Traci served as Toastmaster to an exercise for healthy living theme. There were 10 Members and 1 Guest in attendance.

We intentionally started a few minutes late and ended 12 minutes early.

Traci shared some interesting exercise facts:

  • Did you know the origins of exercise were out of survival as hunters and gatherers?
  • Ancient Empires realized the importance of physical fitness in maintaining their power and installed exercise regimens for their armies.
  • The Roman Empire fell in part to their overly lavish lifestyle.
  • The 20th Century marked the origins of today’s fitness market.
  • Exercising before a big event can reduce stress and anxiety.
  • Exercise can make the mind more receptive to new information and increase intelligence.

Exercise and application produce order in our affairs, health of body, cheerfulness of mind, and these make us precious to our friends. -Thomas Jefferson

Eye contact is one of the key elements to being a great speaker. In the spirit of the theme, Scott gave a public speaking exercise to practice at home: Cut out pictures of faces from a magazine and / or set up a bunch of stuffed animals around the room. They are your audience. Then practice speaking in front of them. Try holding eye contact with each for approximately 3 seconds. This might sound silly, but it works!

The Word of The Day was “Smile”. Surprisingly the group only used it 4 times! Easier isn’t always better!

Bruce tweaked his speech from last week while implementing some of the feedback he received in his evaluation. He encouraged the audience to become more aware of the stories we tell ourselves and to “separate your story from what really happened.”

Danny gave his first evaluation and highlighted some of Bruce’s movement on stage. Scott piggybacked off of those comments in his general evaluation. He demonstrated how positions on the stage can be used to help separate content in a speech. This helps your audience follow the story line.

Praveen stepped up on the spot to serve as Table Topics Master. He managed to come up with several exercise inspired questions:

Nadine: Some people can eat anything and not gain weight. Others gain weight by reading recipes. Why?

Robert: How do you inspire people to go to the gym? What quotes would you use?

Scott: How would you convince your friend to not join a gym?

Tom: What exercises don’t you like?

Geoff: What is the best time of day to exercise?

Danny: Why should you eat donuts and not workout? Fries over exercise?

Enyonam: What is your favorite exercise?

Nadine took home best speaker and hit the stage with her usual flair!

As you can probably tell, Praveen was encouraging the participants to get creative with their answers to some of the questions. Scott pointed out that this is not uncommon in the Table Topics Speaking Competitions should you decide to partake in the Spring. He attended one event where the question was, “Why did you eat ice cream for breakfast?”. The winner got super creative in his response!

Tom returned and is still working through his recovery process. He’ll get his heart “zapped” next week and then begin an exercise routine. As he recovers, please help out with getting the room set up and put back together if your time allows.

Bruce will serve as Toastmaster next week. Please sign up for a role if you will be in attendance.