Oatworks Race to Fitness with Luca Forgeois

Oatworks gave me samples of their product to review, though I was not compensated in any other way. I was invited to attend the event but was not compensated for it. All opinions are my own.

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending Race to Fitness, an event hosted by Oatworks and 24 Hour Fitness featuring 18-year old race car driver Luca Forgeois. Luca has been racing towards his dreams of becoming a professional race car driver after he raced go-karts for the first time at the age of thirteen. He is also an advocate for ADHD awareness and research, having worked to overcome ADHD in his personal life since he was young. Working with CHADD, he was able to get his education back on track when he wasn't able to get the support for his condition through public school. I appreciated that he shared his story with us and talked about how he works to overcome ADHD and not let it stand in the way if his goals.

Before attending the event, I read this article from the Wall Street Journal . It gives some insider details on what it takes to become a professional race car driver and I though it was a really good read. Luca's ultimate goal is to be the youngest race car driver to win Le Mans, and I hope he's able to accomplish it.

The event was held at the 24 Hour Fitness on Fifth Avenue in NYC. Muscle Maker Grill catered the event, providing delicious wraps and salads. Being new to the city, I'm not familiar with good places to eat when I'm there, and now I have a new place to stop when I want food that is quick and healthy.

Shortly after the event started, TRX demonstrations were held. TRX is a 'suspension training' that was born in the Navy SEALS (according to the TRX website) that mostly works by a tool that leverages gravity and your own body weight, allowing you to perform a variety of exercises, developing your core stability, strength, balance, flexibility simultaneously. At first it seems easy, but it's really not (and I'm rather out of shape right now), and my core area still hurts. If I had access to the gym, I would pick this up because I enjoyed it.

Afterwards, Luca Forgeois and Oatworks CEO, David Peters, spoke. Luca spoke about ADHD and how it affected his education, how he has worked to overcome it, his workouts, and his aspirations as a professional race car driver. David Peters talked about Oatworks and what the drink is all about.

Oatworks is drink containing beta glucan (soluble fiber) from oats combined with fruits to create a delicious, portable smoothie. The soluble fiber forms a vicious gel that entraps nutrients, slows down digestion, and delays absorption of glucose to help prevent sugar highs and the inevitable crashes. On top of all that, soluble fiber may help lower cholesterol. Oatworks smoothies contain no added sugar (other than what occurs naturally in fruit), is vegan, gluten, GMO, and dairy free and is kosher. The smoothies contain 3 mg of fiber (2 of which are soluble fiber) per bottle, which is the fiber equivalent of 2 bowls of oatmeal.

Personally, while I really enjoy the consistency and flavor of Oatworks, I've noticed that I sometimes become bloated and insanely full after drinking it (remember, soluble fiber slows down digestion and all that, so it doesn't pass through as quickly as insoluble fiber does). Because of that, I definitely won't be drinking these before a workout, but maybe in between meals or when I miss a meal.

So far, Oatworks is only available in NYC (use their locator to find a source), but can be purchased on Amazon.

Picture courtesy of Losing in the City

Once the talk was over, Luca demonstrated a few of the exercises that make up his workout. He works with weights and resistance, as shown in the two pictures above. I had the opportunity to participate in one of the demonstrations (an ab exercise, at which I was somewhat decent, fortunately). Then, I, along with other participants, "competed" against Luca in a TRX workout. Nobody was keeping count, so we were all declared winners and given gift certificates to Sports Authority! Yay for everyone being winners, right?!

Participants were given goodie bags containing water bottles and towels. I was given a 1Voice wireless speaker beanie to take home. My iPod is too old to work with bluetooth, but I was able to sync it with my laptop and phone (and accidentally called someone in the process...). It's pretty nifty and I'm hooked on the concept of wireless headphones now.

Thank you to the sponsors of the event for hosting a great event and giving us the opportunity to meet Luca Forgeois!