I realize that it's been ages since I've posted. I sincerely apologize for that. It's not that I haven't wanted to update my blog, I sincerely did, but it seemed to entail so much! I wanted to put the few pictures I had taken up, write about my last week, upload my videos to youtube and spread them throughout the posts, etc; etc; It just seemed like a lot to undertake and I kept putting it off and putting it off.
I realized however that I really did miss blogging and while I couldn't ever officially perfect and complete the last week of my blog, I could recall what I could and finish up my story for those of you wondering where the hell I've gone. lol.
So I perused through my notes and am going to just type up what I remember and do my best. So! Here's what I have in my notes regarding my last week at Fitness Ridge:
My last Tuesday at FR: (according to my notes)
Breakfast was a mango parfait and since I'm not a yogurt fan, I had cereal. Since it was my last week and my roomie had talked me into coming out of my shell a bit more, I tried to be more social. I had a nice chat with my friend 'N' and we talked about how our experience at FR was quite similar. We were both getting lost in the social shuffle of the place and losing the 'me' experience and how it was important to only focus on yourself since we're always focusing on others back home.
Did the Overlook hike today and I made it further than the first time I had done it and amazingly, it felt so much easier this time around. According to my heart rate monitor, the calorie burn of the Overlook hike was lower than what I've been burning in the gym. Despite the fact that it's May here, it was absolutely freezing today!
After the hike, I skipped the workshop since it was a repeat of the one I had attended last week. Lunch was soooooooooo good. We had a yummy artichoke soup and turkey sandwich. Their turkey sandwich is seriously the best sandwich they make here, it's so filling. They make their own spread, use tomatoes and alfalfa sprouts to bulk up the sandwich instead of lettuce and it just tastes fresh and filling. I brought a book with me to read during lunch and ate pretty quickly so that I could get some work done. I napped for 15 minutes after lunch and then headed to open gym. (which I don't see as an official class cuz you can do whatever you want) After open gym, I took another nap. I swear i went to bed early! I'm always tired in my daily life as well. It's probably a result of my sleep apnea unfortunately. I then woke up for and went to the rest of my classes.
Toning class was next and it's always killer on me. I have no upper body or lower body muscle strength, which is something that I definitely need to focus on. I guess I was always one of those skinny fat people who are slim with no muscle tone. However, since my time here at FR, my cardio has gotten much better. Weights have gotten a bit easier for me but there's still a lot of room for improvement. Pool was hard, especially since we did water intervals today. I wish I could swim above water and be able to breathe at the same time. Instead, I have to hold my breath and stop in the middle.
I then had cardio intervals afterwards and I gave it my all. 135 rpm on the bike!!! I gotta continue this interval stuff when I get home. Intervals is the stuff that makes me sweat here.
Dinner was an enchilada with broccoli and it was very filling. In fact, it tasted a lot like the shepherd's pie we had the other night. In the evening, Eric set up the cardio room so that everyone could watch The Biggest Loser. I have to say, it's very fun to watch it here. Just being here gives it another dimension, you really feel like you're a part of the show though it's completely different in structure.
So this evening I scheduled my luggage to be shipped. I'd rather fork out the extra dough than go through what I went through last time on the train. Never again am I going to overpack! Us fourth weekers are going to Subway tomorrow for lunch, which I'm excited about. I'll also be going to Target tomorrow to pick up some last minute stuff and getting a facial in the evening. My skin was better for quite some time but it's recently started breaking out again. All this sunscreen does a number on the face! I'm going to bed pretty early because I'm also positive that I have Stop Sign tomorrow. I went to all my classes today and burned LESS calories. How sucky is that?
Calories burned today: 3004 not including the pool class.
I'm still chubby but feel more fit and I think my gut has reduced a bit. However, the best thing is that I know I can continue this once I get home.
'D' was told by quite a few people today that she was very brusque and intimidating and she's trying to be nicer. She's not really outwardly nice to me but I tried to be nice today too and offered her a ball for her legs during The Biggest Loser show.
Wednesday: (My notes for Wednesday were pretty short, lol)
I had a great day with a crappy ending. Breakfast was muesli so I had cereal with a banana and Truvia.
The hike today was Chuckawalla, not Stop Sign. I was disappointed because I was really hoping to do Stop Sign at least one more time before I left. I want to see if I've improved at all. I also realized during the hike that uneven pavements really hurt my feet. Chuckawalla wasn't too bad but I still didn't really enjoy the heights. It's very beautiful here but honestly, once you've seen one mountain and vista, you've seen them all.
