Try Chips is all about encouragement and when we met Jessica Crate we knew we had to have her as part of our TRYBE (tribe). Jessica has been wonderful in helping us as a trusted advisor – we are a small company and could not do all we TRY without the support of friends like Jessica!

Lisa Buohler has been a fan of Try Chips for quite some time.  We are so proud to count her as one of our TRYBE (Tribe) Members.  Lisa not only is an inspiration for all she TRY’s but she also is one of our most ardent supporters!  Thanks Lisa and to all your friends who have been following your amazing Endeavor’s!

We are proud that Jocelyn Shilling uses Try Chips as her every day nutrition for all she TRYs.  Jocelyn’s enthusiasm and commitment to TRYING her best makes us proud that she is now one of our TRYBAL Leaders.  Jocelyn is always happy to help us spread the word of Try Chips as she Endeavors to be her very best!

Our  TRYBE (Tribe) of customers make us so proud!  And great to hear Try Chips helped in the recovery of such a magnificent TRY!

Take Try Chips with you on all your Endeavors!

Check out what inspires our TRYBE (Tribe) Members to TRY their best – this new series of TRY’s will be featured each week in our Stories From The TRYBE section of our website.  Yoga teacher, triathlete and all around inspirational person from New Jersey, Carolyn Stellatella tells us what inspires her to TRY!

It’s a familiar story arc when it comes to running tales. Jeremiah Allen ran in high school and then for two years in college but never quite took it all that seriously. Then he started doing some local races and training harder and realized the importance of the social aspect which fueled his running and general health.

But in telling his story, Jeremiah mentions matter-of-factly that not once but twice he suffered an illness in which doctors weren’t sure if he’d be able to walk. When he was 6 years old he contracted encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain most commonly caused by a viral infection. The disease returned in a milder form when he was 16. And those early battles are enough to give Jeremiah a lifetime of perspective.

“I was never supposed to be able to walk again and that drove me to get out there and get moving,” he said. “In the beginning, I didn’t think about it too much because I was pretty young, but the second half of high school I started to consider that God had given me this ability to to run and I started using it more. I guess in a way it has encouraged me to work harder. When things really get me feeling down, I can see how blessed I am to be where I am. When I look back at that time, I couldn’t even walk. It didn’t drive me then as much as it does now, especially with two kids to see how blessed and healthy they are.”

As Jeremiah started running more himself, taking on local 5K races and getting into the half marathon distance, he began coaching. A teacher at Mifflinburg MIddle School in Pennsylvania, he is entering his ninth year as a the district’s track and field coach and his third as its cross country coach.

When it comes to the social hierarchy of teenage life, running is often not part of the glamorous cadre of sports. But Jeremiah has helped create a culture on his team where they embrace their sport and have become ambassadors for it.

“We have a saying on our team that says, ‘Your sports punishment is our passion.’ The kids have really embraced that idea,” Jeremiah said. “They’re pretty well-respected by their peers. They’ll talk about workouts they’ve done and that goes a long way because when they hear about the workouts, others will say, ‘There’s no way I can do that. I have so much respect for what you’ve done.’

“When you go out and run at a race, there’s not a large cheering section when you come back. There are no cheerleaders or band at our events. But we’ve built our pride up. Even though it can be a punishment in some ways for other sports, it’s what we do and the kids have embraced it.”

They’ve embraced it, in part, because of Jeremiah’s enthusiasm for the sport and for sharing his passion for running. While coaching and teaching keep Jeremiah from training and racing as much as he would like, he is still active in the local running community and, more importantly, with his team. The workouts are informal over the summer and more directed once school begins in the fall, but by participating himself, he not only gains respect, he helps to motivate and inspire his student-athletes.

“I try to meet them in the summer to go for runs and show them it doesn’t always have to be work,” Jeremiah said. “I want them to see it can be enjoyable and a good social time with friends. We try to do other things, like ultimate frisbee, to get the same workouts in and hopefully they will realize this can be a lifetime event.

“I think the runners respect it to because I can say, ‘Hey, this is the workout’ and then go do it with them.”

And of course every summer is the traditional “beat the coach” 5K.

