Headed home on Monday - thoughts about the week:)

Sunday and I'm headed for Vegas

Saturday at the Ridge, Sweet Sorrow

It's Finally Friday...

Breakfast fruit

sausage, eggs, and pancakes

Gretchen and I before class

Tiffany and her butterfly compression stockings - she's so stylish

Mushroom soup

Fish tacos

Julie and I on a windy day

LOVE Jenn:)  Check out her shirt

Gretchen and I after a hard day

Lasagne and carrots. My roomie just said it tasted much better even than this pic shows:)

Chocolate ganache fudgie little goodies - IDK:)

I can say I enjoyed myself today.  I made myself that promise and today I kept it.  I went to Annamarie's stretch, ate breakfast, and skipped Stop Sign hike.  Do I feel bad, heck no!  I got in the pool and worked out for an hour and 45 minutes and felt great.  I didn't want to mess my hip up on the high elevation asphalt today and not get to do the 5K tomorrow.  It's actually a 4 mile fun run.  We said they should have called it a 4 mile Funner Run;)  I did the lecture with Tiffany on Fitness, ate lunch, Zumba, pool, and skipped third class.  It was nice to get a shower after all that pool time and sunscreen.  It's starting to warm up out here!  We had yummer lasagne and those adorable little chocolate thingys for supper, but I accused someone of eating half of mine!  Brad tried to get our server to bring him the ones that people didn't want LOL!!!  How do you think that went over??? 

So tomorrow is the Fitness Festival.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I am also dreading having to get up sooooo early.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a whiner, but we have been getting up at 5:15 every morning and working out 8 hours a day!  We have to pick up our sack breakfast at 5:30 and the run starts at 6:30.  The Ironman will be going right by our main road here.  It would be great to get to cheer Tiffany on, but we will probably never see her.  There are so many people in the Ironman it's crazy!  Well I'm off to bed.  I hope to get lots of helpful information on here next week when I get home.  I have learned so much and I want to be able to share it with you.  Wish me luck for tomorrow.  Oh and I just want to say something.  Thanks to all of you who keep checking in on me.  Since I have been here on Friday I have had over 700 page views!!!  When I started this blog last year there isn't any way that I would have imagined I would be over 9,000 hits a year later.  So thank you to all of you living life large through my blog.  If you want to support me big time, get up tomorrow morning and go walk 4 miles.  Post a comment on here if you do, I want to cheer you on:)  Good night and sweet dreams from Utah.

Makin it Count

Today was a true test of my physical, emotional, and endurance.  We were scheduled to go to Middle Gila for the hike, but David House and I wanted the rest of our van, which is mostly newbies to get to go to Camelback.  Carrie agreed and volunteered to take us along with John, a new guide, and Sione Fa. David House has been here about 6 times in the past year and has lost and maintained 50 lbs.  He has been to Camelback several times, but never gone down into the Vortex.  It is very challenging to say the least.  You only have a shoe wide strip to put your feet on and it drops off some 30 to 50 feet (not good at estimating).  I told him we could go to Camelback, but he was going in this time!  Last year I was so afraid to go in, but I did it and it really empowered you.  David now feels that same empowerment.  You go David!  You are my hero today:)  Carrie thought it might be nice to take us around back for a change if we wanted to.  Last year I started in the lowest intermediate group and worked my way up to expert B group.  This year  I came back and was put into the highest intermediate group just one notch away from where I left.  I was excited, scared, and a little let down that I couldn't do all I could last year, but I've had a great week and a great group and wouldn't have had it any other way.  But today *big grin*  we got to do an expert hike!  I knew if I didn't go the harder way I would be letting myself down.  "Play Big," Tiff would say - "You are Amazing," Nicole would say - "Keep it Up, Keep it Up," Gretch would say.  So I listened to them instead of the squeeky voice in my head.  It was challenging and Sione said his view of Camelback hike was the 'crack of Dawn' since all he saw was my backside the whole time LOL!  I was last in line huffing and puffing, still unacustom to the lack of air out here, and Sione was the sweeper guide.  We loved taking crazy picture with Sione and Carrie today.  7 of 9 of us took the hard road - we were makin it count!  I urged two more of the ladies to go into the Vortex with us, so our whole entire group made it in.  Now that's team work.  Sing it with me:  "What have you done today to make you feel proud?"  Or as we sing the song at home, "What did ya eat today to make you so fat!"  I know a little corny, but it makes us laugh and think before we eat that_________(fill in the blank)  Sing that next time you are in line at McDonald's!!!

