FRIDAY! day 12 and only a half day on Satuday and it is time to rest!

Comments/Thoughts:

The big event of my day today was my personal training with Sam.  Sam was a contestant on the biggest loser and was the first one to reach his goal weight while still one campus.  Not to take anything away from the other trainers here.  I plan on training with some of them over the next two weeks, but when you are here with someone who has gone through what you are going through there is an instant bond and understanding.  Sam's presence is motivational, and his personality just adds to it.  The workout he put me through is probably the hardest thing I have ever done physically in my life.  I was actually screaming during my workout trying to finish exercises well past my point of fatigue.  It was a strength training session, but the majority of it was using my weight, plus some nice medicine balls and weighted bars every so often.  One big outside the box exercise was with this huge weighted rope he wrapped around a tree...  Essentially I had to hold both sides of the rope in a squatted position and smack it down until I nearly passed out.  There were several unconventional things we did and if anyone is interested just ask in comments and I will elaborate more.  The session was during lunch and people were outside the gym reading at the pool and wondering what the hell Sam was doing to me in the gym that was causing all the screaming.  I definitely got my moneys worth!  I plan on doing a session with him next week and with one or two other trainers.  I feel like I have a ton to get done and not much time to do it.

Here is a before and after picture of Sam.

Here is a video from NBC with him:

Statistics:

I walked 23,916 steps and 12.2 miles and burned 5,454 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6


Watch Calories Burned: 4689 calories!

Hike and Exercise:

The hike was backbone Latigo Canyon.  That was my hike last week (first one after my assessment) and it kicked my a$$.  So this week I was eager to see what kind of progress I had made.  The bad news was my right knee and left ankle were crazy sore.  I used walking sticks again today and that worked out great!  I did much better and did not stop once on the hike.  I made it through much quicker than the last time and enjoyed it more despite my semi injuries.

Once I got back from the hike I went and iced my knee and ankle instead of going to stretch class.  I did go to the morning stretch taught by Sam and burned 350 calories during a "stretch" class.  After that I had my session with Sam at Noon and then my afternoon classes ended up being circuit training and two pool sessions.  Today was cardio disco jam but I did not think that my ankle and knee were up for another hard on the joint session.  I will make sure I do it next week, the trainer who teaches it (John) dresses up for it and it is a great class.  I did miss not taking it.

Food:

I only took a couple of food pictures today since my meal times were rushed.  Breakfast was french toast and eggs, lunch was chicken stem and a roll (I had to eat that during a lecture at the pool in a togo container,) and dinner was meatball sub with veggies.  Again it was a great food day!  I hope I can make this stuff taste as good at home.

Pictures:

Day 11, Thursday and still counting down till the weekend.

Comments/Thoughts:
Today was a good day and I really did not have too many comments other than I went to a good counseling session with a Life coach/counselor here.  Her name is Essara (I may need to verify that spelling) and she is great.  We talked about methods for me to distract myself when feeling the urge to bing.  I am hoping to come away from my experience here with tools that are more mental than physical.  The workouts seem to be what many focus on, but I have worked out a ton before and know I can handle that side.  It is having the mental abilities to get past my fat and salt addictions at home I need the most help with.  She did a great job helping me on that journey and if you end up being a guest here in Malibu I highly recommend attending her class and at least getting one counseling session in.

One other real fun thing I got to do today was play kickball.  It is amazing what a fun activity like that does for you when the rest of your activities you are just in survival mode.  Sam was the pitcher for both teams and my team won.  There were a TON of people playing.  It looked like two rival 5th grade classes were going at it.



Statistics:
I walked 22,995 steps and 12.3 miles and burned 5,500 calories via my fitbit http://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

I changed up my watch and wore the monitor all day instead of breaking it up by class.

Watch calories burned: 3531calories

Hike and Exercise:
The hike was once again the beach for me.  I really did not get much out of the hike except a ton of sand in my shoes.  I actually sweat the least I have on any hike since I have been here.  I think I have moved past this hike as far as a big calorie burner.  It was still a gorgeous hike, but the winds were gusting at about 40 miles an hour and occasionally I would get a nice sand blasting.

As far as exercise went I skipped the optional morning core class since Cameron is brutal and I need to have my full usage of muscles for the hike.  After the hike I had a pool class which was a decent burn.  My classes after lunch were kickboxing, mountain and another water class.  The kickboxing class was taught by Ursula, who is an actual boxer.  She was great and I got a good workout and some good knowledge from the class.  Mountain was tough as usual, 12 increases, each being 3 minutes long on the treadmill... fun fun.



