Thursday, March 14th

I woke up feeling better today, thankfully.  I had a little headache and some cramps, but Advil seemed to knock them out this morning in time for Morning Momentum at 7:00 AM.  Waking up early for the morning workout classes isn't fun at all.  I can assure you that I will not continue the practice when I get to Denver.  I will, however, sleep until 10AM and then do the Morning Momentum DVD that I plan to buy in the gift shop here.  Because as LynnAnn said, "Stop forcing yourself to work out in the morning if you are not a morning person!"  I only do it here to get the full benefit of Green Mountain while I can.  I just hope I don't start waking up at 4:30AM in Denver because I have gotten used to getting up at 6:30AM in Vermont...

After breakfast, I attended an assertiveness skills class where we discussed what it means to be assertive, passive, aggressive, and passive aggressive.  The Foundations of Assertiveness Skills are the following: 1. Think About Yourself in a Positive Way; 2. Accept Compliments without Discounting Them; 3. Say No; 4. Ask for What You Want.  For that last one, she had us think about 2-3 things that matter most to us and to use that as a guideline if we can't remember what we want if we are put on the spot (i.e. someone is asking you to do something that you can't or don't want to do).  The things that matter most to be in life are: 1. Joe; 2. My relationships with my family and friends; 3. My health.  I hope my month here will help me to focus more on my health so I can be around a long time for the first two categories.

I then went to an Aerobic Circuit Blast class that was pretty much the same as the class I took last week.  It was so much fun and such a workout.  I need to write down the circuits so I can do them at home...(apple pickers, ball throw w/ squat, steps, front leg kicks, farmer's walk, forward toe tap step, jabs with band, balancing/squats, upper cut pulses, bicep curls w/ squats and band, jacks on fitball).  Okay. Done.

Lunch today was a Waldorf salad with grilled chicken and steak fries.  The fries were the best, of course.  Then I attended a Celebrate Your Body class and it was not really what I expected.  There wasn't any shouting, "I love my body!" kind of craziness.  It was more about meditating on different parts of my body and then listing what we appreciated about that part.  (i.e. I appreciate my thighs because they allow me to make powerful moves, like squats in fitness classes)  We also talked about negative self talk (which we discuss a lot here because most of us are plagued by this).  Things we need to remember are: 1. Comparison is the opposite of compassion. 2. Connect with your senses to pull yourself out of negative talk. 3. Reframing is when you move focus from what your body is to what it can do. 4. Change how you see; not how you look. 5. I decide when I am enough. 6. Attention is the most basic level of love.

Then I attended a fitness class that was called Power Ball.  It was not a fun class where we got to gamble as I had hoped.  Instead, it was a mix of cardio and strength training on and off the fitball and it was quite enjoyable.  It was set up very similar to a circuit class, which as you know, I love.  LynnAnn will be printing the exercise out for us tomorrow so we can take it home.

I decided to skip the last afternoon classes as I didn't think they really applied to me and so I showered and read, which was quite nice.  Dinner was salmon again, so I got chicken, with veggie wild rice and asparagus.  Dessert was strawberries and peaches.  Someone needs to explain to them that heating up some fruit does not a dessert make.  (Bring back the chocolate zucchini cake!)

After dinner we had a cooking demonstration class with the chefs and Robyn.  The topic was about fitting healthier foods into our diets or into our favorite food items, such as zucchini in your chocolate cake!  It was a nice class and I will post a picture next of the demonstration table with the chefs, Mike and Dave.