December 31st: 243.4 pounds

January 20th: 232.8 pounds

New Digit! I hit a new record low on the scale. I started last year around 270, hit a low of 237 in the Summer, then crept back up as my eating habits went to crap — too many fries and cokes. Tuesday this week I finally broke below that Summer low, to 236.4 pounds. Exercise and good paleo eating has helped tons.

One of the things that really drove me to reduce my sugar consumption was a line from Fitness Spotlight:

every time you put sugar into your mouth just tell youself “I don’t feel like burning fat for the next 3-4 hours”

I’ve lost 11 pounds so far this year, in addition to about 8 pounds in December. Obviously snowboarding helps, but I’m not going out every day, and usually only making about 8-10 runs. It burns calories, sure, but that just makes me active — and I was just as active back in Houston. Being 240 pounds and active means I burn 3000-4000 calories a day, just toting that extra weight around. I see the “skinny” (ie normal-weight) people and wish I could get around like them. I wish I was that fit — and then I think, maybe I am that fit. If they were carrying a sixty-pound weight strapped to their belly, they’d probably be having the same problems I am.

And that means: my #1 way to improve my success on the slopes (other than practice) is probably to lose weight. My muscles will work less, my cardiovascular system will work less, I’ll burn less energy, and be able to stay on the hill longer. That’s definitely incentive to stay away from the sugar.

I’m not, of course, looking for weight loss alone. I can imagine paleo critics saying, “of course, it must be snowboarding at 240 pounds that’s causing you to lose weight.” But I’m not just losing weight – I’m burning fat. If I was eating the same toxic shit that most people on the mountain are consuming – glazed donuts, sandwiches, buns – then the insulin spike would prevent a lot of fat loss and burn a lot of lean tissue. I want that lean tissue!

Progress is always motivation to stay the course. I had 5 cokes and two servings of fries in my first week in town; my goal is much less in the second week. And I’ll be posting my lower numbers here, too.

Thursday, January 21st: 232.8