Last Biggest Loser Blog!

My bad, forgot to blog yesterday....was too busy trying to pack in the dark so I didn't wake up my roommate. Yep, I'm going home a day early...sitting in the airport now waiting for my flight home. Here are the highlights from yesterday and today:

Woke up at 5:30 yesterday and did kickboxing. LOVE IT! Still. Then finally got to go on the Camelback hike (after a yummy breakfast). I've been wanting to go there since I got to the resort. I was beginning to think we weren't going to go! The hike was great because it's a little bit of everything. You go through sand, you climb lava rocks, you climb big, tall rocks and you get a great view. Our poor little hiking group dwindled down to 3 people by yesterday after starting with about 10. Lots of injuries or people preferring to walk on pavement. How could you not want to hike through the mountains and prefer to be on pavement??? I could hike all day - as long as we got breaks! :) Here are some pics:

In the vortex - a big hole that usually you can climb down into but the rain hasn't dried up yet so we couldn't go in. But you can stand at the top and take cool shadow pics. That's me in the middle with my 2 fellow hikers and 2 guides. We tried to think of something cool to spell out and tried to spell LOSER but it looked ridiculous. Apparently we are not very bendy. ;)

Looking down to the 2 other hikers while I climbed up the camel's back. They didn't want to go up! The view from the top was amazing, as always.

Me and Lauren at the top of camelback. WOOOOT!

Then we walked over to what they call the dinosaur back. You can see it in this pic, although it's hard to see.

When we got over there, we hiked around the whole thing. The entire time we hiked around the dinosaur back, this little chipmunk or squirrel was at the tip top of one of the rocks watching us.

Last hike together! This is when we got back to the resort after the hike...with our guides Kendall and Lauren (the absolute best and 6 months pregnant!!!)

After the hike I was supposed to go to a class but I missed for the first time. I ended up on the phone and computer changing my flight and shuttle to the airport so I'd get home a day earlier and have another day to myself. Then we had lunch (I had scrambled eggs because the sloppy joe was definitely not what you would consider sloppy joe. We joked that maybe it was sloppy jack, sloppy joe's little brother). After lunch I did a zumba class (I suck) and two pool classes that got way too competitive! I thought I was gonna get myself in trouble with some of the people that were being giant jerks at one point. Anywho, then we had dinner (I had cereal because I tried the salmon and it was too fishy for miss picky) and we just hung out talking. It was nice to sit around and meet some new people or get to know existing people a little more. We don't have too much time for that normally since we go to bed earlier than 90 year olds. I wish I had taken the time to get to know a few people a little better. :( But the whole experience was well worth it. I can't wait to get home and go grocery shopping, cook and figure out my detailed plan to stay on track. Thanks for reading, everyone!!

Day Eleven - Thursday

The rain is over, the rain is over! This means we went back to real hikes today with real views and real rock climbing....wooooooot!!

It sounds like everyone was feeling a little lame-o this morning....probably from all the dreary weather we've been having. So when I got to the gym late (at 6:45) not a single soul was there and no one had been there yet because the lights were off! A few people were in an aerobics class, but not too many people stirring early today! We had breakfast (I opted for cereal) and we got the good news about the hike. My knee was again hurting (not much improvement from the acupuncturist) so I was a little nervous about hiking but I'm nearing the end of my stay so I sucked it up and went. It was a gorgeous hike....it was rough on my knee but totally worth it.

The menu:

See that mountain and the tiny spec on the top right? There is a rock there called the piano rock. We were up there :)

The view from "up there"

The butterfly rock

After the hike, we had Stretch class...always love that! Then of course, we had lunch. I looooved the mushroom soup. Surprised, aren't ya? Miss Picky loved the mushroom soup. After lunch we had to go back to the world of lectures (for those of us who are leaving this week). It wasn't too bad, it was really about how we are going to adjust when we get home and trying to plan for our new lifestyle. Then we had treading class - you should join us at home for treading Thursdays by the way!! I'll be doing it every Thursday when I get home. So easy - pick a cardio machine, warm up. Push yourself your hardest for 5 mins and then cool down for 5 mins. Do the same for 4 mins-3 mins-2 mins-1 min and then another 1 min and you're done! So easy and great for your heartbeat. Then we had a pool class (in the SUN - yay!) and then we were supposed to do a ball class but I stayed in the pool for another class. Felt better on the knee after hiking and doing treading. For dinner we had stuffed peppers (below, I did not like) and a vanilla pie with strawberries in it (ok). Now time for Grey's!

