This week’s Glow On podcast with Grace features young crypto entrepreneur Top Jirayut, who reveals how he’s adapting his life for better health and changing his lifestyle to improve work efficiency and brain function. He was inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo and Ko Chanon, who ate pizza and Coke every day until their bodies broke down and they aged 16 years older than their actual age. He’s now a healthy CEO with a new, balanced life.
What was the turning point that made you pay attention to your health?
Top Jirayut: If we’re sharing the truth, it’s still our core business. At one point, Bitkub reached a market cap of around 10 billion baht. We felt that competing on the field wasn’t enough; we had to compete off it as well. Personally, I idolize Cristiano Ronaldo. To become a great player, he had to manage his personal life, not just by training hard on the field, but also off it. Once we reached the top level, reaching 10 billion baht wasn’t just a matter of hundreds or thousands. When we were competing for tens of billions or hundreds of billions, I thought we had to compete off the field, so I studied more. How can we change our minds? Our decision-making will be better.
Within a year, it’s like exfoliating. So I started studying it, and it’s purely a lifestyle. The first thing is that I want to become a better executive. Because we work hard, sleepless, and go all out, competing on the field to the fullest, we also try to compete off the field. The second thing is that I have a senior businessman named Ko Chanon. He’s actually another person who you can talk to if you’re interested. He’s the CEO of Ananda. We met when Bitkub moved into Ananda’s office during COVID-19. I got to know Ko. Then, during Christmas, he organized a Christmas dinner where I met Ko. There was also Khomsan Lee and Flash. At that time, the three of us discussed business during COVID-19, right? We started to get close every Sunday.
This Christmas, Ko will be turning 50, his birthday is coming up. He lifted his shirt to show off his six-pack abs. I asked him if he was really 50, that he didn’t look 50 at all, and how did he get six-pack abs? He said he’d been vegan since he was 25. What was that? I don’t know anything about health. Ko explained that he doesn’t eat meat at all, that he’s a vegetarian. He challenged me, saying that Top should stop drinking Coke, stop eating junk food, and optimize his health more. He said that when he checked his physical age, he was only in his 30s. His chronological age was 50, but his biological age was in his 30s. I was the opposite. When I met Ko, I was 33, but my body was 49. So, I’m older than him physically.
Does this mean you have to work hard and at the wrong time?
Top Jirayut: Everything is not correct at all. It’s not completely wrong.
How were you before? How did you eat? How did you sleep?
Top Jirayut: In the past, I didn’t eat it. I only worked because it was a waste of time, right? Then I would eat one meal after work. I would eat a really heavy meal. I would get off work really late. I would eat one really heavy meal before bed, around 8 or 9 PM. I would eat my first meal. At that time, I was really stressed. When I got home, I had to have a can of Coke with ice every night to refresh myself from working so hard. We didn’t know how harmful Coke was to our body. We had to have at least one glass of Coke beforehand, right? When I woke up in the morning, I wouldn’t talk to anyone until I had a cup of coffee to adjust my mood. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be in the mood to talk to anyone. I would have breakfast with a cappuccino with milk and not eat anything all day. I didn’t eat anything else. Then I would end up with one meal of the day: junk food. I used to love four-cheese pizza. I would eat the whole thing by myself, including refined oil. The worst thing was all in one bite: my diet. After I ate, I didn’t exercise or walk or anything. I just went to bed right away. Back then, I was always tired. I was always tired when I woke up.
How many hours did you sleep then?
Top Jirayut: 4 hours, 5 hours. 5 hours is considered good. Before going to bed, I go to bed stressed out, like from work, right? I’m angry about things like that, from the employees’ work. I put my phone next to my head and just sleep like that. I sleep feeling really depressed. As soon as I wake up, I grab my phone first thing.
So during the day, weren’t you hungry then?
Top Jirayut: In my head, it’s so busy with work that I don’t even drink water because I forget everything. I’m so focused on work that it’s so serious that I have to have a secretary prepare water for me, trying to force it into my hand, otherwise I’ll forget to drink.
He said you have 8 secretaries?
Top Jirayut: Yes, these days I choose not to have the ability to choose, to eliminate choices so as not to indulge myself. But I follow protocols like Bryan Johnson. There’s a data-driven protocol that says it’s clear that our bodies are like this. We have a secretary who prepares everything for us.
Does that mean we didn’t eat anything we wanted?
Top Jirayut: Yes, at first I had some cheat days, but once I changed my mindset to the fact that food is information. Since I’m into tech, I understood that we can reprogram our bodies in real time, through every ingestion, to see whether it heals or destroys us. I didn’t want to eat anything that would destroy us. People think that it takes months for our bodies to change after we eat, but actually, it changes in real time. So we want to eat things that heal our bodies. The reward is that our bodies thank us back. Everyone says they look better, that they’ve already improved by just cutting out sugar. Our energy comes back, our minds are clearer, and we make more informed decisions. Everything in life has improved. It’s true happiness. I started to wonder why we’ve been craving healthier things lately. Basically, I stopped eating sugar, ate a variety of vegetables, and stopped drinking cow’s milk. I’m copying Bryan Johnson exactly. I probably order everything on his website.
What do you eat in one day?
Top Jirayut: Waking up early is very important because of fasting, right? Oh, 18/6. After completing the fast, we will have breakfast with eggs. At first, we started with 2 eggs. Now, the team has increased it to 4 eggs per day. We eat breakfast with eggs. The first meal must be protein. Then we stop snacking during the day. We will eat a lot of protein for breakfast. The first meal is Super Veggie and Nutty Pudding by Bryan Johnson. I extracted all of these recipes from open sources. I had the hospital copy all of their recipes. There are broccoli, coliflower, extra virgin olive oil, nuts and seeds. And dinner will be a meal without the 4 things I mentioned: sugar, flour, vegetable oil, milk. I don’t eat any of them. I haven’t eaten pizza in a long time. I haven’t had Coke in a long time. I used to have to drink coffee, so I switched to black coffee during the fasting period. But after that, I stopped completely. I switched to green tea first. Let’s say green tea with almond milk, no cow’s milk. Then I switch to pure matcha without milk. Food is more like fuel, not a reward.
Do you want to drink fruit juice?
Top Jirayut: I eat berries. My boyfriend makes them for me every night. He’ll take blueberries, strawberries, mandarins, blueberries, and add protein and creatine, and blend them for me. I don’t eat every type of fruit.
About exercise?
Top Jirayut: Don’t do the same with exercising. Don’t do the same with sleeping. I promised myself that this year I would get 8 hours, but this year I only got 6. I haven’t even gotten 8 yet. But since my sleep is so short, I have to focus on eating well and getting quality sleep. So I bought a sleep mat. My bedroom is very cold and dark, so I can get quality sleep. But when it’s really cold, my bed is heated. Sleep has an adjustable temperature. Imagine getting into a comfortable, warm bed. And the room is really cold. In just a moment, I fall asleep. A very deep sleep. And the bed vibrates by itself. In the morning, I wake up without having to put my phone down. Which makes the 6 hours at least quality. I can exercise after work, which isn’t good.
What is your Biological Age now?
Top Jirayut: It took me a year to go from 49 to 40, and then another six months, about a year and a half, to go from 40 to 30. Now I’m younger than my actual age. Actually, at 35, I think my body reacts very quickly. I think if everyone just stopped eating sugar for a week, they’d see results.
