Hello my loves! It has certainly been awhile since I have written a blog post, rather than a recipe post! I hope everyone is doing well, and staying healthy as the seasons start to change.

I wanted to write about my experience at the mindbodygreen Revitalize conference that I attended a few weeks ago. I received so much positive feedback from you all, so I had to share a few things from my 3 days in the Arizona desert.

I’d like to start off by thanking the team at mindbodygreen by saying how truly grateful I am for being invited to the conference. My friend Laura Lea connected me with the team at MBG, and I was shocked/honored to receive an invitation. The opportunity felt like once in a lifetime, and happened to be put in my lap exactly one week from my last day at my former job. I saw this as the Universe’s way of directing me on this path.

Upon my invitation to Revitalize, I decided to trek out to the Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain in Marana, Arizona a day early, to soak in as much of the good desert vibes as I could. Plus, as someone who doesn’t love traveling, I wanted to give myself a day to settle and relax before all of the Revitalize festivities began! Unsurprisingly, I was not the only conference-goer who had this idea, so I was lucky to spend the afternoon chatting by the pool with Whole30 founder, Melissa Hartwig and fitness guru Todd McCullough. They were absolutely lovely, and it was incredible being able to pick their brains about the wellness industry, and their careers.

I wanted to set a few goals for myself at the start of my trip. I think goal setting sets up a foundation of positivity for weekends such as these when it's easy to become overstimulated. Some of those goals were:

1. Be Open to Receiving—receiving advice from people in the industry, receiving kind words from people admiring my work, receiving the wonderful goods mindbodygreen so graciously gifted us, and receiving potential opportunities to come.

2. Say Yes—I am a homebody, no doubt. I also can find myself anxiety-stricken and less inclined to say yes to every opportunity that comes my way. During Revitalize, I wanted to say YES to as many events and workouts I could possibly attend. Instead of waiting around in my hotel room or sleeping in, I pushed myself to get up at 6am for a hike in the desert. I said YES to workouts with incredible teachers like Kathryn Budig and Caley Alyssa. I said YES to small group sessions on Friday that connected me to even more wonderful people, whom I might not have met otherwise. While saying no has its place, saying YES can lead to many new beginnings.

3. Push Yourself—One of my final goals was to push myself. Similarly to saying yes, sometimes we reach a level of comfort, that we forget to push ourselves. Going on a trip alone to a place with people I’ve never met was the first way I pushed myself that weekend. I also pushed myself to introduce myself to individuals whom I might've thought wouldn't have any interest in me. At the end of the day, we were all there for the same reason, and we were all there to spread our knowledge on health, wellness, spirituality, sustainability and more.

The first day of Revitalize was so wonderful, because we had lots of time to socialize, take exercise classes and visit the incredible gifting suite. I was blown away by the INSANE gifting suite, which was certainly a perk of attending the event. We were able to take home goodies from Vital Proteins, Cocokind, Purely Elizabeth, Mother Dirt, Hum Vitamins, Garden of Life and more. Seriously, I was pinching myself the whole time over the stuff that we were allowed to take home.

Next up, I feel the need to tell you about some of the conversations I had with people who I look up to in this industry. I met some seriously cool people, and haven’t felt this inspired in a long time. While I enjoyed meeting EVERYONE at Revitalize, some of the one-on-one conversations I was able to have truly made my experience.

You could imagine my reaction when I heard Scott Linde, the founder of Sun Potion, would be at Revitalize. So I made it my mission to pick his brain and chat about their incredible products that I am OBSESSED with. I ran into him at a small group session on Friday, and we happened to sit next to each other during the first speaker session on Saturday. It was so wonderful to meet an individual whose products have changed my life in such a beautiful way. I made sure to tell him that Yin Power was my favorite, and I haven’t had a major cold since I started taking SP products two years ago. Such an amazing opportunity to speak to a person whose company has been so influential in my life.

When I heard that Shaman Durek (Gwyneth Paltrow’s personal shaman) was attending Revitalize, I was determined to chat with him for just 5 minutes. On Saturday evening, after our dinner and fun festivities were winding down, I was able to borrow 20 minutes of Durek’s time. During this time, he was able to provide me with some unbelievable wisdom, and recommended a mindset shift to lead to greater personal and financial success. The suggestions he made couldn’t have been more spot on with what was happening in my life. It was truly such an honor to speak to him.

Now lets chat about the largest part of Revitalize, the speaker sessions. The motto for this year’s Revitalize conference was “You. We. All.”, which shined a light on how we can work as a team to help our planet and our communities thrive. We were so lucky to hear some incredible speakers. I'm talking Steven Gundry, Ashley Neese, Mark Hyman, Frank Lipman, Paul Hawken and so many more. I am going to link some of my favorites here, here and here. Please take the time to check them out because they were truly transformational speeches.

I could go on and on about how incredible this weekend was, and how it brought so much inspiration into my life. I am beyond honored to have been included, and hope to attend again next year. Thank you, mindbodygreen for such a wonderful experience. I am eternally grateful.

xx, Allie