Good Leaders: How does fitness affect your leadership?

“People sometimes think I’m bat-shit crazy…but that’s not true (I don’t think!)”  laughed Chris Freytag, the speaker at the Good Leadership Breakfast next Friday. “I’m just bat-shit passionate about teaching people about good fitness!” 

As I write this, I’m fully aware of the fact that the belt on my pants is cutting into my mid-section. The past six weeks of celebrating a good life has increased my weight about 10 pounds and my pants don’t fit. So it’s a good time for me to think about how my fitness affects my leadership.

Inspiring life improvement

Spending time with Chris Freytag makes me want to be a better person, husband, friend, and leader. She is a media darling, active wife and mom, and the founder of the internet-based membership web site: GetHealthyU.com. She is a regular on TV, including Lifetime, the Today Show, QVC, and featured in Prevention and Success magazines.

Her story is a perfect fit with the mission of the Good Leadership Breakfast – she is a good leader, who radiates goodness by bringing out the goodness in others.

“Our lives are so sedentary: we need movement in our lives. We drive everywhere, we watch Netflix, we stare into our computers…we need to re-think how we move our bodies,” she demanded. “The key is having fun: if you are not having fun, you’re not going to do it! That’s why I love the Seven Fs – you have to find the “fun in fitness,” we grow in our faith, family, finances, fitness, friends, fun and future when we feel better.”

Her basic message is about forgiving ourselves and embracing an aspirational lifestyle of healthy living: “Your fitness journey isn’t about taking a beach body picture in a bikini… it’s about living the Seven Fs – living your aspirations and taking care of the people around you that you love!”

Advice to chew on

If you are still not convinced, here is some basic advice you might hear at the breakfast next Friday:

●   Executives are not taking the best care of themselves: with just a little bit of work, there’s a BIG payoff. Change diet and exercise and in one month their numbers around diabetes and high blood pressure change.

●   Less spending on pharmaceuticals is good for all of us. The place to start is what you eat, and how you move your body. Many of our aches and pains are self-inflicted.

●   You don’t have to kill yourself, or eat lettuce all the time, or do 35 burpees! It’s about moving, moving, moving.

●   What you don’t know can hurt you: if you understand your body, and understand food…you can make a difference. Vitamins, omega 3s, lean meats.

What I think you’ll find in meeting Chris is she’s real. “I though we’d have more time now that we are empty nesters,” she explained. “But we are busier now that ever – traveling to see our son play University of Wisconsin Hockey, and doing all of the things we had to say “no” to because we were raising three kids. It’s fun!”

Good leaders live by example, including how they eat, move, and stay healthy. And they lead in ways that bring out the goodness in others.

Tickets for the August 18 Good Leadership Breakfast are going fast, get your tickets here.

Please share with me: how does fitness affect your leadership?