Honestly

So I started at Gold's Gym because we had a huge snowstorm Tuesday and that was supposed to be my first day of training. Since MN weather is so unpredictable I decided to join the gym. Thursday I walked my first 3 miles. No problem. Not very sore. Made the mistake of getting bored around 1.5-2 miles and started doing lunges on the treadmill. My hip was a little sore from that. Then today I ended up getting off work early and I had an appointment for a personal training session (you get 2 when you sign up).

Since I was early for the personal training session (by an hour) I decided to catch up on my walking since I missed out Tuesday. So I walked for 50 min while watching NCIS. Yes, you have your own personal tv attached to the treadmill that gets many cable stations and you just plug in your own headphones. So after doing this walk I met with the trainer.

Every person I have talked to has asked me many times what my reasons for joining the gym were. I told them that I need to train for the 3-Day. So the trainer asks me this again, I tell him the same thing. Then he asks me how much weight I'm wanting to lose. I said I'm not really here for losing weight, I'm here to gain endurance so I can walk 60 miles in 3 days. I know by doing this I will most likely lose weight at the same time, but this is not my goal.
So he suggests 40 lbs by August 21st. I told him if I did that I would still be 80+ lbs overweight. He proceeded to weigh me and then he did a fat analysis. I have never had one of these done. It was interesting to know that even if I lost the weight on my body that is fat I would still weigh 155 from my muscle. I think I'm okay with that, plus some.

We did a quick cardio routine. I was more tired from that 20 min than I was from walking for an hour. Then we went back to his office for the sales pitch. He told me about the fitness plans that the club offered. Meal plans, dietary aids and supplements, personal training...all sounding great, but who can afford it! If you're going to offer something like this and I just told you that the dues alone for your gym were too high compared to other gyms, why would I spend tons of money for you to tell me what to eat and what vitamins to take. No thanks, I'll look it up on the internet.

To answer your question of why am I going to this gym when there are others that are less expensive:
1. location-it is between home and work
2. the manager actually gave me a deal when she found out I was joining to train for the 3-day.
3. sorry, but the personal TV is really cool :)

BOW

Day 1: Traveling day

I got off work early-they closed the office due to the storm. It took me an hour to drive to my mom's; then another hour and 15 min to drive to Oakdale to pick up Margaret. We left the cities at 4:45. Through blinding snow, semi trucks that HAD to pass us even though you couldn't see the other lane, and once in a while Margaret would yell, "We're gonna die!" or my mom's version "woohoo"; we all made it to Rhinelander in one piece and it only took 5 1/2 hours. We hit the hot tub and chatted a bit before going to bed around 12:30am.

Day 2: Off to BOW

Left Rhinelander around 9:20. We stopped in Marquette at Gander Mountain for gear. They had some great sales - $10 pants and $20 jackets. I scored both, plus some socks that are advertised for hunters. We arrived at Bay Cliff Health Camp around 4:30. Registration went until 5 and dinner was at 5:30. One thing about the meals here - they feed you very well.

Day 3: Eating, Classes, Eating, Classes, Eating

Breakfast was at 8. First class for me was Reading Winter Woods. It should have been /Beginner Snowshoes also. My mom took the Beginner Snowshoe class with Margaret. Snowshoeing is really hard and you burn tons of calories. We didn't get to track much because of the storm that came through covered most of everything. Each class was 3 hours long and then we ate again. Second class was GPS. Had this one with my mom. I have never used a GPS before but there were only 4 buttons on the thing and one of them was the power button. It was really easy to use and I ended up finding our geocash (chocolate) and then helped the other team find theirs. Then we had dinner - lasagna! I was so tired after all day of being outside that I just went back to the room and took a shower and then we just gabbed for the rest of the night.

Day 4: Dog Sledding and trip home
Breakfast was at 8 again. Last class for me and my mom was dog sledding. I knew I was going to enjoy it, but I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did. It was awesome!! It was such a thrill. I helped harness and hook up the dogs. The dogs are so strong that when you transport them from the truck to the sled you have to lift them by the collar so their front two feet are off the ground and even then they were pulling me, with only their back legs! Then I went on two runs - I did the steering, and called out the commands! The instructor sat in the sled (they call that person the biscuit). Then we helped put the dogs back in the truck kennels. They were a lot lighter than I thought. I watched Terri (instructor) lift a couple-she just grabbed the top of the collar, then put her arm under the groin area and heaved them right in. When the dogs saw the opening to the kennel, they did the rest.

The trip home was not as stressful. The weather was great. Margaret had to stay behind because she was flying out to DC for work. My mom and I did okay on the way home. Not too many arguments. We had fun going 25 through some of the towns (because that was the speed limit-not by choice). We did our best parade wave as we passed through.

Next BOW is June 5-7. I've requested it off-not guaranteed it will be approved, but it's early. I believe they have many of the same classes, plus kayaking, fly fishing, and gun shooting. Maybe you would like to join us next time! Let me know so we can get a room together!

In The Motherhood...again.

Refering back to a post almost when I started blogging. I wrote about a show that I was watching little 30 second clips of online. The was called In the Motherhood. Well, while I've been watching Grey's they have been showing a preview for a new tv series starting March 26 called In the Motherhood. I can't wait to watch this. The online snippets were hilarious! The SAHM group out there will have to watch, Tivo, or DVR this show.

Beans?

I am not a person that drinks coffee from a coffee house too often. I went to Caribou this morning, people lined up behind me, I realized we didn't have coffee at the office either. I grabbed a bag from the shelf. When I got up to order I gave her my order and then put the bag up on the counter. She said, "would you like the beans ground?" I said, "What beans?"

She looked at me and giggled.

First Meeting

I went to a Get Started meeting tonight. It was more geared toward signing people up. there were only a few that were already registered. I learned a lot out of it. The two hardest things about this walk in August are the training and the fund raising. They showed us what a "schedule" looks like for day one. You walk 2-3 miles and have a break. Some breaks are longer like lunch, but you aren't walking 20 straight miles in one day, there are breaks and lots of them. If I keep up on the training, which the major training (3 miles all the way up to 18 miles a day) starts in a few weeks, I should not have a problem.

I'm sorry to those that have already received an email from me about the 3-day. I will most likely be sending out another one with updates on my progress. Feel free to pass along my information for donations - I need all the help I can get spreading the word. The more people that know about it, the better my chances of making or going beyond my goal.

I know times are tough right now. Every little bit can help. They even have a payment plan where you can spread out your payments up to 4 months. Can't give as much as you would like all in one lump sum? Can you give $20 for the next 3 months? Giving that much each month adds up to $80 towards my goal and the end of breast cancer. Please help if you can.

Thank you!

Buffalo Wild Wings

I lost my camera for a while so these photos and this post are actually old. When the Youngman's were in town we got together with the Desvousges' at Buffalo Wild Wings.




Erin fed Shirley a lemon - loved the face!










Gracie wore a Buffalo Princess hat.

Carpool Lane

I have a ramp that has a car pool lane without the lights that stop you on my way home. When the lighted lanes get filled up, people that are not car pooling take the other lane. In the last two weeks the cops have had 3 squad cars posted and one person standing outside waving people over. BUSTED! I laugh so hard.