Hi everyone, welcome to Biohacking Girls podcast. We are the show's host, and I am Alette. And I am Monika. We are good friends and colleagues, and we put together our experiences and knowledge to inspire you to become your own biohacker and optimize your life.
We follow new research and trends and ask the questions we think are necessary. Yes, we share information about biohacking, life coaching and fitness, and we hope you will feel inspired and ready to take a step to get in the best health-oriented form. Welcome to the Biohacking Girls podcast.
It's not that many years since there was a single keto product on the market. We didn't get to buy bars, oils, powder or anything else. It was actually almost a little easier at that time. The focus was simply to eat clean food, stick to keto macros and cut out all the hyper-processed food and plant oils.
Yes, you're absolutely right. Back to California. I must say that I got an aha-experience when I saw how many products had been sold there. At first I thought, this is really cool, there's so much here. But at the same time, you can be so overwhelmed because you don't know the ingredients of everything, and it can almost take a little over. But at home, it's not like you say anymore either, because the market has exploded in these few years.
Food producers and other small or large food producers have crashed the keto trend and the market is basically flooded with keto products that you just have to have. We are a little skeptical because it has become a little too much.
Absolutely. There has been too much, and we have a tendency to go straight to everything that says keto, or that it's organic, and all these things. And even we, who have been playing this game for so long, I can't say otherwise that we are not affected. And is there something we both love so much?
Keto products.
And the interesting thing is that we run these keto courses, both for beginners and for well-informed people who have been playing for a long time. And everyone messages in, oh yes, I have such keto bars. And you and I are a little hard on that. No, we want you to eat clean food. Make the food from the bottom. Make possibly fat bombs or those desserts. And avoid it. Just crisis food.
So it's a bit tough to be the mother who has to take care of everyone who goes on a course. But we know so much more about what is good and what is bad, and what is in the middle of the tree in this jungle now. And some of the supplements are actually good. Some you can just support yourself with. Yes, absolutely. Some of them are really good, especially with such powders and things we need to take care of. But we...
Yes, Keto bars is simply processed food. We can't get away with it. But I think we are all more or less wired to take this market. It's because we are bombarded by it, of course. But we also have bad time, and many think that when it's outside the box, this is keto, organic, without sugar, then it's inside.
Today we have a pretty cool guest. He's always just standing there with his body when he does his lives and stories on Instagram. His name is Nico Andonakis.
He lives in Ibiza, but he is Australian born, from Sydney. He has Greek blood, you can see his whole body. But he moved back to the Mediterranean several years ago and lives in Ibiza for the last eight years. He is busy with exactly the same as us two and many of you who listen to us.
He wanted a clean lifestyle and was quite fed up with finding keto products that were bad on the ingredient list, which were over-processed. So he basically created two separate companies within food and supplements, meaning food and supplies.
where he sells developed products and content that is much more beautiful. I'm going to let him talk about it. He lives on the northern end of Ibiza, where it's fantastic. Hi Bert, I hope you're not having a hard time. It's absolutely fantastic. He's busy with his daily routine, meditation and what he calls primal moves.
ice bathing of course, we are excited to hear how it works in Ibiza and he hikes in nature and he swims in caves around and he is obsessed with the spiritual and of course clean food
Hello, Nico. How nice to meet you and welcome to our Norwegian podcast. We have been looking forward to this conversation, but first of all, we need to know about your background. We need to get to know you, so please share. So thank you for the intro and thanks for having me on your podcast today. Yeah, my name is Nico. I was born in Sydney 40 years ago.
I had a life-changing experience here where I am in Ibiza while I was still on vacation actually when I was still living in Australia and yeah two years after that so eight years ago I shifted my life and I left Australia I sold my company my home I said goodbye to all my family my friends and I
And I brought my wife at the time and our four dogs, we had four Jack Russells. And we moved from Australia, we came to Ibiza and have only had so much more gratitude for life as it is because here living in Ibiza is such an incredible, incredible, incredible location. Why did you choose Ibiza from the whole world? Because two reasons. Well, my wife, my ex-wife, who is now my best friend,
She was originally from Greece. So for the last three or four years that we were still living in Australia, we were always toying with the idea to do six months in Greece and six months in Australia. When I was here on vacation, I was here with some friends. I woke up one morning, the final morning, and had this huge shift in my thinking towards Ibiza because all I knew of Ibiza was the park.
the beaches and the hotel where we used to sleep. But this last time we were here was actually whilst my friends wanted to go and do the partying because we were on a bucks night, which is what you do when boys are going out for the last soltero party. I was actually more curious to understand what happens here in the winter and to meet homeowners and shop owners and find out what happens here beyond the opening and the closing parties of the summer.
of the season here. So when I went back to Australia after that time, I sat with my wife and I was like, I don't want to live here anymore. It's like I had so, so, so much fun in Ibiza. And I'm not just talking about the parties and the clubs and the beaches. Like, I think it would be an incredible place to live. And she said to me, Nico, the only person who is stopping you from going is you. You're the only person.
