*USA ONLY

Glasstic Water Bottle is the break-resistant and shatterproof glass water bottle offering the purity of glass with the portability of plastic. With all the BPA worries, Glasstic is your hydration solution.

Use coupon code ‘REV15OFF’ and get 15% off any bottle purchase (excluding already discounted mulit-packs) on the Glasstic Water Bottle site or Amazon thru Dec 31, 2015

GladSoles Eco, is THE WORLD’S FIRST Eco-Friendly, custom-made-to-size sandal on the market, because it’s made from 100% Upcycled Rubber Tires. It is approximately 5.5mm thin, has a non-slip nylon footbed, and is extremely flexible. Great for all of your on and off-road adventures. It has an aggressive tread that really grips the roads and trails equally well.

Custom Sizing:
Every pair of GladSoles is completely custom-made by hand, based on tracings of your feet. Take it slowly when you trace your feet, as an accurate tracing ensures a perfect fit.

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*International participants must pay shipping cost if chosen as winner.

GladSoles Eco, is THE WORLD’S FIRST Eco-Friendly, custom-made-to-size sandal on the market, because it’s made from 100% Upcycled Rubber Tires. It is approximately 5.5mm thin, has a non-slip nylon footbed, and is extremely flexible. Great for all of your on and off-road adventures. It has an aggressive tread that really grips the roads and trails equally well.

Custom Sizing:
Every pair of GladSoles is completely custom-made by hand, based on tracings of your feet. Take it slowly when you trace your feet, as an accurate tracing ensures a perfect fit.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Feel free to tell us your goal here, and we will sign you up.

Come and join the Montclair community as we set intentions for peace. If you can hold plank for at least one minute, you are eligible to win a prize:-)

P–Peace being cultivated from the inside out
E–Exhale, no one ever said this would be easy
A–Alignment, allow your internal structure to stay strong, committed and aligned
C–Center yourself in stillness
E–Express gratitude

WILLPOWER & GRACE PLANK CHALLENGE

Last week GladSoles went to the Lululemon store in Montclair to take part in the willPower & Grace Plank Challenge, arranged by the unstoppable Jenn DeLuccia.  Jenn is a teacher trainer and instructor of an incredible barefoot fitness regimen, willPower & Grace.  She’s also a Lululemon and GladSoles ambassador.   

Almost 100 people had shown up, ready to Plank at 9:30 on a Sunday morning of a holiday weekend, and the energy was palpable.

We started with a meditation led by Lululemon ambassador Joe Gandarillas, which put us in a calm, strong frame of mind.  Then Jenn took us through a willPower spinal warm-up to loosen us up.  With high fives all around we got started.   The music to accompany the challenge was one inspirational song after the other, starting with the theme from Rocky.   We had to remember to breathe. 

My goal was 3 minutes, I unfortunately did not get quite there but I got further than I ever have with 2:30.  Baby steps.  Rich exceeded his 3-minute goal and reached 4:25 – amazing. After that we witnessed incredible feats of physical and mental strength as people were able to stay up for 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 8 minutes and on and on.  The final 2 people at the end of the challenge were willPower instructor Laura Fielding, and Lululemon manager Julia Detarte.  They had set themselves goals of 12 minutes, and we couldn’t believe it as 13 minutes turned into 14 minutes, and continued into 15 minutes.  Finally Laura stopped at 16 minutes, leaving Julia with the win at 16:15.  

The male and female winner won great gift baskets, including a $100 certificate for Lululemon gear, a membership at Equinox, and a pair of GladSoles.  All in all an excellent morning.  Congratulations to the winners, Johnny Bednarz & Julia Letarte, and to all who came out to challenge themselves!

The things I love about Thanksgiving will forever endure: being together with family and friends, gathering around a table laden with delicious delights, and taking a moment to be grateful for the many good things in life.

The thing I’m not so crazy about is the commercialization that is eating away at the day.  A couple of years ago a few stores started their “Doorbuster Black Friday” deals at 8pm on Thanksgiving night, and now it seems like all the major retailers are doing this.  So this year, to up the ante, Walmart & Target will be open all day on Thanksgiving, a policy of rampant greed that will no doubt spread to more and more stores in the years to come.

In preparation for Thanksgiving I’m “working from home” today, which really means I’m baking pies and checking emails a couple of times.   The chocolate bourbon pies of years past proved to be so successful that I’ve been asked to bring them again this year.  I’m going to attempt to make a GF pie crust, unless I can find one that hasn’t been smashed to smithereens at WF.   I’ll let you know how it goes.

