Desert Cliffs Day Two

Day Two of my week with Desert Cliffs began with my usual 230 calorie bowl of oatmeal.

Then I was off to the Summit Gym, where clients take a variety of classes and have a wide range of workouts before and after hikes.

Summit Gym in St. George.

The first class I took was Body Balance.  Don't let the name fool you. Karen taught full blast cardio and body sculpt for an hour.  Be there at 8:00 AM on the dot with your mats, ball, weights, thera-band and any other devices of torture she requires.  This lady is a power house and she is prompt!  After burning 500-600 calories there I was already pretty tired but decided to stay for Mat Pilates taught by Lorri.  For an hour, she twists and burns every muscle from your head to toes.  She is an inspiration.  If anyone can whip my posture into shape, it's her.

By this time, I was pretty hungry so I stopped by the spa to pick up my lunch.  One of my favorites!  The turkey and cranberry wrap sandwich with a huge bag of veggies and an applesauce.  I savored every well deserved bite!  And my applesauce came in handy later in the afternoon when I was craving a little sweetness.

For dinner we had delicious halibut with a raspberry sauce and green beans.  I especially enjoyed my hearty whole wheat roll with seeds and grains.  Bread!  Who knew you could have bread?  With Kim, Apryll and Lynette cooking your food, they know all the secrets of low-cal scrumptious dishes and treats.

And then....I had one giant, perfect, juicy chocolate dipped strawberry for dessert.  Oh for the love of chocolate.  And once again...everything was 1,200 calories.  Amazing.

Day two...done!  Feeling great!!

Desert Cliffs Day One

My part-time and absolutely favorite job is as a hiking guide for Desert Cliffs Fitness Spa.

I get paid to hike and meet new people all the time.  What could be better?

Desert Cliffs offers a program of fitness and food.  You check in.  You're weighed and measured.  You hike and work out every day for the duration of your stay.  You eat 1,200 calories of fabulous food...made for you every day.  And when you check out, you are weighed and measured again to assess your results.

Clients are always raving about the food.  No one ever goes hungry. Unbelievably, but true.  I've been lucky to have had a few of their lunches, on the rocks, during a hike.  I could get used to living that way!

I decided I wanted to try the food program for a week for myself.  I wanted to eat what our clients eat.  I wanted to try taking some of their gym classes and I wanted to see what results I could achieve from doing these things.

Yesterday was Day One.

I started my day with a 230 calorie breakfast at home of oatmeal with goji berries and almond milk.  I then led the hike with our client for a couple of hours.
We spent some time in the Santa Clara River Reserve amongst the dino-rocks and petroglyphs.

I returned back to the spa for lunch.  Decadent, Cream of Broccoli Soup and warm Cheese and Tomato Panini with 4 slices of watermelon.  What a treat for lunch!  The portion sizes were generous and because our chef is brilliant, you'd never know the dishes were low in calories.  400 calories total and plenty of energy to get me to dinner.

Dinner was a turkey and rice stuffed yellow bell pepper with seasoned tender cauliflower on the salad.  Add a generous salad with peppers, grapes and sunflower seeds and you have a huge plate of food!  I didn't think I'd get through it...but I did!  And then dessert...a strawberry shortcake...complete with the most scrumptious cake and whipped topping.  The whole meal including dessert was 500 calories.

I stayed full until I went to bed...and not the obnoxious, sick kind of full either.  Truly a great day!

I feel great!  I can see why the clients of Desert Cliffs love this program so much!

www.desertcliffs.com
And the blog: www.desertcliffs.blogspot.com

My mouth is watering thinking about dinner tonight!

You must love me

I've spent a large portion of my life trying hard to please everyone and have them like me.

True.  There are few people who's opinions don't matter to me.  But for the other majority of folks...I care.

I've tried to overcome this insecurity my whole life.  Every time I hear the song, "You Must Love Me", I think of how hard I've tried to accomplish and force this kind of love for me.

One aspect of my life, the most important, and the one that I'm most sensitive about is my religion.

The older I get, the less concerned I've been about other's opinions regarding my religion.

But this week, that changed.

I saw, read and felt more hatred for those of my religion than I ever thought possible.  I have been completely naive to how despised "Mormons" are.  I have felt the deepest, most evil forms of racism I ever thought possible.

I'm not going to lie.  For a couple of dark hours I allowed this hatred to bring me down.  I wallowed.  I languished.  But...you must love me.

I've never hated anyone for the church they attend.  I've never expected, demanded or oppressed everyone I know to embrace my beliefs.  I believe in the creed, "Agree to disagree." I have friends from many religious backgrounds and have enjoyed wonderful relationships, conversations and ideas with them.  The thought that someone would hate me for the way I worship, at the level I experienced the other night, never occurred to me.

