Julie Smolyansky followed her father as President and CEO of Lifeway Foods. But she was determined not to follow some of his habits. Her dad was stressed, he smoked, and he died in 2002 of a heart attack at age 55. "I find its so ironic that he was running a health food company and talking about health and wellness and diet and lifestyle and did not do any of that for himself," said Smolyansky, among the speakers at Entrepreneurs Unpluggd's "How to Stay Healthy While Starting a Business" forum at Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division. "I was determined that was not going to be me.

Smolyansky had always been pretty active. As a child, she figure-skated and played tennis before heading for college, where she thaught aerobics. "The idea of excercise was very much ingrained in my life from a really early age. I found reprieve in it. I found a way for unload my stress. I felt an endorphin rush." That helped when she, as a 27-year-old, took over the publicly traded company. "It was incredibly stressful," she said. "I did work 18-hour days, and I'd work out about two hours on the elliptical. The one thing I always came back to was my workout and eating healthy."
Doing business while pursuing fitness
She plans travel around the time frames for exercise. "I literally put it in my schedule. I don't want more than two days to go by without a sweat. I schedule trips around the ability to work out." I did not want to set the example that my dad set with health and wellness," added Smolyansky, who noted a recent study indicated 42 percent of CEOs are considered obese. "How does that trickle down to the rest of the workforce if the CEO can't even set an example?"

Smolyansky uses the excercise time to do business as well. While running a marathon in London, she developed a kids product, including packaging and characters. "I'd worked out the entire product innovation" by the end of the run, she said. "I'll put out my phone and write in it and take notes. I take so many phone calls on my runs, which turns into a walk. I multitask," she said. "I go out for five-mile run and my husband will be like, "Why are you taking three hours?" Smolyansky said she is moving her workout to the office, where she will try giving presentations while on a treadmill, and encourage her employees to do the same.

Working out at work is right up the alley of Jamie Russo, founder of Enerspace, a health-focused coworkspace that opened last year in the West Loop, complete with a yoga studio and standing desks. "We know that sitting all day is really bad for you and yet it's so ingrained that that's what you do all day," she said. "You have to build those types of things in and create a culture of health. Otherwise, it's not going to happen."

She counts natural lighting and showers as necessities for that culture. "One of the neat things about our space was this really amazing light. When you're looking for a space for your company, that's the first thing you should consider. Have really great natural light," she said. "It's important to have hot showers, so people can bike, and because we bundle up and get really sweaty in Chicago weather."

Russo gets up between 4.30 and 5 a.m and alternates morning workout times with her husband so that someone is always home with their 2-year old. She finds ways to get a sweat session with a hetic schedule. "Yesterday, I had breakfast thing to do, so I went to it in my running outfit. It was super determined to get my run in," she said. "Sometimes you have to be a litle bit bold."

Business attire, she said, is holding folks back from being more active. Women in heels aren't going to use the standing desks, and people are less likely to get in power walks during lunch breaks and muss their nice shirts, she said. Russo said company leaders can help create a healthier culture by scratching junk foods and sweets from office celebrations. "Think about how you set a standard for what your celebrations look like," Russo said. "If you have a company or department of 30 people, and on average have a couple of occasions you're celebrating every month; and you serve cupcakes at each one, and did nothing to combat those calories, then on average each person would gain 10 pounds a year." "Try and create a culture of celebrating with something like sexy salads. Find your thing. Try to think of something that's not ruining everyone's waistline."

Food and nutrition expert Dawn Jackson Blatner so offered tips for excercise and healthier eating. Among them: Forgo checking messages on laptops or mobile devices before working out. "Don't ever touch a keyboard before your excercise. The minute you touch a phone, all of a sudden, cyber time happens. It's like you're sucked into cyber world."

Blatner said some one who is less than enthusiastic about getting out of bed to work out should convince themselves exercising is something they want to, rather than should do. "Most of us in the entrepreneurial space, we don't like following the rules of other people. We set out our own rules. Leading with "want" changes everything," she said.

She told attendees she commits more to the habit of excercising than the actual effort. "I never miss more than two days of excercise in a row, but some days are 10 minutes of walking. I won't lose the habit because I practice it so often. "I give myself permission to half-ass excercise," she said. "So I get rid of this perfectionist attitude."

In terms of food, Blatner suggests staging homes and workplace for smarter eating. "You open your fridge, and there happens to be broccoli there and Brussels sprouts there, guilting you." And she limits herself to a few healthy meal and snack choices, delicious monotomy, she calls it. "Choice is the enemy of your success. It's debilitating, in almost anything. When you're overwhelmed with choices, you're going to back to your default," she said

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