Biggest Loser Resort Chicago - Week 2, Day 7 - Saturday, August 1

Can you believe its already August?!

This is the last day that I'll see most of the people in my program. Usually it would be Sunday but because the Race is on Sunday, those of us participating will be leaving really early (5:15am!)

6:20 was my Weigh Out. I got there early and Sue was there early so she offered to weigh me out. Since My time slot was double booked, I figured what the heck and went for it.  I lost 13 pounds overall with 7 pounds fat loss.  My measurements all went down too. I am extremely excited by these results. i did this program for the Jump Start it would give me and it really gave me that and more! Everyone was so supportive of me and what I could (and couldn't do).

Breakfast was back to my favorite peanut butter, ezekial toast, and banana.

Last Chance Workout began at 8am. It was nuts!!!!  We got split into teams - 3 people per team. I was with Kathy and Kelly, a mother/daughter pair. One person did cardio (.25 treadmill, 1 mile octane, 1 mile recumbent bike, 400 m rower) while the other two completed as many reps of the 3 exercises from Level 1 as they could. When the cario person was done, the next team member went to do her cardio while the other two continued with the reps. Then the third person went. Once all 3 had finished their cardio portion level 1 was complete and we moved on to level 2. The cardio stayed the same but the rep exercises changed. we recorded our reps as we went. It was a really good workout.  At the end, each team added up totals and handed them in. We all got Biggest Loser grocery cloth bags as a prize (all teams).  Also Biggest Loser finalist Bobby worked out with us during the Last Chance Workout.

  Andra & Altamino - piggy back

   Becca & Bobby

Lunch was soup and pizza!  the soup reminded me of a hearty winter soup. Big carrot pieces, green beans, tomato base.  The Pizza was some sort of flatbread with veggies, steak and some cheese. It was delish!

Graduation was after lunch. Altamino, Andra, and Karen were there. They each said nice stuff and we all got to speak if we wanted to. Many tears were shed. It was really funny but the group kind of separated into first week in the first row, returning but non stay-overs in the second row and multi-week stay-overs in the third row.  They showed the video which was really cool. They had a ton of pictures and apparently there are even more to come!  The first few that I was in showed me kind of standing around, but I could tell it was just from when I was taking a brief rest while working my butt off!  There were other action shots of me later on.  The shot you see below is the exercise balls being brought into the room for graduation. Several of the first week-ers liked to sit on them and bounce during all lectures & activities in workshop room 1 including graduation!

Dinner was ok. It was shrimp with a brown rice noodle and veggies with a sweet asian sauce. I liked that part. The dessert was berries with some sort of crisp like a soft granola and coconut. Not very good. We had a great discussion at dinner and everyone hugged when we were done.

Well the 5K is tomorrow. I'm charging up my MP3 players and making sure the music is good. It'll be a fun morning!

  Andra, Christine, Altamino

  Andra, Barb, Tara, Altamino

  Andra, Gloria D, Altamino

  Becca, Barb, Tara

 Kelly, Kathy, Becca

Biggest Loser Resort Chicago - Week 2 Day 6 - Friday July 31

Today was another good day
Meditation started the morning at 6am. We all got on our mats and Cathy talked us thru a meditation sequence. It wasn't as awesome as the beach meditation, but it was still nice. Breakfast - I tried the greek yogurt with fruit, chia seeds and almonds. It was not my favorite. I'll go back to PB & Ezekial toast & banana.

Fitness Assessment time!!!  I exceeded all of the measurements except for Wall Sits. Wall Sits I psyched myself out and slipped. I cut 2 min off my cardio time on the treadmill.

I went to Patterns & Portions where we worked on meal planning and portion sizes for our meal's ingredients.
Lunch was vegetable soup and fish tacos.  The soup was good except for the beans. I'm not really liking the excess of beans this week. Cause they're always the white beans. They should vary it.  The fish tacos were "eh". I liked the insides - fish, cabbage, tomato. But the corn tortilla was kind of gross. I ate it anyway.  That's one thing they stress about our food - while we're here, we really need to eat all our food. It's all counted out into a 1500 calorie formula and if we don't eat part of it, we'll be hungry and it'll start affecting our workouts.  I forgot the snack yesterday and I was really hungry for dinner. Other days I was ready, but not super hungry when dinner came around.

