I Could Use A Cheerleader

Feeling a little annoyed and disgusted with myself today - I have not worked out since Thursday morning!  On Friday I thought to myself "I'll take a rest day" and I went to the bookstore to write (and get away from the refrigerator).  No problem - I had all weekend to get in some killer workouts.  On Saturday I started a treadmill workout, but then the phone rang and I just never got back on.  I had afternoon and evening plans with a friend and just I puttered around the house organizing things and reading my new HTML book until it was time to go - wasting two perfectly good hours doing things that could have been done any other time.  I got home around 8 and used the "it's too close to bedtime" excuse (one of my all-time favorites).  Today was my chance to redeem myself and at least get one workout in for the weekend, but instead I spent my time at Starbucks working through my HTML book & shopping for fitness equipment (kettle bells, dumbbell rack, hula hoop).  Anyone else find it ironic that I procrastinated working out today by shopping for workout gear? Sigh.

I guess it was better than sitting in front of the TV all day - I can honestly say I didn't turn the TV on once (of course, the night is still young).  But I still spent a lot of time sitting on my butt - and I'm sure if I added up all the 2-minute increments of playing Mob Wars on Facebook here and there I could have found time for a workout and still gotten all my organizing, shopping and reading done.  The day didn't get away from me - I let it get away.

I'm not sure why I struggle so much on the weekends to get my workouts in.  Sometimes I feel resentful of the time - like the weekend should be me time and I should get to do exactly what I want at every moment.  Logically I know that working out is the best kind of me time there is, but the teenager inside me disagrees.  I don't have any trouble keeping my appointments with Rena - in fact I really look forward to that time - so perhaps it's the social aspect that keeps me motivated?  It might be time to seek out some weekend exercise buddies.  I also have a hard time getting myself started working out, but once I'm in the moment I have no problem continuing.  It's just getting over the hump of starting and sticking with it for 10 minutes that's a challenge.  Argghh, why can't this be easier?

OK, I'm done whining and punishing myself - tomorrow is a new day, a new week and a chance to be the change I want to see in myself.  Rah Rah!

Goal Check

Now that 2010 is almost 2 months old, I thought it might be a good time to check in on the goals I set for myself late last year:

1. Complete a triathlon: I'm signed up for the Danskin SheRox Triathlon in Philly on August 1, 2010.  Training is underway.
2. Take a class in HTML or web design: Sigh.  I was signed up for an all-day HTML class yesterday.  I was really looking forward to this class and purposely chose one that occurred during my vacation week so I could attend.  Alas, Temple cancelled all classes yesterday due to the snow (wimps), and rescheduled the class for next Wednesday.  Grrrr!  I have to go back to work on Monday so there's no way I can make the new date unless I call in sick (which I seriously considered, but the guilt got the best of me).  In an effort to keep the momentum going, however, I decided to look at the selection of HTML books at Barnes & Noble yesterday and found one that looks easy enough for a newbie like me to understand.  So in lieu of a class I will be using my new book to teach myself HTML, XHTML and CSS!  I did my first lesson last night and enjoyed it very much.
3. Develop a reasonable 2 to 4-year plan for transitioning out of my current career and into one that I love: Ah, my new career plan.  Well, I am pleased to say that I've done a lot of thinking over the past week and I think I have a direction and the beginnings of a 4-year plan (you can't see the twinkle in my eye, but it's there).  I'll keep mum on it until I feel more confident, but I ran it by Ken yesterday and he thought it was a good idea!
4. Bake a loaf of french bread from scratch: I took a bread baking class, and made some pizza dough, but that's it.  This mission has yet to be accomplished.
5. Write a magazine article (does not need to be published, just written): So far I've written two posts for an eco-blog called www.iecycle.org (the second will be published on Wednesday).  Not quite a magazine article, but they did require thought and a bit of research so I think I'm moving in the right direction.
6. Find a way to cook eggs that does not completely gross me out:  Eggs, ick.  I'm trying to like them.  The reason I put them on my list is they seem to be a low calorie, high protein breakfast option and there are a million recipes for eggs.  Everyone else likes them, why don't I?  I did have a piece of quiche on my last business trip (not by choice, mind you - it was that or skip lunch entirely) and actually didn't mind it too much.  It was borderline good, although that may have had something to do with the cheese, milk and pie crust.  Which kinda defeats the purpose - quiche is really just pie in disguise.  At Miraval I tried both scrambled tofu and scrambled eggs.  The tofu was OK, but in general I'm not a fan of the stuff (it's the texture).  The eggs were not as gross-tasting as I expected - they actually didn't taste like much at all (not sure what I was expecting, but boiled eggs smell so awful I assumed all eggs would taste exactly like sulfur).  Anyway, I could eat them if I were on a desert island and they were the only thing between me and starvation.  Ken thinks I might like them better if there were some cheese mixed in, so I haven't given up hope.  Perhaps I should give fried or sunny-side-up eggs a try?  I'm open to suggestions! 
7. Keep blogging: So far, so good.
8. Finish off the exercise room so I have a dedicated space for yoga, meditation and working out: The exercise room is ALMOST DONE!  The carpet is in, the paint is on the walls, the TV and treadmill are in position.  I am now in the final stages of organizing and decorating.  I promise to post photos when everything is complete.
9. Plant a small vegetable garden: I planted an mini-indoor herb garden a few weeks ago.  Everything died except the arugula (note to self, seedlings need water - like every day).  I think this one will have to wait until the weather gets warmer.  In preparation, I have been researching organic gardening, rain barrels and composters.
10. Reduce spending and create a budget to allow for significantly more saving - in preparation for a career change:  Hmm.  I have been spending less lately - for example I've been going to the library or Bookswim instead of buying books (my HTML book notwithstanding), and I haven't bought new clothes in quite awhile.  My biggest triumph is changing my $4/day latte habit into a $1.50/day coffee with milk habit.  Not an easy feat!  But if I'm honest with myself I could do a lot better on my overall spending and I think a formal budget is in order.  In order to execute my career-change plan we'll need a healthy savings account!

