This is a repost of the emails I sent out during my first week at TheBodyShopSpa (now Fitness Ridge) from Sept. 19th to 25th of 2004. (Though with only a selection of the photos from those emails.)Day 01: Sept. 19 Welcome
Well, I arrived in Utah to start my month at The Body Shop Spa to loose weight. I checked in here at the Crystal Inn where The Body Shop Spa has their office, a physical/health/shop room, and a lounge/dining room and we get one of the hotel rooms. The rooms are your basic nice little hotel rooms with normal amenities + wireless Internet. There are only four of us here this week, the first small group they've had in a while. The last few months they've been at their max capacity of 15 people. Each person had an individual brief physical exam/paperwork, then we had a group orientation followed by dinner of salad, whole grain spaghetti with home made marinara & tofu Parmesan and pumpkin desert. All very delicious! I've attached a few photos so you can get an idea of the place. Tomorrow begins the workouts!Day 02: Sept. 20 Snow Canyon
Today started off at 7AM with a breakfast of pears/blueberry's and tofu french toast. Delicious! The tofu french toast tastes just like real french toast except made with a tofu batter instead of eggs and whole grain bread instead of white. Attached is a photo of them on the grill. This was followed by a 2 1/2 hour hike through Snow Canyon. 5 miles and a 1700ft ascent. I was dying by the end of this hike. Attached is a bunch of photos from the hike, including two looking back with comments added. When we got back from the hike, we had an hour Tai Chi class that was nice and layed back. Except for the weird eastern
mysticism junk, it was a very rewarding class.
Then lunch of salad, black bean soup, and (whole grain) macaroni and (tofu) cheese. Once again,
surprisingly good. You might notice the trend to eliminate white flour and dairy products. The idea behind this is to lower your glycemic index with complex carbs and eliminate the bad fats from dairy products while adding good fats from nuts/flax/etc. The post lunch class was on focusing on a few realistic things to remove from your lifestyle and add to make a real change. Then we had a "Ball Works" class from hell. The idea is to use the "fitball" to do high intensity workout with low intensity impact on your joints. This did however involve massive workout of previously unused muscles and lots of agony. From there, it to the pool to do a high intensity "Aquacise" class. A little more fun and entertaining, but once again a lot of work From there, we had an option to attend a "power Pump" class if we wanted to, but only one of our group went for half that class and it wasn't me. I went and soaked my sore muscles in the hot tub for 15 minutes instead.
Well, I am very tired and am heading to bed.
Day 03: Sept. 21 Red Cliff
Today as another long and tiring day. It started with breakfast of fruit and a breakfast burrito (beans, corn and tofu in a whole wheat tortilla, good but not as good as a Sombrero's egg and chorizo burrito...) The hike today was through the rolling desert along a dry creek to over up to the mountains and then up Red Cliff Desert Reserve's Quail Creek until we got too far up the creek (without a paddle, I might add :-) ) until we couldn't go any further without doing some serious climbing. When we got back, the first class of the day was Pilate's. I think I liked the Tai Chi better.
Lunch was a tofu hot dog with a potato salad made with fake mayonnaise. I've got to admit that I couldn't handle the taste of the fake mayo, and only ate part of the potato salad. But then nobody else did either. But that little missing bit of our 1200 calories a day was definitely noticeable, by dinner time everyone was very hungry. The "Journal" class after lunch was about the steps in changing your life to be healthier, etc. The two afternoon classes were "Circuit Training" where you do 10 minutes on an aerobic machine (I used the Crosstrainer) then a circuit of 10 different weight machines doing a minute of maximum reps then a circuit doing 8-12 reps at max weight and then an "Aquacise" class.
Dinner was salad, cooked spinach and a vegetable lasagna (which was really good) then a banana cake with tofu whip cream. The lecturer after dinner was a Dr. Fisher who was a nutritionist. Some of her stuff was interesting, but she definitely lost my respect when she showed a couple of Kirlian "photographs" of a hamburger and a bean sprout to show ho much more "energy" vegetables had over animal products. (For those of you who aren't familiar with what Kirlian photographs are there's a nice article at http://skepdic.com/kirlian.html that explains them.) Then after that I got a massage, which definitely made my muscles feel a lot better.Well, that's all for today, I'm attaching a bunch of photos from today's hike.
