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Happy Friday everyone!  It’s Dana here – and I thought I would take a few minutes to tell you all about my most recent “vacation” – to the Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge (“BLR”)  If you haven’t heard of the resorts, there are three Biggest Loser Resorts (Utah, Malibu and a new location, Niagra) where you can go to focus on personal wellness, fitness and nutrition.  I spent two weeks at the Malibu location – and they were two of the hardest but also most rewarding weeks of my life.  I have been struggling with my weight since I had my first daughter (and gained a crazy amount of weight while pregnant) – and I’ve finally had enough.  I thought that a couple of weeks at the BLR would be a GREAT kick-start to my lifestyle change – and I was right!

The weeks at BLR begin and end on a Sunday – which are the weekly “day of rest”.  I spent the day unpacking in my room (I had a single room – it was small and pretty basic, but definitely nice enough) and looking around the resort before the welcome dinner.  At the dinner, I got to see the other 65 guests at the resort.  There were more women there then men – but the number of men was actually more than I expected.  There were all sort of people there – many who were arriving for a second (or even third trip), people who needed to lose 5 lbs and people who needed to lose 200 lbs, people from ages 18 to 70 and people of all fitness levels.  Almost everyone was incredibly nice and very supportive – the people actually made the stay at the resort even better than it would have been.   Some people were staying for one week – and the longest stay was 6 months.

The week really began on Monday AM – bright and early at 6 AM.  Each day had the same basic schedule, although in a slightly different order.  The days went something like this:

6 AM:  Stretch Class (optional)

7AM: Breakfast

8 AM: Hike (two hours long and definitely the most challenging part of my day!!)

11:15 AM: Class of your choice – Pool, Cardio, Stretch or Lecture (I went to the pool every day except for one stretch class when I was extremely sore)

12:30: Lunch

1:15:  Lecture for Week 1 guests and Free Cardio Time for Week 2 and beyond

2:30: Pool Class

3:30:  Cardio Class

4:30: Toning Class

5:30: Dinner

6:30: Lecture

7:  Free time for Spa, etc.

The days went by really quickly and I was EXHAUSTED by the end of them!  I did take advantage of the Spa though – getting a facial and two massages 🙂 I felt like I deserved it – LOL!

The trainers and hiking guides at the resort were all wonderful – tough, but not too tough (haha) and super inspiring!  The FOOD was also WONDERFUL – healthy, but delicious!  We had breakfast, lunch and dinner each day with an average calorie count of 1,200 calories/day.  There was also a daily snack you could grab to eat after the hike (100 calories of almonds or a  boiled egg) as well as fruit available all day and a salad bar available at lunch and dinner.  I at one or two extra fruits/day as well as the almonds, so my daily calories were around 1,500/day.  There were also a few optional meals available if you happened to not the meal one day.  It was REALLY easy to eat there and I was, amazingly, never hungry.

I weighed in on my final Sunday – and had lost 12 pounds 🙂  That seemed like a good and pretty ‘normal’ amount for a girl there – a lot of the guys were losing even more. I am excited to continue my journey at home – wish me luck 🙂

One other fun thing – my trip to the resort coincided with the Biggest Loser Finale – so there were a few contestants who either stayed at the resort (Laura from season 7 – she was Tara’s partner) or came by to talk to us (Jerry and Estella – also season 7).  One of our hiking guides was from season 2 (Ruben) and Ramon and Jessica from last year are trainers at Niagra.  Some of the casting directors were there too – they are casting next season in a couple of weeks and I have a VIP pass to get to the front of the line if I decide to go … hmmmmmmm ……

Well – that’s about it! Let me know if you have any specific questions – I would love to talk more about my trip!