Kari and I finally arrived at the spa. We met too early for both of us in the Vegas airport and then had time to kill so we hung around a coffee shop until it was time to get on the shuttle to St. George. There were 5/6 of us headed to the spa, one guy with terrible B.O. and another couple of elderly women just coming to visit in St. George. Fortunately, Kari and I were sitting in the way back and the BO guy was sitting in the front seat, but in the beginning I kept surreptitiously smelling my armpits, thinking it was me. I was so nervous about this place that it could easily have been.
And it turns out I wasn't the only one. First Kari kept saying "What have we gotten ourselves into?" but after we started chatting with the other women headed to the spa, we all felt the same. We finally got here after a very smelly 1.5 hour ride. Very deserty and mountainy and the spa is in the middle of nowhere. Or at least it's hard to sneak into town for a Starbucks or a milkshake, all of which is sounding good right now.
We signed up for our extras, Swedish massage for both of us, reflexology and acupuncture for me (I was going to do an acupuncture "tummy tuck" -- who knew they could do that? but turned out they recommend 3 sessions so i decided to start with one general wellness in case I can't stand it), a facial and a l0mi lomi massage for Kari. Lomi lomi is a Hawaiin massage where they rub you down with oil from the tips of your toes to the ends of your hair. I think it just sounds messy.
With that done, we then got ourselves weighed and measured and got our fat percentage counted. Very depressing to say the least though I will feel a lot better at the end of the week if the numbers go down. That part wiped me out so we came back to the room and I took a nap.
Then we went into dinner. The staff serve you, which is nice, and there's a board that details the calories in each item on the menu. There's a great salad bar, but really that's for those who are feeling like they're not getting enough food and it takes you over the 1200 calorie a day food plan. Our main dish was penne pasta with a meat sauce that was very good and a chocolate pudding dessert that was all right. I ate the pudding part and left the crust. And water. As they warned me, no caffeine drinks and obviously no alcohol. There's always fruit available if you really need something else. Two fruits a day are included, anything over that takes you over your limit.
Orientation next, then discussion about the Battle of the Bulge, where teams compete in various activities for prizes. We find out our teams tomorrow after our first hike.
Speaking of which, the hikes daily are at 6:15 am, for approximately 3 hours. Then breakfast, then a lecture, then open gym, required but I'm not sure what it is yet, then a choice of the pool, stretching or mountain (not sure about what that is except that I don't think that's going to be my choice. Then lunch and then we do a workshop and pick up our schedules for the rest of the week.
I'm still not thinking this is going to be fun and can't wait for tomorrow to be over. It's 8:15 pm and Kari is already asleep. I just took a pill and will join her soon. Staying awake just means I'm thinking about what we're going to go through and I don't think I want to think about it anymore.
