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.

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.

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. 🙂

And then came the time…

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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…

a butterscotch caramel cake…

…and some fluffernutter spring rolls.

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.

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.

Cheers to the best weekend with friends!!

With Gina and her gorgeous baby bump

With the ever gorgeous Courtney

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.

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?

Party time!!!

Last night’s cocktail party was such. a. BLAST!!!!

With the roomies – Courtney, Lisa, and Julie.  

I feel like my voice should be hoarse after talking so much. I got to meet so many incredible women and catch up with so many friends.

Quickly after arriving I nabbed a glass of wine and a small plate of munchies – some cheeses, dried apricots, candied walnuts, a mini slice of pizza, a date, and some tomatoes.

Would you believe it took me over an hour to eat that plate? All because my mouth was too busy talking. I made a point to walk around and comingle because I love this community so stinking much!

 

It’s all kind of weird because we all know each other, but not really…but we do. It may not make much sense, but we all always connect and have an amazing time.

That little dinner plate didn’t do much for my hunger…nor did it for a few others of us. So would you believe that I ended up eating frozen yogurt for the second time in one day?

I went the fruity route this time with coconut fro-yo and mango, blueberries, mochi, and mini white chocolate chips. We also had a side of Ashley and JP….

 

Yes, as in from the Bachelorette. Kind of crazy.

What’s also kind of crazy? Going to bed at 1 am and getting up to run at 6 am. But I like crazy…

The Finish Is Worth It??? Uhh….I guess…

I met up with a group of about twelve for a run around the city. It took a bit to find a good path but once we got going we covered a decent 4.5 miles. It went by really quickly for me while chatting with Tanya, Kelly, Anne, Kath, and Clare. Success for the early morning and to help wake me up a bit before the long day ahead. Although, I do need coffee. To calm my nerves at the very least.

Now, wish me luck!!!! I have to speak this afternoon. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. I will just calm my nerves by spreading the Love Grown granola love. Come find me or look for the mini-giveaways today and tomorrow!

• How much sleep do you need to function well?
• Have you ever seen any “celebrity”?