Post-Holiday Ski Trip-Working off the Holiday Pounds

The east coast got socked with snow yesterday. We had eight inches, but it snowed upwards of a foot of snow further south.

I'm not one of those snow adverse people. As long as I don't lose power, I love to get snowed in. It's great to have an excuse not go anywhere. Everything just kind of stops, and it gives me time to breathe, read and catch up on all those nasty little chores around the house I haven't been able to get to.

But I have to admit, I'm somewhat bummed that it snowed down here in Connecticut and they didn't even get an inch up in Vermont and New Hampshire.

Right after Christmas I'm leaving on my annual "the kids have a week off after Christmas and I don't know what the hell else to do with them, so we might as well go skiing" trip.

This trip is to be distinguished from my annual "the kids have a week off for President's week and I don't know what the hell to do with them so we might as well go skiing trip."

Since I'm leaving to ski in New Hampshire for a week right on December 27th, it would have been nice if they had gotten some snow. But c'est la vie.

Still, it should be a nice trip. I genuinely love to ski with my kids. And, its great for working off some of the caloric indulgences of the holiday season.

There is great site were you can estimate the number of calories you burn during any activity. Check it out here: http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc.

So, I thought I'd calculate how many calories I'll burn skiing. Now I usually down-hill ski a total of 4 hours, but the reality is between lift lines, waiting on the slope for the slow pokes, etc., running into the bathroom etc., I'll probably actually only ski 120 minutes out of the four hours.

Calories burned down hill skiing for 120 minutes is 1,029. I'll be down-hill skiing 4 days so that's 4,116 calories.

I'll also go cross-country skiing with the kids two days (your legs need the break from the down hill skiing). Again, between having to run in because the kids are tired, cold, need the bathroom, hungry, etc., I'll probably actually only ski for 120 minutes. Cross-country skiing for 120 minutes burns 1,341. Multiply that by 2 and you get 2,682 calories burned.

Potential calories I can burn on my post-Xmas Ski trip is 6,798. That can be almost 2 pounds of fat loss if I eat smart and stay away from the apre-ski hot chocolate and nachos.