beautyinchrist, Author at Beauty In Christ - The Book

3 Lessons Learned from FitBloggin’

June 29, 2015 By beautyinchrist 6 Comments

Fitbloggin’ is over. 🙁 It was amazing. I got to put so many faces to the names of blogs and learn from people that I consider EXPERT bloggers and very adept at the world of social media, something which makes me feel um… stupid… when I hear people talk about it. 🙂

What were some of the biggest lessons I learned?

1. Be HONEST. Gigi from Gigi Eats stressed this in a BIG way at a small group discussion on Saturday morning about being sponsorship savvy, something of which I am almost entirely illiterate. Don’t butter up another blogger or a sponsor up one side and down the other just to get a contract or a partnership. Partner with brands you LOVE. If a brand gives you something you don’t love, don’t give a dishonest, flattering review just to keep the partnership up. It speaks VOLUMES to your integrity when you are willing to say the difficult things.

Which also means I can be totally honest even about the free products I received as part of the conference. 🙂 This product? I had to rave about it. . . real quick.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

They had so many sponsors. I got to delve into products I’ve never tried before, but most of them, I really LOVED.

I absolutely love YOGURT, and I eat far more yogurt than milk. The ‘Yuu’ yogurt made by Silk, served at one of the breaks, was especially creamy and smooth. It wasn’t too sugary but sweet enough to be a real treat. Time to add this to my list of yogurts to buy…

2. Define your Niche. Emily from Authentically Emmie (Don’t you love that name?) really emphasized this in a session on personal branding outside of your blog in order to connect with sponsors and share your niche in order to bless and encourage others. The world of fitness bloggers is absolutely HUGE. If you just market yourself as a fitness blogger, you will be BURIED in 1000s of other bloggers. 1 or 2 people will find your blog, but you have define what your passion is in that niche? Is your passion:

Foodie Fitness
Crossfit
Kettlebells
Eating Disorder Recovery
Being a Fitness Trainer (Narrow it down to what kind of fitness trainer.)
Cooking
Eating
Recipe Testing

The list could keep going. It really helped me to think of what I’m particularly passionate about, and what I would love to share with others and use to bless them.

That also means that all of these ladies and gentleman had different stories and blogs. Laura (in the pink) from Laura Lohr had been blogging for 10 years! Wow. And some, like me had only been blogging for 5 or 6 months.

3. Social Networking is SO important. And you have to do it smart. I have not been doing it smart. Kelly Olexa from Fitfluential remarked that Twitter is kind of dead right now, and it’s really hard to grow there right now. The message that was pounded into my head was that INSTAGRAM is the place to be. This kind of intimidates me, because I’m not very good at taking pictures, not super smart about hash-tagging. It was also a re-confirmation of what I kind of knew was true. So… if you follow me, expect an Instagram account to open up soon. 😉

This small group on social networking was led by Ty Godwin from Seeking Boston Marathon. He has a cool story. He started his blog on his first year of seeking the Boston Marathon. He has ran 5 Boston Marathons since. 🙂 How cool is that? O_o

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Stay tuned for upcoming posts about the bloggers I met there, the stupendous sponsors I met, the food I ate, and the workouts I got to try!

How was your weekend?

What I Expected at Fitbloggin’ 2015

June 27, 2015 By beautyinchrist 6 Comments

This is kind of how I feel tonight after my first full day of Fitbloggin’… Ok, I’ll be totally honest. I feel like that inside after all the information and teaching I was given, but physically I feel more like… a sloth.

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Thank you Jump Sport ladies for getting this picture of me going crazy. I LOVE trampolines. They seriously make me feel like I’m a kid again. The double +++ is that I look like I’m 14 or 15, so that helps the ‘feel like a kid’ part.

Everyone comes to a new place or experience with some sorts of expectations. Admit it. We all do. And we always ask ourselves, ‘Did this meet that expectation or not meet my expectations or far exceed my expectations?

Well, Fitbloggin’ is my first conference I’ve gone to that has been focused on blogging and fitness. I’d read so many recaps. I had seen pictures of the food, the people, the classes, and sessions, so, yes, I had a few expectations.

1. I expected to meet people, to find bloggers I had never heard of before, because, the blogging world is SO HUGE. There’s tiny bloggers, like me, middle sized bloggers, big bloggers, and HUGE bloggers. At this conference there was a mix of everybody. I actually really liked that, because I felt like I could learn from others, remember the importance of being REAL, in the midst of trying to grow my blog, relate to the smaller bloggers (a little bit better. I just don’t know what it’s like to have 5000 or even 1000 followers.), and just build friendships.

I met people like Martha from A Dietitian Eats. I also met Ivanna from Petite Heartbeat (She has an amazing heart and blogs about things like anxiety and panic (things I struggle with regarding eating and exercise) from a Christian perspective. :))) Her heart shined through my conversation with her. . . You need to go on Youtube and subscribe to her workout channel too!

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I met at least 15 or 20 other bloggers today, and I can’t wait to share more of them and their unique stories with y’all!

2. I was *sheepish grin* looking forward to the food. I’m not the kind of person who really has the time at this point in my life to search out gourmet food. If I had more time, I would love to cook those kind of dishes shown on Food Network, but that’s not really possible for where I am right now, so it was SUCH a treat to eat the breakfast this morning (real oatmeal, plain yogurt, which they almost never have at hotel breakfasts, fresh fruit, brown sugar, nuts.)

Lunch was equally good with a sandwich bar, a fresh green salad with this delicious vinaigrette, CHEESE (I can’t believe I used to hate cheese), potato salad, and yummy chewy bread.

And… while we were eating lunch, there was a presentation by Soybu showcasing several of their outlets on different bloggers. They have some pretty cute outfits, I must say. They even had a beautiful maxi-skirt.

