TheBodyShopSpa Week 2

This is a repost of the emails I sent out during my second week at TheBodyShopSpa (now Fitness Ridge) from Sept. 26th to Oct. 2nd of 2004. (Though with only a selection of the photos from those emails.)

Day 8: Sept. 26 St. George
Hey! It's the beginning of week two! Today I got up around 6'ish and read email, read the comics, listened to some music and watched the weather channel until 8:30 when I went in to get my weekly bio info updated. I got on the scale which Michelle then set to the initial weight of 318 lbs that she had measured me at last Sunday. Then she pushed the scale down a couple pounds. Then a couple more. Then a couple more. Then a couple more. Then a couple of more. At this point I completely lost it and started laughing uncontrollably. Michelle had a tough time adjusting the scale to measure me because I kept laughing so hard the scale was shaking a couple of inches. She finally got me measured in at 306 lbs for a weight loss of 12 lbs. Probably mostly water weight and th couple of meals that I had in me since the Body Fat % loss was only 0.2%. On the plus side I lost an inch and a half around my chest, an inch and three quarters around my waste, an inch and a half from my hips and an inch from my thigh. All in all, a very encouraging round of measurements.

So I went to my room and figured out that I had brought enough clothes to go another week without doing laundry, except for socks. I had planned on having more then enough but I hadn't counted on going through two pairs every day. So I went to Walmart and got some more socks plus some more supplies to take care of my blister. By that time it was about 11AM, so I figured it would be a perfect time to go to the dinosaur footprints. When I got there it was closed with a sign saying "102 is the max! Then we have to close the tracks! Sorry for the inconvenience but today is too hot, even for our most dedicated volunteers! We'll see you tomorrow if it's cooler!" I got into my truck and looked at the thermostat which said 78 degrees. It hasn't been over 90 since I got here. So I'm not sure why it was closed. So I looked through some of the brochures that I had gotten from the visitors center and decided that I was near the Washington City Museum and the Artist Gallery (which turn out to be next to each other) so I would go check them out. I get there and they are both closed. All right, well then let's go to the St. George historical museums. Pull up in front of the Daughters of the Pioneer's museum and was greeted with a reat big closed sign. Hmmm. OK, so what the heck, why not go check out the Harley-Davidson shop and pick up a souvenir T-shirt. So I drive up north to the bike shop, and guess what else was closed on Sundays? You know that you're deep in religion country when even the bikers take off on Sunday. By this point I was hungry so I decided to go find the little Greek restaurant that I had decided to go to for lunch. Well, guess again as to what else was closed.

At this point I was both frustrated and hungry. So I drove a few yards down the street and came across a Mexican restaurant and a Scone restaurant. I toyed with the idea of going into the scone place, but figured that the Mexican place would probably be easier to find a more healthy meal. I walked into the place and looked around and saw that out of about 25 people in the restaurant, two were Caucasian. Everyone else was Mexican. I figured that this was definitely a good sign that this place had good food. I ended up eating some chips with guacamole (the real stuff, just blended avocado) and chicken mole. I decided that the rice and beans shouldn't be eaten, but the corn tortillas could. Then of course I threw the whole healthy thing out the window by ordering a Tecate cervesa. I behaved myself by just ordering one and sipping it alongside my water. Good training for the real world, since I'm not going to completely give up drinking beer and it's nice to know that I can limit myself to just one.

After lunch, I drove up to the St. George airport. It has no tower, and has the smallest airport terminal that I have ever seen. And that says a lot considering all of the small terminals that I have seen. From that viewpoint I took a photo of the town (sunday6.jpg) and of the Crystal Inn and the Desert Palm Health Club (sunday6.jpg). I decided to go check out the Wildlife Museum across the interstate from the hotel. I pulled up there, and once again, guess what's closed on Sundays. At this point I said a few choice words that were definitely not appropriate for Sunday and gave up. Back to the room I went and spent the next three hours watching the idiot box until dinner.

At dinner, I met six of the new guests. I believe that there are one or two more checking in later for a group of 9 or ten for this week. We'll see tomorrow at breakfast. Speaking of which, here's todays meals from the spa:

Breakfast: fruit and oatmeal. (It's good to see that the spa uses Stevia as it's sweetener.) Dinner: salad, spaghetti in a white sauce and pumpkin pie with a softened Grapenut crust. And the salad bar is better then ever, Tami asked me the other day what I liked in my salad so we had plenty of mushrooms, radishes and hot peppers. The only thing missing is a Blue cheese dressing. :-)

Well that's all for today. I hope your day was a good one.