Yesterday Obama continued one of the more stupid traditions of this country, and “pardoned” a turkey. Is this the best use of time for the leader of the free world? How about we pardon all the turkeys and go veg?  This year, we’ve adopted 2 more gorgeous gobblers: Tulip & Tom, from Farm Sanctuary.  For $30 you can pay for the care and feeding of one or more of their good friends as they live out their lives in the safety of their Woodstock and California farms.  http://www.farmsanctuary.org/giving/adopt-a-turkey/.

Wishing all of you a truly wonderful holiday.

This Sunday I decided to venture out with Rich for his latest New Jersey 5K race.  It was the 13th annual “Maplewood in Motion” 5K Race, with proceeds going to benefit the Maplewood Lions Club charities and Rent Party – an organization dedicated to fighting hunger in Maplewood and South Orange.  It’s an event that I’ve run a few times over the years.  My first time was in 2003 — when I first decided to get on a post-babies fitness kick.  Back then I ran it in New Balance sneakers, this time in my barefoot running sandals. 

On race day it’s a good idea to get up as early as possible so that you have time to get some nutrition in your system, but stop hydrating well before the race starts (See Rich’s take on that here, in his blog post – GladSoles CEO Comes Within…).  I got up at 6am, ate, cleaned the kitchen, folded laundry, watched some tv, and took my time to get ready.

Conditions were perfect: sunny, but breezy with a little fall chill in the air.  Rich and I “represented” with our GladSoles on our feet, and our logo on our shirts.  I’m a much slower runner than Rich, so this was an opportunity for people much further back in the pack to see our running sandals in action. At the start of the race a little girl who was running in sneakers and a pretty dress asked if I was really going to run in my sandals.  At the end of the race a fellow competitor asked me about the slogan (“Make Your Feet Happy”) he’d been reading on my back during the race.   

Rich posted another excellent time of 19:59, coming in sixth place overall.  With my slow pace of 10:56 minutes a mile I finished the race in 34:05, which goes to show that you can enjoy minimal running at any pace:)

–Jennie

Maplewood 5K Race in Minimal Sandals

Barefoot running, a whole-food plant-based diet, Vibram Fivefingers – all of these things have made my life more enjoyable, healthier.. overall just better.

About  2 months ago I came across a “new to me” approach to health.  Tavis Bradley had done a video on youtube with Dan “The LifeRegenerator” McDonald.  It’s a lengthy video, but I watched the entire thing and was immediately intrigued.

A little background on myself – I’ve been on a vegan diet for about 3 1/2 years now, and I’ve experienced many benefits, as well as an overall feeling of more energy and better health.  And I’m always on the lookout for the latest health trends, as fitness and diet are my main areas of interest.  Basically, if it helps me win more matches on the tennis court, I’m interested.

Anyhow, I’m not going to attempt to explain Tavis Bradley’s Conductivity Diet in detail here.  If you want to learn more about it, I highly recommend that you visit his website and youtube channel.  In a nutshell, the diet consists of raw fruits and vegetables, healthy oils, nuts, seeds, and a series of 4 tonics that you drink every day to set your body up for optimal health.  I’ve been following the “diet” for about 6 weeks now, and I feel really good.  It’s tough to articulate exactly, but everything feels more – more energy, more alert, more running/less recovery time.  My family thinks I’ve gone a little wacky, but they are used to that by now.

I eat as much food as I want.  I’m not hungry, and I’ve lost most of my attraction to junk foods,  although those Red Hot Blues Tortilla Chips from Whole Foods are hard to stay away from.  It seems that the healthier I eat, the more my body wants healthy foods.  Junk foods are not as appealing as they used to be.  Very strange how this all happened over the course of a couple of months, but I’m really loving it.

I’ll be adding to this blog in the upcoming weeks.  Please feel free to ask me any questions about this or any of my other blogs, as I am more than happy to discuss my favorite topics with anyone who wants to listen.

–RG

So, what did you think of the “Shark Tank” Xero Shoes episode? We were jumping out of our chairs here! Even the lead-in to the segment was exciting: a promo for some new ABC show starring ER’s Anthony Edwards! Where has he been all these years?

They opened the segment with a trip to Colorado so we could see Xero in action, running on the Rocky Mountain trails.

Robert Herjavec asked the classic “and you can run in these?” question that we always enjoy answering, and it was cool to see him try them on and walk across several different surfaces. He loved them!

Daymond John had the classic “this is just a piece of rubber and a string,” so he wanted them to explain the valuation. Xero were asking for $400K for an 8% stake in the company – valuing it at $5M.