After lunch I went to Planning Strategies which focused on planning meals. 1:45 brought the class I was dreading the most since the beginning of the week: 52 card pickup.  Last time I was here, it was like a madhouse for people to finish their exercises and grab cards. I barely got any.  This time, it was better. There were 2 sets of cards since there were so many of us. There was a list of 6 activities and we had to get thru the whole list before we could take a card. It worked better this time.  With the cards we got, we were supposed to make the best hand. Mine wasn't anything, but I did get three cards!  The five best hands got a Biggest Loser prize (a book and something fun like glow bracelets)

Zumba was next. i am NOT a Zumba person. I know this because I've tried before.  But it was one of our classes, so I went.  I enjoyed the music and tried to follow the moves.

At 4 was "Become Your Own PT". This was funny because Sue told us we weren't allowed to leave until she approved our workout plan for when we leave. She gave us a grid, a bunch of examples, and encouraged us to use workouts that we did this week. As she went around to us, we got to leave when our plan was approved, we didn't have to wait for everybody.  We all got to leave at a reasonable time and get to dinner on time.

Dinner was good. Turkey burgers! and some sort of chocolate dessert. It said Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge but I didn't taste the peanut butter. No problem though, it was delicious

After dinner I went to the patio near the outdoor pool. There was a duo performing live music. It was a nice mix of new and old music. I had a great time.

Tomorrow morning is my weigh out, last chance workout and graduation!  I'm weighing out tomorrow because I'm doing the run/walk in Chicago on Sunday morning and there won't be time for a weigh out on Sunday.

Biggest Loser Resort Chicago - Week 2 Day 5 - Thursday July 30

Today was a good day. It started with yoga at 6. or at least we thought it did. Sue came bouncing down the halls, encouraging us all to go into Studio 2.  It ended up being a balance/stretch class. I liked it more than yoga, even though my balance is limited. Breakfast I had my usual ezekial toast, peanut butter and banana. I'm switching it up for tomorrow.  At five til 8 we gathered in the lobby and loaded in the vans for our Outdoor Activity.  We went to the beach at Glencoe.

The traffic was bad going there. I carried a slam ball down the ramp to the shelter along with my water bottle. So this beach has a long wind-y driveway in an S format with a second entrance in the middle of the S. Basically 2 steep inclines and 1 less steep incline.  Our warmup was to walk down and up the less steep incline a couple of times. We were split into groups. I stayed with the incline group to start. I went up one steep incline and back down, 20 crunches, and down the huge stairs and back up, finishing with down the less-steep incline and back up. I got thru the rotation twice before the switch. We went down to the base of the stairs onto the beach. We did some exercises with the stretch bands, some body weight and then we walked down the sand to the water and back. this was a shorter time span and it was soon time to go to the tennis courts.  I took the stairs instead of the ramp and it followed with the steep incline. The Incline felt steeper on the way up!  We did some exercises at the tennis courts like skipping to the other end of the court and back and Pushups. We stretched and then got back in the van. It was a nice long car ride back followed by lunch.  Lunch was so good!  It was gazpacho which was a bit too spicy but I ate some of it.  There was also roasted veggies and a little steak. Cute and yummy.

I went to Injury Prevention after lunch. Shannon and Matt taught Mountain and Kettlebell. I did the octane machine for Mountain. Kettlebell was exactly what I thought it would be :-)  I took Meal Planning. there was good discussion and the slides were different from last time.

Dinner felt like Thanksgiving!  It was turkey, sweet potato stuffing and some sort of cranberry gravy. It tasted great. I was disappointed in the dessert. It was supposed to be berry brulee. What I remember of it from my last week here and what we got tonight was different. Tonight it was a lot of berries with a little bit of greek yogurt. The fruit wasnt drained very well and the water was pooling in the bottom of the dish ruining the little amount of yogurt they gave us.

After dinner I went on a Grocery Store Tour with a few other guests and one of the dieticians.  It was similar to other tours I had taken before with Lifetime. Lifetime did theirs at Whole Foods and this was at Marianos. I'm glad I went. I always learn something new.

Tomorrow is the final Fitness Assessment so we'll find out if I'm able to go farther. There are a few Education sessions I'll be attending.  Sounds like a fun day. And it will be ending with the optional activity "Music on the Patio". Each day we have an optional activity to take part in (trip to a running store, fireplace social time, mini-golf, grocery store tour) and this friday it is "Music on the Patio".

