How Your Nutrition and Fitness Affect You as a Leader (feat. Lisa Holmes)

Hi, I'm Susan Drumm, and welcome to the Enlightened Executive, where your personal evolution sparks your leadership evolution. Each episode we feature groundbreaking techniques and strategies to help you get the edge in personal and leadership effectiveness. Today we're talking about the link between wellness and leadership, specifically how your nutrition impacts your own leadership. And with me today, I've got Lisa Holmes, who is not only the chief business strategist for Strategic performance, where she guides HR and strategic planning, as well as being an author, but also in 2019, Lisa lost 96 pounds and decided to take audiences along her health and wellness journey. And so she's got a weekly cooking show, Be well and Live well with Lisa on Roku tv, Apple tv, Amazon, Firestick. But she's also launched Honey and Company. Lisa, you're a busy bee. I'm so excited for you to be here today.

Thank you so much for having me.

So tell me, let's start right off the bat. What is your philosophy? What linkage do you see between nutrition and leadership effectiveness?

You know, I think it is super important because if you're not feeling well, right, or you're not healthy, it shows up in your professional life in many ways, right? You're super tired by certain points of the day. You're foggy and unclear, which affects your decision making. Your stamina is off, right? So you can't necessarily meet all your goals and objectives during the day. And if you're not feeling well. And so it's super important to know, though, that. That wellness comes from the inside, right? And so what you put in your body like they used to tell us, right, what you are, what you eat, it is so true, right? That again, it's important to pay so much attention to what fuels your body.

When you see the intensity by which most executives and senior executives need to work. Sometimes it's nutrition that goes by the wayside, plus being on the road, traveling around, right? How do you access the right foods? How do you make sure that you're more conscious about what you put inside your body so that you can be an effective leader? So that's why I wanted to focus on this topic today because I think it's so important every step you take to get yourself in peak performance, including nutrition, that is what we are focusing here. So maybe it would be great to hear a little bit about your own journey, why this has become a passion for you, so much so that you have a cooking show in addition to how you are working with leaders at Strategic Performance. But tell us about your own journey and the impact. What did you do to lose almost £100?

Yeah. So I actually developed a medical condition that caused me to gain £100. And for 20 years or a little more, I kind of felt like I was walking around in somebody else's body. And I started, like, five years ago, honestly seeking more information, getting more educated about my condition and figuring out who. Who do I need to partner with, who do I need to talk to that can give me more information? So I went to nutritionist and health specialist, and you name it, I started listing, right? And so for me, it ended up being more homeopathic as opposed to synthetic medicine. So I went on some natural compounds to help manage my condition.

And.

And even though I was starting to see some success, I wasn't seeing what I wanted to see was radical success. Right. I needed to get back to the real Lisa. And so that meant, you know, what else did I need to do? I had to get a little bit more intentional. So I remember very specifically, it was New Year's Eve, and I was doing my vision board party that I do as a way we kick off New Year's with me and my family. And I cut out on and put on my vision board that I needed to have thinner peace because I didn't feel at peace with myself because I wasn't me. And so I had. Then once I stick it on my vision board, it becomes the Bible, more or less, right? It's like, you gotta put up now because you said you're gonna do it. And I didn't know what that meant. And so all I knew, though, was that I had to come out radically for myself. And I then started seeking a nutritionist who was working with me every week on my diet, helping me to understand kind of the things that were triggering my condition, how to better plan my meals and setting myself up every day to be successful. Because one of the things I realized is I was so organized in my business, but disorganized when it came to the business of me, right. I wasn't necessarily taking the time to say, you know, what meal planning every day. I know what I'm going to have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When I left my house, I had everything that I needed to make sure I was set up to be successful that day. And then it went to my physical wellness, right? So I was in no shape at that point, right, to really go hard, but I had to start somewhere. So it started with walking. Then it went from walking to, you know, being a lot more, you know, specific about what Kinds of exercise. So just so happens I've got some folks in my family who operate in this space that are personal trainers. So I sought the help and I had to start, you know, planning. Really I planned everything else in my business. Why wasn't I planning this?

