Alright, I am gonna say it flat out, the Healthy Living Summit was incredible.
Great people, great activities, great discussions, great food. I have a ton to write about, here's a quick rundown of the weekend:
Friday
As part of the Summit I attended a tour of the Frito Lay plant in Beloit, Wisconsin. Never having toured a massive food product facility before, I kept thinking of how it might be like Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, with bloggers turning Cheeto Orange or getting carried away in a river of onion dip.
In reality, the folks at Frito Lay and Ketchum hosted an interesting presentation and tour that opened my eyes to the scale of their products and the good that they do in my home state. Did you know that at the Beloit facility, over 80% of potatoes used are purchased from local Wisconsin farmers? I did not. Also, within 8 hours of being shipped to the factory, the potatoes are processed. That makes for some pretty fresh chips, made with local potatoes! No wonder Classic Lay's are my kryptonite :-)
Saturday
Roomies Kayla, Heather and Jackie (her blog coming soon!) and I headed to the conference room for an awesome breakfast, hosted by Thomas' Bagel Thins, Stonyfield, and Quaker.
I fueled up on fruit, a whole wheat Bagel Thin, some Maranatha almond butter (of course they'd have this at the Summit!), and a Stonyfield honey mango yogurt. Oh, and an Adora chocolate for desert :-)
I decided it would be easier to eat in a bowl, so a yogurt mess ensued :-)
The Summit was packed with informative sessions, with topics across the board. I liked that there were two tracks so that attendees could pick and choose throughout the day.
I checked out:
Lunch was pretty spectacular, especially the sprouted quinoa salad.
Kayla and I shared a mini-smattering of deserts: chocolate, lemon, and cheesecake heaven.
There was a morning Quaker break with granola bars, and an afternoon Athenos break with hummus (duh) and veggie-y snacks.
The roomies and I also took a walking break to check out Buckingham Fountain.
Me, Heather, Kayla, Jackie
Afternoon sessions included:
- Yoga in an awesome old ballroom, with a very peculiar instructor. He wore Vibrams and talked really fast, as in auctioneer-style fast. Upwardintodownwarddoganddowntoplank fast.
And after things wrapped up, I tried ZUMBA at a nearby gym, hosted by the Fitnessista herself - Gina(!!!), Diana, and Sabrina. Having heard great things but being a newbie, I really loved the fun moves set to fast-paced pop and latin music. My tummy, a$$ and thighs are feeling it today!
The rest of my evening went like this: Post-Zumba champagne with roomie Jackie. Cause we're classy.
A decadent Indian dinner at Chicago Curry House, hosted by Gina. And yes, she's as awesome in person as she is on her blog!
Photo credit: Fitnessista
Some light ghost hunting at the hotel with Kristi and Jackie. The pondered crashing of a wedding. Photo magic in the vacant conference room instead.
Jackie and I decided to take a Midnight stroll down Michigan Ave., headed to BIG Bar at the Hyatt, and ended up sharing a margarita the size of a human head. It was glorious.
Sunday:
Bright and early - hung with the roomies and headed downstairs to meet up for some EXERCISE. A ton of HLSers gathered to do either a 10k run, 5k run or walk. I opted to join the walkers for a beautiful jaunt along the Lake. Kristi and I extended our route a bit to cover ~ 3 miles in just over an hour. That's right, I got my Pikes Peak Challenge training done for the day!
Back at the hotel, breakfast was sponsored by Thomas' Bagel Thins, who hosted an awesome customizable cream cheese bar. I requested low-fat cream cheese with walnuts, honey, cinnamon and raisins. Tasted pretty damn good!
Also, eggs and fruit.
The rest of the day was spent checking out Chicago with Kristi and eating Chicago-style deep dish pizza. Mmmm.
Caught a train - and found myself back in Milwaukee! Done and Done! Was great to see Zak and the fur kids, I really missed them.
Upon arriving at home, I launched immediately into get-stuff-done mode:
- Car insurance renewal - DONE
- Utility bills - DONE
- Laundry from this weekend at HLS - doing now.
Not surprisingly, my laundry pile includes almost all workout clothes. I love that!
Leave a Comment: Did you attend the Healthy Living Summit? What did you like the most? Any areas that you think could be tweaked for next year?
3 comments:
hey girl!
loved meeting you this weekend! thanks again for coming to shake it at zumba and for joining in (and navigating us to) the indian feast :D
post zumba champagne??? that is an excellent idea ;)
take care and hope to see you again soon <3
I stumbled across your blog and the first post I read mentioned Beloit WI. I live in Seattle, but I went to college in Beloit. I hope you made it past the Frito Lay plant and saw the river or the campus. Anyway, just thought I'd say hi.
Hey Laura! Just stopping in to say that I enjoyed meeting you at dinner on Saturday night. Just added you to my reader so I can keep up. :)
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