Days 3 and 4

This is one of our hike guides doing a little yoga for the camera.




Day 3: In the morning my group did a hike called Stop Sign. It is a paved trail 4.4 miles up Snow Canyon. The first 2.5 miles has little tiny hills but is pretty level for the most part. Then, it gets harder, and harder, and finally harder. Then you are at the top. I pushed myself so hard and made it up in 1 hour and 6 minutes. That steep incline was killer! Then I got to turn around and run all the way back down--a total of 8.8 miles in 2 hours. It was the hardest I've worked since I've been here.And quite honestly it's the hardest and farthest I've gone in my life. I even got to see a big rattlesnake. My Polar heart monitor said my average heart rate was 142 and that I burned 1200 calories! I felt really good about that.


Later, I went to a kickboxing class, a treadmill workout called Mountain, and a pool workout. In all I figure I burned around 1850 calories yesterday.

These pictures are of my new group. They are so much fun!

Day 4: Our early morning hike this morning was called camel back. We hiked up red sandstone to two distant humps of rocks that resemble a camel's back. We are in a deep hole called the vortex in the picture above. It looked so intimidating to climb into but I watched as one hiker made her way in and it didn't look too scary, so I went in as well.

Fitness Ridge accomadates a wide spectrum of fitness levels--from the marathon runner to morbidly obese. I really enjoy this place. It works you hard and feeds you breakfast, lunch and dinner from a real Chef, your rooms are cleaned daily, and the staff is terrific! There are many repeat visitors. Some of them come every year. It's great to be able to take a fitness vacation and focus on changing bad habits and then come back as a refresher course whenever you need it.


I must admit that mealtime is my favorite part of the day. Mostly because Chef Cam seems to be magical! What beautiful, delicious, low calorie meal is he preparing today? Everything I've tasted so far has been so tasty.

Lunch today: Turkey sandwich and a salad with strawberries and red onion. Mushroom soup was also served at this meal.

Breakfast yesterday: French toast with raspberry sauce, turkey sausage and eggs.

Lunch yesterday: Chicken served on whi pped yams and mixed vegetables that include brussel sprouts and carrots. This meal may have been my favorite so far. It was so yummy!

Hero or Loser?

Day 3: Tuesday. Up again early to leave for a hike called Scout Cave. Every morning here there is a two hour hike before breakfast.This one was five and a half miles.
At the top of the hike, this is the view looking down.

Here is my group inside Scout Cave. The cave is quite large. After this hike I was bumped up to a faster van. I am now in the 2nd fastest group.

The most beneficial thing I've learned while here so far was from the Emotional Eating workshop. The Life Coach here talked about the 3 things that make up a person's weight. The equation looks like this: Fitness + Nutrition + Emotional Management= Your weight. If you struggle in one of these three areas, your weight will be affected. She also talked about all or nothing thinking--I fall into this category as well as my husband. I am either going to do a diet or health plan perfectly or I am not going to do one at all (aka: quitting). All or nothing thinkers aren't failures, they're quitters. Ouch. They have a FEAR of failure so they quit.

She drew a pendalum on the bored and said, "When you are ALL in with nutrition and fitness you feel like a Hero. Feeling like a hero feels happy and good. When you mess up you swing to the other side of the pendalum and you are now NOTHING. You feel like a loser. Feeling like a loser feels miserable and depressed." Instead of getting stuck in this trap she suggested a problem solving technique. She had us write down on paper these three categories (as shown above ) and list what is and is not working.

What is working as far as FITNESS goes in my life? I listed some exercises I like to do and that I have a desire to change. What was not working was that there is just not enough time to do everything. I haven't made a plan of when and what days to do it (routine), and I have unrealistic expectations about how much I can get done in one day. We all have our own lists of what is and is not working. Those were examples of what mine are.

What is working as far as NUTRITION goes in my life? I am loving adding more color to my meals with extra cut up veggies. I am eating good sources of protien with my meals to keep my blood sugar from spiking. I am caring for my body with delicious, healthy foods that nurture and comfort me. What is not working is I need to be better at going to the grocery store on Friday. I put off making a list because it takes a lot of time. My portion sizes are often too big.

What is working as far as EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT goes in my life? I am kind to myself. I am trying to work with my body and listen to what it needs. What is not working is the fact that often I don't communicate my feelings well. I don't live with mind readers (who knew!). I also need alone time which can be hard to come by in the summer months.

Now looking at the "not working" side I have my work cut out for me. Because I know what the problems are I can start working on them. I can make a daily plan for my fitness. I can make weekly grocery lists that go with my monthly menu. I can calmly and promptly communicate my feelings with others so they know what is going on well before I turn into an outstanding witch.

This technique squelches the tunnel vision of perfection and instead blasts it wide open to allow progress.

"You Must Be the Change You Wish to See in the World"-Mahatma Ghandi

Day 2: It was an early morning! Up at 5:40am to get ready for a beautiful 2 hour hike to Anasazi Ridge. Rob and I were put in separate vans because he has been here longer. Separate vans mean separate hikes in different locations which is just as well because he's been gone so much and looks so good his tractor beam is pulling me in and who am I to resist?

The first day is assesment day where a group of 9 or 10 guests go out with 3 hiking guides and they hike with you and put you into groups based on your ability. There are 7 groups total. The hike was great but I didn't feel like it pushed me very much. When Rob came home for a week we hiked every morning for 5 mornings. I feel like he really prepared me for these morning hikes as we pushed ourselves up steep inclines.

Here is breakfast.

On the trail we were fortunate to see some petroglyphs. History is fascintating to me and I wished I could take a snapshot of the past and see who it was that carved these interesting pictograms!

I found out in the afternoon that I was put into group 3 out of 7. So there are 2 groups that are faster than mine. Rob is in the fastest group. In fact, when he was home, he was hiking like a mad man. I was the one lagging behind saying, "Why are you hiking like that? How did you get so fast?" His hiking at Fitness Ridge, in only a mere two weeks, had made all the difference in the world. Wow. Aren't our bodies amazing?

Here are some of those cool petroglyphs I was talking about. Does this tell a story or was this a piece of scratch rock? I will never know until I get to the other side of this life and ask someone who knows--if I remember to ask.

On the upper rim of the Anasazi Trail.

This is the vegetable soup that was served with lunch. It was delicious! It feels so good to eat things rich with color and flavor. I realize that sometimes I take no thought as to what I am feeding my body when I am trying to eat "good." Often I hurriedly slap together a less than tasty sandwich just to get eating over with. Where's the kindness in that? My body works all day long for me. Why don't I take some thought and prepare something that is tasty AND healthy. It CAN be done.

This was lunch that was served after the soup. It was Chicken Rice bowl with Chile Verde sauce and a vegetable skewer. When I get home I am investing in skewers.

Fitness Ridge teaches you about 4 components of Health.

1.Fitness

2. Nutrition

3.Education

4. Relaxation

I will share everything I feel is beneficial with you. If you have any questions I can find out anything you need to know! There are dieticians, trainers, a chef, and an emotional eating life coach here. I am very interested in hearing what the life coach has to say as I gained 30 pounds when Rob started travelling last year. Oops. I am an emotional eater. Hold still. Did you hear that? It is the wind of change.

I'm a Little Scared

I arrived in St. George around 4pm and met up with my handsome, shrinking husband at the front desk of Fitness Ridge. He is looking so good and I am so proud of him! As of last week he had lost 44 pounds from his heaviest weight this year. Isn't he amazing?!! It was so good to see him. I'm so lucky to have him as my best friend and husband.

After being weighed and measured I was welcomed, along with four others, in the office of the resort's emotional eating counselor. She had us introduce ourselves and ask any questions we had. Then off to eat....

The menu said turkey stroganoff for dinner and vanilla pie for dessert. We sat down at the long people-filled table and the staff brought us our meal. It was pretty in the dishes and wasn't creamy like the stroganoffs of yesterday, but delicious none the less. I ate slowly... very slowly because, well, there wasn't very much and I was fearful that if I didn't savor these few bites I'd still be left wanting. The vanilla pie was made with a grape nut crust and tofu with vanilla tofu pudding. It was okay. I would have never guessed it was tofu though. I only know because Rob bought the chef's cookbook and brought it home. We have tried a few things in it and like the cookbook so far.

After dinner they sent a microphone around the room and everyone (all 75 of us) introduced ourselves, told where we were from and how long we were staying. I was very surprised to find that the minority were staying for only one week. There were many staying from 2 to 4 weeks and as many as 8 weeks. There is one man here for 19 weeks! There are people from all over the country and many of them have never been to Utah. I sat by some very nice people from Colorado--a mother and two of her children, a boy and a girl. Her "children" are in their 30s.

There was a big group welcome power point presentation after the introductions given by one of the trainers. This trainer might scare me. She's got some guns on her and she's in her fifties. She is a no nonsense kind that says she likes to yell. Yelling scares me even when it's me that's yelling!

Rob and I went for a Sunday drive through a very quiet St. George. The landscape and blue sky were picturesque. I do adore this little town.