Disney Part 3: Final Day

The Dopey Challenge was over. The medals were earned.

The running was done.

*Tear*

So what is a girl to do with one final day left in Disney????

Why hit up as many parks as possible and show off the bling!

After enjoying a celebratory dinner and beer with the parents and wife on Sunday (January 12) night...

... it was time to devise a game plan for the final day of vacation.

Originally, we thought we would go to Harry Potter world on the Monday, but between park tickets and having to rent a car - the price tag was too rich.

We opted instead to add a 5th day to our Disney park hopper pass for just $12 a person. #WINNING! ;)

The goal was to sleep in.

And we did.

Until 7:30am!!

HEY, after getting up between 2am and 4am the previous four mornings that WAS sleeping in.

I made sure to sleep in my ZENSAH compression socks so when I woke up my legs were sore, but strong after having run 48.6 miles.

We got ready. IE I loaded up my backpack with my 5 medals and wore my Dopey medal. Oh I also allowed myself to rock the Dopey Challenge "I Did It" t-shirt. :)

We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading to Hollywood Studios. Our goal was to knock out the Toy Story ride right as the park opened to avoid the inevitable hour long wait that the ride averages.

I ran shuffled through Hollywood Studios to arrive at the Toy Story ride with a manageable 15 minute wait. Woo!

Toy Story is an amazing ride that most folks have to Fast Pass to get into in a timely manner. We had had a fast pass on a previous trip, but the ride was shutdown for some reason. Redemption time.

Now last year when we rode this I crushed the wife's score and she was pissed. I mean she is the "gamer" not me.

She was ready to kick my butt. Well...

WINNER DANI! :)

After the quick visit to Hollywood Studios, we were back on the bus and making our way to Magic Kingdom. It was time to catch up on the rides we missed during the previous trips.

I immediately headed to Cinderella's Castle to show off the bling.

After having the wife snap my picture, some other folks came over and asked to take pictures of the medals.

I even found Dopey. ;)

And I learned that I need to do some extra strength training before my next trip.

While we stopped to get some lunch, my friend Kitty found us. She lives in NYC and I in Boston so we don't get to see each other too often. She had OWNED the Goofy Challenge (Half Marathon & Full Marathon) and was glowing.

We decided to meet up for a beer and Fireworks in EPCOT later that night. Woo! :)

The wife and I grabbed a now annual picture in front of the Castle before jumping on the monorail.

Since we stayed at the Pop Century Hotel, we didn't get to use the monorail at all during the stay so we made a special trip. We didn't really have a destination until we decided we were thirsty for an adult beverage. :) Off to the Polynesian we went.

I stayed at that hotel on my first trip to Disney back in fourth grade and loved it. It is outside of our price range, but we could handle a drink on our budget. :P

After a little relaxation, it was time to move on to our third and final park of the day!

EPCOT

We took our time walking around the park and hopping on all of the rides that didn't have a wait. It was most since many of the runners/families had headed home earlier in the day. We even got to hop on Test Track with a minor 10 minute wait time. SCORE!

While we decided where to grab dinner, I caught a character area in the center of EPCOT and dragged the wife inside. It said there was a 5 minute wait. I wanted to know who was in there. I hit the jackpot.

Mickey

Goofy

Minnie

All admired their personal medals! And ignored the random cameltoe I was rocking. How nice of them?

As my phone started to die, we found a little corner behind the character meet and greet to juice up our phones. I wanted to have enough battery to capture the fireworks.

Tori grabbed dinner in England, while I got a salad in the USA. ;)

We headed over to Germany to meet Kitty and her friend for the Fireworks show.

It was beautiful, but only lasted 12 minutes. I'm not sure why I thought IllumniNations lasted longer than that, but was sad. Right after the show ended they steered us towards the exit so it was already time to say adios to Kitty.

We headed back to Pop Century to grab a nightcap by the pool with a social media friend Steffany and her husband. It was a blast, but I regret not snapping a picture. Oops! Blogger fail. We will just have to meet up another time. :)

We begrudgingly headed back to our room to pack so we would be ready for the 6:55am Magical Express back to the airport ... and real life.

The day was exactly what I needed. I shook out the lactic acid from my legs by walking around the parks, spent time with friends, beat my wife in Toy Story again and just enjoyed every single minute of it.