Overall I've either made progress or given some thought to all of them, and since 2010 isn't even 25% over I think that's right where I should be!  I'll check back in 2 months with another progress report.

Bits and Pieces

Tidying up some bits and pieces this morning!  In no particular order:

Thanks to Jules of Big Girl Bombshell for the Beautiful Blogger Award!  I was so flattered to receive it - right back at ya Jules!  Please check out her blog - there's lots of good food for thought and her new site design looks awesome!

This morning I'm trying to recreate some of the Miraval recipes, specifically the black rice & edamame salad, and the asparagus/proscuitto appetizer.

I used this recipe for the salad, and it came out beautifully.  Not exactly like the Miraval version but pretty close.  Yum!  No need for a recipe to make the appetizer - I just blanched the asparagus and wrapped it up in the proscuitto.  Double yum!

Yesterday I discovered the make-your-own-trail-mix bar at Whole Foods.  I made mine with walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame sticks, dates, currants, dried ginger, chocolate chips and m&ms.  Triple yum!

Now I'm off to Barnes & Noble to write my next bog post for iecycle.org - if I stay home to write I'll eat my way from one end of my kitchen to the other.  I'm writing about organic lawn care this time around - hard to imagine taking care of a lawn with all this snow around, but spring will be here before we know it!

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow - Final Thoughts On Miraval

My last few hours at Miraval were uneventful - I packed up, had breakfast, picked up my boxed lunch and caught the shuttle to the airport.  On the way there I watched the scenery roll by and reflected on my visit:

This was one of the best vacations I've ever taken.  Everything was just perfect - the food, the accommodations, the scenery, the spa, the lectures - you name it, it was perfect.  But the best part was the focus on fitness - as someone who struggles to fit exercise into her schedule it felt positively decadent to work out several times a day at my leisure.  I also learned that healthy food can be incredibly tasty and I've already requested the Miraval cookbook from the library so I can try out some recipes on my own.

Upon my arrival in Philly I caught the train to the suburbs where Ken met me with a nice warm car.  At home I crawled into bed and slept a deep, satisfying, dreamless slumber.  Thursday morning dawned with sore muscles along with excitement about putting my learnings from Miraval into practice.  I had a geat workout with Rena, dropped into Whole Foods to stock up on my favorite fruits and veggies, then headed off to the mall to pick up a BOSU and a new exercise mat for my workout room.

