DAY SEVEN!!!!

Well, folks..we did it. We didn't die, we didn't hurt ourselves (well, Michelle did cut herself shaving this morning) and tomorrow morning, we find out how many inches and pounds we lost. We sat in the sauna right before bed to ensure that we will have lost at least something. We were sweating ... it was like a sauna in there!


We have very strong sentiments and reflections about this past week, but right now we are so EXHAUSTED that all we want to do is go to bed sooner, so we can wake up faster and get HOME! And eat a cupcake. And have a glass of wine. And Rebekka wants a peppermint mocha.

So, without further ado....today:

6:00 wake up, banana tofu smoothie
6:30 Yoga. Rebekka stays in bed. Michelle goes to yoga and is OVER IT.
7:35 breakfast: cereal for Michelle and fritttttatta and fruit for Rebekka
8:45 Leave for hike. This hike was an all day-er, and we were over it before it started. But thankfully JP was our guide:


(From left to right: Rebekka, JP, Michelle, Heather)




We were out hiking for five hours today, 10 miles. We each cried at least once on the way up.
lunch on hike: Bison chile and quinoa chile, cheese balls and edamame for snack.
The hike was, at least, pretty easy on the eyes. It followed a creek the entire trip. See below:





4:00 Back to lodge for showers
5:00 Rebekka had massage, Michelle had dinner. Tilapia with lemon butter sauce and.....LETTUCE!
6:00 Rebekka has dinner: trout with lemon butter sauce and ... LETTUCE!
7:00 Michelle has massage, Rebekka does circuit training course
8:00 Michelle and Rebekka sit in sauna and sing Lisa Loeb at the top of their lungs.


Well, our tummies are growling...literally....and we can't wait to see a little bit of Asheville before we head home tomorrow. For now, good night, and... Namaste. (haha)

Day Six (part two)

Okey dokey, so we are about to go sleep, but we need to post the recap of our day. We can't believe we just finished day SIX!

Today:
6:00 wake up, blueberry tofu smoothie.
6:35 Yoga...new yoga teacher. Cool.
7:30 Breakfast...yummy homemade cinnamon granola with bran flakes, CHOCOLATE RICE MILK (we later found out this was given to us by mistake...but it made our day. In our cereal, it almost tasted like Coco Puffs.) (Which is gross.) (but at least it's not tofu and lettuce.)
8:30 Departed for hike. Today's hike was really hard. Short... only two hours, but really intense. Our leader, Jeff, bless his heart, we love him, pushed us really hard. Michelle had a moment after snack where she just didn't want to go any further... she just wanted it be all done. (Maybe because our snack was just carrot threads and tahini). Finally, we descended the mountains and nearly reached the vehicles, Jeff made us turn around and go BACK UPHILL! Good one, Jeff. We aren't making you chocolate chip cookies after all. (J/K)
12:00 Back to the lodge for lunch...which was... drumroll please...A BIG PLATE OF LETTUCE! (With chickpeas, BEETS, feta, sundried tomatoes, and yummy dressing.
1:00-3:00 Core and strength training classes. We did the first hour, but opted to sit in the sauna for the second in anticipation of our upcoming private yoga session. We sweated like crazy for almost an hour in there and then showered.
4:00 Waited for yoga instructor in the Lund house lodge.
4:10 Where is yoga instructor?
4:15 Want to play Uno?
4:16 Sure.
4:18 Playing Uno. This is fun.
4:20 RRRRRRROOMMM.... What is that noise? Michelle says, "I bet you anything it's our yoga teacher pulling up on a motorcycle." Rebekka peeks out window. HAAAAHHA! IT SO IS! HOW TYPICAL! "Lets make a run for it!" she says... "WHY?" says Michelle.
4:21 Yoga teacher enters, his long hair tousled by the windy ride over. "Sorry I'm late"
4:21 "That's okay!!!" (Crap, no more Uno.)
4:22 Yoga lessons commence. I don't know if there are words in the English language to describe this one breathing exercise he showed us. You kind of have to roll your stomach around in a wave while squatting.

We couldn't do it.

5:00 Dinner for Michelle, but they told me I had to wait another hour! I almost cried. Michelle had sauteed tempeh with onions and salad. She actually didn't finish because she wasn't that hungry.
6:00 I eat (chicken with mushroom-sherry sauce and salad) and Michelle gets a massage.
7:00 Circuit training class that kicked our butts. It bothered Michelle's knees and she hated it, but Rebekka thought it was super fun.

