Fancy meeting you here again this afternoon! I bet you didn’t expect to see me until a bit later, huh? Well, with Makenzie in preschool and Braedon getting in his morning nap, I found some extra time and decided to use it to hang out with some of my other favorite people. That would be you.

Plus, I couldn’t wait to give you more of the details on the panel discussion – The Numbers Game -  Janetha, Beth, Lisa, and I shared at the Healthy Living Summit!

What exactly does “The Numbers Game” mean? Well, as healthy living bloggers many of us have goals in some form or fashion. They may be specific…or just to live healthy in general. No matter our goals, numbers usually play a factor in some way.

Allow me to break it down for you here so you can feel like you were right there with us. Or so you can be there again. PS – If you came, you’re my new best friend. <3

Examples of How We Use Numbers In Goals 

• calories/points/number of veggies for a dietary goal
• scale weight or measurements for a weight loss goal
• mileage or pace for a running goal
• number of workouts done a week for a fitness goal
• blog subscribers, page views, etc for blogging related goals

Our panel touched on our own personal goals to share a variety of perspectives on each of these. Numbers can be a very useful tool in our goals and should be used accordingly. The use of numbers has many positives to helps us in achieving our goals.

Positive Use of Numbers In Goals

• to serve as a benchmark to help track our progress in a concrete, measurable way
• to give us feedback on our actions so we can adjust as necessary
• to motivate us to keep going when we see the desired results

Numbers obviously have their place when it comes to our goals. If you want to PR in a race, complete a set of 20 pushups on your toes, or eat more vegetables – you will likely use numbers to help get there.  However, the positives of numbers in goals can easily get sucked into a negative black hole if you don’t proceed with caution.

Some Negative Ways We Use Numbers In Goals

• the comparison trap with others OR with our previous selves
• feeling frustrated and wanting to give up when the results aren’t as great as hoped
• getting prideful and not putting in the effort when get close to achieving a goal
• losing sight of realistic goals or wanting to continue progress beyond what is healthy for you or your body

Just because there are some negative ways goals can crop up doesn’t mean we need to say “forget about it” and not use them at all. Definitely not! They have their place. Our panel hoped to emphasize a few things to help keep that healthy balance and that could take up a whole other post. So, stay tuned for ways to use numbers without going insane in the membrane. I don’t want to send you into overload right now. Heck, my mind still needs a bit of a break so it doesn’t go into overload after this weekend!  

But for a little fun…let’s end this post with some quite interesting blooper shots. I can get pretty intense!

Time for me to catch you later! Now, if only I had time for that little cat nap…

• What are some ways you use numbers for goals and their pros or cons?
• Do you get nervous public speaking? I surprisingly didn’t once I got up there!

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?