250: MAYA'S TIP: Five Tips for Attending a Lifestyle Medicine Conference

Hello, my beautiful listeners.  

I am recording this episode while visiting my sister in Houston, Texas. Since Riz was on-call during Thanksgiving week, we made a trip a week later. So we are spending time with my family here in Houston.

So we are living in our camper van for a few days. Make sure to visit my Instagram account to see my fun posts as I share details of my trip with you. @maya_hls_podcast 

I hope you had a meaningful Thanksgiving, all who live in the United States. 

In today's episode, I will tell you about our trip to Orlando, Florida, as we attended the annual Lifestyle Medicine Conference.

But before I do, let me share a couple of announcements with you.  

This coming Saturday, December 3, we offer the PAC pod leader's first annual summit and holiday party. You will receive a zoom link. This event will be live-streamed to our Facebook pod leaders group. If you have a PlantPure Pod, please message me for details so you can attend. plantbasedmaya@gmail.com 

Second, we are hosting an in-person event with Dr. Will Tuttle. He is the author of The World Peace Diet. My interview with Dr. Tuttle just aired this past Tuesday. He will visit us on December 13 as part of his Benevolent Revolution Tour. This event will also be live-streamed via Instagram for those who are not local. I am partnering with Megha Shah of True V and Tania Cantu of Plant-Based Mexican to make this event happen. For more information, please visit this link: https:// bit.ly/DrTuttle

Okay, my friends. Let's talk about my experience at the lifestyle medicine conference and five tips I have for a future conference. Again, lifestyle medicine consists of six pillars, a plant-forward diet, exercise, stress management, adequate sleep, healthy relationships, and minimizing the use of risky substances. So the conference is designed to educate attendees in these areas.  

We arrived Sunday evening at our hotel room just in time for the reception. We stayed off-site at our timeshare, which typically has a kitchenette. But actually, the pre-workshops started Saturday evening. The women's health interest group held a three-hour workshop Sunday morning focusing on women's health and lifestyle medicine. Dr. Michelle Thompson and Kayli Anderson were on my podcast, sharing details about their lecture. Feel free to revisit that conversation.  

https://www.healthylifestylesolutions.org/242

Despite missing most of the day's events, we immediately connected with people we knew during the reception. I enjoy the social aspect of conferences. I may be an introvert, but the social butterfly in me looks forward to seeing wonderful people I've met via zoom and in person.  

We ran into Bryan Romey, who had a table for the Walk With A Doc organization. I saw Dr. Judy Brangman, who will be coming on the podcast.  

That same evening, we headed to Target to purchase basic groceries for our hotel room.

Day 1 of the conference: Monday morning, we headed to the resort for breakfast and then to my women's health interest group. You will see photos of the delicious breakfast on my Instagram feed. It is essential to highlight that we eat delicious food even at conferences.  

There were so many people to meet, many lectures to attend, and tons of vendor booths. ACLM has an app with all the details about the conference. The app lists speakers, attendees, silent auction items, research posters, virtual expo, and on-demand content. 

So if you meet someone for the first time, you could photograph their badge and look them up in the app to find their email and social media information. Of course, participants would have had to fill out their information ahead of time.  

The ACLM app was also live-streaming some of the lectures. So if you could only attend a few in one day, you could still view them later.  

Lots of photo opportunities with various backdrops and props.  

One of my favorite lectures was on mental health equity with Dr. Alyssa Vela, who was previously on the podcast. By attending her lecture, I understood better how we still need to provide resources for underserved populations. 

https://www.healthylifestylesolutions.org/213

Later that evening, several of us went to dinner. Again, visit my IG for photos or watch my YouTube video. You may see familiar faces  https://www.youtube.com/c/HealthyLifestyleSolutions1

Day 2: On Tuesday morning, I woke up exhausted. But I was still able to get up for breakfast. I attended the Happiness Science member interest group led by Dr. Liana Lianov. Again, she was also on my podcast. https://www.healthylifestylesolutions.org/232

I was so happy to meet her in person finally. I want to become more active in this group to bring you more tools to flourish in the field of happiness. You will see that they had us do fun activities to raise our happiness levels, and they worked. I left feeling more positive and lighter.

Later that afternoon, Riz and I sat outside the cafe at the conference as we took a break from all the lectures. This was a perfect place to run into many of the people we admire in lifestyle medicine.  

That evening there was an award ceremony which we enjoyed so much.  

2022 Lifestyle Medicine Trailblazer Award Winner was Dr. Liana Lianov.  

*Global leader with significant contributions to the establishment 

*Chair of the Happiness Science & Positive Health Committee MIG 

*Working to integrate positive psychology into healthcare 

*Founder and President of the non-profit Global Positive Health  Institute 

*Author of strengths in the mirror thriving now and tomorrow addresses positive habits   

*https://www.healthylifestylesolutions.org/232

2022 President's Award 

Given in recognition of service to the field LM through exemplary contributions to ACLM. The award is given annual to an individual  who has been a star member of ACLM for a minimum of 5 years and has volunteered their time and energy  

Dr. George Guthrie - he was one of the original members at the inaugural meeting in 2004.  

Lifetime Achievement Award- devoted to the cause of LM for half of their lives or more.  

2021- Dr. Kenneth Cooper 

Has been practicing LM for 52. Athlete in high school and college. Medical school didn't have time to exercise 204 pounds at age 29. white water skiing had chest pains.out of shape. Pre-hypertense, pre-diabetic. had not planned in going into the field of preventative medicine. lost weight in 6 months, ran marathon in one year,  normalized. realized this is the field that is ignored. setting example first. Cooperized. his dad thought Cooper would drop dead from enlarged heart from running. 

The Cooper Institute was founded in 1970 by 

Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, the "Father of Aerobics," as a nonprofit organization with a simple vision to prove that exercise is medicine. 

For 50 years, The Cooper Institute has established the benefits of regular physical activity and the links between fitness and the prevention of many chronic diseases. https://www.cooperinstitute.org/

2022 Recipient of the lifetime achievement award-  

Jack and Elaine LaLanne were friends with the Coopers. She is still thriving today. We were blessed to have taken photos with Dr. Kenneth Cooper and Elaine LaLanne. He invited us to tour the Cooper Institute in Dallas.

Day 3: Wednesday, I took it easy. I had very little energy left.

Finally, I participated in the silent auction by offering a Podcast Guest Kit, and it sold for $350. All monies go to the HEAL initiative - health equity achieved through lifestyle medicine- scholarships to address the underrepresentation in medicine of some of the underserved populations; heal scholars received training and certification, and the opportunity to attend this conference.  

Riz and I headed to the Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios on Thursday with friends. We decided that we needed to have fun while in Orlando.  

We stayed an extra two days to rest. 

So, I am better prepared for the 2023 LM conference in Denver, CO.  

5 tips when attending conferences 

1. Dress comfortably; this includes comfortable shoes and a  sweater 
2. Plan out your day carefully so that you do not burn yourself out
3. Get to know other attendees; this means network, have dinner with others, and enjoy the fellowship. We started an IG DM Group to connect with people who we knew would be attending the conference. Great way to have someone to dine with 
4. Take plenty of photos to share on social media; people like to  see what happens at these events 
5. Take good care of yourself, eat healthy meals, get plenty of rest and try not to overdo it  

Overall, I had a blast at the 2022 LM conference. I made a fun IG reel recapping how intense the experience was for me. https://www.instagram.com/reel/ClNCFNCJKV9/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

I hope that you enjoyed this recap. If you plan on attending the 2023 conference in Denver, CO, please let me know. I want to connect with you.