Up and at um! Peter’s up at 6 but I took a while to get to sleep due to caffeine withdrawal headaches and am trying to get an extra few minutes. Which turns into 60! So I’m up at 7am in time for the lemon water. We get weighed and measured before breakfast. Breakfast is a smorgasbord of mueslis, quinoa pear with strawberries, mixed fruit, and a selection of crispbreads with spreads. Peter’s first foray into soy milk …drum roll…he survives! I go down the quinoa pear route with a ‘you can’t believe it’s not butter and not vegemite’ topping.
We get straight into the exercise with a walk to the front gate, where we take advantage of the phone signal and call grandma…clearly there’s too much going on at her place as she doesn’t answer. We head back trying out a few of the exercise stations on the way, step ups, balance beam, and various stretching…which I need as I found I’m 1cm shorter than I used to be.
Next on our agenda is an information session where we learn about the Complete Health Improvement Program – and receive our text books and pedometer (oh no we didn’t get to include our steps from this mornings walk). Today is the first day of the rest of our lives.
Straight after the talk Peter and I are off to aqua where we work out our upper and lower bodies – especially getting in and out of the spa pool which is no mean feat. Also we couldn’t wear our pedometer in the pool so no steps yet.
Hmm the smells coming from the kitchen are delicious…but we have to wait until lunch time – which arrives on time at 1pm. The main dish is the chickpea curry but the supporting acts are excellent salads and more crackers with unbelievable toppings. Dessert is a sesame cracker. For our after lunch constitution we think we will tackle the Forest Walk, we head down the track but when the going gets tough ie. the track is not very visible we think we’ve ventured the wrong way and head back – no we had following the right way it’s just a bit overgrown. We try a different route and make sure we get our pedometers to 1500 steps before heading back to get ready for our “treatments”.
Hmmm, that was nice, a therapeutic massage for a whole hour, don’t be sad Peter had one as well. I rested and drank some water and then jumped (well slid gracefully) into the spa for some afternoon exercise and relaxation. It was me v’s the extreme jet…I managed to hold my own doing frog stroke. back to the room for some cramming before our next information session – before that I have a foot massage and delicious meal to endure. Life is tough here at Cedarvale.
The foot massage was heavenly. The delicious meal included pea & mint fritters with aioli, a mixed berry lassi with, of course some salad and fruit…I managed to overcome my addiction to the not butter not vegemite on seed crackers. I’ve been mixing around the seating so making new friends and influencing people along the way.
Was relieved at my restraint when we learnt about heart disease and Atherosclerosis – shocking stuff – should be X-rated. They put forward a strong case for a plant based diet…but meat is so yummy!! Off to bed to dream about legs of lamb with roast potatos, pumpkin, sweet potatos, beans and lashings of gravy. yummmm. sweet dreams. If only that pesky headache would go away!