Weekend Shenanigans: Healthy Living Summit

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On Saturday, I finally broke my 28-day streak of working out at Sweat Fitness (and using up my 30-day membership Groupon). But it was for a good cause -- I had the Healthy Living Summit (HLS) to attend. Lucky for me, this year's conference was held right here in Philly (making my decision to attend a no-brainer). The conference brought together more than 200 bloggers, all interested in the same thing -- achieving a balanced lifestyle.

The event began Friday night with a cocktail hour at one of my favorite places in the city, Reading Terminal Market. A wide-array of passed and plated hors d'oeuvres were served, along with several different libations, including a vodka-based drink made from Drink Chia!, one of the event sponsors. Though I was a bit apprehensive of attending the party given that I didn't know a soul there, luckily my fears were unfounded and I chatted with several great bloggers.

The meat (is there a veggie-friendly metaphor?) of the event came on Saturday, which started bright and early at 8 a.m. I got up a bit earlier in order to take Leroy for a walk and get him fed and re-crated before I had to peace out for the bulk of the day. Following a breakfast sponsored by Attune Foods, which featured a variety of cereals and fresh fruits, the first of several morning sessions began. All of the sessions I attended were worthwhile, and hopefully you will notice some positive changes for the better on my blog in the days, weeks, and months to come!

Following our lunch hour, which featured breads and vegetarian (yea!) sandwiches from Great Harvest Bread Company of Wayne and Ardmore, PA, it was time for the keynote presentation. The event's keynote speaker was Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietician based in Chicago, and author of The Flexitarian Diet. She gave an excellent presentation on R.A.W. Blogging (Realistic & Achievable Wellness), although I actually enjoyed her morning presentation on "action mantras" even better (more info on that later this week). The keynote presentation was followed by another round of sessions, and the day's events drew to a close around 5p. Though many bloggers made evening plans to head out for dinner and drinks, I instead headed home to free Leroy from his crate and let him get out some of his pent-up energy on a long walk. I felt too guilty to put him back into his crate, so I opted to stay in for the rest of the evening.

Sunday was another early start -- after feeding Leroy, he went back into his crate, and I headed out to meet up with my fellow bloggers for a 5k run/walk sponsored by Together Counts. I opted to run to the Marriott (where the conference was being held), and arrived a sweaty mess, given the morning's high humidity. Since we were such a large group, the run turned into more of a walk, and we walked to several famous Philly spots, including Love Park and the Rocky steps at the Art Museum (which, even after living in the city for eight months, I have to admit this is the first time I completed a Rocky-style run up the steps!).

While half of the group opted to run back to the hotel, since I had plans to workout after breakfast anyway, and I was in the midst of a good conversation, I opted to walk back. Upon our return to the hotel we headed straight to brunch, sponsored by Quaker Oats, which featured fresh fruit, Oikos Greek yogurt, Quaker Oat Squares, and Quaker Oatmeal. After eating our fill of breakfast, we said our goodbyes, with promises of keeping in touch with one another. I definitely have a long list of new blogs to check out and and Twitter feeds to follow!

All in all, I think the weekend was a success. Not knowing anyone was daunting at first, but given that we all had a common interest in health and wellness, it was pretty easy to start up conversations with fellow attendees. It was also interesting being in the same room with several blogging superstars from the healthy living community -- some attendees were definitely starstruck; but everyone was just as friendly and outgoing as their blog personalities suggest.

I'm definitely looking forward to attending the conference again next year; apparently there's already a group campaigning for Washington, D.C. as the next location. Seeing as D.C. is just a MegaBus ride away, I definitely could get behind that choice!