This morning I was greeted with some great news from the scale - I have officially hit the 20-pound mark, which means my time at Miraval gave me a 1.6 pound loss!  This is especially notable since I didn't count calories during my stay, rather I tried to make good choices and eat according to my body's needs.  The food was so flavorful that I didn't need to eat a lot to feel satisfied, and I was so busy going from class to class that food was low on my priority list.  What a nice change to come home from a vacation weighing less than when I left!

Overall I would recommend Miraval to anyone looking for a relaxing vacation, a jump start to their fitness routine or diet, or even someone just looking for some great spa treatments!  The resort exceeded my (already high) expectations and delivered a memorable experience that I will never forget.  Thanks Miraval - I hope to come back soon!

Walking the Tightrope at Miraval

Day 4 dawned sunny and COLD!  I left my room at 7 to hit up the smoothie bar but by the time I arrived my hands were so cold that all I could think of was coffee.  So I nestled myself in front of the fireplace with some steaming hot coffee and a 50-calorie piece of coffee cake that was absolutely yummy:

While I ate, I contemplated whether it was too cold for my first class of the day, Zen Boot Camp.  I mean, it was cold out there, people - and all I had to protect me from potential frostbite (OK, it wasn't quite THAT cold, but you get the picture) was a thin fleece pullover.  After about 15 minutes of arguing with myself I decided that I was using the cold as an excuse not to try something new (and likely physically demanding) and got my butt back outside and down to the gym.

Randy was our trainer for the day, and even he looked a bit daunted by the cold!  But we all grabbed our towels and water bottles and set out for the warmup.  On the way, Randy explained that Boot Camp would be just what we expected - tough challenges and a great workout.  However, the Zen part of the workout meant that he expected us to be 100% in the moment with every move - not comparing ourselves to others or worrying about when the timer would go off.  He suggested we breathe through the exercises and allow ourselves to observe the sensations (mostly pain).  With that said, the workout began.  We started by running stairs to warm up, then we did squats.  Not up-and-down squats though - we held the position for 15 seconds, then 30, then 45, then 60.  Each time, Randy encouraged us to make small changes in our position (lean a bit forward on your feet, then back on your heels) to explore how that changed the sensations and perhaps to allow us to hold the position a bit longer.  It was a lot like yoga!  After the squats, we jogged off to the tennis courts for suicides:

These were tough but also strangely fulfilling - racing from line to line I was completely focused and really enjoying the feeling of pushing myself harder than normal.  After the suicides we headed back to the steps for pushups and a few other exercises:

After 45 minutes I was wiped out and felt great!  Quick shower then off to Mindful Eating for breakfast.

The mindful eating experience was interesting - Junelle talked a bit about the concept and then we practiced eating in total silence for several minutes.  I found myself much more connected to my food and really thinking about how it tasted and felt in my mouth.  It was definitely a good exercise!

After breakfast I decided to brave the cold and do some laps in the pool to take advantage of the sunshine and the amazing view of the mountains.  Keeping Susan's tips from our coaching session in mind, I swam about 600 yards of drills.

It felt great and I could feel definite improvements in my breathing technique.  After that I sank gratefully into the hot tub to warm up before my next class:

Barre class was next on the agenda, and this was another tough one.  We used chairs for support while doing a variety of movements with our legs.  Every muscle from my hips to my knees was shaking and weak after this class!  Signe was a great instructor and kept us laughing throughout the half hour.

 

Yet another shower and off to lunch!  The special today was sesame crusted chicken with a wasabi kick:

Yum!

After lunch I attended a lecture on Balanced Nutrition.  Junelle was our teacher and she spoke a lot about the importance of eating unprocessed foods - that Americans are essentially outsourcing their digestion by eating heavily refined foods (such as bread made with bleached white flour), because the body doesn't have to work too hard to store these foods as fats - they are easily broken down in the digestive tract into glucose.  I found this incredibly interesting and it made complete and total sense to me. 