Food:
I did a bad job at taking pictures today because I have already taken a ton of beach pictures, so why do more and I forgot my camera for breakfast, and at lunch I was behind and had to hurry because of my counseling session.  I did get a shot of the waldorf salad for dinner.  It was really good.  For breakfast we had a peanut butter and jelly panini with fruit, I opted for eggs and toast instead.  It just did not look like enough food to get me through the hike.  Lunch was really good even though I had it to go.  Tortilla soup was the beginning of lunch and it was amazing.  One of my favorites, and up there with the tomato and french onion soups.  The meal was hawaiian pizza and that was really great.  Little pieces of toasted bread with pineapple, chicken and cheese and a few other things.  I added hot sauce because that is how I roll, but I really liked it.  Dinner was the waldorf salad and chocolate strawberries!!!  Those are the best dessert hands down.



Pictures: (only one!)

Wednesday = hump day, and I busted mine

Comments/Thoughts:
My ankle held up really well today and my soreness level is decreasing.  I am glad things are becoming more fun to do.  I did the treadmill today at 15 incline and it was not too bad.  All of the hiking is paying off in a general fitness way.  They really focus on the lower body here, most stretches and lunges and squats really help you build some strength down low.  I do think I need to ice my ankle everyday from this point forward.




Statistics:
I walked 22,422 steps and 11.6 miles and burned 5,294 calories via my fitbithttp://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6 #fitstats


Watch Stats:
Hike: 1149 calories
H2O: 249 calories
Spinning Class: 448 calories
Kickboxing: 320 calories
Mountain: 413 calories
H2O: 230 calories




Hike and Exercise:
The hike today was Winding Way, and it was a moderate hike.  We finished it pretty early too so I had time to relax before my water class.  The hike starts out in a neighborhood and goes downhill mostly to begin with.  There are only a couple of challenging hills on the hike so you get to enjoy the scenery.  There is a nice waterfall and lots of creeks to cross.  I rented walking poles and found that they really helped my lower back and ankle for the hike.

As far as classes for the day, I started with stretch with Sam teaching which started the day off right.  I signed up for a spinning class and am still coughing out the seat.  The seat on those bikes are crazy painful.  After spin I went immediately into kickboxing and then mountain.  Mountain was on a treadmill for me today, it essentially is 12 - 3 minute intervals, increasing either speed or incline on each interval.  Good class, and I was lucky to finish the day in the water.


Food:
Breakfast was a turkey sausage and egg sandwich with some mixed fruit.  One of the better breakfasts since it has some meat on it.  Lunch was french onion soup, and a greek pita with salad.  This was a great lunch and much better than I thought it would be.  The soup was great even though it had no onion chunks in it, and the pita was amazing.  Finally, dinner was a salmon fillet on Israeli couscous with asparagus, and a grilled pineapple skewer for dessert.  The salmon was great and I thoroughly enjoyed the pineapple.  I was starving at night so I ate a side salad from the bar and that seemed to hit to spot.


Pictures:

Week 2 at the "resort," day 9!

I am feeling better except for my ankle.  I did ice it at the end of the day, and as I write this (morning of day 10) it is feeling decent.  I think I will start breaking these posts up into sections, stats, food, hike and exercise, thoughts and commentary.  This section being thoughts and commentary.  I got some exciting news today, but I need to verify it is ok I can post it.  It is about one of the trainers here, so I will ask them if it is ok to post.  One things that was special to me today was I got a care package from my amazing wife Jennifer.  She sent me some sunscreen, warm pull overs, a wireless router that should help me get signals to my room, and a card from Jack and Katie.  The card was super cute with quotes from and it really made me feel good.  I think about them all the time while here and it feels nice to know they are thinking about me too.

Statistics for the day that was:
A brief note about these statistics:  The fitbit that I use does not measure my heart rate.  It has an accelerometer in it that measures body movement and tracks steps and estimates calories burned and miles traveled.  I do have a heart rate monitoring watch (which requires I wear a device on my chest to get my heart rate), and will try to incorporate some of that data since I feel it is more accurate on calories burning.  Every night my fitbit shoots the data out to twitter and facebook so I will cut and paste that into this section at the very least.

Fitbit stats were:
I walked 24,686 steps and 12.5 miles and burned 5,391 calories via my fitbithttp://www.fitbit.com/user/22B6S6

Watch stats:
Hike: 1018 calories
Intensati: 230 calories
Total Toning: 289 calories
H20 Intervals: 277 calories
Cardio Intervals: 394 calories


I will include a blog post that has my previous data this evening if I have time.