Post Script: if you go to the Red Cliff Desert Reserve site and look at the Trail Map at the Cottonwood area, the trails we hiked are Prospector Trail to Red Cliffs Rd. then up Red Reef Trail until it gets too narrow continue without doing a bunch of climbing.
Day 04: Sept. 22 Slots
It was really tough getting up this morning. Between my aching muscles and the blister on my foot, I just wasn't motivated to get up. But up I got, to a breakfast of fruit and two blueberry whole grain pancakes. I put a Band-Aid "Second Skin for Blisters" on the back of my heel to protect the blister. We went on a hike called Slots, named for the several narrow canyons along the hike. The hike wasn't to long as the crow fly's, but we're not crows. Up and down, up and down, climb up, hike some more, etc... Really pretty, and there were Anasazi petroglyph's at several spots. You'll notice in some of the attached photos that our guide Camron and two of my "classmates" (Bente and Tom) were almost always ahead of the rest of us. So they would stop and rest while the rest of us would struggle on up. Then of course there was no rest for the slow and weary. Every time I would climb up hill, my blister would press against the back of my shoe. Painful and the "second skin" didn't help much and actually fell off. The morning class was yoga, which was tough on us tired, sore and out of shape folks.
Lunch was salad and a fake "tuna salad" sandwich made with garbanzo beans instead of tuna. Actually pretty good once you got past the fact that it wasn't anything like tuna. Before going off to kick boxing class I taped up my blister with neosporin, gauze bandage and tape. This did a much better job then the "second skin" at protecting the blister and staying on. (at least until I had to take it off for aquacise class). There were only two of us in the aquacise class, both women skipped it, so Tom and I got a very nice personalized workout. Then I used the short break before lunch to soak in the hot tub.
During our 45 minute break before dinner I sat in my room and watched a surf video that I had brought with me, and almost fell asleep. If I wasn't so hungry, I'd have never of gotten off the bed. Dinner was salad, steamed cabbage (which I didn't finish), a strange yet tasty dish with a weird forgettable name and strange ingredients, and a tofu banana cream pie. The after dinner lecture was from Dr. Brad again. Pretty interesting. His perspective is that most diets fail because they are geared around reducing calorie intake and increasing calorie burning rather then focusing on optimal fat burning so you end up losing lean mass instead of fat. By customizing your calorie intake for your resting metabolism and working out at a pace that optimizes your pulse to maximizing fat burning with optimal oxygen input instead maximum calorie burning at higher anaerobic rate, you burn more fat and end up in better shape. After lecture I then got a massage. So now I am very ready for a good night's sleep.Day 05: Sept. 23 Camelback
Another night's sleep ruined by the darn alarm clock! The hike today was to a place called Camel Back and was one of the most scenic hikes yet. This is where you get to take a photo of your shadows on the wall of the Vortex (which is a strange 20' depression in the sandstone at the top of the hill where rain water will collect). In the picture, I'm the one second from the left holding one arm up. My blister didn't bother me much today, I think I'm getting pretty good at taping it up and maybe it's beginning to heal. Workout classes were Pilate's, Circuit Training and Aquacise. I'm in a little better shape then I was on Sunday, but there's still a long way to go. But I've got a little more then three weeks more of this to improve. Journal was a discussion on working out after we get leave the spa and how to make it part of our lifestyle. Michelle also gave the after dinner class which was on two things. First was on aerobic vs anaerobic exercise and how often, how to, and why to do each. Second was on the eight major muscles and how to work on them properly.
My crazy meals for today: Breakfast: Imitation Canadian bacon on a whole grain English muffin and a fruit smoothy Snack after hike: plum (I finally gave in and decided to start eating that optional piece of fruit we're allowed in our diet.) Lunch: salad, celery puree soup and vegetarian chili Dinner: salad, sweet potato, Lentil loaf and pineapple tofu square All of it excellent tasting!It's 8 o'clock and I've decided that I want to be in bed and asleep by 8:30 for a change instead of the 9:30/10:00 I've been up until the rest of the week. So, good night!
