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I can’t believe I’m already back and how much I have to catch up on!  Forgive me for being so absent on your blogs lately, I’ve missed you guys! I drove back last night and tried to get things somewhat organized before work today, but I still have grocery shopping, cleaning, and mountains of laundry to do, ugh!

The SCAN Symposium was an absolute blast and I learned so much wonderful information (I need to go back over all my notes!), and met some amazing sports dietitians.  Going to this conference has made me realize what I want to pursue for the future and I really look forward to next year.  

This year’s symposium focused on sports nutrition, particularly in the realm of eating disorders, disordered eating, body image, etc in the athletic population.  I’ll just give a little re-cap of the weekend and the sessions that I attended, along with some yummy eats!

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After work on Friday, Chris discovered that my back tire was abnormally low on pressure and so I went to the tire store only to find there was a metal sliver stuck in my tire!!  eek!  Good thing I got that checked out 🙂  After munching on a packed peanut butter and jelly sammie for dinner, and stashing a few snacks for the road, I was off for San Diego! . . .

I didn’t arrive till late and pretty much crashed at my friend J’s house.  I was so thankful that she let me stay with her because that saved me a good amount on lodging, even though the parking was $22 bucks per day, ouch!

Saturday I signed up for a pre-workshop looking at sports nutrition assessment, particularly the nutrition care process, iron status, vitamin D status, the female athlete triad and a few case studies.  The conference was held at the beautiful Sheraton Hotel.

Since I was done pretty early that day, J and I decided to peruse San Diego!  We first grabbed some quick sammies at Subway and hit up Balboa Park to walk around and see Hubble 3D at the IMAX Theater.  It was a spectacular show!  Thinking about space and the galaxy always freaks me out a bit and it’s just amazing to think that we are just a tiny piece of matter in the entire atmosphere . . .

The weather was gorgeous with tons of greeeeen everywhere!

We even made a stop at the beach!!  I had to get my toes in the sand . . .

After a quick stop at the beach, we headed to Old Town for some dinner.  We didn’t have any thing in particular in mind, but wanted to try the local cuisine, and stopped at a place called Fred’s that looked fun and vibrant.

I was hungry by the time we got there and munched on some chips and salsa, nom, nom, nom!

There were lots of options to choose from.

I decided to go with the 3 taco combo, which included carne asada, grilled fish and chicken to sample a little bit of each. I managed to finish the fish and carne asada, with a few bites of the chicken + 1/2 the rice and beans.

Sunday started a little bit later, so I was able to sleep in till 7am!!!  Yessssss, I’m a bit sleep-deprived lately, so this was glorious.  Here were the sessions for the day:

• KEYNOTE: Is Anorexia Nervosa an Eating Disorder? New Insights into Puzzling Symptoms — This was really interesting and looked at the actual neural implications with anorexia and what is actually going on in the brain.
• Breaking into the Corporate Market – Recommendations From a Corporate Insider and Wellness Expert
• Exploring the Depths of Hunger/Satiety Work: Tools and Tips for Transformation — I loved this session and it was very interesting looking at the power of Intuitive Eating (I think I’m going to have to pick up the book!)
• Research Update: Causes and Consequences of Iron Deficiency in Athletes — This one was very informative and it’s so important for athletes to watch their iron because it can greatly impact performance.
• Creating a Heart-Healthy Supermarket Tour

Most days there was lunch provided and we could choose from various sandwiches and fruit and pack it in a lunch box which was nice.  One day I decided to enjoy the weather and headed outside 🙂

Monday was a loooong day, but it really didn’t seem like I was there from 8am-10pm!

• KEYNOTE: Athlete’s On the Edge–Medical and Nutrition Issues in Athletes with Eating Disorders

• Peer-led Approaches to Reducing Eating Disorder Risk Factors and Increasing Awareness of the Female Athlete Triad — This one was with Dr. Becker and I found it fascinating.

• A New Paradigm for Weight: An Effective Model for Promotion of Healthy Body Image, Eating, Fitness and Weight in Children, Teens, and Adults

• Eating Disorders in Sport: Identification, Treatment and Prevention

• Sport Nutrition Designs for the 21st Century Endurance Athlete

• Turning Back the Ravages of Time: What You Can Do Now to be Healthy in Twenty Years — Eat your blueberries, strawberries and walnuts!!  They really do help fight aging.

Throughout the conference I munched on various snacks I brought and samples that were given out.  I tried the new blueberry SoyJoy and it actually tastes pretty good!  I don’t like any of their other flavors to be honest.

Monday night was also the awards dinner and it was filled with great food 🙂

The entrée was mahi mahi with shrimp and a lemon-cream sauce + roasted root veggies and creamy cauliflower ‘mashed potatoes’.  So good!

I got back around 10:45pm and crashed!

Tuesday was the last day and I was very sad to see it go 🙁

• The Gastric Bypass Athlete: Case Studies and Discussion — Nancy Clark gave this presentation and I had actually never thought about this before.
• Vitamin D and Athletic Performance — It’s becoming more and more evident at how important vit D really is in so many body reactions and it was recommended to test athletes and recommend a supplement if they are low.
• Food Addiction: Fact or Fiction? Effective Tools for Treating compulsive Overeating and Binge Eating Disorder — This session was also very interesting, as I have never really dealt with this topic before.

Before I headed out I had to make one last stop for some fish tacos and J recommended a place called Wahoo’s.

It was really tasty!  I had two tacos, one fish and one carne asada + rice and beans.  But, boy oh boy that fish was spicy!!!!

I don’t think I was going to use this thank you!

And because there were like 10 servings of rice on there, I split the plate down the middle and stopped after half 🙂

I HAD to take a picture of this little guy!  awwwwh!  adorable!!!!!

It’s nice to be back home and see my guys (Chris and Buster), but I have a lot of catching up to do.  It’s almost like we always need a vacation from a vacation, right?  I’d like to go through all my notes again and touch on some topics that I thought were particularly interesting and important.  I love going on learning trips because it’s nice to get a different perspective on things and meet new people.

Overall it was a great trip and I’m going to miss San Diego!

Have you done any educational trips lately?