You must love me?

No.  Because your opinion doesn't matter.  Only His opinion matters.

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:  and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:  yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:  the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:3-5

My religion is not the mistakes of men, of human error.  People aren't perfect, my Savior is. My religion is the worship of the true and living Christ and my faith in Him.

And as He was rejected, stricken, despised, yet he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows....for all, even those who hate Him...and me.  And through His love, I can and will be healed and will get over my expectation of everyone to love me.  I will allow the chastisement of peace and stripes placed upon Him, heal me.

I hope those hate-mongers know, that they don't even need to ask whether or not He loves them.  He loves them too.

Hotel Kanenwisher

Let's just say, I had no idea what I was getting into when we decided to move into a house that had room for guests.

The last 12 months have been spent changing bedding sometimes a couple of times a week and cleaning bathrooms in between guests, providing vacations for all those who wanted.

After a melt down last week I was prepared to walk away from Retro house and living in a shoe box. When a woman I know approached me at church on Sunday and handed me a business card of two young ladies who were started a cleaning business, I nearly fell out of my seat. There was my answer.

It took two well-trained, hardworking women 4 hours to scrub my house top to bottom today.  The entire time, they worked up a sweat and kept telling me...."We don't know how you've done it".  There is no way I can keep this entire house clean by myself... like a hotel, keep a part-time job, 3 callings, Booster Club Vice President, 3 children's schedules and lives, with a husband who is gone 75% of the month.

Do I feel guilty?  No way.  Is it going to kill my budget.  Yep.  Do I care? No. Because I was almost to a point where I was either saying no to visitors or moving out.  I'm very serious.

My next issue will be food.  Hotel food.  It's like binge and purge.  I rarely eat out and I cook very simple meals.  When guests come I usually put on 3 lbs from eating out or cooking big meals.  Then the days they are gone, I'm working like crazy to lose the weight I've gained.  Anyone got solutions for this dilemma?

Until then...look at these unique hotels.

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/07/18/12-unusual-and-creative-hotels/

Welcome to the Hotel Kanenwisher.  You can check any time you like but you can never leave.

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You can find me here.

or here:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/101254461136084651762/posts

Beware the thief...

Source: 26.media.tumblr.com via Cheryl on Pinterest

This is why I don't feel like attending the Parade of Homes tour currently going on here in Dixie.

Decor and upgrading have not been a priority since we moved here a year and a half ago.

And now, it seems like such a waste to do so.

I was the girl who always had a home project going on or at least a plan. Who once thought she found joy in doing so.

After 18 months of shaking old habits and re-channeling my thoughts, I feel like I've come to a grateful phase of my life.

There's no need to re-kindle the old fire.

There is a peace and quiet joy when you become content with what you have.

Don't get me wrong...I would replace the stained carpets and dated tiles if I could.  But it's not a priority and certainly isn't something that I should be consuming my time and thoughts with right now.

I hope to never meet the thief of 'comparison' again.

Can I Get An Amen!

You know when you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night but you don't want to turn the light on because you don't want to wake up all the way?

And when you are finished with your bathroom business you reach over in the dark and the toilet paper roll is empty?

And lucky for you, you can reach over in the dark and replace it with another roll without turning on the light?

But then you spin the roll and you can't get it open?  The adhesive is too strong or you can't find the end?

So then you beat it to death for a few panicked seconds and curse the idiot who left you in this predicament?

And then you finally catch a piece only to have it shred in layers instead of unrolling the way it should?

By this point you are already wide awake so what was the point in leaving the light off because now you're going to have to turn it on any way?

Does this happen to anyone else?

Probably not.

And it me or is anyone else out there feeling pretty darn near hopeless about the state of our country?

Amen anyone?

Probably not.

Chocolate Snowstorms

My kind of snowstorm...chocolate.

These are the best cookies I've made in years.  No kidding.

I found them on a blog...sorry I don't remember where...it was an accident. And the gal didn't invent the recipe anyway.  She found it like me.

Let me suggest that you don't even taste the dough because then you may never even bake it up.  Yep, it's that good. Secondly...these things are irresistible while warm.  Cold...the next day, they are just normal good cookie.

1 1/4 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter, room temp
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cocoa powder
3/4 tsp soda
3/4 tsp salt
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350º.
Beat sugar and butter.  Add egg and vanilla.  In a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients.  Add dry ingredients to batter and mix just until combined.  Chill dough for 30 minutes. (Seriously try to forget about it). Bake for 12-15 minutes.  (The recipe didn't say to, but I baked my cookies on parchment paper). Let cookies cool only slightly on sheet and then drop them into a bowl of powered sugar, cover them, brush off the excess and place them on a cooling rack.

Then eat them one right after the other.