Biggest Loser Resort Chicago - Week 2 Day 4 - Wednesday July 29

Today was a mix of crazy & fun
Open gym started at 6:30 so I got to sleep in a little, but I actually just took longer to get ready.  They told us breakfast and lunch would now be in a different part of the hotel, but when we went for breakfast it was in the same place it was yesterday.... hmm
after warmups we went into our "teams" again - Go White Sox!  and I started with Pyramid. doing exercises for 10 reps, 20 reps, 30 reps, 40 reps, 50 reps, 40 reps, 30, 20, 10.  In between each set of exercise we did tabata cardio. I did it on the octane machine. I took a pic of the octane below

We went straight into Boxing workout "Smackdown". It was a good class. it did a mix of punching, situps, duck under the rope, squats, punching above a rope. a good mix

I re-took the Intuitive/Emotional Eating class. It was discussed different than last time so I got info out of it and it was a nice refresher too for the stuff that was the same.

The afternoon was GREAT. We had a to go lunch - Turkey BLT sandwich with avocado spread on Ezekial bread, a side of baked and chilled sweet potato wedges. The afternoon was a "Your Choice".  They gave us a couple of options. I signed up for Meditation at 3. But first...

I took a nap

yes it felt great!

Meditation was awesome too. Gloria and I were the only attendees but that was OK. Kathy led it. I felt like I was at the beach for 30 min. How cool is that?!

Dinner was delicious. a burrito and 2 small peanut butter cups.  yum!!!!


BTW - I registered for the Biggest Loser Run/Walk. It's sunday morning and they're providing transportation (and a discount on registration!)  It's been awhile since I've done a 5K so I'm definitely nervous, but I'll bring music and that will make me feel better

  the burrito from dinner

  Intuitive Eating with Kathy

 

 Box Lunch & Snack

 

  the octane machine

 the Peanut Butter cups

Biggest Loser Resort Chicago - Week 2 Day 3 - Tuesday

Tuesday

Overall today was better than yesterday. It was closer to what I remembered of the days here. I think Monday was just a shock since it was the first day and the returning guests had no lectures.  It was a better balance today.

I started the morning attempting yoga. Breakfast was good, as always. I had ezekial toast, peanut butter, half a banana and half a fruit cup of pineapple.  We went to a state park 30 min away. My workout was modified cause I'm slow when I walk. But in total I got in 1 mile of walking (outside), 100 ball slams, 40 high knees while holding the ball overhead. and I got to the fifth level of a pyramid workout which was like the Partridge in a Pear Tree song but adding a different workout with each level after doing the previous levels each time. Betty (one of the trainers) and Tara (one of the guests) were challenged and completed an obstacle course that had been left out by other people. It was thought to be for pet training, but they were up for it. It was funny to watch.  We went to a basketball court and had fun with chalk.

When we got back to the resort Dani, winner of season 14 Biggest Loser, was there to greet us!  It was such a surprise! She took pics with a bunch of us, sat in on the Stress Management workshop and thru part of lunch.  Lunch wasn't great. It was a pita with salad-y stuff and ground turkey. the turkey didn't have any flavor and it was crumbly/dry so it was weird. And the soup had too many chickpeas.

We did the Circle of Balance discussion after lunch. This is when it got interesting. We split up into our teams again (White Sox v Cubs). I was white sox so we went to Dumbell Power. Matt led it with Sue helping with form. It was a tough class!  Then we had a brief break and went to Spin.  Spin was taught by Jerry and assisted by Estella.  Jerry's the at-home winner from Season 7. They have a regular visit habit with the resort so I had chatted, worked out, and attended lectures with them before. It was nice seeing them and the spin class was great! I went on the Octane which is like a mix between a spin bike and an elliptical machine.

We had a demo of Thai Stretch with one of the ladies from the Spa. It looked neat.

We got to get in the pool again (or go to Core & Roll).  Guess which I did?! That's right, the pool!!! It was a fun workout - traveling exercises and wall exercises.  My favorite was the jumping at the wall, but I had to take my glasses off for it and keep my eyes closed.

Quick Change followed by dinner.  Dinner was delicious.  It was like spaghetti with veggies but the spaghetti was made out of zucchini. The dessert was pineapple & strawberry kabob with some sort of raspberry puree and coconut topping.

I saw some friends this evening. Tomorrow should be a nice day. Hopefully less humid!

Biggest Loser Resort Chicago - Week 2 Day 2 - Monday

Wow this was a crazy day....
in the morning Andra and Betty trained us.
6am started with AMRAP (as many rounds as possible).  We did a variety of workouts in a specific order and we tried to get through the set as many times as possible before the end of class.  I got thru the set 4 times which I was very happy with.

We had breakfast. I had ezekial toast, peanut butter, half a banana and a fruit cup - Cantaloupe.  The cantaloupe was NOT ripe so I only ate about half of the serving. The rest was fine.  i am not a coffee drinker, but those who are were hurting this morning because no coffee/caffeine is allowed.

