One door closes, another opens

It's the last day of June and there's a lot going on. This past week I finished my online course, it ended with a 21 page paper on Target vs. Wal-Mart. The class was pretty simple and very convenient being online. The rest of the summer I have to focus on the first three chapters of my thesis... now that the competition is over and my class is over, I will have more time to dedicate to writing.

This weekend is the big fourth of July celebration, Bayfest, on the Marine Corps base. This evening we are going to see Gretchen Wilson and tomorrow Alan Jackson. Last year we volunteered to work at the HPU booth but this year, we decided against it. Last year we got a lot of benefits from working the HPU booth and this year there was nothing worth our while. I deal with HPU enough as a student and working there... I am going to have fun tonight!

There are still a few loose ends to tie up with the Meadow Gold Competition. I will be on the radio on Tuesday morning and I just found out that my prizes will be mailed to me next week. The Macy's card is supposed to be for $300 to be spent with my fashion consultant, I'm not sure on the Paul Brown makeover but I hope to use it before I head home. I leave in 20 days....

Saturday morning we went to John Dominis (a restaurant with the best view in town of Waikiki) for the Perry and Price morning radio talk show. We were scheduled as guests on the show, to talk about our weight lost experience. The radio show takes about 3 hours with a buffet breakfast. One of the other contestants attended the show along with 3 representatives from Meadow Gold and our trainers, Alana and her boyfriend and Asako and her husband & daughter. We went on air around 9am for a brief interview with Perry and Price. And then enjoyed the rest of the show. Alexis and I stayed to watch the entire show where some of the other guests included two contestants from World Samoan Idol and The Bachelor's Lt. Andy Baldwin and Tessa. You can find out more information about Perry and Price at http://perryandprice.com.

After a short rest we went shopping, and no, I did not purchase my purse. Nothing caught my eye so I will keep looking....

Here are the final stats that Mia gave me from the competition.

Total weight lost = 35.4 pounds
Total inches lost = 24.5 (including 5.25 from the hips and 1.5 from the neck).
BMI went down = 6.5
Body Fat lost = 5%

ME! Today at our going away party for Dr. Kearns I got a call from Mia at Meadow Gold. I told her we were celebrating and she said "here's another reason to celebrate... you won!" I told Talia I won, and she told the room which burst into applause. It was really cool... Mia could hear it on the other end of the phone. We will talk more tomorrow at the Perry and Price breakfast radio show.

While talking to Mia she said I won the majority of the areas she judged us on except over all weight loss (Alexis won that) and hips to waist ration (I think Alexis won that also). So over all we did great!! I called and told mom...who in turn sent me a beautiful floral arrangement.

This morning was my final weigh in with Alana. It went super well. I was hoping to reach my 24 hour goal of 177 lbs because I thought my personal goal of 175 lbs was too far away. Boy was I wrong. I weighed in at 173 lbs. Boo-ya baby... I am buying myself a new Coach purse. With a rough estimate Alana said I had lost 36 lbs and 26 inches overall. I feel great!

Alexis also weighed in at a really good weight for her. Well past her Meadow Gold goal of 237 lbs. Today she was at 229 lbs. For a loss of about 46 lbs since the start.

We also went in and met Mia tonight for a final evaluation. It went well, she will be calling us on Friday to let us know who won the competition. I did express my sadness over having no more free dairy products... and Mia told us to email her the amount of coupons we had left and she would extend the dates!! More free Dairy!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fathers Day!

I had my last official training session with Alana at 24 Hour Fitness this afternoon. She really kicked my butt today... we did not do any weight training... only abs, legs, and cardio. It was crazy...but good. The competition officially ends on Wednesday when we go in for our final meeting with Mia at Meadow Gold Dairy. I have my last weigh in and measurements at 24 Hour on Tuesday morning at 6:45am.

Mia has invited us to a breakfast buffet where they tape the morning talk show Perry and Price live. I think that is where they will announce the winner of the competition.

It is crunch time BABY!!

Earlier in the week Alexis was talking with her co-worker Jenny and it came about that Jenny had a kayak. So Alexis got the information and we went to Hawaii Kai to try out kayaking. I had been once before but this was different and it was Alexis' first time. We took the kayak out in the harbor and paddled around. It was a lot of fun. But I was sore sitting in the kayak, I just couldn't get comfy. Luckily we did not tip over.

FYI... Monday was a holiday, King Kamehameha Day.

It has been a busy week... we have been going to the gym twice a day all week, except for Friday. Thankfully the holiday weekend is here. Yesterday we went to the gym and to the Grand Sumo Tournament in the afternoon then I went out with friends in Waikiki. The Grand Sumo event was the first of its kind in 14 years. The top 40 sumo wrestlers from Japan came over for it. It was very interesting and only a bit boring at times. There was an introduction to the event where they gave some background to the sport and then the tournament began. In the end, the Yokozuna (top sumo guy) won the event.

Today we went to the gym and then went shopping. We went to the Puma store where we both bought new shoes. Mine are very stylish, blue and green, to work out in as my current pair are getting worn out. Rankey's are pretty cool too.

After dinner we ventured out again, this time to Kalihi (a poorer area of town) in search of Ty and the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition crew. They are currently in town filming the season premiere episode for this fall. The road was shut down for local traffic only, but we kept going. There were a lot of cops out and it looked like they were filming a scene. The house must have just been finished as volunteers were all over the house/lawn and there was cheering. It was neat to see.

Saturday we tried to go hiking on the North Shore, at Kahana Valley but the
trail won the battle. We had tried this hike in the past but we were not successful so yesterday we went and tried again and it beat us. The trail was overgrown and hard to follow plus there were mosquitoes all over the place. So instead of hiking we tried going to the beach at Kualoa, it was very beautiful but not a place to swim, the reef was close to shore so we got our feet wet. Next, we went to a cute little orchid store. It had a lot of different gifts including some amazing flavoured Mac nuts, which we did not buy. Also, on the way home we stopped and bought a pineapple from a road side stand. Funny thing was that it had a Dole sticker on it.
This morning we woke went to a different trail in Hawaii Kai. The Kuliouou Valley Trail was nestled in a residential area back in a valley. We found it and had a nice time walking through the rain forest. For a while we thought we would have a friend joining us, Sargent, as we named him. He was a golden retriever that was all by himself at the beginning of the trail. But it turns out he wasn't interested in us so we went on with out him. The trail was less than a mile in so we were done pretty quickly. It felt good to be out on a trail again, I've missed it.