Tomorrow is our LAST DAY!!!! We are so excited. And it's also supposed to be the most difficult hike, so keep us in your hearts. Until then...

Namaste.

Day Six (part one)

Hello! Rebekka here! I actually have a few spare minutes (usually we are scrambling at the end of the day to upload pictures and remember our schedule before we crash into bed!) so I can write a more substantial blog (maybe!).

Today was a lot more even keel for both Michelle and me. We have been learning bits and pieces over the course of the week about what this program is supposed to be about, and it's pretty interesting. My friend Mary left a comment on the last post about when we return to the "real" world... will we still want to exist on 1200 calories and exercise all the time now that we know we can do it? (Well, for me the answer is %*&$&% No!!! haha)

Apparently, what this program is based on (weight-loss wise, at least) is changing our bodies patterns of blood sugar levels. Fitpath (the company that puts on our program, Mountain Trek) believes that to lose or keep a stable weight, we should never go to bed on a high blood sugar level. They say that when we eat, our blood sugar rises, and when we exercise, our blood sugar drops or levels out. (I hope I am getting this all correct...I have only the most miniscule knowledge of nutrition/biology so I'm bound to get details wrong!)

So, they have us eating pretty substantial breakfasts right when we wake up, having snacks and a lunch throughout the day, and eating dinner at five pm. After that we do at least 40 minutes of cardio/strength training, but no more food. 

Anyway, they say it takes the average person three or four weeks, sometimes much longer to convert their bodies to being hungriest in the morning and less hungry in the evenings. The INTENSITY of this program is designed to catapult our systems into that pattern, so when we go back to the real world and start eating a normal amount of calories again, we will have already trained our bodies to want most of our food in the morning and just a small bit at night. And they strongly encourage us to work out AFTER dinner on most days.

They say if we continue to follow this pattern MOST of the time...not every day, just as a general rule, our weights/body fat percentages will be right on target. And they really emphasize "nourishing our indulgences" as well...coffee, alcohol, dessert, whatever...as long as we follow the general pattern.

It is interesting because we have been SO STARVING this entire week, and not hungry when we wake up, because in our normal lives Michelle and I both eat late at night and eat late...if any...breakfasts. But today we both woke up starving...FAMISHED, actually... and neither of us was very hungry at dinner. So we were told that our bodies had, on day 5, made the "shift". 

Interesting, huh? So back to Mary's question...will we continue this "pattern" when we get home and start eating normal food again? I don't know. 

All I know is on Saturday, I am going to eat a cheeseburger. And I can't wait.

(I'd love to hear any questions/comments...it's all kind of fascinating, right? And we'll be back today with our normal post)

Off to evening cardio class! Sheesh!

Day Five

Day five has been the BEST! Basically:

6:00 am wake up and banana tofu smoothie
6:30 am yoga
7:35 am breakfast (rice pudding with blueberry sauce!) and cottage cheese, and nasty vegan cheese for Michelle that she didn't eat, it was sick. Vegan cheese is disgusting.



8:30 am Headed out for the hike!

9:00-2:00 Ridiculous euphoric amazing hike. Best hike of the trip so far. See below:



Our lunch on hike:





3:00-5:00 pm Self-care lecture with JP. WE LOVE JP!!!

5:00 pm- Dinner. Grain pilaf with carrots that tasted like Thanksgiving dinner. Cold green bean salad with dill and beets.

We sure have eaten a lot of beets this week.

7:00 pm- (drumroll please...)





West African Dance lessons! We are now officially obsessed with West African dance. Anyone want to take lessons with us in Nashville?

Day Four

So today was wayyyy better than yesterday for Rebekka, and Michelle's favorite day so far. Here's how it all panned out:

6:00 am-wake up and smoothie

6:30 am- wonderful yoga

7:35 am- BREAKFAST. It was a sight to behold. Breakfast tacos in corn tortillas with huevos rancheros (and tofu), and fruit. MMM.

8:30 am- depart for hike. THIS HIKE WAS INCREDIBLE. It's what we came here for. See pictures:

Everyone getting ready for the hike at the lodge.

Here is Michelle by the HUGEST waterfall EVER!!! (Ok, so it was like a tiny stream.)

Snack time! (1/2 of a cheese stick, an apple, and nori sheets that Michelle thought were nasty so I ate hers...and they were nasty.)

Here we are at 3,700 ft! This is why we came on this trip!

And Rebekka almost fell off a cliff!!!

4:00 pm - return to lodge, Rebekka got in infrared sauna at 145 degrees and Michelle took a shower. 

