BL Resort - Wednesday

Wednesday started with 6 AM Yogalates :o) I love Yogalates!!! (Yoga and Pilates) I always feel so good afterwards. Then onto breakfast and another 2 1/2 hour hike. This time to "Stop Sign!" I was told it's a right of passage here at Fitness Ridge to complete it. Stop Sign is a little over 4 mile paved hike up a steady incline where at the end you have gone up a little over 1000 feet of altitude. Amazing! It was definitely a challenge. I loved it and hated it every step of the way, but when I reached the top I happily slapped the "Stop Sign" like so many before me. It was awesome and I felt so good.

After lunch we had an very enlightening lecture from the resort life coach, Jen, on emotional eating. I always felt like I was an emotional eater, but Jen's lecture really brought some very interesting things to light. Probably the best advice she shared was that emotional health and awareness of your emotions = healthy weight and/or weight loss. By confronting your fears and those things we avoid we break the cycle of addiction and put yourself in control. She also explained that restriction breads rebellion. If you love popcorn find a healthy way to incorporate that into your diet without making it your go to food that you reach for every time you are stressed or bored. Jen really shared a lot of GREAT information!

The rest of the day went great - in fact I not only tried something new, kickboxing, but I also overcame a fear...Mountain. Mountain was the last cardio class I did before I got sick on Monday so I was really dreading it. I'm so thankful that I bit the bullet (as I did contemplate skipping) because I was completely successful and increased my incline from 10 to 12! Awesome - I did it and was stronger than I was on Monday. Nicole, the trainer, also gave us an awesome quote that I have drawn from all week. "I do today what others think I won't so I can do tomorrow what others can't." Awesome!!!!

Completely exhausted at the end of the day I go back to the room and......zzzzzzzz

BL Resort - Tuesday

Tuesday I woke up feeling well, with a new attitude and ready to take on the day. Went to 6 AM class, Hardcore and boy was it! A combonation of stretch and toning all with your core. Awesome. Next was breakfast then off to 3rd Ravine for another 2 1/2 hour hike. Again the scene was amazing and totally beautiful!!! It was a very challenging hike but I made it and didn't puke - lol! Along our hike we saw the place George Lucas used in Star Wars where the x-wing fighter pilots fuled. It was pretty cool to see especially since I'm a fan of Star Wars. :o)

The rest of the day went rather well - challenging - but I succeeded. H2O Circuit, Deep Water Suspension, Cardio Intervals and Total Toning all before dinner. Whew! We also had a cooking demo that day with the resort Chef Cameron Payne. He is awesome and works with the nutritionists to keep all meals and snacks balanced and within the 1200 per day calorie budget. Naturally I LOVED it and bought both of the resort cookbooks. I can't wait to get home and get cracking on some of those recipes.

After dinner was lecture then back to the room where within an hour I was tucked in bad and fast asleep.....zzzzzzzz.

BL Resort - Monday

Monday was the first full day that I was here and started the exercise regimen. 6-7 hours of the toughest exercises that I've ever experienced in my life! I went to 6 AM Yoga then breakfast then a 2 1/2 hour hike on the Anasazi Trail. The Trail was amazing and very challenging for me since I've never hiked or even walked on anything more uneven than asphalt. 6 miles later I made it back to the resort. Thank you Dawson (one of the hiking guides) for walking with me and telling me all about your family, your job and how you got to the BL Resort to help keep my mind off of how bad my toes were burning and how tired I already was. I recovered for about 25 minutes from the hike and BOOM it's time for my next class - Mountain. Mountain is this challenging cardio interval class where you start at your base (incline/speed) that is effort, but not your max then over a series of 10 - 12 3 minute intervals you increase your speed and or incline till you push yourself to your max and hold it for 5 minutes = BRUTAL! Amazingly I got my incline up to 10 on the treadmill. It was so difficult and I was so blessed to have met Lisa and Jim who got on treadmills on either side of me and walked/ran the last little bit with me. They are both so encouraging and have become my buddies. After Mountain it was time for lunch, which by the way - the food here is AMAZING! We are allotted 1200 calories of food/meals then there are optional pieces of fruit or a serving of raw almonds for snacks. I'm probably staying somewhere around 1300 - 1350 calories per day. So lunch was great then it was time for our first lecture. I began getting a headache in lecture and after class went to the little shop here on the resort for some propel and extra electrolytes to add to my water, but it was too late. I got sick and barfed! Thankfully I had made it back to the ladies locker room before that happened. Page the awesome administrator helped me into one of the massage rooms to rest. They didn't want me to drive back to my room since I'm staying off property. So I laid down after I finally stopped being sick and was able to sleep for about and hour and a half. I woke up with a dull headache, but tried to get up and around to go to dinner and lecture, but the minute I got up and got sick again. I went to the shop again and bought some pepto and advil and no more got a dose of the pepto down, literally for like 10 seconds and got sick again. Nicole (one of the amazing trainers) came in and told me to go back to my room for the rest of the day and try it again tomorrow. :o) Cody (the shop retail manager) got me a light dinner (toast and some veggies) to take back to my room. Everyone was so great and I felt really defeated. Nicole and Page both scolded me and said that I was not allowed to be angry at myself or feel like a failure. I had brought myself to a completely different place and asked my body to do many different things that it had never done before in a totally different climate and altitude. Thank you ladies - you are wonderful. SO... back to the room and to bed early I went.

