Expo

So, today I went to the National Capital Fit Day Expo.  I have to say, I was really disappointed.   I wanted to go and be inspired and learn a few things and listen to some great speakers.  I was on the hunt for books, either cookbooks or fitness books or even some biographies about my fitness hero's.  I was really interested to hear Mario Lopez speak.  He was supposed to give a talk about fitting fitness into a busy life.  Plus he's really cute!  Charles Poliquin was also speaking, but attending his talk would cost you extra.

So here's the set-up.  When you get in there are three to four "lanes" of vendors/exhibitors.  There was nothing here that I found particularly exciting.  If you were looking for a gym you were in the right place.  Almost every gym in town was represented.  There was an interesting exhibit from a pole dancing gym.  That seemed to attract a lot of attention, (smirk).  All the health food companies represented seemed to be pushing these things called Energy Tabs.  They're a little tab that you drop in a bit of water and it fizzes into a little shot.  It's supposed to give you energy, but I had two and I had to have a nap when I got home.  It was nice to see a lot of vegetarian items being promoted, but other than supplements, power bars and snack foods, the entire field of nutrition was largely absent.

There were classes you could try if you liked, but I wasn't really interested in that.  The "Kids Zone" was just a couple of really big bouncy castle type things.  I would have thought it would be someone actually teaching kids about physical fitness and leading them through different activities.  Really it was just a place to dump your kids.

I finished looking over all the exhibits (twice), in about 20 minutes.  I took a seat at the main stage to wait for the Mayor to speak, followed by Mario Lopez.  There was only about 50 people waiting with me, which surprised me.  This was gonna be the highlight of the show!  Well, turns out the crowd wasn't big enough for the Mayor, because he never made an appearance.  They introduced Mario and he came out and he spoke for about 10 minutes, basically telling me things I already knew.  Don't eat too much, do an exercise you enjoy and eat balanced meals throughout the day.  Then the pole dancers struck up there music so loud you almost couldn't hear anything else.  Mario decided to take questions from the audience.  Two people had questions, then he decided he would prefer to answer questions from the side of the stage.  He told people to just come up and talk to him in person and he would sign things for them if they wanted and pose for pictures, which was great, unless you were one of the people who had already paid extra for a private meet and greet.  Thankfully, that wasn't me!

And that was it.  It was over.  There was nothing left for me to see.  My twenty dollar entry fee got me a bag full of advertisements and ten minutes of staring at Mario's dimples.  That was it.  I left feeling very deflated and disappointed.  I went home and slept off my "energy tabs".  I need to get out for a proper bike ride tonight.  I think I'll read through all my old Oxygen Magazines and get some real inspiration.  My advice, this event is a definite skip.

Michy