I stopped by the pharmacy today to pick up my levothyroxine (synthetic T4) prescription, and it wasn’t ready — so I sat and read the lit they had in the waiting area. One pamphlet was called “Weight Management” so I figured I’d see what kind of foolish things they’d say.

1. “Eat filling foods that are low in calories.” Because calories are calories, the body is a closed system, and our digestive system is identical to a bomb furnace, right? They suggest grains and legumes, because lectins are a health food, of course.

I’ve tried to completely avoid grains and legumes. The only legumes I’ve had since November is a bit of hummus, before I sat and thought about the fact that it’s ground garbanzo beans. Maybe some soybean oil in fast-food condiments, such as mayo and salad dressings. Unfortunately I’ve had a few pieces of bread: one sandwich, some breaded chicken nuggets (curse you Mickey Ds), and a brat in a bun. I need to stop doing that.

2. “When you eat meat, cut out fat and cut down portion sizes.” Hah! My last meal in Austin was a pound of steak. It was quite yummy. I try and get as much fat as I can, and I think I’m just not getting enough. I need to start adding more butter to the food I eat.

3. “Avoid fried foods.” Makes good sense, since most food is fried in vegetable oil, possibly including soy, peanut, and trans fats. As for losing weight, I don’t think this matters at all. Again, they’re trying to say “reduce calories,” and it’s easy to get a lot of calories from fried food.

4. “Use low-fat or nonfat dairy foods.” Cuz, you know, fat soluble vitamins are over-rated. This is part of the “fat makes you fat” mantra, which Taubes addressed directly in a “What if it’s all been a big fat lie” article in the NY Times Magazine and GCBC. Finding full-fat dairy is difficult. Raw milk cheeses are usually full-fat, but yogurt? Forget it. Out of the hundreds (no joke) of brands and flavors of yogurt at the local grocery store, there were maybe five that were full-fat; the rest reduced or nonfat. Yogurt is a good food if it’s made from raw milk. What’s the point of pasteurizing milk, then adding bacteria back in? Wtf? Of course, it’s what you have to do if your milk is ass. Frickin’ ass milk.

5. “Avoid fast food.” Tom Naughton addresses this well in his documentary. Fast food isn’t great on the paleo scale, but if you avoid full-sugar cola and strip the buns of the meat, it can be a part of a weight-loss diet. There’s low-carb options at tons of fast food places, especially if you’re willing to toss buns away. Stay away from their salad dressings, unless they’ve got a good oil and/or vinegar dressing.

6. “Avoid high-calorie, low-nutrient snacks.” I came to Paleo via the Weston A Price Foundation, which is high on nutrition, so I’m very much a high-nutrient guy. (They also tend to be pro-whole wheat, which is where they diverge from the rest of paleo crowd; see Kurt’s post on the subject.) There’s not much that’s high-calorie and low-nutrient, unless you eat potato chips, candy, fruit, or grain-based snack bars. They recommend nonfat yogurt (see above), hummus (see above!), baby carrots (nature’s candy bar), and pistachios (one out of four ain’t bad for a mainstream publication). I recommend not eating when you’re not hungry. And if you are hungry, eat a big, fatty piece of meat. With butter.

7. “Watch what you drink.” The only area that we agree, except for their recommendation of fat-free milk. At home I drink water; if I’m out, I drink unsweetened iced tea.

So this guide is mostly useless for weight loss. If you want to lose weight and be healthy, here’s my seven tips:

1. Eat fatty foods, such as meat and dairy. Add butter or bacon to every meal.
2. Avoid lean meat. It won’t be filling, your body is unlikely to process that much protein, and you’re skipping all the great fat-soluble vitamins.
3. Fast every so often. 24 hours a few days a week, or maybe 36 hours a couple times a week.
4. Cook with butter, not vegetable oil. If you’re lactose intolerant or want to stay away from casein, ghee or coconut oil are good options.
5. Avoid carbs. Your body burns way less fat when you’ve got an insulin spike. If you do eat carbs, only eat them once a day; you won’t be burning any fat for 3-4 hours after you ingest them.
6. Eat nutrient-dense food (such as pastured meat, eggs, and dairy), and avoid anti-nutrients (such as in grain and beans) and low-nutrient foods (such as potatoes or high-fiber veggies).
7. Avoid soda; drink water when you’re thirsty. Contemplate quitting caffeine, or switch to hot or iced tea.

