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Showing posts with label Philadelphia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philadelphia. Show all posts

Sunday, August 21, 2011

HLS Part 2: Cocktail Party and Speakers

Unfortunately I’m writing this post from my plane, that is sitting in the runway waiting to take off and will continue to be sitting for about another hour…awesome.

Delays are bad enough without being stuck on the plane during it!

EDIT: We waited in the plane for about 1.5 hours before finally taking off…it’s so amazing to be home.

AND to come home to a super clean house!!  Best husband ever :)

Anyways, lets not let this one bad event ruin my recap of the rest of the Healthy Living Summit

I left off Friday evening just as we were heading out to the cocktail party!

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The cocktail party was also at the Reading Terminal Market where Elizabeth and I had had lunch earlier that day!  It was so cool to see it at night after all the shoppers and workers had gone home.

Everyone waiting to be escorted to our area

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We were in the center where the tables were and had tables of food as well as passed hors d’ourves. 

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IMG_0691There were veggies, cheeses, different pizzas, fruits, and crackers.  The passed hors d’ourves consisted of beet salad, Philly cheese steak empanadas, corn and crab fritters, and pretzel crusted chicken!

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IMG_0696I tried most of the items and everything was delicious.  I also had a local beer: Walt Wit White Ale from Philadelphia Brewing Co.  Really liked this beer.

It was fun catching up with some bloggers I haven’t seen in a while and also meet some new faces!

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(roomie picture!)

Elizabeth and I didn’t stay out too late that night, however, we had made plans with some people to do a 5ish mile run at 6am the next morning!

It really hit me when we had to wake up when it was still dark out!!  NOT fun…but once we were running we felt way better.  It was perfect running weather, cool and not sunny.

At one point, Elizabeth, Ali and I branched off because our mission that morning was NOT just a run…it was to see the Rocky steps!

Ali and I running up!

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Then obligatory posed photos with Rocky himself

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That was a blast!

None of our Garmin’s were really working that great, but we estimated that we did around 5.5 miles!  Nice!!

Once we returned, iced coffeed (yes I just turned that into a verb), showered, and changed…it was breakfast time.

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Fresh fruit

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Cereal, provided by Quaker and Attune.  Yogurt and milk.

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  Love this…but might change it to “Breakfast is my other happy hour”

IMG_0702Then it was time for the sessions to begin.

The first one I went to was Budgeting for a Healthy Lifestyle presented by Lauren.  

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I thought she was a great presenter.  She seemed very comfortable with public speaking and spoke clearly and with ease.  I really enjoyed it.

Although there wasn’t really any new or groundbreaking ideas on how to save money while eating healthy (and she said that as well)…it was really helpful to just hear all the information again.  Sometimes you just need to be reminded of how to budget, meal plan, use coupons, and other methods. 

I know I need to work on my meal planning skills.  I think that one thing would really help us cut down on the food, specifically produce, that we pick out and then end up throwing out because it never made it into our lunches or dinners.  I hate throwing out food, but it happens.

Also this picture in her slideshow was classic and hilarious

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Hard to see but the woman is standing there smiling happily with her big bag of groceries, and the husband is looking at the receipt with an expression of “flipping out” haha! 

During the break we had after this session, Elizabeth, Ali, and I snuck out for a few.  First stop was City Sports for Philadelphia t-shirts, and then I wanted to checkout the Rittenhouse Sq Farmers Market per suggestion from Sabrina

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Beautiful day, and wish I could of actually bought more at the Market.  I did buy 1 apple for a snack.

There was one other session before lunch, but I’ll get to that next post.  I’ll wrap up with lunch!

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Salad, quinoa and chickpea salad, and 4 different vegetarian sandwich options with bread provided by Great Harvest!!

I love GH bread, but it sounded like a lot of people had never had it before.  It sounded like everyone was going nuts over this fresh bread. 

I chose a roasted veggie sandwich and a caprese sandwich.    

Not surprisingly this post is already too long…and it’s bed time! 

Really wish I had one more day off to relax before work, but it was a great weekend. 

Big shout out to Meghann for organizing the whole thing…amazing job girl!!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

HLS: Being a Philly Tourist Day 1

Ok this post wouldn’t load last night so let’s pretend it’s 10:30pm last night :)

Welcome to the city of brotherly love.

I took an 8:30am flight out of Boston this morning, to Philadelphia for the Healthy Living Summit!  The last time I went to the HLS was when it was in Boston 2 years ago.

I had planned to room with fellow Boston blogger and dog lover, Elizabeth, and wouldn’t you know we ended up sitting next to each other on the same flight!!  Crazy. 

Once we landed, shared a cab with Janetha to the hotel, and checked in, the two of us went on a little nerd-fest/touristy day around Philly!

Our hotel room!

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First, however, we were both starving and headed to the Reading Terminal Market to browse and grab lunch.

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This place is so cool!  Boston needs one of these places asap.  Anything you can think of is here.

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After making the rounds we opted for Italian.

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I got a sampling of some of the prepared salads…a Greek salad, and a chicken fusili.

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And 1 meatball.  Because that’s how I roll.

Then we were off…

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Independence Hall!

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We were all over the Liberty Bell…yes it’s still there, and still cracked. 

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Pretty cool nonetheless…

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Even got my picture taken with George…

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An original version of the Declaration of Independence that came before the one that was signed.

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Tomb of the unknown soldier

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Then there was more walking, but we took a break to stop into a place that I know Brian would have wanted to go to if he were here:

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I enjoyed a Monk’s Cafe Flemish Sour Ale.

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It was a little sweeter than I would have liked, but refreshing still!

Later, there was some snacking in the form of pickles from the Market

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And I also grabbed coffee #2 of the day so I’d be awake for the Cocktail Party!

So far I’ve been having a blast with Elizabeth!!  We just got back from the cocktail party not to long ago, but it’s very much bedtime as we are meeting some folks for a 6am run in the morning!!

Good night!