Last weekend, I had a work conference. It was a lot of fun and related to college student health…not really health as in nutrition and fitness but the other forms of health such as mental and social (I know…bet you forgot about those). A lot of the seminars I chose to go to were on cyber bullying which I found to be most interesting. (I’ve posted a bit about that and I plan to post a bit about it tomorrow too).
With day long conferences come eating and hanging out with your coworkers. Sure it wasn’t the best dietary safe zone you could imagine but that’s okay as I didn’t get sick nor did I even need to take my blood sugar meds.
Here is something I found extremely interesting…just throwing this one out there. I went to a HEALTH conference (you know that professionals are in charge of…people who got degrees in nutrition, dietetics, public health, community health…ect). Yet for some odd reason, the food being served wasn’t ultra vegan peanut butter with a side of what the eff is that topped voo doo food found in the second aisle top shelf of some specialty health store. It was natural, healthy food. Food such as NORMAL peanut butter, NORMAL roast beef, NORMAL spinach salad. (of course there were options for those with real life dietary restrictions…but all normal probably walmart bought food).
For breakfast we had a mixed variety of berries with yogurt. The choice of coffee as well (my only complaint was there was not enough coffee…oh well).
Lunch was a plethora of mixed salads (pasta salad…random salad greens…lots of choices) as well as a roast beef wrap with cheddar cheese and mayo (I picked around the mayo because I’m not a fan of mayo or ranch…it was still good though)
Dinner we were on our own and my work went to a famous place called Duffs. It reminded me of the bar “Duffs” back in my college down but it was certainly not that quality. They are known for their wings and boy were they good. We ordered 150 wings among 12 or so people. Seeing as I had run before, I was easily able to complete my fair share of wing ordering. (No these were not some weird health wing or something…these were greasy fried wings.).
That’s that. It was all really good food, but I must say the intensely hot wings came back to bite my in the butt (erg esophagus) the next morning when I ran and was breathing fire.
We also got to go to Niagara Falls which was a lot of fun (I’ve been a few times but it is always nice to go).
Questions for you:
Do you like wings?
Do you pack your own foods when traveling?
I pack my own foods while travelling just for health reasons. BUT, when I was able to eat normally, I loved going on trips because eating out at new restaurants is so fun! Miss that
Breakfast was always my favorite time to go out to eat.
So interesting that they didn’t have “voo doo” health food at the conference. Huh, maybe they were on to something there?
I love wings. Messy and delicious – my dad has a massive deep fryer and once or twice a year he’ll break it out and make them at home. They’re amazing – and we get to make our own sauces, which is always fun.
I actually laughed out loud at “with a side of what the eff is that topped voo doo food found in the second aisle top shelf of some specialty health store” I noticed that when I went to a conference too. It was all normal. If i went to a conference with some of the weird stuff, I’d probably have to pack my own food anyways since I wouldn’t eat any of it. And most normal people wouldn’t like it either. That bucket of wings reminds me of Man vs. Food. I wonder what the record is for eating them…
I’m jealous you got to go to a conference like that, I would love to attend something in that line. I always read about people going to health and/or fitness related conferences, I am a nerd and love to learn new things, so that is right up my alley.
I Love the picture of you and the wings. Holy cow that’s a lot of wings! I have been to Duff’s before, and their wings do live up to the hype. I’m a BBQ wing person over hot sauce though (hot sauce does funny things to me, so I avoid it at all costs) but they have so many wing flavors there, I can always find something. I have to be seriously craving wings though, I can’t just eat them whenever I want.
I’ve never been to a fitness conference but I think it would be pretty interesting. The conferences I’ve been to with work are on a large variety of topics from eating disorders, to cyber bullying, to college sexual health…ect. I think part of the reason I think health so much is there are so many of those different topics. People assume that when I work in the health field it means with fitness and nutrition but I actually barely do it (part of the reason I like my job even more).
