Good Leaders: Fitness and Good Leadership Today – Caption Contest UPDATE

“Your health is your wealth” cheered entrepreneurial fitness guru Chris Freytag. She was far-and-away the most energetic, naturally-caffeinated speaker over the 7 1/2 years of Good Leadership Breakfast speakers. Wow, did we have fun!

“The connections for good fitness to good leadership are so obvious,” Chris coached. “It’s all about the Seven Fs: faith, family, finances, fitness, friends, fun and future. If we aspire to live and lead a long and healthy life, we can’t accomplish any of that if we ignore our fitness. If you really think about it…your health really is your wealth!”

Simple medicine

Four days removed…here’s what I remember most about her inspiring message: Fitness today is more about movement than how we look in our swimsuits: “Motion is the best lotion for the things that hurt as we age,” she coached.

And we should all stop looking for the quick fix: “It took a lot longer than 21 days to put on that fat…so why do we expect we can take if off that fast?” she lectured.

The people who consider themselves “fit” do so with attention to three m-words: mindset, meals, and movement.

Mindset: we need to find a way to make our fitness journey “fun,” instead of concentrating on the misery.

Meals: a calorie consumed is a calorie consumed. But 500 calories from fish and fresh vegetables is very different than 500 calories from fried chicken and cornbread. We have to know the hazards of what we eat.

Movement: walking, running, standing, dancing, playing…anything but sitting helps reduce inflammation and burn calories.

Losing the beer gut

In the interview portion of the breakfast, I shared the tyranny of having a score of “10” on Friends and Fun on my Seven Fs Wheel: I’m eating and drinking too much to fit into my fancy speech-making clothes.

I asked Chris why we (people like me) put on so much weight around our middle (beer gut)?  “Most men are losing a pound and a half of muscle per year,” she predicted. “When we lose muscle, we are losing our fat-burning capacity – that’s why the beer no longer burns off and instead settles itself around your middle.”

Note to self: I need to build more muscle!

Last week I invited people to provide a caption for this photo:

Next week I will share the winner of our CAPTION CONTEST. The winner will receive a snappy Good Leadership water bottle.

Here’s my first attempt: I can’t believe I ate all of the left over donuts from the staff meeting! What does this picture say to you?

Good leaders make a habit to be a role model for good fitness. And they live and work with a “my health is my wealth” mindset for radiating goodness.

Reminder: send me your captions or drop them in the comments below! To see some of the other captions, have a look at the comments in last week’s blog.