Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

We had been staring at each other almost a full 5 minutes. He looked at me and I stared right back. Neither one of us willing to back down. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and was the first to cave.

"Please, Monte. Will you just pee for mommy. Pleeeeeeease!"

Yet, my cute, 7lb Maltese just continued to stare at me, unaffected by my begging and pleading.
You see, I'm not the only one trying to adjust to this crazy new lifestyle in Utah at Fitness Ridge (now The Biggest Loser Resort). My dog is also having quite the challenge.

When we arrived last Sunday, after almost 7 hours of travel, I finally took Monte out for a walk. He took a few steps, looked around, took a few more steps, looked around, and then looked at me as if I had lost my mind. You know what he did? NOTHING. Knowing he probably had to really go, I wondered what the problem was. Then I realized that we were in the desert. No grass. And this dog was refusing to go the bathroom in red dirt.

Later on that first day, Monte stared at me with slight disgust as he watched me put together the crate that he would be in when I wasn't in the room. This would be a HUGE change from life at home where he was king of the castle. With full reign of the house and a lush lawn to take care of his business, he was living the life. Here, it was a very different story. And Monte Rainey didn't look happy - at all.

But a funny thing has happend to both of us over the last week and a half. Monte happily pees and poops in the desert - granted, he did manage to find a tiny bush that he pretends is grass. And when he sees me putting on my tennis shoes? He goes into his crate - unasked - and lays down.

As for me, who would have thought that I would get up before the sun rises to exercise? But I haven't missed a 6:30am hike yet. I could never have imagined that I could survive on 1200 calories. However, I now sometimes leave a little food on my plate. I certainly didn't think it was possible to workout 6 hours a day and have the energy to stay up past 9:00 - but I do.

What about you? Do you need to learn some new tricks? What habits do you need to break or change to create the life you want? I invite you to join me and Monte - for both of us have been retrained and are learning some new tricks!