While most of us are using Phix to help us through our normal daily lives raising families, accomplishing things at work, exercising... the below email from Garrett Madison with a few comments from his Mt. Everest climb reminded me that smooth and sustained energy is a pretty universal need and that Phix can help across a VERY wide range of activities.
Hey Will! Just got back to Kathmandu! What a wild descent, we had a ton of snow while trying to get off the mountain and leaving base camp. Anyway, I got to tell you, when I drank the Phix Energy blend on the Lhotse face (between Camp 2 & Camp 3) going up I had an amazing burst of energy that lasted hours, literally. I felt awesome, so I gave some to one of my fellow guides to drink on summit day. I drank one on summit day as well and felt so good like I was climbing a small mountain like Rainier, while most people feel awful and exhausted while climbing Everest! Whatever you made in that blend, it's great, and I will need to get a supply from you to take with me on all my climbs now. I will send you the high res photos in a few days so you can use them if you want. It was pretty gnarly on the summit when we got there (really windy and whiteout conditions) so I couldn't spend much time on the summit photos, we literally only spent a few minutes there. I will tell you more when we meet in person. Hope you are doing well and enjoyed the slide show we posted. See you soon!
Garrett
If you haven't seen the photo slideshow or the video please check out the below post.
While I someday hope to take Phix on my own trip to the summit of Mt. Everest, the next best thing (sorry - other than Oprah falling in love with Phix) would be to have a friend do it. Well, last week, on May 23, 2009 Garrett Madison and the entire team on the Alpine Ascents trip reached the summit. While I haven't gotten a chance to talk to Garrett yet as he's still in-country, I did see the below photo of Garrett and Phix on the summit. Pretty amazing.
Garrett on the summit of Mt. Everest (5.23.09)
Video Slideshow
Video Footage
I wanted to share some of these photos and videos with you and in celebration of Garrett's (and Phix's) accomplishment I wanted to offer everyone 15% off any orders placed by the end of May. Just use discount code phixgen at checkout.
So my friend Garrett Madison is helping guide a team from Alpine Ascents up Mt. Everest and as I write this they have begun their final push up the mountain. They left Seattle is late March and have been on the mountain now training and acclimating since early April. This is Garrett's second trip and hopefully it will result in another successful summit for him. Besides being incredibly awe inspired by their effort, I'm particularly excited because Garrett has Phix with him. Hard to have imagined a year ago when we were just launching that Phix might be on the world's tallest mountain. Here's wishing Garrett and all the climbers a safe and successful summit and return. I'll post updates on our twitter page, thephixisin, as well as on this blog.
Unfortunately life running a small start-up has kept my blogging time to a minimum, but I'm going to try to crank out a few posts over the next few days and update everyone on what we've been up to here at Phix.
So TED 2009 took place about a month ago and I have to say that it was an epic time. I was a bit worried about what it would be like in it's new home in Long Beach, CA. Chris Anderson and his amazing team (big shout out to Will Allen and Lisa Stringle) did an incredible job. Long Beach has gone through some significant re-development and it turned out to be a great venue.
TED is all about connecting with people and new ideas. It's four days of 18 minute presentations where you get exposed to everything from leading economic theory, to amazing artists (Ben Zander, Herbie Hancock, Sarah Jones, Matt Lewis...), to incredible science (they're now growing entire hearts from stem cells), to leading business leaders such as Bill Gates. It was incredibly energizing, which I guess is a good lead in to Phix :).
So thanks to the amazing people at Google we had the opportunity to introduce our new flavors and new branding/packaging to the TED community. Every year Google sets up a cafe for attendees where they can grab some sustenance to fuel them during the 18+ hour days. Phix got included this year and TEDizens went through almost 2500 servings of our new Phix Energy - Citron. As an entrepreneur you live for positive feedback and it was just so energizing to have random folks coming up to me to tell me what a great product Phix was, or to bump in to someone and tell them what I did and for them to pull a few stix out of their bag. Pretty cool. It went over so well that Google is actually going to be testing Phix on a few of their campuses to see how Phix can help provide a healthy energy alternative and in turn be a real productivity enhancer. We also got invited to come back and participate next year with all our flavors. Pretty great way to launch Phix 2.0.
