Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Negatives from this week:

I fell down on a hike

I have a 3" long blister on my foot

I got lost on a walk by myself today and was gone 2 hours

I got a very pretty sunburn on said hike, with a fancy design

My skin is a giant mess of allergic reaction to something

Positives from this week:

I did it.

I did it, and I did it all. No slacking, no sitting on the sidelines. I'm here to make it count. I'm here to push my hardest.

On today's hike (camelback), I went to the top of the camelback AND I went down into the vortex - something I couldn't do last time because it was full of water. Only 3 people out of my group of 10 made it into the vortex and 4 went to the top of camelback. I really like my new hike group. Tomorrow is a short day - there is no 6am class on Saturdays. You just eat breakfast and you choose whether you want to hike or do a 2 1/2 hour cardio class. Then when you're done there is a stretch class and you're free for the rest of the day other than meals. This is why I choose to leave on Saturday and not Sunday. So since my motto was to do my best, I signed up to do the dreaded stop sign hike again. I figured, it's my last day! I'm going to try to make it all the way up and back down again. If my legs are dead for the next two days, that's OK! I'll be at home! Fine and dandy until I got lost on my walk today and ended up with a painful 3" blister on my foot. So we'll see how it is tomorrow. Here are a buuuuunch of pictures. Enjoy :)

menus from today and yesterday

menus from today and yesterday

stop sign hike - the devil!

top of camelback

this is the vortex

starting to come back up - very hard! much harder than getting down

the knee (getting better!) and foot

Dumas

Dana down! I fell on the hike today. :( I was in a new hike group and feeling great, speeding along and keeping up. Then a rock came up from out of the earth and GRABBED my foot! Imagine! OK, maybe not. Maybe I was going to fast or not paying enough attention. Either way, I smashed up my knee. Nothing serious, just a bloody skinned knee. It was at the beginning of the hike, so it affected me a little, but I still finished the hike (Scout Cave). I didn't take any pictures because I was on this hike last time. I'll post the menu in an upcoming post.

I can't believe I forgot this yesterday. In one of our gym classes where you're supposed to push yourself to the max at intervals, we had a scary thing happen. This older lady all of a sudden couldn't move, couldn't see and didn't know where she was. She's the sweetest thing on earth; it was very hard to see. We thought she was having a stroke and about 6-7 emergency vehicles came really fast. She didn't choose to go to the hospital and is saying it was a mixture of aspirin and medication but some of us aren't sure about that so we're keeping an eye on her today. I told her today she's very popular and everyone's always going to be asking how she is. Every time she made a noise on the machine next to me, I found myself making sure she was OK. The weird part for all of us in the gym was that we had to keep going for the class. We weren't allowed to stop at all. It felt very selfish. But the trainer reminded us that we are here for ourselves and that she was in good hands. I'm glad she's OK!

That's all I gots! Short post today. See y'all tomorrow (maybe).

Struggling With Myself!!!

Here I am back at Fitness Ridge. I arrived on Sunday afternoon....nothing really happens on Sunday other than meeting everyone and the dreaded weigh-in. I was disgusted to see that I weigh almost as much as when I weighed in here 6 months ago. Of course, I did this to myself. I don't know what happened....I was doing so great for 3 months after I left here and then when I went home for Christmas, something in my head changed and I couldn't get back on track and started quickly gaining back everything I had worked so far for.

Monday we had the usual - 6am class, breakfast, long hike (Chuckwalla), mountain class, lunch, then three more classes. It felt a lot harder than I remember. But I made it. :)

Today (Tuesday), same thing really. I was pretty sore when I woke up, but that was to be expected. After the 6am class and breakfast, we went on today's hike (Third Ravine). They put you in a new hike group on Tuesdays. Monday is a sort of assessment hike and then they move you around based on how fast you were. There are 7 groups of hikers - one advanced, several intermediate and a beginner group. Based on Monday, I got put in the highest intermediate group. With the fast, skinny people. Now I know what it's like to bring up the rear of the group. My mantra for the day (before the hike) was NO SELF NEGATIVITY. That was out the window as soon as the hike started. I started the "look what you did to yourself," "you had no problem yesterday, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?" and the "I'm not going to make it; I'm slowing everyone down and they're all going to hate me." I'm well aware that this type of self-struggle leads nowhere good. All it did was make me stop more often and come close to tears. It's really the reason I'm here. I know how to lose weight and be healthy, and I feel great when I'm going it. But something's wrong in the ol' noggin'. I vowed to meet with the counselors here this time - something I didn't take advantage of last time.

