And just like that Fitbloggin’ 11 is all over. The two-day conference totally flew by, but I enjoyed every. single. moment of it.
What I didn’t enjoy, however, was saying goodbye to my blog buddies!! Wah. It was actually sort of sad. I had such a good time with them, I didn’t want to leave Fitbloggin’!
After running and breakfast, I attended the most wonderful session about intuitive eating:
The Ditch The Diet: Eat Intuitively panel, Karen C.L Anderson of Before & After: A Real Life Story, Katie Heddleston of Healthy Heddleston, Christie Inge of Nourishing Circle and Shauna Reid of The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl, is all about introducing you to an alternative view.
The panelists addressed a number of interesting and through-provoking questions, including:
- Does self acceptance play a role in your journey and how?
- Does intuitive eating work?
- What do you think are the biggest challenges? How do you face them?
- Do you weigh yourself and if so, under what circumstances?
- Any practical advice to start eating Intuitively?
- Forgiveness is never putting someone out of your heart. When you are going through a binge and backsliding how do you put yourself back into your heart?
- Are there any first steps in transitioning into Intuitive Eating?
Not surprisingly, a great conversation developed, which is summarized in the Ditch the Diet: Eat Intuitively panel recap.
This session made me laugh, cry, and think hard about what intuitive eating means to me. I’m still working through my thoughts about what was said in yesterday’s session, but I’d like to write my own post about intuitive eating soon.
After the session, it was time for lunch! Once again, Fitbloggin’ provided a nice spread of nutritious food options. I loaded my plate up with lots of veggies, apple-cabbage salad, potatoes, quiona, and a Dr. Praeger’s Tex Mex Veggie Burger, which was made with black beans and veggies and tasted quite delicious.
After lunch, I satisfied my sweet tooth with some trail mixed made with walnuts, dried cherries, and dark chocolate pieces.
After lunch, I headed to one of the most helpful sessions that I attended at the conference: SEO for Fitness Bloggers.
Matt of No Meat Athlete covered some basic (not sketchy) search engine optimization (SEO) practices that bloggers can implement to help search engines find their sites. Julie did a great job of summarizing the SEO for Fitness Bloggers session. Matt said he gets about 2,500 visits to his blog from Google searches each day, so, of course, I plan to use a bunch of ideas!
Then, it was time for my panel (eek!), which was called Blogger Responsibility: Where Do We Draw the Line?
I was really nervous, but I managed to voice my opinion on a number of topics and contribute to the conversation, which I plan to recap in a blog post later this week. Another blogger live-blogged the session, so I want to check out her transcript before I write my post. I was so focused on what to say, I didn’t take very good mental notes for myself!
I’m not going to lie, I was so relieved once the session was over. Public speaking gets easier every time, but it’s still really tough for me. Here I am, post-panel, with Gretchen, who I loved meeting. She is so fun!
Once the sessions ended for the day, a group of us went to Talara for dinner and drinks.
I had an evening flight to catch back to Boston, so I didn’t have time for dinner, but I enjoyed a mojito before I said goodbye.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s Fitbloggin’!!!
If you missed my previous Fitbloggin’ posts, you can read them all here!
