Highlights: A couple DailyFeaters head to the Fitness & Health Bloggers Conference
By Sara Hopson, Manager of Community Engagement
My teammate Monique and I spent June 22-24 in Aurora, Colorado at the gorgeous University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus for the Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference, where we were a participating partner. We had an awesome weekend, full to the brim: learning about the latest fitness and health research, trying new workouts with the rest of the attendees, and getting to know what some really enthusiastic and inspiring bloggers are up to all around the country. Elle Potter and Allan Wright did some fantastic work organizing the weekend’s events, sponsors, and speakers. Thanks guys!
Not surprisingly, we exercised three times in 24 hours, and all three were totally new workouts for me. Julie (from A Better Life with Burgers) and I sweated it out during Tabata Boot Camp, and a big group of us enjoyed Zumba together on Saturday evening.
As a sort of fitness novice of late — having only begun working out seriously a year ago, after five years of inactivity following high school — I was pleased to feel so welcome and comfortable around this group of registered dietitians, certified personal trainers, wellness coaches, yogis, and marathon runners. Everyone was, above all else, super enthusiastic.
(L-R) Ted Vickey (who I learned day 1 hails from the same TINY town in PA as I do) & AdamBordes from ACE Fitness presented on how to use the Internet to grow your fitness business. Their special guest was Shanti, of YouTube fame for her video blogs about her weight loss journey. Very moving stuff.
On Saturday morning, we attended the optional yoga class led by the wonderful Clare. She made us all fall in love with the mantra from Meditations from the Mat: “Show up, burn brightly, live passionately holding nothing back. When the work is done, step back, and let go.”
One of the four cohort breakout sessions was a cooking demo led by the Anschutz Wellness Center’s Chef Paolo Neville, who creates and prepares the meals served in its Bistro Ellaia. Get the recipe for the meal we saw prepared and tried here (it’s grilled chicken with red lentils and a curry yogurt sauce, with a fennel watermelon salad. Yum!).
(L-R) The four cohort breakout sessions had us in small groups, venturing to different corners of the Wellness Center and the library, to learn about all kinds of things that are happening at the University of Colorado’s Medical Campus.
We visited the grocery lab, provided by King Sooper, to learn about the research they’ll do there, including educating people about the relatively new NuVal system, which was created with the intention of helping people comparison shop more knowledgably. The bloggers in attendance (including Tamara, Carissa, Sandra, and Andrew, among others I’m sure I’ve left out) had some pretty spot-on tips for making it and the grocery lab even better.
We watched Chef Paolo’s cooking demo, referenced earlier,
and learned how Dr. Iñigo San Millán and his team use individual assessment on athletes to learn their fitness level through lactate levels in the bloodstream during exercise. I have to admit - I thought it’d be over my head at first, but he did a great job of explaining it in terms that all of us could understand… and it was really neat to see this assessment happen right in front of us.
(L-R) Monique loved the Anschutz Center’s green roof, where they grow herbs and produce for the center… and help insulate the building by growing native grasses and plants that don’t require much water. That’s called xeriscaping! (Thanks for the lesson, Monique!)
The Anschutz Wellness Center is just gorgeous. State-of-the-art fitness facilities (including killer locker rooms), a metabolic kitchen, and beautiful details like the mod entryway made it a pleasure to spend the weekend here.
Choose Cherries provided us with a scrumptious breakfast Saturday, and snacks all weekend. We had big helpings of oatmeal, yogurt, fresh fruit, nuts, and a delish smoothie featuring tart cherry juice, which is uber-good for you.
We were also thrilled to meet the ladies from FitApproach, even getting to take home a #SweatPink swag bag (which I love!), a couple sweet TechnoGym representatives, including one who flew in straight from Italy, and Boston’s own Kristen Mercier! Angela, from DErunnerNIAL, won the $50 SpaFinder gift card during the tradeshow, which I’m sure she’ll use to relieve some of that marathon runner stress she’s built up — totally deserving!
Overall, the weekend renewed our hope in good food, good friends, and good being done all around us. Plus, we did a ton of feats… all of which I promptly checked in upon returning home ;) We’re excited to begin to work with so many of the talented, generous, and world-changing thought leaders we met, and bring their awesomeness right to your DailyFeats experience — stay tuned for great partnerships to come!
