Deirdre: My Views from The Summit

Views= Pictures and Thoughts (I heart double meanings!)

Whoa what a weekend at the Healthy Living Summit! To say that it was hard for me to go to work this morning would be an UNDERSTATEMENT.

Here are more of the highlights:

White sangria (x’s 2) !

With blogger Megan

With reader and new friend Sarah

The crew that helped us shut down the place: Julianne, Nina, Terry, and Megan. These ladies rock!

Saturday:

After getting up early to workout at the hotel gym, I was starving!

White Chocolate Raspberry Stonyfield yogurt with MixMyGranola, watermelon, and tea with milk.

The fabulous organizers and our favorite bloggers: Caitlin, Kath, Heather, Jenna, Meghann,  & Tina

Nutrition with Janel Ovrut, MS RD LDN

Blogging 101 with Zesty

Lunch

I had a half of turkey sandwich with mustard and cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes and mozzarella, peppers, potato salad, and a pickle.

Keynote Speaker: Regina Beidler, Organic Dairy Farmer

Caitlin with Operation Beautiful

POM ! I love this stuff! I took another bottle after this one.

So excited I had the highest bid on these Banana Nut Dark Chocolate Chip Muffins!

They were baked by the lovely Marisa who was at my table at lunch. Marisa, they are amazing!

SWAG-TASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really excited to try this Glo Bar!

Finally gonna get to try Amazing Grass products

The evening activity was the Fisherman’s Feast Italian Food Festival. I thought it was like a smaller version of the San Gennaro festival I go to every year in NYC. I love food festivals and it wasn’t even that crowded for a Saturday night. I had a lemonade and a buffalo chicken calzone. They both were delicious, but I didn’t get pictures because I was too busy trying to balance my food. I ended up eating mostly the chicken in the calzone and threw a lot of the outside away because it was so large.

Afterwards, we got wind of a Barefoot wine tasting. Caitlin, through her powers of persuasion convinced the guy at the door to let us have 3 ‘drink’ tickets for $3 instead of the $5 they were supposed to be. I was mucho impressed.

Afterwards, we headed over to Mike’s Pastry. Since it was a warm night I decided on a small cappuccino gelato.

So delicious!

Amelia took all the pictures on Sunday so make sure to check out her post!

SO WHAT DID I THINK?

This was probably one of the best weekends I’ve had all year. First, the bloggers who organized the event amazed me. There were very few moments that you could tell that this was their first year having this event. Everything from the Radisson where it was held, to the speakers, to the swag bag, and the numerous other activities was outstanding. The best part was you could see how hard they worked on every minute detail. They wanted to wow us and they certainly did. I learned so much from all the different speakers like the importance of titles from Zest ( how’s this one?), what does organic farming really mean from Regina, and how fitness is different for everyone from the bloggers themselves. There was hardly a dull moment. Also, the organizing committee of bloggers amazed me by just being themselves. I had already had the opportunity to meet Heather, but it was great to get to know her better. I relished meeting Caitlin, Kath,  Jenna, Meghann,  & Tina as well. What I liked most about spending time with all these bloggers was that they are all just as sweet and down to earth as they seem from their blogs. You can tell that their blogs are truly a representation of who they are as individuals. They ‘own’ who they are and are all excellent examples of what we should all strive to be: self-confident, badass chicas who are constantly trying to better themselves through healthy eating and fitness. Finally, last but not least, I loved meeting all the fellow attendees both bloggers and readers alike. I feel there are few things better in the world than having a ‘me too‘ moment with someone. I felt like the whole weekend was full of these moments because we all have so many things in common and everyone was so open and accepting. In a world of way too many ‘Mean Girls,’ the Summit was a perfect example of what can be accomplished when we as women (and men) come together to bring each other up and not put each other down. I feel like I’ve made so many new friends, and I’m sure my Google Reader will surely collapse from all the new blogs I am going to add in the next few days. Also, I’m so glad I got to experience this past weekend with Amelia. I sure we will be talking about it for weeks to come. Thanks to everyone who made this phenomenal weekend possible. I can only hope I will have the opportunity to attend The Healthy Living Summit next year!

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