In this episode, Renata Joy, the founder of Pure Joy Wellness shares why she’s so passionate about helping women make their health a top priority.

Walking a Different Path from My family

I grew up in a family where there was a lot of illness. My mom had polio when she was 12. She was left paralyzed from her waist down and later suffered a terrible case of arthritis. My father had kidney failure and was on dialysis. I had a brother who had congestive heart failure and another brother who died of lung cancer. They always spoke about going to the doctor like it was no big deal, which really frightened me.

I knew there had to be another way. This wasn’t how I wanted my life to be. I didn’t want to be sick. I didn’t want to suffer. So as a young girl, I decided I was going to do everything that I could to prevent that from happening.

So I started studying nutrition and exercising as frequently as possible. My family thought I was ‘weird’ because I refused to eat the same foods they did.

All the same, my mom supported my healthy eating habits. We would go to the farmer’s market on Saturdays, and there I’d get my fruits and vegetables. But I wasn’t able to convince them to join me. I was too young to understand how to do it.

An important lesson I learned during that time of my life was that your lifestyle choices have a huge impact on the quality of your life.

The reality is we’re all going to age. There’s nothing we can do about that. But how we age, that we have some control over. That’s why I took a totally different path from my family. Sadly, they’re all now deceased, but I’m still here standing.

From Emmy-nominated TV Producer to Lifestyle Brand Owner

One day, my oldest brother—who I considered to be the smartest person in the world—sat me down and told me I would go into broadcasting. At the time, I was young and seriously thought he was like God. So I did everything he’s told me to do.

Straight after high school, I went to study radio, television and motion pictures. But at no time did I ever stop and ask if that is what I really wanted to do? Is this my passion? What is my thing now? I never asked myself these questions.

So I went to school, graduated, got my first job in television and was highly successful. I was nominated for two Emmy Awards and a Cable ACE Award. I got glammed up and went to all these events, but I didn’t love television.

What I lived and breathed health and wellness.

So one day, I went to my boss Barbara Walters, and I told her that I wanted to start my own company. Barbara was incredibly supportive, and she even wrote me this unbelievable letter that I still have today. None of the people I worked with were surprised that I wanted to leave. As a matter of fact, the name Pure Joy Wellness came along because the staff decided that would be the name of my new brand! 

Helping Other Women Make Health a Priority

Maybe you are that person who’s struggling to make your health a priority. You want to get out there and move your body every day. But there’s this fear holding you back. What do you do?

When COVID first hit, many reports said that most people dying of COVID were African-Americans with pre-existing conditions. That was a spot-on description of my family! While I couldn’t save them, I thought, “you know what, maybe I can help my fellow women.”

So I decided to start a walking challenge. All you had to do was walk 30 minutes for 30 days straight. I live in New York, and I do that easily during my walk to the subway. So in my mind, I thought no one would join the challenge.

Then women in Kansas City, women in Chicago and women all over the country started emailing me saying, “I don’t know if I can walk for 30 minutes.” So I started a community of women where they could support and encourage each other to start walking.

To hold them accountable, everyone had to post a video or photo that proved that they were walking. What ended up happening was something I didn’t expect. More and more women started walking all over the country after seeing other people posting their photos.        

Now I started getting emails from women saying, “I couldn’t walk a block and now I’m walking a mile, or I love that my doctor said I lost five pounds and my blood pressure’s down.”

There’s a quote from Arthur Ashe that says: Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.

People think you have to do all sorts of things to work out, but you don’t. Just walk! It doesn’t matter how you do the 30 minutes. It could be 10 minutes, three times a day or 15 minutes, twice a day. 

We love what Renata shared about accountability and not comparing yourself to other people. We are in the middle of launching the Better Than Gossip brand, so we’ve been finding ourselves collaborating on different things, and accountability is a huge part of that.

Also, remember we are all on our own journey. Often, people forget to stop and appreciate what they have accomplished in a day. They just focus on what they didn’t get done, which makes them feel bad. If they focused on what they did get done, whether it was walking for 10 or 15 minutes, that would make them feel good and encourage them to do more.

Renata’s 7 Secrets to Staying Young, Strong, and Sexy for Life.

#1 You have to get adequate sleep

#2 Hydration is so important.

#3 You got to move.

#4 You have to eat healthy protein, fats, fiber, fruits, and vegetables.

#5 Sex is really important.

#6 Listen to how you speak to yourself.

#7 Community is everything

About the Speaker: Renata Joy

Renata Joy is a successful entrepreneur, a leading lifestyle expert and founder of Pure Well Joy— a community-based lifestyle brand that helps women over 50 improve their lives

Visit Renata Joy’s Website

Renata Joy on Social Media: Instagram Facebook

Resources:

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