3. The snacks given out by the food sponsors. The super sweet sponsors, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Silk, Eggland’s Best, California Avocado Comission, Stonyfield Organic, and I’m sure, even more provided so many goodies.

I drank this smoothie tonight. It was SO delicious. Super creamy, not too sweet, and satisfying! I often don’t get enough protein often, and I find that protein shakes are one of the easiest, tastiest ways to get enough in, especially after a day of hard workouts. Zumba is pretty intense, y’all! O_O

General Mills provided a ‘Make your Own Trail Mix’ bar with bags for you to make a bag of trail mix with a variety of cereals like Chex, granola, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cheerios, and toppings to make a super delicious bag of trail mix for you to dig your hungry hands in, like I did tonight after my brick workout at the hotel. General Mills is also working to reduce their sugar content in their cereal, and I was amazed at the facts sheet they provided. Many of their cereals are under 10 grams of sugar per serving now, which I think is pretty good. Disclaimer: I’m not a dietitian, so don’t take this as an expert’s advice.

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And all the swag I just got today. I plan to dig into those bars with my family later… :))

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4. I’ve realized today that the heart behind my blog really does fill a niche. I haven’t met any bloggers today that specifically targeted eating disorder recovery, and that’s what I love about blogging. I love finding a niche and creating a voice, a brand, and story to share with others. My story is of how Jesus Christ has worked in me to put Him above everything else. 🙂 What’s your story?

So far, it’s been great. My stomach is finally full of snacks and fitbloggin’ food, and shh… but I even got to meet and talk to Roni. She comes across JUST like she does on her blog in real life. Authenticity, y’all! That’s what it’s about.

Have you ever been to a fitblogging conference? Was it scary?

Did the conference meet your expectations? Did you make a lot of new friends?

Why I’m Excited/Terrified about FitBloggin’

June 25, 2015 By beautyinchrist 4 Comments

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Thanks Amanda for letting me get some thoughts out here for others to read… Wow. It’s here. The conference I signed up for about a month ago is here. And I’m absolutely excited and terrified.

My emotions are little bit like this, evidenced by the pictures below.

1. Excitedly Pensive. This is my, ‘Ooh…’ face. I’m thrilled to meet new people, and yet I admit that I’m a little afraid about what they might think of me or whether I’ll make friends or not.

2. The adrenalin has kicked in, so there’s a bit of wide-eyed terror inside of me, but I hope that it will all go away by the time I get there. From what I hear at the Fit Bloggin’ website, every recap has been full of excitement, joy, and anticipation for the next year, so I’m hopeful that I will come away from it with the same emotions.

3. I’m super blessed to be able to learn from a bunch of other expert bloggers, moms, dads, girls, women, fitness trainers, and others about blogging, being professional, building relationships, and stepping out of my comfort zone. Hey, even signing up for this conference was quite the step out of my comfort zone.

Have you ever been to a blogging conference?

Were you terrified? Did you have a reason to be terrified? 😀

WIAW #1 – Muffins and Puppies!

June 24, 2015 By beautyinchrist 2 Comments

For a while I was wondering, how in the world do people get their ‘WIAW’ posts up so early? I am, what you might call, a wooden headed literalists. If it says ‘What I ate on Wednesday’ I assume that it must be the food I ate on Wednesday. A little rigid, right? Well, I’m officially starting this as a series now, because I’m ready to commit. I’m ready to document my weekly Wednesday eats. I couldn’t find a link-up today, but I wanted to share Ashley’s Wednesday eats, because I love her colorful pictures and her balanced look at nutrition and EATING. 🙂

I experimented this morning before I ate breakfast, and I think these muffins were family approved. Introducing the ‘Blueberry Yogurt Breakfast Muffins.’

This morning I ate a pretty simple breakfast. Sweet breakfasts are usually my go-to as they seem to take a little less effort. Breakfast isn’t exactly a rushed meal, but it’s not one that I have hours to prepare for usually, so I like to eat staples like:

Oatmeal
Yogurt
Fruit
Peanut Butter
Muffins
Eggs, sometimes.
Cottage Cheese
Nuts

I’ve been experimenting lately with different gluten free/paleo recipes, and I made these apple cinnamon paleo muffins for my dad, part of which went onto my yogurt bowl this morning. Here is the link to the recipe from Wellness Mama! They were delicious, especially for someone like me who LOVES baked goods and is pretty picky about allergy friendly recipes. 🙂

Breakfast was plain yogurt, with a bit of a paleo apple cinnamon muffin, peanut butter, and nuts.

This isn’t what I ate today, but it’s a typical lunch. I either eat leftovers or a salad that I put together from the refrigerator. 🙂 This was leftover tortilla soup from last week. We made 2 crockpots for an event, and we had SO MUCH left over. I was literally eating it for the rest of the week. That’s okay with me though, because it was pretty yummy!

And yesterday was a crazy day, so I didn’t eat much. Stress really affects my appetite, for some reason, but the hunger came back this morning in full force, so I’ve already had 2 snacks.

One of my favorite things about summer is the peaches, plums, and nectarines that are in season. They’re so juicy and sweet, and I love the feeling of the juice dribbling down my chin, that is, until it gets sticky. 😀

Snacks so far today!

Trail Mix will always be one of my favorite snacks. It’s simple, filling, salty, and sweet, all in one package.

Fruit, formed by the hand of God, for us to enjoy! Thanking Him for His gifts.

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And dinner is going to be some sort of yummy Pinterest dish, but I don’t have a picture yet, so I will cap off with this picture! I hope it makes your day.

They’re almost a week old now. 8 precious puppies! God’s creation calls us to sing His praises!

What are you eating today?

Where do you get recipes from? Do you like to wing it or do you like to go by the book?

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