Do you know the way to San Jose?
(la la la la la la la la) <— sing in your best My Best Friend’s Wedding voice haha
Hi friends! How was the weekend? Hope you had an amazing one!
We are back from a quick weekend trip to San Jose. I was invited to present at the Healthy Living Pavilion at the Fit Expo, and cook a healthy meal or snack. Even though I’ve done ONE cooking demo in my life, and public speaking events make me break out in a cold sweat and want to hide in a fetal position, I decided to go for it. You can’t get better if you don’t practice, right?
While I was there, I got to meet fitness personalities,
(Maria Kang!)
make some amazeballs 🙂
meet new friends,
(shout out to Ali who reads the blog and is a personal trainer in the area. Thank you so much for saying hi and hanging out for a bit!)
and enjoy an awesome weekend with the Pilot. (Madre watched the girls! She is the best ever.)
The Fit Expo was packed with nutrition and fitness vendors, including free samples, fitness classes, equipment, healthy living presentations and competitions. (I was going to dominate the arm wrestling competition, but you know, with my thumb still healing and everything…) We had a lot of fun walking around and checking out the different exhibits. (I posted a ton of clips on my Snapchat. Username is fitnessista) I’m excited to check out future events, especially since they upcoming Fit Expos in LA and Anaheim.
While we were in San Jose, we also enjoyed some seriously delicious eats.
Shout out to Annie B., who suggested hitting up the Willow Glen area. I know that you guys never lead me astray with recommendations, so it was the first place that we ventured to after landing at the airport. Willow Glen is LOVELY. I would love go back! It was packed with local restaurants, boutiques, and fitness studios. We went to Table for happy hour, where we shared a beautiful cheese board:
and the “wedge and dip.” We didn’t even know what the “wedge and dip” was, and took turns guessing what it might entail. (The Pilot won.) We were greeted with the best salty roasted potatoes and an onion sour cream dipping sauce (topped with nutritional yeast).
And just because we passed by and it looked so awesome, we stopped at Susiecakes for mini cupcakes.
And what do you do when you’re totally stuffed with wine, cheese board, potatoes and cupcake?
Take a barre class.
The Pilot had some Master’s homework to do at Starbucks, and I’d been wanting to take a barre class since I was cleared again (and start teaching next week!). So even though I was definitely full and knocking on a food coma’s door, I rallied. It was so worth it. Class felt amazing. The instructor did a great job of showing progressions and modifications for each exercise -I love learning ways to make exercises gentler or more challenging- and it was the perfect mix of body awareness, thigh quaking leg series, and abdominal work.
Just to make the night even better, we headed back to the hotel where Zeel massages were waiting. It was a special treat to have a massage before bed.
Saturday morning, we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and got things ready for the demo, and then it was time!
As I mentioned before, I was pretty nervous about it. Thankfully, it ended up being NBD. The announcer for the Healthy Living Pavilion, Patrick, was so kind and easygoing,
and it helped that the Pilot was there to help me gather ingredients and make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything.
Once I started, it felt like I was chatting with a group of friends. Since I ended up knowing a handful of people in the audience, it helped take the edge off a bit. During Saturday’s presentation, I made just enough for the audience, so I doubled the recipe on Sunday. I still ran out, and made another batch so some people could have seconds. 🙂 It was a lot of fun.
Sunday morning I had an awesome brunch with Laura at Whisper,
and then after the demo, it was time to head back to San Diego.
Public speaking: love it or loathe it? Do you have any tricks that help you? On Saturday morning, I watched the amazing viral Chewbacca mask idea that’s been going around. It was a great reminder to find joy in anything, and even if you’re wearing a Chewbacca mask cracking up, own it. 🙂 I definitely recommend watching it. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.
Hope you have a wonderful night and I’ll see you tomorrow with an Ayurvedic recipe.
xoxo
Gina
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So fun!!
i love public speaking but only when my speech is super well rehearsed! otherwise i’m just terrified and everything is terrible haha
I am bummed I could not make it to meet you. There is thing called finals I had to study for.
Love The Table and WG.
Where did you stay at?
And thank you for putting our city on the map. You are kinda famous and all……
I am coming out to San Jose in July and staying at the Hyatt that is right by the convention center (I have a teacher conference there). Any must see/do things in that immediate area? Also, any fitness classes that you think I would be able to walk to from that location? I am coming from Delaware and have never been to California so looking for as much help as I can get!
So glad it worked out for us to meet up! The “wedge and dip” looks so good! Glad the demos went well for you. 🙂
I’m sure you’re a fantastic speaker, and I’d love to watch you at an expo! I’ve been blessed to have the calmed nerves needed to speak at public events, but I think it’s important to remember in public speaking that people (usually) aren’t judging you as much as you think they are!