It says you're blaming your company and you're blaming your business and you're blaming your family, not your friends. But at the end of the day, if you really want to move to Bitha, then guess what? You can.
And she said it to me in a way where I had this new way of thinking now and this deep, deep, deep love for the island in such a completely new way. And I was like, you are so correct. So the very next day, I rang my business partner, said, let's go. We need to meet. So I met him and I said, I'm leaving. This is not the life I want to continue anymore. It doesn't really sort of, you know.
fill my soul to go in the demolish construction sites, which are only three or four years old because your landlord is paying you new money to go and to renew your contract. We're throwing out hundreds of thousands of euros or dollars of stuff into the waste. And for the first time in my life, I actually started realizing like, yeah, it's one thing to make money in the business, but what are my grandchildren going to be doing when they're older? I can't continue like this.
And here I am fast forward and I've now, you know, eight years in Ibiza and I have two businesses. One is that we were the first to import organic acai into the Mediterranean, into Southern Europe. And last year I founded Ketoniko, which is a, you know, we want to be the, you know,
the category leader in Europe when it comes to keto low-carb products, but also the content as well around about what is healthy eating. - We're gonna go back to all your business, but first of all, just the fact that you are following your heart, you are chasing your dreams,
I think so many of us are like thinking about it and we are actually not doing it. Me myself, I had a year in America and you did the same. So, but eight years in Ibiza, we need to know because it really sounds like a dream. How is a typical morning for you? Oh, I can picture how you are. We have seen you on Instagram, but just try to describe how it is. So my typical morning is for the first time in a long time now, I don't need an alarm anymore. So I wake up in the morning. I
I wear my like a blue blocker nose so it's just basically so it's pitch black so I have no idea whether it's three four or five or six in the morning I just need to shift a little bit I can see a little bit of light coming in and once I see a little bit of light it's like okay it's time for me to get up and that could be anywhere from like 5 30 until 7 depending on what time I've woken up
So I go to the bathroom, which is usually outside. I go take a pee in nature where I live. My parents are visiting me from Australia now, actually. And my father says, you know, we have a bathroom inside. And I said, yeah, I know. But at the same time, I can pee under a tree or I can flush nine liters of water down the drain for nothing. So, you know, yeah.
So this is what I do and then I do my little my morning regime of supplements right now I'm doing some peptides as well that Dean of course has introduced me to and then I have my black coffee as I'm driving to my office So my office is separated with one big building Where we occupy one side of building with some other offices and next door is the primal moves where is the training which I do and
Depending on what time I get here, I'll do an ice bath. I generally like to do an ice bath before I go into training. If not, then I like to wait at least an hour and a half or two hours after my training session before I break my fast. In any case, I'll come here, I'll train. And in between all of that, around that time, I also do at least like a five to 10 minute just sort of sit and gratitude to really give my thanks for the fact that I call Ibiza my home. After training, I'll come back, I'll have a really cold shower, I'll sit in the sun.
Naked where no one can see me. It's like a little sort of private area which they did at my request so we can sit out there butt naked and we're not being rude or no one can see us basically except for the sun. So the sun is really shining on every single cell of our body. And then by the time that's done, I'll come back up to the office and start my day which is usually around about, yeah, anywhere between 11, 11.30.
after I've done that whole sort of three or four hour ritual. So the birds are singing, the sun is up, the trees are all over the place. You're in nature basically all day long. Correct, correct, correct. I have to ask you about the ice bath. Isn't it really hot in Ibiza? How do you get the ice bath there?