Day 06: Sept. 24 Third Ravine
Another really tough day getting out of bed. 6AM seems to keep getting earlier and earlier. Our hike today was to a spot called Third Ravine. Near the beginning of the hike, we had a little bit of a diversion. Paragon Climbing met us and and took us repelling down a short little cliff. A lot of fun! I talked my way into going first, and when I got to the bottom Cameron said that since it was such a small group I could probably run back around and get to do it again. So I did. :-) I'll be getting a copy of the photo CD that the photographer/guide Wayne will be putting together, and I'll include a photo of my doing it in my final email from here. So up the ravine we climbed. Everyone else was a lot quicker (as usual) and Cameron stuck with me. The end of the ravine opens up to a round desert valley surrounded by rocky cliffs. At the top of the cliffs are some nice little caves. Bats live back in these caves, but I didn't get to see any. During the summer when TheBodyShopSpa hikes earlier in the morning, they get to see the bats in flight on this hike. I think that that would have been neat to see. On the hike back, (the photo labeled 3rdravine13.jpg) you can see almost all of St. George sprawled out in front of you. Down by where the van was parked, the road was covered by several inches of the finest dust I have ever seen. When you walked on it, your feet would sink into it and a huge dust cloud would erupt. My socks and shoes got covered by it. I think I'm going to have to do a whole separate wash load for my socks when I do laundry on Sunday, just because of the dirt rings on the socks I wore this week hiking.
The classes today were Yoga, Treading and Aquacise. Treading was a different experience. We had a choice of getting on either a treadmill, elliptical/crosstrainer or stationary bike. I got on the elliptical machine because it's what I like to work out on back home and I hate running on a treadmill. Everyone else jumped on the treadmills. The idea of treading is to warm up for 5 minutes, then max yourself to your maximum anaerobic effort for 5 minutes, cool down for five, then max for four, cool down for four, and so on through three, two and one minute cycles. I've never worked out so hard on the elliptical machine before in my life. During the first five minute workout I got the machine up to 70RPM (at level 15 for 
those who have used these machines) and got my heart rate up to 150. Personally, I hope to never get my heart rate up that high again. I was huffing and puffing so hard that I had this image of my heart and lungs jumping right out my mouth and landing on the machine's panel in front of me. I didn't even try to max out that hard during the other cycles, trying to just get my heart rate up to 140 or 141. It felt great afterwords to jump in the pool and cool off for a couple of minutes before Aquacise.After Aquacise, I jumped in the hot tub for a little bit then the hotel's pool for a little bit to relax. After I showered off, it was tough to stay awake long enough to make it to dinner. There was no after dinner lecture today, instead we watched the DVD Wayne had put together for us and said goodbye to Tom and Paula. Tom goes back to New York tomorrow and Paula isn't joining me and Bente on the trip to Zion National Park tomorrow.
Today's adventures in food experiences: Breakfast: fruit and a dry granola type cereal
with (yech!) Soy Milk (to be honest, I don't like regular milk either.) Midmorning fruit: a plum Lunch: salad, spicy carrot soup, and a vegetarian burrito. I was too tired to eat anything at lunch for some reason. I tried the soup and found it to be way to sweet with that nasty cooked carrot sweetness. I ended up eating half the burrito (which wasn't that bad) but just couldn't find the urge or energy to eat anything more. Dinner: salad, cole slaw, Boca burger and apple crisp. I still wasn't all that hungry so I skipped te salad, but I really enjoyed the rest of the meal. The buns and bread that TheBodyShopSpa uses in our meals is the Ezekial brand by Food For Life http://www.foodforlife.com that tastes really delicious. Even the nasty little tofu hot dogs that we had the other day didn't taste too bad on these buns as long as we used lots of mustard and ketchup. If you can find it, I would recommend trying this bread.Well that's all for today. I'm going to get an even earlier start on tonight's sleep.
