Foodie Pen Pals - June

During the month of June, I participated in Lean Green Bean's Foodie Pen Pal program.  I've been seeing this all over Twitter for a while now, so I finally decided to sign up.  Foodie Pen Pal is a monthly program.  You sign up by the 1st of each month.  On the 5th of the month, you get your Foodie Pen Pal partner.  The person you send a package to is not the same person you recieve a package from.  I sent my package to Wanda in Alabama, but I recieved a package from Brittany in New Jersey.  You are required to send your package by the 15th of the month.  On the last day of the month you can publically share with everyone what you received.  You don't have to be on any social media site or have a blog.  You just need an e-mail address and a physical address to recieve you package at.  You have to send your package by the 15th of the month and it has to include some written item like a recipe or a note.  So, let me tell you what I got!

Brittany got me so many yummy goodies:

1.  milk chocolate peanut butter pretzels from Trader Joe's

2.  cookie butter from Trader Joe's

3.  Luna Bars

4.  fruit snacks

5.  cookies from a local NJ bakery

The pretzels are so delicious and addicting!  I love the salty/sweet combination.  I haven't tried the cookie butter yet, but I am so glad I recieved it!  I actually read about it on someone else's blog when they posted about their Foodie Pen Pal last month.  I doubt there was any way Brittany could have seen my comment on that post, so I'm pretty sure she is a mind reader or just an awesome Foodie Pen Pal!  I ate the local baked goods immediately, but packed the other goods for my flight to Colorado this month.  They were the perfect plane snacks!

If you are interested in joining Foodie Pen Pals for July be sure to sign up today!  It is so much fun!  I want to continue to participate for as long as possible.  I've even started a map - I hope to get a different Foodie Pen Pal from as many different states as possible :o)

Are you signed up for July Foodie Pen Pals?  Let me know in the comments below!

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FHBC12 - Day 3

Unfortunately, Sunday was the final day of the Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference.  Instead of attending the optional Pilates class at the Wellness Center, I went to the hotel's gym and ran three miles.  After, I grabbed breakfast at the hotel's breakfast bar.  I had orange juice, oatmeal with raisins, and an English muffin with peanut butter. 

After breakfast, I showered and packed as much as I could before walking over the to conference.  Driscoll's provided berries and Better Whey of Life yogurt and Love Grown Foods provided some of their awesome granola!  Since I already ate, I only grabbed a sample of berries.  Driscoll's was so nice to have tons of full sized cartons of berries for us!  I grabbed some strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.  These came in handy later in the day when I got stuck at the airport for hours!

We had three speakers left for the conference - Adam Bordes and Ted Vickey from ACE talked about using the Internet to grow a business and Dr. Holly Wyatt taught us about the current evidence on weight loss and weight management.  Adam and Ted's talk was really fascinating to me.  They even brought out YouTube star Antishay to tell us how she went from making YouTube videos about her weight loss journey in her bedroom to having over 12 million views on YouTube.  I love watching YouTube personalities, so this was right up my alley. 

Q and A with Ted, Shanti, and Adam

After a final Q and A session, Elle Porter from Zephyr Adventures gave us the results of a blog survey we took earlier this year.  It was neat to see all the different blogger stats from all the conference attendees!  It was a cool way to end the weekend.

all of the amazing sponsors!

Carissa and I headed back to the hotel to finish packing.  I wasn't sure how everything was going to fit in my suitcase!  Unfortunately I had to pay to have my suitcase checked so I could carry on my backpack and an extra reusable grocery bag of my conference swag!  Since our flights weren't until 5pm we hung out in the hotel lobby for a while reading and blogging.  Unfortunately, this was the beginning of the only negative aspect to my whole weekend - I kept getting text messages that my flight was delayed!

Little by little my flight was pushed back.  Originally, it was supposed to leave at 5:10, so I got to the airport around 3pm.  I didn't know I would be stuck at the airport until 10:15pm Denver time!  That is midnight Atlanta time...way past my bedtime!  I finally got to board the plane and head to Atlanta.  I always thought red eye flights were kind of glamourous since I'd always heard about celebrities and such taking these, but they are awful!  While I did get some sleep, when I woke up I felt like I was going to be sick.  We didn't land until 4am Atlanta time.  Thankfully, I have amazing friends and my BFF Jessica came to pick me up from the airport in the middle of the night.  Thanks, Jessica!  It was so nice being back in Atlanta this week, but now I'm off to the beach tomorrow with David  for Fourth of July - one of my favorite holidays!

boo, Delta!

