Fitness Ridge Day 5

I decided to do the 101 hike again this morning because after pushing myself so hard in Treading yesterday, my knee started to feel a little sore. The 101 hike is for people who want to see some of the gorgeous scenery but are a little too slow for the intermediate and advanced hikes. I assumed that 101 would be easier on my knee than the stop sign hike… BOY was I wrong! Climbing over all those rocks, up and down mountains is definitely not the way to protect a sore knee. The knee is not too bad but I did spend some time icing it after lunch, and before all the afternoon classes. Below is a picture of one of the rocks that we climbed. It’s called The Stair Mistress (you know, like stair master). It’s like walking up (then down) 10 flights of rough, uneven and bumpy stairs. Also, below is a picture of me icing my knee and foot.

Oh, I found out something very interesting / funny about the chocolate mousse that I mentioned a couple of days ago. It’s not chocolate mousse at all. It’s a chocolate and TOFU pie. Can you believe it? TOFU! It tasted so muck like mousse, but the major ingredient in the recipe is tofu. Weird huh? Tonight we had something similar for dessert, which I took a picture of and posted it below.

Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (Egg and sausage muffin)
8:00AM Hike (bad for my knee)
11:15AM Stretch class (good for my knee)
12:45PM Lunch (potato and broccoli soup and sloppy joe with turkey not beef)
1:15PM Lecture: preparing for next week
2:30PM Circuit
3:30PM Cardio Disco Jam (super fun. I’ll write about that tomorrow)
4:30PM Pool (really good for my knee)
5:45PM Dinner (salmon burger, pretty good even though I hate fish)

Stair Mistress

My poor left leg

Limon pie (Made with lots of tofu!)

Fitness Ridge Day 4

I did the stop sign hike again, but did it a little slower today. I think I must have hurt my foot in kickboxing yesterday. The top of my left foot feels like I dropped a 10 pound weight on it or something. It was a little swollen when I woke up this morning. Between that and the black ice on some of the trail, I almost talked myself out of doing the whole thing. One girl actually fell on the slippery black ice. I took a picture of the black ice, since I’d never seen it before.

On the way back for the hike we saw a roadrunner. I had never seen one of those before, and almost thought that they were just a cartoon character. But no, they’re real. I put a picture of that below.

My hardest class today was called treading. The way it works is you pick a cardio machine and go as hard as you can for 5 minutes, then recover (meaning go slower) for 5 minutes. Then go as hard as you can for 4 minutes then recover for 4 minutes then go as hard as you can for 3 minutes then recover for 3 minutes, then 2 then 1. By the time this class came around it was 3:30PM (my next to last class) and I was tired. I figured I would sweat a little but not overdo it because I wanted a break already. But the person who was on the machine next to mine challenged me to go all out. So I pushed myself SUPER hard. I really thought I was going to pass out during the 5 and 4 minute hard parts.

Tomorrow is Friday, and that means the last full day of the week. On Saturday we just do the hike and one class. Then, after lunch we get to rest until Monday morning. I’m looking forward to the rest, especially if my foot is still hurting. As long as that’s as bad as it gets, I’ll be okay. Some of the people here have had a terrible time with blisters, something that I have been able to avoid so far. Yay for duct tape! One girl has had a ton of blisters. And another girl had a blister that she popped and got infected with a Staph infection. It got super swollen and turned black. She’s leaving early because the poor thing also hurt her knee.

Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (fruit smoothie and a whole wheat English muffin)
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM Gym class (lots of weights)
12:45PM Lunch (turkey sandwich)
1:15PM Cooking demo
2:30PM Ball works (a lot of arm and leg work using a balance ball, super hard)
3:30PM Treading (my hardest class today)
4:30PM Pool (fun, but still hard)
5:45PM Dinner (stuffed bell peppers, too bad I forgot my camera because it would have been great to show a picture of that)




Here’s the black ice. It’s kind of crazy that it’s called black ice because it’s the only part of the pavement that’s not black. The black part is actually thawed out, so is just wet. The “black” ice is actually kind of white. The red stuff is dirt... yep the dirt is red up here.

Here’s a picture of the little roadrunner. We were in the van heading back to campus when the driver spotted it, so we stopped and the little guy came right up close to us.

Fitness Ridge Day 3

I got enough sleep last night. YAY!!! I think I was asleep by 8:30, and was ready to start the day when the alarm went off at 6AM this morning.

It’s raining here in Utah today, and I almost wimpped out on the hike because of it. A lot of people were choosing to stay on campus and work out in the gym, and I almost let that sway me, but, the thought of spending ALL day in the gym was not an appealing one. Plus I brought a rain poncho so I had no excuse to stay behind. And, I really wanted to do the stop sign hike again. So I did it. Believe it or not, it felt a little easier this time.

