People at work notice when you start getting in better shape. It’s slow progress to myself and anyone else who sees me every day, but people occasionally even mention the change to me. Have you ever seen someone who was in great shape and thought, “How can she be committed to her job if she looks like that? She must spend all her time in the gym.” I admit that I have had these prejudicial thoughts. It doesn’t seem to impacting me at work, at least not with management, but I was at one time concerned that people seeing me do a lot of walking around the room might think I should spend more time at my desk.

This prejudice can manifest against other positive characteristics as well. Poise, good grooming, confidence, being well-dressed — these are all things that are good qualities, but make me think sometimes that a person might be all show. All form and no substance. Just because the form appears to be too good. I know that people can’t do everything perfectly, so if they look too good, something must be wrong.

This brings to mind a TED talk I watched about “power poses” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc). The testing done by this college professor indicated that, just by acting like a powerful person, one can actually be more powerful. I started to think of powerful people I know or have seen and whether any of them exhibited the opposite posture, the “weak” pose. Few did. Is this a contradiction? Do we expect our leaders to display the physical characteristics of power so much that we put in power those who look like they should be there, and at the same time ascribe a lack of proficiency or application to them? Or perhaps it’s all a big conspiracy in which the fit people promote fit people and they are all incompetent? I don’t think so, but what do you think?

Recorded October 13, 2018.

Weight (change since Jan 2018): 201 (-73)
Workout time: 182 Minutes
Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 8.97 Miles (178.9)
Steps: 20,125
Muscle Mass (change since Aug 2018): 138 (+0)
Body Fat: 27.2%
2018 Goals: (1) Run 10.5 miles in one day by 11/18/18 (2) Lose 100lbs by 12/25/18
2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat