With so many supplements out in the market, it can be perplexing to know which brand is best. EHPlabs is a leading and revolutionary sports nutrition line that offers an array of superior products that include pre-workouts, protein powders, and BCAAs to help you fulfill your fitness goals. I recently had the pleasure to speak with Izhar Basha, the CEO & Founder of EHPlabs. A man of many trades, he is quite the innovator as well as a lawyer, philanthropist, and dad – and he also received the 2022 People’s Choice Winner EY Entrepreneur of the Year! Read about his powerful supplements, his successful business, and his top tips to live your very best life:
Izhar you have quite an interesting background. Could you please tell us why you decided to start your own supplement line?
I am the founder and CEO of global health and wellness supplement brand, EHPlabs, famously known for our fat burner pre-workout, OxyShred and the all-natural Blessed Plant Protein. I am happily married to my law-school sweetheart, Katie, and we have three beautiful daughters all under the age of seven. My life is frantically busy and always action-packed fun.
I was born in the tropical paradise islands of Fiji, and my ethnicity is Indo-Fijian. I am the great-grandson of indentured sugarcane farming slaves originally from Southern India and Afghanistan. When I was five years old, my family fled Fiji in 1988 during the civil unrest of the coup d’état and sought refuge in Sydney, Australia. I grew up similar to many immigrant children, seeing my parents work two jobs each, day and night, just to pay rent and put food on the table and to ensure that I was getting the best education they could afford. I finished high school and received a scholarship to Sydney University to study a double degree in law and commerce, double majoring in finance and accounting. After graduating with first class honors, I worked as a young corporate lawyer at a top tier Australian law firm, and after four years of non-stop 16 hour work days, I got very sick. I spent bouts of time in and out of hospital for a year and was finally diagnosed with a chronic auto-immune disease called Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis.
That was my catalyst to leave the law and dedicate my life to helping other people through health, fitness, and nutrition to be the best versions of themselves. Shortly thereafter (specifically, within 9 months), EHPlabs was born and we launched our flagship product, OxyShred in February 2013. We are still a family-owned business with zero outside capital that has grown from humble beginnings to now, our 11th year of business, where we can proudly say that we’ve helped over 20 million people with their fitness and weight loss goals.
What EHPlabs products can you not live without and what are the best sellers from your brand?
OxyShred and OxyGreens are our flagship product and a huge part of my daily staple. I feel fresh, energetic, happy and healthy when I take these two supplements every day.
What sets your brand apart from others, and what are you proud of or most excited about?
Our products are genuinely science-backed and proven to meet our health claims through multiple Gold standard-double-blind placebo controlled clinical studies at the University of Mary Harden-Baylor and Texas Tech University. We’ve been trusted and loved by our strong community of over eight million customers worldwide and having the legitimacy and authenticity of our clinical studies really sets us apart.
How has your work-life balance changed over time?
When I founded EHPlabs, I was 29 years old and newly married, without any children. I would work super hard and play even harder. Nothing ever got missed, and I could put my body through additional stresses that I cannot handle now. Today, 11 years later, things are very different. I start my morning at 5am with video conferences until 11am. I go to the gym for a workout, and then eat some food and work some more until 4pm. My girls come home from school at this time, and we swim, play and hangout until after dinner. The kids go to sleep at 7pm, and I start work again at 8pm and usually go until about 11pm most evenings. I love working, and I am a firm believer in work-life integration. Balance is an idealistic utopian concept.
Working in the wellness industry, do you have any health tips or habits that you swear by?
Everybody is different and you should not take someone’s advice too seriously. Try things out and see what works for you. Respect and listen to your body. If your routine says to train legs on Friday, but you’re exhausted, just rest or do some light cardio. In relation to nutrition, eliminate or significantly reduce refined sugars and simple carbohydrates (ie, white bread, pasta). Sugar is an enemy to the body and is one of the biggest contributors to heart disease, inflammation, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases. Eat lots of healthy fats (avocados and animal fats, whilst limiting sugars) and you will feel amazing.
Anything else you would like our readers to know?
My mission for starting EHPlabs and OxyShred was to help people unleash their potential through health and fitness. We’re blessed to be at the size and scale as a global brand that we’ve been able to contribute to many philanthropic ventures through our charity, the Be Empowered Foundation, where we dedicated ourselves and resources towards women’s and children’s rights, helping the disadvantaged and orphan kids across two orphanages in Fiji, as well as medical research into understanding the cause and helping to find a cure for a rare form of muscular dystrophy called “FSHD.”
To see the entire line of incredible products and improve your health significantly, visit https://ehplabs.com/
