Cactus Dreams and Fitness Ridge
© 2009 Katya Horner
So, I’ve been away from my camera most of the past week. What on earth, you might ask, would keep me from my favorite partner in crime, my Canon 5D Mark II? Well, fitness, if you could believe it. Fitness Ridge, more precisely.
After a few years of weight gain and altogether unhealthy living, I decided to turn it around in one fell swoop. Four weeks of butt-kicking, boot camp style! (I have to do the obligatory disclaimer here that fitness isn’t a four-week thing, but rather a life-long process. As a formerly very fit person, this is something I understand first hand.)
As I start my second week here at Fitness Ridge, I can tell you this, this place is all about challenging and exceeding the limitations that we set for ourselves. When I first arrived here, I thought that I’d never be able to do the 6-8 hours of hard-core exercise scheduled each day. I thought that I’d be lucky to get through the first hike, the first day. What I learned is that I could do so much more than I ever imagined. At one point, the revelation even had me in tears — happy tears — tears of accomplishment. It’s not about what you weigh when you arrive (all shapes and sizes here), it’s about pushing yourself through the boundaries that you have naively set for yourself.
I have a 4.5 mile, timed, uphill hike tomorrow at 6:30, and it’s almost 11 PM, so I’ll leave more detail about Fitness Ridge for tomorrow or the next day, but before I sign off, just a few statistics from week one:
- I burned over 4000 calories each day.
- I lost 4.5% of my body fat in one week.
- I lost 3.5 pounds in one week.
- I drastically improved my average heart rate on our baseline hike — the “stop sign” — dropping it by 32 beats per minute.
- I ate 1200 calories a day, very filling calories that left me feeling full.
I’ll be blogging a bit more regularly for the next few weeks because I really want to let all of you know that no matter your age, your weight, your workload, or your current fitness level, you can change course, you can right that unfit “ship,” and you can break through the barriers that have been vexing you for far too long.
Oh…and yes, I’ll be taking my camera out this week to make sure I give you a taste of the gorgeous southwestern scenery that serves as a backdrop to this wonderful experience. The photo posted above, cactus dreams, was taken from the Fitness Ridge property.
