Today I’m officially launching my blog where I’ll be sharing the greatest insights from industry leaders in the Natural Products world on the benefits of adopting a healthy lifestyle. I’ll be going to the Natural Products Expo today to interview some of the leading luminaries in the world to get their first-hand advice and sharing it with you on a regular basis. As someone who has a business dedicated to helping entrepreneurs get to the next level with their business practices I decided it was essential that I take the time to do this. I’m going to start with a story of my own life. As painful as it is to share if even one person benefits from this story then at least there is that.

I was very fortunate to meet my soulmate when I was twenty-eight years old, Hans. He was so very handsome and tall and thin. He was 6’ 3” when I met him and weighed just over 160 lbs. We would joke around and I’d carry him on my back, no problem. I noticed though he ate a lot when he sat down to eat though I didn’t worry about it because he was so tall and thin and he loved to exercise. Fast forward 27 years later and Hans had developed for many years an abdominal tire around his belly that he just couldn’t seem to shake. His doctor was very concerned when he had his last check-up and then he didn’t want to go to the doctor anymore. It is so hard to see the one you love struggling with something like a food addiction to fast food and knowing that no matter what you do or say there is nothing that you can really do about it. Hans did try at times though I truly have come to believe there is something in fast food that is addictive and reports do seem to indicate that.

And then my beloved husband passed away in his sleep last year of cardiovascular disease and I began to realize just how important a healthy diet is to maintaining your weight. Now I dedicate my time to sharing Hans’s story in the hopes that it can inspire at least one person to adopt a healthier lifestyle by how they eat and the products they use.

There is no better place than the Natural Product Expo to see great examples of products one should consider. I’ve been to the Natural Product Expo for the past 5 years for work and I’m going to share today:

Five favorite products from Natural Products Expo and the Mentoring people behind them.

Marci Zaroff Mentor InSight on “Good Catch Foods”
Marci Zaroff coined and trademarked the term “ECOfashion” in 1995 and is an ECOlifestyle entrepreneur, educator, and innovatora. She believes that Millennials are ““driving the rapidly growing movement for sustainable and ethical fashion.” Zaroff is an RSA Fellow and a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute and one of the creators of a new brand called “Good Catch Food.”

While most new plant-based options focus on replacing meats such as beef or chicken, few are venturing into the realm of vegan seafood. The oceans and the impact that our food choices have on them are frequently overlooked by consumers, but many scientists have predicted that fish stocks in our oceans will collapse by the year 2048 due to our increasing demand for salmon and tuna. As if overfishing weren’t bad enough, marine life is also highly endangered by our surplus of plastic trash and other environmental toxins we dump into the world’s waters. In short, as One Green Planet’s co-founder Nil Zacharias once said, we’ve turned our oceans into toilet bowls and “can’t expect to feed ourselves by draining our oceans of fish while simultaneously dumping trash into the very waters from which we source our food.”

Co-founded by Chad and Derek Sarno of Wicked Healthy, Eric Schnell and Marci Zaroff of Beyond Brands, and Chris Kerr of New Crop Capital, Good Catch aims to “disrupt the seafood category, not the ocean’s natural resources.”

I was working on a project with Marci Zaroff during the time she was developing “Good Catch Food” and we discussed how hard it can be to go Vegan and especially how challenging I was personally find it to not eat seafood and still stay healthy on a vegan diet. You see while Hans was able to eat anyway he wanted to I was not so fortunate. At some point in my thirties I realized I could no longer digest correctly dairy and meat and had to adopt a Vegan diet which I would later come to fully embrace and chatting with Marci gave me comfort that a product was in development that could give you the same nutrition as seafood without having to actually eat seafood.

While Hans never seemed to catch a cold I always did until I started taking probiotics, a product I learned about at Natural Products Expo

Bio-K+ Probiotics and François-Pierre Chevalier who is appointed President of the Commercial Division of Bio-K I meet at Natural Products Expo. François-Pierre impresses upon me the importance of probiotics and in particular that you can drink multiple shots of the probiotics daily and it’s all good! I had developed a fear of taking too much for no apparent reason and a chance meeting with him during Natural Products Expo changed that entire trajectory for me. In fact, I’m not someone who evangelizes the important for boosting your immunity, even if it’s perhaps not yet scientifically provable, of taking probiotics.

In addition, in 2017 Bio-K+® extended its vegan line of probiotics with two new products. An all new delightful Coconut flavor made of fermented pea & hemp, providing a balanced nutrition profile with added benefits of virgin coconut oil and 6g of protein. And an all new vegan product just for kids, featuring a delicious Raspberry juice-like taste and texture. So taking probiotics is a family-affair.

I honestly can’t get over the difference of how well I do not getting colds anymore since taking probiotics daily.

I wasn’t able to get Hans to try probiotics and he may not have needed them as much as I did because he didn’t seem to ever get colds. There is so much research now coming online about the health and wellness benefits of probiotics that I encourage everyone out there to consider taking them, no matter which brand.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks is the CEO of Earth Friendly Products makers of products that are made with the plant-powered cleaning agents, ECOS™ which is the green that really cleans. Earth Friendly Products’ formulas are extraordinarily effective for removing dirt yet gentle on people, pets, and the planet. I can attest to this first hand. Hans and I used their products exclusively for many years and we loved the fresh scent and the non-abrasive impact on our skin. If you or anyone in your household has chemical sensitivities, then I highly recommend you give Earth Friendly Products a spin. I’ve had the honor of seeing Kelly develop as an executive to taking the helm of Earth Friendly Products and she is truly brilliant! She has done so many wonderful product innovations to the Ecos brand. If you have tried Earth Friendly Products I highly recommend it.

David Bronner the CEO of Dr. Bronner’s. Dr. Bronner’s was founded in 1948 by Emanuel Bronner, a third- generation master soapmaker from a German-Jewish soapmaking family. He used the labels on his superb ecological soaps to spread his message that we must realize our unity across religious & ethnic divides or perish: “We are All-One or None!” Still family-owned and run, Dr. Bronner’s honors its founder’s vision by continuing to make socially & environmentally responsible products of the highest quality, and by dedicating our profits to help make a better world. All-One!

I have the 18-In-1 Hemp Peppermint Pure-Castile Soap and it truly has 18 purposes. I take the little 2 fl. oz. size bottle with me on my business trips and it is everything in one. II can wash my hair, my clothes, anything with it and if needed mop the floors with it! If you haven’t tried Dr. Bronner’s you should. I met David and the rest of the Bronner’s at the Natural Products Expo and later today I’m so excited to say hello to them at their booth. They really are on a social mission to do good. David takes being at the helm serious and he ensures that everything is done just right. A few years back we had a wonderful time visiting and touring his headquarters. It was truly magnificent and a time I’ll always remember!

For the fifth and final product I discovered at Natural Products Expo I’m going to discuss William Kleidon and Ojai Energetics. If you haven’t discovered their product line, I highly recommend that you do!

Ojai Energetics exist to be a catalyst for good. With their non-negotiable, triple bottom line policy of putting people and planet before profits while being fiscally successful they are being the change we want to see in the world. Ojai Energetics strive to run their company with these values, exemplified by running our servers with wind energy, and ensuring access to health products for those who cannot afford them. They work to build relationships with the farmers who grow the ingredients we use, ensuring fair trade wages, and only supporting regenerative farming practices.
I met Will at Natural Products Expo and I’m so glad I did. He has helped countless of my friends with his seemingly magical CBD Oil which has now become all the rage. Will truly cares about everyone he comes in contact with and he shares my goal and mission in life to “Heal the World!”

So those are my five suggested products to adopt to live a happier, healthier life especially if you are working 24/7 as an entrepreneur. I truly do care about your health and wellness and I’ll be sharing some more great products and the people behind them after today’s adventure at the greatest show on Earth, the Natural Products Expo!

#Eco #NaturalProductsExpo #Entrepreneur #Startup #Sustainable #DrBronner #EarthFriendlyProducts #Ecos #CBDOIL Green With TiffanyJuli Schulz Alisha Auringer Vivian Panou Maranda Pleasant Moby Nicole Landers David Hertz Patricia Hacker