Day 237 - Thursday at the Biggest Loser Resort Niagara

So, every day can’t be perfect.  Today, I woke up early again, but totally forgot to brew a cup of coffee in my room.  The resort is caffeine free, but if you keep it in a private room, they don’t care.  But, since I didn’t get back to the room all morning, I was caffeine free for the day.  I’m not sure if that’s why it was more of an off day or not.  But, it wasn’t terrible, just not quite as joyful as the others.

6:00 Stretch – This was actually a great class.  It was more dynamic than the others, and I actually broke a sweat.  I left class feeling alive and ready for the day.

8:00 Total Tone – I did really well with this class.  It was very similar to my beloved Muscle Challenge class, and I did pretty well.  I wasn’t able to use as heavy weights as I am used to.  I think my muscles are just really tired from so much work with no rest.  Other than that, I might have learned a routine I can use on Wednesdays.

9:00 Treading – I had heard about this class and was a little afraid it would be really hard.  It was an intervals based class, but the heaviest work is front loaded.  We did a five minute warm up, five minutes hard, five minutes recovery, four minutes hard, four minutes recovery, etc, until a cooldown after the last hard minute.  I actually really liked it.  And, I noticed a major difference today.  At the beginning of the week, I could easily get my heart rate up past 85%.  Today, I couldn’t.  No matter how hard I worked, it stayed around 75%.  That has to mean that my heart is getting stronger.

10:30 Stretch  - I was really tired after the first two classes and decided a stretch class was the perfect choice for the choice class.  It was different from the others, and even incorporated more yoga like poses.  I really loved it.

12:40 Lecture – Labels and Portions  Not a whole lot new here, but some of the questions were interesting.

2:00 Trainer Outdoor Challenge Hike – I really, really, really did not want to go on this hike.  It was snowing, cold, and I just was tired.  I have never been so tempted to skip a class, but, I went.  It was very similar to the hike on Tuesday, but I did better today.  At one point, Betty challenged me to run up Betty’s Hill.  I didn’t really feel comfortable with that, but I compromised and told her I would run from the Hill station to the gym door for the next station.  I actually ran!  I don’t know how far it is, but I might do it again and ask someone to video it for me.  I was panting so hard that the trainer at the next station had to coach me through panic breathing.  Basically, breathe in deep through your nose and exhale through your mouth.  No so easy when you are gasping for air!

3:30 Ballistics – I wanted to give this class my best effort, but I had no gas left in the tank.  My stomach was a little upset and I just did the best I could.  When it came time to do arm exercises, I wimped out and chose light weights.  I’m glad I did, though.  It was the same set of arm exercises we had done in the total tone class in the morning, and I just wasn’t up to doing them twice with heavy weights.

4:45 Lecture – Pattern Portions, & Food Tips   This was more interesting.  The class came up with a lot of ideas for portion control during meals and snacks.  My favorite tip was to ask the butcher to pre-portion your meat for you.  Apparently, most butchers will do this, even if the meat is pre-packaged in the cooler.

Even though I don’t consider this to be a stellar day, looking back on it, it was pretty good.  I love the fact that I ran, even if I did get out of breath.  And, even though I was really tempted to skip a hike, I went anyway.  Overall, I’m still really proud of myself.  I will go to bed early tonight and make sure tomorrow is a fantastic day.  I’ll also make sure to remember the coffee in the room!