We do treading on Thursdays and since I can't run, I jack the incline up to 15 and just hang on!  Sione taught that class too.

I had a great session with Jenn.  Being here in 2010 and having a year to think has given me the opportunity to work some things out.  Not just weight loss, but every aspect of my your life.  I wanted to take advantage of that and talk with her one on one.  She is amazing with insight and really helps put things into perspective.  If you have the chance to meet with her, take it!

The thing I was most looking forward to was my Thursday night massage.  I got Tyler this time and Lisa Alexander...girl, you are dead on it!  He is THE BOMB!!!  Best massage I ever had!  Thanks Lisa for telling me to pick him.  I was amazed at how many people were down there getting massage.  I waited with about 6, and then when I got done, I went back in and there were 6 more going in.  The old computer room is now a waiting room for massages and that is really nice.

After my massage I came back to the room, laid down, and fell right to sleep at 8:30.  Exhausted!

Breakfast fruit

Turkey Bacon,egg, and cheese bagel

Yoga class with Sione Fa Biggest Loser season 7

I took quite a fall, glad they got it on camera!

Me at the bottom of the hill

Me butt scooting into the Vortex

Our group

Awesome that we all made it:)

Sione guiding David out!  Way to go David!!!

Rosemarie will be so proud of you:)

Funky shadow pic

Ahhh Camelback, so glad to see you again

The veggie soup

Chicken salad pita

Cafe Salad

Raspberry-apple cobbler - Oh my goodness!!!

 Sione and I before the hike

Chef "The Rock Star" Cameron

White Rocks Reversed, Chocolate Covered Strawberries, and Target...What could be better?

Big day at the Ridge.  One of my favorite hikes, White Rocks Reversed, allowed me to feed my Stairmistress addiction.  One of the greatest rock formations to 'play on', Stairmistress is like the carrot in front of my nose, just dangle it there on a hike and I'll run the trail to get to it.  David got a cactus stuck in his butt so we really did have to run one time to catch up LOL!  Our trusty guide Sherry got him fixed up though, and the three of us were jogging along through the lava trail.  Ekkk!

I got to do Mountain class with Nicole and that is one of favorite gym classes.  You start at a moderate pace, and go up in speed or incline on the treadmill every three minutes for a total of 12 increases.  By the time I finish I'm always up to 15 the max on incline and today I was running at 5.2 mph for the last increase.  Nicole is so motivating.  She told us Struggling = Success.  If you aren't struggling, you aren't growing.  Especially at Fitness Ridge.  You can't get that kind of motivation ANYWHERE else on the planet.  I took two stretch classes one before hike and one after - it felt soooooo Malibu LOL!  We also had Wednesday Kick Boxing class with Sharon.  Bobby the video guy always gets some good footage there!  Pool class with Nicole was brutal. 

Wednesday is special because you start to feel human again;)  You have finished Wall Wednesday, also known as Hell Day.  So, they load you in the van and take you to Target.  Except I have a car this week so we loaded that bad boy down and went into St George.  On the way back we got lost like three times and ended up at the road at the top of Stop Sign Hike in Snow Canyon!  We were all howling laughing and had to almost go all the way back into St George to get back.  One of the ladies was telling us how last year she was here for 8 weeks and found this pie company called Vio and she bought three slices and ate them in the car before supper.  We were dying laughing about it.  She still ended up losing 50 lbs while she was here.  So we kept getting lost.  You know the exercise here is top notch, the facility is the best I have ever seen, and the trainers are like your family, but the friendships you get out here are life changing.  You can't put a price on it.  Phyllis, my roomie, is so great and we have really had a blast being together.  We have so much in common and it's been great getting to know her.  My hiking group is also the bomb!!!  Everyone is all in for anything and we joke with each other and take funny pictures, but going through the experiences together gives you a bond that you just can't get anywhere.