We have a freezer, like an old school freezer, so it's coming from the Al Sayyid day. So we have a freezer which fits one to two people depending on how many people we want to and it's in a shaded area. And yeah, so the water is anywhere from like two to five degrees depending on, you know, when we unplug it in the evenings the night before. Tell us about the peptides just shortly, how and what you use. So right now I'm on a protocol of
The biggest one for me is the BPC, so the BPC-157, the body protection compound. I took that because I did have some issues with my gut maybe like up to four or five months ago. So I started predominantly for that, but then I also realized that the muscle recovery with BPC was incredible. I don't know how much you've been following me on Instagram as well, but I've had a chronic tendonitis issue in my shoulder, which I've had for over 20 years. And I...
you basically succumbed, surrendered to the fact that I would never be able to do handstands ever because at Primal Moves, it's basically a handstand expert, Nick Brewer, who's the teacher. But in addition to that, I honestly never thought I'd be able to do a full push-up without any pain at all. And this morning, I actually did that. So...
Sorry, I've just digressed and I forgot the question. The peptides are working. The peptides, sorry. So yes, I'm also taking GHK-CU. So in combination with the GHK-CU and the BPC-157 and specific training to fix the shoulder, I did a push-up this morning, which like I said, only up until recently, I honestly surrendered the fact that I would never be able to do one in my life again because the pain was so many years.
And, you know, I couldn't turn in my sleep without, you know. So that's a six-weeks protocol? I'm actually doing eight weeks. Eight weeks, yeah. Yeah. Great. Wow.
It sounds like it's working for you. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. In addition to that, I also did last week, I did my fourth session of PRP therapy. So the platelet-rich plasma therapy and my osteopath, he injects it into, he knows my shoulder intimately. He's been treating me for the last almost 24 months.
So in addition with that as well, and like, you know, right now is, you know, in my, every morning when I say I do five to 10 minutes of gratitude, always it's the fact that I live in Ibiza, but the last few months, few weeks rather has been the fact that I actually have a shoulder again. Yesterday I was swimming in the sea and I was like, wow, I can actually swim freestyle and not have to compensate because my shoulder's not giving me any grief anymore. So the peptides are incredible. They're absolutely amazing.
Seems like there's a biohacking community here at the beach, Aletta. Yeah, there definitely is and we're turning this place, hopefully you guys can visit us one day, but we're actually turning this place into a full, like sort of we're going to knock down the wall that separates the two buildings, that's the idea. So it's going to be primal moves and then basically our office space, which would be sort of like governed by red light room, steam room, sauna and an ice bath, of course.
Oh, really nice. Let's talk about the primal move. Yes, you have mentioned the primal move so many times now. Let's get into that. That also has changed my life. Someone asked me yesterday, Nico, why do you do it so often and why are you so passionate about it? And I said, I have a brand new spine and I have brand new hips. Imagine if you were to have a brand new spine and brand new hips. You have so much more capacity to do things in your body, which means your new potential for life experience has just doubled or tripled or quadrupled.
It's incredible. You can do with a new slide. What is it basically? What is Primal? Yeah. So Primal was founded by Nick Brewer. Nick Brewer has been from London originally. He moved to the island about six years ago. He had a stint in prison in Argentina because he had a very, very different history to how he is right now. But in that time, in that solitude, he learned yoga, learned handstands and basically came up with this concept of Primal, which is to do certain moves and actions
which are very relative to opening the hips, the joints, the knees, the biggest joints in the body. And of course, a primal, 'cause it's basically where we move like our ancestors did or at least the animals. So we do a duck walk, a crab walk, a cat walk, cat walk, you know, lots of hanging. We never pick up weights. Very rarely do we even get the yoga mat. If we do, it's more about, you know, dynamic stuff on the mat as well. It's a combination between strength, flexibility,
And yeah, it really, really sort of brings you to focus as well.
So it's nothing like yoga. No, I mean, I've done many, many, many different types of yoga as well, from Ashtanga to Vikram and others. This is much more dynamic. And it's the first sort of 30 to 40 minutes is the walk. So it's about a 20-meter gym. So we do a catwalk and then we come back and do a crabwalk and so on and so on. So it's very dynamic. It's not static at all.
Wow, cool. Interesting. But you have a business at Ibiza. You're working with products that we love. So what made you found Katonik?
Yeah. Ketonico. Ketonico in Spanish. Ketonico. What drove you to start a new company with new products? Because basically I have another company or another website at least, it's called Green Vida Shop. And what we were doing was reselling third-party brand products mainly from Europe and then some from America as well. And then we realized, well, you know, there's a huge market here for keto. So let's, you know, I was sourcing the products.