Anyways-I’m the same way with wings..I’ll probably go a while without craving them again.
Not enough coffee?! Oh no they didn’t! Huge party, er conference foul! I haven’t had wings in the longest time. Back in the day, my family would order pizza and wings from a local pizzeria every Friday night; those wings were delicious!
My thoughts exactly. I actually wrote that on the comment card…LOL!
What a great conference! Was it the Duffs in Buffalo? I had their wings once and thought they were pretty great. I love chicken wings, I need to eat them more often / learn how to make them myself so I can eat them ALL the time.
It was Duffs in Buffalo.
I think there is such a misconception with the term ‘health food’. I think there are some crazy variations out there of what that actually means. Sometimes it’s easier to forget what normal food is when you get absorbed into the blogging world. I love finding out about new food but I also like just your plain old everyday food which you can buy at the corner shop.
I 100% agree. I think a lot of “blogger” health food and real healthy food is really different.
There really is a misconception of what is healthy. Whole, real foods are what we really all need. You can never have enough coffee. I’m on my third cup at 930 am. The 2 year old I nanny almost spilled it. I would have cried. Not really, but maybe. Niagara Falls looks so pretty!
That picture of wings is intense!! I love wings, boneless buffalo wings!!
Boooo Duffs! Lol! I’m an Anchor Bar fan…home of the original!
I’ve been to anchor bar as well. I’m not too picky between them.
Maybe it is just because I am taking health counseling, but the mental and social side to well being has me really interested!! Niagra Falls is on my bucket list of places to see.
a) Never had wings.
b) I usually just bring bars and peanut butter packs for snacks
Yes exactly…people always forget about the mental aspect! Or anything really outside of nutrition and fitness in the blogging world.
I actually don’t like wings because I don’t eat meat, but when I did eat meat, I didn’t eat wings because I didn’t like meat with bones in it (yeah, I know. I was just meant to be vegetarian).
I’m glad the food at your conference was real food and not all low-cal alternatives. I was reading this particular blog where the person always mentioned foods like vegan tempeh-faux-bacon covered in chocolate-but-not-chocolate-cacao something-or-another. Eh, no thanks.
Awesome that the conference discussed mental and social health of college students. You always hear freshman 15 and drinking and stuff, but social health was so important. I saw it a lot when I was a junior/senior and an assistant in the freshman English lab. Kids would go off to college and it was just hard for them to make friends, be involved, etc- even if they were more outgoing in high school. Although I do think social health of transfer students is probably even more ignored (they deal with the same concerns as incoming freshman as far as environment goes, but without the attention freshmen get).
Oh and bringing snacks, I almost never do that. The fun of these things is eating whatever food they have. I do keep snacks in my car for emergencies or post-workout snacks if I need them but that’s the extent that I ever take snacks anywhere.
I had forgotten you were vegetarian. Would you be willing to do a post on that and running? (I know I’ve literally asked you to do about 10 posts as of late but I like your writing style and realism obviously).
I might do that one day. I don’t post a ton about my daily diet on my blog because it’s so boring. I doubt anyone wants to read that I ate frosted mini wheats and milk for breakfast. LOL. It’s not chia seeds with organic steel-cut oats blended with kale or anything like that, LOL.
Haha you were lucky! The public health office I worked in before my current office used to order pizza or fried chicken into the office for employees. Not to mention we were working on a nutrition/fast food study. Hmm… The school of public health I went to did that as well. I always thought it was really interesting.
Love wings but I do not love running after wings.
We order pizza too and there isn’t a way to say those wings are remotely healthy LOL.
You mean to tell me that you’re not a fan of the super delicious vegan peanut butter with a side of what the eff is that topped voodoo food? Lol. Neither am I. And I also find it pretty interesting that none of the dietitians of nutritionists that I’ve ever talked to come up with some of the crazy things that bloggers do in the name of “health.” I’ve definitely been guilty of falling into the voodoo food trap before, but thankfully I came to my senses. Plain old natural healthy food is good enough for me.