By the time I got back to my room after the hike, I was a bundle of self-doubt. On top of that, I was really starting to feel some pain in the legs - hips, knees, blisters on feet, etc. I took a 20 min nap hoping it would get better but through lunch and the next classes, it didn't. Then I went to dinner and sat with a group of girls and we talked about the self-deprication. Everyone had done it. Everyone could relate. That felt nice, but still didn't make it go away. I meet with the life coach tomorrow so we'll see how that goes!

I posted some pics below and for the FB girl that was asking, I posted the meal plans as well. Hope it helps. :)

Views from Chuckwalla (above and below)

my hiking group (above) and my fat ass (below) - hey, I told you, I'm still working on it.

Mon and Tue menus (above and below)

Back to Fat Camp for Dana

I'm letting my life pass me by. I'm literally sitting here letting life turn out the way I don't want it to. I hit some sort of mental roadblock at the end of the year. I was doing soooo great. But then something happened. Don't know what it was, but I can't get over it. At the Biggest Loser resort in Sep/Oct, I lost 14 pounds. But more importantly than that, I got on track. I was living a healthy lifestyle AND I brought it home with me. For 3 months, I was doing awesome and lost another 25 pounds. But now I've gained it back. All 25. So I'm at or a little above where I was when I left the result. How discouraging!

I think discouragement is a big part of it. Sometimes I'm so overwhelmed by how far I have to go, I just throw in the towel. I've realized that I need to go back to the resort for a bit because I can't get myself back on track. Every day, I try. Every night, I get myself ready for the next day. And almost every day and night, I fail. Time to take control of my life again, starting with being healthy again. I'll be blogging while I'm there, so check back here soon :)

Change, Change, Change

My how things have changed! And the more things change, the more I reevaluate where I'm at.

I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining, because I'm very thankful for everything I do have. I have a great job, I don't have to worry too much about money and I have great friends and family. It's just that I never thought I'd be in the situation I'm in.

I'm not going to lie - it's tough being away from your friends and family in a town where you know no one. I'm lucky enough to have nice people to work with, but I'm definitely struggling with making new friends outside of work. It's very easy to stay inside your little cocoon at home where it's nice and safe and it's difficult to think of places to go alone that will be safe and where you'll meet new friends. It's a little strange to think of a better way to say "Hey, I'm a loser with no friends. Wanna be my friend?" ;)

I sold my house, but it's bittersweet. I definitely needed to sell or I would be stuck with a mortgage in Indiana and expensive rent to pay in New Orleans, which I wouldn't be able to afford. But now, it's just that if I wanted to go home, there's no "home" to go to. No safety net. I'm here now...with no escape plan! :)

I guess no one knows where they're going to end up. And again, I don't mean to come off as complaining. I have a good life and to a great extent, your life is what you make it. It's just that I'd trade everything I've got for true love and a family of my own. Am I the only out there to feel this way?

Back to 50 - bittersweet

I'm finally back to 50 pounds down from my highest weight. I'm super proud because I've lost 30 pounds since checking in at Fitness Ridge on 9/25. But it's also bittersweet because I lost 65 pounds last year and gained most of it back in the first half of this year. So I'm losing what I already had lost last year. But oh well, can't dwell on that! Gotta stay focused on the long term goal - which is still 75 pounds away BUT if I stay on track, I will hit my goal on my birthday next year. Maybe, just maybe, if I end up moving back to Chicago next year, some people won't recognize me. :) Maybe, just maybe, New Orleans is time away for me to focus on me.

I'm super duper excited that next Thursday I'll get to make my first trip back to see my friends and family!!!! Seems like just yesterday I left them, but I've been here now for 2 1/2 months. I'm trying so hard to get so see everyone because my trip is pretty short. AND I want to make sure not to lose track of my health goals so I'm really going to try to work out while I'm there and not eat horribly. It's going to be an interesting balancing act cuz a girls gotta get her drink on one of those nights! :) If you're reading, can't wait to see you all. The countdown is ON!!

Shame on you, US. Really.