So I decided to keep the majority of them to keto. And then I started following the ketogenic diet and lifestyle as well. And I saw incredible improvements. And I thought, wow, this is cool. And then when I actually started to go deeper to find other products on the market, it was only very limited to what we could even bring because, you know, there were new keto breads coming to the market, but they were full of gluten. There were keto cookies that were full. And, you know, there was just many different keto products. It was like,
I mean, the keto diet has really the possibility to change someone's life, reduce inflammation, improve cognitive function, reverse disease, accelerate fat loss. But some of these ingredients such as gluten and soy, they don't belong in my body. There was a Europe or America's biggest brand and they brought out a strawberry collagen. So I remember I clicked on the back to see what ingredients it had and it didn't even have strawberry in the ingredients.
And I was like, this is like, whether it's marketing or we can, you know, we're allowed to play with these things because flavorings can be added and certain flavoring can allow you to call the product strawberry in that instance. It's like, no, you know, I don't want to contribute to this. I want to create my own set of products. So basically what I did for six months was just, you know, pick and choose raw ingredients for me to have those products until one day my business partner, I said to him, I said, you know, what do you know about keto in Spain?
So he did some market research and he came back a couple of days after and he says there's no real category Lita as a premium brand in Europe. So let's do it. And this is what we are. This is who we are. So what are your favorite products? You have a lot of things, coconut wraps and cognac fettuccine. Yep. What are your favorite?
because of its versatility and because of the benefit it brings to the body, is two products that we have which are coming from the same source, and it's BermRoth. So we have BermRoth in gel, which for me is an incredible product that comes in a little 45 mil pouch, so it's perfect for traveling. It has three servings in it. You literally just twist the lid open,
and squeeze out 15 ml and you have an instant cup of bone broth. The other day, I did a little story on Insta where I just sprinkled the raw on top of my guacamole. It doesn't have any preservatives. It only has salt in there as a preservative. So it has a salty flavor to it. So I'm mixing that in there as well. I basically use it every single meal, whether I'm cooking something or...
put in my wallet, it's literally, you know, it takes 40 hours to cook a bone broth. You need to make sure that your bones are grass fed, grass finished and organic because if not, if the cattle was eating soy or grain or other cheap cereal, we understand that they're gonna develop high amounts of linoleic acid, high amounts of omega-6 and we don't want their fat
Neither do we want the goodness that's coming out of the bones. And of course, we don't want any antibiotics or hormones that the cow was exposed to. So that's one thing. So we take away all the trouble of the sourcing of the bones. We take away the trouble of the 40 hours buying a slow cooker and having to put up with the smell in your house for 40 hours. It's literally a game changer, this product.
And then in addition to that, we also have the bone broth powder that is unflavored and we have that unflavored. So it doesn't have like a stock flavor to it. You can put it in with your smoothies or your acai bowl in the morning. You're taking all the benefits of the bone broth. You're taking the bioavailable protein or collagen form. And you know, you're also getting your glucosamine and your deletene and all of your different essential amino acids that you're getting from your bone broth as well. So for me, our two products in the bone broth range are by far game changers because they're pure medicine. They really are.
Yeah, we love bone broth as well. The powder looks really nice. Yeah. We've infused it with 30% of certified organic MCT oil powder as well, just to make it a little bit more keto. But in addition to that, the fast absorbing fats from the MCT too. What's the first product you made?
The first ever product we made? Oh, that's a very good question. When we went live, which was literally 12 months ago, it was in the first week of June last year, we came out with six products, and that was a collagen, an MCT powder, a ghee, our certified organic mycotoxin and mold-free coffee. We also came out with the salted caramel nut butter, which has the lines made, and...
And then did I say ghee already? I did say ghee. The reason that we brought out ghee originally because we're Europe's only certified clean label ghee. So when a product is clean label certified, we have to send it to a third party laboratory, they test it. And in the case of ghee, for example, that comes from grass, the cows eat the grass, the grass produce the milk and the milk then comes on to produce the ghee. So when we go through that whole sort of life cycle, we make sure that the grass was organic, there was no herbicides, no pesticides, the
the cows that were eating the grass weren't exposed to any antibiotics or hormones. And then finally in the finished packaging, we use glass because it's the healthiest for us to make sure that the packaging doesn't leach any harsh chemicals or toxins into the product as well. And ours, we're proud to say is the only one in Europe which is actually certified clean label.
So, the products are sort of relative to the keto diet, high fat, low carb, but at the same time, we try to make some sort of a tweak to it to make it unique. And in the case of the ghee, the ghee is exactly the same, however it is organic, it is lactose free, and also clean label.
