day 3: when's the last time you grew shellac?

woke up again this morning at 5:30. okay well, 5:50... but still in the 5's and quite honestly that's impressive for anyone (way to go dad you do this everyday!). i swallowed a banana whole and shoved a few cashews in their somewhere. just kidding, kind of. but i remembered to eat because 3 hours of morning hiking without food is stupid.

i got assigned to the second most advanced group, i believe. i find it really difficult to think that we're not in the most advanced group after today's hike. the hike was called "volcano". we drove up to this completely unintimidating sandy trail that moved towards mountains that were way too ridiculous to hike. or so i thought. little did i know the sandy trail ended in about a half of a mile and the rest was practically full mountain climing. i'm totally exaggerating, but it was hard. we were climbing up a mountain, taking each step one at a time as if it were the stairway to heaven. the loose, rocky, unsafe, stairway to heaven. god did not want us to come.

once we got to the top, my calf muscles were killing me and my heart was beating pretty heavily. but i've never felt more satisfied or accomplished. many times i would look up and think, "there is no way i will ever make it up those rocks." so, i stopped looking up. because every single time i thought that, i ended up doing it and it just seemed easier not to see what was ahead of me. the view at the top was worth whatever i had to do to get there. i will never feel like that until i do another hike like that. so accomplished, so worth it. (the hike was about 4 miles, but it was literally at a 90 degree incline).

breakfast was a fruit, greek yogurt, and granola parfait around 450 calories. after breakfast, i took stretch class instead of a lecture. my lower back hurts a bit, but it did before i got here. then i took a free weight workshop, which i regret taking because i already really know a lot of the stuff they taught us in that workshop. lunch was an avocado and chicken soup, and a green chile pizza which was awesome. then shortly after we had a calorie challenge where we had to guess how many calories were in some items on the outback steakhouse menu. following that, chef cameron gave a cooking lecture and demo... pretty cool to see how he made some of the food we ate today.

next, i took deep water suspension class which was in the pool and worked with weights and treading. i like those classes because you feel them but it's also relaxing to be in the pool. after that, i had cardio intervals with robin who was awesome and motivating the whole time. that class is pretty intense, but i think i could go harder next time. i started at a brief walk and ended up running my hardest at 6.2 for a minute but it doesn't feel as long as i thought it was. the hard part is maintaining such a quick speed for the whole ladder. at the end you go all out, and i ran 7.3 but only for 30 seconds so it really wasn't that big of a deal.

last class of the day was total toning and it was your average toning class. a step, some heavy hand weights, and a body bar with all of your classic activities -- biceps, triceps, calf exercises, lunges, etc. but it was pretty hard and my arms were definitely burning. i can't wait til i can use heavier weights.

dinner was a barbecue chicken sandwich and some broccoli and carrots. pretty good. it's way more food than i expected, and it's all excellent. i kind of feel like we eat too much. or, i eat more often here than i do at home. i think because i'm on a scheduled meal plan but i'm never hungry and i'm never stuffed so there's really nothing to complain about at all.

lastly, we had part 2 of 3 of a nutrition lecture. emily is the nutritionist that gave the lecture, and although i really do know most of what i'm hearing, it's good to hear it again. you can never hear that too many times. she had us look at a fiber one bar, and read the ingredients. her advice was, if you can't grow it-- don't eat it. "when's the last time you grew shellac?" she said. i laughed but i don't think anyone else thought it was funny because they were too preoccupied with how sad they are they can't have fiber one bars anymore. i'm not. i like this all natural thing everyone is on. it makes sense. so, this lecture inspired me to start a food revolution at oswego, which is apparently possible online.

that's what i'm going to do now, try and start a petition. i refuse to waste my parents money and let myself get any heavier than the weight i weighed in at on sunday. oswego's gonna have to come along for the ride. i'm emotional.

i must go, trueblood calls. (sorry these are still so long, but read them. maybe they'll inspire you. maybe they won't. but it'll be a good support for me while i'm here, and that's definitely what i need to drown out any negative thoughts that may come my way!)