Now how long 'til we go back?

An Interview With The Biggest Loser's Fa Cousins (Part 1)

"If I could just get on the Biggest Loser, my life would begin and I would finally lose the weight" - me on numerous occasions while watching The Biggest Loser and eating pizza/french fries. Please tell me I wasn't alone in this vision?

Well, there have now been 14 seasons of The Biggest Loser and hundreds of people who were lucky enough to make the show and have their lives filmed and changed forever.

Ever wonder what it was like to be ON the Biggest Loser Ranch?

Well, I was lucky enough to interview a pair of cousins who had that honor ... Sione and Filipe Fa.

Do you remember them? If you know anything about the Biggest Loser how could you not?

The Fa cousins joined the cast of Season 7 of the Biggest Loser not to "save their lives," but to inspire people - especially members of their Polynesian community. The duo combined to shed 281 pounds.

I wanted to break this interview into a couple parts and for me, the most important was: once the cameras stopped rolling (aka THE AFTER)!

For any of us that have embarked on a weight loss journey, we find that maintenance ends up being a whole beast of its own. After getting rid of the weight, we sometimes think it will be all rainbows and unicorns, but it isn't always that way.

And even past Biggest Loser contestants are susceptible to that.

Within eight months of the Season 7 finale, Sione had gained back 60 lbs and used it as a wake-up call.

"After the show, I think we were coming off that 6-8 hour workout day and trying to go back to normal life. You can't workout 6-8 hours and you can't work out that strict regiment. You have to work and get time with family. It's just not realistic," Sione said. "We were messed up in the head. I remember the first time we got a workout in after coming home it was 1.5 hour long and we felt like we were failures because we didn’t do the right amount."

So how did Sione take charge of his life and take the weight back off? By NOT stressing about being a certain number on the scale or a certain pant size. He took the focus off of a number and he dropped about 80% of the weight again. But this time he the weight loss was slow and steady.

"I'm just gonna take it each day at a time because I know what I need to do today. I reminded myself that I am working towards long-term goal," Sione remarked. "What can I do to get myself there? Stop stressing where I would be in a week or a month ... I can eat right today and get my workout in today ... and wherever I am going to be will be."

Besides inspiring thousands of people by sharing his story, Sione became a trainer at the Biggest Loser Resort in Utah. Instead of keeping the focus on the number of pounds a guest wants to lose, Sione helps them change the focus to the long-term health/fitness goals.

But, what happened to Filipe?

Filipe didn't have his wake-up call after a 60-pound weight gain. His came after he put back 119 of the 135 lbs he lost on the show.

Many wonder how could this happen?

"Maintenance was so difficult, especially maintaining the finale weight," Filipe revealed. "The biggest misconception after the Finale was I got here and now deserve to treat myself, but not just for a meal but for a full week. I think people can relate the thought of getting in a good workout meant that we deserve something good and delicious. That good is not often a healthy choice."

After starting to back out of Biggest Loser alumni events and Finales and hearing how worried his son was that he would die early, Filipe decided it was time to make a change.

And there was Sione and the Biggest Loser Resort waiting to lend him a helping hand. This time he would be on a Biggest Loser Ranch without the cameras and without the pressure to stay another week.

Longtime Biggest Loser sponsor Walgreens heard of the Fa cousins planned and offered yet another avenue of help.

Walgreen’s dedication to helping people “get, stay, and live well” through their Way to Well Commitment program inspired an eight episode web series on NBC.com centered on you guessed it - the Fa cousins.

During the 3.5 months the series covered (which aired in early 2013), Filipe lost 49 lbs and said goodbye to the 300's - which was his goal for the series. From recent pictures it looks as if he is continuing on a path of healthy eating and exercise, while I do not know his exact weight at this moment. But as Sione says, this journey is about more than a number on the scale.

“The biggest difference in Filipe is that he’s got his confidence back,” Sione said. “It’s OK to mess up and admit you’ve fallen off. You don’t have to hide.”

It just goes to show that we can all stumble, we can all fall, we can all gain some of the weight back, but it's what you do when you pick yourself back up that truly defines us.

You can find Filipe and Sione on Twitter constantly motivating the community at large!!

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Stay tuned for Part 2 where Filipe and Sione share more about life on the Biggest Loser Ranch.