David Hauser Applies Business Methods to Personal Health

Long before he became a success story in the tech world, entrepreneur David Hauser, 37, struggled for years with his diet, weight and overall health. It wasn’t until he began testing and biohacking his sleep, diet and exercise regimen that he discovered how to achieve and maintain optimal health.

Best known for co-founding two multimillion-dollar businesses, including the virtual telephone service Grasshopper Inc., Hauser learned that losing weight and eating healthier were almost as challenging as launching a startup.

“Throughout my 20s, I worked approximately 100 hours each week and didn’t make the best choices when it came to eating the right foods and getting a good night’s sleep,” Hauser says. “To improve my health, I started exercising more, eating less and running, but I also found that much of the mainstream health and wellness information I’d learned over years wasn’t working for me.”

In his new book “Unstoppable: 4 Steps to Transform Your Life” (Lioncrest Publishing, 2019), Hauser shares his wisdom and introduces a simple approach to help readers transform their lives and become unstoppable.

Experiment with nutrition

When Hauser decided to make changes to his diet, he turned to a business concept called A/B testing, in which different versions of a product are compared to determine which one performs better. It had worked well at Grasshopper, and he saw ways he could apply the concept to other areas of his life.

“I’d heard the advice eat less and exercise more for years,” Hauser says. “But when I tried that, I’d lose weight temporarily, only to gain it back.”

Hauser also tried dozens of diets suggested by health experts.

“I learned there’s no one diet that works for everyone,” he says. “You need to find what works best for your individual lifestyle.”

After reading labels of some of his favorite snacks, Hauser learned products he assumed were healthy were actually loaded with sugar. He ultimately found success in a version of the ketogenic diet that includes more carbs and vegetables and no sugar or refined carbs. He doesn’t snack, except for nut butters created by his company, SuperFat.

“I lost 35 pounds in a short period of time and have kept it off,” he says. “Today, I fast for 16 to 18 hours, skip breakfast, have a larger lunch—such as a cauliflower salad with avocado—and then a smaller dinner—such as a shepherd’s pie made with cauliflower instead of potatoes.”

Change your sleep pattern

Hauser doesn’t eat three hours before bedtime, and although he used to stay up into the wee hours of the night, he now maintains a regular sleep schedule going to bed each evening between 9:30 and 10 p.m. and waking up with the sun naturally.

“There’s some research showing the most restful sleep occurs between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m.,” Hauser says. “And you can’t catch up by sleeping in longer. Even if you sleep more hours, you’ll feel more rested going to bed earlier.”

By changing his sleep schedule, Hauser became more productive and increased his energy levels.

“If you wake up at 5 a.m. and can get a workout in before you hit the office at 7 a.m., you just gave yourself two free hours,” Hauser says.

He also used A/B testing to create a good sleep environment and find the perfect pillow.

“I originally tested 15 top-rated pillows and narrowed it down to five,” Hauser says. “I slept on each one of the five pillows for a week and looked at how I felt after waking up. I chose the pillow that offered me the best sleep, and I use the same pillow today.”

Choose the right workout

Endurance sports became a favorite pastime for Hauser, yet even after half a decade of competing in marathons and triathlons, Hauser still felt overweight, never felt healthy, and realized his knees couldn’t continue to endure the physical strain.

His turning point came when he decided to take a vinyasa yoga class near his home in Las Vegas.

“In addition to helping me get in better shape, yoga taught me mindful eating,” Hauser says. “I began practicing yoga six days a week and also lift weights two to three days a week and take a Spin class one day each week.”

Hauser found vinyasa yoga not only offers a killer workout but also helps him relax.

“I’ve always had a lot of stress in my jobs, but I thought I handled it well,” he says. “When I’m practicing yoga, my mind stops racing, and I’ve learned to be present in the moment.”

Photo credit: David Salafia Photography