Day 9: Sept. 27 Snow Canyon

One new guest joined us this morning, but the other guest that is coming this week that wasn't here last night will be joining us later in the week since he's stuck in Florida due to the hurricane. Today's hike was back to Snow Canyon.. This is always the Monday hike as a "test hike" to see how well you handle the different conditions, etc. It's also one of the more arduous hikes that we do, but also one of the more scenic. One of the ladies (the mother of the mother-daughter team that's here this week) opted to hike with Tami on the asphalt and then go with Tami in the van to pick the rest of us up at the end of our hike. So we started our hike up the canyon, and Bente (who was here with me last week) and the guide Tom walked a little faster then the rest of us, soon got out of sight and that was the last we saw of those two until we met them at the van. Showoffs! :-) I'm still a little slower then most on these hikes, but there was a fairly good number of the ladies who joined me in the slow "slacker" group lagging behind. It was nice to have people to talk to when the terrain allowed you breath. At the trail split at the lava rocks where you could bail out on the last part of the trail, half choose to do the whole thing and half went with Cameron back to the van. Cameron needed to leave a little early since he and Michelle moved into their new house today. It's amazing that they were here and working today. If it was me, I'd have been packing and moving all day not been at work. That's way to much dedication.

Classes today were Tai Chi, Ball Works and Aquacise. I really like that Tai Chi. It's a very mellow and relaxing way to stretch while working on circulation and breathing. Ball Works still kicked my butt again this week. It combines needing to balance, a workout, and flexibility exercise at a fairly rapid pace on these evil little balls. Since I'm still having trouble with all four of these elements in certain areas. When this stuff hits something that combines a couple of the areas where I'm weak in, it becomes impossible to concentrate on resolving an issue that I'm having trouble with because there's multiple issues going on at once. The exercise might involve stretching your legs apart while holding them up while balancing on the ball then doing something else. Any one of these elements I could probably concentrate and improve on, but trying to do all at once is frustrating and I end up doing the exercise poorly or half-assed. On the other hand, I still really like the Aquacise. After that, I started on adding an aerobic exercise to my routine. I've decided to either swim laps or work out on the elliptical machine on MWF, and attend the Cycling class on TTH. So today I swam for a little over 20 minutes until my arms turned into wet noodles. Not the most amazing of efforts, but a start. I do think that I'm going to run out to Big 5 sporting goods to pick up swim goggles if I'm going to be swimming laps. Besides sore and tired muscles, I've also got burning eyes from swimming in the chlorine with my eyes open.

Speaking of pain, my blister on my heel is beginning to heal. You can actually see the new skin growing in from the edges over the damaged area. I'm not going to cover the Journal class or the after dinner lecture since I'd just be repeating myself from last week.

Today's culinary adventures: Breakfast: fruit and Tofu French Toast Lunch: salad, corn chowder and a bean tostada. The corn chowder was a little bland but the tostada was excellent. Home made refried beans without any lard or anything like it, on griddle cooked corn tortias. No shredded beef or chicken nor cheese, but hey you can't have everything! Dinner: salad, cooked cabbage, Tofu Fu Young and brownie. The cabbage was exceptionally tasty mixed with some of the sauce from the Tofu Fu Young. The Tofu Fu Young is a vegan version of egg fu young, that I actually liked better then most egg fu young that I've had. The brownie was the same delicious brownie made from strange vegan ingredients that we had last week.

I've noticed that I must be eating much slower. Both yesterday and tonight I noticed that everyone else had finished while I still had half my plate left. And since we all get the same portions, it's not like I'm pigging out with twice the food. I wonder what's causing this?

It's been another exhausting day, so good night!



Day 10: Sept. 28 Red Mountain
Well, what do you know. The Weather Channel was right. Scattered thunderstorms for here. We saw a few drops when out on the hike this morning, and everyplace has gotten some rain. Good lightning show, nice thunder and that great smell of the desert after a rain. Today we hiked up Red Mountain. Most of this hike was less scenic and more green then any others that we've done. Lots of small pine, juniper trees, scrub brush and prickly pear cacti. The trail for the most part was a jeep trail with lots of loose rock that actually made for tricky walking in that you really had to pay attention to your footing. When we got to the top, it was the most amazing view. You look all the way down Snow Canyon. I do wish that my endurance and physical shape will improve. I'm tired of being tired. I end up trudging up these hikes, still huffing and puffing just trying to keep one foot moving front of the other. You would think that after a week and a half of hiking every day that I would see a more improvement. I've attached the plots of our last few hikes today since I had a lot fewer photos to attach, and I plan to add each day's hike to future emails (with maybe fewer photos).

