Top It Off With Champagne & Sushi

Posted: August 21, 2011 at 11:26 am

Soooo…Saturday at the Healthy Living Summit. I’m sure you have seen most of it on other blogs already so I will give you my personal spin on it all.

The day started with a simple breakfast of Attune Foods cereal and fruit.

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We had to get some food in our bellies after the run and before starting the long day of conference sessions ahead. I had the Honey Almond Crunch cereal, which filled me up surprisingly well. Normally I can eat me some cereal. A huge pile of fruit always helps.

I also had the fun task to spread the love. Thank you so much again to Love Grown for sponsoring me at the conference. They truly were so awesome to work with and I loved getting to meet some friends and share the granola I believe in so much with all.

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Then, conference time commenced! I attended some fabulous sessions about action mantras from Dawn at Quaker Oats, recipe development from Stepfanie at Spark People, and negative commenting or feedback in blogging from my girls Brittany, Courtney, Heather, and Julie. Every session was so fabulous! Let me know if there are any that particularly interest you so I can maybe do a more detailed description later. 🙂

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And then came the time…

My panel discussion on “The Numbers Game: Goal Motivation”!!

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I actually didn’t feel nervous at all and felt like the discussion went really well. Janetha, Lisa, Beth, and I tried to have a variety of perspectives that hopefully everyone who attended could relate to on some level. I also really appreciated the participation from the audience and all the different insights. We touched on so many different things from the pros and cons of using specific numbers in tracking and motivating progress, how to have a healthy balance with our goals, and more. I plan on giving all the nitty gritty here later this week. Don’t want to overwhelm you with so much in this one post. Because a lot more happened to catch you all up on.

Like Katy Widrick’s super amazing, inspirational, informational talk on not selling out your blog and how to monetize it well. I love her! Her blog is a wealth of information, including much of what she touched on in the conference. If you don’t know Katy already – read her blog!

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Then…it was done. I could hardly believe that our last full conference day had come to a close so quickly! Luckily, we still had a solid 8+ hours of fun ahead of us.

Gabriela, Julie, Courtney, Allison, Brittany, Gina, “the Pilot” (aka Tom – Gina’s husband), and I all visited a really cool restaurant called Pod for an Asian fusion dinner.

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We started off with a round of drinks – the “Green Martini” in particular for moi.

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It had Midori Liqueur (a melon liqueur), Smirnoff vodka, Calpico (not a clue), and fresh lime. It tasted really bright with a slight tang and smooth finish. Mmmmm for an adult night out.

While waiting for our main meals to come out we all dug in to a large portion of salted edamame.

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Thank goodness they had a ton since the kitchen forgot half of what I ordered for dinner. I had ordered a side of bok choy with a garlic sauce and a Spicy Crunchy Yellowtail sushi roll that had mango and jalapeno.

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The roll tasted great and had a good melody of flavors and textures with the crunch and spice in the jalapenos mixed with the sweetness and juiciness of the mango. Nothing compared to what came next though…dessert!

We split three different choices – a mocha brownie…

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a butterscotch caramel cake…

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…and some fluffernutter spring rolls.

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Oh my goodness. Everything disappeared in point two seconds flat I swear. I think dessert quite literally took the cake for the meal.

After dinner, we rounded out the night with a pit stop to a wine bar not too far from our hotel. Funnily enough though I ordered a beer at the wine bar. It was fabulous.

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We only spent a short time there before heading back to the hotel lobby for our last round before heading up to bed. We knew we had to finish out with a celebration of time with great friends and did so with a bottle of champagne.

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Cheers to the best weekend with friends!!

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With Gina and her gorgeous baby bump

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With the ever gorgeous Courtney

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Two of the best – Gabriela and Julie

We spent quite awhile hanging out and letting the Pilot entertain us with ghost stories while trying to soak up every last moment we could.

I’m so sad to leave them all! It’s so weird because we have no clue when we will get the chance to meet all together again. I just know it can’t come soon enough. It will feel odd not settling in for the night with lots of blog chat with these wonderful ladies every night.

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We shall meet again, friends! This community is truly one of the best things that has happened in my life and I’m thankful for each and every one of you – whether we have met already in person or not. Thank goodness for the blogosphere so we don’t have to get out of the loop with each others’ lives. 😉

  • If you attended the conference what was your favorite part?
  • If you didn’t – what was the best part of your weekend?

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40 Comments to “Top It Off With Champagne & Sushi”
  1. Mandy says:

    Glad you’ve had a good time and speaking went well 🙂

  2. Lee says:

    I just googled Calpico. It’s some sort of milky Japanese drink, I think. Or not.

