The Body Is Your Boardroom: Food Is Your Body's Supply Chain - Why Quality In Equals Quality Out

Co-written by Mike Pincus

Here's a fun fact that should change how you think about your next meal: the average CEO makes about 35,000 decisions per day, and every single one of those decisions is affected by what they ate for breakfast.

Every. Single. One.

Think about that for a moment. You could be operating at diminished capacity—making suboptimal calls, missing key insights, struggling with focus—not because you lack talent or experience, but simply because you didn't fuel properly.

In our latest episode of Body is Your Boardroom, performance coach Mike Pincus breaks down why nutrition is your body's supply chain—and why the "quality in, quality out" principle matters just as much for your body as it does for your business.

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The Disconnect: Athletes vs. Executives

Athletes treat their bodies like precision tools. They view food as fuel first, taste second. They understand that what they put in directly affects their ability to push to the limit—and then recover and do it again.

Founders and CEOs? Many treat food as just... food.

As Mike observes: "Founders typically don't think of their bodies as a tool—just the thing that gets in the car and goes to work. They view their mind as a tool, but they don't make the connection between what they put in their stomach and how their mind performs."

The result? Many executives will eat whatever is put in front of them. They don't take time to actually eat—there's a badge of honor around "working lunches." They disassociate their minds from their bodies.

An athlete would never do this.

Your Body Runs on a Supply Chain

When we talk about supply chain in business, we obsess over quality control, sourcing, and consistency. We know that low-quality inputs inevitably lead to low-quality outputs.

The same is true for your body.

Think of food as a collection of ingredients. These ingredients fuel and nourish your mind and body. When you provide better ingredients, you see improvements in:

• Performance
• Thought processes
• Cognitive function
• Sleep quality
• Stress management
• Physical capability

This isn't theory. This is cause and effect. This pays dividends.

And just like in business, it all connects. Poor sleep leads to stress. Stress leads to poor food choices. Poor food choices affect cognitive function and sleep quality. It's a vicious cycle—or, if you manage it well, a virtuous one.

The Shift: CEOs Holding the Line on Food Quality

Here's some good news: we're starting to see a shift.

The best leaders are treating food like any other operational decision. They set standards for meeting food just like they'd set standards for any other company resource. They communicate their needs clearly to meeting planners. They understand that the quality of food affects the quality of the meeting and the decisions being made.

This isn't about being high-maintenance. It's about being strategic.

You wouldn't accept a broken supply chain in your business and expect great products. Why would you accept a broken nutritional supply chain and expect peak cognitive performance?

Cutting Through the Diet Noise

Let's address the elephant in the room: there are thousands of diets out there. Keto, Paleo, Mediterranean, Atkins, Zone—and about 28 more officially listed with the FDA.

Mike's been watching these trends since the '80s, and here's his take:

Start with the goal. Is it weight loss? Health? Cognitive function? Performance? Different goals require different approaches. Weight loss is a different conversation than eating for cognitive function.

Most diets have something to sell. People don't want to hear the truth. If they did, they'd follow what's being taught in universities around the world—not what they see in infomercials. People want something to blame for why they aren't at their goal, and food is an easy target.

Radical changes don't stick. Take the Mediterranean diet—a wonderful way of eating. But if you weren't raised on it, it will likely last about three weeks. These diets ask someone who's eaten a certain way for 30+ years to make a huge change overnight. That doesn't happen easily.

The Carb Confusion (And Why Your Brain Needs Them)

Let's clear up one of the biggest sources of confusion: carbohydrates.

"Carbs make me fat." "Don't eat past 6pm." "No carbs after lunch."

Here's the truth: Carbs don't make you fat. Carbs don't make you gain weight.

People in France eat baguettes every morning. People in Italy eat pasta and pizza. People in Asia eat white rice daily. And regarding that "don't eat past 6pm" rule—what about someone who works a graveyard shift? Should they starve?

Here's what matters for CEOs: Your brain prefers glucose as its main fuel source. A low-carb diet can cause cognitive dysfunction.

Read that again. Cognitive dysfunction. The exact opposite of what any CEO is after.