I lost 8 pounds in December, and 14 in January. February is a short month, but I’m hoping for another 14 pounds.

The past few days I’ve been spending time in the park, going over rollers (mounds of snow with a smooth, circular profile) and jumps (which are shaped with a lip and a knuckle). It’s been my first time getting air on a snowboard and I thought I’d capture some of what I’ve learned.

I see a lot of people in the park that don’t know how to ride; that are barely staying up. Going over the jumps is a bit much for them, I think. At least they’re getting used to the jumps, but I don’t know how useful it is. One of the key bits that I’ve heard and seen about tricks is that you want to control speed, takeoff, and landing. If you can barely ride, you might be getting air but you aren’t likely to be learning to do it in a way that you control, can repeat, or can improve on. I really think it’s important to be able to link turns first.

Part of the reason I say that is because of my experience on the rollers. Before I tackled the jumps themselves, I went over dozens of rollers. They’re like an intro to jumps; there’s a ramp up, and ramp down, and you’ll feel a little less gravity (but not quite weightless) as you ride over the top. Trying to carve over the top of a jump tends to mean making a sharp turn right after the crest of the roller; I’ve heard that riding flat (ie not on edge) over the top (unless you’re spinning) is crucial, and all those rollers helped me not just practice riding flat but to see first-hand what happens when you’re not. Snowboarding is a balance sport, like surfing and skateboarding; the key ‘trick’ to learning to ride is getting a feel for balance. Where to put your weight, how hard to lean, etc. And jumps are the same thing.

Between jumps, I also scrub off a bit of speed and take a line for the next feature; that means good board control. It’s forced me to be ready and able to make quick turns; I can’t sit and traverse and take my time waiting for a turn; when you’ve got to get lined up within yards to make the next jump, and don’t want to be cresting over it at a crazy angle, you’ve got to turn quickly.

Getting air isn’t really difficult. It’s a matter of speed and direction. Learning to make jumps just means getting a feel for how fast to go, and how to get lined up. That’s what I’ve been doing for a few days; getting a feel for the speed, getting used to going over the jump, getting used to air, and getting more familiar and comfortable with speed. Which brings me to the second big thing to learn: speed.

When I started riding this year, I worked on making turns, staying on my feet, not getting tired out or lacing my boots to tight. At the same time, I worked on going faster. I eventually realized that I really wasn’t comfortable making right turns, either normal or switch. So I slowed back down and worked on making turns, over and over. (And on powder days I worked on getting used to powder, which is hella fun!) Now I’m speeding back up again. One of the things about jumps is you need a certain speed at the takeoff, and once you launch you can’t slow down until you land. Speed happens. If you’re not comfortable at speed, then I suggest working on that before you hit too many jumps.

There’s a couple great areas to learn to get air here at Mammoth. One is a bit steeper than the other, but has a bunch of rollers; the other has jumps that are very easy to work into. Sessioning these two has been great, a bit of variety to try one thing or another. If you don’t have options, you do what you can, but if you do have options, then go for it. I feel like it was easier to get air on the lower slopes, but I learned more about speed and takeoffs from the steeper slopes.

Of course I’m no pro. I’m not even doing any grabs or spins yet. But I feel that the rollers have taught me a lot — not just in words, but in feel. And now I’ve got a feel for air. I plan to hit the same areas tomorrow, maybe I’ll actually be doing 1s.

Confirmation Bias is looking for confirmation of a held belief; interpreting data as support for your beliefs. If you believe that garlic keeps away vampires, then you would interpret the absence of vampire attacks as evidence for your theory. If you believe that God designed humans, then you would interpret irregularities in the theory of evolution as evidence for your belief.

But the absence of vampire attacks itself isn’t evidence of anything. You would need to contrast that absence with the presence of attacks somewhere else.

I would like to believe that I am getting fitter. Of course. I want to get fitter. I think what I am doing is helping me. But is it? I made it all the way down from one of the longer lifts yesterday without stopping. Is that cuz I’m more fit now, or because my muscles have more stamina, or because I had more energy available to my muscles that day, or because my feet and ankles weren’t killing me? Riding in the powder today was exhausting. In powder, one raises the front of the board up by leaning on the back leg. It feels more like surfing. But it’s also hell on that back leg. Today told me I wasn’t as fit as I thought I was. But then again, I’m 230 pounds — am I more fit, or do I just weigh less? I haven’t run since I left Houston.

