Desert Cliffs Day Three

Hiking is my favorite choice of workout.  So, it's always a good workout day when I get to lead a hike.  Morning three found the Desert Cliffs hikers on Montazuma for a short hike.  We alternate days of long and short hiking.  A short hike is usually less than 3 hours and a long hike can be 5 hours or more.  As a special treat to our guests, we make the trip to Zion once a week.  Most places will charge extra to go there but because hiking is our main focus for exercise, it's only fitting that we provide the icing on the cake, so-to-speak, by rewarding our clients with a trip to this National Park toward the end of each week.  One of my favorite times at Desert Cliffs is Extreme Hiking Week.  We offer these opportunities several times a year for those who want to come and literally hike all day. We have Extreme Hiking in March.

Montazuma is unique for it's cache of Barrel Cactus and conglomerate rock, not found in as great abundance on any other hike we offer as here. It's also not unusual to see a fox or two. The entrance to this particular range of buttes and ravines is just outside my neighborhood. It's convenient and allows us to spend less time traveling to our destination and more time to explore.  Because our client Mike, was energetic, we added a couple of miles to our normal short route this morning.

One of the great things about the Desert Cliffs program is that it can be customized for our clients.  We can speed up, slow down, add time, add scrambling, add distance...there are so many options in hiking.  And if all else fails and we can't provide you with a hard enough work out....you run on ahead and we'll catch you!!

Barrel Cactus meets my foot.

Mike leaves a rock...and a worry on the cairn.

Take care to mind the cliff behind the cairn, but the views are beautiful.

By lunch time, I was pretty hungry.  On today's schedule...build your own lunch.  Our chef, Kim, came to the spa house to demonstrate some ideas of making a healthy 400 calorie lunch.  We learned the difference between enriched, whole wheat and whole grain pasta.  She also taught us a few tricks on making portions appear larger.  We created a 'leftover' lunch.  Using things found in the fridge, we layered cut veggies, al dente pasta and Kim's homemade sauce into small baking dishes, being careful to measure our portions.  We then baked our little personal pasta bowls for about 20 minutes.  These were served with a slice of wheat toast, seasoned just right.  Eating healthy is so much easier when you plan ahead and learn some tricks and secrets.

Dinner was the perfect end to this day.  So satisfying.  Homemade chili, topped with veggies and cheese and a baked potato smothered in broccoli and cheese.  And then as if it couldn't get much better...a peanut butter cookie for desert.  Hard to believe the whole meal was around 500 calories.

One thing I've also noticed this week is that I'm paying closer attention to my water intake.  Water is necessary and even more so for weight loss. Afternoon hunger can be abated with a piece of fruit and a tall glass of water.  So drink up my friends!

Hump day is just another great day at Desert Cliffs!!!