Friday, July 24, 2009

Day 5

Today’s schedule:
· 6:15 am Meet
· 6: 30 am Hike
· 9:30 am Breakfast – Fritata and fruit (300 calories)
· 10:15 am Feedback on week 1 and planning for week 2
· 11:15 am Stretch class
· 12:45 pm Lunch – Vegetable soup, chili-filled baked potato (450 calories)
· 1:15 pm Lecture: emotional eating
· 2:30 pm Total workout
· 3:30 pm Circuit training
· 4:30 pm Disco-isn’t-dead cardio
· 5:45 pm Dinner – BBQ chicken sandwich and brownie (550 calories)

Hike

My heart had been playing up at the end of yesterday and overnight so I thought that I’d take an easier hike today. It was really enjoyable – the terrain was just as hard but it was at a much slower pace so that we could talk and encourage each other along the way, and we had time to stop and look around and really take in the majesty of this place. The other hikes were at such a pace that it almost turned into a race. Next week I’ll definitely alternate between faster and slower routes.

Food
The food has really been the only disappointment here and it’s not just because we’re spoilt living in the Bay Area and having the best produce and amongst the best cuisine in the world. Everything here is unnecessarily complicated – Betsy rightly calls it “over produced.” Take the BBQ chicken sandwich tonight – we expected a simply grilled chicken breast with a bit of drizzle over it but instead got this engineered dog-food-consistency filler chopped up with who-knows-what, and squished together with “veginase” – a low fat, lo cal, no taste, mayo substitute. It was completely unnecessary. Fortunately there is a salad bar available every night, so if you don’t like anything, you can substitute a plate of veggies and salad, which is pretty much what I’ve starting doing. Some things have been OK, like minestrone and vegetable soup, and breakfast is hard to mess up, but most of it is definitely below par.

Today’s Celebrities
Finally got to meet Ron and Mike from the Biggest Loser. They’re really nice guys and still very embarrassed when people come up to them, but that didn’t stop us! They’re still looking incredible, keeping with the program, and look smaller than on TV. They’re pretty inspirational. They’re here to pick up the younger brother who’s going home early. He looks good too but still has a way to go, and being only 17 and the first time away from home, it’s been pretty hard. Good luck to him.

Close
The big event on Saturday is the repeat of the hike we did on Monday to see whether we’ve improved or not. Also, they will be checking all our vitals once again, so tune in tomorrow for the most dramatic weigh in, EVER!