I would like to believe that Vit D3 is helping me ward of colds. In the hour or two after I take 4000 IU, my nasal congestion goes way. Then it comes back, and I take a couple more. How accurately am I keeping records? Is it just that I notice nasal congestion some times but not others? It’s been a persistant problem since I got here. Until Richard’s recent post on Vit D and colds, I was only taking 4000 IU a day. Now I’m taking 12, or more. Is it helping? Am I getting over new allergies? I’m I just giving credit for any improvement in my sinuses to D?

I will continue what I’m doing, but I’ve got to be cautious in my interpretations. More snow tonight, so I’ll hit the powder again first thing in the morning. I doubt my legs will improve greatly in the night – but I’ll be here for the season.

and it was good.

My first trip down a run in Colorado on December 22nd, I stopped about 14 times — about every 100 yards. My first run down Round Robin here at Mammoth, I stopped three or four times. Today, I made it all the way down Easy Rider/Comeback without stopping.

I feel more fit, at least on the slopes. My legs don’t burn as much, my ankles don’t hurt. As I talked about in the Ten Day Review, there’s a virtuous cycle there: I’m riding faster, making more turns and slipping less. As a result, I get down the mountain faster with less time spent straining my legs. I’ve dropped 14 pounds so far this year, in addition to about 8 in December, so that helps too; less extra mass to throw around the mountain.

I’ve heard a number of people say that snowboarding (and skiing) aren’t great workouts, but they’re fit people. If you’re overweight and/or unfit, walking up stairs can be a great workout, so I think snowboarding really does count. I remember back in December when I stopped, my heart and breathing was fast; I was obviously working hard. I haven’t done any weight training while I’ve been here but I’d like to start.

Today was my first real day in the park. I sessioned Wonderland yesterday, mostly hitting the rollers but also rolling over the small jumps a couple times, not getting air. But today I rode over to Disco Park and hit the rails, boxes, and jumps, getting some real air. There’s an “eighth-pipe” down at the bottom that I consider a gentle introduction to pipe riding. I like Disco; I find it much easier to ease into park stuff there than at Wonderland. Wonderland is much less crowded, however, and it’s easier to get some speed going into the jumps. Forest Trail, Main Park, South Park, and Jibs Galore are all a bit above my pay grade at the moment.

I also think I injured about every part of my body today; my knees, left wrist, and left shoulder. I found a stat (from 2000) that says that skiers have about 2.6 injuries per 1000 visits, whereas snowboarders have nearly 7 injuries per 1000 visits. Yeah, that was me today. (I didn’t visit ski patrol tho, so I guess this my injuries are uncounted in that total.) Luckily one doesn’t actually use their upper body when snowboarding!

We’re expecting about three feet of snow between now and the end of Saturday, so I plan to ride for a couple days, getting more powder experience. I might hit the park tomorrow morning, maybe not, but even tho Saturday will be crowded I do want to learn how to ride powder better. Sunday will be bluebird, but prolly groomed. Hmm. Choices!

I’ve been thinking of Fake Food the past few days, since my previous post last week. Strangely, Kurt had a post on a similar theme (Smoking Candy Cigarettes) a couple weeks ago that I missed (as I’ve been on a limited-internet diet til we got service here at the house) and recently read.

His post focuses on the sanction that such cheats give to the offending item; how a cheat now and then might give the impression that you still eat cake, etc. That avoiding cake isn’t a central part of your diet. I was coming at it from the effect it has on you, the cheater: eating fake pasta and sugar-free cookies is still pretty bad, and only one step removed from the real (bad) thing. That accepting that it’s OK to eat bread as long as it is gluten-free might lead to an occasional gluten-loaded bun now and then.

I did cheat last week; I ate a bun. It came with bratwurst, which is a favorite of mine, although I acknowledge that’s not an excuse. I’m not happy about the bun. I’m mentioning it here cuz I’d rather admit my failings then fake it (har). Plus mentioning it, writing it down, is a way of cementing the event in my mind, and remotivating myself to not do that again. I don’t want wheat, I don’t want cancer, I don’t want autoimmune diseases and gut distress.

Anyway, I was shopping today, and I thought of buying some rice noodles so I could make pasta, because … hmm, nostalgia? I used to make a lot of pasta. Pasta sauces are easy to make, and it’s easy to put whatever you want in to them. Pasta dishes are also hefty and filling. But… I don’t eat pasta, and although rice is probably the friendliest of the villainous grains it’s still a villain.

