ShiftCon 2015: Yoga, Organic Hippies and More: Plus a Giveaway

For the past two years, I’ve gone to ShiftCon – which is a summit for those who are eco bloggers. What does that mean? I think everyone is still trying to figure it out, but primarily it’s bloggers that focus on natural, organic, and safe (think non-toxic) products and brands. They also believe in transparency in the system and truth in marketing as well as sustainability and waste reduction. As a celiac, I believe in so many of these things – pure unaltered products that are transparent in production and marketing. My inner hippie also believes in sustainability and making the earth a better place. You can call that a hippie – and that’s fine. I consider myself light green. I won’t punch myself in the face over buying non-organic food or something with a lot of packaging, or even potato chips or donuts. However, I believe that we should all have the right to know what goes into our body and what we purchase and those purchases should contribute to the greater good of humanity.

Here are some of my favorite brands that I really enjoyed learning about at ShiftCon:

SUPER excited about the limited edition pumpkin flavored Puffins by Barbara’s Cereal. However, I was very surprised to find that I’m now addicted to the Honey Rice Puffins. It almost pains me to see this picture because I only took two tiny bags home and now I’m scouring the internet on where I can find it!

Love that Food For Life Baking Company now has Sprouted Gluten-Free Bread! Check out this Sprouted For Life bread!

Unreal candy is pretty awesome. I love it, but it’s always had a “wheat” warning on it, but they assured me that it’s just a warning as there is gluten in the facility. There is not gluten in the product. The dark chocolate does not contain dairy – and it’s delicious!

I’m excited about becoming an affiliate for Grab Green because I need to find a fragrance free brand of cleaners I can support. I’m a super huge Molly’s Suds fan FYI so I’ll never stop purchasing those products, but I’m liking what I’m seeing from Grab Green. I’ll let you know after I test everything out. 

Chosen Foods just swept Expo East and won big with the avocado oil mayo (includes eggs). I’ve been an addict with Chosen Foods avocado oil (luckily you can buy it in bulk at Costco), ever since last year at ShiftCon (this is exactly why I encourage vendors to sample at consumer shows – it’s the only way we try new things anymore!) They also just came out with Bites with Chia (contains nuts).

If you follow my suitcase pics, you know that I pack at least 5 vegan nutritional shakes from Orgain on every trip. While they’re too big for carryon luggage, I store them in my checked baggage. Only a few times have I been able to get through TSA with them in my purse (and there’s a funny story about getting caught with them at JFK).

I’m obsessed with Orgain as you can tell. I buy the shakes bulk at my Whole Foods. I’m also super excited about a non-crap Gatorade, with new Orgain electrolyte replacement powder! We all know when we need this kind of stuff and I’m happy to have a better version out there now!

Apparently Fork in the Road sausages are available at my Whole Foods – who knew? I didn’t until they showed up at ShiftCon with a note that they are gluten-free and dairy-free. They are also soy-free, except for the asian-themed pork sausage that has soy sauce (not wheat, just soy) in it.

Lundberg Family Farms has SO many great new products that are rice based (and now quinoa) that are gluten-free and whole grain, along with Non-GMO Project verified.

Bitsy’s Brain Food is a wheat-filled company, so naturally I thought “what’s the point of visiting their booth?” But I was wrong, as they make these certified gluten-free cereals that are also organic. 

I wanted to take a minute to thank Stonyfield for providing NON-DAIRY yogurt for breakfast both at IFBC and also at ShiftCon the next weekend. I could finally have yogurt at a conference!

Nutiva is a great brand – so happy that I had a chance to work with them this year on a sponsored post for their amazing shortening and their coconut flour. Definitely check out their coconut oil too – and their red palm oil! If you want to talk about a brand doing transparency and sustainability right, check out Nutiva. Also, as I type this, I just looked down and realized I’m wearing a Nutiva shirt from Expo West this year. Talk about good branding – ha!

Nature’s Path is another great CATB friend and sponsor (look for them in the holiday guide this year). They were at the show talking about their new LOVE CRUNCH bars and new Qia bars. As always, they showed up with their excellent organic dairy-free gluten-free cereal which is great because I love cereal for breakfast, and that almost never happens at these types of shows. 

I adore Earth Mama Angel Baby as a company – great, safe, body products with an equally-impressive brand. I love a ton of their products – however, please note that there are oats in some of their body products. As you know, I only use gluten-free (meaning gluten-free oats) body products on and in my body.

LOVE being able to see a free-from brand at ShiftCon! They are non-GMO project verified, so it makes sense that they spent their first year promoting #ShiftHappens. It was cool to watch moms coming up to the booth and talking about how their kids eat the products, or having these products available easily for their lunchboxes. Rock on Enjoy Life Foods!

I love seeing trends coming to life and this is great to see coconut and turmeric being used in orange juice – and a delicious organic orange juice at that! Uncle Matt’s is a great brand I loved meeting them at ShiftCon last year. I’ve found them at my Whole Foods and have been buying them there ever since. However, I totally missed out on getting a handful of coupons, because this OJ is not the cheap junk you can get at the grocery store!

Early Friday morning I woke up at 5am to get to a 6am yoga class. Why on god’s green earth would I ever do that? Because Beth from Tasty Yummies was teaching the class! This woman – she’s so amazing. If you don’t know her, GET TO KNOW HER. She’s a yogi, and even though I’m just honored to know her in real life, it was my privilege to take her class!

Speaking of friends, it was so great to see so many bloggers from behind the computer screen, actual in the flesh. This is why I encourage bloggers to take time out and actually see people we usually only tweet out or tag in Instagram. Like Sarah Kay Hoffman who writes a lifestyle blog with a range of topics from adoption, food allergies, SIBO, healthy living, fitness, and more. Again, if you don’t already know her – you need to know her! I also got to see Lindsay Tredent from FitandAwesome.com, who is a fitness nut (in a good way), and recently had a baby! She is also a blogger on the WeBlog team for New Hope for Expo West, along with Sarah. These ladies are awesome. BIG VIRTUAL HUGS!

Unfortunately I was only in LA for about 30 hours, so I didn’t have much else to talk about, although I did get some good information about saving money on organic, mergers and acquisitions in the natural industry, and a few other topics, but I’ll write about them later. Thanks to everyone who followed me on Instagram during the crazy weekend! I appreciate all the double-taps!

If you’d like to learn more about ShiftCon, including all the brands that were there, take a gamble and enter to win a box packed full of yummies and educational material from the event. Follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter below and its terms and conditions in the widget. Good luck and thanks again to ShiftCon for the great day in LA!

a Rafflecopter giveaway