Ahhh how I adore New England.

I traveled to Boston for the first time last week for the annual Food and Nutrition Conference Expo, which is basically a gigantical dietitian fest. Thanks to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics for covering my admission to FNCE  in exchange for this post!

I took the plunge to attend this year mostly to speak on a panel with Kylie and Jenny about entrepreneurship sponsored by Siggi’s. The audience asked a lot of really thoughtful questions pertaining to work life balance, maintaining motivation and inspiration, and juggling multiple responsibilities without ripping your hair out.

I’m big on being real with my audience, so I harped on the emotional and social sacrifices one must be willing to make in order to embrace entrepreneurship and the importance of accepting some level of imbalance when it comes to balancing work and life. When you’re a lifestyle blogger, there’s a pretty blurred line. Work doesn’t just get turned off when I leave Alchemy or shut my computer. When you have a brand, you have to always be on it and willing to over-share your life. Sacrifices, people.

I also talked about working smarter, not harder. I don’t have time to learn to do new things that I’m not interested in. If I need something for the blog that I know I don’t have the time or energy for, I hire some one. Hi, Kendall! Don’t be afraid to invest in good people. It’s scary at first, but delegating has been one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Even though it was my first time attending FNCE, I knew that it could be a wee bit overwhelming and that it really is what you make it. I’m all about a) hanging with my fellow RD blogger/media pals, b) eating all the food and exploring the city and c) talking to brands. So instead of spending my time at educational sessions, I ate my way through Boston with Robyn, Kylie, Rachel, Anne, and Alex (shout out to Meme and Kara, too!) and attended a bunch of PR events with my favorite companies.

I’m obsessed with each and every one of these magical women. They’re all serious girl bosses and when we’re all in the same room it’s pretty much non-stop laughter, mostly over things that have absolutely nothing to do with nutrition. It’s amazing how much we learned from each other in a three day trip!

The five of us stayed in an Air B and B ten minutes from the convention center which was definitely the way to go regarding accommodations. Lots of people stayed in hotels that were farther away. I’m such an Air B and B girl at heart. It was essentially a giant slumber party. Dream, right?

Most of our time was spent at PR events and exploring the expo, which is basically a big display of different healthy food companies and products. Samples galore! I wrote the bulk of this post at the airport and I was legitimately concerned that my suitcase wouldn’t fit in the overhead compartment. There’s more protein bars than clothes.

Highlights of the PR events included sipping avo margaritas and learning to make avoc roses at the Avocados event (hello, avo margaritas and avo roses) and the KIND nutrition Collective Dinner at Lucca complete with fall cocktails and a beyond delish espresso ice cream dessert.

The first thing when I got to Boston I did was nosh hard at an AMAZING cafe called Life Alive, which a lot of you recommended on Instagram so thanks with that! Katie and Rachel were super sweet and picked me up at the airport. I had the Goddess Bowl with carrots, beets, broccoli, kale, brown rice, tofu, sprouted legumes, and a foodgasmical ginger nama shoyu sauce that I could’ve bathed in.

Other good Boston eats included Sweetgreen and Flour Bakery. I had already tried Sweetgreen in NYC so I couldn’t wait to go back. I would live there if we had one in Columbus. I made my own salad with spinach, kale, brussels sprouts, beets, sweet potatoes, red onion, tofu, and balsamic dressing. I could eat this every day and be happy.

Flour was a cute (and insanely busy) bakery and cafe featuring desserts, coffee drinks, sandwiches, and salads. The first day Alex, Robyn and I split a sticky cinnamon roll, frosted banana bread, a chocolate-coconut-walnut cookie, a double chocolate cookie, and a homemade oreo with soy lattes on the side. Oh and kale.

The next day I went back to Flour with Anne and we both got salads. I ordered the soba noodle salad which has spinach, kombocha squash, tofu, nori, celery, and a chili vinaigrette. Super delish!

Did I mention I met Ellie Krieger?!

Before heading to the airport, Anne and I walked around downtown and stopped at a little juice bar inside a gym for some green juice. We were both dying for a vitamin boost!

I’ve pretty darn exhausted but so glad I got to spend the weekend in Boston with some amazing ladies that know what this crazy life is like. Till next year!