Day Six - Saturday

Last chance workout!!!! OK, so no one screamed that at us today but it was our last day of the week for working out. Today started with breakfast - it was a granola cereal that I thought was really yummy, especially with a sliced up banana in it.

Then we had an option - hike for 2 1/2 hours or do cardio for 2 1/2 hours. It was suggested to do the cardio if you think thats what you'll do at home. But since I have another week here, I figured I'd do the hike and get some scenery - the long cardio can wait til next weekend. No one in our group of friends did the cardio, we all opted for the hike. The hike was a push for me, but there wasn't any climbing or much incline so it wasn't as tough as any of the other hikes. The guide said I went about 7 miles (everyone went at their own pace). When we got back from the hike, we were supposed to choose between a pool class (pool volleyball) or another cardio class. Kim and I made our own option and took a bike ride. I haven't ridden a bike in sooooo long, I was scared! But it was like they say, it came back naturally and we rode for about 50 minutes through the beautiful area surrounding the resort. Here's some pics of Kim on the bike and of Stacy and Kim and Ann in the pool slackin' off.

After that we were D-O-N-E with working out for the week. YEEEEHAAAAAW! We had lunch after that - the soup was good but I didn't like the wrap. I ate the tortilla and the pieces of chicken. After that we had about a 5-hour break! Stacy and Kim went shopping at a place down the road. I started watching a movie but fell asleep for a bit. We hung out for a bit after that until it was time for dinner. It was nice to actually get dressed in normal clothes and put on some makeup because after dinner we had the graduation ceremony for Kim, Stacy and Ashley! Dinner was a tamale and it was SOOO good. Everyone loved it. Then they showed us a video - if I hadn't already mentioned it, there is a videographer here and he films us. It's not very often but he gets little clips of all of us in the classes and the pool and sticks them together into a great video. Very entertaining. You'll have to visit me in New Orleans to see it :) Orrr I guess you could see Stacy, Kim or Ashley's. After dinner we did a little shopping in the gift shop here and took some pics. We also got t-shirts that say I SURVIVED THE BIGGEST LOSER RESORT AT FITNESS RIDGE. Wooot!! Here's a pic of dinner and some pics of us. Oh, PS there was some sort of big sand storm here - the last pic is me being VERY SCARED of the tumbleweed and sand blowing through our hallways. :)

Day Five - Friday

We were cave dwellers today! Another great hike with great views. And it was especially great for our group of 4 girls because everyone made it the whole way - that was great.

Breakfast was a parfait. I got there later than everyone else and they all said they hated it. Tons of substitutions in the dining room today. I had eggs again, which was fine because it was one of the higher calorie breakfasts for the parfait. Sorry, no pic of the parfait or the eggies.

Then we had our hike - it was called Boy Scout Cave. Here are some pics. :)

Kim at one of our resting points after climbing up some really steep rocks:

The inside of the cave. Inside there was an opening that had lots of sunlight coming through:

The hiking group for the day:

Looking out of the cave:

After the hike we had Stretch class - love it, especially after a hike. Then we had lunch, which was parsnip soup (OK) and a caesar salad (pretty good).

After lunch we had lecture and those of us staying til next week had a separate lecture. There were only about 15 of us in the room. We had to go around and say what our biggest accomplishment was for the week. A lot of people got pretty emotional about what they've gone through. The staff told us that it was normal to cry at least once a week and that many people cry every day. They said if you haven't cried, don't be afraid to let it out! I thought "Crap, I haven't cried yet, muster up some tears!" I know I will be sad on Sunday when the other 3 girls leave. It was so nice to see them and I'm getting reminded of the fact that I'll be going home alone and to my lonely lil' apartment. It was a little weird to move somewhere and live there for 3 short weeks and work for less than that before going on a 2-week vacation. I'm sure I'll be fine, but that has definitely been weighing on my mind a bit. :( I'm glad we met a friend here, Ann, and she is from Chicago too! She is staying one more week so we'l get to hang out next week.

After that, we had 3 classes (cardio circuit, kickboxing and a pool class). The days are going by much faster, but everything is still very tough! After the classes we had dinner (BBQ turkey burger which I didn't like (sense a theme?) but everyone else seemed to). Then we had NO LECTURE after dinner - awesome! They set up a movie for us on a screen outside. We went there for a bit but them moved over to one of the little pool cabana areas to chitchat. That's about it! Tomorrow we'll be hiking again and then the 3 other girls will go through their graduation ceremony. Hope everyone's having a good weekend - have some drinks for me! :)

Day Four - Thursday

I FREAKIN' CLIMB MOUNTAINS!!! Didja ever think I would say that? Didja? We had the best hike today. It was really tough (but not as tough as stop sign for me). It was literally up a mountain, through rocks and sand. It took about 3 hours (which made us late for our next class but it was worth it)! But I'm getting ahead of myself. For those of you that don't care about the details, sorry, please just look at the pretty pics. :) I want to post details for the people reading who are coming to the resort. So here's the menu for today and pics of the breakfast sandwich (pretty yummy).

