Day 8: 30-8 = 22 Days of Healthy Torture Left!

Day 8:

My schedule is a bit different now since I'm a 'second weeker' so I'm going to put down my own schedule. This week, I'm on Team Blue. I think Team Green has a better ring to it though. :P

So second weeker's are required to add one additional workout class to their schedule since we don't have to participate in most of the lectures. We're given two options per day and you get to choose which you'd like to do.

6:00AM: Yogalates (2nd week)
7:00AM: Breakfast
8:00AM: Hike
11:15AM: Stretch
12:30PM: Lunch
1:45PM: Open Gym (2nd week)
2:30PM: Step-n-Pump
3:30PM: Pool
4:30PM Circuit Training
5:30PM: Dinner

The schedule looks nicer doesn't it? :) More working out, less falling asleep during educational lectures. :)

I was dreading today like there was no tomorrow. lol. The beginning of the week is always tough for me and the thought of another long week of tough exercise stretching out before me seems impossible..... .... (a few more for good measure) but I can do it!! I hope this week flies by as quickly as last week did.

Unfortunately for my blog readers, the video upload didn't work out quite right here. I tried all last night but the internet connection here is just a bit too slow to upload videos. What I will do is once I get home, I'll upload it all and put it in chronological order with my blog postings. The blog will be a lot prettier again, rather than just plain text.

Breakfast was yummy if not a bit tough on my braces. I think I'm going to put something on my preferences card that says 'DO NOT TOAST MY BREAD.' They toast the sandwich thins here and they get pretty hard which makes my braces/teeth hurt. So breakfast was a small plate of fruit (melons, canteloupes, and pineapples, oh my!) and FR's version of PB&J. They used almond butter, I don't know what kind of jelly (I believe it's in the cookbook, I'll check) and slices of strawberry and banana. It was good but I was still a tad hungry afterwards.

So for the first hike of the week they once again put me on Anasazi Ridge. This time we took a different route and so we had to get into the van to get there, so it was like we sort of went up the same mountain the opposite way. Difficulty-wise, it was the same as last week but guess what?!! I didn't feel like I was going to die! It was no cake walk, the inclines were still tough and some rocks still had to be traversed but I managed it and it just felt easier. Last week I was huffing and puffing and thinking, what did I get myself into?! Today I was huffing a bit but thinking, wow, I think I'm improving. :) It was a GREAT feeling. I hope that they put me once again into the 'no heights' group though. There's a bit of a dropoff on Anasazi Ridge and though you're about 5-6 feet away, it still freaks me out.

By the way, a friend of mine says that I'm starting to sound like a cult member full of happy thoughts. Thought it was a bit funny and that I should mention it. :/

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love the stretch class after hikes. So far this week, my legs feel great, there's no pain in them at all BUT my feet kinda hurt so I'm going to make sure to rub 'em a bit and give them a massage. :) I'm really surprised that my legs recovered so quickly, I seriously thought I was going to be in a lot of pain for a long long time. I'm not complaining though!! (actually, hallelujah!) I guess I've been lucky  because I haven't had any blisters. BUT, I've been super vigilant about taking care of my feet so you should do so as well. Blisters take awhile to heal and they just suck in the interim.

For those asking for an update about what's going on with 'D.' I've decided I'm just going to ignore her, it and everything that's associated with it. If anything else happens, THEN I'll say something. I hope nothing happens though. I hate negative vibes. What's funny is that one of the guests here asked this morning how my roomie is dealing with my snoring. ::sigh::  (She's been great by the way! Or she's just too nice to say anything negative. :) )

Thank you all for your support and kind words though, you don't know how much I appreciated all the comments! Thanks as well to the people who read my blog who actually physically came up to give me a few words of encouragement at FR. It meant the world to me. I'll be taking all your advice and just take the high road. ;) Besides, my mom's already got a back up plan in motion. She said if anyone else harasses me, she's hopping a plane to Utah to kick their @ss. :)

Random aside:

I'm kinda excited about getting home and trying out all my fun workout videos that I wasn't able to keep up with before. I'm wondering now if they'll still be super difficult or if they'll seem easier than before. :)



- Back to Reality -

Lunch today was pretty good. We had a turkey sandwich with a salad. The salad was sweet and had bits of fruit and nuts in it which I'm really not too partial to (I think salads should be salty) so I made my own mini salad from the salad bar of my usual toppings of mushrooms, tomatoes, beets and cucumber. The sandwich was topped with onions, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts and a tomato basil vegan 'mayo.' Good eating.

So I decided that my extra class for this week would be the open gym and that I would use the Couch to 5K program as my guidelines for the open gym. This isn't the first time I've ever attempted this Couch to 5k program. I've attempted it at home in the past without much success. 60 seconds of running at home felt impossible at the time and I quickly gave up. Today however, the 60 seconds wasn't super easy but it was a hell of a lot easier than it has ever felt. I may up the 'speed' of the program. You're supposed to do this for the first week, every other day:

5 minutes warm up
60 seconds running/jogging
90 seconds resting
(repeat until you reach 20 minutes)
Then 5 minutes cool down
Stretch

Since what I did today felt pretty good, I think I may do the above recommended schedule for 3 days worth of open gyms and then move onto the second phase, to round out this week. This is the second phase which is this:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk.
Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

I'll keep you guys updated so you know how it goes. I'm excited though!!

So after open gym, I had Step-n-Pump. I had it last week with Sharon and I was already dreading the class because it's a toughie but 'dun dun dun!' I had it with John today and it was THE MOST DIFFICULT CLASS I've had so far here at the Ridge. For such a peppy, rhythmically engaged man, you'd never expect the level of pure physical horror he can inflict upon our bodies. Saying the class was tough was an understatement. People were moaning and groaning, grunting and sweating all around the room. I felt terrible for all the newbies that are here this week. Erik Chopin of The Biggest Loser was right in front of me and the sweat was just dripping right off of him. As I was doing a million squats, I kept looking at the drippy drops of sweat falling on the floor by him. It is pretty neat though that I was working out as hard as one of 'The Biggest Loser' winners. Motivating indeed! Maybe that's why they have the contestants here from time to time?

The rest of the day's schedule was pretty tough. I had pool afterwards which felt nice on my achy muscles and since most of the work was done in the deep end, I was just doing laps in the shallow end with my other fellow non-swimmers. Dragging myself out of the pool class and into my next class, Circuit, was difficult. I could not wait for the day to be over. Circuit's turning out to be a class that I really enjoy. I get the opportunity to push myself and yet because you're only punishing yourself for 2 minutes, then you switch to punish some other body part, it just seems to be more tolerable.

We had the best dinner tonight that I've had so far at FR. It was a small chicken breast on top of a roasted red pepper polenta and grilled eggplants. Sooooo good and it was only 216 calories! Everyone kept saying, "Compliments to the Chef! We should have this EVERY night!" This meal is definitely something that I want to attempt once I get home. Dessert was delicious as well. It was a vanilla and chocolate mousse served in a champagne flute with some berries on top for 195 calories. To be honest though, I would much rather have had a second serving of the chicken and bypassed the dessert. Yum yum yum.

So the day is over, (thank goodness!) and I'm tired. Once again, I'm scared about tomorrow even though I know I can handle it. I guess for me, 11 hours of physical torture just isn't something I look forward to, even though once the day is done, I feel nice and accomplished. I had a good day and I hope you did too. :) Until tomorrow!!!

By the way... I burned  3944 calories today and I ate roughly around 1100 calories. ;)