So how long have you been living the ketogenic lifestyle? I started in, so it's very, very strict since February of 2019 when I was exposed to the diet in Australia when I was visiting home. And I did it basically very strict until for 24 months, so sort of until February of last year.
And then since then I'm doing a lot now. Now I'm listening to my body. So I'm doing a lot, eating a lot of fruit in the summer. My next door neighbor has a huge patch of organic watermelons and I absolutely love watermelons.
not last year but the year before just as I came out of the street place, I did 30 days of just watermelon. In ancient Greece they used to use green grapes because there was a certain compound in the green grapes when you're only digesting that and there's no other information coming into the body, that compound actually cleans the blood. And then I further read that the watermelon has the same sort of effect.
And the white part of the watermelon in between the red flesh and the skin is actually one of the only active foods on the planet that has a particular amino acid that really helps boost men's testosterone. That's why they say that watermelon is actually a good fruit for men.
for yeah it's not very keto but but it seems like the keto lifestyle is more like you find new balance in this so i found yeah the first two years like i said i i i cured you know some skin conditions were hard psoriasis i had a case of dermatitis all of those went i lost inflammation throughout my whole body and then it was like i can continue to be keto for the rest of my life um
But then it's very sort of dogmatic, you know, and I don't want to be dogmatic. If I research a piece of information and then find something else a new day, I'm going to experience that. And if I take that experience and it helps me, then that's, you know, what I'm going to start to look into as well. So I'm eating, you know, strictly keto maybe two to three days a week. But on the other days, especially like today when it's nice and warm,
and I'm gonna be active in the afternoon, I'm going to go and eat some watermelon or some papaya or a couple of bananas. And yeah, it's not keto, but what keto did for me was allowed me to understand that the body has two fuel systems. I had no idea. I had no idea that the body can burn sugars and it can burn fat as well. I had no idea that I was able to fast when I first heard of the notion of fasting. I was like to go 16 hours without eating, but all the work I'm doing in the gym is gonna go to waste.
So I was breaking down mental barriers that I created from a little kid because as a little kid, my parents were like, "Finish eating, finish eating," shoving food down my mouth. So we were conditioned to think that without food, we don't have no abundance. So that's another, because keto and fasting are so related. So that's what keto did for me. And what it's done now, it's like an amazing little book. I've read the information. I have information in my book. It's in my back pocket and it's there for me for
the future and a lot of friends ask me now nico if you're not keto why have you got a keto company it's like it's very simple because all of our products are free of refined sugars and free of seed oils and these are the two biggest killers in society today so you can eat our products and and eat fruit and then say but you're going to get fat because you're eating so much fat on the carb on the diet it's like really if i'm going to eat a coconut wrap or eat a bunch of granola you think i'm going to get fat like we really need to start to understand guys that
healthy lifestyle is exactly that. It's food, it's being in the sun, it's connecting with nature and we have to really minimize the amount of stress we're putting on ourselves for the numbers because in the first two years, although I realized all these physical benefits in the keto diet, I
I wasn't free here, I wasn't healthy in my mind because I was continually waking up the next morning to see, oh, am I in ketosis or not? And it's like, that's not a way to do it. No, because you cause some extra stress on your body and you were always measuring. I mean, we as biohackers too, we have to really acknowledge to find the balance and just let go of all the measuring sometimes. Absolutely. Yeah.
And which of the keto products do you use every day? The keto products I use every day, I use the collagen waters, I use the ghee, I use the coconut wraps, I use the coconut tortilla bread, I use the bone broth powder, the bone broth gel, the MCT powder, the collagen.
Right now I'm basically eating all of the products that don't have nuts and seeds. I'm doing a little bit of a stint of no nuts and no seeds for now. So basically all of the products in our range that don't contain nuts and seeds, which are the crackers, the nut butters, and then... It's okay. And the granola. I'm not eating at the moment.
your products, are they produced in Ibiza or where do you produce them? No. One of the things about living in Ibiza is on a logistical thing, when you look at it logistically, it makes no sense to have the products produced here. And to tell you the truth, Ibiza is not set up, it doesn't have the infrastructure to set up for production for food. Local organic farms, yes, but when it comes to products that we have, our products mainly come from Spain, but we are...
