I was honored to attend the fourth annual Jamba Juice Fit Trends Expo with four-time Olympic gold medalist, Venus Williams and Jake Steinfeld of Body by Jake at the end of last month!
I decided to work with Jamba Juice, because they are simplifying healthy living across the nation. Not everyone has access to Whole Foods or Nekter Juice Bar in their town, but Jamba Juice is really stepping up their game and competing with other popular juice bars and fruit and vegetable smoothie joints. Jamba Juice is bringing customers back to nature by blending whole fruits AND veggies into nutritious smoothies and juices.
Jamba Juice put together a fabulous expo that exhibited the latest Hollywood fitness trends, new Jamba Juice smoothies and juices, and promoted healthy living.
This years Fit Trends Expo took place at the stunning Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, California.
My job never feels like work, especially when I have this view!
After check-in I finally got to meet Monica from Run Eat Repeat! Monica and I had been Instagram friends for a while and both live in Orange County, but it took us both going all the way to Santa Monica to meet! She’s soooo funny and had me laughing all day! If you are a runner of any kind or love watermelon, her blog is a must! P.S. I did not add the birds into this photo. They flew by at the perfect moment! Gorgeous!
After check-in, we began a warmup routine led by Venus Williams on our fresh Jamba Juice yoga mats!
Once the warmup concluded, we went straight into our first workout of the day: POUND Rockout. Workout.™
POUND Rockout. Workout.™
What is it? POUND is a full-body cardio jam session, combining light resistance with constant simulated drumming with their lightly weighted drumsticks, called Ripstix™.
Class time: 45 minutes
The calorie burn: 400 – 900+ calories per session
Type of workout: Cardio and pilates/sculpting – group fitness class
Why I loved it: This was my FAVORITE workout of the entire day. I had heard about POUND before but didn’t think anything of it. It seemed cool, but I didn’t think it would be that great of a workout. Boy was I wrong! I was sweating in less than 10 minutes! Anytime you are standing in this class, you are in a squatting or lunging position and working the glutes, quads, and hammies like no other. In barre classes all you can think of is the pain when you are squatting and “getting low” but in a POUND class, you and so busy drumming away from side to side and hitting your Ripstix™ together to the music that you don’t even notice how long you’ve been squatting. During abs, I was getting so into the rhythm of pounding the sticks from side to side that I didn’t even realize how long we had been in a raised sit-up position! It completely took my mind off of the workout part of the class! The moves are simple and easy to follow, so don’t stress!
Recommended for: Anyone who likes music and wants a fun cardio class that doesn’t feel like working out.
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Check out Venus following along with POUND founders Kirsten Potenza and Cristina Peerenboom!
Next up on the agenda was Pop Physique!
Pop Physique
What is it? Pop Physique is a barre workout designed to sculpt your entire body. Light weights are used to tone the upper body,and the barre is used for intense lower body work for the thighs and butt. Each concludes with a focused abs section on the mats as well as stretching to lengthen those new lean muscles.
Class time: 1 hour
The calorie burn: 500+ calories per class
Type of Workout: Barre and toning – group fitness class.
Why I loved it: If you want to get toned and see results ASAP, this is the class for you! It’s hard. You won’t use any weights more than a couple of pounds, but each movement is precise and uses each muscle group to the point of exhaustion. If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you… and this class is challenging and body changing!
Recommended for: Anyone who wants a long and lean tones dancers body.
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After tons of planks, tucking, squeezing, shaking, and burning it was time for Hoopnotica!
Hoopnotica
What is it? a fat-burning hula hoop workout that both strengthens your core helps promotes muscular balance and alignment.
Class Time: 1 hour
The calorie burn: 350 calories per hour
Type of Workout: Core strengthening – DVD workout
What I thought: I have to be honest, this was my least favorite exercise of the day. It was fun and I laughed a TON, but it felt a little too slow for me. When choosing a workout, I personally like one that makes me sweat! If I’m going to spend 45 minutes to an hour working out, I want it to be a nice sweaty cardio sesh, or a really intense strength training class that I can feel afterwards. I didn’t feel like this was beneficial for me, but the instructor lost 80 pounds by hooping 1 hour each day! What may not work for me, might be perfect for you! It’s easy, and you can do it in your own home with their DVD!