I hear people ask, how do you get a regular schedule? I am very regular with exercise and diet. It is harder on the road. Absolutely. But when I am here at, in my office and at home every, just like there's calendar appointments for all the meetings that I need to have and with my team, there are meetings with myself and it's blocked on my calendar, my exercise time.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

I found that really a helpful structure. But I also found a helpful structure to do the classes, more of like a class type appointment. So that I found a buddy to go with. And I'm like, oh, I need, you know, I can't let them down. And so I think there are a lot of different structures to put in place to ensure that you're making that as much a priority as you are, you know, meeting with your team and meeting your business objectives because you burn that candle. And I've seen all too often the burnout that happens where first it starts people not being as effective as you mentioned. But second, the real scary health challenges start to crop up.

Oh yeah, yeah. And so I remember, you know, talking to at this point my, you know, back in some Years ago, my 70 something year old grandmother who I always sought her wisdom, right? She imparted wisdom all the time and one of the things that she told me was you always have to obviously make time for you but you've got to keep moving physically fit, keep moving, right? And I know that it can be tough, right? We can find all kinds of excuses for why we don't get it done. And we can spend most of our time doing that right? Then actually saying, okay, how can I get it done? Right, I can't get it done, but how can I? And so I started then just taking out my calendar and saying, okay, it might be if my only uninterrupted time of the day is 6am I got to get out of the bed earlier so I can get my 6am workout in. Because otherwise if I think I'm going to do it at the end of the day, that's why I haven't been successful at getting it done. And so then I went to 5:30am workout so I could be done by 6:30 or 7 and ready for my day no later than 8:30. And there you have it. Right? And I would start my day feeling very accomplished because I had done this for myself. And, you know, I didn't necessarily feel like, you know, I didn't start my day feeling like, oh, God, I didn't do that. And all day long I'm spinning that around in my head about, oh, I messed up and I didn't get it done. But I just started to really get serious with me and, you know, checking in, saying, okay, I need more of this in order to be well and live well. Right. And this is the only way I can get it done.

Yes, you need to prioritize. You will prioritize what really matters. And if you do it, I'm a big believer in doing it first thing. Everybody has their different rhythms, but I've got to get it out of the way just like you, otherwise the day will take over. But often when I hear people say again is, oh, there's no time. I've got kids, young kids, all those pieces, which I totally understand. And I heard a statistic, on average, we're spending five years of our life on social media and our phones. Five years.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

So I believe that doing a little less of you will make a big difference, and you can put it towards your own physical well being.

You know, on the iPhone, you can see how much time you've spent on your phone. Right. How much time you spend on your social. It has that little indicator to tell you. And if you paid attention to that, just like you said, you'd be like, oh, my God, I could put that towards working out. I could sacrifice 30 or 45 minutes to exercise every day.

Yeah, absolutely. So tell us, you know, in your role as chief business strategist and in hr, you have probably seen other leaders walk this journey that you have. You know what, have you seen some examples? People have been successful in doing just what you do. Not only take it off, but keep it off. How that impacted their leadership.

Yeah. So for me, I've always seen them just kind of radically go hard for themselves. Just like, you know, they've done it for meeting the business objectives. They do the same for themselves, and they are disciplined about getting it done. And, you know, so for, you know, one of the executive leaders that I know, she has her Apple watch and she's relentless about it, and we just so happen to be connected. So I can see how much workout she's doing. Right. That's kind of how we have our little buddy system. But she is so disciplined when that watch goes off. She knows what time it is. And I can see throughout the day how she's getting it in. And I will, you know, it drives me and challenges me to want to make sure that I'm keeping up and I'm doing what I need to do. But, you know, me personally, when I started my journey, you know, I decided that, you know, it was. It just made sense because, again, I want my husband to be well and live well and live long with me. And I asked him to go along with beyond my journey. And he said, right, I can't have you getting fit and fine is what he said. It can't have you getting fit and fine and not me too. And so he went on the journey with me. And so the husband has lost weight. And then the husband started having conversations with his friends, and some of them decided to kind of join on their journey and just, you know, share with each other and encourage each other. But it was just the fact that we demonstrated the behavior. Right. And we talked about what we personally were doing and just hoped that, you know, somewhere you plant these little seeds and that other people will, you know, pick up the little nuggets and, you know, hopefully it'll help somebody else along the way.

