Day Two - Tuesday

Apparently day two is the worst. And it's over! WOOOOOT! It has definitely been a struggle...emotionally and physically. Every one of us hit a breaking point at some point today. It's tough because you sit there and beat yourself up, thinking "why did I let myself get like this" and "I'm not going to make it; I'm not going to get ." But two quotes I try to keep in mind are "You can do 30 seconds of ANYTHING" and "Get comfortable being uncomfortable." So this is how our day went today:

The first (optional) class was at 6am and it was called Hard Core. Basically the same exact thing that killed us at the last class of the day yesterday. So we couldn't handle that one and we each spent a bit of time in the gym instead, to get warmed up for what we knew would be a brutal hike. Then we had breakfast - here's the menu for the day and some pics of breakfast.

peach muffin - pretty good....warm with peaches in the center. also had a plate of fruit similar to yesterday.

After breakfast, our group had the stop sign hike. And we were scared. It seemed like we randomly got the hardest hike on our second day. It is 4.3 miles one way (and you only technically have to go one way). It is up from about a 2000 foot elevation to a 3000 foot elevation and there were tons of ups and downs (way more ups than downs). Every one in our group of 4 definitely hit or passed their breaking point during the hike. It was hard. We knew it would be hard but I mean, it was H-A-R-D. I really didn't think I would make it. But I did! Here's some pics from the hike:

dying in the mountains.

I made it! I busted my ASS to get to this stupid sign in the middle of the mountains.

After the hike, we headed back to the resort. I should mention that there is like NO time in between classes here. No time to sit down and just relax for even 5 seconds. Classes end and the next one begins. You barely have enough time to change your clothes if you need to or take care of your blisters (see below!) Anyway, the next class was called Stretch. Hopefully this was the perfect next class for us because everyone who has been here awhile says that after the Stop Sign hike, their calves and shins hurt for days due to the incline. Hope we'll be OK. By this point, I realized my knees were hurting pretty bad so I've been icing them all night.

Next we had lunch. Tomato soup (YUMMY!) and quinoa lettuce wraps. I didn't like them very much and doused them with chipotle hot sauce. Quinoa is a whole grain, blah blah blah...no taste. But most of us did buy the cookbooks they have here - they have all the recipes in it that they cook at the resort. Can't wait to make the cobb salad and the soups!

After lunch we had a couple lectures. Then we had Total Toning - this involved dumbbells, a weight bar and a stepper thingy. Basically just what it says - toning the whole body. I asked the helper lady if I would be OK with my knees and she said yes. She lied. It hurt. But I made it :) Then we had a pool class and a cardio class where you pick a machine and increase either the speed or intensity every 30 seconds. It was a pretty good class...I chose the bike again because of my knees.

And finally we had dinner (followed by another lecture). So again we started working out around 6am and ended our "duties" at 7pm. I don't have any pics of dinner because my knees hurt too bad to go back to the room and get my camera. But it was Shephard's Pie and I did not like it and ate less than half. Everyone else did but it had too many veggies for me (like almost all veggies). Our dessert was chocolate covered strawberries (2) and they were sooooooooooooooooooo good. I know I wont have anything else here that even compares. Now the 4 of us and one of our new friends are watching Biggest Loser in our rom. I'll leave you with a pic of my foot that's starting to get blistered (poor Stacy's are worse!) Good night!