After the lecture, I had a few moments to gather my thoughts and contemplate the next activity: the Desert Tightrope.  This is one of the Dares that takes place on the challenge course, and it involves climbing a pole to a thin cable suspended 35 feet in the air.  Using vertical ropes hanging from a higher cable, you slowly inch your way across to the other side.  Of course, the entire activity takes place in a harness, but this didn't really diminish my anxiety too much.  There are a lot of Dares to choose from - some involve jumping off a 40 foot platform, others involve swinging 35 feet in the air, but for some reason this one really appealed to me.   I knew that the hardest part (at least mentally) would be climbing that pole - I am deathly afraid of ladders! 

Connor showed up right on time to lead Dana, Alex, Rod, Linda and me down to the challenge course, where he explained what would be happening that day.  We each talked a bit about our expectations for the day and then it was into the harnesses.  They weren't pretty, but as they were going to be the only thing standing between me and a broken leg I wasn't really complaining!  We got some final tips on how we would get down, a suggestion to climb with our legs rather than our arms, a reminder to breath through the fear and his blessing to come back to earth at any time during the exercise.  Then it was go time.

I ascended the ladder without too much trouble - having the bolle line attached to my back was comforting (although it kept banging into my helmet at first which was kind of distracting).  

 

At the top of the ladder I panicked a bit, but remembered to breath and took my first step onto the pole.  There were large metal staples to use for hand and footholds, but when I grabbed the first one I realized they were much farther apart than they looked from the ground.  Another mini-panic attack started to manifest, and I stopped it by breathing and trying to relax.  I started to climb.  

A couple steps in and I realized that this would be much tougher than it looked - I felt weak from my two hard workouts in the morning and combined with the panic that I was barely keeping under control my legs were shaking uncontrollably.  I stopped and hugged the pole.

 

Crap, I thought.  I'm barely off the ladder and I can't go any further.  I've been thinking about this moment all week, planning for success and here I am not even able to make it to the stupid cable!  I breathed, hugged the pole and remembered that I had counted the staples while I was on the ground and there were 20 of them to go until I could step out onto the cable.  I can do 20 of anything, right?  OK Shrinking Jill, just breathe...breathe...just do one more step.  That's it, you can do this...your legs are shaking but you won't fall, you're in this nice safe harness...one more step...one more...God this is hard...one more...

Then I was almost to the cable:

And then suddenly I was stepping out over thin air:

As I started to let go of the pole, Connor yelled up to me "Take a moment to breathe and enjoy the view!"  I did just that, and could feel myself relax.  It was much easier to be on the cable than climbing the pole!  After gathering myself, I began to inch slowly to the right - holding on to the nearest staple with my left hand, blindly groping around for the closest rope with my right.  I caught the rope and began to let go of the pole.  Oh boy, that's when things got REALLY hard.  It took all my strength to keep my feet on the cable and my body upright - I was swaying back and forth, my knees were buckling, every muscle in my body was trembling...but somehow I managed to keep moving until I was just holding onto the first rope - about 4 feet away from the pole.  At that point I felt like my muscles were almost at the point of failure - I was swaying and shaking - but amazingly I wasn't that scared anymore.  

 

I told myself I could come down as soon as I made it to the next rope.  Slowly, inch by inch, I kept going.  I looked to my right and saw the next rope and grabbed just in time to avoid pitching backwards off the cable. 

 

At that point I decided I was done and yelled down to Connor that I was ready to come down.  I worked myself another foot to the right so I was directly under the second rope and sat back in the harness. 

Connor slowly lowered me to the ground and it was over.  This was a very physical challenge and I was very weak and shaky...but also very proud.  A year ago I wouldn't have been able to get up that pole at all - I would have made it a few steps past the ladder and given up.  It felt so good to face that fear and win!

Each of us had varying degrees of success - two people made it completely across, one person made it about two thirds of the way up the pole and asked to be let down, and one person made it about two thirds of the way before he lost his footing and slipped off.  Overall this was a truly amazing experience, the highlight of my trip, and I'm hoping to come back next year and give it another go!  

After the challenge was over, I headed back to my room for some R&R.  It was warm enough to sit on the patio so I sipped a cup of tea and enjoyed the view of snow on the mountains:

After that I trotted up to Evening Meditation, but not before stopping off in the lounge from some asparagus wrapped in prosciutto!  YUM!