Will try again tomorrow...

BL Resort Day 1 - I'm here!

It's 3:30 am here and I should be asleep, but I can't. Anxiety about over sleeping and missing my class maybe??? The fact that it is soooo quiet here???? For whatever reason I'm awake and so I will take a minute to reflect and to blog.

You can not believe how beautiful it is here. The colors in the mountains and the sky are so vibrant and rich. I can not wait to go on our first hike today and take pictures. I took a couple from the plane...amazing view. The photos do not do it justice.

I've only been here a few hours and know already that I want to come back. Everyone go ahead and start saving, because you will want to come experience this.

I met several people last night, but no one from my team yet. I'm on the red team...fitting since our wedding color is red :)

On the way here I read Ali Vincent's "Believe it, Be it." The ENTIRE book! I don't know that I've ever read an entire book in one sitting, but her story was amazing and so inspiring and just what I needed to prep my mind for this amazing leg of my weight loss journey. I highly recommend it. She's just an average girl who like most of us found herself gaining weight and losing life. Awesome inspiration!

Ok...I'm off to bed again... more to come later. I'm overwhelmed by this amazing blessing. I am so thankful I am here. It's only been a few hours, but I can already tell that this place is going to mold me and shape me. Thank you God for this amazing opportunity and Thank you O'Neal for seeing the ability in me to change when I couldn't.

Episode – disappointment / Resort – Excitement!

I will not be included in The Biggest Loser “Where Are They Now?” Episode scheduled to air November 23rd. Somehow the diary camera that they had assigned to me made it back to the studio, but no one at the studio can find the tapes. Somewhere between 6 – 8 hours of video MIA. Possibly tossed in the garbage or just sitting on someone’s desk under a stack of papers...who knows??? It’s very disappointing, but it’s not the end of the world. I was very nervous about my heaviest weight being broadcast across the entire NBC viewing network, guess I don’t have to worry about that now – lol. Someday I will broadcast that number for myself, but I believe I’ll wait until I’m at my goal weight and I’m much further away from it. Still it’s disappointing because I had put so much time and effort into that footage. Sigh…it is what it is.

ANYWAY…

I’m getting VERY excited about my journey to the Biggest Loser Resort in UT next week. It’s only a few days away…4 days away in fact. My darling husband-to-be took me shopping last weekend and bought me several new outfits for my upcoming week of hard work. :D Thank you sweetie! I’ve got to spend the next few days getting organized and getting packed. I’m told my day will go something like this:

6:00 am - Open Gym or Class7:00 am - Breakfast8:00 am - Hike / Walk (yes…that’s a 2 ½ hour hike/walk each day) 11:30 am - Water Aerobics 12:45 pm - Lunch1:15 pm – Lecture 2:30 pm - Kickboxing3:30 pm - Circuit Training4:30 pm - Stretch5:30 pm - Dinner 6:15 pm – Lecture

Sounds like fun huh? Some of the gym classes and education series change daily/seasonally so my activities will vary, but for the most part this is what my days will look like next week. I’ve looked at the website everyday this week. http://www.biggestloserresort.com/home/ I can not wait to be there! I’m also told that my calorie intake will be roughly around 1200 calories per day. They have fresh fruit (apples, bananas and oranges) available at all times then my calories will be broken down as follows: 300 for breakfast, 400 for lunch and 500 for dinner. I’m going to be a little sponge and absorb every bit of information they share with me. I’m really excited to have this full 6 day week to devote to totally and completely to my health and my workouts. I have really struggled with making time for my workouts. I pray this week of non-stop workouts will trigger something within me to help me keep my butt in the gym because that is what it all truly comes down to…calories in, calories out. Quality food being consumed and hard core calories burned in the gym. 1000% focus and commitment will be required from me and I fully intend to give myself to it fully and completely.

Paying It Forward

Paying it forward…what exactly is “paying it forward” and what exactly is “it” that you’re paying to others? :D Well to me “it” is every piece of positive and helpful information I obtain that helps me in my journey towards fitness and health and being able and willing to share that information with anyone and everyone who wants it or needs it. Today I had a moment to pay it forward and when I did it felt AMAZING!!!! When I share and encourage others I am not only helping them, but am in fact encouraging and motivating myself.

