On Thursday, I flew out of Boston to Baltimore. It had been a rainy week and roomie was in Europe so I was really looking forward to the conference all week. When I first got there, I checked into my hotel room at the Fairfield Inn and Suites Downtown Baltimore/Inner Harbor. To my surprise, I was booked to stay in a suite! Amazing.
I have never stayed in a room this nice all by myself. Two TV’s, an iHome entertainment system, a lounge area with a couch and office desk, made my stay feel like a vacation!
But it wasn’t a vacation. It was work and boy did I have a lot to get done! After I checked in, I walked to the Marriot where the conference was being held. When I checked in as a speaker, I received a swag bag complete with a new pair of running sneaks from New Balance, a large box of cereal, coupons, Larabars, a winter hat with ear phones attached, Pop chips, Jillian Michaels’ new book (which I’m pretty excited to read) and more! I love swag bags, but then again, who doesn’t? The welcome mixer was for decorating your name tag, but also featured a few pretty appetizers like veggie sticks in shot glasses filled with a 1000 Island dressing.
And trail mix with fresh berries on top. I love trail mix. It is my weakness when it comes to self control.
I went out to dinner with the Laughing Cow team and had an amazing time getting to know the ladies I’ve been talking to since last November. Friday morning, I was up early for the 5K run. With many of the women in tutu’s and glitter, I was a little nervous what the rest of the conference had in store for me. I felt like such an outsider, haha.
The New Balance leader set a fast pace and I did my best to keep up. It wasn’t really a race, so no official time was kept but I ran an 8-minute mile pace most of the way.
When we got back, breakfast was served complements of Attune Foods. Did you know Attune owns Uncle Sam and Erewhon cereals? I did not! Janel spoke on the panel and I enjoyed hearing her thoughts. Janel and I used to do Diet.com videos back in the day and have kept in touch since so it was good to see her again. I had fresh berries with the original Uncle Sam cereal, as well as two hardboiled egg whites supplied by Egglands Best. It was so good, I had seconds in one of the juice glasses.
The rest of day one, was filled with fitness classes to try like Zumba, trampoline jumping and strength challenges but since I would be speaking later on a panel, I refrained from doing too much since I didn’t want to look like a mess up on stage.
Instead I was able to catch up with Janel, Theodora and Lisa, meet blog friends I had never met before like Brittany and Jess. This was my favorite part of the conference. Being able to meet bloggers who understand what it is I do for a living, and hang out with people I have so much in common with.
Lunch was amazing the first day! Grilled veggies, and the salad made my eyes light up. I grabbed a panini but only ate the filling. 
Then it was time for my panel discussion. I wasn’t nervous but I probably should have been. Fellow Laughing Cow Community Leader Patricia and I didn’t even know this before the conference but we both graduated from the University of Delaware. Small world.
You can read a recap of our session on exploring the relationship between blogger and brand here.
After our session, I sat in on another session featuring Kelly Olexa, Andrea Metcalf, Karla Walsh and Liz Neporent. As I tweeted yesterday, Kelly is one of my new favorite people on earth and also one of the founders of FitFluential. To read all recaps on sessions visit Fitbloggin.com because they are so helpful. I wasn’t able to attend all the sessions I would have liked, so I’m reading them all now too!
After a long day, I headed out with Caroline, my manager of sorts from The Laughing Cow and Brittany of Eating Bird Food for some delicious sushi at Ra in Baltimore. It was so good and unique! I’m glad we went there even though I really wanted some crab cakes. 
This picture is courtesy of Eating Bird Food. Me, Caroline and Brittany.
Afterwards, we met up with a friend of mine from college and went bar hopping. Probably not the best idea, but the world was suppose to end in less than 24 hours so I threw back a few cocktails.
Since this post is long enough, I’ll stop here and may post more later but if you are interested in the rest of the good stuff from Fitbloggin, simple check out the site and read everyone’s recaps of their personal experience as well as session recaps.
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