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| Yup, still wearing that dorky sun hat! |
Here's some video at Chuckawalla:
Chuckawalla
Chuckawalla Vista
Chuckawalla Musings
Chuckawalla Hiking
For lunch, we went to Subway. We had to make certain that we stayed under a certain calorie count. I believe it was 400-500 calories. With those calories, I managed to get a foot long wheat with turkey and lots of veggies. I opted for no cheese and asked them to scoop out the bread, which saved a lot of calories and just seasoned it with salt and pepper. Surprisingly, I was full before I was done with the footlong, so I wrapped it up to save for later. I was proud of that aspect because I've always had a problem with finishing everything that is given to me. Guilt mechanism from childhood, you know. lol. It's weird but kids in Utah are allowed to leave the school for lunch! So around the time that we went, there was a mob of kids ordering their lunches and then walking back to school. Strange.
Dinner was salmon with Israeli couscous. I've never had Israeli couscous before! It's chubbier and very tasty. Very similar to Orzo. I got a facial this evening but sadly it wasn't all that great. Took a nap right before it. I gotta say that Chinese Estheticians are definitely far more hardcore during extractions! Unfortunately, I cannot recall why the evening was so crappy and my notes didn't say anything about it either! lol.
Calories burned: 3804
I don't have very specific notes about the last few days at FR but off the top of my head, I do recall a few things:
I had an hour long massage with Trevor, my very first massage ever, which was absolutely FANTASTIC. If Trevor is there, you need him and it needs to be for at least an hour. Seriously! I've never felt so relaxed and comfortable before. If I had known how much better I would feel after a massage with Trevor, I would've scheduled a massage each week!
I also had a Body Scrub on another evening. I would recommend others to pass on this one. For the price, I was expecting a whole lot more. Basically, a scrub was applied and it wasn't very scrubby (I could've done better applying a body scrub on my own in my room) there was no massage, you had to shower off in the middle of it and then a lotion was applied. Meh.
A group of us from FR went to see a movie, Prince of Persia, which was good. Never thought Jake Gyllenhaal was particularly good looking but throw some dirty, long hair and a sweaty muscular body on the guy and I can definitely appreciate!
I really tried to be good for my last week at FR. I didn't manage to fulfill my promise not to miss any workout classes to my roomie, but I did try my best and I only missed 2 workout classes the entire week. Considering that we usually have about 5 or 6 workouts a day, I think 2 for the whole week was pretty good.
Afterwards, one of the dearest sweetest people at FR, Mr. 'J', managed to finagle a Biggest Loser Resort duffle bag for me. He knew that I needed a bag to carry stuff home in and how I was too shy to ask for anything even though others would just go in and get what they wanted. It was delivered to my door and I was really really touched that he had spoken to some people to get the duffle bag for me. Thank you J. :)
Beyond that, I've got some very brief notes on my last day at FR which I will write about here:
On my last day at FR, I was allowed to do The Stop Sign hike. I finished in 1 hour and 15 minutes! I managed to shave 20 minutes off of my time. This time, I did not stop even once during the hike for a break AND I ran a little bit during the flatter areas to try to better my time. Amazingly, I did it without my camelbak since I had shipped that sucker home. I didn't even have any water on me, lol. When I was done, I was really really glad that I did it. I got up there and poked the sign when I was done and then relaxed and looked at the gorgeous scenery around me. I wanted to take it all in, since I was leaving the next day. Strangely enough, as soon as I finished my hike and started stretching, the Biggest Loser Theme Song Proud came on. :) It was really a fabulous feeling.
After the hike, I had breakfast. It was a loose granola with nuts in it. Very filling but quite dry even after adding our allotted one cup of almond milk. That granola just sucked it right up.
I had a convo with J during breakfast about sleep apnea and sleep apnea machines. I really need to look into that. I've always known that sleep apnea could be dangerous but it's really starting to affect my life. I've always been constantly tired but as I'm getting older, I've needed more and more naps and sleep time which isn't normal.
I opted for the pool class today and instead of the standard pool class, it was a volleyball game. Lots of fun. The music was blasting and we weren't very good but V kept us entertained with water ballet/synchronized swimming movements and we sang along to songs. Everyone was in great spirits.
Took a shower afterwards and headed down for a very very short, 25 minute massage with Tyler. It was great but 25 minutes simply isn't enough and he's booked completely through the rest of the evening. He told me that if he had known I wanted a longer massage he would've come in earlier. Darn! Great taste in relaxing music (Legends of the Fall, Josh Groban) and he gave me some great massage technique tips and recommended more tips on finding a good massage therapist in NJ. He mentioned that Asian women have a strong pain threshold for massages, which I can totally agree with. My mom loves getting foot massages that would make a strong man wince.
I got to talk to Wayne for a bit on Facebook and he told me about the after party for the biggest loser finale and all the celebrities he had gotten to meet. It sounded like lots of fun.
This evening, I was sad about leaving but surprisingly very happy to go home. Not looking forward to all the layovers in front of me but I'd still rather have layovers than fly! I couldn't believe that my FR experience had just flown by like that. It felt so long at the beginning of the month but once it was over, it felt like it just flew on by.
Alright, that's enough for tonight! Tomorrow, I'm going to update my post some more with my final FR stats, a video tour of the Ridge facilities, etc;
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