Healthy Living Summit – Bloggers For A Balanced Lifestyle

Before I was going to step foot into the Summit conference room I needed one thing – Dunkin Donuts iced coffee. This is one of the things I miss most about Maryland, I am still obsessed!

Reunited and it feels so good…

Then, I got breakfast – oatmeal topped with the sweetest berries I’ve had in a while and granola. I also put some brown sugar in it because I’m on vacation that’s why.

Plus more fruit –

After breakfast the keynote speaker spoke and then we broke off into groups for the sessions.

For my first session I chose Fueling for Fitness – I loved this! Since I’m training for a marathon it is super important and relevant to my life right now. It was presented by Rebecca (Elite Nutrition) and Heather (Dietician on the Run).

They broke down carbohydrates, protein and fats and the importance of each in your diet.

Carbohydrates are the “Energy Nutrient”. They have 4 calories per gram, which means 15 grams of carbs equal about 60 calories.

Protein is the “Body Tissue Nutrient” and also have 4 calories per gram.

Fats were called the “Energy Reserve Nutrient”. They have 9 calories per gram of fat.

One of the important things to remember is the goal as an athlete. In the past my primary goal was weight loss. Now that I am training for a race that is not the case. This presentation listed what should be the goals for athletes trying to fuel well:

• Energy for workout
• Prevent dehydration
• Optimizing recovery
• Prevent injury

Ultimately many factors influence what we eat, including

1. Frequency of exercise

2. Intensity of work outs

3. Duration

And then you can use your taste preference to make food choices that work for you 🙂

After that presentation it was time for lunch! The spread was beautiful and of course all the food bloggers went to town on taking pictures.

I got a little bit of everything – salad, chickpea salad, quinoa, fruit and a tofu sandwich (it was “build your own”).

I loved that they had tofu for the sandwiches! It was good tofu too 🙂 I recently was talking about how I like sandwiches, but the lack of vegetarian options make me reach for something else.

If I had this tofu on hand I’d happily eat a sandwich everyday!

Dessert – We also dung into dessert. I didn’t take a pic, so imagine it was this cheesecake bar 🙂

(source)

Then it was finally time for Chandra’s presentation! She did amazing and spoke about the 5Ws of Strength Training. Oooh! It sounds like there is a fun photo booth in the back. I gotta go!