Day 81

Today was my last day with Dani. We hid a little gift for her outside in the tires. I think she was really suprised. I hate that this is over. I will miss Dani and my group so much. Why can't we have another month?

Day 80

Today was a really busy day for me. On top of my workout, I started taking finals tonight. I think I did well but I guess I won't find out until Monday. I'm going to bed. Hopefully tomorrow is less stressful.

Day 79

I am really going to miss my morning group. I hope we will still be close after this contest is over. We plan on continuing to work out together. I really, really hope this happens. My guys are such good guys.

Day 78

The skittle cravings are back. I thought they went away but maybe I was wrong. I;m glad I don't spend a lot of time in places that you can buy skittles. I tried to find out what skittles are made of except pure sugar and I was a little supprised. Have you ever heard of shellac?

Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes, which are dissolved in denatured alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and wood finish. Shellac functions as a tough all-natural primer, sanding sealant, tannin-blocker, odor-blocker, stain, and high-gloss varnish. Shellac was once used in electrical applications as it possesses good insulation qualities and it seals out moisture. Shellac is often the only historically-appropriate finish for early 20th-century hardwood floors, and wooden wall and ceiling paneling.

From the time it replaced oil and wax finishes in the 1800s, shellac was the dominant wood finish in the western world until it was replaced by nitrocellulose lacquer in the 1920s and 1930s. It remained popular in the Southern United States through the 1950s and 1960s. It continues to be a popular candy glaze for pill shaped sweets such as Skittles. (From Wikipedia)

I don't think I want skittles anymore.

Day 77

Today is my last rest day in the contest. I think I'm going to take a long nap today.

Day 76

Today we met as a group for lazer tag and bowling. It was so much fun. We kicked the trainer's butts at lazer tag and I found out that I really suck at bowling. It didn't really matter who won or lost and I laughed so hard that it felt as though I had done 100 crunches. Today was a great day.

Day 75

Another Friday comes and goes. This morning's workout was good. I still don't have as much energy as I would like but at least I'm not getting sick. It feels like I am actually starting to make progress and now the program is almost over. Its really funny in a way. I still have a long way to go but this has really helped to start me on the right path. If nothing else, I look at food diferently now. I keep snacks that are good for me and pass up fast food altogether. Its amazing to me that I've changed so much in just a couple of months. I can't wait to see what happens in the future.

Day 74

I really do think Dani could run a torture facility. She's all smiles and seems nice on the surface but really knows how to stick it to you. Maybe I should call the CIA to see if they would recruit her. I bet they would once they hear all of her qualifications. Maybe they could snatch her up before next Tuesday.

Day 73

Today was a strange day. I felt really weak this morning but was able to finish my workout. This afternoon it seemed to get worse. I do not have time to get sick right now. I'll get sick after the contest is over. How much vitamin C is one person allowed to take durning the span of 1 day? The bottle says 2 tablets. I'm going to take 4 just to be on the safe side. I also bought sugar free so that it doesn't mess with my diet plan. Its chewable and tastes great. I wonder what they replaced the sugar with.

Day 72

I am exhausted today. I don't even have the energy to type. I think Dani may have a future in torture.

Day 71

I can't believe the contest is almost over. We only have 2 weeks left. I really need to push myself to get everything out of this that I can. This means I'm going to have to spend more time in the gym.

Day 70

Today was another couch potato day. Well, it would have been a couch potato day if I didn't have 5 hours of errands to run.

Day 69

Today was brutal. Ben lead our cardio group activity and he is rough. I'm not going to call Scott the torture king anymore. I'm not sure I would have made it this far of Ben was my trainer.

Day 68

Today was a pretty good day. I finished the workout with extra energy and spent the day getting things done in my office. I wish each day would go as smoothly as this one did.

Day 67

Dani was back this morning and I'm really happy about that. I'm not sure I could go through another morning like Tuesday. Don't get me wrong, Dani pushes us incredibly hard. I don't think there is a single spot on me that isn't soaking with sweat once we are finished working out with her. Its just easier focus on the workout that someone else gives you than to come up with one on your own.

Day 66

Today was a little rough. I really didn't want to go to the gym at all. Sometimes I wonder if its all a mental thing. Once I get there, I don't have a problem. Its just the getting out of bed and driving to the gym part that seems to get harder each day.

Day 65

Today was a strange work out day. Dani was out sick so we were left without a trainer to guide us down the path of torture. You would think it would be an easy morning, right? You would be wrong. I'm going to go out on a limb here and speak for the whole group when I say we pushed ourselves harder this morning than we do on most mornings. Dani left instructions at the front desk. We were to do 30 minutes of cardio upstairs on the machines and then another 20 minutes downstairs. I started off on the treadmill on some crazy uphill course. I meant to choose the program with 3 hills but have no idea what I ended up with. There were hills but they were different sizes and I was on them for different lengths of time. Anyways, that is beside my point. What I really want to get to is the part where I was jogging. Ok, so it was only for 30 second intervals but it was a jog none the less. If anyone had told me back in February that I would be able to jog on a treadmill, I would have laughed right in their face. Yet this morning, I found myself doing just that. BUT the fun didn't stop there. After our upstairs time, we headed down to complete a couple of circuits. Once again, you would think that we would go easy on ourselves. And once again, you would be wrong. For the first round, we picked stairs, the ropes and step ups. Oh yes, I said we PICKED these. I have no idea what is wrong with us. And if that was not enough, we chose planks, leg lifts and wall squats for the second round. We all pushed ourselves to the very end. Most mornings it is great to have a trainer but I noticed this morning that when I do, I just tend to do what they ask and not much more. When I have to workout without someone watching, it is easier to push myself. I think deep down, I am a still a little afraid of embarrassing myself in front of the trainers. As much as I love Dani, I hope we get to workout alone again.