There is a guy here at work that was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. (Type 1 is the kind where you do not produce the needed hormones to break down glucose in the blood and depending on several factors you could either end up with too much or too little glucose in your system which both have adverse effects on the body) The diagnosis is very upsetting to him and he has been completely overwhelmed by this immediate life change he is being forced into. He was also very discouraged this morning to find that when he took his blood sugar it was 200+ and after a banana, a low calorie energy drink and his morning exercise it had shot up over 300. We started talking and I shared with him how sometimes synthetic sweeteners, while they have “no sugar” in them, can still increase your blood sugar levels and over time are really detrimental to your health, especially your joints. I shared with him my Aunt Dee’s story about how she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes last summer and in just over a year she has been able to bring her blood glucose levels down to the doctor recommended healthy range and has also lost 60 lbs without taking any medications – all with diet and exercise. (I’m so proud of you Dee!) While Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are very different and require different regimens of treatment, they are both easier to maintain on a low-glycemic diet. I was so happy that I could share information and resources with him to help him on his journey and to offer words of encouragement and hope. While his journey is just beginning and will take a lot of trial and error on his part, the one thing I hope he realizes and what I pray my current and future conversations with him will impart is that there is hope for his situation. It will be difficult, it will take time and there will be days that are really good and days that are really bad, but through it all HE is in control and just because his blood sugar is over 300 today doesn’t mean that it has to stay that way forever. I am the only person who can control my health and wellness. YOU are the only person who can control YOUR health and wellness. While damage that has already been done can’t always be reversed, you can start this very moment and make changes to immediately start improving your health. And if you need some encouragement and help along the way, I’ll here. In my own pursuit of wellness and health - happy to share with you any information that I have that might help you on your journey whatever that journey might be :D

Confessions of a Food addict

Hello, My name is Deborah and I'm an food addict...yes, addict. I love food. I love to cook it, eat it, shop for it, study it, talk about it...pretty much anything and everything about food...I love it. I probably spend more time thinking about food than just about anything else...except Michael :D This weekend was a blur of fast food and I absolutely did not make the best choices I could. Saturday morning was McDonald's for breakfast, Dickey's BBQ for lunch and Chili's for dinner. This morning I made a very yummy and nutritious breakfast of nummy organic wheat banana walnut pancakes with turkey bacon and organic eggs, but then for lunch I landed in a Sonic chicken fried steak toast sandwich with tator tots. Jillian would not approve. For dinner I snacked...snacked on crap. I found myself craving salt and carbs like CRAZY! To the point that I was actually thinking about going to the store to get me some French's French Fried Onion Rings (yes - the preservative filled fried onions that come in a can) and a Coke (mmmmm - nectar of the God's). In the midst of my euphoric sugar/carb haze I had this moment of clarity and thought REALLY?!?!?!? I immediately jumped up and went straight to Whole Foods to buy some fresh fruit and veggies. I can't do it! I can not allow myself to fall back into those bad food choices and habits. I have to be committed and prepared 100% of the time. When I'm not prepared, when I don't eat the proper foods I begin a spiral where I make bad decision after bad food decision. So...it begins immediately (actually it began about 6:30 or so) but from this moment on I promise myself I will be prepared. I will buy groceries and take my lunch to work and pack all my proper snacks. I will cleanse my body of the sugar filled carb-o-rific foods that I have munched on all weekend and begin filling my body with the proper fuel it needs. Wholesome, organic fruits, veggies, grains and proteins. As much as I love food I love myself more and love the progress I have made. I've come too far to turn back now.

I leave for the Biggest Loser Ranch in UT on 11/7. I can't wait!!!! I'm so nervous and so excited all at the same time. I am a little bit nervous about the action-packed schedule that I will have, but more than the nerves I'm looking forward to the challenge. My day will be packed with exercise, exercise and exercise from 6 AM to 6 PM for 7 full days. A 2 1/2 hour hike each day. Pool classes, cardio classes, gym, weights, yoga, lectures and nutrition classes....it's going to be amazing! I worry sometimes that I won't have the endurance to make it. While I've come a long way on my fitness journey I still have a long way to go and weekends like this are only steps backwards on my journey to healthy and skinny. In preparation and for a little motivation I bought my hiking boots yesterday. $135 later I have awesome hiking boots sure to make my feet feel fabulous on any length of hike. Wicking "wool" socks with arch compression and extra cushioning to help keep blisters at bay and amazing new insoles with fantastic arch support. I may not have any clothes to wear when I get to UT, but by golly my feet will look and feel AMAZING! LOL ;D

So...a lot of fun and exciting changes are coming my way. BL trip to UT, the "Where Are They Now?" BL follow up episode scheduled to air the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Michael and I celebrating our first holidays together AND OH YEA...THE WEDDING - WHEW! I'm excitedly overwhelmed just typing it all. :D God is so good...what more can I say. He is good and through Him I can do all things...even overcome silly little set backs like this weekend. ;D