“Every summer we go to one of the local 5Ks and the kids see if they can beat me,” he said. “It’s a good family kind of thing. We go run for bragging rights for the next year. I think it’s important to do that while i still can. The day will come when I won’t be able to do that anymore, but if I can still do the same workout and still race, I think it’s important for the kids to see that.”

What inspires Jeremiah is the camaraderie of running, whether it’s helping one of his students reach his or her goal or goofing off at the track with his friends. It’s the people which keep him healthy as much as the exercise itself.

“Every kid is different. Some are inspired to win it all and have the talent to do that. Some are inspired by the idea of being able to run in college. For some, just finishing a race without walking may be their goal. You’ve got to set your goals and they’re different for each person and even for each race.

“The social aspect is a huge motivation. I love the people I run with. The other day we ran 40 100s on the track for a friend’s 40th birthday. It was dumb and useless but it was a great time and we just had so much fun doing something we loved with the people we cared about. Why else would you run these ungodly distances unless you were with people you liked?”

By Amy Moritz – you can read more from Amy at:

www.amymoritz.com

TRYBE member Brad made time for TRYING in his life.. and doing so saved his life! by Amy Moritz

Brad Boisvert took up running seven years ago. He didn’t know his daily jog would develop the tools he needed to face a rare auto-immune disorder. When he couldn’t run, Brad Boisvert knew something was wrong. In December he had a respiratory infection, not uncommon in the winter months in Pennsylvania. But on New Year’s Eve, he began to feel a tingling sensation in his fingers and toes. The tingling turned to numbness and began to spread.

With his wife out shopping, he decided to do what he loves — he jumped on the treadmill in his home for a short run. Only the activity that he most looked forward to, that brought him joy, felt all wrong.

“I got up to get on the treadmill because you know, I  can’t stop running. I gotta keep going,” Brad said. “But when I got on the treadmill, I couldn’t feel from ankles down and from my wrist down. I started running but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t feel safe. My wife came home and took me to an emergency care clinic.

“They didn’t do much for me and basically told me it would get better or worse in the next 24 hours. I went home and went to bed right away. I woke up at 3 a.m. and I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t feel from my knees down and from my elbows down in my arms. We went to a hospital emergecy room and within two hours, they diagnosed me with Guillain-Barre Syndrome.”

Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) is a rare disorder where the body’s immune system attacks parts of the peripheral nervous system. While there’s no certainty as to how its contracted, symptoms often start to occur a few days after a respiratory or gastrointestinal viral infection.

After being admitted to the hospital, Boisvert’s symptoms progressed to the extreme. By Jan. 3, just three days after experiencing symptoms, he was paralyzed from the neck down. Doctors put him on ventilator then in a medically-induced coma in order to give him a series of blood treatments over the next 10 days.

It was seven years earlier when Brad took up running as a way to lose some weight. He wasn’t that big, but wanted to get into better shape. He started out running two days a week then increased to running every day. He didn’t run great distances — about four miles a day — and didn’t start racing until a few years ago completing a handful of half marathons and one trail marathon. But he loved what the active lifestyle of running brought to him. And in some ways, it helped save his life.

He developed an understanding of his body so he knew when something was wrong.  His doctors noted that the time he spent running had helped prepare his body to fight this auto-immune disease and that his attitude toward his body and physical activity may have accelerated the healing process.

“I don’t remember this, but my wife said when I was in the coma and they would bring me out from time to time to test me, I would get agitated because I wanted to get up and run,” Boisvert said. “One of the things I was always saying was that I was ready to run.

“The doctor’s were saying how good of shape my lungs were in from running. When I came out of the coma, within a week I was off the ventilator and walking on my own which is unheard of.”

“I was very strict about my rehabilitation. In the hospital, there were people young and older than me, some in worse shape some in better shape. But they would lay in bed until it was time for them to go to rehab and not do anything else. My therapist gave me things to do in my room. It wasn’t a lot. I was lifting my arms above my head or lifting my legs up in bed. I would do whatever they told me to do, as many times as they told me to do it. I’m structured that way. I believed that’s what helped me recover faster, too. I wanted to get back to running.”

The day after he was released from the hospital, Boisvert was back on the treadmill. He was walking very slowly. He knew his body and didn’t push it, but was consistent, working to get stronger and increase his endurance daily.