Day 64

Today was a rough day for exercising. After two days of not working out, I feel like I've set myself back a couple of weeks. I wish I had more time in the day. If I did, I think I could get everything I needed to done and still have time to work out. I've also changed my most hated exercise from the stairs to the gliders. They don't seem bad when you look at them, but for some reason, they always make me feel sick. I think its the fact that my head is closer to the ground. Hopefully, Scott will not read this. For some reason, he likes to make me do the things I hate every single day. (By things I hate, I'm really still complaining about the stairs.)

Day 63

I didn't work out again today. Well, at least not at the gym. I continued to work on projects around the house but still haven't finished them all. I also managed to fit in an impromptu and unexpected ab workout due to my cheat day. Oh yes, I made myself sick again. When am I going to learn? I have not had "bad" foods in 63 days but still feel like I should be able to eat them once a week. This week, I tried the new Domino's pizza. That's right. The commercials finally got to me and I had to try the new formula they are so proud of. I do have to say it was fantastic. I'm not sure if this is because I haven't had pizza in so long or if they really have tweaked the recepie that much. Either way, sick or not, I'm routing for Dominos.

Day 62

Today was another weigh in day and I'm glad to say that I'm losing inches again. We haven't video taped in a couple of weeks but if you could see my clothes, you would also notice a little difference. As far as the workout went, Scott pushed me just like always. I've lost a total of 28 lbs so far and at one point, Scott made me work out with 30lbs of weight. It was almost the same amount of weight that I lost and I have no idea where it was on my body. I do know that it was heavy and I never want to gain that back.

Day 61

This morning started off well but quickly went down hill. I can't seem to keep my heart rate within the acceptable range. I want to push myself in order to get the most effective workout but there is such a thin line between maximum heart rate and borrowing the upstairs trash can again. I really hope that I can get this to stop. I want to go back to the days where I could push and push and push some more. I wish my mind would cooperate with my body.

Day 60

Cardio time! I can't remember what we did this morning but I do remember that it wasn't easy. What is wrong with me? It hasn't even been 24 hours and I can't remember? I need a vacation or at least some sleep. Maybe I will be able to catch up on my sleep this weekend.

Day 59

I think Scott is a mind reader. We spent the last 10 minutes stretching and he said I needed to practice more at home as well. I didn't even get a chance to ask him about it before he said something. Maybe he has secret cameras in my home or my phones tapped. I'm just kidding. I'm pretty sure he is psychic.

Day 58

I overheated again this morning and ended up missing at least 5 minutes of the work out. I feel awful about it. I know that everyone is super supportive but I know it must be annoying for them. I need something that will keep my heart rate down and also keep me from overheating. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Its easier when we work on the machines and I especially like it when we practice yoga/streaching. This is something I still really need to work on. I am so unflexible. I am really going to focus on my streching because I have to get better at this. I think I will ask Scott for some pointers tomorrow.

Day 57

Yippee!!! Back at the gym sweating out gallons of water in just an hour!!! Why did I miss this? What has Scott done to me? Is it some sort of mind game? If so, its trainers, 1 and Tori, 0. We jumped right back into the program this morning. Stairs, stairs, more stairs as well as lots of machines. I think Scott is increasing the weight without me noticing. I really should start paying more attention to what he is making me do. The problem is that I am completely worn out by the end of the workout and everything seems to fly out of my head.

Day 56

Happy Easter!!! Today has been a fun filled day of Easter egg hunting with my nephew who is only 1 and does not understand the concept of putting the Easter eggs in the basket and spending time with my family. It also came with lots of yummy food. Surprisingly, a lot of it was acceptable for my program. (Some of it wasn't, including the stuffing and gravy, but what are cheat days for, right?) I didn't get to work out today. I wanted to but just didn't make it back to town in time. I am going to have to work out double next week to make up for today. For some reason, I'm looking forward to it.

Day 55

I'm a little upset with my father and my sister today. I'm back home for Easter and have been looking for a way to get into the gym. Both my father and my sister have gym memberships and could easily bring me with them for $5. However, each of them seem to have other more important things to do. I'm not really happy about this but I cannot force them to work out as well. OR CAN I?

Day 54

I'm back on my schedule this morning. It was really hard working out after a day off. I hope this will get easier after a few days back on track. I know it can't get much harder. I also know I like the bungee cords.

Day 53

I'm back in Houston for an MLO license refresher class today. I will be back tomorrow on my regular schedule. Is it wrong to say I miss the gym?