Spain and the rest of Europe. Except for our coconut products, of course, they come from the Philippines. But you say grass-fed, are the products also the animals grass-finished? Correct. Yes, yes, yes. So when I say grass-fed, I also mean grass-finished. Like I mentioned before, certified organic grass-fed, grass-finished. Because, yeah, I only realized maybe in the early part of last year that, yeah, grass-fed can also be a marketing scheme because they like to finish them with corn or grains, which
which is not ideal. And everyone has their, the way I found that actually, funny enough, I was at a local restaurant here where they have amazing meat. And I trust the guy, we became friends, the owner of the shop until one day when he actually shared with me, I said, "How old was this particular ox that we ate tonight?"
And then as you speak, he said, yeah, well, these particular cows have finished a given cow, I forget which grain or cereal it was towards the end of the year. I was like, towards the end of their life. I was like, why? And then he was basically trying to explain to me, had something to do with the fatty and, you know, the quality of the meat. And I was like, yeah, I don't know if I agree with you so much. And that was the last time I went to that restaurant.
Let's talk a little bit about fasting because we understand that you do maybe 16 hours. How do you fast? Do you have any good advices to give us and the listeners how to come through the fast periods? Yeah. So I don't fast every single day.
I've done some research lately that testosterone, especially in men when we're trying to actually build muscle and be active, to fast every single day is not so good. So right now I'm doing probably I'd say five days a week of fasting and I'll do anywhere from 16 to 18 hours. That final two hours from 16 to 18 or maybe some days 19 all depends on what I'm doing that morning or that next day.
because I generally like to have my dinner around about now-ish, for example, like 6 p.m. is usually the latest. The truth, moving in towards the summer months of Ibiza, having dinner at 6 p.m. is almost impossible because it is a very, and it's part of the celebration that Ibiza is, you know, we are very social beings as well, and it's very normal for us to have a booking at 10 p.m.
have a booking at 10 p.m. The sun sets at 9:45. So it's not so strange 15 minutes or 20 minutes after the sunset to go to the restaurant. So when I do do that, which is quite often, I love to be social here in Ibiza. That just means that the next morning I just drink my black coffee in my supplement range, which doesn't break my fasting.
And I love sparkling water and that sort of keeps me through the day. And then I also realized as well, I saw stories of you guys that you had Ben Greenfield's new lime-flavored amino acids. So I will also take some amino acids as well, especially on days that I'm training, which is almost every day. But between the amino acids, my supplements and black coffee and sparkling water, it's almost...
Yes, it's very, very easy for me now to make it to 16, 17 and 18 hours of fasting. Nice. And what I find also is very important when I break the fast is to have one of those servings of the bone broth, of the gel. So I just mix that gel in a cup of warm water. And that's the first thing that I tend to break my fast with. I'll wait 15, 20 minutes. My tummy now knows, okay, there's new information coming in. The fast is broken and I feel great for the rest of the day.
And I have also seen on your Instagram that you are not a fan of sunglasses. And now I'm not cringing when I see people wear sunglasses outside. So can you explain why we should not use them? Sure. So basically, as I shared in that story,
I learned recently that there were many days in the past as well when I would be in the sun wearing sunglasses the whole day and I was tired when I shouldn't have been. I had extra energy in the evening. So it was like the circadian rhythm of the body clock was out of place. So then I started to do a little bit of research and it makes total sense that in the first half of the day,
the sun or the UV light that the sun produces when that gets absorbed through the eyes into the body that produces a specific hormone such as adrenaline because we need adrenaline in the early parts of the day to perform the activities we want to. And then you know again this innate intelligence of the body then realizes that the sun has done its first half now it's doing its second half of the day as it comes down for the second half of the day
that particular light creates a different hormone, of course, melatonin. So basically, when we're putting on sunglasses, we're blocking our ability for communication with nature itself. I also learned this while I was at Deepa, that when we expose ourselves to the sun,
once you know, the majority of our skin rather, our naked skin was being exposed to the sun, that turns on sort of factors inside to start to protect the skin, you know, and you can take other methods as well by taking astaxanthin or something else, which has pathways to protect the skin. But basically, I'm trying to live a life now as close to our ancestors as possible. They never used to wear sunglasses. They used to take shade, of course, during the middle of the day when it was very, very hot. But that's in a nutshell why I don't wear sunglasses anymore.
And I don't lose them anymore because I have none to lose. I know. So when we do use sunglasses, we are not getting the benefits of the circadian rhythm. Absolutely not. I mean, not the full optimal range. So now the weather is great because it's summertime. But how is the winters in Ibiza? The winters here are amazing. I mean, I love summer. I am a lizard. You know, I'm blessed. I can sit in front of the sun.
from morning to night and just, you know, take a dip into the sea and come back out. I'm really, really blessed in that space. And the winters here are incredible. It's really community-filled because a lot of the people who are here for the summer, they're gone by September, October, so sort of November through to March.
