Fairmont Toastmasters Club

[Marina Innoceente]

Marina Innocente: Icebreaker Speech "Not another telephone survey!" (Mar 16, 2005)

Introduction:

Marina
- has worked for Fairmont for 15 years
- began my career in the payroll department and has moved into various positions within corporate accounting.
- I graduated from Ryerson's Hospitality & Tourism program and I continue to take accounting courses whenever time permits
- I joined Toastmaster to help me to become a better public speaker as well as a better listener
- I enjoy reading, spending time with my family and spending time at home, especially now that we have finally moved into our house that we helped to build.


Speech Script:
Not another telephone survey!

A few weeks ago I got a call asking if I had a few moments to answer a few questions. It was a survey asking my opinion on health care related issues. Towards the end of the survey, the questions centered on my lifestyle specifically nutrition and exercise. The questions went something like “Do you take the time to prepare healthy, nutritious meals?” “How easy is it for you to make time for exercise?” and “Where would you say you get the most information on health issues?” I completed the survey, which by the way took longer than a few moments, and afterward thought back on some of the answers that I had given. Would they have been any different a few years ago?

I grew up in an Italian household. My parents immigrated to Canada in the sixties and brought with them the values and traditions from the old country. My dad worked in the trades and my mom stayed home and was responsible for the cooking, the cleaning and taking care of the kids.

Mealtime, especially dinner, was our family time and we were all expected to be at the table. Almost everything was homemade and if it wasn’t “nutritious” sorry but mom would not serve it. I never saw pop at the table unless we had company. Every meal started with homemade vegetable soup, never the canned soup variety, and every meal ended with a salad. Healthy eating played a big part in my life when I was growing up. I don’t think I stepped into a McDonald’s until my teens – are you kidding, my dad’s comments would be something like “McDonalds? – Garbage food!”

Well, those eating habits have stuck with me today. Rare do I let my boys go to McDonald’s and though I do not necessarily make my own home made soups, I am fortunate that I have a mother-in-law who loves to cook and tends to make a batch that is just too much for one person. So, like last night, I usually get some of her delicious soup to take home for our dinner. I never put pop out on the dinner table – unless there’s company. And our meals also end with salad.

Exercise is a little different. Exercise and sports were never one of my strengths when I was growing up. As a child it was enough just to get together with a group of friends and play baseball, go bike riding in the summer and skating in the winter. It wasn’t until I met my husband that I even started to think about “working out”. He is, as my sister likes to say, an Exercise Guru. He always was. He loves to run, he played basketball in school and still plays every week with a group of guys now and he loves to work out at the gym with the weights.

When we first started dating, boy did this annoy me, mostly because I wasn’t interested. Once we were married it would annoy me even more – “What do you mean you’re going for a run? Can’t you see I need help around here!” The poor guy, he just took it in stride and went for a run anyway. His thinking was that eventually I would come around. And, eventually I did.

After my second child, I decided that I had to do something to keep me somewhat in shape. I joined one of the downtown gyms for a summer with a colleague and we would go together at lunch. In the beginning, the best part was the sauna but over the summer I actually started to enjoy the exercising and the results. I started to feel better and was motivated enough to join another club closer to home so that I could work out in the mornings. When my children were younger my only free time was the mornings so that worked in my favour.

Now that my boys are older, I can go out to the gym after work or after dinner and I can go together with my husband. I’ve also started running. So now, when my husband says that he’s going for a run, I don’t complain any more, I join him. It’s only 5k but it’s better than nothing!

One of the last questions in that survey was where do I get my information on health issues. That one was easy – my mom and my husband are my source of information.

Would my answers to the survey have been different a few years ago? Well, nutrition and healthy eating – I grew up with that. Exercise and working out – I had to grow into that.