5 Easy Ways to Be a Healthier Founder

Mar 26

Being a founder is a marathon, not a sprint. That’s why, regardless of where you fall in terms of work-life balance, it’s essential to find your recharge and every once-in-awhile take a break. No really.

But the days can be long even while the years are short. Which is why finding small ways to inject regular healthy behaviors into your routine is essential for long-term performance.

Here are 5 easy ways to be a healthier founder (and, in doing so, perform better over the long-run):

1. Ditch Sugary Sodas

It’s surprising to me that this is still a thing in 2025, but if you’re consuming high-sugar sodas on a regular basis, cut them out. A single can of soda has between 40 and 50 grams of sugar (that’s 10 - 12 tsp). There are plenty of things you can swap sugary sodas for, including:

Black coffee
Flavored carbonated water
Unsweetened iced tea
Unsweetened electrolyte drinks
Diet soda (though I know some folks have thoughts on artificial sweeteners)

2. Switch to Black Coffee

I love coffee and I’m a daily coffee drinker. For most of my life, I happily consumed my morning joe with cream and sugar. A few years ago, I switched to black coffee in the mornings at the suggestion of my trainer.

I admit it wasn’t easy at first — I had grown quite accustomed to sweeter coffee before the sunrise — but with so many flavorful roasts available, it didn’t take long to get used to.

I still happily drink cappuccinos during my many coffee meanings during the day. But switching to black coffee first thing in the morning was an easy way to extend my natural overnight fast without really changing anything.

3. Pacing Phone Calls

One of the changes I made years ago — back before any of us had heard of Zoom — was to pace during phone calls. Seriously.

Whenever I take phone calls, I stand in whatever room I’m taking the call in and walk around in circles. Over and over again.

When Fitbit first came on the market, I started tracking my steps and was astonished to find I was easily cracking 15,000 steps each day, even on days when I didn’t leave the office.

It’s a little harder to do today, when so many of our calls are expected to be on video, but if you can switch some of those to the phone and then stand up and walk around while you’re on them, you’ll be amazed what it will do for your health.

4. Walking Meetings

This is another easy change to your weekly routine: take some of your 1x1 meetings as walk-and-talks. You can do this with coffee meetings (order the coffees to go instead of sitting down) or in-office meetings that don’t require screens or whiteboards.

With so much evidence that it’s okay to go outside (and, in fact, incredibly beneficial), this is a simple change that can can provide a multitude of benefits.

5. Leave Your Phone Outside

This may sound crazy, but hear me out…

Countless studies have shown that using your phone too close to bedtime negatively impacts sleep. It’s not just the light from the screen (which has been shown to suppress the production of melatonin, which regulates sleep). The simple act of utilizing your phone — whether to read an email or send a text or doom scroll — engages your brain in such a way as to delay REM sleep.

The solution? Leave your phone outside of your bedroom.

It doesn’t have to be far away — you can literally plug it into an outlet in the hallway overnight — but by leaving your phone in a different room, you add just enough friction to make you mentally do a double-take before mindlessly reaching for it. Trust me.

I haven’t kept my phone in my bedroom in years, and it’s done wonders for my sleep (and I promise, I haven’t missed a single late-night emergency call or morning alarm).

Looking for more tips on how to be a healthier founder? Check out this post on how I undid my Covid bad habits or this collection of delicious and (mostly) healthy recipes designed to fit within the busy schedule of a startup founder, investor, early startup employee…or pretty much anyone.

The Founder Journey

Chris Neumann