This post started life as a multi-part series inside our Founder's Friday emails. It got such a good response that we wanted to bring it together in one place, for anyone who missed an instalment or wants the whole thing in one read. Sleep, nutrition, training, routines, supplementation. The things I've learnt over the years, what I've tried, what's stuck, and what I've dropped.
I get asked a lot about what I actually do. What I personally do, day to day, to feel good, perform well, and stay consistent over the long run. So I decided to put it all down honestly, in one series. No theory for theory's sake. Just practical stuff based on my own experience, most of it learnt the hard way.
First, Let's Talk About Goals
Before any of this makes sense, you need to understand what you're actually optimising for.
Bryan Johnson is spending millions of dollars and an extraordinary amount of time trying to reverse his biological age. That's his goal, and honestly, it's pretty epic to watch. But for 99.9% of us, that level of commitment isn't realistic, and it's probably not what we actually want either. (If you're unfamiliar, there's a Netflix docuseries on him called Don't Die, worth a watch.)
The principle is the same whether you're a professional athlete or just someone trying to feel better: the more you want on one side of the equation, the more you have to give up on the other. A professional athlete makes sacrifices that most people aren't willing to make. That's what it takes to get there. Bryan Johnson does the same. The goal determines the approach.
For most of us, we're somewhere in the middle. We want to be healthy, feel good, have energy for the things we love, and still live a full life. That's a completely valid goal. It just requires a different approach to someone chasing elite performance or longevity at all costs. Ultimately, though, the underlying principles are the same.
The Optimisation Trap
A few years ago, I was deep in the tracking rabbit hole. Sleep metrics, blue light blockers, blackout curtains, eating exactly three hours before bed, cold exposure, the works. I was doing everything I could find, all at once. And honestly? It became exhausting. Some of it stuck. A lot of it didn't. Trying to do all of it perfectly meant that when one thing slipped, it felt like the whole system had failed.
What I've learnt since then, at least for me, is that the most impactful thing isn't doing everything perfectly. It's finding a handful of things that genuinely work for you and doing them consistently.
The goal isn't perfection. The goal is more good than bad, more often than not.
The Principle Behind This Whole Series
Everything that follows comes back to one idea: consistency beats perfection. Always.
A routine you can sustain through a busy week, a social event, a late night, a bad day, is worth infinitely more than a perfect protocol you abandon every time life gets in the way. And life always gets in the way. If one thing falls apart, the rest of your habits don't have to. That's not failure. That's just how it works.
"What you do every day matters more than what you do sometimes."
Let's Talk About Sleep
Of all the topics I get asked about, sleep comes up the most. And I get it. Poor sleep affects everything. Your mood, your focus, your training, your appetite, your stress levels. When sleep is off, everything else feels harder. When it's dialled in, everything else feels easier.
I've spent a fair amount of time obsessing over this one, probably more than any other area of health. And what I've learnt is that the solution is both simpler and more personal than most people think.
The Obsession Phase
A few years back, I was tracking everything I possibly could. Oura ring scores, sleep stages, HRV, time in deep sleep, time in REM. I had blue light blockers, blackout curtains, a strict no-screen policy before bed, a temperature-controlled room, the works. I was doing everything the sleep optimisation content told me to do, well, at least trying to.
Here's the honest truth. Some of it helped. A lot of it I couldn't sustain. The blue light blockers are somewhere in a drawer. The obsessive tracking became its own source of stress. I'd wake up, check my score, and if it was low, I'd already decided the day was going to be hard before it had even started.
That's not optimisation. That's just a different kind of anxiety.
What the Research Actually Says
Sleep science is pretty consistent on the fundamentals. Your body runs on a circadian rhythm, an internal clock regulated by light, temperature, meal timing, and activity. The more consistent your inputs, the more consistent your sleep quality. It's not complicated in theory. It's just not always easy in practice.
A few things the research backs clearly: eating too close to bedtime impairs sleep quality because your body has to choose between digesting and resting, and it can't do both well. Caffeine has a half-life of around five to six hours, meaning a 3pm coffee still has half its caffeine in your system at 8pm. Alcohol disrupts REM sleep even when it makes you feel like you're falling asleep faster. And consistency of sleep and wake times, even on weekends, is one of the strongest predictors of sleep quality over time.
None of that is revolutionary. But knowing it and actually building it into your life are two different things.