PS for those that are interested in the gross details (Carie), I had my first episode of vomiting this morning. YAY! I was worried about going on the hike, but everything turned out just fine. Anyway, on to the hike. So as I mentioned we climbed up this mountain. Not everyone made it and not everyone who DID make it thought they would. But when we got to the top of that mountain, it was sooooooo worth it! The view was A-MA-ZING! Here's a couple pics that will show you how steep the incline was and the great view:

After the hike, we missed our next class because we were so late from the hike. We went to lunch...pics below but I opted out of this meal and had scrambled eggs. For those of you coming here, make sure you ASK on the first day what your other meal options are because they won't outwardly tell you (ie you can always get double veggies, you can get cereal, toast, eggs, a boca burger, etc). This was the first meal that I didn't even try. For shame! But I did eat the soup.

After lunch we had a cooking demo with the main chef. It was very informative and not even hard to stay awake, haha!

Next we had a pool class. The sun wasn't out anymore so we FROZE! I never would've imagined saying that but it was freezing. Then we had a ball class that was not so great because it was a new instructor - it was her first class and apparently she forgot that we were all fatties! Everyone was complaining. Then for our final class we had Treading. Everyone talks about this and apparently people who have come here continue to do it on Thursday to be bonded. I think that's awesome and I'm vowing to do that. So Treading is just picking a cardio machine - then you go 5 mins as hard as you can and do a 5 min cool down. Then you do the same for 4 mins, 3 mins, 2 mins and 1 min. Then of course when you're dying there's a "SURPRISE, we're not done yet; push it one more time!"

And finally, we had good ol' dinner. Not great but not horrible. Pics are below. There's no pic of the dessert because it just looked like a big pile of granola. :) Best news of the day was that the lecture for the guests staying more than one week was canceled! WOOOOOT! So I get to hang in my room and relax a bit. Awesome. The days are getting easier. And I don't mean that in the way it might come across - it's easier to make it through the day. Everything is still extremely hard and you are pushed to your breaking point. But now I think everyone knows they're going to get through it, including little ol' me! That's it for me, have a good one!

Day Three - Wednesday

I think we've made it past the hump! Today we had a hike that was pretty amazing. It had great views and we got to see tons of really old paintings from Indians that lived in the area. We climbed giant rocks and it was a really tough hike, but not as bad as the stop sign hike.

This morning I woke up and we went to the Yogalates optional class. I was feeling so nauseas, I had to leave before class was over. It happened to a few people so we think it's due to the electrolyte tablets we put in our hydration packs (funny enough, these tablets are supposed to STOP us from getting sick!) Then we had breakfast (basically a sandwich thin with natural peanut butter and strawberries and bananas and then a side of fruit again). After that was the hike. You can't help but self-reflect when you're in that beautiful environment. I kept thinking - I have two arms, two legs and so mostly a healthy body. I was given this one body and I should try to keep it as healthy as possible and see and do as many things as I can. Many people don't get that opportunity. Below are a couple pics.

After the hike, we had a pool class that was a bit harder than the other day. Then we had lunch (pumpkin soup which I thought was disgusto and a greek pizza). Pizza pic below (this is half of it, it was good after I took off the mushrooms!)

After lunch we had another couple lectures (makes us fall asleep!) and then we had my favorite - KICKBOXING! I loooove kickboxing. It was a really tough workout. Then we had mountain class - I posted about this before where you increase either your speed or intensity every 3 minutes until basically you want to die. :) Then lastly we had another pool class and dinner. Dinner was salmon - PEOPLE, I tried it! I couldn't do it. I even ate two bites and not just one. Fish is not my friend (at least not yet). We actually got about 20 minutes of free time today before lunch. It was awesome! I hung out in the pool and the hot tub. Last thing we got to do tonight was sign up for an optional Target trip. Kim and I signed up so we could get a few things we needed. It was cracking me up to have the Biggest Loser van pull up to Target with a bunch of fatties getting out. HAAAAHAHA so I thought I'd take a pic for you all. Have a great night!

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!

Day One - Monday

We survived day one! One puker and one cryer later (who shall remain nameless), we finished the day. I'll list the schedule and tell ya some stuff about each part, hows about that?

First off was a yogalates class at 6am so we had to get up by 5:30am! The class was optional but we want to take advantage of everything the resort has to offer. Plus it was good because it allowed us to get stretched out before all the tougher workouts. Here's a quick pic of the room where the group classes are held.

