I'm a believer!

O.K. So this may come off a bit promotional but I don't know how else to say it. I'm such a believer in the T-Tapp workout. Which is why I've been hanging on for three years. I kind of forgot though, you know? When I was first introduced to it, it immediately struck a chord with me. The biomechanics and reasons behind each move make a lot of sense. It's really a wellness program more than a fitness program. It's benefits go way beyond increased muscle tone and inch loss but also improves lymph function, nerve pathways and activation, alignment, core strength, hormone regulation etc. It's for everyone, the fit, the not-so-fit, young, old, diseased and lame. It also really works your brain. Which I had kind of forgotten about and started to think of it as just a work-out with out music that can get a bit tedious.

I'm so glad I went. You may have noticed from my tone in earlier posts that I had mixed feelings about going. There was a bit of dread. After the initial excitement about Florida and meeting Teresa Tapp, I realized that it was actually going to be a lot of work and not really that much "fun". Especially when I saw the schedule. Each day began with a 6:00 am workout and then there were workouts scheduled every hour to halfhour (depending on which workout it was) until Teresa's master clinics which started at 8:00 pm. Her classes always lasted about 2 hours so we really worked out until 10:00 pm. We didn't have to do every single workout but were encouraged to do as many we could .

Once I was there, I felt excited. Teresa Tapp has such a charismatic personality and really believes and knows what she is talking about. Friday morning, bright and early, we all congregated for the first workout. For two hours, she made us lunge and twist and push and pull but with form tips and reminders so that every move magically seemed harder and different than all the other times I've done it in my home.

a little move called thread the needle

After that workout, my endorphins were out and I was up for just about every class. Bekki didn't have her certification class until 7:00 pm (she's a certified trainer to teach clinics and classes but there are several different workouts and you also get certified to teach different class sizes - she was doing both) so she was really nervous all day.

Bekki before her class

We went upstairs to our hotel room once to take a break for a couple of hours. (I had some granola!) Overall, on Friday, I did 11 workouts.As two of them were Teresa's and each of hers were two hours, it was about 13 hours of workout time. Bekki did fantastic for her class and sailed through her certification. Teresa loves her. We finally got some food from the bar at 10:00 at night and went to bed exhausted.

Plies on MORE workout

Looking good after day 1. Sadly, I looked like this most of the weekend.

The next morning, we realized that Teresa wasn't teaching the 6:00 class and that it was just different trainers so we didn't set the alarm and decided to start when we felt rested. The combination of the three hour time difference, the fatigue from the previous day and no alarm meant that I slept in until after 9:30! Bekki had already left the room and I panicked and went down as soon as I could. I got there in time for the 10:00 class that I really wanted to do but after that first workout knew I was in for a long day. I was just tired and unmotivated from overdoing it the day before. Bekki could tell so she suggested that we take it a bit easier that day and go to the mall (which was a quick walk away) to get some presents for our kids and for lunch.

We went in our workout gear (Ne'er fret...I had my sweatshirt to cover up - didn't want to scare the locals) and it was one of those high-flutin malls with all the fancy stores. Think Cherry Creek or Bellevue square or Chandler Shopping Center. We were a bit underdressed. I'm always amazed how many women choose to shop and walk in high heels. Mind boggling. We decided to have lunch at Cheesecake factory. As always, they had a huge wait but surprisingly none for patio eating. We were both sweating a bit from our walk over to the mall and Bekki whispered to me that it was probably too cold outside for the Floridians. It was over 60 degrees which was like a tropical paradise to me so we said outside would be fine. They led us to a table underneath one of their many heat lamps and I felt like I was in a sauna. It was really hot and I really didn't want to take off my sweatshirt. So we asked for a different table and they took us to the one that wasn't really close to any of the heat lamps. Our waiter asked if we would be warm enough and feeling cocky, we both laughed and said we would be fine (a little condescendingly). While we were waiting for our food, the breeze started up and I noticed we both zipped up our jackets a bit. Then our hands went to our laps and our shoulders came up trying to retain some warmth. We both started laughing that we were cold! The location of our table was completely unprotected from the strong breeze and that breeze took any possibility of getting any of those heat lamp rays. We considered asking for a new table again but pride won out.

