Friday, March 8th

The first week of classes is over already!  Can you believe it?  I can't.

Today there wasn't a morning fitness class, so I got to sleep in a little longer and then go to breakfast.  After I ate I went to a Strength Training class and possibly worked every muscle in my body...it was very effective.

After the workout, I decided to head to my room for a little break as there wasn't a lecture/class to take.  I have decided to practice meditation while I am here as I have never really done it before and I know how beneficial it can be for relieving stress.  So in experimenting with meditation in classes this week, I have decided that I have a hard time meditating when I can hear any outside noises.  So I downloaded a sound machine app on my iPhone and put on my noise cancelling head phones and meditated for 15 minutes.  I actually quite enjoyed it and will keep practicing it until I am able to stop my mind from wandering...which I know takes lots of practice.  After my meditation, I took a little nap until lunch time.  :0)

Today we had pizza for lunch and it was very good.  They made the whole wheat crust from scratch and I hope to recreate it at home.  After lunch I went to a class about food cravings.  It was pretty interesting.  There was a lot of discussion about chemical reactions that occur in our bodies and how we can work with them and around them.  Basically, my biggest trigger isn't chemical.  I tend to crave chocolate chip cookies after lunch and we determined that this is because I tend to pick 'healthy' lunches that I actually find extremely boring.  So to then satisfy myself, I look for cookies to fill in the blank.  So I will plan to make my lunches more exciting and perhaps incorporate a small cookie so I don't feel deprived.

I then went to a Cardio Circuit Blast fitness class.  It was great and difficult.  Did you know you can bounce on a fitball and get a good workout?  I didn't!  It was actually quite fun.  It was one of the stations in the circuit class.  There will be a whole class on Cardio Fitball next week that I am going to try.  I've been told it's a good tool to have when you live in a small space like Joe and I do.  Another was the hula hoop that I have never been able to do and guess what? still can't!  I think I got a better workout than everyone else because I had to bend down and pick up the darn hoop every 5 seconds.  Oh well, I would like to get it one day, so I will try again later.

After our snack I went to a film and discussion "Stress the Silent Killer".  It was a National Geographic documentary that was a little scary to watch, but fascinating.  Again, it opened my mind about learning how to better manage my stress.  Luckily, I won't be going back to stressful Tut-land when I finish here.

Dinner was a chicken breast, mashed sweet potatoes, and veggies.  And the best part was dessert....real Vermont Ice Cream!!  I had chocolate and it was amazing.  They really know how to do their dairy here in Vermont.  Finally, after dinner a few of us went to a Paint Your Own Pottery place.  I painted a mug so I can put my little papers that I made last night in it.  I will put the mug in my kitchen and when I go in there when I am bored, I can pull out a slip of paper and find something else to do other than eat, like I typically do.

And that's about all for today!