My Day at #FitBlogLA Hosted by Fitness Magazine
Earlier this week I attended Fit Blog LA, A “Meet & Tweet” Event for Fitness bloggers hosted by Fitness Magazine. I signed up for the Fit Blog LA event awhile back and wasn’t really sure what to expect. But I figured any day where I can break out of my normal work routine and hang out at the Annenberg Beach Community House in Santa Monica with other fitness enthusiasts was a day would be a day well spent.
My friend Heather (who has a blog called Unusual Trekker) met me there along with Chris from What I Run Into. The three of us sat in the back for the first panel with Tony Horton, the creator of P90X. This guy is 55 and is ripped. Here are some key takeaways from his panel:
-The importance of focusing on skill and form in your workouts and taking the time to learn how to properly build up the movements in the right way and do modifications if you can’t do that exact movement yet. Tony said he likes crossfit as a workout, but he thinks that you have to have the right coach otherwise your ego and competitive nature can get involved and all of a sudden you’re lifting too heavy of weights without proper form and you’re getting hurt. I like that he said this because I stopped doing crossfit because I felt the volume of weight was too high for me and I wasn’t sure I was doing all the forms properly.
-He shoots for 22 workouts a month. This is what he sees as the ideal number for achieving the body you want through fitness. He plans workouts for everyday of his week and if stuff happens and he can’t make it he doesn’t sweat it because he always has stuff planned. He uses Saturdays as a day for Yoga and recovery. Some of the fittest people he’s seen are the ones who do yoga and pilates.
-If you eat pancake or waffles for breakfast, you’re basically eating birthday cake for breakfast.
-Don’t treat food as your religion.
Next up they had Alyse Levine, a registered dietician, speak on the importance of eating mindfully. She talked about the importance of eating until you are satisfied and that can change daily. Sometimes you may need more food to feel satisfied and sometimes you may need less. The importance is being in tune with your bod
y and recognize what you need. I agree with her on this because before I went gluten free I would overeat until I’m stuffed. Now I can recognize when I’m full and I stop eating. Or on the fli
p side, if I am still hungry after eating something I will allow myself to have more. Glad to hear I’m doing it right!
After the first two panels we headed to the activation area which was a series of sponsor tents around the lovely pool. We weregiven cards and told to go to every booth and get a sticker. At the end when we had all the stickers we could redeem our card for a gift bag.
I figured the sponsors were going to have us do things in order to receive our stickers like tweet out a message and what not. It was not like that at all. I was completely blown away at the generosity of the sponsors! Here are some highlights from the sponsor booths:
- Fun Animated Photo Booth Photos of Heather and I: http://www.thebos.co/p/T12HSJ
- Pair of running shoes from Saucony. They are the new Guide 7’s that come out in November and they are sweet!
- Top and bottom from the Roxy Outdoor Fitness line. I’ve been such a huge fan of Roxy since Quiksilver started the line back when I was a teenie wahine (umm, am I old or what?) so it’s really cool to see the brand evolve and create fitness wear for women. It’s such a natural tie in for the brand.
- Pair of Birkenstocks. I’ve never owned a pair of Birkenstocks before and they are so comfortable. The girl told me a lot of runners wear Birkenstocks after long runs and I can see why.
- Toiletry Bag for the Gym courtesy of Dermologica filled with all sorts or travel sized goodies.
Wow. so much stuff. It felt like Christmas! After we visited all the sponsor booths we were treated to a healthy lunch of salad, chicken, and salmon. Only appropriate for a fitness event!
After lunch there was another panel with Harley Pasternak. He had some really interesting things to say. He said he doesn’t like juice cleanses because he thinks they are high in calories. He was saying that a bottle of fresh orange juice would be the juice of 8 oranges which would be close to 700 calories. Well, sure, but who is drinking a bottle of fresh squeezed orange juice on a juice cleanse? It’s all about the green juice, baby! He also was a huge fan of smoothies because when you blend a smoothie it slices open the veggies and your cells are able to absorb the nutrients better. Very interesting!
The last panel of the day featured some well known bloggers in the fitness space talking about how they earn money from their blogs. The bloggers were from popular blogs such as:
They talked about the different income sources they have coming from their blogs (ads, sponsorship, affiliate marketing, etc) but honestly this is an area I wish they could have elaborated more.
After the last panel was over we grabbed our goodie bag (yes, another one!) and called it a day. Wow, what an amazing day. It was a fun filled packed day and I honestly couldn’t have imagined it going any better. I would like to give a special thanks to Fitness Magazine. They really did a kick ass job and I’m so glad I was able to make the event. I also got to meet several of the Fitness “Tweeps” I’ve been following on Twitter which was super cool:
- Tiffany from Running Hutch
- Danica from Chic Runner
- Lisa Payne Fitness
- Caitlin from Aprons, Trainers, and Bibs
- Melissa from TheValentineRD (we didn’t actually get to meet but still want to give her a shout out!)
I really hope I get the opportunity to attend an event like Fit Blog LA again. It was so great to spend a day with like minded women and talk about health, wellness, and our personal fitness journeys. So rad!
What about you? Have you ever attended a fitness event like this? What are the names of some of the health and fitness blogs you follow? Post in the comments and let me know!
Looks so fun!
Super recap! I love that pose next to the pool!
So glad to have met you! Hopefully we’ll see each other around at more LA area events!