I thought I’d mix things up with a slightly different blog this week. I was in attendance at the Irish Blogger Conference last weekend and I wanted to share some insights with you from that event. There were some great speakers at the conference from differing areas of expertise such as fitness, fashion, social media strategy, journalism and even veterinary practice. From my point of view it was the areas of fitness, health and wellbeing that I was mostly interested in. In this blog I want to share with you what I learned from the speakers in those areas and some of the practical advice and tips that they discussed.

Rob Lipsett

Rob is a young Dubliner really into his health and fitness that has given up his day job to concentrate on making a living from his online business. Rob has his own clothing label and also sells training programmes to clients online. All of this is supported by his blogging and video logs which he shares on his YouTube channel.

Rob’s advice at the conference was to “do what you’re passionate about and if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life”. Sound advice from such a young man. He also stressed how important it is to be good at what you do. Rob finished up his talk with a line that I can really relate to and that is, “the amount of effort you put in to something, you’ll get back”. This is true for almost everything in life and in my opinion it’s particularly relevant for exercise!

Lessons for Office Worker Health:

1) Start vlogging and 2) working hard at the gym and eating well really does pay off.

Alison Canavan

Alison is one of Ireland’s best known models and spent 15 years of her life living and modelling in London and New York. Alison is perhaps most famous in recent years for her honesty and openness in discussing her struggles with depression. As Alison said herself on Saturday, “Depression is a lack of expression”. One thing I know following her talk is that Alison is doing her best to give depression the expression and the attention it fully deserves.

Alison kicked things off with a short group meditation session which put everyone in the room at ease. Meditation is something that Alison practices every day. She then shared her inspiring story and outlook on life. Clean eating and matcha green tea now play a big role in her day to day life. She’s currently studying to be a nutritional therapist and plans to combine her studies and experiences, to offer future clients a service that covers the whole picture: lifestyle health, well-being and mental health to create a better lifestyle.

Some other quality advice that I took from Alison on Saturday was to “get rid of the word diet from your vocabulary” and to “be in the moment”. Alison told me afterwards that, while her schedule can change from week to week, one thing that always remains constant is her regular gym session.

Lessons for Office Worker Health:

1) Study meditation and mental health awareness in more detail and 2) get some matcha green tea!

Orla McDonagh

Orla is a health enthusiast and fitness blogger who may be better known to some by her online alias, Gym Bunny. Despite having a separate full time job Orla has managed to amass a following of over 20,000 people across her social media sites. Orla is currently studying Nutrition and promotes healthy living and clean eating to her many followers. 

Echoing the sentiments of Rob earlier, Orla stated the importance of having a “passion for what you do” whether that’s at work or at the gym. Orla talked about passion and (positive) ego and how important these attributes are for her health promotion work.

Orla is big on healthy eating and has a few e-books on the subject called “Clean Cheats And Healthy Snacks” and “Simply Healthier Recipes”.

Orla leads by inspiring others and says she gets her greatest kick from seeing her followers make genuine improvements in their health and well-being thanks to her teachings and advice. She regularly shares before and after photos and stories of followers on her site highlighting the positive changes they have made in their lives.

Lessons for Office Worker Health:

1) Introduce some ego to work and exercise and 2) get started on an e-book!

Conclusion

I really enjoyed meeting a lot of great people at the conference and being inspired by the quality speakers and contributors. I have to admit though that my eyes were opened to the fact that I am far from an expert in the areas of meditation, mental health, vlogs, e-books and even matcha green tea but thanks to the speakers on Saturday I now plan on researching all of the above in the near future with the aim of introducing them into the Office Worker Health portfolio. I will keep you updated as to my progress. Thanks so much for your time!