JENN HOLLOWAY - PRACTICING WELLNESS, ONE DAY AT A TIME
Think back over the last several years. It is early in the morning on a weekday. You might be drinking your morning coffee. Jennifer Waldroup Holloway enters thousands of living rooms of the Tampa Bay area. How? As the lead morning anchor for “Your Morning News” on Bay News 9, she provides the latest news. She has been up since 2 a.m. By the time the tapes roll, however, Jenn is raring to go. She appears polished and poised; she brings pizzazz to her job.
Undoubtedly, we all admired (and still admire) Jenn for waking up at 2 a.m. to work out, dress up and have a smile ready for that early morning news station camera. She served our community this way for eight years. Now, still refined, self-confident, and genuinely enthusiastic, Jenn is enjoying her new role in marketing for Bay News 9.
Moreover, Jenn has always augmented her contributions to the community with charity work. She is an active volunteer and fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, The Red Cross, the Leukemia Society and Junior Achievement.
But that’s not all. Jenn has also given back to the community through her very own invention, the Workout 180, an exercise device that delivers a complete range and intensity of exercises. Profiled on the premiere season of the PBS Series Everyday Edisons, Jenn’s invention takes the typical aerobic step platform to the next level: adding a pushup bar, resistance bands, and a removable middle section that users can balance on to complete an entire range of exercises.
At the time of this writing, Jenn had just heard some exciting news: “I just found out earlier today that we are going to be in Hammacher Schlemmer’s next edition,” Jenn raves. Hammacher Schlemmer is an established retailer and mail order dealer that specializes in high-quality, innovative products. Its standards are high; it offers an unconditional lifetime guarantee on all of its products and has been in business since 1848.
“This has been the biggest gold star ever,” Jenn shares. “We are also in Dick’s Sporting Goods and Sports Authority…Our infomercial comes out in March…It almost seems too good to be true.”
Speaking of too good to be true, from the outside looking in, one might wonder if Jenn herself is too good to be true, or if her good looks and success have come easily.
She is indeed a Jenn of many trades. This former Miss Georgia has walked down the modeling runway, smiled for the morning news camera, been a spokesperson for organizations and charity fundraising events, and successfully transitioned into a new position with Bay News 9. She also revolutionized her own health and wellness. She lost weight and got in shape. She created a cookbook to benefit the community and raise money for the Leukemia Society. Then, she dreamed up an invention, appeared on and won in Everyday Edisons with her innovative genius-inspired Workout 180.
Jenn’s journey to practicing health and wellness has been long but steadfast. Once an overweight child, Jenn was ridiculed with the nickname “Wide-Load Waldrop.” But Jenn knew she was destined for success. Inspired, rather than dissuaded, by others’ taunts, the heavy-set farm girl later became Miss Georgia and a popular local television news anchor admired by many people. Her career in a suit, however, was taking a toll on her health. The days of waking up at 2 a.m. began to wear her down. Around 8 p.m. each evening, as others around the Tampa Bay area began to wind down and relax for the evening, Jenn tried to sleep and rest for the next work day. She often suffered from insomnia. She tried over the counter and prescription sleeping pills. Sometimes they worked. Other times, she had trouble waking up the next day. Her schedule and health were wreaking havoc on her life. The side effects of the pills were having a harmful effect on her.
“My job was on the line,” Jenn explains. “There was a moment in my life when I said, ‘I’m desperate, what can I do?’ It wasn’t so much losing the weight…It was my health.”
That desperation sent her to a doctor who said, “I want you to come to my Zumba classes. You are not giving your body enough of a challenge during the day…You still have energy at night.” Zumba is a dynamic fitness program inspired by Latin dance. And those Zumba classes got Jenn moving and sleeping better at night. “Out of desperation to keep my job, I found health and fitness. After finding that I could make myself sleep at night, I saw that my body was changing. That was a plus…then I got to a point where I was sculpting my body.”
