An Awesome Day at the Shape Meet & Tweet

What do you get when you mix healthy living bloggers, a cool venue, great speakers, and awesome brands? Pretty much one of the best days ever. That’s exactly how I felt when I attended the Shape Meet & Tweet at the Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica.

I went to a similar event in 2013 called Fit Blog LA. You might have remembered the recap I posted here. It was one of my favorite events ever. Sadly, Fitness Magazine is no more (they were folded into Shape earlier this year). I’m so glad they brought back this awesome event.

The morning started with a panel with Jen Widerstrom, the trainer from Biggest Loser. She had some great advice for the group on motivation. One of the best tips she gave was just keep showing up. I think this is so important. She talked about how if running five miles sounds daunting, then just try and do three miles instead. Playing those mind games with yourself helps keep you on track and usually once you are going, you will be more motivated to complete those five miles and not just stop at three.

Next up was a skin care panel with Sonya Dakar, her daughter Mimi Dakar, and Dr. Katie Rodan, founder of Rodan & Fields. They had some great tips for skin care such as:

1. Wear black. Black t-shirts block UV rays by 98%.
2. Cover up. If you’re going to be in the sun, you want to cover your face. Dr. Katie showed us pictures of her outdoors with cloth around her face in the sun. No wonder she has impeccable skin.
3. Wear makeup to enhance not conceal.
4. The worst thing you can do after a workout is sit in your own sweat. Make sure to shower right away.

I found all the tips above to be really helpful and I just loved Sonya’s personality. I seriously want to go have lunch with her. She was so blunt and honest. It was refreshing.

The next panel was on building your brand with the founder of Hungry Girl, Suja Juice, and SproutedKitchen.com. I missed part of this panel because I was helping my fellow pumping blogger, Chris from What I Run Into, get set up to pump. She was missing a pump part which I happened to have so we switched off pumping! That how us fitness bloggers help each other out.

After the morning of panels we did a yoga stretch with Ahnu footwear. They gave each attendee a sweet pair of yoga athletic shoes that are made for gym workouts (HIIT workouts, strength training, etc). I am so in love with them!

The sponsor lounge was perfected situated around the pool and I had a nice time walking around and talking to the brands. I also finally got to meet Heather from Luvo in person which was really great. I met the folks from Luvo at Expo West last year and have done several guest posts on the Luvo blog. They are a great company!

I also entered a contest to win a Seiko Watch by dressing up my watch and putting my arm candy on the red carpet. Such a cute idea for an event!

Loving my #SeikoStyle at #ShapeMeetTweet pic.twitter.com/l9YZjJgxjl

— Lindsay Tredent (@LTsurf) October 28, 2015

Then I took a break and headed over to The Green Room to pump. I want to thank the team at Shape Magazine for being so accommodating to us pumping moms. It was much appreciated!  

See y’all in a bit I’m about to go pump it up 🍼🍼🍼#newmom#ShapeMeetTweetpic.twitter.com/gVe8vThMry

— Lindsay Tredent (@LTsurf) October 28, 2015

After pumping it up for Baby Awesome I went back out to visit the sponsors and got some serious watch envy when I saw the new Garmin Vivo Active. It is a smart watch that syncs to your phone (like the Apple watch). Plus, it’s a slimmer Garmin. So great!  

 

I have some serious watch envy going on. This new #vivoactive from @garminfitness looks great! #ShapeMeetTweetpic.twitter.com/xaGwcmnQSI

— Lindsay Tredent (@LTsurf) October 28, 2015

After the sponsor lounge we went back upstairs for the last panel of the day featuring Karena and Katrina from Tone It Up. I really enjoyed hearing them speak. They were down to earth and real and I could tell they both work well together and trust each other. No wonder they’ve achieved so much success. They also started here in the South Bay of Los Angeles which also is very cool for me since I live here as well.

When the event was over I received a tweet from Garmin saying I won the Vivo Active watch. I was so excited! I’ve been wearing it nearly everyday since and it’s been amazing. I plan to write a full on review of it soon.

Several days later I heard from Seiko that I won their watch giveaway! They sent me a catalog and I got to pick any watch I wanted. Talk about awesome luck. Here’s the one I chose:

One of the things I love the most about events like this is how it brings together the community. I have met so many wonderful people through Fit & Awesome and I’m so very grateful for that. Special shout-outs to:

• Chris from What I Run Into
• Melissa from The Valentine RD
• Alexandra from Fun & Fit
• Whitney from To Live and Diet In LA
• Jennifer from Real Mom of SFV
• Gigi from Gigi Eats Celebrities

And of course, a very special thank you to Shape Magazine for putting together an amazing and inspiring event. The Shape Meet & Tweet was just what I needed to really boost my motivation right now and I’m very grateful. You rock!

What about you? Have you ever attended an event like this that inspired you? how do you connect with your community or find ways to stay motivated? Post in the comments and let me know!