My Healthy Living Summit Experience.

Well in Grace-like fashion I might be the last blogger to post a Healthy Living Summit recap. But I learned last weekend that blogging is really to each either own! I don’t post three times a day, or as you know I’m lucky to post once a week, but the reality is that my life is not structured right now and since my blog is about my life it only makes sense that they reflect each other. And I’m okay with it.

Ready for the Cocktail Party! Not a great angle since “someone”, a.k.a. my lazy boyfriend refused to get off the bed to take my picture! 

Another reality I learned at Healthy Living Summit it that I am a horrible cocktail party go-er. Let me explain. I came to the Healthy Living Summit, as many other did, not know anyone. I’d also never met another blogger before. In hindsight it might have been good to try to make some connections with other bloggers in the Orlando area to test the waters before diving right into an event with about 180 bloggers. But you live, you learn and now thanks to the Healthy Living Summit I know another Orlando blogger (Hi Aimee)!

Back to the story, I walked into the cocktail party and suddenly felt very under dressed, note to self next time find a more dressy dress! Feeling under dressed in a room full of beautiful and very in shape woman (this is the “healthy” living summit after all) is not great for the good ole self-esteem. On top of that, I quickly realized that I don’t know how to socialize in a bar-like setting because I’ve never been in a lot of bars or college parties and especially not ones where I didn’t know anyone.

At that moment I was doing the spin around and look for someone else nervous and alone…there wasn’t anyone else nervous and alone,  just me. In fact everyone else was divided into groups of people having what looked to be a great time. This was when the panic set in. I stepped outside to call my mom “take a picture.” That’s when I decided to cut my losses. I finished “taking pictures” outside, came in, set my half-finished cranberry and vodka on a table and high tailed it out of there.

You may be thinking I took the cowardly way out, because I sort of did. But I had a rough, panic inducing day of travel to Boston (you’ll have to wait until my travel recaps of NYC for that lovely story) and what I needed was to go upstairs gather my emotions and my boyfriend before hitting Harvard Square for dinner. Thinking back on it I am slightly proud of myself,  I say slightly because clearly the purpose of the party was to cut loose and make friends which I failed at doing BUT I made the effort to go, assessed the situation and did what was best for myself. Plus, I knew that the next day of workshop sessions was a more familiar environment for me where I might feel more comfortable meeting new people.

After waking a sleepy Rob up and explaining why I’d only been gone a mere 45 minutes. He took up my offer on grabbing a shuttle to Harvard Square to walk around and grab a bite to eat. After strolling most of the area scouting out dinner spots, we ended up choosing an Italian restaurant called Bertucci’s that had a full patio of customers with delicious looking food on their plates. Turns it was a chain, kind of like the Olive Garden of the Northeast, that being said it was very good. Not something you’ll hear me say about most chains, I’m talking to you Applebee’s and Chili’s.

I’d take this crusty outside and soft inside rolls served with garlic olive oil over an Olive Garden bread stick any day!

I ordered a Caesar Salad for Rob and I to split and two side dishes as my meal, these garlic roasted mushrooms were amazing!

My Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables were okay but the yucky artichoke flavor got all over the others and ruined them:(

 We were very full from dinner but I convinced Rob I needed to try an ice cream cone from J.P. Lick’s before we went back to the hotel. It is going un pictured because I ate it and then realized I didn’t take a picture. This particular problem occurs when I wait to long to eat and devour my food as soon as it’s set in front of me, or when I’m given a precariously swirled soft serve cone that demanded my immediate attention. Back at the hotel I set out my clothes for the next day, set my alarm and was off to sleep with a full belly.

As I assumed, Saturday went much more smoothly for me at the Summit. I made an effort to sit with people I didn’t know as often as possible and made many new friends throughout the day. The food was amazing, the session speaker were funny and knowledgeable, all the sponsors present were so friendly and the workouts were killer! Overall it was a great day and I don’t want to rake through every detail because I’ve already been quite wordy but I have a few pictures I took to share.

Welcome to the Healthy Living Summit!

Our delicious breakfast was provided by the amazing sponsor Wild Harvest! And everything had recipes so you could recreate them at home!

One of the other sponsors was Daily Feats and I never got to talk to a spokesperson but they had tons of these cute graphic stickers for the small positive thing you do daily and I loved them!

My favorite session I attended was Just Say No To On Camera Flash with Gretchen. As you can tell by my photos I could use more than a few tips but really I just loved her! She was so funny and genuine!

The blogging with brands panel was very informative especially since we heard from both bloggers and brands!

Lunch was amazing! The lentils were a little spicy but delicious and I loved the Naan with the cucumber yogurt dip!

Driscoll’s provided these cute little cups of berries in the afternoon and it was a great pick me up!

Sunday morning I enjoyed a lovely walk (not run because my legs felt like they might fall off thanks to the Saturday’s Crossfit workout) along the Charles River with some new friends! After was one last yummy meal, this picture does not do this french toast any justice because it was outstanding, I loved the addition of roasted apples and raspberries!

Saying goodbye to a few awesome bloggers I met! Nice meeting you Johanna, Hannah, Aimee, Me and Aundra!

The rest of Sunday and Monday were spent exploring Boston on very tired legs with Rob complaining how slow I was walking.  But it was still a wonderful time. 

The Healthy Living Summit did just what I wanted it to, made me want to blog more and connect with other bloggers. Luckily all this traveling I’ve been doing has provided me with weeks worth of material! But I still have one more week of vacation in Southern California for the Disneyland Half Marathon before I come home and join everyone else in the working world! Thanks for sticking with me through this lengthy post!

Have a wonderful weekend!