Yes. And so as you see this type of influence that your leadership, when you take control of your health, the rest of your team also, not only your family, but your team, will get inspired. I've seen that as well. I've seen where a leader decides to make healthier choices with their life, and they're inspiring others along the way in their team to do the same. Or sometimes as a team, they focus on health and wellness for the year, where it's a theme and as part of team meetings, people share what progress they've made, what they're finding to be most motivating, and it's not out of the realm to put that into your team conversation, because how your health and wellness is is how you're going to perform. And more. We make that link between peak performance and your health and, well, being a peak performance at work. That's the direction we're going. So. So thank you for sharing a little bit more about that journey. Is there. What would you say to the person that's really struggling? Like, yes, I've tried everything. I'm just so busy, I can't stick to it. What encouragement would you give them?

Seek help. It is not something that you can necessarily start to do in cases on your own. You might really need to get some assistance. Right. And it's okay to ask for help. I did it right. I wasn't as educated about food God, that I. I didn't realize how uneducated I was until I just started to seek some help. And I think the thing is we. We all aren't good at everything. Right. My lane is hr, as you know. Right. And we all have our areas of expertise. Go find somebody who has your answer. That's where you start. Right. Get some resources, and then you can build on those.

And what. What type of help, what type of resources do you recommend?

Yeah. So, you know, I went out and I started reading more about my then condition. And you see, I said, then condition, I don't have it anymore. And then, you know, I started just talking to, like, my doctor and I said, here's my challenge. I feel worse on, you know, during these times of the day. And I started kind of chronicling what I felt were key things that he needed to know. And I said, you know, I think that, you know, maybe I need to, you know, talk to somebody who can help me with food. That's my struggle right now. Then I was having trouble sleeping, and I said, you know, I think all these things are interconnected with the reason why I don't rest well at night. And so, you know, then he said, yeah, you are absolutely correct. And all of this is just because I started to get in tune with me and I called it my Lisa check in. And I still check in with Lisa often, but I started to really say, what is it that doesn't necessarily feel right in me? And I really wrote it down and started really wanting to know, like, who has the answer to this question? What's wrong with my diet? What's wrong with my hair? What's wrong with my sleep? And started finding the resources of people who had the answer to my problem.

Fantastic. So now you are focused on helping others achieve this through your cooking show, through the products that you're selling as well, in addition to being very busy at your corporate job. Where could people learn more and maybe get some guidance or inspiration from you on that?

Right. So I probably would say check in with me on my cooking show because I share a lot on my show. So right now I'm on the three platforms, as you said, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire Stick. I'm on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 1:30 and 6:30 Eastern. And you will see me doing all kinds of things that, you know, I think people need to connect with and how I connected in my own wellness. So, for example, a couple of weeks ago, I showed People what I do as I prepare for my workout. So what does Lisa eat pre workout? And then I showed you cooking, showed myself cooking what I eat post workout. And then I had an internal medicine doctor who's also a food scientist come on. And she spoke for 15 or 20 minutes from a medical perspective. Right. So she was really informative and she gave a lot of information. So you'll see me talking about how I, you know, still eat real food. Trust me, I love food. But what I do is I make some just subtle changes and I tell people, you know, why I make the subtle change with the recipe that I do and what works for me and what doesn't. Right. But it really is just, again, just, you know, chiming in and tuning in with me, you know, on my social media.

Great. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story and your thoughts on that linkage between nutrition and leadership. What's one thing you want people to remember as we say goodbye?

Always worry about you. You have to put you first. You have to be a priority. And for me, it was developing my own mantra. So it was be well and live well and figure out what's yours and hold yourself accountable to that mantra. And it will some days really help propel you in some times when you don't think that you can make it. It will, yes.

And I love that. And there's also that ability to check in with yourself, as you mentioned before, have the one on one with you, have it with the rest of your team. What are you doing that one on one and really journaling and getting clear the changes you need to make for you.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Lisa. I really appreciate your time.

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

And if you loved this episode, you'll also love my interview with Roland McCrady of HeartMath where we look at the impact of heart brain coherence on our leadership effectiveness. Until next time, hope you enjoyed today's episode and I'd like to point you to the next important step. Hit the subscribe button and the bell to get notified when we release new content. I'll see you on the next episode of the Enlightened Executive.

Sam.