1.  Staying four to a room – If I would have reserved a hotel room for just myself, I wouldn’t have met three super awesome, highly diverse, healthy blogging friends.  Getting to know a ton of new amazing women, specifically my roommates, was my hands-down favorite part of HLS.

2.  The food –  Every aspect of the food was perfect: quantity, timing, variety, freshness.  You name the detail, it was considered.  I had not one ‘I wish I had’ moment during the entire day, which is rare.  It also made me questions why conference food is traditionally so yuck.

3.  Hearing Dawn Jackson Blatner speak – Dawn tops my list of impressive public speakers.  The fact that her food philosophies are directly in line with my own may be a slight cause of bias, but her knowledge of the subject, confidence, and ability to hold the attention of our group for two 1-hour sessions is undeniable.  A major HLS highlight is that we got to chatting at the almond butter buffet and I was able to tell Dawn, at her request, specific reasons why I enjoyed her as a presenter.  She is thebomb.com.

4.  Twitter – Can you believe #HLS was a trending hashtag in Philadelphia this weekend?!  I loved the ability to connect with people that I would have otherwise not known how reach and read their thoughts on the conference/Philadelphia/etc. throughout the weekend.  We’re so hip!!

5.  Motivation – Although I never officially met Freya of Brit Chick Runs, I can now understand why she traveled all the way from the UK to be at this very event.  EVERY attendee brought their own set of experiences, successes, motivators, struggles, insecurities – we’re all real people and weren’t expected to be anything other than real people.  Meaning, nobody here had it all figured out, but we all had the common goal of striving to be better, balancing our struggles with a new found friend’s motivators and getting one step closer to healthier, happier.

I can’t thank Meghann enough for not only planning, but encouraging me to attend, The Healthy Living Summit.  This event is truly one of a kind.  I’m sad to leave my new friends, but I am reassured by the proven power of bloggers keeping in touch in the virtual world.

See you next year HLS-ers! XOXO