14 Favorite Things from Fitbloggin' 2014 {big recap post}

I've been trying to figure out how to do a proper recap of Fitbloggin' 2014. I could do a day by day, but if you really want that you could just check out the schedule.  

Fitbloggin' was an amazing personal experience for me, and something that definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. I flew alone to a conference in a city I've never been, with no friends or anyone I knew personally there, and roomed with three other blogger ladies I've never met before (who were awesome!).  

I could make this multiple posts but decided to just highlight 14 of my favorite things or experiences from Fitbloggin' 2014 with a bit of a photo dump! It's going to be a long one and sadly it's not even 1/4 of my photos!

1. Making friends during a Crossfit-style workout led by Andrea I was excited to do this WOD since I'm a part-time Crossfitter. It wasn't too hard for me, but I loved doing a team WOD with ladies who never tried Crossfit before. We actually ended up becoming conference friends after the workout. Sweating together =friendship, people. 

Thanks to Angela for the photos!

2. Savannah parks/squares I spent most of Sunday walking around to all the different squares in Savannah and had a fabulous afternoon alone. The moss in the trees is gorgeous, and I loved the little pristine slices of nature tucked into the city. 

Along the river in Savannah

This is Forsyth Park a.k.a. the Forrest Gump park!

3. Leopold's ice cream Everything I had read about Savannah mentioned this classic ice cream place in downtown Savannah. It's apparently known for it's Tutti Fruitti ice cream so that's what I ordered with rainbow jimmies (sprinkles)! I love ice cream and should have visited again before I left!

SO good

4.  Downtown Savannah I loved just walking around Savannah. I am pretty much want to live in the store The Paris Market which was decorated so adorably plus had a little coffeeshop inside. 

There is so much history in the city. I loved seeing the St. John the Baptist Cathedral because I'm a sucker for old churches with stained glass. Savannah reminded me of New Orleans in many ways. 

5. Ignite talks If you want to be inspired, laugh, and cry go to Fitbloggin' Ignite. I loved the quick pace of the presentations which left you with lots to think about by the end. Sarah's "How to Make a Proper Cuppa Tea" and Vita's  presentation on how she is a bad ass and competed  on an international level in Spain were favorites.  It was good mix of informative and personal stories. There were so many people I want to befriend next year who completely inspired me with their Ignite talks. 

6. My roomies We had an epic Fitbloggin' fail of not getting a roomie selfie, but Erin, Susan, and Denise were wonderful roommates. I was nervous rooming with people I never met, but they were all so friendly and fabulous! 

7. The workouts-especially Katy and Kat's Piyo/Insanity class I loved getting a chance to try lots of fitness classes and different workouts. I even made it to 6 AM yoga one morning! I had done Piyo and Insanity before, but taking both as a group fitness class was so fun! The Piyo moves a little too fast for me, and I was dripping with sweat after Insanity!

With Kat and Katy after class

Getting my warrior on

8. Small Group Discussions and Sessions

My favorite sessions were the small group discussions like "Use Your Words to Change Your Life by Alexandra where it actually felt more like a discussion rather than a presentation. I was lucky to liveblog the Walgreens sponsored session "Make Wearable Fitness Devices Work for You..." and even though I sadly didn't win the Fitbit, I'm convinced to get one based on everybody's positive opinions.  Sidenote, liveblogging was stressful because I wanted to make sure I did a good job, but it has been wonderful to go read all about the liveblogs of sessions I couldn't make and wanted to!

Look,we even kinda match!

9. Meeting bloggers whose blogs I read in real life. 

Self explanatory. It's lame, but it's like getting mini-starstruck by people whose blogs you read and realizing they are just as awesome in real life.  I had to grab a photo with Monica even though I was all post-workout sweaty. RunEatRepeat was one of the first blogs I ever regularly read so it was great to meet her!

10. Pro-blogger panel  Erica organized an awesome pro-blogger panel which was one of the most informative sessions of the whole conference. It was a Q&A set up, and I learned so much about pro-bloggers and the ins and outs of getting blog traffic. It made me think a lot about my blog, which I don't think will ever be pro status, and how it's easy to get caught up in blogging. My takeaway was to do it because you love it and put good content out there. 

11. The swag and sponsors

Clearly I left with tons of swag. I made friends with Clark from Quest Nutrition and got hooked up with Quest Bars. I was in love with California Almonds' custom trail mix bar.  California Avocado had a session where I learned the new way to cut an avocado and also had some delicious avocado recipes to try like these amazing avocado blueberry muffins. I loved the information from Move Forward PT and Walgreens Way to Well Health Tour. Got Chocolate Milk had post-workout chocolate milk and runDisney even made an appearance with Mickey Mouse himself!

Health Warrior brought along Arian Foster from the NFL Houston Texans to take selfies along with many of their yummy chia bars.  

Ninja was another one of my favorite sponsors because I literally would sample their smoothie creations all day long-so yummy!

Clearly I need to learn where to look at my camera phone

This is what I had to fit in my suitcase!

12. The food I don't even know what to say about all the food I ate. I loved the breakfasts at the conference hotel. All the samples from the sponsors were great. I ate at some great Savannah restaurants and had some good Southern food like crab cakes, hush puppies, and fried green tomatoes.  Of course I had also plenty of sweets like Savannah's famous pralines. 

I loved the oatmeal toppings bar at breakfast! An oatmeal addict's dream.

Beer, crabcake, and hushpuppies!

Awesome fish tacos from Kayak Kafe

13. Sunday morning 5K/10K

Sunday morning I had planned to get in my scheduled 12 miles for marathon training. I did 6 solo miles down to and around Forsyth Park in the early morning Savannah humidity & fog.  I came back to meet up with the Jeff Galloway-led 10K and was nervous about finding people to run with. By the way, Jeff Galloway is one of the nicest people! I ended up running with the speedy group Vita, Jesica, and Sarah. 

It ended up being a really cool route which had us running over a bridge (a first for me!). I  always get nervous to chat to people when running because sometimes people just like to run. I ended up having a inspiring and really helpful conversation with fellow Nuun ambassador Sarah who just had a huge marathon BQ PR and had come from a previous marathon time similar to mine.  Getting advice from someone who reached my dream goal and was coming from a similar place as me was so valuable. 

Coming down the home stretch

14. The people.

Everyone says this about Fitbloggin', but it's true-the people are what make the conference. Besides the fact that everyone blogs about weight loss, healthy recipes, or fitness, we all connect with each other just as awesome people. The moments I valued the most were hearing people's stories and just talking to others.  Thanks so much Roni!

Official Fitbloggin' 2014 group photo