Besides Phix's reception, I wanted to share a few highlights from this year's TED:
Catching Eric Lewis leading a spontaneous jam session late on the first night. He did this every night and it went from 20 people the first evening to several hundred people rocking until the early morning on the last night. I thought his piano was going to break apart at one point during the last night as he was just going off. Super cool.
Al Gore scaring the bejesus out of me as he highlighted the rate at which climate change is taking place. We're really getting close to a point of no return and it requires immediate action on so many levels.
Ben Zander giving and giving and giving and just bringing so much joy and passion to the TED community. He is a really magical person and if you get a chance to see/meet him I'd strongly encourage you to do it. Here's a link to his 2008 TED talk.
Darius Weems -- Check out Darius Goes West, a documentary that he's just released about his life with fatal Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. His attitude and his accomplishments are just so incredible. We can all learn about how to better enjoy our short journey here on Earth from Darius. .
Thanks again to everyone at TED and Google for including Phix and thanks to you for taking the time to read this. -Will
I must confess that I have an obsession with coffee that probably goes well over the line of healthy consumption. While this is a year-round problem, my addiction is only exacerbated when the weather outside is cold and gloomy. Which brings us to the here and now- Seattle in the wintertime. It doesn’t get much more gloomy than this. My coffee intake has increased dramatically in the past month or so. Not only that, but I find myself turning to hot cocoa, as well as countless high calorie coffee-based concoctions. And while they are all certainly enjoyable going down and while holding my warm mug, the constant up and down energy of this caffeine has left me in a veritable month-long funk.
But wait- that’s not the end of the story! It doesn’t have to be like this. I can have my cake and eat it too. Drinking Phix hot this week has totally solved my problems. I’m still able to hold my nice warm mug and enjoy a mellow tasty treat. I still get a nice mental lift, but with Phix it actually feels healthy and good. My multiple crashes throughout the day are gone, and all is well with the world. With Phix turning this gloomy winter around for me, the hope-filled inauguration yesterday, and a vast world of possibilities, there’s just no telling what great new heights Phix might propel you to!
The information that has surfaced regarding plastic bottles and their harmful ways is pretty staggering. Less space in land fills and more greenhouse gases are just a couple of the tolls they take on the environment. A good thing is, big brands in the consumer water biz have more recently been trying to do their part for the environment - but will it be enough?
And while the FDA says that all plastics used for storing foods and liquids are safe for the body, scientists and environmentalists disagree. Plastics contain a slew of chemicals, but perhaps the most controversial of them all is the man-made and estrogen-like BPA. It's true, humans need estrogen in order to successfully reproduce, but BPA, or Bisphinal-A. could be very bad for fetuses, and could increase the chance of certain cancers and hyperactivity in children.
TheGreenGuide.com says, plastic water and baby bottles, food and beverage can linings and dental sealants are the most commonly encountered uses of this chemical. Unfortunately, it doesn't stay put. BPA has been found to leach from bottles into babies' milk or formula; it migrates from can liners into foods and soda and from epoxy resin-lined vats into wine; and it is found in the mouths of people who've recently had their teeth sealed. Ninety-five percent of Americans were found to have the chemical in their urine in a 2004 biomonitoring study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Phix obviously requires the use of a container in order to reap the energy-boosting benefits. But there are alternatives to those traditional plastic bottles in which to mix phix. SIGG USA, Klean Kanteen and Guyot Designs are just a few of the companies that manufacture BPA-free, transportable and reusable bottles.
Mix some phix in one of those puppies and you're on your way to healthier body and environment. And I gotta say, they leave a much nicer imprint than their counterparts.
This past weekend was anything but restful, and probably not what most people would think of as a "good time." It involved not sleeping between the time I woke up on Friday morning and the time I went to bed Sunday night (about 65 hours...), and running somewhere around 100 miles on grueling wilderness terrain. Needless to say, it was absolutely incredible!
