Sunday, Bloody, Sunday - Day 20

This will be the only pic for today. Do you know why? Because it's of me actually thinking I look smaller for the first time. That's what I came here for. 1 - I wanted to get off my diabetes meds. Check. 2 - I wanted to become an athlete. Check. and 3 - I wanted to lose weight. Check. I weighed today and was down another 4.6 lbs. That's a total of 13.6 for the three weeks. How do I feel? I feel absolutely fabulous! I have tons of energy, I can do things I haven't been able to do for years, I am loving life. It's hard to believe in three short weeks this much change could happen in you life. Granted I did lose 25 lbs before coming here, but Fitness Ridge is life changing. Everyone here cares about you so much and it really makes a difference in your life. They call it a compassionate bootcamp LOL!

People ask me all the time how much it costs to come here and they are shocked and basically write it off in their minds. I am now looking at how affordable it is. What price can you put on your health? Really. How much do you think it would cost to add 10 years on to your life? I will go home saving $350 a month on medication. And what will I be able to prevent myself from getting down the road? A heart attack? Stroke? Those are very expensive things to fix. So here's the bottom line. It costs about $2,000 a week to come here. I got a better deal cause I booked for a month last Dec. before they raised the rates, but still it's not much more now. I will save that on medicines in two years!!!!!!! Listen to me when I tell you. This place works. Simply put. You learn principles to help you when you get home and if you follow them YOU WILL GET HEALTHY! There are no gimmicks, no easy button, no fancy pill. Just you, exercise, and the right food. That's all it takes. Well, that and motivation. If you are interested in booking a stay go to www.biggestloserresort.com and if you call to make a reservation tell them Dawn Mathews send you. They will give you $100 off your stay upfront. What could be better. Oh, the fact that they give me $100 too towards my next stay:) And I never thought I'd be saying this, but I will be back. No matter what size or fitness level you are at, Biggest Loser's Fitness Ridge will melt you down and build you back up again. And let me tell you, you will love the results:) I'll see you on the trail again tomorrow. Wonder what painful torment they have waiting for us? "Kill It!!!"

Saturday - Day 20

OK so the pics are all out of order;) Here we are at bowling. Me and Caron.

More bowling.

Getting ready to take the van to bowling.

Gosh what a horrible pic, but what a yummy breakfast! There's my green chili salsa;)

Here we are on the hike, West Canyon. It was Julieann, Kimmy (one of our hiking guides) and me. So this guy comes flying over us in this dune buggy turned prop plane with a parasail. Too cool. We watched him fly up and down the canyon for so long. I would love to do it.

This is me and my third week roomie, Cheryl. She lives in Maryland and works in D.C.

The triumphant trio, Adam, Mai, and Ian.

Our hiking guides goofing off.

Beautiful scenery of West Canyon.

More of the gorgeous scenery here.

This is across the road from Fitness Ridge. It was a beautiful sunrise.

The sky looked like it was on fire.

Saturday. Not much to report today. We got up and did our West Canyon hike. Came back and took stretch and then laid out of pool class. I had some stuff to do in the room and helped Julieann to pack. Well I talked and she packed. I am really going to miss her. I know there will be new friends arriving tomorrow, but there won't be another Julieann! I love you girl!!

We kicked around in the afternoon after lunch and went bowling after graduation. We were all so tired we could barely finish two games.

Friday - Day 19 Back in the 'Saddle' Again!

Here we are after we reached the top of Saddle Hike. This is the hardest hike they do here at Fitness Ridge. We really had to reach deep to pull out this one.

This is what victory looks like. Marge was so afraid of heights and she climbed all the way up and back down again. She was a new woman after that!!!

This was taken from the parking lot if you look to the lowest point of the mtn. range just behind the left of the red bldg. that is Saddle where we went today. Once you get to the top, you must then climb down the other side into Snow Canyon and walk 25 minutes through ankle deep sand to get back to West Canyon, then it's another 20 minutes back to the van!

Our group all fresh and ready to be tormented by our hiking guides.

This is from the top of the canyon looking down. As usual, pictures just don't do it justice. It is really far and really beautiful!

Me, Jenette, and Milynda at the top of the Saddle.

Beautiful red rocks.

This is Fern Gully a whole other hike, but we were there so we got a pic.

Sharon at the fitness lecture. Gave some great tips how to exercise on vacation.

OK so I think I'm missing some meal pics somewhere. I think I had the flimsy berry yogurt with fruit and granola for breakfast, but it was so small and I was so hungry I inhaled it. Sorry, no pic. This is French Onion soup. Very yummy.

This is the Chicken Caesar salad.

Turkey Burger with green beans.

And everyone's favorite: Choc. covered strawberries.

Today was a maniac day!!! Went on the hardest hike they have here. Got back, ate breakfast, took stretch and H2O classes, then lunch, and then the phone call I had been waiting on!!!!! Dr. Reichling's nurse called to tell me that my bloodsugar numbers had been so good that I could go off all my diabetes meds!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was sooooo happy. So some of you had already heard this and was wondering if I was dead or passed out in a diabetic coma since my blog hasn't been posted for three days! There was speculation, phone calls, messages on my facebook page and discussion on the FR alumni page on facebook. Sorry guys, LOL, I promise to try not to let you down again. I am indeed fine and ready to rock my last week here on the Ridge.

