And now for the 267th Healthy Living Summit recap post I know you’ve just been absolutely dying to read, hehe.

Yes, it’s true. I’m back from the City of Brotherly Love and, as you could probably guess, HLS was awesome. It was a fun, all-too-short weekend chock-full of friends, sessions, and of course, swag:

Friday morning I hop, skipped, and jumped onto a train bound for Philadelphia. I made a quick stop-off at the hotel to drop off my bag before lunch and look who I found!

Yep! None other than Miss Caitlin herself, perched on my bed. I’m sure there are very few of you who don’t know who she is, but Caitlin writes an extraordinarily popular healthy living blog, and also is the creator of the Operation Beautiful movement. So, you know, she’s kind of a big deal. She was there visiting my roomie Ashley, and after what I’m sure was a super composed and not at all awkward introduction (HA!), Ash and I rushed off.

We were due to attend a lunch being hosted by Wellsphere at Stephen Starr restaurant El Vez. Mexicano at its finest!

The Wellsphere team was awesome, and it gave me the chance to meet up with some other bloggers before the conference festivities even began:

Halley, Lisa, CJ, Ashley, and yours truly. Thanks for the pic, Halley!

Needless to say, it was muy delicioso!

Egads! The food! The glorious food! There was chips & guac, mexican chopped salad, tuna tostadas, jalapeno corn bread, grilled beef tacos, shrimp enchiladas, and more. They really known how to turn the flavor up at El Vez; there was a chicken torta (aka sandwich) on the table that was too spicy even for me!

I hated it all, clearly. And as if all that sheer deliciousness wasn’t enough, the Wellsphere team treated us to froyo afterward!

I loaded up with coconut (!) and dark chocolate (!!) frozen yogurt topped with kiwi, mango, mochi, coconut, and a few choco chips. NOMMMMMM. Good thing they don’t have tons of self-serve places around here though… methinks it’d be dangerous. In more than one way.

After spending some post-lunch walking around and meeting up with friends I haven’t seen since Fitbloggin’ or the Fitness Bloggers’ Conference (yes, in case you had forgotten, HLS was conference #3 for the summer) it was time to get ready for the evening’s main event!

Roommates all dolled up: me, Ashley, Theodora, and Anne.

Cocktail party time!

It was at the Reading Terminal Market, which is normally hustling & bustling with lunch-goers but was completely closed down for us! Neat, huh?

They had wine, beer, and a special alcoholic chia seed drink (fitting, no?) as well as a buffet of heavy appetizers. Mingling time!

DC Bloggers FTW: Beth, Katie, Claire and me!

Monica, me, and Katy. I LOVE THEM (Thanks for the pic, Monica!)

I talked myself completely hoarse at the party, so once things started winding down we turned in for the night. But not before we got a little sweet photobooth action in!

Here’s a closer-up shot so you can revel in the awesomeness:

I know that my hottness in the bottom left picture is a little too much to behold, but you’ll just have to manage. After all, this post has already been 18,000 times too long (and on a Sunday! My goodness!) so I’ll save the rest for tomorrow.

Farewell, HLS. ‘Til next year (we’re campaigning for DC as the location!) <3