Lunch With Lisa!

 

You guys left the sweetest most thoughtful comments on yesterday’s post! I am still working on responding but wanted to thank you for sharing how you started your blog as well as for the nice things you had to say about mine. 🙂

I am also still waiting for my plug-in’s to be reactivated over here. If you don’t have a blog, plug-in’s are all the little features that help me run this site, things I don’t even think about anymore but really miss at the moment – spell check, social media sharing buttons, SEO stuff, spam filtering (OMG the amount of spam in my inbox!), and I can’t view my site statistics. Or respond to comments in my typical way.

But I am here! And it’s Friday! And I saw Lisa yesterday!

Lisa drove up to New York yesterday from Maryland for a wedding today so finally, we were able to meet! Our timing worked out perfectly because she was literally going in to be in my area at the exact time that I was free with enough time to meet her for a nice lunch at Bagel Basket. I was so happy to see her!

Chopped salads for lunch eaten while chatting about everything from growing up in New York to running and blogging and life and where I thought she should get her nails done real quick before heading to her hotel.

While I had never actually met Lisa in real life, of course it felt like I already knew her which is the one of the best things about having blog friends! In fact, before Lisa arrived at the bagel store, I ran into another friend of mine and told her I was meeting one of my friends for lunch, not realizing I should probably explain that it’s my blog friend who I don’t actually know yet but I already know so it’s not weird. But that wouldn’t have made much sense probably to anyone other than us blog reading and writing people.

Anyway.

I went food shopping last night with my son at Trader Joe’s which wasn’t exactly a good time since he makes fun of every product in the store yet loaded my cart with extras like Move Theater Popcorn, boxes of granola bars and tortillas for a recipe he claims he will make for himself.

I went there for Apple Cider Vinegar, I know I put the bottle in the cart, spent over seventy dollars and there’s no Apple Cider Vinegar in my pantry which means somehow, it never made it home. I don’t get it.

Did you see these new Shooting Star Cookies at Trader Joe’s? Sounds like a chocolate cookie covered in Pop Rocks candy?

Recipes of Interest:

We really need to get back to planning our dinners over here. It’s been a lot of random what do you want for dinner, we can’t keep eating out but okay just for tonight which is getting out of hand. The next two weeks are a little hectic so I am not sure which nights we will be home for dinner but for the nights we are, I am aiming to try some new and easy recipes.

Here’s what I have been pinning lately:

30 Easy Vegan Dinner Recipes – So many good options.

Italian Style Chickpea Burgers – A quick recipe that sounds delicious.

Zucchini Parmesan Sandwiches – I keep thinking about this recipe to serve on my Ezekiel rolls!

Mushroom Quinoa Meatball Sandwich – Must try.

One Skillet Mexican Quinoa – Really sounds easy, different and something my son may even eat!

Summer Pesto Grilled Vegetables with Penne – I just bought the black bean pasta for the first time, maybe I will use it in this recipe.

One Bowl Jumbo Chocolate Chunk Cookies (Vegan/Gluten Free) – Yum.

Peanut Butter Skillet Cookie – I love a giant cookie cake.

Have a great weekend!

3 things you are doing this weekend?

Have you tried black bean pasta yet? Is it good?

Did you like Pop Rocks as a kid? What was your favorite candy when you were younger?

FitBlog NYC 2013 Recap – FItness Magazine Blogger Meet and Tweet!

I always wanted to be on Oprah. As a guest in the audience that is, for one of her tapings of her favorite things episodes.

I didn’t ever aspire to be an actual guest on the show but now that I have appeared on Dr. Oz, I kinda think who I am and I am sorry Orpah isn’t still taping regularly because if she was, surely she would be contacting me.

OK, in all seriousness now, I have decided that the experience I had yesterday attending the Fitness Magazine’s Blogger Meet and Tweet is right on up with being in the audience for  Oprah’s favorite things.

I am truly honored to have been invited by Fitness Magazine to attend the blogger event yesterday.

From meeting amazing fellow bloggers, to listening to great speakers, networking with brands, running with a group led by a Saucony representative to receiving an amazing amount of swag….there is so much for me to say that I am going to try to give you a summary of the highlights from the day and get into more detail on specifics in later posts.

We received our tags, awesome Camelback water bottle and our “blog log” upon checking in.

From check-in we went to sit outside on the patio where the seminars would be held.

Before going outside, I picked up a little breakfast from the complimentary food bar. I chose a yogurt parfait and an All Greens juice from Elixir Juice Bar which was absolutely delicious!