The stuffed peppers

Zee pie

Out evening lecturer (isn't she the tiniest thing on earth???)

Day TEN - Wednesday

"I wasn't make to break." That was part of the very last song they played in the gym today. Well I didn't break, but some things are hurtin'! Yesterday I was having pretty bad pain in my knee, but it was something I could work through. Today when I got out of bed, the pain was a lot worse. It's a sharp pain, which I learned today is probably indicative of a muscle tear. Hopefully that's not the case because that means pain for the end of the week and a trip to the doctor when I get home. So anyway, I hit the yogalates class at 6am. Again, I had trouble doing the yoga move that are hard on the knees. Then we had breakfast - it was DELICIOUS!!

After breakfast, they announce which hike you're doing for the day. I had decided that if it was a pavement hike, I wasn't going because of my knee. Then they announced that our group was doing....STOP SIGN again. That sealed the deal - I wasn't going. It would be way too hard because at least the last half is straight uphill on pavement. So lucky me, I got to spend two hours in the gym this morning. Then we were supposed to have a pool class but big surprise, it was canceled again due to the weather so we got to do - even more cardio in the gym!! WHOOHOOO (sarcasm). Hehehe obviously my attitude sucks today! :)

Then we had lunch - beet soup and BBQ chicken pizza. Soup was icky and the pizza was OK. Sorry, no pics...forgot my camera. Then at 2:30 we had......drumroll......POOL CLASS!!! The rain let up long enough for us to get our class in, but it was freezing. Still, I was glad to not be in the GYM anymore! Then we had my fave - kickboxing class. They totally got a bunch of video shots of me in that class. We'll see how that turns out! And finally we had mountain class. (Pick a machine, increase every 3 minutes 12 times until you're at the top of the mountain.) I did the bike, but was def having trouble with the knee. After, we had dinner - a cafe salad which was more like a taco salad with a soft tortilla. That was yummy. Again, forgot the camera. And finally, after dinner I had my acupuncture appointment (see pic below!) My friend Ann had it yesterday and said it helped her knees. So here's to hoping! Catch you tomorrow...

Day Nine - Tuesday

Today was ehhhh. It's still raining like crazy with insane lightning and some flooding. It's making me a little depressed! Or maybe I feel depressed because it makes us have to spend more time in the gym!! Hope the rest of the week is nicer. Oh, the temperature also dropped by about 40 degrees. Whereas it was 100+ last week, this week it is in the 60s at most so far. Boo. Anywho, here's how today went (sorry, my only pics are of food cuz there was nothing else to take pics of!):

Woke up at 5:30am, hit the gym at 6am (cardio). Breakfast and then the hike. PS breakfast was delicious - the english muffin was so tasty and we got almond butter to spread on top. Due to the horrible weather, they had to change our hike. We got this lame hike on pavement that was full of GIANT hills and valleys. We walked about 7 miles and I got blisters on my feet because I wore my hiking boots (scared to get my gym shoes wet, but it didn't even rain on us!). It was pretty difficult. When we came back, our group had pool class. It was FA-REE-ZING! The pool is heated but your shoulders, head, etc are always out of the water so it is cold. And when I say heated, that doesn't mean warm. But the rain held out on us for this class. All afternoon pool classes were canceled (including our afternoon class). After pool, we had lunch. The soup was ehhh and the pita was delish.

