Hi friends! Hope that you all had a fabulous weekend.
It has been quite a whirlwind for me the last bunch of days attending the IDEA World Fitness Convention, which included 12,000 people from over 60 countries! Within IDEA World was Blogfest, a 2-day event specifically for healthy living bloggers. It was hosted by Fit Approach, a company that I’m at ambassador for, along with a lot of great people. Let me tell you, I’m just about to burst from experiencing so much awesomeness at my first ever blogging conference! Let’s dive right into the highlights for me of day 1 of the conference…
The first morning started bright and early with a yoga session led by San Francisco yoga instructor Stephanie Ring. It was a nice way to begin the conference by stretching and sweating! A shot of the yogi group:
(photo cred to Fit Approach)
Afterwards, we headed to the opening ceremonies for IDEA World, which were full of inspiring stories. I could just feel the excitement and energy of the room from the moment I walked in.
We heard the emotional story of Augie Nieto, the founder of Life Fitness who suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Augie and his family have been fighting the disease and founded “Augie’s Quest” in search of a cure. I am amazed at him and his wife’s positive attitude despite dealing with the cruel and unfair circumstances that they’ve been faced with.
Jack LaLanne’s wife, Elaine, also came on stage to introduce the keynote speaker, and she was this adorable spitfire of a woman. Note to self: Strive to be like that when I’m 88!
The keynote speaker was Diana Nyad, who you may recognize as the only person to have ever swam from Cuba to the U.S…. at age 64 none the less! She shared her story of triumph in finally finishing the 110-mile swim on her fifth attempt. Talk about intense hard work and dedication!
Afterwards I had a bit of time to explore the show’s expo, which had 300 exhibitors and everything from apparel, protein bar and veggie burger makers, to Zumba, TRX, and barre booths.
It was a lot of fun checking everything out, talking to the exhibitors, sampling some food, and trying out the equipment!
Side note: If there ever was an appropriate conference to walk around with sweaty hair and mascara melted off your eyes from working out, THIS is it!
And speaking of working out, our second workout of the day was doing PiYo with its creator, Chalene Johnson. PiYo is a fusion workout that incorporates Pilates and yoga with nonstop, fast-paced movement. It feels like a low-impact but sweaty dance workout that leaves you feeling stretched out and energized.
I had never done PiYo before, and found it to be a lot of fun! Chalene was so bubbly and energetic, and really made me engaged in the workout.
(photo cred to Fit Approach)
The day also included a few great Blogfest blogging sessions, networking time and happy hour. One of my favorite parts was finally getting to meet some people I’ve know online but hadn’t met in person yet, including Brittany at My Own Balance, aka the cutest pregnant person ever. I love her just as much in real life as I do in the blogisphere!
Like the other days of the show, my first day was nonstop, fun, interesting and inspiring! Stay tuned for more recaps of my Blogfest and IDEA World experience.
Questions: Are you a PiYo fan? What’s the best conference you’ve ever been to?
First of all, you’re adorable! Secondly, I’m so jealous you got to go! It’s a dream of mine to go to a fitness expo/conference like that one day 🙂 What a fun weekend full of food and fitness, aka the best two things in life.
Aww thank you Lauren! Yeah, I would 100% recommend attending. Just like when I travel, I get the travel bug, now I feel like I have the healthy living conference buzz from going to IDEA and Blogfest! Totally agree that food and fitness are a couple of the top things in life 🙂
This sounds like such a blast!! I have PiYo DVDs and adore Chalene, and I’m so jealous that you got to meet her!
Thanks, it definitely was! She was really fun and spunky.
YAY! I had so much fun with you!!! The conference was the best! You are exactly the same in real life as on your blog, which is awesome!
I LOVED the PiYo class! So fun! I can’t wait to do all the DVDs once I pop this baby out. It was a dream of mine to meet Chalene (could you maybe tell!?).
Hehehe, I think that you felt about Chalene how I felt about seeing Jillian Michaels — totally freaking out inside!
Had a blast with you lady!! We need to get together when I’m on the east coast visiting family.
I’ve never heard of Piyo before, but it sounds like fun. I enjoyed reading about your first day and can’t wait for your other recaps! 🙂
Thanks for reading, Jennifer!
It looks like such a fun time! How cool that you got meet Brittany too, she seems so sweet.
I’ve never done PiYo but I’m curious to check it out. It looks like a great workout. I can’t wait to see more of your time there!
Britt is awesome!
Yea, I really like PiYo for a lower impact workout after I’ve done a hardcore workout the day before.
I LOVE when YOGA/WORK OUT CLOTHING is a MUST! ha ha! Because THIS IS ALL I OWN! 😉
And dumb I didn’t bump into you, but maybe we will in the near future when we least expect it!
You and me both!! I either wear workout clothes or dresses – there’s little in between HA!
You met Britt!!!!! Isn’t she the best?! It sounds like an amazing time. Definitely one of the conferences on my list!
Yes I love her! It’s always such a fun/creepy feeling when you meet a fellow blogger for the first time but you already know so much about them… one day I’ll experience this when we get to meet finally! 😉
Glad we got to meet! I’m finally catching up.on everyone’s recaps! Besides the serious amount of inspiration at a fitness conference, I love that it’s perfectly normal to walk around in sweaty clothes and drippy makeup.
Nice meeting you as well!! Yup, and that’s mostly how I walk around anyways 🙂
I loved PiYo – it was an amazing part of the conference. Especially since I do her workouts at home, working with Chalene was really cool! And blogfest would have to be the best conference I’ve been too –> since I haven’t been to any other one! I’m looking forward to Blogfest again next year – and maybe some others too!
You must have been a bit star stuck at her teaching the workout then huh?
Blogfest was such an amazing time! Hopefully I’ll make it there next year too.