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| sunrise rooftop yoga |
I started Day 2 of the Fitness Health and Bloggers Conference off with a peaceful, sunrise, rooftop yoga session. It was perfect and just what I needed to start my day!
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| sunrise rooftop yoga |
After yoga, we headed downstairs for breakfast courtesy of Choose Cherries. Guess what it was? An oatmeal bar! You know I was in love with all of the toppings to choose from. In addition, they made us some yummy cherry smoothies. As if the morning couldn't get better, I got to meet with Rebecca Scritchfield, RD for a personal recovery consultation. I got so much great information from Rebecca that I need to do a whole blog post on it. I spoke with her specifically on what I should do to prepare for my first full marathon. Be sure to check back on July 19 for details on what we discussed.
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| oatmeal bar - i love! |
After breakfast, we got right into the day's keynote speakers. We learned about current evidence on alternative medicines, locating and assessing health and wellness information on the Internet (Dana Abbey), and communicating health and wellness information via the Internet (Janet Helm). Between the sessions, we had a quick fitness break. During this break, JimiKaye from the Wellness Center showed us how to stretch in the work place. She emphasized how important it was to take breaks from your desk every 30 minutes. Since this is something I am very interested in, I will be doing a seperate post on all the stretches we learned. I will post it on July 9th!
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| These sessions made me miss college and the learning environment! |
After lunch, we attended our final three cohort breakout sessions. First, we visited the consumer research grocery store and restaurant labs. This was one of the things I was most interested in seeing while in Denver. The grocery store lab is set up like a regular grocery store (minus any perishable items). All of the labels and prices are the same as one would find in a local grocery store. We were taught all about NuVal scores which I had never even heard of. According to the NuVal researchers, the higher the score, the better the item is for you. You can find NuVal scores on price tags in many stores across the country including Kroger. While these scores are a good guideline, you should still check the labels on items (because the scores don't take everything into account such as preservatives added) and the prices. In the end, buy what is best for your family!
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| Of the options the grocery store lab carried, Captain Crunch had the lowest NuVal score of the cereals. |
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| Most of the candies available had a score of 4, but PayDay candy bars had the highest score. |
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| Carissa pointed out that while the top pasta sauce label reads "Heart Smart" it actually had a lower NuVal score than the second pasta sauce, so be sure to read the nutrition label on the back! |
After that we headed to the campus library to learn how to find research articles for our blog posts. I've known how to do this since college and I don't do a lot of science/research based posts on this blog, so it wasn't my favorite breakout session. However, I could see how this could be very useful to fitness and health bloggers.
For our final session, we got to eat! We watched Paolo, Executive Chef of Bistro Elaia, cook a yummy and simple lemon chicken, lentils, and salad meal. We got to try huge samples of the meal which filled me up! Chef Paolo taught us some cooking tips along the way such as how to chop veggies correctly. In addition, did you know that lemon juice can cook a piece of chicken?! I had no idea - apparently I was the only one though!
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| Chef Paolo |
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| our "samples" - they were basically a full meal! |
Although we had full bellies, some of us went to Zumba after the demo for the optional fitness class. It was so much fun and I'm pretty sure we busted out some moves from Magic Mike. I recommend Zumba if you want to have a blast doing cardio and dancing to music. I don't know the reason why, but the fitness classes during the conference were so much more fun than the regular fitness classes I take at my local gym. Must have been the company ;o)
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| some members of the Zumba class |
After Zumba and my post-workout chocolate milk, I went to the rooftop to have dinner provided by Bistro Elaia. They served roasted chicken, cauliflower, forbidden rice, and a vegan mushroom dish. It wasn't something I would normally make, but it was really good! I will admit that I headed back to the hotel and bought a Twix bar though. I needed some sugary goodness after all the healthy food! Carissa and I spent the rest of the evening blogging and chatting as usual.
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| dinner courtesy of Bistro Elaia |
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| Rocky Mountain view from the rooftop patio! |
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Group exercise classes are always even more fun when taken with people you know and like. Really brings up the dynamic and energy. What camera did you use as your photos are so good? http://funandfit.org/2012/06/lose-2-pounds-in-2-days/ (KymberlyFunFit)
ReplyDeleteThanks! Some photos were taken on my Blackberry, but others are from my Sony Cyber-shot 16.2 megapixels camera. It takes really sharp photos quickly (works well if you have a pet that moves around a lot and other action shots ;o)
DeleteI WISH I had gone to group exercises. I was unprepared and too busy, but I bet it was a blast!
ReplyDelete