100 Business Days Out: Day 16 - Three Square Meals

Let me start with this statement - I am not an eater. For me, food has always been about eating to live not living to eat. In fact, I would say that I have skipped way more meals than I have eaten in my lifetime with many a work day where dinner was the only meal of the day. Breakfast was always too hard to coordinate and the morning too rushed and full to stop and eat. Lunchtime was reserved for a run or working out. I might grab a Cliff Bar or maybe a salad occasionally and eat them back at my desk. I was also not a big fan of eating meetings. If I could avoid a business dinner I would. When I did lots of recruiting I always avoided eating with an interview. One never wants to be locked into a full meal with someone who might not want to spend that much time with. All of this rambling leads me to the fact that right now, I am meeting over meals more than I have ever done or want to do. It seems that that the natural time for most people to get together is breakfast or lunch so every day I find myself with a breakfast or lunch meeting and going from place to place to do so. I am learning how to eat lightly a number of times a day, which according to all of the nutrition books is what you are supposed to do anyway. I am also learning to look forward to these meetings and enjoying the time with someone over food. A restaurant executive once told me that sharing food with someone was the second most intimate thing we do with other human beings. Since I put sleeping in the same bed with someone pretty intimate too, I would say it is the third most intimate thing, but I do agree that if you don’t take for granted the time and the experience, the lunch meeting can actually be something special.