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How do you train for ski season?

Not Sure

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Watch ski videos and stare at the Nordic track . Didn't do shit for weight loss or conditioning except get my heart rate up .

Warren miller "Seizure Fest " is almost here . They could learn a lesson from this video you don't have to change scenes every nano second to make a descent ski film .
 

kingslug

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Got myself a personal trainer 1/2 mile from my house. Expensive but I've dropped 20 lbs. Knows his stuff. A lot of it is diet..get rid of the carbs..don't eat in the morning and lift fairly heavy weights. Split squats are just dandy...
 

WWF-VT

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Hike a lot. In the past 6 weekends I have hiked Mt Mansfield, Camel's Hump and Burnt Rock Mountain in VT and Mt Garfield in NH plus a lot of other woods hikes closer to home in MA.
 

Ol Dirty Noodle

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I was hiking 3.5 miles a day with a 20lb kettle bell carrying it a variety of ways did that for a month til my work schedule got in the way.

so I started going to the gym 4 nights a week doing heavy lifting plus 30-40 min on either the bike or treadmill and doing the hike the 3 days I could. 2 weeks ago I upped the kettle bell to 35lb. Oh and I skateboard about 2 miles a day in Manhattan 5 days a week for work.
 

asnowmobiler

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Got myself a personal trainer 1/2 mile from my house. Expensive but I've dropped 20 lbs. Knows his stuff. A lot of it is diet..get rid of the carbs..don't eat in the morning and lift fairly heavy weights. Split squats are just dandy...

I've always heard you should eat in the morning to get your metabolism going. Did he explain the theory behind not eating in the morning?
 

Ol Dirty Noodle

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I've always heard you should eat in the morning to get your metabolism going. Did he explain the theory behind not eating in the morning?

You need to let it come up naturally with activity VS shocking it into action with food, water is the first and only thing you should put In Your body for 2-3 hours after waking
 

kingslug

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Your metabolism is always going. Its called intermittent fasting. You stop eating at 7pm and don't eat again until 11 or noon. You have 2 gas tanks..body fat and whatever you eat. When gas tank A ( food) is done you switch to tank B and burn body fat. Takes a little while to get used to it but it works. Fasting has been around forever. Limiting carbs and sugar is key..especially sugar which is pretty much poison..not that I don't eat it. I find it impossible to get rid of it completely..its whats killing us but its like a drug..way more addictive than coke..
 

NYDB

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I've done 16/8 before, and just started it again this fall. It works great.

For me, not being a big breakfast guy anyway, it's pretty easy.

To be honest, I know everyone hypes the fact that your body re learns how to metabolize fat efficiently, but I think most of the benefits arise from not eating after 7 or 8 or whatever your window is. 95% of my problem eating or drinking happens after that (bad desserts, excess alcohol, etc). Eliminating that reduces overall calories substantially IME

Sent from my SM-G973U using AlpineZone mobile app
 

asnowmobiler

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Four years ago I lost 90 Lbs doing a low Carb diet, now I gained about 60 back and having trouble dropping it again.
Losing all the weight was the reason I got back into skiing after 20 plus years, I finally felt athletic enough and energetic enough to enjoy skiing.
I'm eating very few carbs, but I'm sure I'm still taking in too many calories from the hot bar at Whole Foods and the Vodka after work.
 

Ol Dirty Noodle

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Four years ago I lost 90 Lbs doing a low Carb diet, now I gained about 60 back and having trouble dropping it again.
Losing all the weight was the reason I got back into skiing after 20 plus years, I finally felt athletic enough and energetic enough to enjoy skiing.
I'm eating very few carbs, but I'm sure I'm still taking in too many calories from the hot bar at Whole Foods and the Vodka after work.

Try switching to a keto based diet, also one of the biggest things overlooked period is hydration, staying hydrated will allow your body to work at it’s optimal level while alleviating most of the symptoms people don’t attribute to dehydration but will use as an excuse to remain stagnant.

The biggest roadblock is the mental one, everyone makes excuses about not having time,$, energy etc. but it’s all bullshit. It’s hard to look in the mirror and be unhappy with what you see and even harder to call yourself on your bullshit and admit that you’re your own worst enemy. It can also be the single most empowering moment of your life realizing that only you can stop you and there’s nothing else in your way.
 

mikec142

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Had the "a-ha" moment yesterday...realized it's basically five weeks to ski season and I can't procrastinate anymore. There are basically three things that I do to get in better shape for ski season.

1. Lose some weight (more later on this later).
2. Ride the Peloton (4-6x/week).
3. Yoga sessions of varying length (2-4x/week).

In the seasons where I manage to accomplish/maintain these goals I have a very strong ski season where I feel great on the mountain all day. In the seasons where it doesn't happen the way I planned, I find that buckling my ski boots and hiking up hill a bit to be a struggle. I still ski and have a great time, but it's not as easy for me and I ski my way into shape.

I'm in my late 40's. Early 40's for me was when I realized that I couldn't just go on a quick diet and lose 20lbs in a month anymore. I'm a foodie. I like to eat and drink. Much of my socializing is done over a meal and a bottle of wine. The problem for me stems around alcohol. It's not just the empty calories, it's the loss of inhibition. The second I have a sip of alcohol I immediately think that a bag of potato chips is the best idea in the world. My diet is usually pretty good during the day, but man-o-man, when I have a drink, all hell breaks loose. For me, weight loss and maintenance is 90% diet and 10% exercise. It's an amazing will power exercise.

For the past three years I've done "dry January" and actually stay dry til President's Day weekend. Last year after six weeks I had lost 8lbs. Shows me how hard it is to lose weight as I age as this effort would have resulted in 25lbs lost just 10 years ago.