Recommended for: Anyone who wants a simple, easy, laid back workout.
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Katy from Joy Laughter Sweat and I were cracking up in the back corner during the Hoopnotica class. Hooping for long periods of time is more complicated than we anticipated hahaha.
This picture describes it all. We were asked to walk across the room while hooping. I love the concentration from Gillian (That’s G) and how excited Kara (The Lifestyleista) is for making it all the way across the room without dropping her hoop!
Our final workout of the day was Surfset Fitness!
Surfset Fitness
What is it? An exercise on a stabilizing surfboard trainer that is designed to simulate the physical demands of surfing without the ocean. The stabilizing board engages your core during the entire muscle building class.
Class Time: 45 minutes
The calorie burn: 400 – 900 calories per class
Type of Workout: Strength training and core workout.
What I thought: I thought this workout was really fun and definitely challenging. My legs were shaking the entire time and I barely survived the burpees on the board. Yes, you read that correctly, we did burpees on the boards! I loved how versatile the boards were, we even hopped off and used them for tricep dips!
Recommended for: Anyone who loves surfing or paddle boarding but doesn’t have access to the water!
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Monica from Run Eat Repeat looking adorable on her Surfset board!
After the workouts concluded, we were treated to a delicious and healthy lunch.
I had a tofu wrap with spinach, garlic hummus, bell peppers, and sun-dried tomatoes and a colorful salad with pistachios and goat cheese. After lunch, we headed inside for a Q&A session with Venus Williams and fitness mogul Jake Steinfeld of Body by Jake.
Venus was seriously adorable. She spoke so candidly about her own struggles with motivation and willpower. Just like us, she encounters a battle with the bed and said that some days, it’s just hard to get lout of bed and train. She finds motivation from her sister Serena and said “some mornings I’ll be laying in bed and I just don’t want to move, and then I hear this little bell on our front door and realize, Serena just left for her workout! I should get up and go too!” One of my favorite things from the Q&A: “Wish changes nothing. Decision changes everything.”
You will never guess Venus’ least favorite things: broccoli & planks. Sounds like a blog name haha.
Jake had so much charisma and made us laugh multiple times. He was precious! Once the Q&A session ended, we went outside to do a taste testing game!
We were each given 4 different Jamba Juice smoothies and had to match them to the correct smoothie name/ingredient list!
Veggie Harvest: Fresh apple juice, fresh carrot juice, beet juice, supergreens, (organic baby spinach, organic red and green chard, organic baby kale), ice and ginger juice
Tropical Greens: Fresh apple juice, fresh pineapples, fresh supergreens, (organic baby spinach, organic red and green chard, organic baby kale) ice and chia seeds
Great Greens: Fresh apple juice, fresh cucumber, supergreens, (organic baby spinach, organic red and green chard, organic baby kale) ice, fresh lemon juice, and chia seeds
Citrus Kick: Fresh orange juice, fresh apple juice, fresh pineapples, ice and ginger
I had to share a picture of my epic Emoji nails for the event. I printed and cutout fruit Emojis and put them on my nails. I thought it was perfect for Jamba Juice!
After the Fit Trends Expo 2014 concluded, we got to take pictures with the beautiful Venus. She’s wearing her own line EleVen by Venus! I’m not short or anything… just fun sized.
Thank you so much to Jamba Juice for including me in this fantastic event.
As always, all opinions are my own!
An unripe avocado is usually bright green. The texture will be very firm, with no give at all when pressed. But it’s most important to check is the knob. Unripe avocados will have a knob that’s difficult to pull out. If you do manage to pull it out — though you should generally just move on to a different avocado — the flesh will be bright green. 
A ripe avocado is dark green/black. Some ripe avocados will still have a bit of green on them, where others will be totally black. A ripe avocado has a bit of give. Most importantly, the knob comes out easily and the color of the avocado flesh is solid green. 
Overripe avocados are completely black. They are often very soft and squish to the touch, but sometimes seem to have a nice give: they can be hard to differentiate from avocados that are actually ripe based on touch alone. An overripe avocado knob comes out easily, but the internal flesh will be mottled gray-green, brown, or black. 
Use this tip to find perfect, ready-to-eat avocados every time! Source: Integral Natural Yoga Foods
The “Eat More Rabbit Food” long sleeve oversized shirts have been restocked.
