making all the decisions, carrying all the risk, and managing the emotional labor of multiple projects, there's a weight that accumulates if you don't actively manage it.
Here's what works for me:
Boundaries around work. I don't work after 18:00 on weekdays and rarely on weekends. This was incredibly hard to enforce at first because there's always something that feels urgent. But nothing in my business is actually so urgent it can't wait until morning. Setting boundaries taught me that most "urgency" is self-imposed.
Talking to people who get it. My wife is my best sounding board, but she shouldn't be my only one. I have a small circle of entrepreneur friends — some in Wohnzimmer, some from my sailing days — who understand the specific pressures of this life. Regular, honest conversations with people who get it is the best mental health intervention I know.
Time in nature. Friesland is incredibly flat, incredibly windy, and incredibly beautiful. The lakes, the farmland, the endless sky. When my head is too full, a walk or a bike ride through the countryside resets something in my brain that no productivity app can touch. I didn't appreciate this enough when I first moved here from Switzerland. Now I think it might be one of the best things about living here.
Knowing when to stop optimizing. There's a point where health optimization becomes its own form of anxiety. Tracking every metric, stressing about perfect sleep scores, feeling guilty about a skipped workout or an extra beer — that's not health, that's another form of performance pressure dressed up as self-care.
I've gotten much better at the "good enough" approach. Hit the basics consistently. Train regularly. Eat well most of the time. Sleep enough. Spend time with people you love. The rest is noise.
The Bottom Line
Health isn't a separate category from your work — it's the foundation everything else is built on. Your business decisions are only as good as the brain making them. Your energy for clients, for creative work, for showing up consistently — it all comes from how you treat your body.
But the health and wellness industry thrives on making this complicated. It's not. Sleep consistently. Move your body daily. Eat real food. Get sunlight. Manage your stress. Connect with people. That's 90% of it.
The other 10%? That's personal. It's figuring out what works for your body, your schedule, your life. And if you want help sorting through that — whether it's health, business, finances, or just the general feeling of "something needs to change but I don't know where to start" — that's exactly the kind of conversation I have in Unfiltered Advice sessions. No scripts, no frameworks, just a real talk about where you are and where you want to be.
Because the best routine in the world won't help if you're optimizing in the wrong direction.
— Fabio