Uh Oh, Here We Go Again…

There will be no late registration this year. Knut has no hesitation. The Birkie is set for next year. Already, a plan is put into place for training this year.

Last year, Knut lost about 50 lbs before he started training, using the South Beach Diet. Basically, South Beach has 3 phases. Phase 1 lasts 2 weeks. It’s lower fat meats, and a ton of high fiber, green vegis. He has cheeses and nuts for snacks. Those 2 weeks were tough. After that, you go to phase 2. He adds back in fruits, some of the more sugary vegis, whole grains, and Splenda desserts, all in small quantities. This lasts until he gets to his ideal weight. Then there’s phase 3. That’s everything in moderation, to maintain that weight. By phase 3, it’s easy for him to understand what he can and can’t eat without any formal rules.

What he discovered last year, is something that the South Beach Diet also mentions. When you train for a sport more than one hour a day, you need quite a few more carbs. After his first day of skiing for over 2 hours, he came home shaking! He said he needed carbs, and lots of them! So all of our old meals came back, because he needed them to sustain his body during training.

The thing is…he did the Birkie quite a few months ago. The carbs didn’t leave with the training. So although Knut hasn’t come close gained the 50 lbs back, he wants to get back to an ideal training weight before he starts training this fall, so phase 1 begins again this week for him.

I’ve mastered the art, for the most part, of cooking so that Knut looses weight, and I gain it. You see, while he likes to lose it, I’m 5’2″ about 100 lbs normally. I am underweight. Not to mention, I think my doctor wants to see me start gaining some good numbers with this pregnancy. It is NOT diet time for me.

So my secret? Sides. I don’t have the time to make multiple meals for us to sit down to. So I make one meal with the meats and vegis that are so healthy for all us us, and the kids and I have a side of a baked potato, or bread, or rice, or something else loaded with carbs. We have dessert to, though we don’t always have it in the evening, but during a part of the day that Knut is at work. He normally doesn’t touch desserts when he’s dieting, as long as there are some good snacks that he can have there in abundance.

Really, the only thing that changes when Knut is on phase 1 or 2 of the South Beach is that our whole family eats a lot more vegetables. I can’t really see a downside to that, and for the most part, the kids are used to it.

Although Knut likes to take out his rollar skis when he can in the summer, the thing he will probably do for training most of until the snow falls is P90X which is an insane DVD exercise program. He borrowed it from someone before, and saw amazing results. I think we’ll buy him his own set of DVDs and equipment this year, as soon as we’ve saved up enough. After harvest, and the snow has fallen, he’ll move to skiing a few hours a day a few times a week again.

That was a lot of time away from home last year during his off (or I should say “low”)season of work, but part of the problem was that he had to drive out to the ski gaard to wax his skis often, and that’s a bit of a drive, and then of course, is getting it done there. This year, we’re hoping to get him his own wax iron for Christmas so he can set up a waxing station in our basement, so he can get that portion done in a few minutes at home instead of over an hour a driving each week just to wax. I think that will help, and he’ll be able to train a little bit closer to home more often, although I do expect him to go out to the trails at the ski gaard quite often still!

Watch out 2011 Birkie. Knut is coming! Last year the weather was ideal, and he beat his goal as far as time. It’s hard to imagine how it can be improved upon this next year, but I had so much fun watching him do it last year, that I wouldn’t hesitate either in going again!