Finally, I’m giving you the scoop about the Fitness Magazine Blogger Meet & Tweet in Los Angeles!  I was lucky enough to attend the first M&T in NYC in 2012 (back when I was solely a mean Tweeter) and I’m glad that Fitness Magazine decided to spread the love westward and invite me to this amazing event!

I’ll say that it made me smile to see that the Fitness Magazine staffers brought some of the NYC love with them as well.  Ah, head to toe black clothing….it made me feel good (I’m so not kidding).

The event was held at the Annenberg Beach House in Santa Monica which couldn’t have been a more perfect spot to showcase how gorgeous LA can be.  Yup, at the beach in October….in a tank top.  It doesn’t suck.  Neither did the views.

Although there wasn’t really much time to chat, it was great to see some old friends from FitBloggin, FitSocial and some of my girls from the SoCal Lady Bloggers before the jam-packed fitness and nutrition focused agenda kicked-off.

Fitness of The Future: Tony Horton, creator of the 90x Fitness Program

P90x scares the crap out of me.  I’ve never done the program but all I’ve ever people say is that the muscle confusion workouts are ridiculously hard (like vomit-inducing hard) with very few days off (like 1 to 3 in 90 days).  I like to change my fitness up but programs like this intimidate me tremendously.

However, Tony Horton is not intimidating in the least bit.  He was a perfect speaker – personable and had a great sense of humor about life in general and himself (an admirable quality IMHO).  I almost died when he said he was 55 years old!  There is nothing wrong with being 55 – I think even Simon Le Bon (who turned 55 yesterday) would be thrilled to be as fit as Tony Horton.

While Tony didn’t do any fitness instruction (thank goodness because I’m not sure I could keep up), he did give some great tips!

The Fitness Magazine Meet & Tweet Top 10 Tonyisms:

1.  High intensity training is awesome for a select group of people.

2.  The goal of fitness is to be healthy and happy.

3.  Most results of a fitness activity come in the first 30 minutes.

4.  Forgo ego, remember form – especially with dynamic, full body exercises

5.  3 tenets of fitness should be Intensity, Variety and Consistency.

6.  Keep track of numbers to see progression (weights, rep count, ROM, technique)

7.  Greater fitness is seen in those that perform multiple fitness activities (cardio, resistance training, pilates and yoga) vs. those who perform only a singular fitness activity.

8. The future of fitness is functional training of the body NOT spot training

9.  Moving is the Fountain of Youth: workout 5-7 days/week, 2-3 days/week is not enough!

10.  Sleep is everything – sleep should be regarded as healing for the body.

11.  Don’t treat your food philosophy as a religion.

Some good thoughts.  If this philosophy has gotten him to look as good as he does at 55, he’s onto something.  Maybe,  I need to give P90x some consideration….

 

Letting Go of Nutriton Rules: Alyse Levine, MS, RD – Nutritionbite, LLC

Alyse Levine, a Registered Dietitian (with East Coast training – Yay NYC!) echoed my philosophy about food and eating.  As a dietitian myself, I absolutely agreed that a healthy relationship food starts by discarding rules or conditions surrounding food and eating and that it is supremely important to understand not only where your food influences come from but that satisfaction plays an important part in healthy eating.

It was good to hear that the audience was not only interested in healthy eating for themselves but for their families as well.  I was in “RD nerd heaven” to hear Levine echo the woman who I think is the guru when it comes to the parental responsibility of feeding (Ellyn Satter) when answering a question about how to feed children in a healthy manner.

Alyse gave her food-rule breaking philosophy her acronym of “CLEAN” (a word that can be misused by fitness population IMHO but I do like how Alyse uses it):

C – Choose real food

L – Lose the “diet” mindset

E – Eat mindfully

A – Assess your hunger

N – No deprivation

It was also nice to hear that the reason that women crave more calories during the menstrual cycle isn’t only hormonal, emotional or conditional, it’s due to temperature:

Body temperature rises during the menstrual cycle, increasing calorie needs! 

However, the increased calorie needs are NOT equivalent to an entire pint of ice cream BUT there is a reason why we just crave MORE once a month, right ladies?

Feeling Smoothie – Harley Pasternak, a personal trainer, TV host and author

Maybe you’ve heard of Harley Pasternak as a celebrity trainer?  His client list is long but these were the people that caught my eye (not for entirely for fitness but more for coolness): Zach Braff, Bono, Jason Segel, LL Cool J and Michael Chiklis (if you haven’t seen “The Shield”, stop reading and go watch it, NOW!).  Pasternak has also trained more widely revered people like Lady Gaga, the Kardashians and Rihanna to name a few.