The meditation took place in the yoga center, and Natasha had comfy backrests set up for all of us:

We meditated on the chakras, starting with Muladhara and working our way up to Sahasrara.  Natasha helped us focus our attention on by talking about each one in turn - its location, its purpose, and its sound.  As she finished speaking about each one she made the sound and we joined in - each one resonated through our bodies and when the sound stopped we enjoyed a reverent silence before moving on to the next one.  She finished by using glass bowls to generate a wonderful resonating tone.  The entire experience was amazing and I felt great afterwards.

I met two new friends, Jean and Carol, for dinner and we enjoyed a delicious meal with lots of great conversation.  I had grass-fed beef bruschetta as an appetizer and elk as my main - both were delish!

 

I enjoyed a glass of champagne with my meal and topped it off with the chocolate fondue (only 210 calories) which was simply heavenly!  At 9pm I returned for dinner and fell into bed for my last night in my casita.

This morning I woke up extremely sore all over, a reminder of my accomplishment on the tightrope!  What a great end to a great vacation.  Right now I need to head up to the lobby to catch my ride to the airport and wave goodbye to Miraval - tomorrow I'll post some final thoughts on my stay!

Day 3 at Miraval

I'm happy to say that day 3 was just as wonderful as day 2!  I woke up feeling a bit achy and sore (what do you expect when you do 3 cardio workouts and a yoga class in the same day) but it was a pleasant reminder of all the fun I had the day before.  The thought of lingering in bed and skipping the morning stretch class crossed my mind, but I had a busy day planned and decided stretching would be the best way to ease into it.  So I ditched my comfy robe for a pair of yoga pants and a tank top and went outside to greet the day.

Brrrr, after a night of rain it was COLD outside!  Fortunately the stretching room was nice and toasty.  This class was different than the day before - Melissa left the lights off so we stretched in the semi-darkness with a view of the cloudy mountains in the distance.  She did a lot of dynamic stretching and didn't use the foam rollers at all.  I felt incredibly relaxed after this class and floated off to try the breakfast buffet.

Normally I would be scared by the words 'breakfast buffet' - thoughts of belgian waffles, sausage, bacon, and hash browns fill my head and I am helpless around these foods.  But not to fear, Miraval provides lots of yummy-looking healthy choices and as always the calories were printed on a discreet sign next to each dish.  I took a small portion of roasted potatoes, 2 slices of bacon, a piece of pumpkin bread, several slices of watermelon and a yogurt parfait.  Everything was delicious, although I was starting to lose that hungry feeling by the time I started on the parfait so I only had a few bites - with yoga class starting in a half hour I needed my stomach to stay a bit on the empty side or class would have been uncomfortable.  I also needed to leave room to try another selection from the juice bar!  The juice bar attendant was kind enough to let me photograph the process:

Pineapple, grapes, orange, lemon and voila!  Ambrosia juice, 80 calories:

 

This was delicious and looked a little like a tequila sunrise.  I enjoyed it while reading by the fire and then walked up to the yoga studio in the rain.  I must say, even though it has been a pretty wet week here, the rain is so soft and gentle it feels refreshing.  The mountains are lovely in the clouds and the plants seem to be appreciating the water.

Yoga class took place in the same room as yesterday, and Mary Grace was the instructor again.  She was a great teacher and I really enjoyed both classes.  Here's the room, and the view:

Sigh.  So beautiful.

My next class was Breathwork in the same room.  Mary Grace took us through some breathing exercises to connect us with the movement of our diaphragm.  It was relaxing and informative and I felt very restored after my time at the yoga center!

Time for lunch!  I decided to attend a cooking demonstration and headed back to the restaurant.  On the way I had time to try another juice mixture: Mira-Vitality.  Carrots, cucumber, spinach, beets, and ginger, 64 calories.  The beets gave the mix a gorgeous color:

However, this one was not as much to my liking as the Don Juan or Ambrosia.  It didn't taste bad, just kind of vegetabl-y - I think I prefer to chew my veggies rather than drink them.  But I came here to try new things, and that's what I did!

The lunch buffet was looked and tasted incredible, and I was amazed at how much flavor there was in comparison to the amount of calories:

 

Even the condiments were labeled:

The cooking demonstration was in a gorgeous room off the main dining room - the chef demonstrated the recipe while we looked on and ate our lunches.  