I'd just like to end by saying I had a wonderful time at the Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference this past weekend!  I definitely recommend it if anyone is considering the 2013 conference.  I met so many cool people from all over the country, I got to go on a breathtaking hike into the Rocky Mountains, and I got to learn so much and try new things along the way.  Thank you so much Got Chocolate Milk? and FitFluential for the scholarship!



Chocolate milk is My After!

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FHBC12 - Day 2

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! 

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.

oatmeal bar - i love!

Thank you, Choose Cherries!

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!

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!

Of the options the grocery store lab carried, Captain Crunch had the lowest NuVal score of the cereals.

Most of the candies available had a score of 4, but PayDay candy bars had the highest score.

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! 

Chef Paolo

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)

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.

dinner courtesy of Bistro Elaia

Rocky Mountain view from the rooftop patio!

Check back tomorrow for my post on Sunday's activities.  And, if you missed my first two recaps be sure to read my posts on the Rocky Mountain excursion and Day 1 of the conference.  In addition, check out this post if you haven't entered my blogversary giveaway for a Hotdog Yoga Rollpack!

Please follow me on Twitter and "like" my blog on Facebook if you enjoy what you read.  Thanks!

 

Hotdog Yoga Giveaway

Do you relate to Reese, Natalie, Drew and Ellen as they struggle on their way to yoga class?  Shouldn't yoga be a peaceful and relaxed time of day?  Why create stress before and after class by attempting to carry and balance as many items as possible in your arms?  This is where the Rollpack comes in handy from Hotdog Yoga Gear.  These bags will help your peace of mind before and after yoga!

All of the people involved with creating Hotdog Yoga Gear practice yoga themselves, so they know their stuff!  They really thought about what products were already on the market in regards to yoga accessories and they brainstormed what was missing.  They put in a lot of time and effort into the design of this bag.  In addition, they would never make a product they would not use themselves.  

These bags are perfect for anyone that practices yoga or owns a yoga mat for whatever reason (I like to take one to work to do some exercises/stretches throughout the day.).  Personally, I take yoga classes at my local gym.  I'm never there just for yoga class, so I usually have a lot with me - phone, iPod, water bottle, Kindle, keys, wallet, purse, etc.  I hate having to balance all of these things in my hands as I'm checking in at the front desk, walking up the stairs to the yoga studio, and then finding a place for all of my belongings against the wall.  The Rollpack solves this problem! 

The Rollpack has multiple cushioned pockets to hold all of your belongings from your travel sized toiletries to freshen up post-workout to your wallet.  There is also a separate compartment for your water bottle.  These pockets are extremely handy especially if you are used to carrying all of your stuff in your hands or in a duffle bag.  With a Rollpack you won't need to search around through a giant bag since all of your items have a proper place.

The bag is called a Rollpack because it lies flat like a garment bag.  Why? - because it is a garment bag!  You no longer have to stuff all of your clothes in a duffle or tote.  With these bags, you can nicely hang your clothes on a hanger, zip them up wrinkle free, and carry them to class until you are ready to change post-workout.  It's genius!  In addition, you can use the smaller hand straps to carry your bag to the gym or the larger body strap if you want to carry it on one shoulder.  The larger strap can be used across your body which is great for those with a long commute by foot or by bicycle!  I like the cross body strap best because it frees up my hands completely at the check-in desk.

Photo from here.

How do you get your hands on one of these bags you might ask?  You can purchase these bags from the online store of their website.  Hotdog Yoga Gear was nice enough to give Adventures with Alexandra readers 20% off + free ground shipping (48 continental states)!  All you have to do is enter the coupon code "ALEC20" at the very end of checking out (before you OK your credit card purchase).  How cool is that?