Today's courses were Pilates, Circuit Training, and Aquacise. After Aquacise, I also attended 20 minutes of the Cycling class. Today's lecture was from Michelle on training (why, how, etc.) After lecture I ran out to Big 5 with two of the ladies and picked up a pair of swimming goggles. Standing in line there, they had a little $90 body fat monitor on sale for $20 so I decided to pick that up too. It read my body fat tonight within 2% of what the nice one that the spa has, which is about as good as I can expect.

Todays culinary excitement was: Breakfast: fruit and breakfast burrito. I had to admit that this morning when I was eating that burrito, I was craving some good old fashioned plain oatmeal and I only ate about half of it. Lunch: salad, Indian Dal soup, and Teriyaki on brown rice. That Dal soup was exceptionally good. Dinner: salad, spinach, vegetarian lasagna and carrot cake w/ tofu "cream cheese" topping. I'm thinking that the lasagna is my favorite of the dinner that we've had.

I'm exhausted and am bed bound.


Day 11: Sept. 29 Gila
The St. George area got a fair amount of rain yesterday and today in the form of thunderstorms. But we got lucky this morning and had beautiful weather for our hike. This hike was one of (if not the) nicest hikes yet. It started off going through brush and volcanic rock, then dropped down into a river bed winding through the canyons. Then we climbed up the side of the canyon to a large cave. Then the hike continued around the canyon walls, climbing until we reached the top of a promontory overlooking the whole area. From there we hiked down the ridge to the other side of the cliff, then down onto rolling terrain until we reached another cliff face. We followed this around until we reached a shallow valley full of vegetation where the van was parked on the other side. A nice mix of terrain and vegetation with excellent ground for hiking on. We came across a desert tortoise as we were climbing up out of the river bed. I have to apologize, I know I said that I was going to keep the number of photos that I'm attaching down but this hike produced a bumper crop of beautiful images. I did my best to reduce the number of photos, but you know how that goes....

The classes today were Yoga, Kickboxing, and Aquacise. Right at the beginning of Kickboxing the town lost power for a few minutes from the thunderstorm. It was also thundering when we finished Aquacise, so I didn't feel that it would be a good idea to stay in the water to swim laps so instead I went upstairs in the gym and worked out on the elliptical machine for 60 minutes while trying to keep my heart rate steady around 120 to maximize fat burning. Dr. Brad came in to give the after dinner lecture, though I had to skip it to my fantastic 90 minute massage. He brought my results from my Resting Metabolic Rate test. It turns out that by just getting up out of bed every day and just living my basic sedentary life, my body burns 2933 calories. So my recommended minimum calorie intake is 3000 calories. I guess that explains why this 1200 calorie diet has me losing so much weight!

Todays adventures in culinary experiences were: Breakfast: fruit and whole grain pancakes with maple syrup Snack after hike: a plum (that I still had in my room from last week) Lunch: salad, garbanzo bean salad sandwich, and split pea soup Dinner: salad, broccoli, Scaiten Chicken w/ Orange Sauce over Wild Rice. "Satan's Chicken" or chicken sponge has never even seen a chicken. It's a strange wheat gluten with the consistency of a sponge. But despite that, it was very taste. Especially if you manage to avoid eating or even tasting the broccoli. Megan was very nice and made sure not to let the broccoli even touch my plate.

Post Script: This hike, Gila, starts from the entrance of Snow Canyon in the Red Cliff Desert Reserve and if you look at their map of the Snow canyon area the hike starts at the begining of Johnson Canyon Trail, meets Scouts Cave Trail (to Scouts Cave) to Gela Trail, which Meets with Turtle Wall Trail then finishes up at Chuckwalla Trail. As an interesting side note, the trail guide/photographer Wayne was one of the original hikers/rock climbers involved with the initial committees in setting up the reserve so he was able to tell some of the history behind some of the names of the trails. Notably the Turtle Wall Trail was named by rock climbers when they found a desert tortoise at the top of one of the walls they climbed, and Chuckwalla was named after a chuckwalla lizard that lived in a crack in Chuckwalla wall that would hiss at them whenever they would climb pass. I asked, but he had no idea why Gila trail was called that since Gila Monsters aren't native to the region and that's not one of the trails that his friends had named.




Day 12: Sept. 30 Camelback
The day started with an opportunity to rappel off a 100 ft cliff. After that we hiked up to Camelback. This week everyone climbed the steep front of Camelback up to it's top. Beautiful scenery, but a very vigorous hike. I've attached photos from the hike and a few photos of me doing the rappel. The hike took a little longer this week and we ended up being late for Pilates.

