FitBloggin’ 2014 Recap

FitBloggin’ was a weekend of non-stop action. There were hundreds of people, dozens of events, and a whole city to explore. I didn’t get to do everything, but I did what I could and loved it all. I took a ton of pictures and am organizing them in this post by Food, Sponsors, People, Events, and Savannah. I hope you enjoy my recap!

The food

I love to explore a destination through its food. I definitely did that in Savannah and enjoyed lots of delicious dishes.

Afternoon tea at Gryphon with some FitBloggin’ ladies. The tea was actually meh but I loved the turkey sandwich and cous cous.

A wonderful salad from Kayak Kafe. If something has  avocado on it I’m guaranteed to love it.

Leopold’s Ice Cream! One of the few iconic ice cream places that I’ve been to that actually lived up to the hype. I decided to cut myself a break this weekend and let myself enjoy some sweet treats and alcoholic drinks. It was three days of my life and I had an absolute blast.

Delicious French cuisine from Papillote.

A chamoozie from The District. (Champagne plus a smoothie!) It felt so nice to enjoy a cold drink while I explored Savannah.

Avocado salsa at FitBloggin’. I’m horrible and snapped very few pictures at the conference. I was too busy enjoying it! I had to get a picture of this deliciousness though. Why have I never thought to combine blueberries and avocados? It’s such a good combination.

A salad from The Olde Pink House. I’m glad I ordered something light because our meal came with biscuits and cornbread and I ate nearly a basket by myself. Southern food is a serious weakness of mine.

Grilled veggies and cheese grits from Vics on the Water. This was actually my first time trying grits! Growing up I always thought they sounded and looked so gross so I never tried them. I’m so glad I finally got up the courage to try them on this trip because they are delicious! I practically licked my bowl clean.

Homemade spaetzle from Rocks on the River. I ate this immediately after my Savannah Slow Ride tour so I don’t really remember what this tasted like but I remember really liking it.

The Slow Ride Tour was such a bad influence on me! ;p One of the bars we stopped at was right next to Maison de Macaron. I decided it would be a good idea to get some food in my stomach, and really wanted to try their turtle macaron. It was amazing! If you’re visiting Savannah I wholeheartedly recommend these!

If you guys follow me on social media you’ll know I got stuck in Savannah an extra night thanks to a mechanical error on my plane. While there are certainly much worse places I could have been stranded for a day, missing an unexpected day of work was not ideal. The airline put me up at a hotel right next to the airport. And right outside of my hotel was a Waffle House. Growing up in Florida, I loved Waffle House! I haven’t had their food since I moved out of Florida in 1999. I knew I would regret not eating there, so I ran over to Waffle House at 4am before my first flight and got a pecan waffle and two scrambled eggs. It was so good. Possibly even better than I remembered. Getting delayed an extra day was totally worth getting to visit a childhood favorite.

The sponsors

There were a lot of incredible sponsors at FitBloggin’. All the sponsors looked like they had amazing booths with tons of samples and great information. I really enjoyed spending time chatting with the reps and learning more about their products.

I’ve gotten to a point with my blogging where I have a pretty good feel for what brands fit me and which ones don’t. I don’t want to waste  a sponsors time talking about a product that I can’t authentically promote to my readers. That helps no one. Companies like Ninja have a million people who absolutely love and swear by their products that they can work with. I’m personally a Vitamix girl through and through, so it didn’t seem right to spend time learning more about products that I’m not going to use.

Check out the full list of FitBloggin’ sponsors.

Here are the brands that I personally focused on getting to know and learn more about because they are a good fit for me and my blog:

• California Avocado Commission – I eat avocados every. single. day. I’m obsessed with this form of healthy fat and want to talk up the benefits of avocados until I’m blue in the face. Eat your fats people!
• California Almonds – This is another healthy food choice that I really believe in. Almonds are loaded with protein and contain lots of healhty fats. I eat almond butter as a snack on a sweet potato nearly every day at work. I love all nuts but almonds are hands down my favorite.
• Now Foods – I love that this company makes quality, healthy snacks and vitamins. Their raw energy nut mix saved me when my flight was cancelled and I was at my hotel with no food.
• Walgreens Way to Well Tour – I have so much respect for Walgreens for taking health care services on the road and bringing them to neighborhoods. I was able to get my cholesterol and blood pressure checked (all good!) for free. These services are desperately needed in underserved, impoverished neighborhoods. It makes me very happy that I get my prescriptions filled at Walgreens.
• Nutrish – Because animals deserve quality food too! I’m a serious animal lover and couldn’t stop tweeting all the lovely Nutrish ladies adorable cat pictures. I have a problem.
• Mamma Chia – They didn’t have a booth but gave us goodies in our swag bag. I so wish I could have met with them because I looove Mamma Chia. I’m seriously obsessed with those drinks.
• Quest – Chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bars…. I think that’s all I need to say. 😀
• Run Disney – One day I will run a half marathon. I will be at Disney and be dressed up like a princess in a full on tutu and tiara. I’ve always wanted to do one half marathon and have only ever wanted to do it at Disney.

The people

The people are what made this trip so great. While I came to learn about blogging and explore Savannah, I really came just to meet some new people and have a fun weekend.

Hayy roomies! (Minus Denise. We majorly failed at getting a roomie picture but I promise you our room was the best.)

I was so excited to get to meet Madeline and Presley. I love both their blogs.

There’s so many lovely ladies in this picture. Angela, Taylor, Lauren (roomie!), Susan (roomie!), Stephanie, Erin, and Natalie. Ahh I’m missing the girl in the middle but I can’t remember her name. I’m sorry!

Taylor and I getting silly with Ruthie at the chocolate milk booth. I wish these ladies lived closer to me so we could hang out more often!

I was so excited to finally get to meet Alexandra! I love her.

Previously mentioned ladies plus Margo. She is one cool chick.

At dinner with Madeline, Presley, Kasey and Stacie. I was scheduled to go on a ghost tour that night but service at dinner was extra slow. (It was a wings place I think? I got a veggie quesadilla.) It was totally worth missing the ghost tour so I could hang out and get to know these lovely ladies better. Also check out my sweet leg bandages courtesy of my recent SUP adventures. ;p

I was so excited to meet Diana! She is so sweet and hooked me up with one of her Live Chic tanks! I’m going to be rocking this all the time.

There was a fellow Nebraskan at FitBloggin! Sara is such a sweetheart. We definitely need to hang out again soon since we’re only a few hours away from each other!

I love Lindsay‘s blog and was so excited to get to meet her in person and check out her cute little bump! I appreciated her posing with me for this picture despite me being very sweaty!

I travelled back to the airport at the end of the trip with Christine and Kris. They are awesome. Let me tell you, if your plane has to get cancelled, it helps to be with friends. This was our delayed plane sad face.

The events

There were so many events going on at FitBloggin! I wanted to do the 5k Disney run and a Savannah Ghost Tour but that didn’t happen. What I did do more than made up for it.

I got to work out with Ashley Borden and she made me break a serious sweat! I’m really enjoying the challenge of more resistance based training.

I Zumba-ed my butt off while rocking out to 80’s music. It was such a fun class that featured multiple teachers leading different dances.

I got to see Mickey!! I’m Disney obsessed and can’t wait til I’m back at Disney world rocking some Minnie ears and riding my favorite rides.

I attended an avocado class and learned the proper way to tell if it is ripe or not. (Hold it like so in the bottom left picture. Squeeze gently. If there’s a little give, it’s ready to eat. If there’s no give it needs some time to ripen. If there’s  a lot of give, your avocado is probably too ripe.)

I also learned the new, easier way to cut an avocado. It’s called the nick and peel method and it is amazing! I finally know how to peel an avocado!

I organized a Midwest Blogger meet up and was so happy with the turnout. The Midwest is lucky to have some absolutely incredible bloggers!

When researching things to do in Savannah the Slow Ride came highly recommended. At first I worried it was going to be just me on the bike tour but I managed to rope some awesome people into joining me. I’m so glad they came because they made this experience what it was. It was probably one of my favorite things I did while in Savannah. Hey Becca, Brendon, and Katrina!

This was a booze cruise on wheels. There was a bachelorette party and two friends on the tour with us as well and it was SO. MUCH. FUN. If you go to Savannah you need to do this. You will have a blast.

Savannah

Savannah is such a beautiful town. I’ll let these snapshots from around town speak for themselves.

Questions of the Day: Have you been to Savannah before? What are your favorite things to do at a conference?