Pasternak has a Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology and Nutritional Sciences and an honors degree in Kinesiology (scientific study of human movement) so I was super interested to hear what he had to say about the state of fitness and nutrition.

I was right there with Pasternak when he stated “we are a really overweight country” and as a whole “we are over exercising and under active (we need to increase steps per day from 10K to 12K)” and that “fiber, protein and healthy fats are the trinity of healthy eating”.

I got excited when he began highlighting the number of calories in juice and how many whole fruits it would take to make one glass.  My smile got bigger when Pasternak said that “juice fasts are unhealthy” so imagine my surprise when he started promoting smoothies as a weight loss tool per his latest book, “The Reset Diet”?

“WH-WH-WH-WHAT?!?” At first I was confused because he was denouncing juices as highly caloric vs whole fruits and then he was promoting liquid nutrition?!  Fat and fiber are the cornerstones to making people feel full.  Changing a whole food into a liquid food changes the fiber and therefore the satiety.  When I asked Pasternak about this, he said that fiber needed to be added to his smoothies (this is because there is a reduction in the amount of insoluble or undigestible fiber which is removed by blending).  The audience did get an explanation of the difference between soluble (gel-like fiber) and insoluble (undigestible) fiber.

Pasternak went on about how blending ingredients increases the air and volume of the product and therefore, increases the the satiety factor of smoothies which I didn’t agree with (but I’ll admit that I haven’t read the science that he refers to so I could be wrong).

I haven’t read Pasternak’s book so there is likely a lot more than what could be presented in a short Q&A but this was NOT along the lines I wanted to hear about nutrition.  I agree with Pasternak that smoothies do deliver convenience, low intimidation factor, and they’re easy to sneak in fruits, vegetables, healthy fats to help improve the nutritional profile of intake (and promote initial weight loss) BUT I do not believe that smoothies teach people how to eat healthfully!

I believe in eating rather than drinking calories, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals if possible. Liquid nutrition does not promote the same type of satiety as eating does.  I could go on and on but perhaps that’s another post entirely.

While I didn’t agree entirely with what Pasternak had to say about nutrition, I did agree with his idea of “grazing not gorging”.  I also wonder if “5 minutes of resistance exercise per day can change you physically and hormonally”.

Bottom line, Harley Pasternak is in better shape than I am, has a killer list of clients and has written 2 books which is more than I can say for myself.  I’d be willing to check his book(s) out and if his words can enlighten me, I have no qualms about putting in writing back here on the blog.

A Fun Blogger Foursome 

The speakers of the day included a panel of women who blog as their full time job.  The panel consisted of Cassey@Blogilates, Sarah@SkinnyRunner, Monica@RunEatRepeat and Whitney@EcoVeganGal.

I was very geekily excited to meet Monica.  She was very nice when I wanted to include her in a post I wrote to my Fitness Blog Inspirations.  RER was one of the first blogs I began reading and she was the first West Coast blogger I encountered (in what seemed like a sea of East Coast bloggers before I moved to LA).

All 4 of the women were united in these principles:

1. Be passionate about what you do.
2. Support your fellow bloggers
3. Make an effort to be a friend, don’t just ask a blogger to do or give your something
4. Have a media kit (and know your rates)
5. If possible, join an ad network

I loved the personal story that Cassey shared about how her passion alienated her from her family for some time but now, her family works with her in business!

Listening to these women gave me even more encouragement not necessarily to make blogging my full-time business but to feel great about being committed to health and wellness through nutrition and fitness for work (in the private practice soon to come) and play.

It was good to end a really great day with a passionate chick like Erin@DigDeepPlayHard and a walk along the beach in Santa Monica (BTW, Erin’s 7.5 months pregnant and smoked me with speed).

Wait, what about the swag?!?

The sponsors of #FitBlogLA were more than generous.  The photo doesn’t do the amount and quality of products justice!

Thank you so much Fitness Magazine and the sponsors of #FitBlogLA!  

While it was lovely to receive all of this product for free, few things are better than dealing with nice people.  It was lovely to see Jenny and Dara from Oakley again and I must say that the representatives from Birkenstock, Saucony, Roxy, ClifBar and Dermalogica were just ridiculously nice!

Here’s hoping that the ocean and the sunshine (and the company) is enough to lure Fitness Magazine back to the West Coast for FitBlogLA 2014!

It was a long post but so worth it, right?

Have you done P90x with Tony Horton or read Harley Pasternak’s books?  If so, what did you think?