After schedule conflicts with the classes, Jenn started working out at home. It was inside the four walls of her condo that her innovative mind was sparked to add a layer of foam to a popular name-brand aerobic stepper. From there, the Workout 180 was born and featured on the premiere season of Everyday Edisons. Thus, Jenn added “inventor” and “entrepreneur” to her list of business achievements.
But there is still a woman behind the suit. That woman was born and raised in a small, rural town in northeast Georgia. She grew up on steak, potatoes, and the entire gamut of Southern fried foods. Fitness was not a part of her early life, aside from helping her mom around the house. Jenn graduated from Kennesaw State University in Atlanta with a degree in Journalism and started her broadcast career in Atlanta as host of the city’s only week night, live, entertainment program.
Yet even with more achievements and popularity to her name, Jenn has not lost her no-nonsense know how. She does lunges while toting her laundry from one room of her condo to another. “If I only do ten lunges, that’s ten more than I did before. You’re still burning calories,” Jenn explains. How else does this busy woman stay in shape? There are no excuses for Jenn. “When I get home, I’ll do twenty sit ups, or I’ll turn the music on, and dance to a song or do pushups.” The advice Jenn gives to people who don’t think they have a twenty minute block in their day to exercise is to break that time block down into short intervals.
How many of us are ever doing work around the house and hear one of our favorite songs come on the radio? What Jenn advises, in that scenario, is to get moving! “Let that 2 minute song and beat carry you through the next 2 or 3 minutes. When you’re done, do what you need to do…When you hear another song, do 2 minutes on the Workout 180. If you have a treadmill, do another 2-3 minutes on that. Let’s say you do that 4 or 5 times a day…. …nobody can take on the world, just take on little bits at a time.” That sounds like news that we can use! She lifts weights, and even uses extra time in the elevator or grocery line to tone her tummy or firm up her glutes. She’s always practicing health—one meal or moment at a time.
Speaking of meals, you might wonder what Jenn eats to stay in such great shape, or if Jenn keeps a food diary. She plans most of her meals ahead of time. “Instead of a food diary, keep a food cooler,” Jenn advises. “When you leave for work in the morning, take everything you need until 6 or 7 p.m. Then, you know what you’re eating. Instead of writing it down after the fact, why don’t you face it before the fact? You make healthier choices…You have access, you don’t need to go to vending machine, you don’t need a quarter. If you can learn to pack a healthy cooler and eat from it, why do you need to write it down? With my schedule, I’ve had to overcome every excuse and bump in the road.” Once again, great advice from Jenn!
Jenn’s plans for the short and long term future are to continue investing in her own health and the health of the community around her. As she points out, many of us, particularly in these economic times, are increasing the attention we place on our investments. But, “Why not invest in fitness?” Jen asks. Although we might have a great 401(k) or Roth IRA, what good will that money do if we need to spend it all on our health problems? Now is the time to invest to in you,” Jenn advises. Jenn also plans to help the local and national community begin investing in their health at a young age. “My next venture (I hope) is the 180-Junior. I hope to put a dent in childhood obesity. This is the first generation of children who are not expected to outlive their parents.”
Thanks to Jen for taking care of her own health and wellness and for inspiring the community at large to do the same. “I’m just a normal girl, trying to stay alive in this world, stay healthy and keep my job. If I can do it, anybody can do it,” Jenn says. “It’s like practicing. Practice your healthiness.”
www.jenniferholloway.com
ABOUT
THE WORKOUT 180
The Workout 180 incorporates strength training, stability exercises and cardiovascular workouts in one easy-to-transport piece of equipment. Created by Jennifer Holloway, Florida-based television news anchor and former Miss Georgia, the Workout 180 includes an exercise step, balance board, and push-up bar with a built-in resistance band system. The revolutionary band system allows for seven different levels of resistance on either a stable or unstable surface. By offering multiple intensity and resistance options, this new exercise device puts the “overload principle” into effect – whereby maximum fitness results are reached by consistently increasing the “load” placed on the muscles and varying the type of exercises performed.
