The Last Few Days...

Before I go into everything I have been doing I have to thank my Heavenly Father for all of the support and strength He has given me throughout this adventure. I know the power of prayer is so real. There have been days when I would have such high anxiety about a class or even the whole day and He has calmed my soul and helped me get through each day. Sometimes I have only been able to get through one class at a time and He has been there for me, strengthening me and helping me to do my best. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and I know they are mindful of me each day and in everything that I do. I know that they always have been and always will be there for me throughout my life.

So I think that I will start back on Friday. Friday afternoon I got to go to the Santa Monica stairs. Duhn duhn duhn. It is 170 steps that we went up and down for just over an hour. All of the stairs are wooden, there is a railing on either side and only about 3 people can fit across it at one time. On both sides there are some dense trees and at one point a few houses with gates. It takes you from one street at the top of the hill to another one down below. These little stairs are very popular! Because they are pretty steep and I have a fear of heights and tumbling down the staircase I took it pretty slow going down each time. But there were people running down and up the stairs. Other people were taking two stairs at a time with weights in each hand. I could go about 25 steps and then have to take a little rest but my heart rate was 150 most of the time. It was good to get out of the classrooms and do something else. Going down and back up the stairs is counted as one and I did it 4 times with a 1 mile walk to go to the bathroom. I was pretty proud of myself for being able to do that much.

On Saturday my friend Susan and I did the 5K walk and then we headed off to beach boot camp! We started by running/walking to a life guard station about 1/4 mile away and back, then doing some warm up exercises. The "boot camp" part after that was going down the beach and stopping at each life guard station and doing 20 squats and 20 push ups. And each station was 1/4 mile apart. Now if the sand was flat like it is in Oregon that would have been no problem but here to be able to walk on the more compact wet sand it was at more of an angle. Probably 30 - 40 degree angle. So it really worked on leg on the way out and the other on the way in. It was an overcast day and we got some misting but no rain. I enjoyed it and was glad that it wasn't blazing hot. Once I got back and cleaned up my roommate, Carolina and I went out for some fun! We went to The Grove in LA. It is a big outdoor shopping center with a grass area in the middle where live music was playing and you can walk in the middle of the street (because no cars are allowed). It is just what I imagined LA shopping to be and it was nice. There was Nordstrom, Barnes and Noble, Coach, Gap and a few high end stores I didn't go into. Again it was just nice to be out and enjoy the evening. We went and saw Moneyball which was pretty good. I really didn't like how Brad Pitt was constantly chewing tobacco and spitting into a cup but I guess that is what baseball players do.

On Sunday I surprised my friend, Nicole, who is serving in the area and showed up to her ward. She was super surprised and it was great so see the look on her face. She is doing awesome in the mission and I can tell that the ward is lucky to have her and her companion. That ward was so nice! I wish I could have had that wonderful of a ward in my mission. I must have talked to 20 different people and they were all interested in what I was doing and where I'm from. I will definatly go back to that ward after General Confernece.

After 1 1/2 days of fun and rest it was back to the grind today.

Successes for today:

1. I ran for 13 min at 4 mph. I have never done that before =)
2. I ran for 15 min at 3.6 mph at incline 1.5. I have nevr done that before =)
3. I made it through the day and hit my calorie mark =)

I started off the day with Austin for personal training and we did a lot of weight lifting and using the resistance bands. Next was boxing which is always fun. I was able to get out a lot of aggression by hitting the punching bag and it felt so good! I had TRX and core and then O.C.F. Outdoor Cardio Fitness. In this class you are at a station for 2 min and they are jump rope, slamming down and catching a medicine ball, consistantly picking up one end of a punching bag that was on the ground and slamming it down, and there was another punching bag that had a rope attached to it and we had to pull it towards us and then run away from it until the rope was tight and then put it towards us again. Those bags are heavy! I had an hour to do my own cardio work out and then a stretching class. I love stretching. It feels so good at the end of the day. Tomorrow I get to go swim laps and have personal training with Omari. Pretty sure that he is going to kick my butt but I say, bring it on.