I've been meaning to post this for awhile....these photos are from Us magazine a month or two ago. They make me so upset! I can't believe that a national well-known magazine got away with this. I don't mean to be up on a soap box, but really? These are the role models we have for women and young girls in this country? They should be ashamed.

Look at this picture of Kelly Ripa. She is so obviously emaciated. Here's what the tag says - "I try to do a variety of exercises," a CUT Kelley Ripa tells Us.

I know I'm not the healthiest person in the world, but I sure don't think this is a healthy ideal.

It gets better. Later in the magazine, they talk about the "struggle" celebs go through to keep their FAB figures. In case you can't read the text, I typed it out below.

Elizabeth Hurley - The former model, 45, who once said she went to bed hungry to stay slim, also has a spartan start to her day. "I swear by almost nothing for breakfast," she tweeted August 24. "Mugs of hot water!"

Amanda Seyfried - The Dear John star, 24, sticks to raw food to maintain her shape - not that she likes it. It's "sort of awful," she has complained. "Yesterday for lunch? Spinach...and some seeds."

Kristin Bauer - What sucks more than vampires? For True Blood star Bauer, 36, her diet. "The other day I realized as long as I'm in this business, I'm going to be hungry," she admitted.

Julianne Moore - Her secrets to a movie-ready body: a "boring diet of, essentially, yogurt and breakfast cereal and granola bars," the actress, 49, has said. "I hate dieting...I'm hungry all the time."

Man (or woman) down!

So I've been doing pretty well since I got home from Fitness Ridge. I'm down just over 20 pounds since checking into the resort on 9/25. But when I stepped on the scale this morning, it said that I lost nothing over the past week. Not too worried about it because I don't think I have the best scale and I know I was good with eating and working out in the past week. But this weekend I'm not doing anything much physically. At work on Friday night I passed out. It was so weird and embarrassing and has never happened to me before. I know I had eaten enough, so it wasn't that. I hit my head pretty hard a couple times on the cabinet behind me. So I've got a few bumps and bruises and I'm still not feeling great. I don't want to push it by working out, so I'm spending my day off today on the couch. Trying to fit the doctor in sometime tomorrow on my lunch break. I just want to check everything out and make sure all is good.

But I do feel like I have changed my lifestyle. I'm actually bored by sitting on the couch today and want to get out and do something. Before, I would be more than happy to sit on the couch and eat bad all day. I think twice (or more) about what I eat and the eating out is getting a little bit easier. Although, since I'm in a new city by myself, it's somewhat easier in a way because I don't go out too often and I have the time to work out. I know what it's like to have someone (in the same city) to push you to do your best and it's great. But I also know what it's like to have negative health influences and the only one of those here is myself at times!

I was looking at the Fitness Ridge Facebook page today and I really, reallllly want to book my next trip. Some of the people I was there with are going back next September. But that's going to be pretty bad timing for me. And I'm nervous about using a week of my time off for FR when I could use it to travel and see my friends/family. But who knows, I'm sure I'll get in there at some point! :)

OOOOPS!

My bad - I totally forgot to put my results on the last post! I lost a total of 14 pounds in two weeks (which was actually I guess 12 days when you think about it). I don't have the sheet but I think between the chest, stomach and hips I lost about 8 inches or so. I've been home for a full 24 hours now and I have slacked a bit on the working out, but I've been full force getting everything organized. I went grocery shopping and tomorrow I'll be making yummy meals for the work week - honey mustard pretzel coated chicken fingers, sante fe cheesy chicken stirfry, stuffed chicken cordon bleu and exploding chicken taquitos. Apparently I was on a chicken kick?? I didn't even realize that they were all chicken dishes until just now! They are all hungry girl recipes. For anyone that doesn't know hungry girl - go to hungrygirl.com and sign up for a free daily email. You'll love it, I promise. And they have cookbooks with all delicious healthy meals....I loooooove me some hungry girl. :)

I haven't worked out, but I bought a new DVD that hopefully I can do in my small living room. And I bought a swim cap (I know I'm an old lady) so I can do laps in the pool on the roof of my complex (stop laughing about the swim cap, the water is really chloriney). AND tomorrow I go for a trial kickboxing class at a martial arts place...can't WAIT! Well, I think that's it! Just wanted to update with my results :) Night!

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. :)