 

There were two soups on the menu - carrot-ginger and pear-parsnip.  Both were incredibly easy and then he 'eclipsed' them, meaning he put both of them in the same bowl.  Since the soups were of the same consistency, they remained separated so that we could taste them individually or together:

These soups were REALLY good!  Nice velvety texture, good flavor and so pretty to look at.  John used a Vitamix blender and a chinois (a fine mesh strainer) to get the texture just right.  He also gave us the recipes so we can try them at home.

After lunch I decided to get some cardio under my belt for the day so I headed off to the gym.  I tried out the cool treadmill:

The belt was strange - it looked kind of like the treads on an army tank.  But it was really easy on the joints - kind of like running on lush grass - and I got a great workout listening to my iPod and watching Sex and the City.  Apparently this is the same type of treadmill that Oprah uses, so I felt a tiny bit like a star while using it.  After a half hour I decided to try some of the other machines - the Powerplate & Wave were at the top of my list, and I enlisted the help of Signe and Randy to help me use them:

The Powerplate was a pretty strange contraption - the 'plate' vibrates and sends a mild electric pulse through your body to stimulate your muscles and bones into getting stronger.  You can just stand there and hang on, or you can do exercises (I chose to do some squats).  Signe said that it's commonly used as physical therapy for athletes who can't do their normal exercises due to an injury.  It was fun to try, but I'm not sure if I would add this to my gym routine.  The next thing I tried was the Wave, which is similar to an elliptical but the motion of your legs is more like rollerblading or speedskating.  This one was HARD!  I found this one particularly interesting because to make the exercise harder you have to reduce the resistance on the pads so you are forced to use more of your leg muscles to control the motion.  It seemed counter intuitive, but after trying it I got the point pretty quickly.  After a few minutes on this I was dripping with sweat and wishing that LA Fitness would get one!

I tried another another elliptical that had a slightly different motion than a traditional machine, and this one had 'poles' that you could push with your arms to engage your upper body.  This one was fun too:

Then I tried a stairclimber which I forgot to photograph.  But I think the description 'infinite flight of steps' says it all.  Phew, I was tired. There was one more machine that I'd never seen before - I called it the armcycle:

Randy said this is a great machine for people with injuries that prevent them from using the other machines - you can get your heart rate up if you really work at it.  Since I was running late for my next appointment I skipped it and hit the showers.

At 3pm I attended another lecture with Andrew Wolf, called Metabolism and Prevention.  This was sort of a continuation of yesterday's lecture about weight loss and VO2.  He explained how various conditions, such as coronary artery disease, diabetes, hypertension and stress are impacted by exercise.  He went into a lot of detail on the mechanism of diabetes and how exercise can improve the condition more than just losing weight.  I found everything fascinating and would highly recommend his lectures to anyone visiting the resort! 

Then I had some free time to relax with some nibbles and champagne before dinner.  I read a little and stretched out in the lounge in front of the fireplace.  Ahhhhh.

Right before dinner I ran into Jean, a woman from my yoga class.  As we were both traveling solo we decided to have dinner together and enjoyed a nice leisurely meal with lots of good conversation.  After we ate, she headed off to an evening lecture and I decided to take a bubble bath.  We made plans to meet for dinner the following night and I came back to relax in my room for the evening.  

All in all, another great day at Miraval!

Today is my last full day here, and I have a lot planned to make sure I take advantage of everything this place has to offer!  Here's what my schedule looks like:

7am, smoothie and an easy walk

8am, Zen Boot Camp

9am, Mindful Eating

10am, swim laps (if it's not too cold!)

11:30, Barre express (core training)

Noon, lunch

1pm, Balance Life Through Balanced Nutrition

2:30, Desert Tightrope (this is one of the Dares)

6pm, Evening Meditation

7pm, dinner

I'm especially excited about the Desert Tightrope, because this involves walking a tightrope cable 35 feet in the air.  I have a fear of heights and I thought this would be a good chance to see what I'm really made of!

Day 2 at Miraval

Day 2 was a complete success - I managed to fit in all my scheduled activities and also scored a personal training session with the resident swim coach and a dip in the hot tub!  My day was jam-packed with activities starting with breakfast at 6:30 and I didn't really take a break from working out, showering, eating or spa-ing until I got back to my room at 8pm!  The rain held off for the entire day so I was able to get from place to place without getting soaked.

