Day 2: Tiiiiiiiired!

Day 2:

6:00AM: Hardcore (optional)
7:00AM: Breakfast
8:00AM: Hike
11:15AM: Stretch
12:15PM: Lunch
1:00PM: Calorie Challenge
1:30PM Lecture: Cooking Demo
2:30PM Total Toning
3:30PM: Pool
4:30PM Cardio Intervals
5:30PM: Dinner
6:15PM: Lecture: Spending Your Calories Wisely II

I woke up today extremely extremely sore. I definitely wasn't the only one though! All of us first timers to FR were stumbling around all day long and walking like ducks, at a very slow and torturous waddle.

The evening before, I received a package that I had ordered for my Zensah compression sleeves. I wore them throughout the day and I've been wearing them in the evening while I'm sleeping as well and I think they're helping out a bit with the pain. According to my roomie, the compression sleeves helps with circulation and the building up of lactic acid in the muscles. I don't know for certain if they work but when I put them and my calves are already hurting, it does seem to hurt a tiny bit less.

So for this week, I decided to opt out on all the optional classes because I figure my body is already struggling to keep up with all the activity and I feel that it's much wiser to ease my body into this inferno of exercise rather than plunge in headfirst. You don't want to get injured while you're here,it makes everything much more difficult or even impossible. There are people who have been injured here in the past and they have to leave. Others who have blisters can't and shouldn't participate in gym activities either, so it's extremely important to take every single precaution you can to avoid injury. There's nothing worse than spending all this money and having it go down the drain. Rome wasn't built in a day and an overweight, under exercised body isn't going to be fit in just one day or week either.

All second week FR guests automatically have an extra exercise activity that is planned into your schedule that is required. As if all these classes weren't already enough. :P So that's what I'll be doing next week. I figure what I'll do is add an extra exercise class to my schedule every week that I'm here. This way I can challenge my body to new things and not punish it.... even more so than I'm punishing it now. However, my dad has already said to me that I've been treating myself way too kindly for years right now, which is why I'm in this predicament in the first place. He's got a point.

This morning, we once again had a plate of fruit for breakfast with a Latin American dish called Sope. It's like a baby tortilla surrounded by a pureed black bean sauce with a scoop of egg whites on top. Quite tasty!

Sope!

Something I forgot to mention is this: We are allowed one fruit per day from the salad bar to bring with us on the hike. This is included in our 1200 calorie allowance. I haven't brought any fruit with me yet but I need to start doing so. The roomie stressed the importance of keeping our food up. If we don't, our bodies will enter starvation mode and we won't lose weight. Sometimes I think our digestive system is just too delicate a being. Oversensitive ninny!

So I was separated into the group that I'm going to spend the next week with. The hike we did today was West Canyon. I really liked it. There are a few inclines throughout the hike but mainly it's just very long. The scenery is breathtaking though. You follow along a dirt path that winds in and out and between red rocks and mountains and white rocks etc; I managed to do a pretty good pace and almost made it all the way to the end before I had to turn around. Saw some cute little geckos running around too. I just popped in my newly purchased earphones and went to town.

Sad that the hat is supposed to tie under your chin, not rest on your double chin. :P

By the way, the pro shop here sells almost everything that you need to survive the FR experience. They are quite pricey but it helps if you're in a pinch. Since I lost the ear bud to my earphones and didn't have access to another place to purchase them, I purchased them in the gift shop for about $5.00 over retail. You definitely do pay for convenience here! What's nice and also slightly dangerous is that you can have everything charged to your account here. It's nice because you don't have to carry any money around but it's dangerous because it's very easy to get into a habit of just getting what you want (items in the gift shop, spa services, massages, instructional booklets, etc;) and charging it to your room. No one wants to end up with a ginormous bill at the end of their trip!

So during the hike, my hike guide told me that back and forth, I managed to do about 6 miles of hiking. can you believe that? Absolutely nutty. I did 6 miles in roughly 2.5 hours!! Trust me, during all of these hikes, the urge to slow down or stop and rest or just quit is very very very strong. Especially for people who hate to exercise or are extremely sedentary. Just don't give in to temptation. when you stop for a bit it's so much harder to get started again. It hurts more, you're more tired and it's just not worth it.

A key word of advice from me to you is to separate your mind from your body. I feel like a robot sometimes because everything in my being wants me to stop and quit or just stop and rest but my head will scream that I just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other no matter what. So that's what I do. Also, I've noticed that people are innately competitive even if they don't realize it. No one wants to be last here and so they'll just jet off to make certain that they're not last. It's just human nature to be like that. With my new group, I'm not one of the best but I'm not one of the worst either. I'm right in the middle athletic-wise and that's just fine for me.