I will have to post pics tomorrow.  Phyllis and I have been bad tonight sitting up til 11 pm talking and typing and now we are dead.  But that's OK, we are going to cut Sione's stretch class tomorrow morning because the girls say he doesn't do stretch, but rather Bob Harper style torture yoga, with all these crazy positions.  Not at 6 am...no thank you!  So I shall sleep in til 6:30 in the morning:)  Oh I will leave you with one pic.  My new favorite.  Enjoy!

Side plank on Piano Rock baby...that's how I roll.  Well, actually I was peer pressured into it;)  That's OK, my buds are challenging me to new heights!

Almost Voted Off...

 This is day one with John.  This was the first day, first hike I took, and the first picture from FR last year.  We were at this exact spot.

 Hiking Monday with my accessment group

Lower Gila Hike

Day One

Day two a Indian Woman Rock.  We just about had the same hiking group as Monday.  Love them!

Crossing the Gunlock Resevoir  on Gunlock Hike.

John, you are in so much trouble, I got a splinter in my butt!

Monkey rock!  See the eyeball?

Our morning fruit cup

Am I happy camper?  You betcha!  Sam in the kitchen gave me some green chili salsa:)

Cauliflower Soup

 Chicken salad sandwich with blueberry, walnut apple salad and strawberry dressing

Meatloaf...well, turkeyloaf and greenbeans

Crystal, they had your favorite, raspberry ricotta and crispy thingies, LOL!

We had the most fun on the hike.  I kept sliding around on the rocks and one of the guides told me, "One more time and we're voting you off."  We got a big kick out of it and it became the hike joke.  I love it here, because people are at so happy and at their best...and worst.  Transformation will do that to you.  The emotional swings can knock you off your feet and toss you down a cliff. 

I had stretch class with Kelli again.  She is really good at that class and I enjoy every minute of it.  We hiked Gunlock, a fairly new hike.  It was intense: river bed, sand LOL, creek jumping, and of course, lots of rocks and elevation.  I had a little bit of an odd day blood sugar wise.  When I got back from the hike I had a terrible headache and thought I might be dehydrated, but it turns out my bloodsugar had plummeted.  I had lunch, some almonds, and a whole banana to get me back on track and lost an hour of working out because of it.  I ended up in the pool for two hours, one with Annamarie and one with...Sharon!!!  Yikes!!!  It was deep water suspension.  You know, the one where you have to tread water with your hands on top of your head, up in the air, and with your feet only or arms only.  Are you kidding me?  Well, I can say I finished today, but how well?  I don't know.  My calorie burn for the day was 3,044 less 1,200 calories consumed for a total loss of 1,844. 

So tomorrow is Wall Wednesday.  As I am typing this I feel the stiffness setting in.  Am I going to let that stop me?  Hee...you guys know me too well for that right?  I will go out there and kick up some dust.  Come blaze the trail with me, don't just sit there on the couch eating chips reading my blog - get out there and do something...anything.  Play Big because we are all worth it.  If you schedule a 5K one month from today, trust me you can jog/walk it by then.  I promise you.  Heck you can just walk it if you want, you still get the tshirt:)  Try something new that you haven't before.  I love you guys and thank you for keeping up with me.  It is an honor every time I see that blog counter jump up a hundred or so.  Until tomorrow....

Oh and what did everyone think of the Biggest Loser finale?  Yeah, I thought so.  I'm going to bed;)