Unite Fitness Retreat-- Day 2

It was a full and HARD day starting with our health assessments at 6:30 this morning! We had a quick orientation and then walked up to the gym and had breakfast there. Matt, one of the trainers took all the new people and worked with us on basic stretches, push ups, squats burpees, etc. I thought I was going to die-- and Bill was struggling also! I really like Matt though. He's very attentive and corrects your form, which I like. He's always there, even though today there were 5 other new people he was teaching. He's very patient, as well. He's a great trainer. He took assessments of all the new people on our flexibility-- which is a weakness for me. Then we worked on treadmills and bikes for our cardio-- that felt good and is where my strength is! After snack we had another fitness assessment where they measured how long we could do a wall sit, a plank, etc. Bootcamp-- which is ALWAYS an activity that really pushes you, is hard and takes both strength and endurance. It was a 12 minute workout in stations. Lunch was back at the Unite room at the hotel where a chef prepared our meal. We eat all together in this room and meet there each morning for our shakes before we workout. After lunch we went on an awesome hike in an area called Mueller Park. We got back around 3:00 and had a break until 4:30 which was our mobility class. Another trainer, Brad, taught foam rolling. It felt really good on our already REALLY SORE muscles!! We had a short break until dinner at 6, and it tasted so good-- again, cooked by amazing chefs! My favorite chef here is Yvonne! She is such a cute lady with such a fun giggle and I LOVE how she seasons her food! It tastes SO GOOD! Last night when I ate dinner, I was worried I'd starve here, but with all the nutritious foods throughout the day, I hardly feel hungry at all-- in fact I'm satisfied throughout the day but READY to eat when it's time and it is always so good! Tonight Bill and I were EXHAUSTED! They pushed is hard and we are very tired and sore. Went to bed EARLY!

I want to explain more about our health and weight assessments on this really cool machine (InBody) that measures EVERYTHING about your health… % body fat, water weight and so many more things! So for our general schedule every day we had amazing meals that were geared toward your body size and health needs. The chefs were so amazing, but I had a favorite one named Yvonne. She was this cute older lady who was so fun and explained things so well. Her food was the best because I loved how she seasoned everything. It just TASTED so GOOD!! We also had 2/200 calorie snacks every day at 10:30 and again at 3/3:30—this is to avoid getting hungry and to keep your metabolism burning throughout the day. (So 100 calories of nuts with a fruit or a thing of string cheese with a fruit, etc.) Every day we had a bootcamp with different exercises at about 8 or so stations that you had to do in a certain amount of time with a certain amount of reps (or as many reps as you could get during that time frame). These were SO HARD!! After the exercise portion was over—usually after the hike, which was around 3:30, we had a break until 4:30 when we went to our mobility classes. Those went until 5:15 and we had a break until dinner time which was always at 6pm. After dinner, the evening was free. Breakfast was always at 8am and we ate it at the gym and Lunch was always at 12 noon, which we usually ate at the Unite room back at the hotel. Dinner was always at the Unite room at the hotel. We went out to eat a couple of times at “clean” restaurants—basically super healthy restaurants. They were REALLY good too! Every morning after our protein shake at 6am, we’d walk to the gym over by Temple Square in the City Creek Mall. It was about a 15 min walk about a mile and away from the hotel—so every chance you had during the entire day, they had us exercising in some way! We spent most of the day at that gym, but would do other things some days, like going to boxing. Full on exercising started by about 7am every day!!