Would love to add weight and/or resistance training into the mix. But I'm not there yet.
 

drjeff

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Had the "a-ha" moment yesterday...realized it's basically five weeks to ski season and I can't procrastinate anymore. There are basically three things that I do to get in better shape for ski season.

1. Lose some weight (more later on this later).
2. Ride the Peloton (4-6x/week).
3. Yoga sessions of varying length (2-4x/week).

In the seasons where I manage to accomplish/maintain these goals I have a very strong ski season where I feel great on the mountain all day. In the seasons where it doesn't happen the way I planned, I find that buckling my ski boots and hiking up hill a bit to be a struggle. I still ski and have a great time, but it's not as easy for me and I ski my way into shape.

I'm in my late 40's. Early 40's for me was when I realized that I couldn't just go on a quick diet and lose 20lbs in a month anymore. I'm a foodie. I like to eat and drink. Much of my socializing is done over a meal and a bottle of wine. The problem for me stems around alcohol. It's not just the empty calories, it's the loss of inhibition. The second I have a sip of alcohol I immediately think that a bag of potato chips is the best idea in the world. My diet is usually pretty good during the day, but man-o-man, when I have a drink, all hell breaks loose. For me, weight loss and maintenance is 90% diet and 10% exercise. It's an amazing will power exercise.

For the past three years I've done "dry January" and actually stay dry til President's Day weekend. Last year after six weeks I had lost 8lbs. Shows me how hard it is to lose weight as I age as this effort would have resulted in 25lbs lost just 10 years ago.

Would love to add weight and/or resistance training into the mix. But I'm not there yet.

Totally agree with this (and can relate as well!)

My wife and I are in week 5 of a 10 week fitness/weight loss challenge run out of our local YMCA. You get a team of 4 together (we're teaming up with our neighbors who live a few houses up the street from us) and the challenge changes weekly with different strength and cardio workouts as well as dietary changes along the way. They (The staff at the Y) have us wearing heart rate monitors during workouts and "points" are recorded based on your heart rate as a function of its maximum rate, and duration of the exercise session. The "team" as well as competitive side (your team competes against the other teams doing the program and weekly rankings are posted) nature of this keeps me interested for sure.

As for the alcohol effect, especially as a late 40's guy myself too, my wife and I came up with an agreement that we'd give up alcohol for the duration of the challenge, unless it was a specific social occasion (and just a random Tuesday night doesn't qualify as a social occasion ;-) ) So yes, I had some beers last weekend while up at Mount Snow for Oktoberfest, prior to that it had been about 2 weeks since I was at Gillette Stadium for a Patriots game, and it will be about another 10 days until I have another drink when I'm next at Gillette Stadium for a Patriots game. That shift alone, has really curbed my post dinner calorie consumption, as now if I feel hungry after dinner, I'm grabbing a non "carb bomb" snack, and not having the totally empty calories of a double IPA, which would then having me very often seeking out a bag of chips as well.

Trying to stay on basically a keto diet, keeping "motivated" 7 days a week fitness wise via the Y's fitness challenge, and then getting the regular positive feedback I see when I step on the scale, has been a huge help for keeping me on track as we head into ski season. I also will not lie that over the last week or 2, having multiple friends of mine commenting that it looks like I've lost weight recently, also helps keep me going!

So for those of us, who are fighting the battle of the waistline, keep up the good work!
 

bdfreetuna

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Your metabolism is always going. Its called intermittent fasting. You stop eating at 7pm and don't eat again until 11 or noon. You have 2 gas tanks..body fat and whatever you eat. When gas tank A ( food) is done you switch to tank B and burn body fat. Takes a little while to get used to it but it works. Fasting has been around forever. Limiting carbs and sugar is key..especially sugar which is pretty much poison..not that I don't eat it. I find it impossible to get rid of it completely..its whats killing us but its like a drug..way more addictive than coke..

Well said, I usually wait until 11 or Noon to eat "breakfast" which is more like a lunch anyway.

This is when I'm working on the computer and sipping coffee (black). For me at least this is very easy to get used to.

I drink a few beers a night on average and my drinking habits haven't really changed but I have lost upwards of 40lbs in the last 2 years mostly be this intermittent fasting method. That and not overeating, minimal sugar(besides alchohol) and limiting carbs.

In the mornings with my coffee I have Liposomal Vitamin C, Nascent Iodine, and MSM (for my knee pain).

Can certainly attest to the wisdom of limiting your daily food intake to a 6-8 hour "window" or so and fasting besides that. I'm pretty sure I'd be lean AF right now if I drank no beer at all.

As for training, well another summer passed by and I didn't hop back on the bike or anything. I find the early season days with limited trails opened and generally no moguls/powder or difficult terrain even in play serve as a good warm up. A few weeks of semi-sore legs before feeling like a mountain goat for the next 5 months.
 
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BenedictGomez

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Trying to stay on basically a keto diet

Ugh.... I gained 12 pounds in the last year, went for my annual physical recently & my doc wants me to go on that to quickly dump those 12 pounds. No idea what it is, but it sounds a bit like the old Atkins Diet, which wouldnt be the worst, because if the Hindus are correct & reincarnation is a thing, I'm coming back as a T-Rex.
 

bdfreetuna

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Ugh.... I gained 12 pounds in the last year, went for my annual physical recently & my doc wants me to go on that to quickly dump those 12 pounds. No idea what it is, but it sounds a bit like the old Atkins Diet, which wouldnt be the worst, because if the Hindus are correct & reincarnation is a thing, I'm coming back as a T-Rex.

low carb with intermittent fasting like has been discussed here will have a similar effect on your weight as Keto although perhaps not as quickly, but it will be a lot easier to stick to in the long run. Full keto diet is kind of extreme unless you're already a vegan or something.
 
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