Day 9: Meh.

Day 9:

7:00AM Breakfast
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM: Free Weight Workshop
12:30PM: Lunch
1:00PM: Calorie Challenge
1:30PM: Lecture: Cooking Demo
1:45PM: Open Gym
2:30PM: Cardio Intervals
3:30PM: Total Toning
4:30PM Pool
5:45PM Dinner

I was too tired last night to write out what happened during the day, so this will be brief and written in retrospect.

Breakfast was a peach muffin with a plate of fruits and berries. With my aversion to any cooked or warmed fruit, I opted instead for the cereal once again with my banana. I heard lots of people say that the muffin was pretty good though and very cake-like, so this may tickle your pickle if you like that sort of things. It was pretty big too.

The hike yesterday I think is what just plain tuckered me out for the rest of the day. It was Fern Gully and it was very pretty. According to our guides, it was a great day for Fern Gully because it had just rained, which would make it more beautiful and a bit easier. Why easier, you ask? Well the durn hike was almost completely incline, lava rock and SAND. SAND SAND SAND. I will never complain about walking on the Jersey Shore ever again. I can't believe how many miles in deep sand we walked... continuously. We were
going up and down and side to side, over rocks, down rocks, etc; It WAS beautiful, I'll give it that. It's also located in Snow Canyon, like many of our hikes are but this one was actually between the mountains so it was very lush with flora.

Since it had just rained, the sand was a teeny tiny bit more compact but I swear, the sand must've sucked up all the moisture because it still seemed pretty dry to me. At the end of the hike, we were supposed to be greeted by a beautiful waterfall that only appears when it rains. Well. We didn't make it that far. lol. My group never seems to make it where it's supposed to. Our group was a nice bunch but Jay-sus, it was difficult because of the sand. I had to empty out my sneakers twice during the hike and then once, once I got back
to the room. Each time I emptied out my sneaker, there was a minimum of 2 tablespoons of red sand in each shoe. No lie.


So after the hike, I went to a Free Weight Workshop held by John. To be honest, I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know and because I was watching him while sitting on a chair of one of those weight machines, I started to fall asleep. Not good.

So I had a bit of time in between the Workshop and lunch so I decided I would take a 20 minute nap. Being the ever mindful person I am, I made sure to set two alarms. One for 12:45 and one for 12:48. My roomie saw me napping and tried to wake me up around 12:44 but I told her that my alarm was going to go off in another minute. It did and I shut it off thinking, oh, I've got 3 minutes left. Well, I don't know what ever happened to that alarm. Either it went off and I didn't hear it or it didn't go off at all. By the time I had woken up, it was already 1:45!!!

Thankfully, there was an extra lunch and they served it to me while I watched the cooking demo. The lunch was meh. It was 3 quinoa balls wrapped in lettuce leaves with a tortilla/tomatoey sour soup. I didn't finish it but I ate enough so that I wasn't hungry but then I rushed to the room to use my waterpik. That quinoa does a number if you've got braces on!

So I missed most of the open gym and headed for cardio intervals. I think the nap gave me the energy to complete the rest of the day because cardio intervals didn't seem to be too bad. I had it with Ann-Marie(?) and it was over pretty quick.

Next was total toning with Sharon and it was tougher than last week. I have no muscle or core strength to speak of so any of these weights classes are pretty tough for me. Sharon's great, she makes you laugh and she likes to do this thing where she'll mention someone's name and say that 'THEY' want you to harder/faster/longer, etc; So she mentioned my name and said that I wanted everyone to hold it for longer. Someone made a joke (a positive one so I laughed) but I guess that I was so tired that my censor button was off nd I said oh d*amnit! Whoops! Felt bad about that afterwards. I've really been trying to watch my mouth here. :P

I was dreading the pool class because it was freezing outside and because I had missed out on most of my open gym from earlier, I spoke to John about doing Open Gym instead of pool so that I could work on my couch to 5k program. He agreed and I had a really nice session at the gym. I felt great afterwards.

Dinner was super yummy!! We had the FR version of Shepherd's Pie. It had lots of veggies mixed in and was made with turkey meat. We also had the ever lusted after chocolate dipped strawberries. :) Someone saw that I had cut off all my chocolate and asked if I was going to eat it. :) I said of course! I just wanted to savor it.

I watched the Biggest Loser in the evening with a group of people in the aerobics room. People here are BIG BIG fans of the show. People were clapping, cheering, crying and laughing as the episode went on. It's always more fun to watch stuff when people are really enthused about it.

So after the show was done I pretty much went straight to bed. I was very tired and this long long period of time can be mentally draining. The excitement of the first week is over and the next few weeks just seem like they're really going to stretch out on you. I'm  happy and excited about my progress so far but it just seems like it's going to be a long long time until I'm done. Especially since I haven't weighed myself yet. I don't really see any physical changes but my friend Wayne says it looks like my cheeks thinned out a bit. I hope so.

After hearing about so many dramatic weight losses, I'm scared about the number I will see on the scale. I know it's not going to be anything crazy, my body just doesn't work that way. Years and years of yo-yo dieting and my thyroid condition have really messed with my metabolism. If I see a small number it will be very discouraging and yet that's what I think I'm bound to see. I plan on getting weighed in this Friday before breakfast if anyone is in the office. Anyhow, that's it for now!



3808 calories burned

* Video Update!

Fern Gully Photo Op

Fern Gully: Sand

Fern Gully: Ohio!

Fern Gully: Whining

Fern Gully: Photo Op: Chatter

Fern Gully: Break

Fern Gully: Group Shot