In addition, I am doing a giveaway right here on my blog as part of my one year blogversary, so one lucky reader will win their very own Hotdog Yoga Rollpack!  The contest ends Tuesday, July 3rd.  Please use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter:

a'>http://www.rafflecopter.com">a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Disclaimer:  This post is not sponsored.  I contacted Hotdog Yoga Gear in regards to my blogversary.  They were kind enough to give my readers a 20% off coupon code.  I am not compensated for any purchases made with this code.  In addition, Hotdog Yoga is allowing me to give a Rollpack bag away.  I was also able to purchase my own Rollpack at a discounted price. 

FHBC12 - Day 1

Carissa (Fit2Flex), Kacey (PowerCakes) and I are ready for the conference!

Welcome to the recap of Day 1 of the Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference!  Did you check out my recap of my first day in Colorado yet?  I attended an amazing excursion into the Rocky Mountains thanks to goodnessKnows snack squares!

After such a busy day of traveling and hiking on Thursday, it was slightly difficult to get going on Friday morning.  Fortunately, I will get out of bed for an oatmeal bar and that is just one of the many breakfast goodies the SpringHill Suites provided! Yum!

Unfortunately, I couldn't resist the delicious breakfast provided at the conference courtesy of Attune Foods and Driscoll's berries, so I had two breakfasts!  (Technically I had three breakfasts if you count my leftover pastry from Panera that I didn't eat until this day...) Oops!

This Greek yogurt was so delicious!

How yummy does this look!?

After breakfast we got our blog knowledge on with great talks from other FitFluential Ambassadors - Kymberly and Alexandra Williams (Fun and Fit), Christine McCarthy (Oatmeal In My Bowl), Kasey Arena (PowerCakes) and Amanda Rosenburg (Happy Mother Runner).  These ladies had great information for fellow bloggers.  I was jotting down good ideas that came to mind as they spoke.  I cannot wait to put all of their information to good use!

Kymberly from Fun and Fit

Kasey from PowerCakes

Between sessions we got to go out onto the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center's rooftop for the first time for a stretch break.  I fell in love with the rooftop and would spend all of my time up there if possible because of the sun and it's view of the Rockies.  

After the FitFluential blogger chats, we headed downstairs for the tradeshow.  This was where we got to meet the conference's sponsors/partners, talk about interesting companies and get some good swag!  I will do a few posts on my favorite sponsors soon.

I got to meet Maddy who started Love Grown Foods!

Daily Feats

After the tradeshow and lunch, we got into our first keynote speakers - Dr. James Hill (Importance of an Evidence Based Approach to Heath and Wellness) and Dr. Inigo San Millan (Current Evidence on Achieving and Maintaining Physical Fitness).  While I am more of a lifestyle blogger than a fitness/health blogger, I still found these discussions very fascinating and relatable. 

For our last session, we broke up into four groups and rotated through different cohort sessions.  We only had time for one on Friday - a tour of the Human Performance Lab.  In the lab, Dr. Inigo San Millan showed us how he tests athletes that come through the campus.  He was able to test the volunteer's VO2/lactic threshold.  Unfortunately for the volunteer, this meant she had to run on a treadmill while wearing a mask and getting her blood taken every so often.  I don't know if I'd be able to do that!  In the end, Dr. Inigo San Millan was able to tell that while the volunteer was very fit she was not a runner.  If this was a real, full test with an athlete, he would be able to tell the athlete how to perform better based on results.  And trust me, he knows what he is talking about when it comes to endurance athletes!

After our sessions, I attended an optional fitness class - Tabata Bootcamp!  I had never even heard of Tabata Bootcamp before, but it seems similar to Tone It Up's HIIT workouts - high intensity interval training.  Our instructor, Adam, led us through a warm-up, 20 minute workout and a cool down in the 30 minute class time.  I thoroughly enjoyed this fitness class!  Check back July 2 for a more detailed post on the Tabata Bootcamp routine that Adam created for us.

Getting ready to get our Tabata on!

post workout photo!

I got nothing on these girls!

Post-workout I grabbed some chocolate milk from the Got Chocolate Milk ladies.  I was really excited for dinner because Chipolte was catering!  I had a huge burrito, chips, quacamole, and sparking apple juice.  It was so delicious!  After dinner, we headed back to the hotel.  Although we hoped to go out and see Denver, Carissa and I were so exhausted after our first day at the conference.  Blogging and bed for us!

