I'm used to interviewees logging onto Zoom everywhere from gyms to cars. But it was a first when Bear Grylls joined our call while hiking in rugged, rural north Wales where he lives. I shouldn't have been surprised. Only seeing him abseil down a mountain with his phone in one hand would have made the set-up any more classic "Bear Grylls."
It's been almost two decades since Grylls, 50, became synonymous with such white-knuckle adventure. The son of a politician who attended Eton College, the British boarding school favored by the royal family, Grylls quickly decided that the white-collar life wasn't for him.
After joining the elite Special Air Service (comparable to Delta Force in the US) reserves and serving in the military for three years, Grylls carved out a reputation as an adventurer, including becoming one of the youngest people to scale Mount Everest in 1998.
All this primed Grylls to become the world's most famous survivalist. By 2014, he had enough star power to convince Barack Obama to chow down on bloody salmon in the Alaskan wilderness and Zac Efron to sleep in an Appalachian cave on his show "Running Wild with Bear Grylls."
But there's another side to Grylls: the father of three trying to live as normal and healthy a life as possible while juggling a career spanning TV, books, and speaking events. Well, as normal as you'd imagine for Bear Grylls.
In the first installment of Business Insider's new "5 to 9" series, where celebrities and high-flyers share how they spend the hours they're not working, Grylls explained how he keeps fit, what he eats, and how he recharges.
As Grylls told me, "That forms a foundation of everything else, doesn't it?"
Weight-lifting and outdoor walks each morning
I imagine every day is different, but how do you typically start the day?
I always have a big glass of salted water in the morning, just a pinch of good sea salt and water.
Then wherever I am in the world, whatever I'm doing, whether we're filming or just at home, I get up and I resist the urge just to go on my phone. I try to just get outside. If I'm at home, I'll take the dogs — here up in North Wales, it's often windy and rainy — but I just try to get out and walk for 10 minutes, nothing crazy, just to get outside. I always try to go barefoot as well, even in the winter — unless it's zero degrees, in which case it really hurts.
I use that time to say my morning prayers, which I like to do when I'm walking. I like to try and start the day right — call it meditation, whatever, but it's just thinking about the day ahead, saying sorry for the many mistakes, asking for help for the day, and being grateful.
Do you work out in the morning?
After my morning walk, I stretch and do a workout for about half an hour, outside if possible. I used to do weekly yoga and then I started to dread it because I found it boring, so then I decided it was easier to do 10 or 15 minutes every morning instead of one massive session a week.
I do a quite high-intensity weight-lifting workout, but again, nothing too crazy. I don't want it to be vomit-inducing until you dread it. I've had so much of that in my life, so I go short and sharp, but definitely weights-based.
The first 15 minutes of every workout is the same: 25 pull-ups, 50 press-ups, 75 squats, and 100 sit-ups. I've done it for years and it took me about three years to be able to get to do all of those in one go. But now I'm there, I actually add a weighted vest. So I start the same way and then just do a 15-minute weights circuit.
Cold plunges to train the mind
Is that when you're done and ready for work?
Not quite. The final thing I do in the morning is get cold. Whether it's a cold shower, whether it's five or 10 minutes in the sea… we have a little river nearby so I'll jump in that.
Every day of the year, I try and get cold just for three minutes: I think that shocks the system, keeps you honest. I've done this for years, long before it was trendy to do cold water swimming.
The only thing that puts me off cold water nowadays is that everyone's doing it.
For me this goes all the way back to SAS selection — but whenever we're getting really tough physically, I just remember this guy always used to say with a smile on his face, "This is now good mental training."
And I think you can't just wait for crisis times in your life to deliver on mental strength. You've got to train it.
If we sit in our comfort zone all the time we rot
And the cold water is your way of doing that?
Yes. There's nowhere to hide and it actually doesn't really get easier. So therefore it's a bit of a discipline, isn't it? Nobody really likes the idea of discipline, but I think it's important to have a few things in your day that are not massive but are enough to keep you honest.
It is hard, but once you're in, it's three minutes. You can do anything for three minutes. But actually it's amazing how many people decide to join me, and they literally can't. They have to get out after 10 seconds.
That's your subconscious telling you, "Get out, this is dangerous." But actually, you can override that.
If we sit in our comfort zone all the time, we rot. It's like stagnant water in a jungle, in a stream. If it's dammed up, it starts to stink. You've got to get out of that comfort pit and do little challenging things, and then when the crisis times come in your life, you're strong.
So, did your time in the military play a big role in developing that mindset?
There's a great phrase carved in wood at the training center in the barracks where all the Royal Marines go that says: "Comfortable with uncertainty." I never used to understand that.
But actually, it is key to life. Things happen. Life hits you sideways. If you're not ready for change and you're not familiar with uncertainty, you get run over in life.
Eating like our ancestors
Tell us about your eating habits.
I eat two meals a day, so I have an early lunch and an early supper.
I aim to eat really naturally, how our ancestors ate 5,000 or 10,000 years ago. I have a lot of grass-fed, good red meat, I'm definitely not scared of blood and red meat.
I have a lot of eggs. It's pretty obvious that an egg is a totally complete survival food. The yolk is beautiful, the richest part, just packed full of nutrients. All this stuff we've heard for years about egg yolks being bad and meat being bad, I get more and more skeptical of it. If I just look at it with fresh eyes, it's like, of course this is a natural, beautiful food that we're designed to thrive on.
I'm always a bit envious of people who only need three hours' sleep a night
So I avoid the processed stuff like pasta and cheap bread — that to me just feels a bit more like cardboard — and the crappy sugars as well. But I have a lot of honey and a lot of fruit. I have veggies in real moderation.
I try and find good Greek yogurt and I just avoid all those crappy oils — I make my own mayonnaise with eggs, olive oil, and sea salt.
And if I want something sweet after a meal, I have a couple of DIRTEA mushroom gummies [Grylls is an investor and partner in the functional mushroom brand].
Winding down with 'insanely good' hot chocolate
Who's the main cook in your household?
Probably me. We all do our bit, but I quite like cooking. But our three boys are obsessed with cooking — not fancy stuff, but they're always fighting to get the frying pan to cook a massive T-bone steak.
We also make some really good healing mushroom cacao hot chocolates with raw milk and honey, and it's just insanely good.
If you get home at a reasonable hour, talk me through your ideal evening. Do you have a strict wind-down routine?
Well we eat early and maybe go on a little walk afterward, just five or 10 minutes. Then I'll hang out with my wife Shara and watch a bit of telly, but she also really loves her reading. I'm quite partial to an early night. But we do like eating out actually too.
I'm really lucky, I sleep really well. I know I must never take that for granted. I'm always a bit envious of people who only need three hours' sleep a night. But whenever I meet those people, they hate it. I definitely try and get a good eight-hour sleep.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.