Here's what my day looked like - I started early with coffee by the fireplace and then headed outside to catch the last of the sunrise: 

Next I set out to find the gym, or Body Mindfulness Center, for my first class.  Miraval has lots of signs to make sure you don't get too lost:

Then went to morning stretch class in a beautiful room with windows overlooking the mountains and the lap pool:

At 7am the air was still pretty brisk and the pool was giving off some serious steam!  Morning stretch class was great - just right to get me in the mood for a day of workouts - gentle stretching and some work with straps and foam rollers.  Then I headed off for a group walk in the desert, which was really fun.

One of the women I met on my first night here was also on the walk and we chatted about careers & life.  She gave me some great advice about starting up a business.  (Ruth, if you're reading this, thanks for the advice & hope you had a great time watching the trio play last night!)

A quick note about the people here (guests and staff alike) - everyone is incredibly friendly, open and generous of spirit!  I'm not sure if the clean mountain air has something to do with it, or if Miraval tends to attract people with these qualities, but I have met so many wonderful women here with so many great stories.

Anyway, back to the travelogue.  At 9am I headed off to spin class, which took place in the same room as morning stretch.  Spin bikes magically appeared:

 

During the class the instructor talked about her triathlon training experience and I mentioned the SheRox in August, explaining that I was most nervous about the swim.  She offered to give me a swim clinic later in the day!  I jumped on that opportunity immediately and set up the appointment before heading off to get a smoothie.  

The smoothie bar was really nice - there was a board advertising the day's choices, complete with calories and fat!  I chose the Don Juan which was HEAVENLY (even more so because I don't normally like bananas) and later went back for the Ageless Skin Juice (which was not so yummy - note to self, lettuce is not good in a smoothie).

At this point the sun was finally shining so I took a quick walk around the grounds and took some pictures:

 

Have I mentioned that I love this place?

I took an outdoor shower, with this view:

All cleaned up with fresh clothes I headed off to a yoga class.  The yoga center is beautiful, with spectacular views.  There's nothing quite like using a distant mountaintop as your drishti!  After yoga, it was off to lunch with the resident exercise physiologist.  We loaded up our plates with delicious healthy options (all labeled with calories and fat) and peppered Andy with questions for an hour.  Note - I completely forgot to take pictures of the food but I promise to take some today!  Andy was very knowledgable and answered everyone's questions with ease.  After lunch I hurried off to my swim lesson, where Susan evaluated my stroke, took me through some drills, and gave me some valuable training and race day tips.  The pool was so warm and it felt great to swim outside for a change!  At the end of the hour I took yet another shower then headed back to my room to ditch my swimsuit and pack my bag for the rest of the day.

At 3pm I attended a lecture called 'Making Weight Loss a Reality'.  At first Andy (the same Andy from lunch!) talked about calorie deficit and how much it takes to lose a pound.  I was a bit disappointed as this is old hat to me, but after a few minutes he started talking more about metabolism and how to up your calorie burn.  The main point of his talk was to explain the meaning of VO2 max and how to increase it via cardio.  I ended up getting a LOT of out this lecture and rather than go into the details of what he talked about in this post I'm going to do some research and do a separate post dedicated to the topic.

After the lecture I sped down to the spa to take a dip in the hot tub before my massage:

I had hoped to take a dip in the spa pool, but the clouds were rolling in and the temperature was starting to drop so I skipped it.

 

My massage was scheduled for 5pm, and Tracy showed up right on time to take me to the outdoor treatment rooms:

Spa camp!  These rooms were so nice - each one was fenced in with bamboo, a private patio and lovely landscaping.  Inside the tents there was a heater to keep everything nice and toasty, and one side of the room was glass so you could see a little bit of nature during your treatment.  Heaven!

After my massage I headed up to the restaurant for dinner, which was lovely, and then came back to my room and crawled into bed.  A busy but very satisfying day!

Today's schedule looks something like this:

7am, Morning stretch

8am, breakfast

9am, yoga

10am, breath work

11:30, cooking demonstration

3pm, Metabolism and Prevention lecture

At some point during the day I'm going to try out the equipment at the gym:

OK - I better run or I won't have time for coffee before my first class - thanks for reading - I'll post Day 3 soon!!