  3. Brooke says:

    Looks like you had a great time! I am glad that your panel went well. Y’all made the summit look so fun, I can’t wait to go next year!

  4. Susan says:

    Did you say fluffernutter spring rolls!?!?!? See? Told ya I’d be there in spirit 😉 xoxo

    • Tina says:

      Missed you so much, Susan!!! I may have gotten a little teary when Meghann mentioned you in her welcoming remarks with the Warrior Crunch.

  5. Liz says:

    Glad you girls had a nice night! It was great chatting with you for a bit on Friday. Keep up the hard work with half training!

  6. Khushboo says:

    You girls are gorgeous! Glad the presentations went well and am especially looking forward to getting more insight into what you spoke about! Enjoy the Quaker breakfast (clearly I read too many blogs !!)

  7. I’m usually a bottomless pit with cereal too– but leave it to Attune to impress us both!
    I didn’t attend the conference, (although I admired the events from afar) but the best part of my weekend was getting baptized yesterday 🙂

  8. I would also like to thank Love Grown for sponsoring you because now I have more granola than any human being should, and a sweet t-shirt. It was so nice to meet you, and you are even more impressive and wonderful in person than on your blog.

    • Tina says:

      You, too Victoria. I loved meeting and talking with you. 🙂

      glad you enjoy the granola. It is pretty awesome stuff. Hope to cross paths again one day. Until then, we have blogs!

  9. SO FUN! Loved seeing this and so many familiar faces – what a great visit and opportunity for you all! I hope to attend one of these days – such a great community like you said!

  10. I’m so glad you had a great time! Now i’m hungry for sushi 🙂 I’d love to hear more about your panel! xo

  11. It really looks like you guys had a blast! I hope to be there next year and meet all of you!

  12. Diana says:

    Your weekend puts mine to such shame! I am a little more than mildly envious of the wonderful company you were keeping, delicious snacking and all of the presentations you were able to attend! Guess I’m going to have to come to the next one 😉

  13. Hanging with the fam was the best part of my weekend 🙂

  14. Meeting you was a highlight for sure! You are just as I imagined and I’m so glad =)

    All the panels and talks were so fabulous — loved them. Also loved the swag bags..who doesn’t want free goodies? 😉

  15. Sounds like a great weekend of great friends, good discussions and awesome food! Can’t wait to join next year!

  16. Looks like an amazing time! While I didn’t get to attend, I did enjoy reading everyone’s tweets and blog recaps!

  17. Looks like it was a blast! I would definitely like to hear more about the negative feedback from bloggers – I never realized how bad it really was!
    The best part of my weekend was definitely waking up this morning and drinking my lemon water on the beach! 🙂
    Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

  18. It was absolutely incredible to get to know you better this weekend. We’ve been “blends” for awhile, but now I feel like I really know the Tina behind the blog, and I couldn’t be happier- you’re even better in person 🙂 I hope you had a safe and easy flight home and I can’t wait to see you at the next conference…hopefully soon!!

    • Tina says:

      Yes hopefully very soon! Agreed that its different getting so much face time and you know I think just as highly of you. Love you!

  19. Sounds like such a good time! Im glad you had so much fun. 🙂

  20. Wow that sounds like such an awesome experience! You look so pretty! And those desserts you got at dinner look fabulous :). This weekend has been pretty laid back and low key for me since my bf is now in Florida!

  21. Danica says:

    HLS sounded like SO much fun–glad you all had such an amazing time!
    I think it would be so fun to attend next year.

  22. Brittany says:

    Wow looks like such a great weekend! I’m glad it was amazing. The favorite part of my weekend was seeing old friends!

  23. I loved reading about the summit and now I have even more blogs to bookmark and read!

    Best part of my weekend. My fiancee and our two labs went to a lodge in the mountains. We took out a canoe for the first time and the doggies swam behind us. So fun!

  24. You are so amazing. I loved the opportunity to finally meet you in person! Thanks for everything!!!!

  25. Glad you had such an awesome weekend 🙂 I love the awesomeness that comes along with sharing a room with a group of girls, boys just aren’t the same!

  26. […] Faith, Fitness, Fun – Top It Off with Champagne and Sushi […]

  27. jobo says:

    Tina, you look AWESOME on stage on that panel! You belong in this setting like no other. Just sayin. Bet you rocked it!! LOVE all the foodie pics and glad you had such an awesome experience!

  28. WOW I cannot believe that you didn’t feel nervous! That looks like such an awesome time. I’m glad you had fun. I have to tell you – any time that I eat sushi, I do a little happy sushi dance because it is my all-time favorite.

  29. […] The below was taken from the blog Faith, Fitness, Fun: […]

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