So, you want to get healthy, but you don’t know where to start. We’ve all been there. Maybe you’re inspired by the turning of the new year, watching interviews of your favorite Olympic athletes, or the liveliness and longevity of the elderly couple down the street. Whatever your “why” is, there’s no shortage of inspiration when it comes to pursuing health. The hard part is always, “how?”
Denitia Blount has asked herself the same questions. Blount is the owner and co-founder of Oh My Juice, a whole food, all-natural juice bar in Downtown Waco that seeks to make healthy food taste great.
Originally from Colorado, Blount came to Waco in 1983 and ran track for Baylor. After graduating from Baylor, she and her husband moved all around the country. As a former athlete who grew up in Colorado, Blount and her family always maintained a fairly active and healthy lifestyle. They were living in Georgia when Blount got into a car accident that left her in chronic pain.
This chronic pain left Blount feeling sick and lethargic. At the time, she had a close friend who was a vegan and encouraged Blount to see if a change in diet would impact her health and wellbeing, so she started pursuing natural alternatives to help her heal.
“As we started on that journey, it was just in my kitchen at home. I started having conversations with people who were experiencing the same sort of things,” Blount said.
Just like many of us, Blount didn’t know where to start. She is grateful for the friends and mentors she found early on who encouraged her in her health journey, helped her experiment with new foods and showed her that healthy could also be pleasing to your taste buds. In time, and through the guidance of friends, she began trying foods beyond the staple strawberry-banana smoothie or spinach salad.
“Everybody thinks being healthy means eating a salad every day. They have a hard time finding food that really is healthy for their bodies and tastes great,” Blount said.
When Blount’s husband accepted a job with Baylor Athletics in 2013, the two moved back to Waco to start their new adventure. As an empty nester, she sought out ways to re-immerse herself in the Waco community she had been a part of 30 years earlier.
“I thought, ‘What am I gonna do here?’ All my kids were grown and gone, my husband was working all the time, and I was struggling to find a place and something to do. But I knew I had this newfound passion for nutrition,” Blount said.
With the support and encouragement of friends and family members, Blount, along with her friend Tierra Barber, started Oh My Juice as a booth at the Waco Farmers Market.
“We started at the Farmers Market and thought it would just be something fun, a hobby, but we kept getting more and more requests,” Blount said.
What started as cold-pressed juices at the Farmers Market quickly grew to become a very needed resource for health and wellness for many in the Waco community. On September 20, 2015, Oh My Juice opened up its storefront on 2nd Street where they have continued to help their customers with an unparalleled commitment to clean eating.
“If somebody comes in and wants help with their health journey, we want to be that starting point.
Many people know they want to pursue health, but they are overwhelmed and don’t know where to start,” Blount said. “Our ultimate goal is that people take what they learn here and use it in their lives.”
Oh My Juice truly operates out of its mission to provide fresh whole food products to the local community, to educate on the benefits of whole foods and to help others transition into a healthier lifestyle.
Blount loves that she gets to live out this mission every day, but she knows she couldn’t have gotten here on her own. Having never owned and operated a business before Oh My Juice, Blount recalls how the Waco community embraced her from the beginning. “We had the support and backing of some really great locals,” Blount said.
As a passionate nutritionist, who just happens to own a business, Blount can’t overemphasize how grateful she is for all the incredible business minds who have helped make her business possible. As a result, she now encourages young entrepreneurs in our community, “Don’t be afraid to try and fail, and don’t be afraid to ask for help,” Blount said.
With that spirit of boldness, Blount is excited for the future of Oh My Juice. Expansion is in the works, and Oh My Juice is thrilled to open its second location this spring!
