This weekend I invited myself to "Obesity Online", an invite only conference for WLS bloggers and vloggers. The conf was held at the Mondrian hotel in SoHo, NYC. While the conference was a room full of 20ish social media moguls, most of whom I knew in one form or another, I am not going to write about that in depth.
The things that happened outside of the conference are what matter to me. The people, the support, the community are the reasons I pushed to be at the conference.
The conference featured some of the higher-ups in the WLS professional circle. Joe Nadglowski, President of the
OAC, Robin Blackstone, MD, President Elect of the
ASMBS, and Melissa Lierman, a social media expert! We spent the day talking about obesity, advocacy, surgeries, social media and had a few debates along the way.
After the conference some of my friends and I walked around the city. We ate, we laughed, we got lost and found all in one day! I walked more this past weekend then I have in the last two weeks combined! The most amazing and meaningful part of this weekend for me was Yesterday... Every part of my day was both fun and meaningful.
We started our day off with a windy walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. When the cab dropped us off at the entrance on the Manhattan side, I felt both excitement and panic at the thought of this adventure. I didn't know if I was going to make it all the way across but I was excited to try. Then the panic set in and I was afraid if I got stuck half way through, there was no way out. I feared getting stuck and being in pain like I would have been just months ago.
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| Half way through the bridge! |
The support I got from my friends, who promised me they would walk slow and not leave me hanging and push my from behind if needed was amazing! They were my cheer leaders the whole way through. The walk was actually quite easy. I didn't HAVE TO stop to catch my breathe or sit down because I hurt. We had so much fun! We took pics of buildings and graffiti and each other and just had a blast!
When I reached Brooklyn, I couldn't believe it! I DID IT! I walked the Brooklyn Bridge! 1.13 miles and we didn't stop there! We walked to Grimaldi's Pizza Place to find them closed then continued walking to Bubby's for Brunch.
After brunch we hopped the subway back to Manhattan. Another NSV! I didn't have to walk through the turn-style sideways, for the first time in 10 years!! I was amazed and on cloud 9! I think I still am! The walk continued....
Next a few of us headed over to the Museum of Sex! What fun we had!! I walked through 3 floors of exhibits, took pictures and had fun in the goody shop! Walking on...
Next, 24 hour fitness for some protein shake yumminess! I got a strawberry banana smoothie with some whey protein and man was it AMAZING! When we left there I had already walked over 4 miles and over 10,500 steps! It was only 4pm! The last leg...
We headed back to the hotel to hang out and say our goodbyes. At the end of MY Walk... I got the most amazing prize... My life! It's not promised for forever but yesterday I grabbed it by the balls!
xoxo
Sleeve Pixie
