Garden of Life Summit Experience Recap

The Author

Jesica Williams

Since 2012, I’ve been creating digital wellness guides and researching natural beauty products, HIIT workouts, functional exercises, body positivity, self love, and tips helping you explore wellness and feel good.

Thank you for stopping by this post: Garden of Life Summit Experience Recap.

The notion of possibly summarizing my entire weekend at the Garden of Life headquarters is an incredibly overwhelming task. There are SO many ideals that were brought to my attention, many that were even more cemented in my thinking, and a ton of new ideals that I’ve been inspired to ponder. To sum up my general emotion triggered by being a part of this summit, I left Palm Beach feeling:

Inspired. Driven. Hyped on supporting organic. Enthusiastic. Invigorated. Energized. Healthy.

I ate so much good (both good tasting and good for me!) foods while I was there, I truly did leave feeling superpowered. I drank my weight in local, green juice, ate a plentiful amount of locally-caught seafood and even dined at a farm-to-table restaurant.

In regards to the information, knowledge and inspiration that I acquired, here are the main take-aways that I grasped from this weekend that I am applying and taking into my everyday life.

Before I get into all of the details, I’ll just add that I am a FEELER. By that, I mean that I am largely influenced by how things make me feel–both as a result of the information I hear and how I feel when using a product. Thus, a lot of these tidbits from the summit really resonated with me, or I related strongly to because I have experienced the protein for myself. Scientific backup is great (many desire solely that), and Garden of Life has that to back up their products, but, I am an advocate for these products because I have witnessed first hand the impact that they have had on my health. I feel like the best version of Jesica when I am eating loads of organic, raw, plant based foods. This kind of supplementation is a gigantic part of that. I consider each of the Garden of Life products to be beyond “just a supplement,” because the quality is supreme and they are whole food-based, they are in a league of their own.

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I have bolded some of my favorite parts!

1. “Probiotics” is not JUST a buzz word. Your body NEEDS them to function optimally.

-The standard American diet, pharmaceutical drugs, etc. have diminished our bodies’ good bacteria population in the gut. The effect on human health is profound.

-Supplementing the diet with probiotics is key is returning this good bacteria population back to a point where the digestive system can assimilate, absorb and process nutrients as it’s supposed to.

-“At Garden of Life, we are greens, we are probiotics. It’s who are are.” -Sherri Gunn, Garden of Life.

-“So much more can be done with health & prevention.” -Dawn Jarvis, Garden of Life.

-There are trillions of microbial organisms in your body. You help the good microbes thrive by eating a rich, whole food based diet that limits processed foods.

-A natural, whole food diet without pesticides, GMOs helps heal the gut.

-Good bacteria in the gut helps protect against the bad bacteria. So, we need the good bacteria.

-Digestive health is responsible for absorption of all of the food we eat, which contributes to our overall vitality. That’s why gut health is such a focus.

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2. Supporting organic is, indeed, so very important.

-“I do this because it means a lot.” -Jeff Brams, Garden of Life

-Traceability, sourcing, transparency and sustainability are so important in acquiring raw materials  ingredients.

-Supporting organic, family farms drives economic change. “This is the mission.” – Jeff Brams, Garden of Life

-GoL elevates the success of villages in Africa by sourcing from them.

-Biodynamic farming is utilized and valued. You must farm the soil, not the plants. It’s about the “symphony of the soil.”

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3. Protein. Why so important?

-Your entire body requires protein to maintain itself, rebuild, repair and build.

-Whole food supplements are faster and more effective because they are assimilated like real food.

-Protein helps build muscle–then muscle helps clean sugar out of your system.

-Protein lowers ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger.

-Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs) don’t have to go thru the liver. They go straight to the muscle. This reduces lactic acid, aids recovery.

-Protein isolates are not the same as whole food based proteins because they cause the blood sugar to rise.

-“High quality protein has a satiating effect on the body.”-Jeff Brams, Garden of Life.

-“Protein is the original energy drink–it just provides energy through a different mechanism.” -Jeff Brams, Garden of Life

-Assaults to digestive tract causes inability to absorb protein (processed foods, pharmaceutical drugs, gluten, excess sugar, lack of good bacteria in the gut)

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4. Tidbits on Garden of Life Proteins

Organic Plant Protein (OPP) created because of “grain free” demand, because customers want taste & texture. Contains more fermented ingredients (& nutrients due to superfood content), whereas GoL’s Raw Protein contains more sprouted. Fermented & sprouted ingredients are more easily digested than an unprepped seed.

-Unprepped seeds do not want to be digested. They want to be transported and deposited in a new home. Nature’s example: squirrels plant acorns, let them sprout and then eat them.

-Variety of proteins in one blend makes it work–gives you a complete amino acid chain.

Organic Plant Protein contains the superfoods baobab (acts as a prebiotic) & moringa (combats malnutrition).

Raw Meal has more protein & acts as a meal replacement, with significant amounts of fat, carbs and protein. Contains high nutrient content, thus less cravings and helps you feel fuller longer.

Raw Fit contains Fucothin (green coffee bean extract) which regulates and balances blood sugar.

-Adding power packed protein & superfood blends like these to your diet helps proliferate good microbes in your body.

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5. Inflammation

-“The cornerstone of all disease is inflammation.” -Dawn Jarvis, Garden of Life

-Sugar encourages inflammation.

-Keep out artificial sweeteners that are causing oxidative stress.

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6. Ingredients

-“We are fanatical about ingredients.” -Dawn Jarvis, Garden of Life

-14 strains of probiotics makeup GoL probiotics products

-Made cold, shipped cold

-Dawn Jarvis has an incredible resume with experience being a nutritionist for Wimbledon, yet one of my favorite quotes of her lecture is: “We use the organic stuff.”

-A little “did you know” from this weekend…”Flamingos are pink because of the large amount of antioxidants that they consume.”

The Garden of Life team was incredibly accommodating, helpful, inspiring and enthusiastic–infectiously so! A special thank you to every one of them that took time away from their work week to help me learn and grow in this field, especially Rhonda & Ursula who made it all happen! I will always treasure the memory of this weekend and know that all of the eye-opening things I’ve taken away will propel me even farther in a positive direction!

Also, thank you to Tess at Core Evolution Palm Beach for the challenging workout!

Here are the links to the sites of the other incredible talented ladies that I met! Check out all of the great info and inspiration they have to offer!

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Meg Kelly 

Keleigh May  www.WhereTheresAMeal.com

Roshini Cope  http://www.Glamazini.com

Michelle Sutter  http://www.powered-by-mom.com/

Dr. Pamela Reilly  http://goodworkswellness.com/blog-2/

Amber Gebhardt  www.yogabycandace.com

Rebecca Warner Schiffenauer  www.campwander.com

Chelsea Gilson  www.travelingfig.com

Dr. Marie Miczak  http://drmiczak.blogspot.com/

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Thank you for stopping by this post: Garden of Life Summit Experience Recap.

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Comments

3 Comments

  1. Great review of a great week!

    Reply
  2. Jes I miss you! waaaa It was amazing to meet you at the GoL summit and I had the best time ever all weekend long. Thanks for being awesome, oh and great post. mwah

    Reply
    • Miss you & your energy! What an epic weekend to remember!!

      Reply

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