Elevate Me Hits the VIP swag bag at the Whistler Film Fest!

November 27, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

North Vancouver’s own protein bar Elevate Me! was invited to participate in this year’s gift lounge at the Whistler Film Fest Dec 3rd to 6th.  With all eyes on Whistler, this event should prove to be exciting exposure for Vancouver’s own protein bar.

“Elevate Me! will be such a good fit at this event! Perfect crowd, perfect venue,” commented CEO of The Uptown GiftBox Company and producer of the VIP Lounge, Gabrielle Durning.

Company owners’ Trish and Earl Ellingson, who have been making Elevate Me! bars since 2003, are very excited to be selected to participate in this event.  “We love our bars and we love our customers who love our bars,” say the Ellingsons. “So anytime we can get more people to try Elevate Me, the better!”

With the Olympics coming to our proud city, people will be heading up to Whistler. This is the perfect bar to take up the hill or to have handy at 3 p.m. It’s pre-portioned into 3 easy to eat pieces and doesn’t melt or isn’t coated with chocolate. “The world simplest protein and fruit energy bar”

Elevate Me! bars are gluten free whey protein bars that are made with all natural ingredients. Trish and Earl grew this family business out of a vision and mom’s recipe and have turned it into one of Vancouver’s most successful small businesses. Check out their website for updates, contests and athlete sponsorship opportunities. www.prosnack.com.

 

 If you would like more information on this topic or to schedule an interview with Trish and Earl Ellingson please contact Coreylee Essig at 604-980-6160.

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How to Eat Well on the Road

November 23, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

How to Eat Well on the Road

As an athlete, travelling to different race venues is common practice. As an athlete on a budget, getting to these places can take days, depending on mode of travel. Lucky for me, my boyfriend loves to drive; therefore it usually takes us a couple days to get to international events in the U.S.A.

I am especially picky about the foods I eat the week of a race. I have a few sensitivities when it comes to food and I need to pay close attention to what I am eating. Any irritation inside my body could lead to poor nutrition results during the event.

Here are a few tips about eating well on the road:

  1. Pack snacks and staples with you, whether you are flying or driving. If flying domestically, you are allowed to bring fruit on the plane!!! Make sure to pack some cutlery and plates/bowls.
  2. Shop at local grocery stores versus eating out for every meal
  3. Be mindful of portion sizes. A restaurant meal is generally much larger than you would make at home.
  4. Pack your day of race food in your luggage. You might not be able to find it in your host city.
  5. Drink lot’s of water and avoid caffeinated beverages while flying.
  6. If you are staying at a hotel, try to find a room with a fridge so you can grocery shop and keep your foods fresh. If the room does not have one, try asking the concierge if they have one you can borrow. In the last hotel I stayed in, they had an extra fridge and microwave.
  7. If you have to eat out, don’t be afraid to be picky. Try to avoid fried foods. Look for meat that is grilled or baked. Ask for low-fat dressings and on the side if possible. See if the restaurant serves whole wheat pasta or brown rice instead of their white counterparts.
  8. Pack a box full of Elevate Me organic energy bars. They are loaded with quality ingredients and will keep you satisfied until your next meal. They were my life savior on my trip to Virginia last weekend!

There you have it, 8 tips to keep in mind when travelling. Remember, when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Always be one step ahead of the game and success is bound to follow.

Nicola Gildersleeve

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New blogger/athlete/ambassador: Nicola Gildersleeve

October 6, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

I first off want to say how tremendously excited I am to be an Elevate Me athlete/ambassador. Not only have I been using Elevate Me energy bars as fuel for years now, I have also had the pleasure of knowing the owner’s, Trish and Earl Ellingson.

I first discovered Elevate Me organic energy bars through a friend I worked with at North Shore Athletics. He was diagnosed with Celiac disease a few years ago and had to change his diet drastically. One of the things he was able to fuel himself on were Elevate Me health bars. Besides being Gluten-Free they are packed with whey protein, making them the perfect snack on the go for a hungry athlete. I have experimented with a lot of different energy bars and Elevate Me protein bars are THE BEST! My favorite is the Acai Berry Bar.