You have our little family, our little tribe on the island. We live in the north, of course, so I love every afternoon to go and put wood in the fireplace and to go and chop wood and to go and do some local vistas to organic farms on the island. We have some incredible hiking trails in the north of Ibiza as well. So a typical weekend day in the winter is
is to make a nice warm breakfast and we'll go for a beautiful two or three hour hike. I mean, the sun is out and actually at certain points you need to take your jacket off although it's winter because the sun is really melting down. We get home by about four or five o'clock and we start making some broth or some soup. We put the fireplace on, some soft tunes and just really connecting with the downside because
Ibiza is very yin and yang. Summer is push, push, push, party, party, party, tourist, tourist, tourist. In the winter, it's like you're living in a completely different world, however, with all of the beautiful nature that Ibiza has to offer. Do you live alone?
Right now I live alone. Yes. So my ex-wife and I, like I said, we're not married anymore. She's my best friend. She's my sister. So we're blessed in that space as well. I separated with her four years ago. First sort of two years I was living with friends.
And then, funnily enough, end of last year, I broke up with my girlfriend. She decided to end the relationship. For the first time in my life, I had to suffer from loneliness, rejection, abandonment, and just like allowing all these emotions to come up.
And I was like, I really need to be by myself. I need to be lonely to pass this pain. And right now, I'm still living alone. But the plans are for June. Another amazing, amazing brother of mine, Gustav, he's coming back. And we're going to spend the summer together just to celebrate life here because I haven't seen him for so long. But right now, I'm living alone. And in winter, I'll be living alone again. Yes, I absolutely love my time for myself.
It seems like you have a very good journey through every emotion. Yes. The winter was very tough for me. It was very dark. I mean, 5:30 was already dark, so driving home, crying for the first month actually. Just like I don't want to be by myself. I don't know how to be by myself. I can't. But through solid meditation, reading, journaling, a lot of conscious breathwork sessions, it was like a purge that just took a few months for me to fully let go.
Will you arrange any retreats around yourself where you are? Funny enough, I actually had some friends that proposed to me that, Nico, why don't we, you know, now that they see me more active on social media, why don't you create a retreat? Very, very, very good friends of mine are basically family on the island, have an incredible space that they house, actually a 12-bedroom house, which in the past was more for like bootcamp style stuff. But now that they've taken it on and they've put their love and energy into it, it's actually attracting a lot of retreats
I want to come. So the idea is that we would do something next year. In addition to that, I'm actually supporting or I'm contributing to a retreat in September of this year. So there's maybe three or four fairly influential people in the health space here in Spain.
There's gonna be a traditional Spanish spoken retreat, which we're gonna have an ice bath, sauna, fasting throughout the day. And we're actually gonna give them a fasting protocol so that when they do come to the retreat 10 days before, their body has some sort of like flexibility, metabolic flexibility to come so as not just jump straight into the deep end. So that's in September, the second week of September this year in this summer.
Where can we find information about that? I can once we go live with the sharing of that towards the end of this month. Once I have that, I will send it across. Perfect. It will be very interesting. Let's talk to your Ketonico. Nico, your name is Nico. So it's a plain word here. It's a plain word. Why? Because yes, I'm the Nico from Ketonico. But in Spain, there's another famous brand called Atomico, which is the Spanish way or the Latin way of saying atomic. And
And ketonic, as you know, is pertaining to anything that is in the state of ketosis. So if we're in ketosis, we're actually ketonic in the state. So ketonic, ketonico, amenico, it was fun. And the name actually rings. It sounds well-
We would love to order some products and I'm looking at the fettuccine, cognac. How are they? Are they good or are they just without calories? They're without calories. They don't have so much flavor, but they're very, very high in, that's why, I mean, they're unflavored. So you get to put, you know, your, your creativity and inspiration when you're preparing them, but they're super high in fiber. Um,
And we work with a particular factory that does minimal processing so that they're basically as raw as they can be. A lot of other, it's taken us a while to find this particular supplier, but a lot of other ones on the market have like an almost fishy or a seafood smell. Ours doesn't have that. And what we find is that a lot of people like them and they don't get sort of any tummy upset when they consume them.