Principles That Stand the Test of Time

Instead of chasing the latest diet trend, focus on principles that have stood the test of time:

• Eat less processed foods. Eat more food from the earth.
• Eat less sugar—no, this doesn't include fruit. There's nothing wrong with fruit.
• Drink less alcohol. Drink more water.
• Eat less animal meat. The most robust species on the planet is the gorilla, and they're plant-based. I'm not saying don't eat meat—I eat meat—it's just not the main ingredient on my plate.
• Stop with the high-protein diets. We're all eating enough protein.
• Eat fewer dairy products. We're the only species that consumes milk after nursing and the only one to drink milk from another species.
• Drink less soda. No more fast food.

Notice the word "less," not "never." This isn't about elimination—it's about proportion.

The Fire Metaphor: Carbs, Protein, and Fat

Think of the typical ratio—60% carbs, 20% protein, 20% fat—like the components of a fire:

• Carbs are like paper: They burn fast, providing quick energy.
• Protein is like twigs: They burn at a moderate pace.
• Fat is like a stump: It burns slowly, providing sustained energy.

You need all three, in the right proportions, to keep the fire burning steadily throughout the day.

And here's the key: Track the data. Food logging is important because it keeps you consistent. You can see where your energy is falling. You can see when you can sit and churn out a report without losing focus. Could be food-related? The data will tell you.

The Working Lunch Problem (And "Fog Eating")

There's a badge of honor around working lunches in startup culture. But here's the reality: An athlete would never work while eating.

Why? Because you need to give your body time to actually eat and digest. You can't perform at your best when you're treating food as an afterthought.

There's even a term for this: "fog eating"—when you aren't really aware of what you've eaten or how much. You're going through the motions, but you're not actually nourishing yourself.

Stop wearing working lunches as a badge of honor. It's not impressive. It's self-sabotage.

Practical Strategies for Busy Leaders

Before high-stress meetings: Eat a good source of carbohydrates with some protein 60 minutes before. Remember—carbohydrates break down into glucose and fill your glycogen stores. Your brain's main fuel source is glucose. Now is NOT the time to go on a low-carb diet.

When traveling: Look to healthy food as your supply chain. Travel and exhaustion are when you need quality fuel most—not when you should default to junk food.

What to order at lunch: Be mindful. What you order can set you up for success or failure the rest of the day. Athletes are intentional about what they eat before and after workouts. CEOs should be intentional about what they eat before and after high-stakes meetings.

The Bottom Line

Your body is a tool to accomplish your goals. Athletes understand this. If you want to perform at the highest level, you have to fuel it properly.

It's not about perfection or following the latest diet trend. It's about consistency with whole foods from the earth.

And remember: it all connects. Better food means better sleep, better stress management, better cognitive function. You can't separate your mind from your body.

You wouldn't run a company with a broken supply chain. Don't run your body that way either.

Five Actions You Can Take This Week

1. Audit your current supply chain. Track what you actually eat for three days. Not to judge it, just to see it. You can't optimize what you don't measure. Many CEOs are shocked when they realize how little they're actually eating—or how much of it is processed.
2. Stop wearing "working lunch" as a badge of honor. Block 30 minutes for lunch on your calendar this week. Your brain is doing cognitive work that requires fuel and recovery time. Eat away from your desk, away from your screen.
3. Apply quality control to meeting food. Before your next catered meeting, actually look at the menu and make a choice. Don't just eat what's put in front of you. Order something that will set you up for success, not the 3pm crash. Better yet? Hold your meeting planner accountable—tell them what you need.
4. Focus on "more of" not "none of." Instead of eliminating things, add more food from the earth this week. More vegetables, more fruit, more whole foods. The processed stuff will naturally get crowded out. This isn't about perfection—it's about shifting the ratio.
5. Connect the dots between your disciplines. Notice how your food choices affect your sleep quality, your stress levels, your afternoon energy. Everything in your body's operating system is connected. Poor nutrition doesn't just affect your body—it directly impacts your cognitive function and decision-making.

Remember: You wouldn't accept a supply chain that delivers inconsistent, low-quality inputs and expect your company to produce excellent outputs. Your body works the same way. The difference between leaders who sustain peak performance and those who burn out isn't genetics—it's whether they fuel their most important tool with the same intentionality they apply to their business.

This post is part of the Body is Your Boardroom series, where we explore the seven disciplines elite athletes use to perform at their peak—and how founders and CEOs can apply the same principles to leadership. Next up: Hydration as your body's human resources function.