We ate and asked for cheesecake to go (I know, shocking, but I didn't know if that would be our only meal for the day) and we took it back to the hotel. I did three more really hard workouts that day and then saved myself for Teresa's master class that night. Watching all of the different classes was fun though. People have such different mannerisms and ways of teaching. Some I liked and some I didn't. We got the giggles watching one girl who had the catchphrase of "nice". She said it all the time. "Lean over.....nice. Get your shoulders back and down.....nice." We started to count how many times she would say "nice" and once we got to 15 lost count. There were a few "beautiful"s too. Everyone was fading and the last workout of the day was led by the only male trainer there. I had considered doing it but chickened out at the last minute and was so glad I did. He killed his class. Moves that normally only take 3-4 minutes were taking over 25 because he kept them in positions for so long.

Dan the Man during a 22-minute PBS (or Primary Back Stretch)

Everyone was shaking. During his hour, I think they only did four moves. Teresa felt how tired everyone was and instead of her working us out more, did a Q & A.

Again, we didn't finish until after 10:00 and Bekki and I were starving. We walked over to a BBQ restaurant (again in our fashionable stretchy garb) and had nachos and a sandwich (as you can see, I didn't sustain myself on my granola and almonds). By the time we got back the the hotel, showered, and in bed it was after midnight and the alarm was set to go off at 5:45 to be down for the 6:00 am workout.

Luckily, the 6:00 am workout was different than all of the others and was basically an aerobic workout called Sweep away the Inches. We all had brooms that we held above our heads and pulled down behind our backs to activate our back and stomach muscles while we marched in place with T-Tapp form. It's all about the form which is butt tucked, knees bent and out, ball of your feet down with big toe up, shoulders back, rib cage up, belly button in. Makes marching in paces way more intense. I took a break during the next class and then did one more class. It was so hard that I actually got tears in my eyes. I couldn't believe I was crying and mentally shouted at myself to buck up. There's no crying with T-Tapp! Well...maybe there was but I didn't see much of it and didn't want to be a novelty. I don't think anyone noticed and after a few minutes regained my composure. But I knew I was done after that. I went and showered and got ready to check out. We went back down to take a picture with Teresa and then went to the airport.

Teresa is so photogenic and me...not so much. But I had to prove I met her even if it's a terrible picture of me.

Neither Bekki's nor my flight left for several hours so we had a long lunch and then went our separate ways. It was a lot of fun to be there with Bekki and I'm glad she got me into this whole thing. She really is an inspiration and a great trainer and source of information. There...my plug is over.

We were hardly ever outside enjoying the beautiful Florida weather. To prove how nice it was.

There rest of the day wasn't so great. I used to like flying and was looking forward to a day of reading but airports and airlines are so annoying now. The plane was late so we left Tampa about 45 minutes late. It took us forever to taxi and take-off so I had a really tight connection in Phoenix. Running and one of the last to board, I just wanted to be home but that flight turned into a nightmare. We were descending into Spokane, trays put away and seatbacks fully up and locked when they announced that the de-icer on engine #2 wasn't working and it wasn't safe to land so we were being re-routed to Boise. Andrea was coming to pick me up and I knew she had probably already left and that I had just made her night very late and annoying. The flight to Boise was about 25 minutes and just as we were getting there, they announced that air-traffic control said the best chance of landing safely was in Seattle. We would be enroute there for about an hour, then they'd fix the plane and get us back to Spokane just as quickly as possible. We got to Seattle at 11:30 pm and I called Jay and Andrea to let them know what was going on. Friends in need are friends indeed as Andrea and Jason proved to be. They didn't want Jay to have to wake up our boys so while Andrea was already out at the airport, Jason drove over to our house, got our van and drove it out there to leave it in short-term parking for me. Totally inconvenient and altruistic of them. Thank you!

The flight finally got to Spokane at 2:00 am and I crashed when I got home. I can't sleep on planes and had almost been up for a full 24 hours - 12 of them crushed into a window seat. I read almost the whole time so my neck really hurt (but I got a couple of books read - one a real gem).

This morning hasn't been much better as I found some fraudulent pay pal charges that cleared our bank account. $2000! It's clearly fraudulent and the wheels are turning to get our money back but it stinks. I had a definite feeling of vulnerability that someone hacked into that account and purchased what looks like a bunch of porn (I know...gross. Why can't anyone be a bit more like Robin Hood if they are going to steal?).

I don't like these long recap posts. I wish I could have posted each day because there was so much going on and to me, the interesting things happen in the moments and not the days. I'm glad I'm back!