Thursday?? Already??

Okay, so in some ways my body is saying, 'Thursday!! Finally!!'  but my mind is saying, 'Really? It's already Thursday?'!!  It's crazy how fast this week has gone, I can't believe it's already Thursday!!


So today's hike was to Tapia Park which is part of Malibu Creek Park. Before land for Malibu Creek State Park was acquired in 1974, it was divided into three parcels belonging to Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan, and 20th Century Fox, for which it is still a popular place for movie filming. One of our guides for this trip, Colton, was very unique. He works in rehab in Malibu (so you can imagine he knows a ton of stars) so he was very knowledgeable about the area. He pointed out the house that the Bachelor/Bachelorette is filmed in, Mel Gibson's private church, Charlie Sheen's previous house (which his neighbors ran him out of!), the bar that Bob Hope, Clint Eastwood, and Ronald Reagan used to share drinks, Sherwood Forest where the first Robin Hood with Kevin Costner was filmed, the actual Biggest Loser Ranch among other things. BUT . . he is very 'nature oriented'. He actually played his wooden flute for us on the trail and had lots of interesting information regarding the flora and fauna of the park. It made for a very interesting trip! Here are some pics . . . .




View from the top -- today started off foggy and yucky as you can tell!

We think that the area down in the valley there was a youth detention center . . . talk about isolated!!

Colton 

You can see some of the group on the trails below

A baby gopher snake.  Colton is a snake charmer in his spare time :)

By the time we returned from the hike, the sun was starting to shine and things were getting warmer. We had our first pool class of the day (which I'm learning some great exercises in the pool, especially for my abs!) and then went to a delicious lunch -- Pumpkin Soup and Hawaiian pizza -- yum!! 


We had a little bit of time in the afternoon, so I came back and took a nap  . . . .ahh!  The first afternoon class was another pool class, then we went to a ball class.  We took the large stability balls and did all kinds of upper and lower body toning exercises on them.  Then it was off to treading which was basically a cardio class where you start off high intensity for 5 minutes, then recover for 5 minutes, then high intensity for 4 minutes, recover for 4 minutes and so on.  During the one minute intensity, I chose to do 'Jacob's Ladder' which wow . . . that's a challenge.  I remembered a Biggest Loser episode where they did that for a certain amount of steps --  1 minute was rough, I can't imagine how long they had to do it!!! 


After that I had another massage -- ahhh -- and then dinner.  After dinner we had free time, which feels weird!!  I'm used to having lectures or appointments, but not tonight!  So I am able to relax a little tonight and rest my tired body :)


So, that's Thursday in a nut shell.  I think the biggest thing I'm taking away from this is that I can survive on 1200 calories and not feel hungry!!  It's amazing.  I'm excited and nervous to keep this up when I come back.  I think I'm going to try and get another freezer so I can make up a bunch of these meals and freeze them so I don't have an excuse for not pulling one out when I'm tired at night and don't want to fix dinner.  It really can work -- but I definitely have to put forth the effort!! So if you live close, I might just need people to test out these meals on -- expect an invite!!  And don't worry -- they are yummy as well as healthy!!! 


Thanks again for supporting me through this journey . . . . until tomorrow!!!