DUFFS!!!!! I can’t even tell you how jealous I am that you went to Duff’s — that was a sorta staple when I was in grad school at UB and i still crave their BBQ wings. yum!!!
UB is such a fun campus in my personal opinion! There are a lot of cool places around there too that I wish I had more time to visit and eat at.
I loveeeee wings. Miss wing nights at college! Generally I always pack snacks cause I’m always hungry but nothing big just some bars or something. Sounds like a good health conference. Funny how they don’t have special super healthy PB and things and is just “normal”. Weird.
Well, I tend to think of Duff beer when I read this post. So many Homer Simpson musings spring to mind.
Eh, I love my weird-ass vegan voodoo stuff, but I never pretended for a moment to be healthy
People who are in the best shape do tend to just eat ‘conventional’ healthy shit and just move on with their lives. They are not special snowflakes.
xxx
LOL, I quite enjoy how honest you are. You didn’t get the memo? Everyone in the blogging world is a special snowflake.
I have been to Duffs many many many times
You were right down the road from my Grandma girl! You picked a good spot for some smokin Buffalo wings from BUFFALO! 
Yea I am a nerd and a weirdo and I just love that I know where this is and the fun that can be had in said buffalo and Niagara Falls! It makes me miss my childhood!
Comment on the healthy food. You mean a health conference didn’t feel the need to top things with some weird stuff that you can’t pronounce? You mean we can be healthy by eating normal food that is affordable and still delicious? Blow my mind! But really it looks awesome and I can’t wait to hear about the conference and the parts you went to!
I am glad you enjoyed it too! I like the region of Buffalo a lot myself.
Affordable and delicious? No such thing.
wings are delicious, but I cannot eat anything spicy… even cinnamon gum makes me cringe. so I always go for the parmesan garlic or sweet BBQ.
That’s interesting that they had regular healthy foods. It makes since from a price standpoint. That’s awesome they had all the fruit for breakfast!
What would you consider an irregular healthy food?
I don’t think the falls every get old. They are so amazing! I also do not like mayo or ranch. BLAH but I LOVE LOVE LOVE wings.
My goodness that roast beef wrap looks packed to the gills with deliciousness! And the pile of salad on your plate is making me want to go whip up some pasts salad right now. I think its interesting (and commendable) that the conference offered simple and real food with no frills.
Dang, I am way impressed by that conference food! Normally is just soggy Chick-fil-a, I’d enjoy any of that any day!
I’m interested to hear to take-aways from the conference!
wings I love! Whenever we have conferences or meetings for work, there is only donuts, bagels, and fruit. although the dieticians have the candy
hhahahahahahaha oh voo-doo topped health food….blessed by a shaman probably…..yeah, no, that shit is too expensive to feed a CONFERENCE worth of people. Just even more proof that food doesn’t need to come straight out of the ground for it to be good for you! People get too obsessed, seriously. Anyway, greasy wings are always a fun time (but you need beer to wash them down IMO) I like them but I can’t say I LOVE them because I really don’t like hot foods….I’m more of a chicken fingers person….Actually I did have some wings at Buffalo Wild Wings once that weren’t hot and I liked those…lol fail. I can’t wait to hear more of your musings on cyber bullying!
HOLY WINGS!!!!!!!
Not a wing fan myself. I do pack bars when I travel (Larabar, KIND, etc.) fruit, just in case there are not options that I like.
Those wings look amazing! My junior and senior year there was a bar that had Wing Wednesday. 10cent wings and you had to wait a couple hours to get them…nothing like profit when you have college kids waiting around for wings for hours buying drinks. But it was SO worth it. Sadly the place got tore down and my mouth is watering for some epic Brothers wings right now.
I was just at a work conference all weeek and had no access to healthy food. Food wasn’t provided. So sunday night I prepared a bunch of meals to bring with me and was able to stay on track