What My Routine Actually Looks Like
I'm in bed by around 8:30pm and up at 5am. That's pretty consistent, including most weekends. After dinner, we watch some TV, decompress, and wind down properly before getting into bed at roughly the same time each night. That transition, from the day to the evening, matters more than most people realise. Your brain needs a signal that the day is done. A consistent evening gives it that signal.
The things that have made the biggest difference for me:
- Eating 2 to 3 hours before bed. Not always perfect, but I aim for it consistently.
- No caffeine after 2pm. This one took adjustment, but the difference in how rested I feel is noticeable.
- Actual downtime before bed. Not scrolling, not emails, not anything that keeps the brain in work mode. Just switching off properly.
- A consistent bedtime. My body knows when sleep is coming and it prepares accordingly.
The occasional drink in the evening? Still happens. A late social event that throws the whole routine out the window? That happens too. And that's fine. The point isn't that every night is perfect. The point is that enough nights are good that the overall average stays high.
Where Supplements Fit In
I want to be honest here. Supplements are not a substitute for the basics above. If you're eating at 10pm, drinking three nights a week, and sleeping at a different time every night, no supplement is going to fix that. The fundamentals come first.
That said, once the foundations are in place, the right supplements can genuinely support the quality of what you're already doing.
Magnesium has been the single most impactful addition to my evening routine. It supports muscle relaxation and helps the nervous system wind down. Most people are deficient and don't know it. The form matters, though. Not all magnesium is equal. Bisglycinate and L-Threonate are the forms with the best absorption and the most relevant research for sleep and relaxation.
L-Theanine is the other one with supporting science. It supports a calm, relaxed mental state without sedation. It takes the edge off without knocking you out.
Prime Night was formulated specifically around this. It contains Magnesium Bisglycinate, Magnesium L-Threonate, L-Theanine, GABA, Apigenin, and Taurine, alongside electrolytes. It's what I take most evenings as part of my wind-down. Not because I built it, but because it genuinely works and I use it myself.
The Consistency Point
You don't need to do everything. You need to find the few things that actually move the needle for you and do them reliably. A consistent bedtime. Eating a bit earlier. Cutting caffeine in the afternoon. One or two things that help your body understand that sleep is coming.
And just to be clear, I'm not doing this perfectly either. I still watch TV before bed, which means I'm still getting blue light exposure most nights. I still have a glass of wine from time to time. But I've built a routine that is reliable and repeatable, and that's the point. It's not about eliminating every imperfect variable. It's about finding the things that genuinely make a difference for you, doing them consistently, and not letting one imperfect night unravel the whole thing.
Build the routine first. Let the rest follow. If your sleep is genuinely suffering, start with one change this week. Not ten. One. See how it feels over two weeks before adding anything else. More good nights than bad is the goal. Not perfection.
"The best sleep routine is the one you can actually keep. Not the one that looks perfect on paper."
Let's Talk About Nutrition
Before I get into this one, let me be clear. I'm not a dietician. I'm not a nutritionist. I have no formal qualifications in this space whatsoever. What I'm sharing here is purely my own experience, what I've tried, what I've learnt, and what I've found works for me. Take it in that spirit.
With that said, nutrition is probably the topic with the most noise around it. Keto, carnivore, intermittent fasting, calorie cycling, plant-based, high protein, low carb. Everyone has an opinion, every influencer has a protocol, and most of them are contradicting each other. It can make something fundamentally simple feel overwhelmingly complicated.
Nutrition shouldn't be that complicated. But it does need to be understood, and it needs to be tailored to what you are actually trying to achieve.
Goals First, Everything Else Second
Before anything else, you need to know what you are eating for. Someone trying to lose weight has different requirements to someone trying to build muscle, which is different again from someone just trying to have consistent energy and wellbeing. The principles overlap, but the specifics differ. If you don't know your goal, you can't build a useful approach around it.
For me personally, I'm not trying to lose weight. I'm trying to fuel myself well, prevent injuries, support my training, and have consistent energy through the day. That shapes most of the decisions I make around food. Once you know your goal, a lot of the noise falls away.
The Carb Conversation
There is a lot of unnecessary fear around carbohydrates, and I think it comes from misunderstanding context. Carbs are not the enemy. Poorly timed carbs with no purpose behind them are just extra energy your body has to deal with. But carbs around exercise? Genuinely useful, and underutilised by most people.
When you eat carbohydrates around exercise, particularly high intensity exercise, your insulin response is blunted compared to eating the same carbs at rest. Your muscles are essentially primed to use that fuel rather than store it. On hard training days, carbs before, during, and after exercise support performance and aid in recovery in a way that nothing else really replicates.
