This past Tuesday I braved the 405 Freeway & the dreaded Sepulveda Pass to Santa Monica. For those who live in the San Fernando Valley, you can feel my pain. The traffic was well worth it, as the day was filled with inspiring guest speakers & mingling with fellow bloggers.
Annenberg Community Beach House was the perfect venue for this event. For those familiar with my blog, you know how much I like this place from my earlier review. After check-in at the registration table, I headed to the waiting area. The first thing I saw was this display. Thanks to the generous folks at CamelBak, we each got to take one home.
Our first speaker was Tony Horton. I have friends who swear by P90X. I used the 10-minute Trainer DVDs after I had my daughter in hopes of losing the “baby weight.” Let me just say that Tony Horton is quite the inspirational speaker. Some of the takeaways that I got from him were:
- Focus on skill & your body will change.
- Having a heart monitor is essential.
- Getting good rest is important. Sleeping is healing!
- Don’t treat your food philosophy like a religion.
The next speaker was Alyse Levine, R.D. She gave great nutrition advice. She talked about how we should be more mindful when we eat. Don’t eat in front of the TV or while you are checking your emails. You need to be present & mindful in order to feel food satisfaction.
Alyse is a big proponent on eating “CLEAN”, which stands for:
- Chose real foods
- Lose the diet mind set
- Eat mindfully
- Assess your hunger & true needs
- No deprivation
My favorite piece of advice that she gave was the fruit test. The best way to determine if you are truly hungry is to ask yourself “would an apple or some other piece of fruit satisfy me?” If yes, then you are truly hungry. If no, then it’s probably an emotional craving & not true hunger. This is something that I’m definitely going to use because I tend to be an emotional eater.
Afterwards we broke for lunch & the swag fun began! We tried out Athleta gear & took an “ExerSelfie” (exercise selfie), sampled Clif Bars, got fitted for Saucony Glide 7s, tried on sunglasses from Oakley, picked out workout clothes from Roxy, sipped Crystal Light drinks, got face mapping from Dermalogica and checked out sandals from Birkenstock. I’m not gonna lie, it was so awesome to go to all of the gifting tables. Big thanks to Fitness Magazine & all of their sponsors! 
I spent so much time checking out all of the brands that I had only 15 minutes to spare for lunch. I had to inhale my food so that I wouldn’t miss our next speaker. So much for eating mindfully… Oh well, it’s a work in progress, right?
Our third speaker was Harley Pasternak, a celebrity fitness trainer. Some of his key points included:
- Juice fasts are unhealthy. One can never use it safely.
- We should get at least 12,000 steps a day. (Now I really want to get a FitbitFlex.)
- Try to do resistance training everyday (5-25 minutes per day).
- Graze instead of gorge your food.
- Any exercise is better than no exercise.
Four bloggers – Cassey Ho (Blogilates), Sarah Moore (Skinny Runner), Monica Olivas (Run Eat Repeat) & Whitney Lauritsen (Eco Vegan Gal), made up our final panel of speakers. They gave us tips on how to turn your blog into a business. 
Our fun day ended with a run on the beach & getting our final gift bag. This time I headed home on PCH & took Topanga Canyon – making it home in record time. Note to self: Next time take the canyon roads & surface streets!
Some may ask – was the event worth the drive? I learned a lot of from these knowledgeable speakers. I also got some cool gifts! I think it was worth it, don’t you?! 
Wow! I’m impressed. 🙂 Definitely worth the drive. I’m curious to hear what the speaker said about juice fasts as a friend of mine has been doing that. I think it’s fine in place of one meal, but not all day long.
All 3 speakers (nutritionist & the trainers) said pretty much the same thing – that juice cleanses are a fad. Some people use these juice fasts as a way to detox, but the body can detox & cleanse itself without help. It’s better to eat the actual fruit rather than juice it because most of the fiber & nutrients are in the skin. Also you’ll gain back any weight that you lose from the 3-day juice cleanse, so it’s very temporary.
With that being said, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having it once in a while (like you had said). I know I’ve had one of those juice drinks after a workout when I was on the go, not able to have an actual lunch. It’s really the 3-5 day cleanses that aren’t healthy for you.
You shared some great tips – tips that I can actually use! Holy mother of swag, wow! I wish more companies would invest like that – it’s actually worth it to use actual products instead of just branded products!
Thanks for checking out my blog post! All of the speakers gave great info. The swag was unbelievable – the sponsors were so generous. I’d never been to an event where they gave so much!
I definitely agree with Ms. Levine’s mindset. I love it! Looks like an awesome day.
It was fun! Now that you have your blog up, you should come with me next year if Fitness Magazine does it again. 🙂