For years, I treated my body like a machine that was supposed to absorb whatever I demanded of it. More miles, more weight, more hours, and an assumption that rest was something to fit in around the work instead of part of it. Then I left corporate, my role changed completely, and I had to admit that the body I had trained for endurance wasn’t the body I needed to lead. An operator doesn’t run one long race. An operator runs a day made of small sprints, each one in a different room with a different person, and the quality of every one depends on how steady your energy is. I suspect many of the executives I worked with are dealing with some version of the same question right now: How do you take care of your body when your job asks you to be sharp every hour of the day? I’m not a clinician and I’m not offering a prescription. What follows is what I’ve learned by getting it wrong for years and slowly getting it right.
Burning the Candle From Both Ends
One of the biggest realizations I’ve had since leaving corporate is how hard I was on my body. I was training roughly 20 hours a week, running 50 plus miles on top of lifting, while holding down a stressful job that redlined my mind at the same time. I was burning the candle from both ends and calling it discipline. From the outside it looked like a high performer with good habits. From the inside it meant my body was under load from every direction, with very little room for a day to go sideways. I didn’t see how much that was costing me until the pressure of the job came off and I could finally feel the difference.
From Athlete to Operator
Today the goal is different. I focus on building my body up so I can stay mentally focused for work and handle the mode switching that comes with running a company. The target isn’t a personal record, it’s not getting too high or too low throughout the day so my energy stays consistent on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. In practice that means my training volume is about 25% of what it used to be. I focus mainly on strength training to keep lean muscle mass, and I run once a week, which is for the Trail Club. I’ll add some shorter intervals during the week, but my total volume is closer to 10 miles than 50 plus. I also stretch far more than I ever did, because after years of high volume running my body needed to be opened back up.
Less Food Was the Hard Part
The biggest change in how I eat wasn’t what’s on the plate, it was how much of it. I eat far less than I used to, and that was harder than I expected. It was more mental than physical. For the last six years I was in the mindset of I can’t eat enough to keep up with the demands of running 50 plus miles a week on top of lifting. Now my training volume is a quarter of what it was, and I find myself on the other end of that perspective, learning to trust that less is enough. The fuel I need today is built around longevity and mental state, which is a very different job than getting me through 100 miles.
The Morning Sets the Day
Mornings are where I protect my energy most. I eat very light, and I prefer a smoothie for breakfast to get fruits, vegetables, and protein into my system early. I avoid anything too high in carbs or sugar because I want to avoid the spikes and the fog that comes with them in the middle of a meeting. Hydration is just as important. I have two coffees a day, one before my morning workout and one after breakfast, and no caffeine after noon. None of it is complicated and I’m not suggesting it’s right for everyone. It works for me because it keeps my head clear in the rooms where I need to be sharp.
The Last Thirty Minutes
If the morning protects my energy, the night restores it. I focus heavily on my nighttime routine to clear my head from the day. I take the last 30 minutes of the day in silence and let my mind settle so I can get into deep sleep. That matters more now than it ever did because every hour of my day is a different mode and a different conversation, and a mind that has been switching all day doesn’t power down on its own. Silence is how I close out the day instead of carrying it into the night.
Consistency Over Intensity
What I’d say to the executives and operators in my network is this. Most of us got here by being able to push, and that served us well for a long time. The job is different now, and so is what the body has to do. Moving, eating, and resting well aren’t separate projects, they’re the operating system that decisions, relationships, and leadership run on. I don’t think the answer is a perfect routine. It’s building enough of a foundation that you aren’t swinging too high or too low from hour to hour, so you can be the same person in the last meeting of the day as you were in the first. That belief, that health and work shouldn’t be treated as separate lives, is the foundation HUMN is built on, and I’m learning it from the inside. Consistency beats intensity, every day.
-O
