Last week I attended FNCE for the first time! This year it was in Atlanta and my company paid for one day, Monday. I arrived Sunday with my husband Pat and we had a fun day together and then Monday I attended the conference while he did some touristy things on his own.
I started at the educational session Yoga Skills for Dietitians: Evidence, Psychophysiological Mechanisms and Tools You Can Use . This was super interesting and described how yoga skills could benefit clients touching base how people doing yoga said they felt more inclined to eat healthier while practicing and found other additional health benefits. The speaker Sat Bir Khalsa was very entertaining, passionate, and educated, I really enjoyed his presentation. Check out the link for more info on his yoga research!
Next I explored the expo for a couple hours. It was HUGE!!! So many awesome companies and delicious free samples. Here are a few snapshots of the vendors.
Some of my favorite things I sampled were: Neat, Daisy, CA Strawberries, California Walnuts, McCormick Spices, Lentils CA, Natural Delights Dates, Bare Fruit, Peeled, Sunkist, Larabar, Kind, Manitoba Harvest, Wild Blueberries… really the list goes on and on the pictures I did take kinda suck. Oh well… hopefully next year I won’t be like a little kid in a candy store, haha.
There were also culinary demos that I caught parts of… not to mention meeting two of my favorite chefs: Marcus Samuelsson (from Chopped) and Hugh Acheson (from Top Chef). So cool to meet both of this guys!!
The first afternoon educational session I attended was Industry, Ethics, the Profession, and Practice. One of my favorite and extremely helpful parts of this presentation was Joy Bauer who shared her social media strategy. Feeling inspired by her presentation, I expanded on my own social media presence this week by creating a Dietitian Jess Facebook Page and starting a Twitter account, follow me @dietitian_jess
The last session of the day was Ditchin’ the Diet: Non-Diet Approaches in Nutrition Education which was very enlightening. I share the belief of a non-diet… avoiding fad diets and restricting foods groups unnecessarily. This presentation was definitely off the grid of the normal nutrition practices and I loved it. I enjoyed learning more about the Health At Every Size belief and other nontraditional approaches. I identify with eating mindfully and encourage my patients and clients to do the same. Great energetic speakers who kept it real and shared personal experiences that appealed to the audience very well. Perfect end to an awesome day of learning!! I have a more in depth post coming soon about weight gain, body image, and being healthy that was inspired by my day at FNCE!
And left with some awesome swag! See anything you’d like!?