That got me thinking about diet soda. Diet Coke is a lot like gluten-free bread, or rice noodles, or candy cigarettes. Despite the flowery advertising for diet colas, I don’t think there’s anyone that would voluntarily drink them if it wasn’t for a desire for the non-diet versions, whether that desire comes from carb cravings or nostalgia or habit or whatever.

I think they’re fine as crutches; if you’re trying to transition to paleo, I think gluten-free bread, rice noodles, and diet coke are great. Some people do great quitting cold turkey, and if that’s you, then you can really skip this whole conversation. But I’ve had persistent problems with cheating. Carbs are cheating for me, and it’s the easiest thing to cheat on, because I’m eating low-carb to lose weight, not strictly to avoid disease. Wheat, however, is something I want to avoid 100%. I’d like to be wheat-free for a year, two years, a decade…. I’ve been aluminum and flouride free for years. Somehow that was a bit easier, mostly because those purchases (deodorant and toothpaste) are made rarely enough that I just need to be strong like once every six months. Cake.

Food, however, is something I eat daily. There are constant temptations to cheat. Convenience, social pressure, carb cravings that lead to bad food choices, etc. I don’t drink diet soda (choosing tea whenever I’m at a restaurant where I’d otherwise feel pressured to drink soda), and I’ve been 99% bean-free since last April. I still eat factory meat & eggs near daily, but 80% of my cheese is unpasteurized. I just need to … remember. Thinking about it before I down that hot dog bun would help. Gah.

One day at a time? I haven’t had any wheat today. It’s been five days since I last ate wheat.

I ate… somewhat better this week. No wheat (whereas last week I’d eaten a sandwich), but a few cokes. I’m cooking a bit more variety, which helps. I like preparing the same meal a few times in a row, but eating the same thing day after day gets to me. I’ve got chicken, ground beef, steak, and pork stocked in the freezer now so it’s easier. Plus eggs and ham.

I’m still buying basic supplies. Just today I bought EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil), which I don’t cook with of course but used to brush on some caprese. I don’t have a crock pot and I haven’t made stock, but I plan to soon. Sadly, I was a bit rushed on the day that I left Texas, and I forgot all my cooking stuff – my good knife, handy utensils, and the cookbooks. I felt the need for sugar today; we hosted a potluck here and someone prepared fried bananas, and I wanted to mix up some rum and sugar. But luckily that desire passed, and the bananas are gone so I’m not tempted with them any more.

I stopped at Mickey D’s this week to satisfy a french fry craving, buying a McDouble and stripping off the bun. But the tea sucked. Like day-old, bitter, nasty-tasting bark. I would have complained but instead I’m remembering it as a lesson to not go back. I had a similar experience at a restaurant up near the mountain, another incentive to eat out less.

I priced some grass-fed beef today. It could double my monthly food budget but at this point I think it’s the thing to do. I’ve got about eight pounds of frozen meat (of various flavors) atm, so not quite yet. I’ll prolly make stock first, then switch to grass-fed. I’m eating raw-milk cheese and taking my D3 and K2. I want to do more. Moving here was a life reset, so it’s a great time to establish new habits – like pastured meat and eggs, less fructose, etc. I’m even worried about solanine, despite having bought five pounds of potatoes for a buck (yay for the grocery circular!).

I do enjoy cooking. I find it very relaxing, even if I’m preparing food for a party. When I start cooking interesting stuff, I’ll post my results here.

I’m thinking Tuesdays will be food/cooking post days, and I do plan on doing snowboarding progress reports every ten days on the snow. The rest of the posts will continue to be random.

Going into my third week here, I’m settling into a routine. I ride Monday thru Friday, and find something else to do when the crowds move in on the weekends. When I ride, I get up in the morning, suit up, ride, and cook when I get home. Usually just one meal a day, which means frequent 24-hour fasts. I haven’t yet tried a 36-hour fast, but it’s tempting.

Every day that I’m on the mountain, there’s tons of people eating bagels, candy, breakfast bars, etc. They gotta take lunch, they gotta eat breakfast first, they gotta snack when they’re on the mountain… I really don’t feel it. Fasting is cake. But then, I’m on a 100% fat diet — burning off body fat the whole time.

IF is easy. I don’t feel hungry when I’m riding. I’m losing weight – is it the fasting, or the fact that I’m calorie-deficient?