The good news is that you ship to Norway and we will actually have a little discount code. Yes, we're offering because we know that shipping into Norway, we ship there no problem. But we understand that unfortunately for you guys, there is quite a high amount for taxes and stuff. Generally, when we do podcasts or stuff like this, we'd offer a 10% discount to the guests. But we're actually going to create a 20% discount for your customers. That's really going to support them. Yes.
That's very nice. So we will put that in the show notes. Okay, before we wrap up here, if we are going on holiday this summer, which everybody probably are, what should we bring in our travel bag from your product list? Definitely the Bumrock gel, this for sure. The Bumrock gel. And?
The keto crackers for me are incredible because you can have them, you know, you just go to the local shop and get some avocado and you just have some avocado crackers or you're at home and you're preparing a salad. They make these amazing croutons as well.
And if you're actually traveling on the plane, it's not amazing, but when I go to the beach, I love to take a collagen water with me as well. I like to actually keep it cool in the fridge. And then so, you know, I'm not just sipping on water, but I'm sipping, you know, I'm taking my daily supplementation of bourbon collagen too. How about the bars? The bars are incredible, amazing. But when the temperature here especially gets up to like 35 and 40 degrees, they can become quite soft.
Nothing happens to the product as well. It's just that the fats, the MCT, that are sort of dripping away from the actual product itself. However, I mean, if you're happy to open it and to sort of like lick the inside of the fats that are coming off, then I highly recommend those. We have the vegan bar and the collagen bar. By far, the vegan bar is incredible. It's a chopped brownie flavor. Once you try it, there's only going to be amazing feedback. Your taste buds literally start dancing when you have that.
product we're gonna get addicted seems like a party we have seen the web page and it's really it's really nice and how about the e-book you also have like a e-book with
Yeah, so there's a couple of different e-books. We have one all about bone broth, what is the keto diet, which is one that we launched originally. There's also like a weight loss sort of guide e-book as well. And it's not your traditional weight loss book. And it actually talks about your intention should not be to lose weight. Your intention should be to become healthy. And once you become healthy, guess what? You start to lose weight. And it just has some other sort of mindful tips in there as well about breathing, about meditation, about connecting with ourselves and disconnecting.
Like I said before, when I passed this winter, which was very tough for me, and now understanding who I am and the love that I have for myself, being by yourself, whether it's 15, 20 minutes, half an hour a day, is so important. Especially when we have emails and phone calls and kids and families and just so many things to do. Taking that time to totally disconnect from the world and come back into ourselves, for me, is one of the strongest natural biohacks that human beings can actually do.
Word. Thank you, Nico. What is on your plate now?
You're going to prepare dinner. What's for dinner tonight? I'm actually introducing my parents to my business partner of Ketoniko. They have never met. They have heard lots and lots about each other. So we have some local lamb, actually, which we're going to put onto the barbecue and some zucchinis, which we're also going to grill as well, which came from my neighbor's organic garden as well.
a fresh salad some more right now avocado is a sort of out of season on the island because in the winter that's another amazing thing about winter i was eating like three four five avocados a day because we have avocado trees everywhere um so i might be a little bit sneaky and buy an imported avocado i know it's not amazing but i just i'm in love with with avocado and of course my bone broth joel is gonna get either drizzled on top of the guacamole or on top of the lamb chops but um that's uh that's for dinner tonight so
Sounds amazing. We want to come too. I would love to have you guys out here sometime in the summer. Ibiza, I mean, of course, it is very, you know, hedonistic and touristy in the south, but in the north, it's a completely, completely different vibe up here. Oh, yes, I've been there. I just loved it. I didn't want to go back. We are very blessed, actually, to call Ibiza home.
Yeah. But thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. This has been a great conversation. Thank you so much. And just repeat before we hang up here now, where can people find you? Your Instagram is? Yeah, Instagram is the best place to find me now that I'm becoming more active. It's just Nico, N-I-C-O, in Ibiza. All one word.
And your homepage is ketonico.com. Ketonico.com. Exactly. Um, I'm going to speak to you guys after this and I think it's, we agreed it's going to be biohacking goals. 20 is a discount for, for your followers. Um,
And any questions, please, please, please reach out because one of my biggest passions, which I've realized now and what I bring to the community here where I am is just to bring all of my knowledge, experience and expertise in the world of food, nutrition and sports because I love to share my passion of change. I was a completely different person 10 years ago and through transformation, I want to support other people as well. So thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hasta la vista. Hasta luego. Okay, bye. Adios. Ciao, guys. Bye.
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