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Sidelining Your Health? posted on August 8, 2008

What’s more important—your business or your health?
Seems easy enough to answer, but many business owners and entrepreneurs pay much less attention to their bodies than they should. How easy is it during times of chaos, crisis or accelerated growth to put healthy eating habits, exercise routines and stress management on the backburner? And what do you do, if anything, to maintain a healthy lifestyle?

Douglas Burke
CEO
DefenseWeb Technologies
San Diego

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that, at times, I feel like a three-headed beast—part CEO, part family man and part individual. Balancing these requirements takes a great deal of patience and time. However, I find that focusing on my own health and fitness makes me more effective in all these roles.

So after about five hours of sleep each night, I wake up, work for a few hours, and then go for an hour run. I know some folks may think that’s just crazy, but anyone who’s ever jogged along the beach at sunrise knows that it’s one of the most pleasurable experiences you can muster. The fact that you can run all year-round in San Diego makes it all the more wonderful.

Additionally, I’ve been making sure that I eat something for breakfast and drink a lot of water throughout the day. I was one of those folks who would always skip that meal, only to pay for it by 10 a.m. when I felt unenergetic and a half-step behind everyone else. So I now make sure I take time to enjoy a light breakfast and lunch followed by a good-sized dinner.

While I don’t believe my routine is as revolutionary as our Web-based solutions are to support the federal healthcare, well-being and family readiness organizations, I find myself much more productive at work and much more attentive at home. My kids think that’s a good thing!

DefenseWeb Technologies is a provider of customized software solutions for the federal government. The company was founded in 1998, and in March 2007 it was acquired by Kentucky-based Humana Military Healthcare Services. It now operates as a Humana subsidiary.

Bill Unrue
CEO
Anonymizer
Sorrento Mesa

I’ve been CEO of Anonymizer now for eight years. We pioneered the anonymous Web surfing industry for the consumer, enterprise and government markets. We’ve grown exponentially using only bootstrapped funds to launch the company. While that was absolutely the right approach for us, it did put the management team in a high-stress position of having to perform.

When you are bootstrapping your business, you need to be willing to do anything to win—as long as it is legal and ethical. You will also need to find ways to cope with the daily stress of failure that comes with this commitment. I find that lots of high-intensity exercise and family time is key to stabilizing yourself when challenged to succeed in a dynamic environment.

I’ve made it a point to incorporate a workout regimen in my daily routine. I do weights, running, Muay Thai kickboxing, swimming and, on average, 500 sit-ups a day. But my real exercise comes from chasing or getting chased by my three boys seven days a week—I’ve got nothing on their stamina.

While exercising does take time, I do find that I’m a much better person to be around for both family and my friends at Anonymizer. When I work out I have more energy and feel more tenacious about winning at work, so I would highly encourage other business leaders to make time to work out consistently.

Anonymizer is an industry leader and pioneer in comprehensive online identity protection solutions for consumer, business and government organizations. Its CEO, Unrue, is a workout fiend—it is not recommended you get into an arm wrestling contest with him.

Kristi Lilli
Owner & President
Firefly Media
Carlsbad

Working from home and having a gym in my garage makes it easy to stay on track. I see the workout equipment every time I leave the house, so it’s a great reminder to not let the dust settle. I work out at 4 a.m. three times a week. That’s the best time because my son, Isaac, 3, is still sleeping and the phone hasn’t started ringing yet. Plus, I have so much energy after! The other two workweek mornings are dedicated to catching up on reading, both personal and work-related. That way, I feel balanced and don’t worry about keeping up with it.

Do I ever fall off the wagon? Of course, but if I stick with the routine 90% of the time, I don’t feel guilty about missing a day or even a week. It’s important to allow yourself some guilt-free downtime.

I’m also a member of the Wellness Club at North County Total Wellness where I get one chiropractic adjustment a week and one deep-tissue massage a month—so important for stress relief! It is difficult to find time for the massage, so I usually schedule next month’s appointment immediately so it’s already on my calendar.

Firefly Media was launched by Lilli last November. The promotional products company is a joint venture with Adventures in Advertising, a network of franchised and affiliated promotional product distributorships throughout the United States.