Running marathons and building travel apps!

Hello! Who are you and what are you working on?

Hi, I’m Joris and I’m currently freelancing while building travel apps and a health focused website.

I’m mostly building for fun, most of my apps are not monetizable. I might build a more commercial app in the future.

Take us through your workout routine?

I work out every weekday, 20 minutes in the morning. First thing after waking up. It’s either swimming, running or yoga.

I live in Thailand, it’s amazing to swim. The outside pool is warm enough 10 months of the year.

Running on the contrary gets very hot. On Fridays I do long runs of 15 to 25 kms, in preparation for marathons, and for these I leave at 5am to make sure I’m back inside by 7.30am before the sun gets too hot.

For yoga I’m using free Youtube sessions of 20 minutes. There are so many these days, though I would like to take a real offline course one day to actually improve.

I work out every weekday, 20 minutes in the morning. First thing after waking up

What does your diet look like?

I combine Paleo with Keto principles. Mostly veggies, fruits and meats. Keto strictly speaking doesn’t allow you to eat fruits, but this is what we humans been eating for millions of years.

Recently I try to focus more on proteins: chicken, egg-whites, …

I avoid refined sugars, bread, cheese, …

I do drink milk.

I am doing intermittent fasting to reduce my weight. I was eating from 4pm to 8pm every day, but because I’m not losing weight I’m tightening the window from 5pm to 7pm.

It conflicts with social events on weekends so I don't do it on weekends.

I don’t drink alcohol or coffee.

Do you do any other health related actions (meditation, going on retreats, …)?

I try to meditate 15 minutes every morning. I use Tony Robbins’ priming exercise, which is probably more a visualisation, rather than a meditation.

I did a Wim Hofman icebath workshop a year ago, and ever since I’ve been looking for other activities which bring me out of my comfort zone. Maybe a Tony Robbins event...

How do you combine it with a family life?

The two biggest challenges are being able to do the workouts in the morning when the 9 month old has had issues during the night.

And having the mental awareness about what I’m eating. A baby puts you on a train which continuously rushes through and it’s more difficult to find a moment to step out and take a look at what I am doing, eating, thinking, …

Any specific challenges you’re training for, or any changes or improvements in your lifestyle planned?

I recently did a marathon which I really enjoyed. I’m intending to do another one in the second half of 2023.

I want to be able to do a Front Hand Spring, and chain them together. I've been practicing for a while now.

I’m currently losing weight, back to 67kgs.

And I want to do a cryotherapy session this year.

On the longer term, I would like to climb the Matterhorn, ski the Haute Route, and do an unspecified long distance cycling or horseriding challenge!

Anything specific that you learned that you would love to share?

Take mental breaks. Find a time for yourself every day or every couple of days. As private as possible and just don’t do anything, but let thoughts come to you. Put away your phone.

A bath is a good environment for this. It helps reflect and structure my goals.

Any tools or tracking you use (Strava, Spreadsheets, Apple Watch, …)?

I use Strava for tracking my workout. I have a spreadsheet in which I track my daily habits and metrics (my weight, whether I did sports, if I meditated, if I did intermittent fasting, whether I read something that day, if I posted on Twitter, if I made an plan for the next day in the evening, whether I listened to something inspirational, …).

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

About business, Richard Branson, Marc Benioff and Tony Robbins are very inspiring, as well as Pieter Levels.

In health and diet, I learned a lot from the Tim Ferriss show, also Wim Hofman who talks about fasting for example. There is a lot of conflicting information out there.

Advice for other entrepreneurs or freelancers who want to get started or are just starting out?

There has never been a better time to start than right now!

Where can we go to learn more?

You can find me on Twitter, my newsletter, my personal site or Strava.

Anyone you would recommend me interviewing?

I have two friends, Greg and Tara, who are both working in the freelance and entrepreneurship scene, and combine it with living healthy.!

As well as Lynne Tye who combines Iron Mans with entrepreneurship.

Or the Furlough founder who had some really challenging goals for 2023 in his newsletter.