The State of You #140conf Recap

Hi again! Remember me? I’ve been a little MIA with the busy week I had last week but oh man do I have so much to share. I got into NYC on Sunday and had an amazing few days with my friends. I’ll be sharing more about that tomorrow. Today I’m talking about the conference I went to on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a truly educational experience that was also a lot of fun.

The conference was the #140Conf or the State of Now Conference. It was held at the 92Y on the Upper East Side. I was lucky enough to have my ticket comped as a FitFluential Ambassador.

The conference was hosted by Jeff Pulver and Mallika Chopra. Jeff Pulver is a tech guru and the co-founder of Vonage. He also lost 80 pounds within the last year which is why he wanted to make this years State of Now conference a State of You conference. It was a conference where some of the leading health and wellness Doctors in the country came together to share their knowledge, meet some new people, and have fun. Jeff was so nice and so inspiring. I wish I had gotten to talk to him more. He did a one armed push-up and it was so awesome to see someone make their dreams come true.

Mallika Chopra is the founder of Intent.com and the daughter of Deepak Chopra. He recently lead a meditation series with Oprah that I participated in. Mallika led a meditation series during the conference that was so relaxing. I’m really working on making meditation a routine part of my day.

I also geeked out hearing A. J. Jacobs speak. I loved his book Drop Dead Healthy. Talking to him after his presentation I was so happy to find he is just as nice and down to Earth as he seems in his books.

Andia Winslow of The Fit Cycle gave a great presentation on “getting it in where you can fit it in,” and how exercise can be done anywhere.

Tara Stiles led an amazing yoga session. I love her Reebok line. Her ridiculously happy shirt is super cute.

I got to try out some guilt free ice cream from Enlightened. It tasted like the real deal. I’ll be reviewing this and hosting a giveaway for you guys soon!

I also got to check out a tech gadget I’m seriously in love with. The Withings Pulse records your steps, checks your heart rate, and monitors your sleep schedule. It then syncs all of it to your phone. I will be reviewing this soon as well and seriously can’t wait. I’ve been wanting to take a step challenge for a long time.

I got to meet with other FitFluential Ambassadors! FFA are truly some of the nicest people. It was so great to meet Martinus from 300 Pounds and Running. He is so nice and so funny and immediately put me at ease when I got shy and nervous to meet new people. Kimberly from Manifest Yourself is such a sweetheart. I had so much fun getting to know her. I hope I get to run into them again soon!

There were so many nice people at the conference. I loved chatting and getting to hear all their passions and stories. I hope to go to many more of these events in the future.

Theodora from Losing Weight in the City is so great. We immediately bonded over a love of Soul Cycle and puppies. Hers is so adorable!

The conference presentations were packed with the latest in medical knowledge and scientific research. Doctors like Kevin Campbell, Stephen Gullo, Mark Hyman, and Murali Doraiswamy shared so much information that I learned a lot from. I took a lot of notes and thought I’d share some of them with you.

• 19% of Americans smoke, down from 24% 10 years ago.
• Vitals is a great (FREE!) site that compiles reviews of Doctors in your area
• If you have a serious medical condition Medivizor can help you find all the most recent studies and data about your condition as it is relevant to you. It gives you useful information needed to make big decisions regarding your health.
• A new way of defining the word revolution: An overthrow of pain and suffering for a healed and happy self.
• The average person has a 10% risk of Alzheimers. Caucasians have a slightly higher risk, Asians have a slightly lower risk. If a direct relative of yours has Alzheimers your risk increases to 30%. 15 minutes of yoga gives brain growth factors and neuroplasticity. The more heart problems you have the more brain problems you have as your brain needs good circulation. Turmeric (often used in curry) contains curcumin which has very strong anti-plaque properties. People with Alzheimers have plaque build up on the brain. Vegetarians build up plaque far less quickly than meat eaters. Aerobic exercise 2-3x a week boosts brain memory. Being curious and learning new things builds up cognitive reserve which helps keep your brain healthy. Having an active and healthy social life is one of the best things you can do to keep your brain strong. When worried about whether your memory is fuzzy or it’s something to seriously worry about, Doctors use the saying, ” If you cannot remember what you forgot, it might be time to see a Doctor.”
• Gastric bypass patients tend to lose 50% of their excess body fat in a year. A Doctor who taught his patients how to cook for themselves found they lost 70-90% of their excess body fat in that same time span.
• Congress labeled pizza as a vegetable for public lunch program purposes.
• A great way to make good decisions now is to think about your future self. What would they hope you were doing today to give them a better tomorrow?
• You are your presence and your presence is your power.
• Breath is necessary. A quick breathing meditation is to breathe in for five seconds, hold it for five seconds, and then release for five seconds.
• The state of food is a state of confusion
• Diet soda is 100x sweeter than regular soda. It changes your taste buds and increases your risk for diabetes and obesity.
• Avoid trans fat. Seriously.
• High fructose corn syrup is not any worse than regular sugar. The problem is we eat way too much sugar. And high fructose corn syrup is cheaper than sugar. So if a company is prioritizing their profit margins over your health you can bet all the ingredients surrounding high fructose corn syrup are also crap.
• Calories of whole foods are not the same as calories in junk food. They affect your body in totally different ways.
• Nutrigenomics is the study of how food affects our genes.
• The most important exercise in the world is an exercise in good judgement.
• A good question to ask yourself when choosing food: Does this food satisfy you or spur your hunger?
• The success rate for all foods in moderation is 5-10%.
• Life is made of moments. Choose to create and collect the happy ones.
• Happiness is contagious. And scientifically the best thing you can to be happy is be thankful.

This was such an amazing conference. I hope to be able to return next year. Thank you so much Jeff and Mallika for hosting such an inspiring event. I know it will help a lot of people.

Question of the Day: What’s something you learned recently about health?