Hike and Exercise:
The hike today was to Reagan Ranch.  It was a scenic hike, but we did not get to go to the old M.A.S.H shooting site.  I hope to convince the guides next time to allow us to take that route.  I did hear a rattlesnake in the grass next to me today which was kind of freaky!  People back at camp kept asking if I went to look for it...  I guess no one knows my motto about natural predators and poisonous creatures.  The hike was moderately difficult.  It was one of my lowest calories burns ever.  This week I am not at the back of the group which makes me feel better a little mentally.

Workouts today were: Morning Stretch class, Hike, Post Hike Stretch class, Intensati, Total Toning, H2O Intervals, Cardio Intervals.

I have commented about all of these classes before except Intensati.  I am not sure it is my thing, but it was good to experience it.  It is like a combo of yoga, self affirmitive sayings, disco cardio, kickboxing...  It was a good calories burn, and I was the only guy that chose this elective workout!


FOOD!:
For breakfast I chose to have eggs and toast as opposed to the fruit parfait they were having.  Eggs and toast seem to stay with me through the hike.  I usually take a hard boiled egg on the hike with me as well.

Lunch was tomato soup and quinoa lettuce wraps.  Both of them were amazing.  The soup was the best I have had so far, and those wraps were really good with some hot sauce on them.  They seemed like a ton of food as well.  Great choice for the day!

Dinner was an enchilada and veggies with a chocolate coconut sorbet for dessert.  Both of these options were good, I would have preferred to have lunch again though.

Picture slideshow:

The beginning of week 2, day 8!

I feel much better this week, and am not too intimidated by the hikes anymore.  I really only fear the reverse Zuma hike, but that was not the one I received for my assessment today.  There were about half stay over and half new guests this week, so many people were worried about their hikes.  We did Newton canyon for my group and it was a great hike.  Very scenic, and just difficult enough.  It starts next to the Latigo backbone trail and ends at the Zuma trail.  I finished off my water pack once again on this hike.  It is much warmer this week.  Last week the hikes were in the upper 50s and lower 60s, this week it is upper 60s and 70s.  So I need to get more water!

Class for the day were stretch before breakfast taught by Sam, Total Body H20 before and after lunch, follwed by circuit training and core training.  Circuit training was a tough one, Sam pushed us pretty hard in that one.  The core class this week was taught by John and he used to mostly to educate us on core training, not on killing us with core training.

Food for the day was an egg sandwich for breakfast which is always great.  For lunch we had Tilapia Tacos and they were awesome!  I mean with some siracha hot sauce on them I loved them.  One of my favorite meals.  Also we had sunchoke soup for lunch which was good.  Dinner was chicken with a sweet potato puress and asparagus.  I had that last week and it was once again good.

Overall a good day, lots of calories burned and happy to still be here.  Below is a slideshow of the pictures from the hike and some food shots.

The weekend, days 6 and 7!

Saturday was a great day because I got to choose my hike.  I chose to do the beach again since the weather is so nice. I did not take pictures again since I figured that would get a bit repetitive.  The beach was packed, and once again some things were being filmed there.  There were a few star sighting by the guests, so it is still a very interesting hike.

The only pictures I took on Saturday were of the lunch and dinner.  For breakfast I had fruit and pancakes, lunch was some great tacos, and carrot soup, and dinner was chicken with marinara, squash and brussel sprouts,  and an almond butter cookie.  The cookies was 271 calories and it was not very good at all.  I enjoyed all the food that day except the cookie, so not worth it.  Here are the pics:

After lunch I went with Kent and Debra to see the Green Hornet.  We enjoyed the movie and I had a diet pepsi.  Not on program, but not crazy off program.

After dinner there was the graduation ceremony for people leaving on Sunday.  It was a great event and a little sad.  We went through events that were inspiring for the week and it was a very positive experience.

Onto the next day, my day of rest for the week!  Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!  So food was granola for breakfast, and a sack lunch with an almond butter and jelly sandwich with a banana and string cheese.  Dinner was a great tamale in black bean sauce.

I was invited by Dan to go to Venice Beach and jumped at the opportunity.  It was a good time we probably walked about 4 miles (I forgot to wear my fitbit!) up and down the beach.  It was a very interesting people watching experience.  Venice is also Muscle Beach and there were a few muscle guys there.  Not too many, I guess Sunday is their day off.  I had a great time and actually got a decent walk in on my day off.

The only bad part of my day was the weigh in.  I lost 4 pounds in my first week.  I was sad, but I realized I have lost over a belt loop already, so as they say, weight is not the only thing to change.

Sunday night was new guests introduction and prep for the next day.  Here are the pics from the Sunday: