Nearly four years ago when I started this little blog of mine if you had told me I would get to do some of the things I do today, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. I started this to help promote my book SkinnyTinis, but mostly to have a place to record my running and skinny travel successes as a full time corporate road warrior. I had people ask me a lot of questions and it seemed easier to point them to one online journal than to tell the same story a half a dozen times. I did not think the world needed another “blog” nor did I think people I didn’t know would find my stories interesting. I’m SO GLAD YOU DO!

Why I LOVE what I do today

One of the coolest “blogger-perks” we call them is the opportunity to review cool products that I think you might like and ignore the ones I know you won’t 😉 I’ll admit, the NOW Foods Blogger Immersion event was my first invitation to check out an entire corporation.

Myself and 16 other Fitfulential Bloggers were invited to Chicago (Bloomington, IL to be exact) to spend some time with the team behind the massive brand: NOW Foods. With over 1400 employee and 1400 products, this once small, family owned health food company is crushing it on many levels. And FYI, it’s still family owned despite their massive growth, we got to speak with the founders son.

From the CEO to the pick-pack-and-ship team, we met them and saw it all. Our agenda was full and my jaw was dropped nearly half the time as I processed all the information they shared with us. Allow me to pass the highlights onto you.

We all arrived Thursday, had a brief meet and greet and then headed out to a lovely, colorful dinner at a local restaurant. There were a few presentations at dinner and some time to chat with the other bloggers.  Then Friday was a jam packed day…

NOW Foods Blogger Event Agenda

Morning Workout: Greeted with Energy Bites on the way there and followed with yummy smoothies featuring their plant based protein powder. The workout itself was awesome. A 40 min interval-strength based set followed by 20 min yoga stretch. I was so happy!

Plant Tour: holy moly! It was nothing short of overwhelming. This facility is insane and the quality standards are out of this world. They have QA testing capabilities that are beyond industry standard. Plus it was such a trip to the behind the scenes of it all!

Corporate Office: Our afternoon at the corporate office was jam packed. We had a presentation on Food Tribes, which of course I found fascinating. I’ll share more on that later. Then had a chance to play with some of NOW’s Personal Care product and made yoga mat spray and bath salts. Then we had an oil tasting (that was a FIRST for me!) and they sent us away with mason jar salads with dressing we made ourselves with our favorite flavors from their Ellyndale line.

My Impression of NOW Foods

When the CEO, Jim Emme, spoke to us on Thursday night and said “we’re in the business of making healthier and happier living easier for more people.” Now that’s paraphrased, but it really resonated with me. I was like “hey, ya, me too!” While on a much smaller scale, but I knew I was in the right place.

I was struck by the amount of joy every employee we came into contact with had. Like every-single-one of them. Beaming with pride of their jobs, products and the company. And smiling from ear to ear as they explained to us what it was they did everyday. I come from a 14 year career in the corporate world and I have to say, in my experience, that’s not entirely normal.

The Products from NOW Foods

I can’t even start…like over 1400 skews in all categories like supplements, personal care, essential oils, sports nutrition, foods like oils, to-die-for snacks, amazing gluten free and grain products and now…even pet supplies! When we checked in, we walked into this swag bag, which was packed with what I’ve heard is about $800 worth of NOW products. I don’t excited that often, but this was SO FUN to go through.

The NOW Foods Giveaway!

See that picture above? I have another swag bag just like it to give away (less the t-shirt + more that is out of this frame). I didn’t add it up, but I heard it’s about $800 and it’s so much fun stuff I can hardly handle it! Just use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter all you want! This giveaway runs for two weeks: 6/13-6/26. I hope you win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Connect with NOW Foods Now

I really did enjoy getting to know this company, they were an amazing group of people with high quality, affordable products. If you’d like to learn more or hang out with them virtually, visit their web site or find them on social media on FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube.

*This post is sponsored by FitFluential on behalf of NOW Foods.

 

Teresa Marie Howes, BS, CPT, HHP

www.teresamariewellness.com

Teresa Marie is a nutrition expert, fitness enthusiast and health coach. She is backed with a BS in Nutrition, an MBA, a CPT from ACE and 16+ years of experience in the weight loss and wellness space. She is the founder and lead contributor of this site and coaches clients across the globe on how to achieve better health and more happiness by implementing the 4 Universal Diet Truths of her Clean & Colorful Concept.