4 – HOW DO YOU GET YOUR 12+ SERVINGS PER DAY OF FRUITS & VEGGIES?
More than 3 years ago, a long time running acquaintance came raving to me about a nutritional supplement product he had been taking for quite awhile called Juice Plus. It was purported to “bridge the nutritional gap” between the 9-15 servings of fruits and vegetables per day recommended for adults by the Canada Food Guide and what most of us (definitely including me) usually get—decidedly much less. Of course, endurance athletes, due to how much harder we work our bodies on a daily basis than the “average bear”, need even more!
Interesting, I thought, but then he told me that of the business opportunity that Juice Plus represented—it was a multi-level (network) marketing operation. Oh boy—my defenses went up—how many dozens of these kinds of things have been peddled to Marathon Dynamics over the years in hopes that we’d buy in and become a “distributor” and market the product to our ever health-conscious and performance-oriented client athletes? Dozens…easily.
And every time I politely demurred, citing one of the founding principles of our company—that we were strictly a fitness service provider, not a product retailer (save for some promotional merchandise here and there) and always would be. Besides, it usually felt like they were snake oil operations anyway.
This instance (Juice Plus) didn’t feel that way, but due to my instinct and ingrained skepticism, I let it pass. Besides my own “independent research” (via the web) yielded conflicting reports about the veracity of the claims made by Juice Plus…some out there loved it, while others questioned it’s augmentative value over sound “real food” nutrition and regular vitamin supplementation. So it just seemed better to let it ride.
Then a few funny things happened. I saw that this running acquaintance was steadily getting into by far the best running shape of his life—this was a 36-37 min 10K runner that was now getting down close to 33 minutes!
I took notice, but did nothing. Then a couple months later, another fitness consultant/coach (in triathlon) whom I highly respected as a coach, also approached me about this Juice Plus product/opportunity. I was still hesitant, but more curious than previously…but ultimately let it pass again.
Early in 2005 I had a personal fitness epiphany—despite being very actively involved sport/athletics/aerobic fitness and strength training non-stop for the past 10 years, I hadn’t been able to run very much or well at all over the past 5-6 years (recurring and protracted injury breaks), was unhappy with my performance in other competitive arenas (inline speedskating) and to add insult to injury, realized I’d slowly put on 10 pounds over the past 7-8 years, that I simply couldn’t get rid of by exercising more. Finally, I was also getting sick (colds, flus, fevers, etc.) much more often and much worse than I ever had in my life—probably due to work stresses as our business grew and the demands on me increased—but nonetheless, there I was.
I needed a change…a big change…and fast!
So, I contracted a great sports nutritionist (Jean Lamantia here in Toronto--her link is on our website--free plug—she’s great!), and got down to business of cleaning up my act. At the same time, the Juice Plus guys came knocking again, and I decided I would give it a 6-month trial (but not actually do anything re: “the business”). I wanted to research it firsthand as a user/customer to see what if any benefit or improvement I felt. I figured that if I really truly saw/felt a difference in my health and/or fitness, then this was potentially something that we could recommend to our “dietarily challenged” runners as a way of improving their nutrition, reducing their injury risk, improving their training quality and consistency, and hence…help them run better, longer, and faster.
Well, long story short, 6 months later, I’d lost the 10lbs, my inline skating performance/results were vastly improved, and best of all, my own running was coming back…slowly, cautiously, but undeniably strongly. My training consistency improved—mainly because I didn’t get injured as often or as badly (still had issues…just not “terminal” ones), and I wasn’t getting sick…basically ever. And so last year came a great marathon finish in Mississauga, and then my best half marathon since before 2000, then a very strong Boston Marathon earlier this year to follow it up…and I’m currently running 10K faster than I have in almost 10 years.
Is this stroke of running and fitness luck all due to my continued use of the Juice Plus supplement? No, probably not. I have tried to make some other lifestyle changes (with sporadic success and consistency) so there are other factors at play here. But it seems to me extremely unlikely that it isn’t playing at least some role in my return to running health and vitality.
And as such, after 3 years of researching, testing and feeling out this product, I can honestly say that for runners who know they don’t get at least 10 servings of F & V’s a day, every day, this is a very good product to use, and I believe that it will help you become a better runner.
For a little more than $1/day, you too can “top up” or supercharge your nutritional performance (and probably be a healthier animal in the rest of your life too, I think!). But don’t stop eating “the real thing” either, of course!
Juice Plus is only available thru independent distributors. You can find out more about it or easily order Juice Plus and try it out for yourself by going to our Juice Plus website, which should be “up” by Wednesday, June 6):
If not, you can go directly to the “main” Juice Plus website too: www.juiceplus.com
In either case, to order, click “STORE” and select the product to purchase and it will be sent directly to you within a few days". If you could please reference us when placing an order, when asked who referred you to the product, we’d much appreciate it! Please use account number CAN0007154 or Marathon Dynamics Inc as the referring account, and phone number “(905) 891-3197”. We aren’t looking to get into the business side of Juice Plus ourselves at this point, but it would be nice if we could at least cover our own cost of using the product, and providing it to our families.
Speaking of the “business side” of Juice Plus, if you’re interested in finding out more about that, please drop me and email or call, and I’ll put you in touch with the right people to speak to about that.
Stay healthy…be happy!