There is no cure for GBS, but the disorder is controllable and Brad has sensation back in his extremities and is back to his active lifestyle. He’s back to running, back to TRYing, because, rather simply, it makes him feel good.

“I never was a runner before in high school or college,” Brad said. “I can’t explain it very well, but it just feels like a little bit of freedom. Your mind is free at that point. There is nothing else you have to think about it. I don’t ever dread my run. I want to TRY and be the best and healthiest person I can be. I just want to feel good about myself.”

This fall, Brad plans to run in three half marathons. He’s not worried about personal records, just enjoying the ability to finish the 13.1 miles and knowing each step he takes helps him live a much healthier life.

You can read more by Amy Moritz here on Try Chips.com or at  www.amymoritz.com

Brad and Tim (Try Chips) at Dam Half Marathon- Brad's first event back after "Trying" experience.

Try Chips is excited to host our first ever event on August 13th at the West Clinton Sportsman Association Center in Renovo, PA. We wanted to put on an event that everyone could TRY – our Try Chips writer Amy Moritz caught up with a family that inspires us all to TRY and get out and have some FUN! – Hope you can join us on the 13th or put it on your To-Do list for 2012!

All in the family: Keeping playtime alive

Growing up in a big family in Pennsylvania, Mary Kowalski and her siblings found ways to make their own fun. Sure they played high school sports, but the organized activities paled in comparison to the fun they would create for themselves. Playing outside was just part of their lifestyle. And even though the kids grew up, the grown ups kept on playing like kids.

That’s one of the reasons why Mary and several members of her family decided to participate in the inaugural Try All By Fire event. While the group regularly enters races together this was a unique opportunity for them to just play together.

“So many races are geared toward individuals,” Mary said. “Even if you register and go with with a bunch of friends, it ultimately comes down to doing it yourself. You’re all out there at the same time but at different places on the course.

“One of my sisters thought Try All By Fire was great because it was something we would normally do, but now, we don’t have to worry about what to make for dinner, there’s a party afterward and we get a sweatshirt.”

Mary will be participating a six-person team with three of her sisters, a brother and a brother-in-law. The group plans to start their day with some kayaking and finish off with mountain biking. Both are relatively new pursuits to the family, but changing up the activity is part of what makes it so much fun.

“The races we usually do, like the Megatransect, are all running and hiking,” Mary said. “We wanted to do something different so I worked on figuring out the logistics. This year, many of us got into kayaking, so we’re going to do about eight miles in the kayak. Two of my sisters are novices in mountain biking. They bike here and there, but they didn’t even have mountain bikes — we went looking to get them some. We went on a ride and it was a tough workout for them but the loved it. They said, ‘We’re in. This is great.’ That’s pretty much sums up how we are as family.”

Trying something new is part of the ethic Mary and her siblings were raised with. While they played organized sports growing up, the culture of youth sports was more relaxed without year-round single-sport commitments. The kids had plenty of time to create their own fun, explore and be active without having to coordinate schedules. Unstructured playtime was how they lived.

“When we grew up, the culture wasn’t as demanding,” Mary said. “If one of us played soccer, it wasn’t 12 months out of the year. Kids have less time to be creative these days and play outside, find fun and bike around the neighborhood. We just grew up that way. My brothers and sisters, we all played together and did stuff together and being active is one way we stayed close as a family.

“We had a good foundation. Because we weren’t lazy kids, it was easy to find fun as we got older. Now, one of us loves fishing and is constantly fishing and walking in the woods. It’s a natural progression. I started running and doing triathlons. As we got older, we found things we liked to do and it almost always involved family and the outdoors.”

Being active, healthy and connecting with family is part of what inspires Mary to keep trying new things. An athletic trainer at St. Francis University in Loretto, Pa., part of what inspires her to TRY is the desire to be healthy and fit. But the other part of it is having the opportunity to discover something fun and pass it on to someone else.

“It is actually fun to be fit and healthy,” Mary said. “What inspires me is once you go out and tell others what you’re doing, they try something and now they’re having fun and feel great about themselves and they tell other people. It’s like the Pied Piper effect. This person may have never thought they liked hiking but now they’re totally into it and they share it with other people.

