BlogFest Recap: Day 1

Happy Thursday, everybody! It feels like a great day. Doesn’t it feel like a great day? I think it’s going to be a great day!!! There’s something in the air…..it’s got to be all the new information I learned at Sweat Pink Blogfest/Idea World Fitness Convention the past several days! I just feel like there is so much to talk about that I learned and experienced. I don’t want to overwhelm you with pictures and information, etc. so let’s just take it one (or two) days at a time!

Our flight was at the butt crack of dawn (possibly even earlier..more like the lumbar spine of dawn!!) I wish I could say I slept much of the plane ride, but it’s just so uncomfortable and loud that all I did was wriggle and writhe around in my seat for 5 hours!

After arriving at LAX, we soon learned that our rental car was at an off-location facility – not in the actual airport. Exhausted and sort of sweaty, we flagged down our shuttle to take us to get our car. After sitting on the shuttle with no A/C for 45 minutes, we got our rental car and booked it to our priority destination – Whole Foods. 😉

I’ve never been more excited to grocery shop in my life.

Um..here’s what our ‘mobile pantry’ looked like! Healthy people problems….

Gotta have our oatmeal!!!

We finally made it to the hotel, Paradise Pier (a disney hotel). I’ve never been to Disney before, so I got a first timer’s button! I may or may not have been a little too excited about it.

Our room was adorable – beach themed! And we had a great view of California Adventureland to boot!

We checked into the conference at the convention center – only a short 20 minute walk away from our hotel – where we saw the biggest ficus EVER. Kayla and I call it our ‘love tree’!

We’re heeeeere!!! Several minutes were spent getting the PERFECT selfie. Naturally.

We put on real clothes (by real clothes I mean clothes that are clean, and not workout/lounge clothes) and went out to dinner in Downtown Disney at the House of Blues.

I’m pretty sure that after a long day of travel, this was my first real meal that day.

We passed out like babies at 8:30 pm Pacific Time and slept through the night. We’d been awake since 3 am EST!! AHH!
Thursday, August 14th:

6:00 am – Kayla and I met our fellow blogger friends for an early morning group run organized by Tiffany over at RunningHutch.com. She is awesome, hilarious, supportive, and genuine. I really enjoyed chatting with her throughout the weekend!

I finally met Becky, Alyse, and Jamie from Fit Approach, LLC (Sweat Pink) and put names to faces. Usually when I’m doing a run with other people, I get worried that their pace will be faster than mine, then I’ll fall behind, then I’ll get discouraged because I’m behind, and I’ll totally lose my mojo. With this group, There wasn’t any time where I was running by myself behind everybody.

Have you guys ever heard of an app called RunGo? It’s a GPS running app in which you can find pre-programmed routes that will give you directions as you run. As a special thank you for using the app and meeting for a run, we all got portable phone chargers – a complete LIFESAVER this weekend. I don’t think I’ve tweeted or instagrammed that much in a long time!

 

It ended up being a beautiful run and I felt good about my pace and energy levels.

6:40 am – Kayla and I headed back to the hotel room to freshen up just a bit for the day.

8:00 am – First session sponsored by Lorna Jane Active. They suprised us all and had all different tank tops waiting for us at our seats. Naturally, I’ve got my Starbucks in hand 🙂 Luckily there was one right in the convention center!

Lorna Jane Clarkson, the brand’s founder, is so down to earth and so genuine. She speaks with a thick, Australian accent which makes her that much more fun to listen to! Usually when you see somebody advertising a specific brand through social media, they are often paid to do it. What I love about this company is that they don’t pay people to wear their product – If you see someone endorsing it with rave reviews, it’s because they genuinely love the product. When Lorna sees people wearing/enjoying her designs, it inspires her.

10:20 am – 12 pm – IDEA World Opening Ceremonies. An a capella group called Filharmonic opened the presentation, and we had some amazing speeches from accomplished, inspiring individuals such as….

Elaine Lalanne (Jack Lalanne’s wife) – possibly the most fit 88 year old I’ve ever seen. (She can still do push ups! WHAT??!)

Lynn & Augie Nieto (Augie’s Quest; ALS fundraising) 

and Diana Nyad (swam from Cuba to Florida after four failed attempts in 35 years).

In between the opening ceremonies and our next session, we had roughly two hours to explore the expo center. There was just so much to see – we certainly couldn’t do it all in one day.

So basically…you get the gist. Lots of informative presentations, discussion panels, sponsored tweet breaks, and networking. Some of the sessions we had on the first day included one such as meal prepping and food blogging, approaching brands, and blog design tips on a budget.

Naturally, we had a workout later in the evening. We did PiYo, led by its founder Chalene Johnson. Now, I love to lift heavy and I love feeling strong – but this workout challenged me in a way that I am not used to. I hardly ever take classes such as this because in the area I live, there aren’t a whole lot of options for challenging, unique classes such as this. I enjoyed it so much that I’m considering becoming PiYo certified!!

Mid-PiYo session. Don’t let my face fool you – I loved it!!

Throughout the course of the day, we had 20 minute long ‘Tweet Breaks’ sponsored by different brands, including Reebok, Dannon Oikos, and others. Here’s some of the awesome sponsored ‘swag’ I received on my first day at BlogFest:

 

And…Drumroll please…..my new Reebok Cusion One Running Shoes!!!! BIG thank you to Reebok for this awesome gift!!!

 

At the end of the day after two workouts, Kayla and I were exhausted. We went out to eat at the restaurant in our hotel, went upstairs and passed out shortly after. Despite not being out late and partying, this was still one of the best trips I’ve ever taken thus far. The feeling of being immersed in like-minded individuals is a liberating experience.

Hope everybody has a wonderful Thursday – I will be updating with more about the convention tomorrow!

Questions for you:

Think about your day. Do you think you could’ve done it just a fingernail better???