I am not one to blend up green monsters, but this one was so refreshing I may just have to start making my own. It was a mix of celery, apple, kale, spinach and cucumber.

Can you spot Monica from Run Eat Repeat among my fellow bloggers?

We were treated to five terrific seminars with the following people:

Celebrity makeup artist Sarah Lucero, Executive Director of Global Artistry at Stila Cosmetics.

I really enjoyed listening to her talk about her recovery from breast cancer and her helpful makeup tips and health and fitness advice.

Jennifer Ashton, MD, ABC News Senior Medical Contributor, ob-gyn, triathlete and author of the book, Your Body Beautiful: Clockstopping Secrets to Staying Healthy, Strong and Sexy in Your 30s, 40s, and Beyond was up next.

She spoke about the importance of liking and trusting your ob-gyn as your overall doctor and not just for reproductive health. She offered many tips related to diet, fitness and keeping your body healthy as you age.

It was a real treat to be able to listen to four experience bloggers offer their advice and discuss how they created their personal blogs into a business.

• Deb Perlman from Smitten Kitchen
• Dana Weiss from Possessionista
• Jill Hanner from Ford Fiesta Agenet
• Erin Whitehoouse from Fit Bottomed Girls

Celebrity trainer Brett Hoebel, founder of Hoebel Fitness, featured trainer on The Biggest Loser season 11 and the creator of RevAbs spoke about the latest trends in fitness. He discussed cross fit and how trends are gearing towards shorter workouts at higher intensities.

Rocco DiSpirito, author of Now Eat This! Italian and star of Now Eat This! Italy Web series talked to us about how to prepare and eat our favorite Italian dishes and still lose weight. He offered many tips and simple recipe swaps to lower the calories in pasta dishes, dressings and sauces.

After the seminars, we broke for lunch (thank goodness because Rocco made me hungry) and had the opportunity to schmooze with the other bloggers as well as the brands in attendance.

Lunch was kinda eh. It was probably the only thing eh about the amazing day. We had our choice of a few different salads and wraps. I chose a vegan kale salad and a beet/hummus wrap. They were ok. Not really enough food for me so I went back for more.

I became really adventurous yesterday testing out all of the juices and smoothies. These two smoothies were not good according to my taste buds. The green one tasted way too green and the pink one tasted green plus a little pink.

Don’t you just love my description?

My first stop in the schmooze with the brands was Saucony.

When they asked me if I wanted to try on their new Kinvara 4 sneakers, I told them I am a “real princess and the sneaker” and they may not want to deal with me.

They weren’t afraid of me though. The nice rep told me that these sneakers are perfect for a fast run because they are lightweight. He advised that I do not wear these sneakers as my main running shoe and should whip them out for when I am looking to change things up, go fast or run a race.

I found them very comfortable – roomy in the right spots while still feeling secure on my foot.

And just like that, they were mine. I behaved like a child and wore them immediately.

 

I also visited with Smart Balance, Reebok, Crystal Light,  Marmot, Vichy and Fiesta Movement.

Smart Balance had samples of a recipe for peanut butter balls. I have the recipe for you guys and will share it in an upcoming post.

We received an email last week that told us we would be able to take part in one of three fitness sessions. We had to choose one so of course I selected the running group over the dance/group fitness class and yoga.

My phone was so low on battery that I left it charging at the front desk of the gym while we went for our run.

I wore the Saucony sneakers and they felt great.

When we came back, we had to turn in our blog log which was stamped by each of the brands in order to receive our swag bag (Camelback was not required to stamp – don’t ask me why, not sure).

OMG is all I can say. The amount of goodies in this bag was overwhelming.

I couldn’t wait to dig in to this bag of fun but first I needed to get home.

After saying goodbye to all of my new friends, I headed out to walk to my car.

I knew the traffic would be bad no matter what so I made a pit stop at my favorite vegetarian restaurant.

Maoz is simply amazing. I love that I get to load my salad myself.

I decided this is what Christmas must feel like. A ton of presents all unwrapped and completely overwhelmed with what to play with first.

I am still going through all of the goodies and promise to let you all know exactly what we received and what I think you need.

I can’t thank Fitness Magazine enough for inviting me to this awesome event. It was such an amazing experience; so well run, informative and beneficial to me as a blogger.

I enjoyed being able to meet a ton of new friends and be in an environment with so many wonderful life-minded people who all share my passion for fitness, health, running and nutrition.

I can only hope to be invited back to next year’s event. I am already looking forward to it!

Happy Friday everyone!