Kevin O’Leary – “Mr. Wonderful” – pointed out that if the segment is growing as fast as they say it is, that a big competitor could make the same product for less, put its huge distribution behind it and “crush these cockroaches.” I guess I kind of called that one. However, he liked their story and their ‘schtick’ and made them an offer of $400K for 50%.

I thought Barbara got a little personal, saying that Steve gave her a headache and reminded her of her ex-husband. Ouch!

With no other offers on the table, Xero countered O’Leary’s offer and asked for 10%. Mark Cuban suggested they take the one offer on the table, but they opted not to. Mr. Wonderful said “you’re dead to me. Run out of here in your bare feet.”

We were sorry not to see them get a deal, but it was great to see huarache-style sandals worn on national TV. The mass-produced kit is an interesting idea. I’m not sure that we at GladSoles would be ready to go that route. We love making each pair individually and ensuring a perfect fit every time.

What did you think? Are you ready to invest?

–J

I’ve often wondered what it would be like to stand in front of the Sharks and present GladSoles, so I’m curious to see how the Xero pitch will work. Will it be focused on the advantages of barefoot running? Will he try to sell the sharks on the customizable nature of the sandal?

Will the pitch center on the market? According to Flip-Flop Shop franchisee Scott Santy, flip-flop sales have grown 8.2% in the last 3 years, accounting for $1.5 billion of U.S. surf-wear retail sales. If all those flip-flop wearers decided to become barefoot huarache style sandal wearers that could be huge!

Which shark will take the bait? Mark Cuban? I’m not sure if footwear will appeal to him, although he does endorse Sketchers sneakers. What about Daymond John? He’s in the clothing biz, so what will he make of the sandals? Are they going to be a hot item for Lori Greiner to bring to QVC? Will “Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary crush the idea like a bug? I hope not! Hopefully there’ll be a bidding war, but whatever the outcome, you can’t buy better exposure.

We hope that this signals a time when people will come to us and already know about custom-made barefoot sandals, and we won’t have quite as much explaining to do.

We can’t wait to see the results and we wish them good luck!

Links:

Shark Tank Website

Xero Shoes Website

Monday 12/31/12

Not-run – 30 minutes

Random thoughts:

So, what’s up with the no pushups and wall squats? Hard to say exactly what I’m doing here. I’m glad I made it outside in the brutal cold, though… and after the first 10 minutes it wasn’t even cold anymore. So all good!

Tuesday 1/1/13

What a way to start the year! We went to brunch and I got up early to soak cashews for a special scalloped potato and eggplant dish I was making. I was exhausted ALL DAY!! Tomorrow is the official start to the resolutions thing… My lovely friend Amanda is going Paleo, and I’m gonna get back in the swing of wall squats, perfect pushups and runs…

Wednesday 1/2/13

Perfect Pushups on knees 6-5-4-3 regular, wide, narrow

Wall squats x2 @ 1:15 each

Random thoughts:

Well, I did the other stuff but didn’t make it out for the run for various reasons… ho hum. Glad that I was still able to do the pushup/wall squat routine, despite having slacked off so much with it.

Thursday 1/3/13

Not-run – 30 minutes nose breathing

Perfect Pushups on knees 6-5-4-3 regular, wide, narrow

Wall squats x2 @ 1:15 each

Random thoughts:

While doing my first wall squat I could see Rich running, because our window looks out onto Richmond Ave. I was half watching him, and half watching Nigella make Puttanesca sauce. Nigella is more fun to watch. The weather today was really cold. I wore: running tights, a long-sleeve merino shirt, a short-sleeve merino shirt, a fleece sweatshirt, a running jacket, a pair of toe sox, a pair of sol socks, my GladSoles, 2 hats, 1 pair of gloves, and a Buff scarf thing around my neck. I felt perfect!

Friday 1/4/13

Nothing – but I knew that going in – I had to take Max & Mia to the orthodontist at UMDNJ for diagnostics – fun times!

Saturday 1/5/13

Not-run – 30 minutes nose breathing

Perfect Pushups on knees 6-5-4-3 regular, wide, narrow

Wall squats x2 @ 1:15 each

Random thoughts:

Glad to be out here – I have to run today and tomorrow because although I don’t want to be a hard-ass about this workout thing, I do want to do at least 4 days a week…

Sunday 1/6/13

Not-run – 30 minutes nose breathing

Perfect Pushups on knees 6-5-4-3 regular, wide, narrow

Wall squats x2 @ 1:15 each

Random thoughts:

Really glad that I fit this in. We were going out to lunch and I’m so bad about mobilizing in the morning. It was really nice, and I took a different route as I get SO BORED when I do the same route day in and day out.

–J