I just gave a presentation in class today! I would describe myself as an introvert, and generally a charismatic but quiet person, so public speaking has never been easy for me. However, in recent years I’ve found that the key is feeling prepared (actually being prepared helps too) and speaking with enthusiasm, no matter the subject. I’ve also found that making a lame joke wakes the audience up for a second, which is instantly gratifying to me. I actually laughed at my own impromptu pun during a recent presentation…thankfully the audience was already laughing along with me. That could have been awkward.
I love eating through a new city and word of mouth recommendations are the best.
I’m sure you did great at your presentation!
same! it’s my favorite part of traveling: trying out as many local restaurants as possible
How fun!! I don’t love public speaking, but I definitely have gotten more comfortable with it over the years. Looks like you guys had such a great weekend!
I’m mixed about public speaking. I will feel really nervous in the beginning and then it starts to feel more natural. It helps that I have taught Yoga for 16 years and am somewhat use to being in front of people.
I Can’t stop watching that video!!!!! You can just feel her excitement, happiness and joy. It’s the best!
i’ve been teaching since 2008, but teaching feels so different to me than speaking, which is funny because they’re so similar
happy you love the video, too. i’ve watched it like 4 times and laugh my heart out every.time
I used to be so incredibly scared of speaking in public when I was younger (high school, early college), to the point where I would freeze, forget what I was going to say, and fail every talk. At some point, I just started to realize that people are more into what’s going on in their own lives than caring if I mess up or don’t look perfect, etc. , and if those things happened, it wouldn’t matter even a half hour later. It really changed my outlook, not only on public speaking, but on life as well. I’m not a lecturer at a university, give a lot of research talks every year, and love every second of it. So, I guess my key is to be confident in your skills, not give a crap what people think (because it doesn’t matter anyway….do you, not someone else), and remember that talks are not the be all, end all.
*now
I’m now a lecturer. Clearly I need more coffee. 😉
that is so true. i think as i’ve gotten older (and stopped feeling like everyone is judging me), it’s gotten easier. but, i still don’t like it haha. it’s funny because i LOVE teaching, which is so similar, but feels entirely different
Aw thanks for the shout out Gina!! It was so nice to meet you. You come across in person just as you do on your blog (super nice and real!). Yes we were very thankful for the seconds of amaze balls and I made a batch yesterday myself. I plan on making more for my athletes. PS I definitely couldn’t tell that you aren’t a huge fan of public speaking. 🙂
it was so great to meet you and thank you for the sweet words- i appreciate it so much! hopefully our paths will cross again soon 🙂 so happy you enjoy the amazeballs, too!
xoxo
So glad it went well, Gina! I knew it would! And I’m sad I didn’t get to see you, but hopefully we will meet up soon. I’ve gotten several Zeel massages and LOVE that they come to you. Also, I think you need to recreate the wedge and dip. For reals. Have a great day, friend! 🙂
thank you, friend!! zeel is seriously amazing. it’s dangerous haha
and yes to recreating the wedge and dip!! are you going to be at IDEA?
Yes, I will!!
Ahh!! Thanks for the shoutout! Made my day. 🙂
I’m so glad you guys enjoyed Willow Glen! Definitely the cutest area of SJ, and The Table is one of its best spots!!
thank you again so much for the awesome suggestion- we loved it!
Public speaking always makes my face get really hot and my hands get really cold. I get really nervous. This happened a couple of weeks ago when I had an interview and it took me almost an hour to cool off afterwards lol!
AHHHH that is the worst! i get really shaky when i’m freaked out
AHHH! I used to live in Willow Glen and LOVE it there and The Table was a regular spot! Next time, definitely go to Bill’s Cafe across the street from The Table for brunch – there will likely be a wait but it’s oh so worth it (and you can have bloody marys or mimosas while you wait!)
I am an absolute introvert but am a trainer and so I regularly have to do presentations in front of large groups of people. For me, in order to feel “comfortable”, I have to feel very confident in the material I am presenting. I try to research questions the audience might have so that I am prepared for anything. I always have a plan in place for what I am doing and ways to involve the audience, but I also need to be extremely well versed in the topic for when questions come up and the presentation has to be adjusted. Sometimes I have to train on things that I not much of an expert on (Back Injury, anyone?), so I do loads of reading in advance to be sure I’m ready for questions.
Then, after the presentation, I have to come home and decompress. No one is allowed to talk to me for about an hour. 🙂