When the afternoon rolled around I was toying with the idea of taking it easy for the afternoon and just doing the easy classes, but the phone call was inspiration to trudge on. I went to Zumba and liked the instructor so much I stayed for the second class. So did Jenny and Cindy. After the third class Jenny and I were showing the instructor moves and we started dancing the hard core stuff. It was awesome. I miss my Zumba instructors back home so much. This girl that taught was from Salt Lake City and has actually seen Kat and Courtney on youtube teaching and was so excited to find out I took from them. Then guess what...yep, we stayed and danced right through the third Zumba class. I felt like I could dance all night! But it was time for dinner;)

Thursday - Day 18

I have a new hero!!! This is Adam and he's awesome. He's with us on his second week and let me tell you he's on fire. He encourages everyone of us. Yesterday he did Stop Sign Hike and cut 25 minutes off his time from the previous week. Today he ran in Treading class on the treadmill. HE RAN!!! Everybody was shouting and cheering for him for a full minute. There were many tears of joy. That's what I love about it here. Everyone encourages everyone. Terrilynn was on the treadmill next to me and she ran at 9.1! I really don't think my legs can go that fast, but ask me how it feels to run at 6.1 mph....BECAUSE I CAN!!!

One of my favorites. Greek Pita and Strawberry salad.

Sunchoke soup. It's made with Jerusalem Artichokes.

Green eggs and bacon sandwich. LOVE that green chili sauce.

June 9th:( Steve's Birthday! I am so missing my family.

Tiffany and some of the girls hangin out between classes.

Lunch Al Fresco with my buds.

Camel Back up close.

Only in Utah would you come around a curve and see a donkey standing in the middle of the road!

Our hiking group this week getting ready to set out for Camel Back Hike!

This is why they call it Camel Back, the two little humps in the very middle. We will be climbing that in the next few pics!

This is called the Vortex. It doesn't look that deep but it's got to be at least 75 ft down! You go down in a spiral shape. Now...the hard part is getting out! Hello! This is Julieann with our hiking guide Kimmie. Julieann was the first brave soul to make it.

These are our shadow pictures! Pretty fun!

Ginette and I decided if Julieann can do it so can we. Kimmie took us down. Sooooo stinkin cool!

Good bye everybody, headed to the top of the camel hump:)

And we made it. Remember how high up this is!

You have to bootie shimmie down. SOOO much fun! We laughed all the way.

Life will be so boring next week without my Julieann.

HARDER, FASTER, STRONGER...

What will it take to push you to the next level. Stroke, Diabetes, Heart Disease? I came out here because I wanted to change my life. I wanted to see if my body could still learn to be an athlete. Guess what? It's happening. I assumed that you would get to a point where it doesn't hurt anymore. Not true. I assumed it would get to a point where it is easy. Not true. I assumed it would get to a point where you could just do it and it would come naturally. Not true. No matter what fitness level you are at, there is more out there. Harder, Faster, Stronger... All these are things athletes endure every day, no matter if they are just starting out or professionals. It's not something that's been on my radar. Just like anything else in life it has to be something you want every day. You can't leave here and just abandon what you've learned. I have met people who went home and kept up what they learned out here and have done great. I also met people who came back because they didn't get it the first time. Their word of advice. Take it home with you, have a plan, be consistant. And let yourself fail every now and then. It is life after all and we must embrace it. It will be over far too soon.

Wednesday - Day 17

Check out the most amazing view ever! Red Mountain Trail Hike. Not much to look at on the way up, but the best view of West Canyon ever!

This view shows it even better.

Woo Hoo We made it to the top!

Getting stronger:)

OK so I was a little over confident about the inches I had lost! Great pic though. LOL! I really was able to fit through with a little manuvering and everybody got a good laugh:)

Susan thinking of ending it all...until she realized this was the day to go to Target. She quickly regained her composure and headed to the van!

By now I've been here so long we are starting to see some repeats on the menu. We don't mind though.

PB&J Panini with fruit and apricot preserves.

Parsnip soup - a new one and very tasty.

BBQ chicken pizza, sorry chef, mine's better;)

Grilled Salmon with ww orzo and veggies.

Forgot to take a pic of the dessert, but it was just a fruit skewer with raspberry reduction. Really refreshing though.

Well I made it through my classes today which included kickboxing, mountain, and circuit. We had a great hike. I find that now that I've been here for a while and I'm starting to get fit, it's harder to get a good calorie burn. My metabolism pretty much stinks so eating less and working out more is going to be my only option when I get home. I'm OK with that now that I know the great recipes (you can get Chef's two cookbooks for $56 shipped right to your door) and I know that Mountain and Treading classes are two of my favorites. I have also learned that hiking is one of my favorite outdoor things to do.

I am already sad to loose most of my buddies this Sunday. There are very few of us that started together that will still be here. I think like four or so. I will get a new roomie next week as Cheryl is only staying one week.

If you have run out of steam this week, just get out there and push yourself. I can't believe how strong I am. I have made it though all kinds of rough stuff and and am still kicking. YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOU THINK AND YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE YOURSELF!!!!!!