“My family agrees I’m kind of the ring-leader of being healthy and fit and passing on that lifestyle to others. It’s something I enjoy doing. I want people to have high self-esteem because they’re able to do things because they’re healthy and not limited by being tired or 20-30 pounds overweight. I want people to feel good and see how easy and fun it is to find something you like to do that keeps you healthy.”

You can join Mary and her family at this years TRY ALL BY FIRE – Check it out! http://trychips.com/tryallbyfire/

-Amy Moritz www.amymoritz.com

Rebecca Bingaman is very clear — she’s a participant not a competitor. And that title suits her just fine. Winning age group awards doesn’t motivate her to exercise or to enter local races. Winning back her health and creating a lifestyle that supports her passions, now that’s what gets her out the door.

She describes herself as a slightly overweight, middle-aged woman, someone trying to embrace a healthy way of eating and living and discovering that challenging herself brings its own set of unique rewards.

“I’m just a normal person. I’m not a competitive athlete,” Bingaman said. “I just want the chance to be a bit better. I heard a quote recently. The author is unknown, but I put it up to inspire me. It says, ‘Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can really go.’ You don’t really know what you can do until you try it.”

Becca’s journey began last year when the young woman who was the chief financial officer at her company passed away from cancer. In honor of her and to raise money for cancer charities, Becca participated in a three-mile fun run, thinking about her former coworker and her mother, who was also battling cancer at the same time.

“I figured I could walk three miles and I found that I’d walk then jog then walk,” Bingaman said. “It was mostly on trails and took me around 45 minutes. I walked way feeling good about myself, No. 1 for supporting a good cause but No. 2 for the fact that I did, I completed basically a 5K. I thought, wow, you know what, I want to see what I can do.”

She entered a local 5K and improved her time, finishing in around 40 minutes with a run-walk approach and she was officially hooked on running and racing. Becca ended up on a team for an indoor triathlon taking on the swimming and running portions. It was there she learned a bit about the mental game and the importance of nutrition.

“After I finished swimming, I thought holy cow, I was not prepared for that. I wasn’t prepared for all those people in the pool at the same time. I was intimidated by all of the people in serious mode. looking fast, and I asked myself, why are you here? Why do you think you can do this? Your mind is really your worst enemy.

“I got out of the pool shaking so badly. I went into the locker room and I had a bag of TRYChips in my locker. I ate those and I actually felt better right away. It was exactly what I needed. My problem was that I didn’t know how to fuel before, during or after and the triathlon got me thinking about that.”

As she found new challenge in fitness, including a night-time trail run and her first half marathon, Becca also plunged into overall health and wellness initiatives, enjoying not just running and moving but also finding ways to eat healthy and maintain a balance. Her new lifestyle has paid off in all areas of her life. Generally, she finds she has more energy and can sustain physical activity longer. The connection was evident this winter, when her home in Pennsylvania was under plenty of snow. Previously, Becca would have needed help with the shoveling, or needed to do it in small chunks. This time, she was able to shovel the driveway herself.

“It’s not that I was grossly overweight but I was not as physically active as I should have been,” Becca said. “I find that the more I try to be fit, the more I can do the things I enjoy. This is not a get-fit quick fix. This has been an inside and outside change that I can keep going for the rest of my life.

“People say to me that I should set a size or weight goal. And I’ve said no to that. I want to be fit and whatever that looks like on me, that’s what I’m going to be. I’m just thrilled with how far I’ve come. I feel like I have further to go, but every time I exercise or every time I enter a race, I’m one step closer. It’s a reminder, for me, that this is my new lifestyle.”

And Becca has some intensely personal reasons for embracing a healthy lifestyle. She witnessed her mother battle cancer 21 years ago, and survive. Then, cancer returned and her mother passed away last year.

“I know how valuable life is,” Becca said. “I watched my mom battle cancer and last year she lost her life to it. During my half marathon, I wore my mom’s cancer survivor t-shirt. She was overweight her whole adult life. She tried everything under the sun and it never worked. She never could win her [weight] battle and she gave up. I watched her body go through chemotherapy and radiation and thought, you know, I don’t want to do that. If I can change my life to better my odds of not having to do that, then I’ll do it. Life is too valuable.” 

You can find author Amy Moritz on her website at www.amymoritz.com