Coming Soon: Cranky Fitness Heads to Austin!

photo upload via philip kromer

By Crabby McSlacker

As regular readers may recall, Cranky Fitness is a migratory beast, roaming back and forth each year from Provincetown Massachusetts to San Diego California. This is because Crabby McSlacker and her partner-in-crime "The Lobster," are free spirits who love an adventure! Or else it's because the crustacean couple are really just a pair of spoiled brats too wimpy to survive winter in an isolated New England coastal town.  Either works.

But this year, instead of San Diego, we decided to mix it up and go elsewhere during the colder months. And that elsewhere is ... Austin Texas!

The reason I'm talking about Austin now, when we don't leave 'til early January, is that I just got alerted to the fact that Prevention's R3 Summit on women's health is happening in Austin January 15 and 16.

A women's health conference taking place in a cool city the weekend after I arrive there? What excellent timing! So I felt compelled to do some wheedling and pleading and try to beg my way in for free to cover it for the blog. Because I am totally shameless resourceful like that.

But as it happens we've got a promo code for a discount for Cranky Fitness readers if you're in the vicinity and want to attend!

So why Austin? And what's the deal with the conference?



Why We Decided to Spend 4 Months in Austin Texas 

Well it's home of blogbuddy Carla Birnberg, so it's got to be awesome, right?

But there are other reasons too, many of which even have something to do with health and fitness. We are the nutty sort of folks who will actually choose a place to live based on whether it encourages or discourages a healthy lifestyle.

We've only stayed in Austin a few days here and there, but from what we observed:

• The downtown is fun and walkable, with tons of  intriguing restaurants, bars, music venues, and other enticements to get out and about.
• There is a Whole Foods the size of 97 football fields a short walk away from our rental.
• There are bike paths, parks, tennis courts, pools, gyms, etc. all over the place. And unlike Frisco Texas, where we have recently spent a bunch of time, there are actually sidewalks for pedestrians to use! You are not regarded as a some sort of freakish and dangerous alien life form if you attempt to walk or bike somewhere.
• The city seems young and vibrant and creative. Which you'd think would be a turn-off, right, since we are old and stubborn and fond of going to bed at 9 pm? Yet, for some reason, the youthy thing appeals.
• Austin is in Texas, but not of Texas.  The vibe is left-leaning, alternative, open-minded, and intellectual.  How not to disparage the rest of Texas by saying Austin is the antithesis of everything we aren't crazy about when it comes to Texas? Um, I guess there isn't a way to do that!  So sorry, Rest of Texas.  I do realize many wonderful people live in the Rest of Texas, but the culture there is just too foreign for me to feel very comfortable in.

More About the Prevention R3 Health Summit

What are the "Three R's" about if not "readin', ritin', and 'rithmitic?" They stand for "Revive, Refresh, and Reinvent. I am hoping they have figured out how to reinvent beets and broccoli into brownies, and if so, you'll hear about it here first!

You can tell it's a health conference; almost no one has crappy posture.

The Master of Ceremonies is Dr. Jennifer Ashton. (Not to be confused with Jennifer Aniston, who is pretty adorable and would be great too. But how would she get to Austin when Emirates doesn't fly there?) Anyway, Dr. Jennifer Ashton is co-host of the show The Doctors! And so is Dr. Travis Stork who will also be there. Plus there are a whole slew of other speakers who are experts at various impressive things as well as being "health and wellness thought-leaders."

I happen to be a health and wellness thought-follower; leading sounds way too hard. So I appreciate the prospect of having a whole bunch of new health and wellness thoughts to follow. You can check out the full R3 speaker line-up to see which thinkers and thoughts might appeal most to you.

Plus the summit provides "small-format wellness workshops, live cooking demonstrations and tastings, integrative health screenings, fitness and body sculpting classes, beauty bar samplings, and film screenings."

Wait... what was that about tastings???  I just hope they define "taste" the way I do, though that might require them swapping our traditional dixie-cup sized samplers with big bovine-sized buckets.

Where are they hiding the tasting buckets?

So anyone up for some refreshing revival and reinvention?

Here's  a promo code for a $20 discount on weekend passes: PVNR3SDCRANKY1 which you can use on the Prevention R3 tickets page.

And hell, if you decide to go please let me know you're there!

Perhaps we can meet for a cup of coffee or some sort of creepy-looking green detoxifying beverage or a big-ass draft beer or something? Any confirmation that Cranky Fitness readers are not entirely imaginary is cause for much celebration in my weird little world.

What would you want to see in a women's health conference? Or, if you were to spend 4 months in a different place this winter/spring, where would that be?