Then we had our 3 afternoon classes - a cardio class that kicks your butt, a "total toning" class that works everything with weights, a weight bar and a stepper, and a circuit class that was added because pool was canceled (yay). I ended up walking out of the toning class. I couldn't do a lot of the moves due to my knees hurting. Then I ended up getting really frustrated with the instructor because unlike the other trainers, she didn't make me feel like it was OK to do a modification or not do something. I started getting really down and frustrated so I walked out and went into the gym and did the treadmill. Oh well. Other than dinner, that was pretty much it for us today. For those who are interested, I did wear my calorie-counting watch and chest strap today to see how many calories we actually burn. Looks like I burned about 4000 calories between 5:30am and 5:30pm. So maybe 5000 or so for an entire day. :)

Day Eight - Monday (again)

There's no nice way to say it. We got our asses handed to us this afternoon. Although I think Ann and I chose to kick our own asses for part of it. And as my Uncle Mike said, there's less of my ass to kick this week. :) So I have a new roomie - Laura from Seattle. She's super nice but she brought the rain with her! We have had horrible thunderstorms all day (this is part of why we got our asses kicked). Here's how it went:

We got up at 5:30am and did the OPTIONAL yogalates class. I think it's great because it gets you stretched out before you have to go on the hike. Then we went to breakfast. Breakfast was the frittata which looked wayyyy too heavy to be digesting during a 2 hour+ hike. I opted for cereal again. Here's some pics:

Da maaaa-nuu:

Da frittata

Da cereal (it's good, I promise)

Then we went on our hike. We got a new group this week and I think we kept up pretty well with each other. But then we saw that they're changing our group for the rest of the week so who knows. The hike was through what they call a wash. There's some sort of lake and then there is a damn and locks that hold all the water out. But at this time of year, there's not even enough water in the lake to let water through the damn. So we got to walk through this area that basically is a type of river when there is water in it. Hard to describe. Plus it had rained all night at morning so it was wet and sandy and slippery (the only time of the day it didn't rain was during our hike, what luck!) Here's some photos:

This is what the terrain was like some of the time:

Through the wash...

Hiking through "slots" in the walls

Ann pushing apart the rocks!

Some of our group that climbed to the top of a big rock. Not sure what that one girl is doing :)

When we got back from the hike, we had Stretch class (always awesome after a hike) and then lunch. Lunch was chili with cornbread and was PERFECT since it was cold and rainy out.

After lunch, Ann and I didn't have to go to the lectures so we decided to hit the gym. It was nice - no one else was in there and we did ALL of the circuit machines and also did some cardio. This is where we may have been overachievers because then the storms got worse and they canceled the pool classes. Pool is 1-2 times per day and is important because it's still a great workout, but it is much easier on your joints. Since pool was canceled, they gave us 2 of the hardest cardio class back to back after we had a Core class that kicked our butts. Yeah, we had to do the same class TWICE in a row - and by the way, it includes pushing yourself over the top on cardio AND doing the circuit (which we had already done that day once before). By 5:15pm when everything ended, we were dead to the world. But it felt A-W-E-S-O-M-E. I feel way better than last week, much stronger. I can't wait to kill myself again every day this week and get the most out of this week that I can! Have a great week, everyone.

Day Seven - Sunday

And on the seventh day, she rested. Today was "going home day" for Stacy, Ashley and Kim. But luckily we met our new Chicago friend, Ann, so we will be struggling through the next week together. It was tough to see my girls leave. :( I think it's hard because I don't know when I'm going to see any of them again. Hopefully soon enough! So there's not much to tell today - the girls left and we were supposed to hang around and no nothing today so that's pretty much what I did. I watched the Sox game, floated around the pool on a float for awhile, hung out with Ann and now I'm watching the Bears. Sorry it's not more exciting! OH! I should tell you the girls' results after their weigh-in. I'm not sure how much they'd like me to share so I'll just say that one lost 6 lbs, one lost 8 lbs and one lost 9 lbs (one week). Way to go, girlies!! Here's some pics from the day.

All the food was OK today :)

Last group pic before the girls left:

Here they go.... :(

One final goodbye...

Annnnnnd they're gone :( booohooohoooo.