Well, it has been quite the lazy few days. After returning from Blend, I was pretty exhausted and just enjoyed a few mellow days of celebrating my birthday and nothing much else. Now I am energized, have pictures downloaded, and ready to recap Blend 2014!

Instead of going minute by minute, I have am breaking down this recap into 10 reasons why you should definitely go to Blend. Especially in 2015, which will be in Boulder! What do you say Amy and Cassie?

1. Swag – One of the selling points of Blend is the ridiculous amounts of swag I heard people talk about. This was no joke. When Meighan and I checked in, we were handed a bag that had to weigh about 25 pounds. It was full of treats from many of the sponsors for us to try.

 2. Food – There was no shortage of food during the weekend and if you were hungry, there was plenty in the swag bag to dig into. On Friday evening alone, we had a cocktail hour sponsored by Flurowater and appetizers sponsored by Sizzlefish.

Both of our breakfasts were sponsored as well. Saturday morning was brought to us by Quest Nutrition (in addition to an entire box of bars they swaged us with). Sunday morning we had a spread from Nature Valley and Yoplait Greek.

There were two snack breaks during the weekend, one by Kidzshake, which I didn’t attend because of a longer hike, and one by Arctic Zero. Their ice cream sandwiches were heavenly!

We ate insanely well all weekend. I guess that’s what you get when you gather about 80 healthy living bloggers in one place.

3. Blends – Honestly, I was pretty nervous going into this weekend. I didn’t know that many bloggers attending, but here is the amazing thing about Blend: everyone has these common interests and are so excited to talk about them that nothing is awkward. At any point you can chat up the person standing next to you and find common ground. Awkwardness gone.

4. Bootcamp – Both Saturday and Sunday morning started off bright and early with 7 am bootcamps. Of course, just barely coming off my teaching schedule, I was up at 5:30 and convinced my roommate Ericka to go for a sunrise walk. We walked and talked as if we’d known each other forever (see #3).

Saturday was sponsored by Onnit and ended with a plank challenge. The three winners held their planks for 6:15!

Sunday’s bootcamp was from GPP Fitness. I have been doing GPP workouts for a few months now and being a collegiate athlete and high school track coach, I loved the team vibe of Sunday’s workout. In groups of 5 we had to keep the same pace of push ups, triceps dips, burpees, squats, and sit ups while one of our group sprinted about 30 seconds. It was all for time which it added to the intensity.

Alex, Emily, Gina, Kaitlin, and me

5. Unscheduled Time – Like Laura said about some of the other blog conferences she has been to that have speakers on how to improve your blog, I know what’s wrong with my blog and I don’t have time to fix it. Blend gives its attendees the chance to explore the area by not filling up every hour with events. On Saturday, a bunch of us headed to downtown Park City and explored the cute area. There were beers, blog talk, and blends in the making.

Laura, Ericka, Me. Megan took the picture!

6. Getting Outside – Being in such a beautiful location, we had both a group run and hike outside on the slopes. Friday’s run was brought to us by Oiselle and included a full mile of uphill.

Me, Danica, Janae, Emily, and Molly

For Saturday’s hike we were swaged out with Organic Valley bags and protein shakes. A gorgeous gondola ride kicked off the hike and after about a mile when everyone else was turning around, a few of us decided to keep going (see #5).

We ended with a four mile hike and some beautiful views.

Megan, Me, and Danica

7. Random Tasting Parties – Many of the bloggers who attended were sponsored by companies and either passed out swag (thank you Fabletics!), or held tasting parties in their rooms. Paige and Heidi had us trying Hope Foods (go for the chocolate spread) and Good Pops (go for the Strawberry Lemonade).

Not only do you get to see what bloggers stand behind, but there was even more delicious treats to try.

8. Sponsors – Each and every sponsor at Blend was so generous. Silk was our official sponsor and not only did they provide us with our actually swag bag, but they made us smoothies all day!

A huge thank you to the other sponsors who attended, stuffed our bags with swag, and let us know about your companies. There are too many to list, but I will be shouting out to them via Instagram and Twitter as the next few weeks go on.

9. Swag – Seriously. The bag I checked at the airport weighed 44 pounds. The only thing non-swag in there were my running sneakers.

10. The Organizers. Lindsay, Lauren, and Janetha worked absolutely tirelessly to put this amazing retreat together. Not only are they some of the kindest people, but they were extremely busy all weekend to make sure every attendee had a wonderful time. Huge thank you, ladies!

 RQ: Will you be attending Blend in 2015? What would you do if you were given all that swag?

Brooke Selb

I’m Brooke Selb, a Personal Trainer and Health Coach specializing in helping busy moms and moms to be to easily juggle mom life with family friendly recipes, and easy exercise routines to help you achieve your fitness goals that fit in with your already busy life with sound nutritional advice.