I was wet and freezing when I got back, so I came to my room and changed all my clothes before my next class, which was a Core Workshop. That class was mostly lecture and not hard at all, but someone in the class actually puked into a trash can during the class. It would be cool if she puked because she was working out so hard but I really don’t think that could be the case since what we were doing at the time wasn’t very hard.

My favorite class today was kickboxing. I had never taken a kickboxing class before but now I’m going to try it at home. It was SO fun. We put on little gloves with padding in the knuckle area, and spent the entire class kicking and punching a punching bag. Really cool!

Right after kickboxing was another Mountain class, which I mentioned before. You pick a cardio machine (treadmill, elliptical or bike), start off at a low resistance or slow pace then increase resistance or pace every 3 minutes, 13 times. Right around the 10th increase I was thinking that I was just NOT going to make it. I guess I must have said that out loud because the girls on either side of me both said some encouraging words which made me stop the negative thinking. That is the power of coming to a place like this. Everyone is in the same boat, feeling the same pain and wanting to just give up, but then somebody says something to you, maybe one of the trainers or one of the other guests and it motivates you to dig deeper.

It was a good day, and now it’s time for bed.

Today’s schedule:
7:00AM Breakfast (Italian frittata, I tasted it and hated it so asked for toast instead. I added a tiny bit of peanut butter and jelly, and a banana for a tasty breakfast)
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM Core workshop (with a puking side-show)
12:45PM Lunch (BBQ pizza, which I also passed on because I hate BBQ sauce. I had a veggie burger instead)
1:15PM Lecture (breaking barriers)
2:30PM Kickboxing (first time I ever took a kickboxing class)
3:30PM Mountain (I worked REALLY hard on this class)
4:30PM Pool
5:45PM Dinner (Café salad, kind of like a taco salad. It had rice, beans, chicken lettuce and tomato all on top of a whole wheat tortilla)
6:15PM Lecture (Intuitive Eating)



Here’s a picture of the frittata that I sent back. It looks good but was mostly veggies, and if you know me you know that I’m not big on veggies.

I’m not sure but I think these little trees are baby Joshua Trees. There all over the place along the stop sign hike.

Here is a picture of me in all my lovely glory at the top of the stop sign hike. I look terrible! I’m wearing a million layers, and my face is all wet, but I don’t care. I got to the top and am proud of it.

Fitness Ridge Day 2

I was still dreaming when my alarm went off this morning, still in REM sleep. Not good! I fell asleep last night around 9:30 and thought I would be alright. I mean I never go to bed that early unless I’m sick or something. I was wrong. 8 hours of sleep is just not enough when we’re doing these crazy things to our bodies. All day today, if I had an extra 30 minutes or more between classes I would run up to my room and try to take a nap. I even skipped my last lecture tonight so I could get back to my room, update my blog and be in bed by 7 and asleep by 7:30.

I’m so glad that I started preparing (by working out) for this trip a few weeks ago because although I’m sore, I don’t feel like I’m on my death bed. However, everyone says that Wednesday is THE worst day for soreness. So I’ll blog about that tomorrow.

I got to meet a few people of note. Sara from Sara Is Off Her Rocker, and Dee Dee from Dee Dee's Weight Loss Journey are both on their 4th and last week here. I’ve been following their blogs religiously, well at least up until I got here. I’ve been too tired to keep up with blogs lately. During their first 3 weeks they shared a lot of helpful info on their blogs and it was nice to meet them in person. Also, I met The Biggest Loser Season 3 winner Eric Chopin and his brother Doug Chopin. They are both super nice guys and have agreed to pose for a picture with me sometime this week before they leave.

Eric Chopin

I found out about the purple mashed potatoes that we had for dinner last night. Yep, there are purple potatoes in this world. The chef showed them to us during a cooking demo today. Who’d a thunk it?

Today I did a different hike (not the stop sign), which was nice in a way because I got to see some of the pretty scenery around here (pictures below). But I’m going to go back to stop sign tomorrow because even though the hike today was 4 miles and we were gone for 25 more minute, I burned about 500 more calories on the stop sign hike then I did on today’s hike. I know this because I’m wearing a heart rate / calorie counting monitor.

Time for bed. :-)

Today’s schedule:
6:00AM: Open gym
7:00AM Breakfast (Oatmeal and fruit)
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM Yoga / Strech
12:45PM Lunch (Squash Soup [surprisingly good once I added salt and pepper] and Italian Herb Tomato Sandwich)
1:00PM Calorie Challenge (Did you know that a single poptart has 200 calories in it? Neither did I.)
1:30PM Lecture (Cooking demo)
2:30PM Cardio intervals (pick a cardio machine, start low, increase resistance or speed every 30 seconds, then decrease every 30 seconds and repeat the entire thing)
3:30PM Total toning (my toughest class today)
4:30PM Pool
5:45PM Dinner (Ostrich Stew [also surprisingly good once I added salt and pepper, tasted like beef stew] and Chocolate Dipped Strawberries for dessert)
6:15PM Lecture (Spending your calories wisely part 2 which I skipped and will take next week)


Some of the many petroglyphs that we saw on our hike this morning (From Merrian-Websters dictionary: a petroglyph is a carving or inscription on a rock). These are supposed to be between 800 and 1,200 years old.