Phix was invaluable for me on this trek, as I mixed it up in my hydration pack each time we stopped to refill water in the mountain streams. It kept me far more alert and awake than I thought I possibly could be after so long with no sleep, and was a delicious refreshing treat for me every time I took a sip. My friend Brock and I circumnavigated Glacier Peak in the NE Cascades through the Glacier Peak Wilderness. The trail was really rough in many spots and it took us quite a bit longer than we'd planned, but we made it back to our car Sunday morning after starting our run at about 11pm Friday night.
So, with our huge loop behind us, we then realized we still had about a 3 hour drive home in front of us, and we got a little scared. 3 more hours on the road meant we (or at least one of us) had to stay alert and focused for 3 more hours still... good thing I still had some phix left! I mixed up a fresh bottle of phix, and we were off! Amazingly, phix continued to keep me focused on the road and keep my eyes open the whole way back home to Seattle, and we arrived back safe and sound, with another incredible adventure under our belts! Cheers to another job well done, and for phix helping us through yet again!
Not to be outdone by Lynea's incredible mountain climbing of late (San Luis Peak, Mount Antero, etc.), her sister Kim just sent us this update from Northern Minnesota!
Though mountains like those in CO are a little hard to find in Minnesota, Kim was kayaking in one of the many lakes in Northern Minnesota at a stellar 1,391 elevation! Kim said,
"as you can see, Phix gave me the energy to keep going!!!"
Way to go Kim, and what a fun adventure! Be sure to crack open a phix and give it a try next time you're embarking on a new adventure, and have fun out there!
There's a recent trend in spicing up the 9 to 5 routine - exercise! Hey, might as well burn some calories while putting in those hours for The Man. The New York Times reports that more and more office employees are actually creating cubicle-turned-workout rooms, with the help of makeshift treadmill desks by "sliding a bedside hospital tray over a $400 treadmill." There are also professionally-built versions called Walkstations, that have sold over 300 so far. "Without breaking a sweat, the so-called work-walker can burn an estimated 100 to 130 calories an hour at speeds slower than two miles an hour, Mayo research shows."
And there are even blogs dedicated to work-walking! Like this one, and this one, by people who are more enthusiastic to go to work than ever, and that's partly because this light form of Monday-through-Casual-Friday exercise increases concentration levels, as well as calories burned. And anyone who's allowed to work-walk in the first place must have a pretty cool boss, too.
With more people wanting a healthier office lifestyle, that means more opportunity to take phix along for the daily grind, Workstation-ready or not. A natural, crash-free energy boost bodes well for the busy mind and body - clearly, you don't have to be an outdoor enthusiast to appreciate that.
Move over coffee and cigarettes, phix is here to give us a healthy alternative to that much-needed work-day break.
Back in June, France lifted its ban on Red Bull. This came after a 12-year ban on the popular energy drink, and more specifically, its active ingredient, taurine. Red Bull actually got its name from the stuff, as taurine was originally derived from bull bile. Yummy!
Energy drink brands with taurine, like Red Bull and Monster, have been garnering much controversy ever since they hit the market. In fact, it's still banned in Denmark and Norway to this day. On one hand, scientists and doctors have gone so far as to compare the stuff to being as bad as heart disease. Others say it's too difficult to prove the ingredients have such negative side effects. Regardless, drinking too much, just like any heavily caffeinated drink, will cause jumps, jitters, crashes and other annoying side effects. As a recent college grad, I can certainly attest to that.
MSN has also reported on the recent bannings and the debatable taurine.
In my opinion, I don't care what these controversies are - urban legend or not - or where they take place - overseas or here in the states - I'd rather get my energy from phix, natural and taurine-free, than from a drink that's made with something surrounded by such a long-winded controversy at all! I mean, why even take a chance when there's a healthier alternative to something nicknamed "crack in a can"?
To make the international debate more unclear, Christine Lagarde, France's Minister of Finance, said that the decision to lift the Red Bull ban, "was due to the fact that the beverage was already sold in 25 out of 27 EU countries." Sounds like a pretty bull bile reason to me.
to leading business leaders such as Bill Gates. It was incredibly energizing, which I guess is a good lead in to Phix :).
