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!