5:00 pm - Dinner. "Trekking bowl". With...you guessed it... tofu and lettuce. (And a miniscule bit of quinoa at the bottom. Surprise!)

6:00 pm- We get to talk to Teddy, David (Michelle's brother) and Owen on Skype. YEAYYYY!!!! Owen is so precious. She fed us chips and SEVEN LAYER BEAN DIP over the computer. Mmmmm.

Michelle was supposed to do a circuit cardio/strength training class at 7, but her knees are swollen from the hike and our leaders were concerned, so guess what...she gets a massage INSTEAD! (She didn't milk that for all it was worth or anything!)

7:00 pm- painful but necessary massages.
8:30 pm- waiting to see who next President is!

Good night!

Day Three

Sorry we don't have any pictures today! I promise to have them tomorrow. Today was a really hard day...especially hard for Rebekka. Here was today's schedule:

6:00 wake up and smoothie

6:30 Yoga...very restorative this morning because everyone was super sore from the hike yesterday. Rebekka starts blacking out and feeling very weak and shaky.

7:35 Breakfast: lemon ricotta pancakes with blueberry sauce, yogurt, and fruit. AND scrambled eggs! It tasted like heaven. Well, like very tiny little pieces of heaven (tomorrow we'll take pictures of these portion sizes) But Rebekka kept feeling really lightheaded.

8:00 Nutrition tenants lecture. It was really interesting, but we kept almost falling asleep because we were so exhausted.

9:20-12:15 Morning hike. This hike was only 5 miles, but almost VERTICAL. Seriously the gnarliest hills. Michelle stayed in group two (the middle/second fastest group) the WHOLE time, but Rebekka had to lag behind in group three because she kept feeling dizzy, weak, and lightheaded. The leaders had to give her special electrolytes so she didn't pass out...yikes.

12:15 Lunch at lodge. Delicious quinoa, feta, and black bean salad. All the food here has been really sooooo delicious, there just isn't much of it :)

1:15-3:15 Core and strength classes. Rebekka had to sit out and totally felt like a loser becuase she still felt too shaky. 

3:30-4:30 "nourishing your indulgences" seminar. Really cool.

5:00 delicious dinner...vegetable spring rolls, scallops in a creamy herb sauce, snow peas. Water, of course. 

6:o0 Michelle and Rebekka sit in the hot tub for 30 minutes to soothe their aching legs. 

Now it's 7:36 and Michelle is out on the second hike of the day, the night hike. Rebekka is staying behind writing this right now because she has heard that Tuesday is the most difficult day for everyone, and she is terribly worried. 

We miss our families and friends and we are starving! 

Day Two

Okay! Here we are on day one. This is basically how today panned out. 

5:30 am: our alarms woke us up. 

6:00 am: "soft knocking" at our doors to tell us our smoothie is ready upstairs

6:05 am: Tofu blueberry agave almond smoothie. DELICIOUS. Really.

6:30 am: Yoga with a Daniel Day Lewis look-alike. Surfer dude that moved to India to study yoga, totally stereotypical and so great. Yoga was fantastic...the sun rose in the forest outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows in the lodge. We got our weight, water weight, BMI, measurements, and body fat percentages taken. It was pretty interesting.

8:00 am: Breakfast. Bran flakes with walnuts, trail mix, pineapple, kiwi, and almond milk. Delicious, really.

9:00 am: Foot care seminar, load into the vans and off to the trail!

9:30-4:oopm: The most intense, ridiculous, ten-mile, uphill, both ways, peepee in the woods, creepy, fun, hike we could ever imagine. We had borscht with tofu (maybe made by the Swedish chef on the muppets?) and a bliss ball that was green. Rebekka got nausea on the way back and almost puked and had to have electrolytes from one of the guides. 

4:30 pm: Back to the lodge for a short nap. Michelle dreams about hamburgers.  (And you know she's vegetarian, right?)

No, really. And she can't stop thinking about it. 

By the way, the pictures up top are of our rooms!  My room, the Cherokee room, and

Michelle's room, the Tree room (haha, get it?)

5:00 pm: Massages. Amazing massages.

6:00 pm: Dinner. Salmon with a huge salad and roast red pepper soup. Really good.

7:00 pm: Cardio circuit workout. Michelle hula-hooped, and Rebekka did this:

Now we are extremely, EXTREMELY pooped. But we haven't pooped?! Time to get my flax-probiotic tea.  The strangest thing is, we aren't as hungry as we thought we would be? It seems like a lot more food than 1200 calories.

Probably 'cause most of it's lettuce.