Pazoo CEO David Cunic is busy exec and personal trainer who must strike a balance.
One thing I get to do as a CEO of Pazoo is networking and socializing as part of my job. What this means for most is the opportunity to regularly go out to places that may not be the healthiest locations in the world, especially if keeping trim and fit are ideal parts of your life. I am referring to restaurants and bars. And the one time of year this happens more than usual is March Madness. Add to that St. Patrick’s Day and you realize that staying fit while staying social in March can be tough. So how do I do it? Follow these easy steps and you can be out there, enjoying the madness without having to worry about buying a larger belt afterwards.
A big aspect of what I do with Pazoo clients and any other clients I often deal with in my position is we will go out to bars to eat, have a drink, and talk business. While this can normally be pretty controllable, every year around March Madness the bar scene gets tougher to navigate because everyone is eating fried foods and throwing back beer after beer. I figured out pretty quickly in that scene if I ate everything the people around me did and drank everything everyone else was drinking, I wouldn’t be talking about health and exercise soon, because I wouldn’t have any right (because all the drinking and food would puff me up).
The other problem this poses is you don’t want to go out to network and be social, and then put a damper on the time of whoever you are with because they are drinking and eating alone. That is not how you handle it. The goal is to connect with people, and if you are socially ostracized from what they are doing, a connection, work related or otherwise, will not happen. Yet, gaining weight and getting intoxicated while networking is counter productive too, right? I can say I finally found a healthy medium where one can still network, still go out, still eat, still drink, but not have to worry about the repercussions of such constant actions.
First things first, drink choices.
If you’re like me, you will think of a drink you can nurse that will still be booze and make you fit in, but not high calorie and simple enough to it keeps people from looking at you strange. Patron the rocks. Simple drink, yes, but there are some true benefits to carrying a glass of it with you while networking. One, it is booze, so no one looks at you like some elitist, which is needed. Second, and what really sells it, you order your Patron on the rocks and let it slowly melt. This means, as the night passes, you will have an equal balance of water in there from the melted cubes, but to many it will cast the illusion of the glass still being full. Simple, yet profound. Patron became my drink of choice in such situations because it buys you a window of time to nurse the drink, it doesn’t do a number on the waistline, and people don’t look at you strange. That is step one to the process of networking in bars during March Madness.
The second half is food.
When you go out with clients, especially during March Madness, eating is a part of the networking process. Problem is, March Madness menus are made up of fried foods, always. Onion rings and wings and fries and other finger foods that are cooked in oils and high in saturated fats. While I don’t want to order something that is going to alienate me from the people I am with, I also don’t want to order something that will have long-lasting ramifications on my waist. After a few years, it finally hit me, chicken fingers, but with a twist.
We all know chicken is the best bet when trying to eat meat and eat healthy still. The trick when ordering chicken fingers is, pull the waitress aside and quietly ask if you can have those baked and not fried. 99% of places will happily oblige, and you will get a plate of food that looks just like everyone around you. The fine print being it’s just pieces of baked chicken, which are actually pretty good for you. I get it minus the fries always, and never get a strange look or a second glance for it. I’m just a guy eating chicken fingers, and it works every time.
The idea here is, you still visually fit in, but those around you are unaware of the little steps you are taking to ensure March Madness doesn’t end in March Sadness from unneeded and easily avoidable weight gain and public drunkenness.
David Cunic/Pazoo