I’ve spent a lifetime figuring out the formula, and yes, it changes with age. These days, I start early.
I’m up around 6am. That way I can catch up with people on the East Coast, where it’s already 9am, and I get a head start. I’m fortunate enough to live with my personal fitness trainer — our dog, Bucky. He needs his morning outing, so we go out together for a fast-paced walk-run, around two or three miles.
I’m usually back at my desk around 8am, and I follow a time-restricted eating pattern. I don’t eat a traditional breakfast. My first meal is generally around 11 or 12, and my last will be 7pm. That’s roughly a
16:8 fasting cycle — 16 hours of fasting, eight hours of eating time. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for younger people or those building muscle, but for people in my age group, it reduces the metabolic load on the body.
The key is eating nutrient-dense foods — staying away from processed items, high-fat and high-sugar foods, and obviously avoiding sweetened beverages. I’m a big believer in drinking water throughout the day and always keep a large container at my desk. Six to eight glasses a day is the goal.
In the US we’re lucky to have access to tartary buckwheat — a crop we’ve worked on that’s over 3,500 years old and naturally high in polyphenols. These compounds are powerful for the immune system. I’m not a chef, but I do a bit of weekend cooking, making flatbreads and crisps with tartary buckwheat flour. I believe eating for our immune systems is really important. It’s not just about vitamins or minerals — immune-active foods help repair and regenerate the body. The colour of food is a great guide. Natural colours — orange, red, blue, purple — come from flavonoids, which are very powerful nutrients.
Dinner, for me, is a celebratory meal — time for community, relaxation, storytelling. I try to eat slowly, joyfully, never in haste. That improves digestion, nutrient absorption and makes the whole process more enjoyable. I finish eating by 7 or 8pm and get to bed by 11. That gap gives my body time to digest before rest.
It’s crucial to have a wind-down period. I avoid technical reading in the evening — no science journals. That’s my time for fiction. I love nature writing, and one of my favourite authors is Wade Davis, a National Geographic fellow. He writes about wild places and far-flung cultures. It takes me somewhere else before sleep.
I aim for seven to eight hours of good-quality sleep each night. It’s not just time in bed — it’s the quality that matters. Our circadian rhythms shift with age, and sleep becomes something you have to practise. There’s even a system in the brain called the glymphatics that cleans up accumulated waste during REM sleep. So I try to give my mind time to slow down before bed, with reading or quiet music.
I use a couple of wearable devices —whoo/shopping/esbest/gadgets-tech/fitness/whoop-mg-review-health-tracking-b1227474.html and an Apple Watch — to track my sleep, heart rate variability, body temperature and steps. It’s like having a personal coach. The data keeps me on track.
I don’t meditate in the traditional sense, but I’ve trained myself to fall into short meditative states throughout the day, especially on flights. I’ve travelled over six million miles and I can slip into meditation before take-off and come out of it after we’re airborne.
I do take supplements. A high-potency multivitamin, omega-3 cod liver oil and a polyphenol blend from tartary buckwheat.
Life is a privilege. It’s a joyful opportunity. We should each day see an opportunity to do something that expresses our full joy of being present on this planet.
As told to Will Rogers-Coltman
