No Pain, No Gain.. or Weight Loss! Day TWO

Day TWO I have a love hate relationship with you!  Why does something so good for you have to feel so bad at times?  Today I have had a lot on my mind about the process by which many of us becomes overweight.  For each of us it is a different story, a different pain, a different lack of love for yourself.  It may have started from childhood fears or trauma, you may have started to use food to hide from things that were really troubling your heart.  It may have started from just pure laziness.  I don't know your story and I am still trying to figure out my own. But what I do know is eventually we all must come to a tipping point when we have had ENOUGH of the fat on our bodies, ENOUGH of the added stresses applied to them because of it and the inner turmoil, and ENOUGH guilt and pain that are connected with it! 

I had enough starting back in the Spring of 2009.  I started to change my life then and I am still continuing that path 2 years later.  It isn't an easy process, but it is a valuable process...it is a life or death process if you think about it.  I chose to live and live for a long time!  I love living!  It feels good and even when the hard times come, there is always something worth living for.. YOURSELF! I still have my struggles, but I keep going.  I have my set backs, my gains and losses, but I keep going.  I have my days that working out is the furthest away from my thoughts, but I keep going.  Being here at the Biggest Loser Resort, I have found others just like me.  Other people who are fighting for their life.  Fighting to find their definition of FIT!  Fighting every day, 12 hours a day (with classes) to figure out how they can tweak the way they are living just a little and get BIG results.  That is one of the greatest blessings of this place.  It is a place to find YOU again, or even  to discover the person you never knew was waiting to come out!

Already in day TWO I have seen awakenings (that I felt my first time ever here, and hope to find even deeper parts of it on this stay) in other newly found friends. It has been so neat to hear how this program is affecting them, and how they plan to incorporate that into their lives and BELIEVE in themselves again!  My new friend Danielle (I talked about her and her Sister a few posts ago) posted this last night and I think she said it beautifully, made me shed tears as I read her words:

"I have never been pushed mentally or physically like this in my entire life. There are no words to describe how life changing this has been and it's only day 1...IF I ever go back to an unhealthy lifestyle....SHOOT ME DIRECTLY BETWEEN MY EYES WITH A LARGE GUN. There is no pain in eating healthy, but the pain felt today has changed my entire outlook on the rest of my life. Worth every cent, second of time, and ounce of sweat and vomit, but HOLY CRAP...I surrender. No more."

I couldn't agree with her more! The amount of work we are doing 8 hrs a day to get this weight off is not worth all the food on the planet!  Every ounce of unhealthy living is beaten off us in the gym or pool ounce by ounce, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. The emotion of awakening to such a realization that you are the one that did this to yourself is quite a hefty load to bear.  But knowing that choices now can change the way your future is lived is what gets us to our classes all day. 

Biggest Loser Resort isn't naive enough to act as though we are going to do this amount of workout every day for the rest of our lives, and that is why they hammer it into us why we are here.  Not only are we being worked out, we are being taught ways, products and plans that we can incorporate into our everyday life so that we still don't have to be deprived, we still can live lives, attend and eat at social events and still keep working toward our goals to live a healthy lifestyle. It isn't an all or nothing, it is finding a balance.

My calves are so tight right now that I feel they may break apart.  My arms are heavy and if I tried to lift them above my head, I may tip over. But, my heart is happy.  My spirit is rejuvenated.  My self love and determination is still in check and even stronger each day that I make it through these challenging workouts.  I CAN DO HARD THINGS!  I know this.  I feel it every day I fight through a challenging workout, walk with very tight calves, hike a long steep hill, run a sprint on a treadmill for 2 minutes, or hold 8 lbs weights above my head. I am a fighter for things that are right.  Taking care of my body is right and I will fight and see it through to the end! For the first time in my life, I am learning to put MY NEEDS first and not feeling guilty about it!  I AM WORTH IT!

So today, I gave it my all. I went to my classes and enjoyed them.  Fought through the pain and exceeded my expectations. Here is a run down of DAY 2:

Breakfast today was Banana Muffins and fruit.  The muffins were delicious but I didn't even finish all of them cause they were so heavy and filling, it was a great way to power up my body for my hike.

Hike was today lighter than yesterday!  The weather was warm and BEAUTIFUL!! My hike buddies were AWESOME!

Yes, we are ALL still smiling after the hike!

These are my new found friends! Danielle, Cara and Kelly!

After returning home from the hike I hit the water H2O class! It was quite the workout, never a doubt!

For lunch today we had a simple turkey sandwich on orowheat thins with a green salad with a very light dressing and fruit.

After lunch is when the beatings began. 

Total Tone Class was KILLER.  We had 6 stations set up using weights, medicine balls and squats.  Let's just say there was lots of grunting and near tears today, but we ALL pushed our bodies through what we thought we couldn't do!

Cardio Intervals is a class ANYONE can do with ANY equipment that they have! You warm up for about 5 minutes on a machine of your choice.  Then you bump up the level on the machine one up every 30 seconds till you do that 8 times.  Once you have done that 8 times you stay at the highest level you got to for 1 minute. Then you start to go down one level a time, 30 seconds apart.  You do that over and over for 45 minutes.  It is amazing how doing that little makes you sweat A LOT!

Last class of the night was H2O intervals. We all got in that pool completely sore, fatigued, and feeling like we couldn't do ANY MORE.  But as always, we pulled it out!  Our shaking arms, did more weights, more push ups (using a metal bar around the pool and pulling our bodies out of the water), jumping jacks, running around the pool, and more.  Even when you think you have nothing more, they show you YOU DO!

Dinner tonight was delicious as always.  We had Veggie Lasagna with steamed broccoli and cauliflower and key lime (tofu) pie for dessert.

Now I am sitting on my bed, in my Biggest Loser sweatshirt watching the current seasons make over show. I am feeling proud of the calories I burnt today, the steps I took and the attitude I have!  This journey is up to me!  I have to put in the work and determination!  No one else can do it for me!

Today's Calories Burned (minus those in the pool): 4,544

Steps taken: 18,478

Very sore but happy Meg!