Drew Brees says he’s a ‘very common-sense dieter.’ Here are 5 simple wellness rules he lives by.

From infrared saunas and cold plunges to two-a-days and tailored meals, professional athletes are known for having intense training and diet regimens.

But what happens to their wellness routines after they retire?

For Super Bowl-winning quarterback Drew Brees, who spoke to Business Insider in October through his partnership with digital automotive platform CarGurus, wellness in retirement is all about sticking to the basics.

“You wake up every day as a professional football player thinking about, ‘What do I need to do today to be the best professional football player that I can be,’ right? So, the training regimen is very much centered around that,” he said.

“Now that I’m in retirement, I don’t have to worry about people hitting me or having to get up every day sore,” he added. “So, I’d say it’s more I choose things out of enjoyment.”

From focusing on sleep to eating organic, here are five wellness rules Brees lives by.

Brees said he tries “to get 7 1/2 hours of sleep a night.”

“I would say sleep is probably the most important thing,” he said. “I think a lot of people recognize that and yet the busyness of life just kind of prevents it, or you just kind of have trouble sleeping because your mind’s just racing.”

According to America’s Health Rankings’ analysis of 2022 data from the CDC, “35.5% of Americans sleep fewer than the recommended seven hours per day.” It’s been widely reported that sleep deficiency can lead to depression, diabetes, heart disease, and other serious conditions.

Brees added that he’s “developed breathing techniques” to help calm down his system and that he sleeps in a really dark, cool room.

“If you’ve got any lights on or anything, your body’s just going to react a certain way,” he said.

BI previously reported that phones, computers, TVs, and other electronics emit blue light which can cause more alertness, slowing or even stopping the production of melatonin.

He eats “organic as much as possible.”

Brees described himself as a “common-sense dieter” who aims to “eat stuff that comes out of the ground [and] eat organic as much as possible.”

In an April 2024 episode of Kelly Senyei’s “Sports & Forks” podcast, Brees said he underwent blood tests, food allergy tests, and digestive system tests every six months during his playing career to ensure that he was operating at “an optimal level.”

He added that for most of his NFL career, he had a moderate to heavy intolerance of gluten but has since been able to reintroduce it to his diet. However, Brees said he does try to avoid dairy.

He eats when he’s hungry, but is careful not to overeat.

Another rule Brees follows is to eat when he’s hungry.

“That’s your body’s way of saying, ‘Hey, I need fuel,'” he said. “But don’t overeat. Don’t eat until you’re so full that it just makes you tired and lethargic.”

In 2023, BI’s Rachel Hosie reported that, “For most people, it takes about 20 minutes for the brain to register that the body is full after eating, so eating slowly and waiting before having more is recommended.”

Registered dietitian Kara Mockler told Hosie, “If people started taking 15 seconds before a meal to check in with themselves and rate from one to 10 how hungry they’re feeling, it could help them portion out a balanced meal.”

Mockler said checking in with yourself while having a meal can help prevent overeating, too.

He also tries to stop eating around 7 p.m.

Although many people are juggling busy schedules, scientists recommend you stop eating three hours before your desired bedtime. For some, that could mean cutting out a late-night sweet treat.

Brees said not eating past 7 p.m. works for him. However, just because he’s conscious of his nutrition doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy something sweet.

He told “Sports & Forks” that his favorite dessert is peach cobbler and that he also enjoys banana pudding, German chocolate cake, red velvet cake, brownies, and bananas foster.

Finally, Brees said he chooses his workouts and physical activities “out of enjoyment.”

Brees told BI he loves any form of cross-training, whether it’s riding his fat-tire beach bike, mountain biking, stand-up paddle boarding, swimming, surfing, hiking, or playing pickleball.

Plus, he can do these activities with his kids — he has three sons and a daughter — who share his love of sports.

“Honestly, I’m just kind of a sports junkie and my kids all play sports, so if my daughter grabs the volleyball and wants to go play volleyball, then that’s what we do together,” he said. “Or basketball with the boys, lacrosse with the boys, football, you name it.”

He still likes to train in the weight room a couple of times a week to feel strong and explosive, especially with his lower body.

“But other than that, it’s just doing things to get the heart rate going, get the lungs burning a little bit, and stay in shape,” he said.

This story was originally published on November 9, 2024, and most recently updated on July 23, 2025.

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