Check out the gorgeous scenery. Can you find the dinosaur head?

Fitness Ridge Day 1

Sorry for any typos. I'm tierd!

I survived my first day at Fitness Ridge! It was hard work, but also sort of fun in a way. Actually, I only thought it was fun during my last class which was water aerobics. The hike was a killer, 4.3 miles up 1,000 feet. I went very slowly, but I made it to the top!

The food is actually pretty good. I’ll include pictures of our dinner and dessert for today below.

One thing that people really have to be cautious about here is their feet. People tend to get blisters very easily, what with all the hiking and aerobic exercise going on all day. I have to mention how people recommend you taking care of a “hot spot” (an area where you start to feel friction that may turn into a blister), because it’s so weird. They say as soon as you start to feel a hot spot you should tape it up with… Duct Tape?!? Can you believe it? I thought it was weird, but tried it anyway after my hike because I felt a hot spot. I put the duct tape on the balls of my feet and went about the rest of the day without a problem. IT WORKED!

Well, I’m beat, and it all starts over again tomorrow. :-)

Today’s schedule:
6:00AM: Intro to Circuit (not a workout just a description of the class)
7:00AM Breakfast (fruit, egg and beacon on English muffin)
8:00AM Hike
11:15AM Mountain (choose treadmill, elliptical or bike, start low pace/resistance increase resistance every 3 minutes, 13 times)
12:45PM Lunch (chili and cornbread)
1:15PM Lecture (calorie budgeting)
2:30PM Circuit training
3:30PM Step-and-puke (I mean step-and-pump, which was the hardest class)
4:30PM Pool
5:45PM Dinner (Baked chicken over purple mashed potatoes [yes I said purple picture below as proof] and asparagus, grilled pineapple for dessert)
6:15PM Lecture (Spending your calories wisely)

Grilled chicken asperigas and purple mashed potatoes.

Grilled pinapple with some kind of rasberrie sause

Week 3 Sunday Wrap-Up

This was a good week weight-wise. I lost three pounds and am super happy about that number for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as I already mentioned I had turkey beacon cheese burgers literally every night last week, well all except tonight. If I can eat delicious food like that and still lose weight, I'll be okay! The second reason is that… I didn’t workout this week, nope, not even once. Why you ask. Well, I had a ton of stuff to do to prepare for my Trip to Fitness Ridge. I was running around all week. Honestly though, I could have squeezed in a few workouts and really have no excuse for not working out.

However, I am now at Fitness Ridge (just arrived today) and will be here for the next 2 weeks. I’m pretty sure over the next couple of weeks I'll make up for my lack of exercise this week. Tomorrow the real hard work starts.

So far I don't have much to report about Fitness Ridge except the food. Dinner was awesome. We had baked penne pasta with turkey (I think) meatballs. And dessert was a lovely chocolate mousse. Mmmmm!!!

Prizes and Beacon Cheese Burgers

I’ve got two great things to write about today. Firstly, I won my first blog giveaway today! I’ve only been reading blogs for a couple of months, and one thing that surprised me is that blog writers actually give prizes away to their readers. Incase you’re unfamiliar with this concept let me explain how it works. You enter the giveaway by leaving a comment on the blog; the writer chooses a winner randomly then mails out the prize to the lucky reader. Sometimes the prizes are purchased by the writer and sometimes they’re sent by the company that produces that item. Another interesting concept: companies will actually give their product away to successful bloggers in exchange for a review of said product on their blog, and will send another to the lucky blog-reader. Below is what I've won! Thanks for reviewing this product Shelley!!!

The second great news that I want to share is that I’ve actually lost weight this week eating beacon cheese burgers. Like most people who have weight issues, I’m no stranger to fast food, and I loves me some hamburgers. It really is a bummer to me to think that a lot of the food that I love is now off limits. But like I said before, I’m learning that I can still have the foods I love if I tweak the recipe in healthy ways. My beacon cheese burger is a perfect example of this. It’s made with ground turkey (mixed with a little teriyaki sauce and spices), turkey beacon (mmmm, who knew this was so good) and low fat cheddar, all on whole wheat sandwich thins.

I made this for dinner on Monday and fell in love. My hubby is not big on burgers so for dinner on Tuesday I made him a roasted chicken. But I had to use up the rest of that ground turkey so have continued to have burgers for dinner the rest of the week. It tastes so decadent and bad for you but I can’t help myself. It’s so yummy! I figured out that this lovely deliciousness is less than 350 calories, and since I’ve continued to lose weight this week I allowed myself to enjoy my current favorite food.