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This is a little belated, but better late than never, right? On Saturday, September 29th I attended Melissa Joulwan, Michelle Tam, and Holly Woodcock’s seminar in Estes Park, CO called “Do It Better! Eat Better, Feel Better, Look Better, Live Better”. This day-long event went from 9:30am to 5pm and was held in a big conference room at the gorgeous YMCA of the Rockies, which sits at the bottom of Rocky Mountain National Park. It was $50 per ticket, or $80 for two, and a complete Paleo-style buffet lunch was included.
Melissa (Melicious) Joulwan, author of the cookbook Well Fed and blogger at www.meljoulwan.com started things off by telling the 115 person audience about what Paleo is and is not. Her bright confidence, beautiful smile, and humble attitude toward taking on the diet were refreshing and captivating, even for this seasoned Paleo girl. She made it easy to understand, and with some jokes and sarcasm thrown in, she kept all of our attention for a couple hours straight.
Along with the basics of Paleo, Melissa shared a little bit about her thyroid issues with the audience. It’s that kind of information that helps people feel less alone if they’re having problems with their own health while on a Paleo diet.
Holly Woodcock, who I actually hadn’t heard of before last weekend, blogs at hollywouldifshecould.net. In a word, Holly is hilarious. She told us about her past as a Weight Watchers-dieting, cigarette-smoking, coffee-crazy party girl who worked at Starbucks for a while.
Then she led us through her weight loss and health journey as a Paleo eater and how she makes the diet work for herself. Her talk was inspiring and entertaining, and I was glad to get to know her, even as just an audience member. In fact, it kind of made me want to be her friend, so Holly, if you’re reading this, I hope you do end up moving to Colorado!
Michelle Tam is the famed blogger at www.nomnompaleo.com, who also created a highly praised Paleo cooking iPad app with her husband, Henry (who blogs at www.fitbomb.com). She’s known in the Paleo world as the working mom who makes Paleo work with her whole family, including her two small kids. She also takes some pretty mouthwatering pictures of the food she creates.
Although she opened her talk about her Paleo journey by saying, “Sorry guys, but the laughs end here,” she cracked me up with her sassy wit and sometimes scathingly honest opinions. She told the story about how her husband told their stubborn 3 year-old son that if he lived in their household, he’d have to eat what they ate. And he promptly said, “Fine, then I’m leaving,” and got up and walked out the door! She had a lot of wisdom to share about how they finally got him to start eating Paleo, using the gateway food – eggs.
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Juli Bauer didn’t formally present, although she DID do a cooking demo with Michelle. But she was one of the special guests (along with myself) at the event. Juli is the very strong-looking woman who runs www.paleomg.com out of Denver. She also puts drool-worthy pictures on her website that is chock full of delicious recipes. You should check her out. She’s a trainer at one of the CrossFits in Denver and definitely looks the part. It was great to meet a fellow Paleoista in this area.
Overall, I thought the seminar was a great success. It takes a lot of laughing to keep my interest for an entire day – I don’t remember being bored once. The food was fantastic, I met some great people, including some of you, our readers! It was so amazing to be approached by so many of you who told me that Paleo Plan helped ease you into the Paleo diet. I was thrilled to meet you all!
The information set forth was useful for beginner to veteran Paleo/Primal eaters alike. There were tips and tricks and insightful gems hidden in all of their talks that inspired probably everyone in that audience to try new things and keep going.
I hope there are more events like this one. Maybe we’ll even do one ourselves?