Next up was breakfast - a sausage egg sandwich. I didn't think it was that great - it was a muffin with egg (mostly whites), turkey sausage, tomato and spinach. I put chipotle sauce on it to give it some flavor. Kim thought it was the best breakfast ever and wants to eat it for every meal. :) Oh and we had a nice little plate of fruit too.

After breakfast was our first hike. The 4 of us were put into the same group - a group of 14. We went out to the mountains with 3 guides. I have some pics, but they're nothing spectacular - should have more on future hikes. Ashley, Kim and Stacy mostly stayed together and I went up ahead with the first guide. I believe we hiked 4+ miles through the mountains and we hiked for about 2 1/2 hours or so. It was pretty brutal and hot. But we made it! Blisters aren't too bad so far. When we got back from the hike, we had to go right to our next class. We had a choice - a pool class or a gym class. The other 3 girls did the pool class, but I opted for the gym class since I didn't want to be in the sun too much. Probably would have been easier to do the pool class! But we had another one later in the day. My class was called mountain...you pick a bike, treadmill or elliptical (I did the bike) and you start slow and have to increase every 3 minutes, 12 times. By the end you are dying!

After that was lunch. I couldn't believe that I had hiked and biked over 12 miles and we hadn't even had lunch! For lunch, we had tortilla soup (YUM!) and a turkey sandwich. Pics below. I took off the onion and tomato from the sammich and replaced it with red pepper. Pretty good!

After lunch, we had three lectures/meetings. Lots of good stuff, but it was very hard to stay awake. Everyone was so exhausted! After that, we had our pool class. Basically hanging out in the deep end of the pool with some weights. Was a nice change of pace since everyones legs were sore. Didn't seem like a GREAT workout, but much needed. After that we had circuit training and I loved it! Basically you go on a cardio machine for 2 minutes and then you move to a strength training machine for 2 minutes and everyone rotates. Nice to do multiple things in one workout. After that, we had our FINAL workout which was core training - as in ab exercises, etc. Felt bad for the trainer because everyone had a hard time. It was hard to do some of the moves when our bodies were so sore - its too bad that it was so late for our group. I couldn't believe that our first workout was at 6am and our last one ended at 5:15pm. Yowza. We will be hurtin' for certain tomorrow!

And finally, we had dinner. chicken with polenta - pretty yummy! The polenta had peppers, etc in it. Then we had a fruit parfait for dessert (everyone loved it). After dinner we had another lecture that had great information, but this time everyone was REALLY tired and just wanted to get out of there. Now we get to watch the Bears game - let's hope for a win!! Hope everyone is having a great week.

Day Zero (Arrival)

We're here! And we're nervous. After flying into Vegas last night and taking a 2 hour+ death-defying shuttle ride to the resort, we made it. We settled into our rooms and took a tour of the place. Note: 105 degrees with a "dry heat" it still freaking hot. Not kidding. I'm a little sunburnt just from walking around for a few minutes. The pool is really nice, the workout rooms are awesome and the mountains are a-ma-zing. After our quick tour, we had the dreaded weigh in. Somehow I ended up with this very small man to weigh me and take my measurements. Just a little uncomfortable when he was measuring the bust line and told me to move the measuring tape "directly to the middle of your nipples." Kim told him there was a BETTER way to say this - perhaps "move to the largest part of your bust?" So we all found out we're fat and round. Not as painful as it could have been, actually. We made nice with a few people and made a couple friends. Ashley and I also identified candidates for our future husbands. :)

Here we are in front of the front entrance sign.

Then we headed in for dinner. Below is the menu they put up for us - we were only here for dinner and dessert today, the rest was for the people who stayed over from last week.

So below is a picture of the cobb salad. It was sooooooo good! I've never had a real cobb salad so I couldn't tell you how it compares but it was delicious. Proof of how good it was is the picture below that!

And this was the dessert. Dessert was not so good but Stacy made me eat it.

Tomorrow we start with a yoga/pilates class (optional, but we're going damn it!). And we have a 3-4 hour hike and some other things that I'll write about tomorrow night. Really worried about blisters and getting sunburnt. We'll see how it goes! Nervous, but definitely excited. It will all be well worth it and I'm so glad I'm here.

PS one funny story - the 4 of us had to figure out how to get our fancy hydration packs set up. We thought we were so smart because 3 of us had it "figured out." We couldn't get Ashley's so we had to go to the front desk for help. Turns out we had the water hoses through the headphone hole and the water pack on the completely wrong side - we had it all jacked up. The front desk guy was very nice to not laugh at us. If you're coming here, I would recommend trying to figure out your Camelbak before you arrive!