America's Next Great Nutritionists: Revitalize Conference

2017 America's Next Great Nutritionist Winner: MindBodyGreen Revitalize Conference

WOW it has been a weekend to remember. Sunday night slash the first moments of Monday morning I got back from three days in the Arizona desert. Publicly, until two days ago, I was there attending MindBodyGreen's 2017 Revitalize conference. Secretly, I was there to be announced as one of their three America's Next Great Nutritionist award winners. And man was it a hell of a secret to keep. 

Revitalize in general is an astounding conference. It's invite only and MindBodyGreen rents out the entire Ritz Carlton resort. It makes it a totally 'safe' space to try new wellness things without judgement (reiki, meditation, you name it). But most importantly, it creates a space of openness. No one is worried about feeling like they're being pitched constantly. It's you, as an invitee meeting people who love what they do. It just so happens it's people who, you know, invented Whole30. Or invented Sun Potion. Or have a cookbook empire.

Revitalize runs wellness experiences throughout the weekend from classes to one on one appointments. I signed up for many experiences that were new to me. I tried reiki (I cried- so that was weird-I have many questions about reiki now....). I tried pulse reading (in which different pulse points on your wrist are 'read' by the practitioner and they are able to discern what's going on with your body based on correlating Eastern medicine charts). I had ear acupuncture done. Because, why not? Keep an open mind. When else would you have a chance to try these things?  I am really glad I opened myself up to these new experiences but unfortunately the feedback I kept getting from these sessions was "Handle your stress. Immediately". 

Definitely not what I was hoping to hear but something I knew internally.... I'm bad at relaxing unless I'm on a beach with a Pain Killer in my claws. Working from home with Chris means our work is always present. It's easy to 'just work on this really quickly' when your office is RIGHT THERE. And as you guys know, we're right at the start of our busiest season of the year. This is not even as stressed as I get, and here I am, getting information from every session I booked that I need to get my sh** handled. So I'm working on it: trying to either find an acupuncturist, schedule hikes, or do SOMETHING to get better at intentionally managing the stress that comes with my intertwined work/life. I'll keep you posted, but I can tell you right now this is going to be a work in process. It took me solidly two years to learn how to meditate, remember? And I thought that was good enough for stress management.

But between the desert hikes and the meditation under a tent and the Arizona sky, there was the conference itself. Saturday MindBodyGreen brought in the best of the best innovators in the wellness space. You can actually re-watch the entire Revitalize talks right now!  Just before lunch, the big secret was revealed and we got trotted out onto stage (and none of us fell- so it went fabulously) as America's Next Great Nutritionists. To give a bit more detail about what that entails, MindBodyGreen was looking for three nutrition experts who were a "new voice in wellness, those who are forward-thinking, paradigm-breaking, and wellness-oriented in their approach".

They wanted to know what we thought the future of nutrition in America looked like. And I told them it looked like visuals. 

Chris and I center the work we do around the visual storytelling of food. We make food that is beautiful and delicious first. It also just happens to be 'healthy' and balanced much of the time. We don't overtly blast healthy trend or diet food on this site, or the work we do for clients. We want to pull you in to be interested in food and therefore wellness based on your initial visual "ah-ha!" moment alone. Nutrition is curated. It's personalized. People get to pick what they see and follow and to be honored to have a space in their busy lives, we feel it's important to serve wellness on a visually stunning platter through the power of video, gifs and photography.

"That looks so good" turns into "let's make that", "can we make that again?" and without someone realizing it...nutrition just became part of their habit.

So I'm excited to have you join me over the next year on this journey. I'll be working with our mentor, Kelly LeVeque (author of Body Love) and the editors of MindBodyGreen. And I'm so happy to know and be in good company with fellow dietitians Sammi Haber (who is actually my kindred soul I never knew) and Brigid Titgemeier (who is going to be the biggest name in functional nutrition IMHO). 

And if you're new to the blog from MBG, welcome. You're about to experience seasonal recipes and full blown cat lady on a new level.