Day 07: Sept. 25 Zion National Park
Wow! A whole week gone by! It's been a fun, exhausting and interesting week. I'm not sure how much change has occurred, I'll find out tomorrow morning before breakfast (which is at 9AM instead of 7AM tomorrow) when I do my Sunday weight/size/fat measurement. I don't really expect to see much measurable change yet. Hopefully there will be a lot by October 17th though.At 7AM this morning Cameron drove Bente and me up to Zion National Park. Due to Federal laws about non-park rangers not being allowed to guide hikes in the park, Cameron couldn't go with us. We took the shuttle to the end of Zion Canyon to the "Temple of Sinawava", then hiked the Riverside Walk. This is a pleasant paved hike that gently rolls up and down the side of the canyon alongside the North Fork of the Virgin River. The first four photos are of this hike, and photo zion5.jpg is of the "Altar and Pulpit" in the "Temple", From there we took the shuttle to "The Grotto", where we hiked the Kayenta Trail to the Emerald Pools and followed the Lower Emerald Trail back down to Zion Lodge. The rest of the photos were taken on this hike, except the last one of the snake which was taken at the shuttle stop at the Zion Canyon Visitor Center where the shuttle surprised the snake with it's arrival.
When we got back to the hotel, I had my VO2 max (Peak Oxygen Uptake) taken. This involves being hooked up to a O2/CO2 sensor and a heart rate monitor while you walk on a treadmill from a slow pace to a high pace. A computer then charts your aerobic vs anaerobic calorie burning based on the sensor data. My peak fat burning was at a pulse of 120 where I'm burning 7.5 fat calories out of 10 calories. At heart rate of 130, it's 5.7 fat calories out of the 13.6 that I'm burning. By the time my pulse is up to 140, it's only 3.6 fat calories out of the 16.6 calories being burned. So for maximum fat burning, I want to keep my pulse between 120 and 130.
Food intake for the day: Breakfast: Fruit and a bran muffin. Lunch: Vegetable chunks, mixed nuts, a pita and hummus with one fig newton for desert. There was also an apple included with lunch but I didn't get around to eating that. Snack after test: a plum Dinner: salad, a Thai vegetables over brown rice (which was kind of strange since instead of meat the Thai vegetable dish used garbanzo beans, which made it kind of not taste like a Thai dish. It wasn't bad, just didn't seem appropriate in a Thai dish. I think it would have been more authentic/better with just the vegetables and no beans), and a Chocolate "mousse" which was really just chocolate pudding, but the people who supply the Body Shop Spa with the food seem to think that people prefer to have food with names that appear to be replacements for food they like rather then just accurately describing the dish. The group discussed that this week and commented that we recommended that they ch
ange the way they describe the dishes. By calling a dish something that you know and like, you get false expectations and are disappointed when they don't match. If you don't have those expectations, you judge the food on it's own terms and are more likely to enjoy it. I think this is a problem that is common with just about all vegetarian recipes/restaurants, etc. and not just limited to just here. A couple of extreme examples are the fake tuna sandwich and the tofu pineapple cheesecake. Both were delicious but initially were disappointing because you expected them to taste like tuna and cheesecake. By calling them garbanzo salad sandwich or pineapple squares you would judge them on their own value and find them delicious without being disappointed at what they weren't. A positive example was the lentil loaf. Everyone like it, but if they had called it fake meatloaf everyone would have been disappointed and maybe not like it. Just something for the vegetarian
cooks out there to think about.It's the end of another day and the first week. Tomorrow is a free day after after breakfast until dinner, so I'm going to do laundry and then go out to see the dinosaur footprints at Johnson Farm Dinosaur Walkway. I am going to have lunch outside in the real world, but I haven't decided where I will test my abilities to eat healthy in a real restaurant yet. What I really have a craving for, that would be easy to eat right at, I can't do here since southwest Utah doesn't have ANY sushi places. :-( I'll find something tasty and nutritious though.
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