The practical takeaway: if you are going to eat carbs or sugar, time them around your training. Don't be afraid of them in that window. A banana before a run, a sports drink during a long session, something starchy after a hard workout. That's not cheating. That's just smart fuelling.
Protein is a different story. The idea of an anabolic window, that you have to get protein in within an hour of training or you've wasted the session, is largely overstated. What the research actually supports is that total daily protein intake matters far more than timing. Get enough protein across the day and you're doing the important thing.
What I Actually Do Day to Day
I don't follow a specific diet. I've tried a few over the years and what I've found is that eating with purpose works better for me than eating with rules.
I try to eat whole foods most of the time, probably a Mediterranean-style diet if I were to class it. Quality proteins, vegetables, fruits, and real carbs. I keep lunches light because a heavy midday meal makes me sluggish in the afternoon. I time carbs around exercise and, recently, have made more of an effort to increase my protein intake.
I don't obsess over calories daily, but I do a check-in every now and then as a pulse check. It's a useful way to see if what I think I'm eating actually matches what I'm eating. Most people are surprised by what they find.
Eat the Cake
I don't believe in finding the healthy version of everything. Just my personal opinion. The health brownie that tastes like chalk. The sugar-free chocolate that tastes pretty bang average. The cauliflower pizza that satisfies nobody. Just have the real thing, in moderation, and move on.
Life is not about restriction. It's about balance. If you eat well most of the time, a slice of cake, a piece of chocolate, that slice of pizza, none of that really derails anything. The problem is never the occasional treat. It's the daily habits surrounding it.
But balance doesn't mean anything goes. There is a difference between having a piece of chocolate and regularly eating ultra-processed foods, seed oils, artificial additives, and things that have very little nutritional value and a fairly long list of downsides. A healthy diet is not just about managing your weight. It's about fuelling your body with things that actually support it. Energy, recovery, immunity, long term health. The cake is fine. The daily drive-through habit is a different conversation. Eat well most of the time, eat real food most of the time, and the occasional indulgence takes care of itself.
The Consistency Point
Nutrition doesn't need to be perfect. It needs to be sustainable. Find an approach that fits your life, supports your goals, and that you can maintain through a busy week, a dinner out, a holiday, a stressful month. If it falls apart the moment life gets inconvenient, it's not the right approach for you, regardless of how scientifically sound it is.
Eat well, understand what you're eating and why. Don't be afraid of carbs around training. Get your protein in across the day. Have the treat. Do a pulse check every now and then to make sure you're on track.
"Understanding what you eat and why is more powerful than any diet you'll ever follow."
Let's Talk About Training
I've been through a few different chapters with exercise over the years. Triathlon was a big part of my life for a while, then cycling took over, and more recently I've moved into running and functional hybrid training, a mix of strength and cardio that keeps things varied and gives me events and races to train towards. Each phase taught me something different, and each one happened because I found something I genuinely enjoyed at that point in my life.
That's not an accident. That's the whole point.
Not Everyone Is Starting From the Same Place
Before anything else, it's worth separating two groups of people, because the conversation is slightly different for each.
The first group is people who aren't moving much at all. If that's you, the most important thing is simply to start. The research here is unambiguous. Regular physical activity, almost regardless of the type, is one of the strongest predictors of long term health outcomes. Cardiovascular health, mental health, metabolic function, longevity. Movement matters enormously, and the gap between doing nothing and doing something is far bigger than the gap between something good and something optimal.
The second group is people who are already active and want to get more out of what they're doing. If that's you, the conversation shifts slightly. For long term health and longevity specifically, resistance training deserves more attention than it typically gets. The research on muscle mass as a predictor of healthy ageing is compelling. Cardio is valuable, but combining it with some form of resistance training, whether that's weights, bodyweight work, or functional training, gives you a more complete picture of health over time.
Most people don't need to choose between the two. They need a bit of both.
Enjoyment Is Not a Luxury, It's a Strategy
Here is something I genuinely believe: enjoyment is the most underrated variable in training. Not because it feels nice, but because it's the thing that makes consistency possible over years, not just weeks. If you dread your training, you will find reasons to skip it. If you enjoy it, you will find ways to make it happen even on the days when life gets in the way.
I love running. It's simple, the barrier to entry is low, I can do it almost anywhere, and there is something about it that genuinely clears my head. I also enjoy the structure that comes with functional hybrid training and having races and events on the calendar to train towards. That combination of enjoyment, variety, and purpose keeps me more consistent than any perfectly designed programme ever has.
If you don't enjoy what you're doing, find something else. Not because the thing you're doing isn't effective, but because the best training programme in the world is useless if you don't show up for it.
Discipline vs Motivation
This is worth talking about because I think motivation gets too much credit.
Motivation is unreliable. It comes and goes. It's high when you first sign up for something, low three weeks into a cold and busy month. If your consistency depends on feeling motivated, you will be inconsistent. That's just the reality.
Discipline is different. Discipline is showing up because it's the thing you do, not because you feel like it today. It's built through repetition and routine until training becomes less of a decision and more of a default.
But here's the honest part. Pure discipline is also hard to sustain in isolation. What actually bridges the gap between motivation and discipline is structure. A plan, a training partner, a coach, a race on the calendar. These things create external accountability that carries you through the periods when internal motivation isn't enough.
I've found that entering an event is one of the most reliable ways to manufacture both motivation and discipline at once. Suddenly the sessions have a purpose. You're not just exercising, you're preparing for something specific. I'd recommend this to almost anyone regardless of fitness level. Find something that excites you slightly and put your name down for it.
Community and Accountability
Training alone requires a level of self-motivation that most of us don't consistently have. Training with other people removes a huge amount of that friction. A gym, a running club, a class, a friend at the gate at 5:30am. Someone is expecting you. You show up. It sounds simple because it is.
Some of the most consistent people I know are consistent not because of extraordinary willpower but because they've built structures around their training that make showing up the path of least resistance. Join a club. Find a training partner. Sign up for a class. Get a coach if you have a specific goal or are coming back from a setback. The social element keeps people coming back in a way that solo training often doesn't.
More Is Not Always Better
One thing that often gets overlooked in the training conversation is that small, simple movements throughout the day matter more than most people realise. Research suggests that a short walk after eating, even ten to fifteen minutes, has a meaningful impact on post-meal insulin response and blood sugar regulation. Not a hard session. Just movement.
It's a good reminder that optimising your health doesn't always look like an intense workout. Sometimes it's just not sitting still for three hours after lunch. The principle here is the same one that runs through this whole series. Consistency over intensity. More good days than bad. Small things done regularly compound into big results over time.
Where Supplements Fit Into Training
Same principle as nutrition. Foundations first, supplements second. If you're not sleeping, not eating enough protein, not training consistently, no supplement is going to move the needle in any meaningful way. But once those things are in place, a few well-chosen additions can genuinely support what you're already doing.
Here are the ones I actually use and believe in:
- Creatine is probably the most researched supplement in existence and one of the most consistently underused by people outside of serious gym culture. It supports strength, power output, and recovery. More recent research also points to cognitive benefits. It's not just for bodybuilders. It's for anyone who trains regularly and wants to get more out of it. I take it daily. The dose is simple, three to five grams per day, no loading phase required.
- Magnesium is one I've mentioned already in this series, but it earns a mention here too. It plays a role in muscle function, energy production, and recovery. Most people are deficient. If you're training regularly and not supplementing magnesium, it's worth considering. Form matters here, Bisglycinate and L-Threonate are the forms with the best absorption and the most relevant research.
- Omega 3s. The research on fish oil for inflammation, joint health, and recovery is well established. If you're training hard, your joints and soft tissue take a beating over time. Omega 3s won't fix a problem, but they do support the environment in which your body recovers. Look for a product with meaningful EPA and DHA levels, not one where the dose looks impressive but the active content is minimal.
- Cell Fuel is one I'm genuinely proud of and one I come back to consistently. It's a functional endurance formula built around medicinal mushrooms, specifically Cordyceps, which has a meaningful body of research behind it for VO2 max, time to fatigue, and physical endurance. It's not a stimulant, there's no crash, and it works in a completely different way to caffeine-based pre-workouts. I use it before longer or harder sessions and the difference in sustained output is noticeable. This one is special to me because it sits at the intersection of everything we were built around. Natural ingredients, proper research, meaningful doses. If you train and haven't tried it, it's worth adding to your stack.
None of these are magic. All of them are useful when the rest is already in place.
The Consistency Point
Find something you enjoy. Add some resistance training if you want to invest in your long term health. Enter an event to give yourself a goal. Find people to train with. Walk after meals. Show up even when you don't feel like it, especially then.
You don't need to do all of this perfectly. You just need to do enough of it, often enough, that it becomes part of how you live rather than something you have to talk yourself into.