After the hike, we had a class called Stretch. It was AMAZING. Very relaxing and it felt really awesome on my sore muscles. In the stretch class, the instructor plays some soothing music and we just stretch! We have mats for the floors and are also given straps that we can use to help us stretch properly. At one point, we were laying on the floor to stretch and I guess I was so tired that I fell asleep for just a second during stretch. I woke myself up because I could hear myself start to snore. lol.

Lunch was soo yummy this afternoon. (the food here really is phenomenal and you very rarely get hungry.) It was a parsnip puree soup with a tuna nicoise salad. (pronounced Knee Swahz, not Nee Koiz) The soup was slightly peppery but the flavor was rich and creamy. The tuna nicoise salad had bits of green beans, olives, pickled peppers and lettuce with an ice cream sized scoop of tuna right next to it. If you like fish, you'll like this lunch. If not... well then you're SOL. Sorry!

After lunch we had a calorie challenge. It was fun. The dining room was broken up into tables/teams and we had to guess how many calories were in certain fast food or convenience foods. Needless to say, my team really got into it. We were close but no cigar. :P

Straight afterwards, the chef here, Cameron gave us a cooking demo. I had really been looking forward to this because the food here has been quite tasty and filling and I want to be able to do all this once I get back home. He set up in the dining room and taught us how to make the the lunch we just had. It was simple and quick but because we were all exhausted, it was hard to stay awake.

The afternoon was pretty tough. I have never wanted a nap so badly in my life!! We had total toning which is a weights intensive workout. We are given free weights and one of those weighted sticks and we had to squats and tricep dips and bicep lifts, etc; This class was TOUGH. People were groaning and yelling to try their best to keep on.

After total toning, we had pool, so I had to rush back to my room and change and then run back to the pool to go to class. Another thing is that the classes are packed so close to one another that it's hard to make it in time sometimes. We are given 15 minutes but classes frequently run a bit longer and when you have pool in between any of your classes, it's really difficult to get to your next class in time. People that are overweight need some time to squeeze into their bathing suits!! FR should really consider adding just an extra 5 minutes between each of these classes.

Pool was alright, the instructor that we had for this class (the instructors are always different on each day, I guess it keeps them from getting bored) was good in the sense that she was really serious about her difficult workout routine BUT most of the exercises were geared towards those who could swim, so the 3 of us that couldn't mostly just floated around in the shallow end and chatted since we couldn't participate.

Dinner was the best I've had so far. We had broccoli with a vegetarian lasagna. Very filling and it really tasted like there was some meat in it. (Maybe there was?) Dessert was the infamous chocolate dipped strawberries. They were great! To prolong the chocolatey taste, I sliced the chocolate off and ate the strawberry by itself first and then slowly let the chocolate melt in my mouth. Yum. I was also thrilled because I found that they had a soy sauce substitute in the condiment section! It was pretty good, I've gotta look it up once I get home. It's called Bragg's Natural Amino something or other. What was interesting was it suggested putting the liquid into a spray bottle to minimize the amount used. Great tip I think.

The lecture after dinner was once again really tough to get through. You'd never believe how small portion sizes are meant to be, lol.. I swear, one portion size of salmon is about 3 bites. A portion size of cake is 2 bites.

Today was a difficult day, being extremely sore and tired, it was difficult to psyche myself up for anything. I just wanted to sleep. Well, I guess I'll catch up on sleep on Saturday and Sunday! Onto tomorrow. I still can't believe I've been able to keep up and not have any injuries. Something's gotta give, right?

Today, I burned: 5339 calories and the meals came out to 1094 calories. Unbelievable, right? These hikes are KILLER calorie-burn wise.

Tips:

* Wash your Camelbak out thoroughly and several times before you come here and start to use it. If you don't, the water tastes horrible and plasticky for a long time. Also, it's a great idea to put ice (at least in the summer months here) into the Camelbak because it will keep your water cool. Also, when drinking from your Camelbak, always blow back into the tube after taking a sip. If you don't, the water that's stuck in the tube will get warm and taste horrible when you take your next sip.

*The best way to fill your Camelbak at FR is to use ice from the ice machine in the dining room and then use the sink behind the salad bar. The sink water if you use the push pedals on the floor is filtered and you can fill your Camelbak up in no time.

*Get to meals just a tiny bit late if you have a lecture. If you eat through the lecture, you can still take notes and what's even better is that because you're still eating, it's easier to stay awake!