The classes today were Pilates, Circuit Training and Aquacise. After Aquacise I went to the Cycling class at the health club but was only able to handle 10 minutes. I think I'm going to stick with either swimming or using the elliptical machine as an extra aerobic exorcise. After dinner Dr. Fisher came in and lectured on weight management.

Today's food supply: Breakfast: fake Canadian bacon on whole grain roll and a fruit smoothie. Lunch: salad, lentil soup, and artichoke salad sandwich Dinner: salad, green beans, Shepherd's Pie and a small piece of cake covered with strawberry sauce. Since I believe that green beans are the most disgusting of vegetables, I didn't eat them. I didn't particularly care for the Shepherd's Pie and only ate part of it. I was still hungry after dinner so snacked on an apple.




Day 13: Oct. 01 Slots
I didn't realise that today was "lucky" day number 13 until I started to write this missive. Maybe that explains why that barbed wire fence jumped out and attacked me this morning... ;-) Actually it was just a little scratch on my arm from walking a little too close to the barbed wire fence at the entrance to the Slots hike. I'm getting used to lots of little scratches but usually on my legs. For some reason the plants seem to like to lean out and dig little furrows out of my left leg. Never my right (for some strange reason (Yet!)). Another beautiful hike with Anasazi petroglyph's at three different spots. The first is along a small cliff wall, the next is deep in a slot canyon, and the third is on a large solitary 40 ft rock. Every seemed to really enjoy the hike today and I got some great photos. I found the hike to be a lot easier today then last week and my healing blister didn't bother me at all. What a difference from last week when the blister was brand new and shooting daggers into my heal every time I had to climb with the heel pressing into the shoe. The hike took a little bit longer and we didn't get back to the hotel until about 11:30.

The classes today were Yoga, Treading and Aquacise. By the time we got back from the hike and changed clothes, we had missed half the Yoga class so no one went to it. Once again the Treading class kicked my big fat butt. My max heart rate during the maximums got up to 148-154 and I sweated out about a gallon of water. My shirt went from dry to absolutely drippingly soaked in the half hour of treading. It was nice to get into the refreshingly cool pool water. I was tired enough that after Aquacise I didn't do any extra workout but went and laid by the hotel pool for a half hour instead.

Today's new culinary experiences: Breakfast: fruit and dry granola type cereal with soy milk, but after talking to Brandi last night she was very nice to us and cooked some oatmeal for us as an option. So I had oatmeal. I talked to Tami about my RMR being 3000 calories and how that relates to the diet plan vs. the discussions during lecture about not going too far below your RMR or your body's metabolism slowing. As soon as I mentioned to Tami that my RMR was 3000, she said that she needed to increase my calorie intake so that I can keep loosing more weight. I know that seems counter intuitive, but yes that's right... you can't have a diet too below your RMR or your body will try to conserve fat. So she wants me to add a banana (which counts as two fruit servings) to my breakfast or as a snack, add a little olive oil to my salad and will add a few appropriate calories here or there to the base 1200 calorie diet. Lunch: salad, Tomato Basil soup (exceptionally tasty!), and a Boca burger on whole grain bun. I think I really like the Boca burgers and will probably add them to my diet back in the real world. Dinner: salad, cooked cauliflower and carrots (not eaten), vegan Enchilada casserole (Yummy!) and a peach crumble. Today's meals were all excellent.

Tomorrow is another trip to Zion, and I'm looking forward to it. So good night!


Day 14: Oct. 02 Zion National Park
I'm going to try to keep this short since it's 10PM when I started writing this and I have to get up at 5:30AM for my weight-in then go to the Grand Canyon. I might just have to go to bed after weight-in and start for the canyon later.


We went to Zion National Park today. I decided to to the Weeping Rock Trail and then the Observation Point Trail. Little did I know that Observation Point is supposed to be an eight hour hike! I climbed until 10:30 then turned around so I could make are noon rendezvous to return. I managed to hike up the switchback trail up the face of Cable Mountain and through the canyon around to the back side. What an exhausting climb. I ended up level with the top of Angel's Landing, so I know that I can make that climb and may do that next week. Amazing scenery! My feet were sore and tired so when I got back to the van I took my shoes off and went wading in the Virgin River. Brrrr! That river is cold!

After getting back, I burned some CD's with photos from our hikes for the rest of the group. Then after dinner I did my laundry and played an interesting card game called Nertz. Several teams of two players each using decks of cards with different backs play a modified solitaire with a common Aces stacks that is very competitive and fun. My laundry finally got finished around 9:45PM. I found out that the red dirt here in Utah permanently dyes your socks red.