Me and Ulisses.
As you know I’ve spent this year being an ambassador for SFN Expo, which is something I have absolutely loved. The event itself was held last weekend at the SECC in Glasgow, I decided to go down early Saturday for the day as the seminars and speakers on offer were more suited to my needs.
The highlights for me were:
1. Scott Baptie who is based in Aberdeen. Sadly I only discovered him after I moved away from Aberdeen, so this was my first time meeting him. He is a really lovely and down to earth guy with a no nonsense attutude to nutrition. I caught the last third of his seminar where be talked about nutrition myths and labels that we use like IIFYM and cheat meals, and the ‘bro’ culture. Very funny but informative and definitely someone I’ll be keeping in touch with.
2. Clean Eating Alice who is a very successful food and fitness blogger and London-based PT. I have followed Alice for about 2 years on Twitter and Instagram, her recipes are balanced and she uses real ingredients that we all have in our fridge. It was lovely to finally see her in person. Alice did a Q&A on the Sisterhood stage and discussed everything from her career in musical theatre, to setbacks she’s had and how we can overcome setbacks and self-doubt. And how even as a successful fitness professional she still sometimes struggles with motivation and credits friends like fellow PT and blogger Zanna Van Dijk to give her a nudge when she needs it.
I loved her Q&A, open, honest and funny. And hopefully she’ll be back next year! Meanwhile I’ll be finally getting round to reviewing her book soon on the blog.
3. Ben Coomber is my favourite Nutritionist. I have a ritual where I’ll listen to his podcasts every Sunday evening to set me up for the week ahead. I’ve been to his seminar before but he is someone who always has updated information and advice. Sadly I didn’t get a chance to talk to Ben on this occasion as he is a very popular man! But I did talk to Simon Herbert who is a coach with Ben’s Body Type Nutrition company, and got some good advice on progressing in my career. I will eventually be signing up to Ben’s Nutrition course as I trust his teaching 100℅.
The Sisterhood 2016
The Sisterhood was founded by Lucy Doyle to bring ladies together and build a strong support network for fitness, health and well-being. I had the pleasure of meeting Lucy as soon as I arrived at the Expo, she is such a warm and friendly lady and one who I have so much respect for.
The highlight of the Sisterhood talks (apart from Alice) was Beth Trueman and Zoe Wright who gave a very emotional and honest account of battling chronic illness and anxiety and depression on a public stage. As bloggers we are often guilty of showing the good parts of our job, or the ‘hightlights’, the events we get invited to, the free goodies etc but it can often be a lonely world where you compare yourself to other bloggers and then get anxious if you haven’t been invited to the same event as other bloggers. This is something which isn’t shared very openly. And I take my hat off to the girls for being so so real about their journey and to Beth for being so open about her battle with depression and for letting us know that it’s ok to not feel perfect all the time or compare ourselves to others, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
One word which was mentioned over and over again through all the talks and seminars was ‘balance.’ Having a balanced diet and not restricting yourself, having a balanced outlook on life and knowing it’s ok to have flaws and having a balanced attitude to exercise.
These were the best parts of the day for me and below I would like to share more photos of the day. I hope you enjoyed reading this and that it gives you some inspirational people to follow.
