We’re excited to share Janet’s recap from FitBloggin’… 7 weeks later. Janet Oberholtzer won a ticket to the conference from Attune Foods after entering our giveaway. Her recap below and especially how things she learned at FitBloggin’ are still inspiring her, inspires us. Read. Enjoy. Share. Oh and say hello to Janet at @janetober
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I love meeting people and I love to learn … so attending conferences makes me a happy girl. If time and money would allow, I’d become a conference junkie. The one drawback of a conference can be information, motivation and fun overload … so I come home exhausted and during my reentry to real life, I forget so much of what I’ve learned.

But there was something about Fitbloggin’ that was different. Maybe it was due to all the superb speakers and panel discussions. Or all the wonderful new friends I met. Or because I want to improve both my fitness and my blogging, so I had double-vested interest. Or maybe because there were exercise classes mixed in with the workshops/seminars and I learn better when my body is in motion. Whatever it was, I’m benefiting from more information from Fitbloggin’ than I do from most conferences.

Fitbloggin’ happened 7 weeks ago and along with the three things I mentioned in my first recap, here are 7 more things I learned. Some are new, some are things I already knew … but they were reinforced at Fitbloggin’ by the conference content or the cool people I met there.

1. Reach out
I had never met anyone at this conference in person … and I seem to have a hard time connecting avatar pics and real life faces. As I was trying to figure out who was who at the mixer the first evening, this beautiful woman walked over to me, introduced herself and asked if I was there alone. She also introduced me to a few others. Thanks Andrea Metcalf for a reminder to reach out to the confused faces in a crowd. I’ve done some of that in the past, but your example has helped me take it to another level.

2. Diet matters
I knew the value of good nutrition … but the panel discussion with Rob and Janel from Attune Foods reinforced it more. They stressed the need to be conscious about what we eat and for each person to take responsibility for their own health by eating well. Doing that could go a long way in solving America’s health care crisis which many love to complain about, but few do something about.

3. The difference between Interval training and HITT training
Holly Perkins, a Fitness Ambassador for New Balance, did a great job explaining this. Interval training is doing an aerobic exercise at a high intensity pace for an extended period of time alternating with lower intensity recovery times. HITT (High Intensity Interval Training) is taking it up another notch or two by doing short bursts of extremely intense cardio alternating with times of recovery. I’ve been doing some of both in my running since Fitbloggin’ and recently ran the my fastest 5k since being injured.

4. Humor is fun
Ryan Sullivan from nomorebacon was on the panel discussion about taking blogging to the next level and did a great job ad-libbing off other things that were said. I love seeing people do that and do it well … and Ryan pulled it off. Fear of failure often prevents me from doing that, but now my goal is to not take myself so seriously and if I blow it, I’ll just laugh at myself, adding more humor to the moment. (I hope)

5. Some exercises are for me, some are not
Since being injured, I’ve come a long way, but I’ve stayed away from certain leg exercises because I thought my legs couldn’t handle them. Two exercise classes showed me that was only partially true. Doing the fitness challenge with Cathe Friedrich showed me that I can do slides on paper plates (never heard of them before) and work muscles in my upper legs that I didn’t even know I had. Everything hurt afterwards, but it was a good hurt and I do more leg exercises now. But attempting Zumba showed me that there are still some exercises I should stay away from and it has nothing to do with my injuries. It has to do with the fact that this PA Dutch, ex-Mennonite white girl has no rhythm and therefore if I want to have any self-respect I need to stay away from classes that involve dancing.

6. Break it into steps
I like to speak to live audiences and according to the responses and critiques I’ve had … I do an okay job, but vlogging scares me. Jendi Pagano did a great job of breaking it down step by step and making it sound doable. It takes me awhile to absorb info and put it to use, but I finally recorded my first vlog this past weekend. I will be posting it as soon as I figure out how to upload it.

7. Be generous
This might be last, but it is surely not least! Everyone at Fitbloggin’ was so generous with their time, advice and products. The swag bags were great … everything from New Balance shoes, capris and earbuds to Jillian Michaels’ book, Larabars, iBeani, Attune products, Popchips and more.

And for me, Attune Foods wins the generosity prize! It’s because of them that I was there. They had a contest to give away a ticket to Fitbloggin’ plus $500 to use toward travel expenses … and I was the fortunate winner. Thanks Annelies, Rob and everyone else at Attune! I’ve been paying it forward in small ways over the past few weeks and will continue to do so. I’ve told my friends about your great products and shared some of your chocolate bars with them.

So my suggestions for going to a conference … meet new people, desire to learn, get up and move between sessions and you too will retain more of the information for a longer time. What suggestions do you have for remembering conference information so it can benefit your life long term?

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