Fitness Assessment - I'm in the "White Sox" group so after warmups I went to the body weight assessment. I think I did OK on those.  We won't be able to tell until we do the Assessment on friday morning, where we repeat the same exercises.  I was able to hold a plank and wall sit longer than the last time (not last time at the resort, but last time trying them at home).  My group went back to the Studio 1 for the cardio assessment.  I tried the rower but my legs cramped up as soon as I started. I switched to the treadmill.  We go for a set distance like a mile and then tell our trainer who will mark our time.  Then we switch machines.  I did half a mile on the treadmill and asked Betty to mark my time because I didnt think I could make it to 1 mile in the time left. she marked it but told me to keep going.  I was actually able to make it the full mile before class ended. I even made progress on the recumbent bike after that too.

Advanced Boxing - I was really looking forward to this one! I love boxing. It was a tough class - she had us moving a lot vs just doing punches & kicks.  run/walk to the other end of the studio & back, duck under a suspended band back and forth, etc.

Lunch was good. Roasted Corn Soup with avocado, Zucchini boats with veggies.  There was a discussion about how there weren't any pool classes and some people requested one this afternoon.  the trainers worked it out and moved some stuff around. yay!

Train the Trainer - stayover guests from last week came up with workouts for the trainer to do and instructed us all as well. They switched off instructing us. I was able to contribute by timing our warmup and suggesting a water break :-)

We did some band exercises outside - half on the volleyball court and half in the shade of a bunch of trees.  Matt & Shannon were training us.  They weren't here when I was at the resort last time. I had to take some breaks because by this point of the very first day, i was overwhelmed. but everyone was nice about it - trainers & the guests who noticed)

Some guests still wanted to do the outside activity (Game Play) and some wanted to do the pool.  matt went with us to the pool and we went to the indoor one.  It was AWESOME getting in that water. It was cool but not freezing and it felt great.  We did water dumbell exercises and then Betty came and got us doing some water games. a great workout!

since I am a returning guest I have the option throughout the week of re-taking some of the education sessions.  (First Weekers have to attend the education sessions while Returning guests are doing a workout).  This morning while we were doing AMRAP and Advanced Boxing, they did two other education sessions. And Train the Trainer was another option while they were doing an education session.  This afternoon I chose to take Carbs, Fats, Proteins again. They were new slides so it was helpful.

Dinner was great. chicken with some interesting veggies & raisins on it. Dessert was a chocolate covered bananas.  I need to stop with all the bananas.  Maybe I'll see if I can get berry fruit cups instead for breakfast.

After dinner I drove out to Elmhurst for a theatre meeting and just got back a little after 9. I will definitely sleep well as soon as I post this.... Night!

Biggest Loser Resort - Week 2, Day 1 - Sunday July 26 - PART 2

I think I'm in for a great time at the Biggest Loser Resort this week.  There's a big group (17) which is similar to my last week here - in Oct 2014.  It's all women except for 1 man who's a stayover guest. It's about 50/50 for returning or stayover guests vs brand new guests.  I'm a returning guest.  All that means is that I know what I'm in for! ha ha! and also that I have a choice a couple of times a day for attending education segments vs workouts.  These are all education segments I've attended before during my first week, but I can take it as a refresher if needed.

The schedule looks good. Some outside work, more inside workouts. That's only important because it's going to be in the 80s and 90s this week and very humid. My only complaint is there is a lack of pool classes. We can go to the pool and do a "DIY" workout or go in the evenings, but it can't be used for a full class. But there are plenty of other classes to keep me busy.

Dinner today was good.  Chicken stuffed with herb & chicken sausage stuffing.  Side was Ratatouille & Lentil Stew. Black Bean Brownies and a strawberry slice.  The lentils weren't great but i ate some and I enjoyed the veggies in that dish.   The chicken was good and the dessert was good. The brownies tasted like chocolate so I'd like to see the recipe :-)


I forgot my heart rate monitor strap & watch at home so I drove home after dinner to get it. I also grabbed my binder from last time in case I want to review anything.

Well it's late and I have an early wakeup (6am is my first class) so I'm heading to bed.  Night all!

Biggest Loser Resort - week 2, Day 1 - sunday, july 26

Week 2 begins today.
Check in, Weigh In, get settled in my room and then I get to meet everybody at orientation.


I know what to expect and I'm excited.  I didn't really do what I was supposed to after the last stay, not like I wanted to.  This second week will get me going again.  Starting my new job in a couple of weeks should reinforce the whole "new beginning" feel to it all. Especially with it being in August, its like a new school year, even though it's not school anymore.

i'll check in later...