January 19, 2008 Canyon Ranch Day 4

Did I mention that I’m never leaving this place? Yes, wishful thinking I know, but if only it could be true! Alas, tomorrow afternoon I head for home. Why is it that when I have to get up early at home it’s a chore, but when I have to get up early here it’s no problem??? I was up before my 7:15 alarm, and quickly out the door for a 7:45 breakfast seminar on Ultraprevention. It’s all about TRUE disease prevention, not just the early detection that most doctors cal “prevention”. It was really interesting—I have to get the book. Turns out that genetics is a factor, but environment is more. A lot of what we consider “genetics” is really the familial environment—eating habits, unhealthy behavior, etc. BUT the mitochondrial DNA in the cells, which controls metabolism, IS genetic and it comes from the mother. Dear God, we are DOOMED!!!

For breakfast I had oatmeal, a hard boiled egg, some fruit and the wonderful OJ. It was more of a continental breakfast type thing, rather than the full service deal in the dining room. I went over to the salon for my manicure. When they turned on the music, it was very loud, and set on a Spanish station. Turns out the cleaning crew likes to blast the radio while they work! And I realized something. When I passed 2 housekeepers in the hall yesterday who were speaking Spanish to each other, it was the first time in 3 days I’d heard Spanish! And guess what? All the signs here are in English! ONLY English. No bilingual signage here! Anyway, the manicure was great. My nails look the best they have since I had acrylics!

I stopped at the front desk to find out if it was possible to ship something from here. Yes, it is, and they even gave me a box! So I am shipping home all my books, my sneakers, and any other heavy stuff I have. That will make my suitcase much lighter and easier to handle.

Pool aerobics today was intense! We had a female instructor, and she actually got in the pool with us. MUCH better than the guy yesterday who used a headset microphone. I couldn’t understand a word he said, with all the background noise. (That Auditory Processing disorder again…) Anyway, it was mostly interval training, which was totally exhausting. I needed a nap by the time I was finished! I met a very nice woman named Margaret, who lives in Freehold, and even shops at the same Foodtown as me! Small world…Fortunately, after the pool, my next stop was the spa for a Canyon Stone Massage. I never really got the point of using stones—until today. Those hot stones felt SO good on my aching body! It’s so funny—they keep the stones hot in a Crock Pot!! Talk about Stone Soup… I took a nice shower and then headed off to lunch alone. Deb was having a treatment, so I got her a sandwich to go. Nick, the nice Maitre ‘D, even put in a water bottle and an apple for her. He is so helpful and friendly every time we are in there. I can’t believe how he (and many others here) remember people and names so well! For lunch I had a nice salad. (I hope Whole Foods sells jicama, because I will really miss it otherwise!), a salmon burger (too much black pepper, and a bit dry—might be better on a bun with lettuce and tomato, as it was offered) with a side of really yucky slaw of some sort, and a sweet potato (I ate it for Deb, as she has had one every lunch and dinner here, and would miss it at lunch today!). And I realized that I have had NO bread since we’ve been here! I didn’t have a big appetite today for some reason. I only ate about ½ of my lunch.

I met Deb for our Lifemapping class. It was fascinating! You make a “map” with an issue you want to deal with in the center, and then fan out to all the thoughts that connect to it. I did wellness, with spokes of weight loss, healing, balance, etc. Then we did a map of our perfect future life—relationships, travel, health, avocation, etc. It really gets you thinking , and I realized some areas I would like to change to get to that “utopia”.

I stopped by the café for a banana and some nuts for my afternoon snack, and came up to the room to start packing my box of books. Deb had an in-room massage, so I had to be quiet (how do you eat nuts quietly?!?) Then I went down to meet with the nurse from Day 1 to re-do my body composition (which we KNEW couldn’t be right, since it said that Debbie is fatter than I am!!!!) So, with the better measurements, I am 37% fat instead of 32%. Probably still a bit low—I’m guessing it’s more like 40%. In any event, my goal weight of 210 is still well within the parameters of desirable weight. She also did my waist-hip ratio, and here my pear shape worked in my favor. It should be 0.8 or less, and mine is 0.789 so I am fine there. I hit the gym for my 15 minutes on the treadmill. It was quiet in there today, so I just did my thing and listened to my iPod.

Next I went for Neuromuscular Therapy. WOW. It was amazing!! I am apparently a musculo-skeletal MESS!! (Hmmm, no surprise there…) My body is completely off balance, my shoulder and pelvis are torqued, and I’m totally misaligned! Apparently, since I clench my jaw all the time, and grind my teeth at night, it is throwing everything else out of whack. So I lay down and she spent over an hour working just on my head and neck. Even my mouth and tongue! She pushed and poked and prodded and it apparently worked, because when she finished, I felt totally loose! My measurements are much improved, the twisting is gone, the torque is gone—MUCH better! I will need to continue this at home. Anyway, I walked out feeling like a different person!

I met Deb for dinner, and was thrilled to see that they had the Salmon Teriyaki I had made in cooking class yesterday. It was just as good as mine! It came with some brown rice, and I had a lovely salad too. I really like the apple cider vinaigrette salad dressing and since I got the recipe, I will be making that at home. We took our time at dinner, having a nice long chat about how important it is to get Mom to come here and get some of this stuff done. Also, some things we didn’t do this time that we’d do next time—lectures, testing/evaluations, fitness classes, pampering, etc. Guess we’ll just HAVE to come back!

Last on the schedule for today was BINGO!! Hey, it’s the hot ticket activity for Saturday night around here! Deb won again—an eye pillow—but I came up empty. So I guess I’ll have to buy the Ultraprevention book since I didn’t win it. There were 3 people there who each won twice—guess they had better cards than I did.

I cannot believe it’s my last night here. The time has gone so quickly, and no doubt the final hours tomorrow will fly by. I guess my next installment will be written from NJ.