These past couple of months have been extremely rewarding and fun for all of us here at Orgain in an unexpected way.
When I started Orgain, I hoped I was making products that would help people get the nutrition they needed to gain strength. I never could have guessed that one of those people would be Rocky Balboa!
When I recently saw the movie Creed, and saw Sylvester Stallone pull out a bottle of Orgain and drink it, I got chills. It was a bit surreal. To see Orgain in his hands in such an iconic movie was incredible. It got me thinking about Rocky's journey and how much his story related to my own.
I first watched Rocky as a kid. I fell in love with the Rocky series back then and I still love it now. I've always been a huge fan of the underdog, and that's what I love most about the movies.
I relate to the fact that Rocky was able to win through his own perseverance. In his most inspirational speech in the movie he says:
"You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"
I can relate to Rocky's mentality because I've had to get back up after some very hard knocks in my own life. I was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a very aggressive cancer of the connective and muscle tissue, at the age of 18 and I had to find a way to fight for my life and to keep moving forward.
For me, putting on the boxing gloves meant putting quality nutrition into my body. My treatment left me drained and drastically underweight, yet I had little appetite. At the time, there were no options out there for those of us in need of liquid nutrition made without artificial ingredients. So I looked to my trainer, my mom, mom – for help in making my own shakes – full of organic protein, carbohydrates, vegetables – and round by round, I was able to regain strength, put on weight, and overcome the cancer.
It was my fight in the cancer ring that inspired me to create Orgain. I didn't want others to have to focus on nutrition when they should be focusing on gaining strength instead. I wanted to be there for the underdogs.
So when I sat in the movie theater and watched my childhood hero drink a product that I created for the exact reason he was drinking it, I was blown away.
It was a moving surprise as I had no idea that Orgain was going to be a part of Creed. I learned about it the night the movie was released when I received dozens and dozens of texts and emails from friends and colleagues all over the world.
It wasn't the first time I'd heard of an athlete choosing Orgain - Olympic athletes, UFC fighters, and college athletes have all shared how Orgain is an integral part of their nutrition – but it was certainly the most unique.
Whether you are training for a championship fight or the Olympics, or fighting the fight of your life during an illness, you want to put the purest protein possible into your body. I think Orgain provides that.
It's been really enjoyable to see our shakes in Creed and to be associated in a small way with the award season excitement. (Of course I still think Sylvester Stallone should have won the Oscar!) It's been fun to hear our fans say if Rocky's drinking Orgain, it's got to be the best stuff in the world.
This may be as close as I'm ever going to get to Sylvester Stallone, but it's still awesome.
When I recently saw the movie Creed, and saw Sylvester Stallone pull out a bottle of Orgain and drink it, I got chills. It was a bit surreal. To see Orgain in his hands in such an iconic movie was incredible. It got me thinking about Rocky's journey and how much his story related to my own.
I first watched Rocky as a kid. I fell in love with the Rocky series back then and I still love it now. I've always been a huge fan of the underdog, and that's what I love most about the movies.
I relate to the fact that Rocky was able to win through his own perseverance. In his most inspirational speech in the movie he says:
"You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"
I can relate to Rocky's mentality because I've had to get back up after some very hard knocks in my own life. I was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a very aggressive cancer of the connective and muscle tissue, at the age of 18 and I had to find a way to fight for my life and to keep moving forward.
For me, putting on the boxing gloves meant putting quality nutrition into my body. My treatment left me drained and drastically underweight, yet I had little appetite. At the time, there were no options out there for those of us in need of liquid nutrition made without artificial ingredients. So I looked to my trainer, my mom, mom – for help in making my own shakes – full of organic protein, carbohydrates, vegetables – and round by round, I was able to regain strength, put on weight, and overcome the cancer.
It was my fight in the cancer ring that inspired me to create Orgain. I didn't want others to have to focus on nutrition when they should be focusing on gaining strength instead. I wanted to be there for the underdogs.
So when I sat in the movie theater and watched my childhood hero drink a product that I created for the exact reason he was drinking it, I was blown away.
It was a moving surprise as I had no idea that Orgain was going to be a part of Creed. I learned about it the night the movie was released when I received dozens and dozens of texts and emails from friends and colleagues all over the world.
It wasn't the first time I'd heard of an athlete choosing Orgain - Olympic athletes, UFC fighters, and college athletes have all shared how Orgain is an integral part of their nutrition – but it was certainly the most unique.
Whether you are training for a championship fight or the Olympics, or fighting the fight of your life during an illness, you want to put the purest protein possible into your body. I think Orgain provides that.
It's been really enjoyable to see our shakes in Creed and to be associated in a small way with the award season excitement. (Of course I still think Sylvester Stallone should have won the Oscar!) It's been fun to hear our fans say if Rocky's drinking Orgain, it's got to be the best stuff in the world.
This may be as close as I'm ever going to get to Sylvester Stallone, but it's still awesome.