My After

Thanks for dinner, Chipolte!

Check back tomorrow for a special yoga giveaway for my Blogversary!  Also, let me know in the comments below if you have ever tried a Tabata workout.  I can't believe I had never even heard of it!

Please follow me on Twitter and "like" my blog on Facebook if you enjoy what you read.  Thanks!

FHBC12 - Rockies Excursion

Do you want to have a wonderful vacation, enjoy a new city, get useful information to apply to your life, and meet fabulous new people? You need to go to a conference - especially one in Colorado that is fitness and health focused!

 

This past weekend I attended the Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference in Denver, Colorado.  I wouldn't define myself as a "fitness" or "health" blogger exactly.  My blog is more of a lifestyle blog, but I have definitely posted a lot about my fitness journey in the last six months or so.  While at times I did feel a little of an outsider since I was surrounded by such knowledgeable fitness bloggers the whole weekend, I still had a blast!  I definitely recommend this conference to anyone - blogger, non-blogger, health nut, non-dieter, athlete, and couch potato.  No matter where you are on the fitness and health spectrum in your life, you will have an amazing time, meet fabulous people, and gain tons of knowledge to apply toward your everyday life.  It will better your life in some way - I promise!

I have many blog posts that have come out of the past weekend.  I plan to do a recap post of each day for four days this week.  Then I plan to do some specific posts on speakers and vendors in the next month.  Today's post will be about my first day in Colorado - pre-conference:

I had to catch an early flight out of Atlanta on Thursday morning because I was one of the lucky few that got to go on an excursion into the Rocky Mountains courtesy of goodnessKnows.  GoodnessKnows snack squares are not sold in stores nationwide as of yet because they are a new product created within the last two years.  Currently, the new bars are being tested in Denver and next they will be tested in Portland.  (They are available for purchase online though.)

 

These bars have 150 calories.  This is one of the many reasons why they are the perfect snack because snacks should only contain around 100-250 calories each.  Ideally, snacks should also contain protein, healthy fats, fiber and a high water content according to Suzanne Farrell MS, RD - a dietitian from Cherry Creek Nutrition.  Suzanne taught us all about goodnessKnows snack squares and opened the floor to a little nutrition Q and A on the bus ride to Boulder, CO. 

The goodnessKnows snack squares have delicious nuts, berries, chocolate, seeds, and fruits.  Each bar contains four squares so you can eat the whole thing or save some for later.  The conversation turned onto the topic of late night snacking and Suzanne said it isn't how late you eat as it is what you eat that is key.  Make good choices like the goodnessKnows bars or fruit and don't snack mindlessly late at night.


When someone asked about all of the sugar in fruit, Suzanne replied - "The banana didn't make you fat!"  I love that quote!  Some people just need to enjoy real foods more and stop picking on foods...and themselves...so much!  Suzanne suggested to limit added sugars in your diet.  The #1 worst culprits of added sugars are beverages.  Overall, Suzanne wanted us to know that there are no good or bad foods, just good and bad quantities of foods.  So true!

After that quick, informative bus ride, we arrived at Chautauqau Park in Boulder.  The views at the top and bottom of the Royal Arch trail were breathtaking!

After our four mile hike and lunch, we relaxed by having a yoga sesh under some trees.  It was beautiful and very peaceful. 

After the excursion, we headed to the hotel.  I met my awesome roommate Carissa from Fit2Flex and we headed down to the pizza dinner/Meet and Greet.  We had dinner with the lovely Kacey and Kathy aka PowerCakes and MamaCakes.  They are a pretty awesome two-some and I see big things in their futures!  Dinner was pizza and beer.  I'll admit that it was probably my least favorite meal of the weekend, but it was still fun getting to know everyone. 

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel room.  We unpacked and did some blogging.  Although we planned to hit the hay early because we had a big day ahead of us, Carissa and I accidentally stayed up late chatting old school slumber party-style ;o)

Check back tomorrow for Day 1 of the Fitness and Health Bloggers Conference!  Until then, let me know in the comments below if you have ever attended a conference.  If so, which one and what was your favorite part?

Lastly, I want to give a huge THANK YOU to goodnessKnows for an amazing day in Colorado!

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