"Motivation gets you started. Discipline keeps you going. But structure is what makes both of them sustainable."
Bringing It All Together
We've gone through sleep, nutrition, and training. This last part is about how it all actually fits together in practice, because knowing what to do is only half of it. The other half is building a structure around your day that makes doing the right things feel natural rather than forced.
That's really what a routine is. Not a rigid schedule or a perfect protocol. Just a repeatable framework that your brain and body come to understand and expect. When that clicks, a lot of the decision fatigue disappears. You stop having to think about whether to train, when to eat, or when to wind down. It just happens. And that's where the real compounding begins.
My Morning
I'll walk you through what my morning actually looks like because I think the simplicity of it is the point.
I wake up and the first thing I do before anything else is drink a glass of water. Not coffee. Not a supplement. Just water. After six to eight hours of sleep your body is dehydrated and your brain is running on empty. Rehydrating first thing is one of the simplest, easiest, and most impactful things you can do. It costs nothing, takes thirty seconds, and it's great for the gut too.
I also don't drink tap water. This is something I feel strongly about. We consume litres and litres, hopefully, of water every day, and water quality matters. Tap water in most places contains chlorine, fluoride, and various other things I'd rather not be drinking consistently. Filtered water is an easy switch that I think makes a meaningful difference over time. Different priorities for different people, but it's something I've found easy to implement and believe in.
After water comes coffee. Then training. Then work. It sounds simple because it is. But the order matters. The water before coffee, the training before the desk.
Where Supplements Fit Into My Day
I want to give you a practical picture of how I actually use supplements rather than just listing products.
Most of my supplements are taken in the morning. I know there are benefits to taking certain things with food, without food, at specific times of day, and so on, and yes, some of that matters at the margins. But in my experience, consistency beats perfect timing every time. If the choice is between taking something at the optimal moment inconsistently or taking it at the same time every day without thinking about it, I'll take the latter every time. So I lump most of my general supplements together in the morning, and post session, and I just get it done.
Prime Day is the foundation of my morning stack. It goes into water and covers hydration, focus, energy, mood support, and key vitamins all in one. It's the thing I've found hardest to skip because the difference on days I don't take it is noticeable.
Creatine gets taken during or after my training session, mixed into whatever I'm drinking post-workout. Simple, consistent, no complicated timing required beyond just doing it daily. Post session is also when I take the rest of my stack. Everything gets done in one go so there's nothing to remember later in the day.
The exception is sleep supplements, which obviously go in the evening. There, I switch between Prime Night or Magnesium Complex depending on how I'm feeling. If I've had a harder training day or I know sleep is going to be important, Prime Night. If I just want the muscle relaxation and recovery support without the fuller formula, Magnesium Complex.
The through-line across all of this is consistency. Taking the right things at roughly the same time every day is what makes supplementation actually work. Not the perfect product. Not the perfect dose. Just showing up with it daily.
The Founders Stack
If you've been following along and you're wondering where to start with supplementation, we put together something that reflects exactly how I approach my own daily routine.
The Founders Stack brings together the products I use most consistently, built around the same morning and evening structure I've described throughout this series. It also comes with a free water bottle, which, given everything I've said about hydration, feels appropriate.
Shop FOUNDERS STACK 
Small Things. Done Consistently.
Here is what I want to leave you with from this entire series.
The gap between where most people are and where they want to be is rarely about knowledge. It's about consistency. And consistency is rarely about willpower. It's about making the right things easy and the wrong things inconvenient.
A glass of water before coffee. Supplements taken at the same time every day. A consistent bedtime. Carbs around training. A race on the calendar. A training partner waiting for you. These are not revolutionary ideas. But done daily, across months and years, they compound into something significant.
The 80/20 rule applies here as much as anywhere. Get 80% of it right, consistently, and don't stress the remaining 20. The occasional late night, the skipped session, the extra glass of wine, the dessert at dinner. None of that undoes what the other 80% is building. The goal was never perfection. It was never meant to be.
Closing Out the Series
This has been an enjoyable series to put together. I started it because people kept asking me what I actually do, and I figured the most useful thing I could do was just be honest about it. No expert credentials, no perfect protocols, just what I've found works for me after years of trying most of it.
If anything in this series has been useful, I'm glad. If you have questions, topics you'd like us to cover, or things you'd like us to go deeper on in future, get in touch and let us know.
Thank you for following along.
"Do 80% right, consistently, and don't sweat the 20%."