Background:

I grew up playing team sports, mainly soccer and basketball. After high school I went on to play Varsity Basketball at Capilano College for 2 years. It was during these years that I discovered my passion for running. After College, I trained for my first marathon and I absolutely fell in love with the sport. I went on to work at North Shore Athletics and a co-worker introduced me to Ultramarathon running. Since then, I haven’t looked back and have run distances such as 50km, 50 miles, and 100km. I hope to run my first 100 miler in 2010! Many of the ultramararthon’s I have done are on the trails. I love spending time running in nature and it is definitely where I feel most at ease.  There is something magical about running in the trees listening to the sounds of the river flowing along side the trail.

After Capilano College I transferred to U.B.C to finish my Human Kinetics Degree. I ran on the track and field/cross country team for 2 years. I currently work as a Personal Trainer and run coach in North Vancouver. I work with a wide variety of clientele who have their own individual goals.  Some people want to lose weight, improve core strength, learn to run, and/or gain strength and improve balance and flexibility. I am also a Certified Lactate Threshold Tester through F.a.C.T Canada. This certification allows me to measure your current level of fitness and provide training recommendation based on your own personal physiology.

I am very passionate about health and fitness and I am proud to support and promote a health product I believe in.

Past Accomplishments:

2007:

  • Iron Knee 25km: 2nd place female, 16th overall/Time: 1:51 (First time)
  • Knee Knacker 50km: 2nd place female, 14th overall/ Time: 5:48 (PB: 52 minutes)
  • Stormy 50-miler trail race : 1st Place female

2008:

  • Knee Knacker 50km:  1st place female
  • Iron Knee 25km: 1st place female
  • Comfortably Numb: 1st place female
  • Hallow’s Eve 21.2km: 2nd place female
  • Haney to Harrison 100km: 1st place female
  • Giv’r Take Around The Lake 30km: 1st place female

2009:

  • Way Too Cool 50km: 4th place female
  • Iron Knee 25km: 2nd place female
  • SFU 5 peaks 10km: 1st place female

Upcoming Races in 2009:

  • Giv’r Take Around the Lake 30km, 17/10
  • Mountain Masochist 50-mile (Virginia), 07/11

Nicola Gildersleeve
http://www.ngildersleeve.blogspot.com/

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ElevateMe! Natural Protein Bars – The Story Continued

May 1, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

So we got out the food processor and started working off mom’s recipe of whey protein isolate mixed with almonds and various whole dried fruits. We found an old guy with a packaging machine who worked on a per bar basis and we used an inkjet printer to make labels.

We didn’t want to be just another bar so we chopped each one into 3 bite size chunks. We’d make a batch, drive them in our 1979 Toyota Corona to the wrong side of town to package, then cold-call the stores.

After a few months we had like 20 stores and we were ready to rock so we got a business plan together, borrowed some cash from the bank and once that check cleared we promptly quit our corporate jobs to focus on the biz.

So we basically had enough money to last 6 months. That’s pressure but it worked and we had almost 100 stores by mid 2003 and it slowly grew and evolved from there: Apartment to nightly rental of catering kitchen to tiny garage factory to 1 employee to 2 employees to 5 employees to second leased space to 10 employees and now we make about a million Elevate Me’s a year in 7 flavors.

Are we rich? No.

Do we work our own hours? No. We work whenever the company needs us to get something done. Such as now, it’s 9pm on a Thursday and I’m sitting on the patio typing under the moon.

Is it worth it? Hell yes, so far so good.

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Welcome to ElevateMe! Blog

May 1, 2009 by · Leave a Comment 

Welcome to the Elevate Me! blog.

I’m Earl the co-owner and co-founder with my wife Trish who wants nothing to do with writing about herself, so you’re stuck with me.

Since this is blog 1 I guess I’ll talk about the genesis of our little protein/energy bar project. We started this little company as all good little companies start, either in someone’s parent’s garage, basement or studio apartment. Since we moved around back in the early 2000’s all of those apply. As college students we were living off student loans and my mom would occasionally fire us some of her little creations, called Power Balls (disclaimer: nothing to do with Powerbar). They were ugly little things wrapped in saran wrap but did they ever fill the gut in a hurry and keep the flow going for dubious studying, so we inhaled them.

Fast forward to 2002 through school, a couple corporate gigs in the real 9-5 world and we sit down for a heart to heart about what the hell we’re really going to do to make a living. Our memories tweak back to those powerballs and we start thinking of health foods as a career: They are nutritious, portable and travel well, how can it lose?

And wouldn’t it be fun to own our own company, be our own bosses and work only when we feel like it? Yeah!

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