This week was the highly anticipated Health Blog Awards 2017 – a collaboration between That Protein and the Health Bloggers Community, celebrating the achievements of health bloggers in the UK, Ireland and the EU.

What a night! As some of you will know, I was shortlisted for the ‘Best New Blog’ award back in July. Since then I’ve been working on getting as many public votes as possible and trying to improve my blog as much as I could in time for the awards. I was lucky enough to come runner up in my category – as I only started my blog 5 months ago I’m pretty happy with that!

The night was a great networking event, perfect for new bloggers such as myself to chat to others and start getting my name out there! It’s so nice to be able to put faces to blog names and to finally meet some of the lovely bloggers I’ve been chatting to since I started this crazy journey. The sponsors for each award also attended the event, loaded with lots of yummy samples and freebies to try (free food is always a winner!)

The ceremony was hosted by Fab, who founded the Health Bloggers Community and nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert – both were great host’s and made the night a light hearted and very enjoyable experience! Rhiannon had a Q&A session with the below panel of judges – hearing them speak about their own experiences with health and fitness was inspiring and I think everyone felt pretty empowered that night.

PANEL OF JUDGES:
– Dr Rupy Aujla @doctors_kitchen
– Tally Rye @tallyrye
– Rebecca Pearson @1rebeccapearson
– Rozanna Purcell @rozannapurcell

THE WINNERS FOR EACH AWARD:
Go check out there blogs for more recipe/fitness/health inspiration!

Best Recipe Blog (sponsored by No.1 Rosemary Water)
Winner – Mrs Hollingsworth’s

Free-From / Illness Recovery Blog (sponsored by Freeist!)
Winner – The Flourishing Pantry

Yoga and Spirituality Blog (sponsored by Lorna Jane UK)
Winner – Jody Shield

Fitness Blog (sponsored by Bounce Foods)
Winner – Hannah & Fitness

Vegan Blog (sponsored by That Protein)
Winner – Healthy & Psyched

EU Bloggers (sponsored by Biomed)
Winner – Sailing Through Fitness

Best New Blogger (sponsored by Mindful Bites)
Winner – Brunch n Grind

Science and Nutrition Blog (sponsored by Mount Olympus Foods)
Winner – Plant Based Pixie

Best Health & Fitness Instagram (sponsored by Spiced Nutrition)
Winner – Nourish Your Glow

Best Irish Blog (sponsored by Soulbia Foods)
Winner – The Irish Balance

Best Natural Beauty & Lifestyle Blog (sponsored by Biomed Nutrition)
Winner – The English Aromatherapist

Health Blogger of the Year (sponsored by Renew Life)
Winner – Positively Jessica

Now for the goodie bag – there was an insane amount of snacks and treats in this bag! A mixture of products from the sponsored brands, as well as a few other yummy treats to try! I’ve got my eye on the all the chocolate flavoured products (obviously), the yummy HIPPEAS crisps which I LOVE and Nutri-Brex muesli balls which I haven’t tried yet!

Thank you again to everyone who voted for me, those who read my blog posts and comment on my Instagram photos – it means so so much to me and I love that there’s a huge number of people helping new bloggers such as myself into this community!

Thank you as well to the Health Bloggers Community and the amazing sponsors for making the awards happen. It was a great evening full of many inspiring and talented people, and a great way to appreciate the amazing work everyone has put into their blogs. Bring on next year!

Sophie x