winter sports

Here are three Winter calorie burners from the OnSugar blog The13thMile: A Half-Marathon Blog.

Ice Skating – From a deserted lake in the woods, to the crowds of Central Park, ice skating is available all over the country. Even if you live in sunny Florida, there are indoor ice rinks. Ice skating activates different muscles, including the inner thighs and glutes – two areas that can be difficult to tone. There is also the balance component to skating – lean your weight on one leg, then the other, feeling how centered your balance can be. I’m certainly not a figure skater (I’m a known klutz), but as an ex-ballerina and a yogini-in-training, I’ve found skating can center the body while still blasting fat.

See the other Winter calorie burners when you read more

The following post was written by North Face athlete and champion freeskier Kit Deslauriers.

We all know we should take great care of our skin but how to do that when our love of the mountains means exposing our skin to harsh conditions?

My skin care regimen differs depending on if I am at home while preparing for my day in the mountains, or if I am on a 20 day expedition living in a tent and carrying all of my belongings on my back. Here's my basic approach, including a few of my favorite products, for at home and on expedition.

Home Skin Care

• Morning Routine: Wash your face in the morning. I just started using a Clarisonic skin care brush instead of simply my hands to apply a gentle cleanser and I love it! Next a splash of hydrating toner to keep that moisture in, followed by a high potency vitamin C serum since this helps start the day with increased moisture and protection against sun exposure. Top that off with a light lotion and then sunscreen. Always sunscreen! These five steps just shouldn’t be skipped if you want to stay on top of what you’ve got.
• Night Routine: Similar to the morning, start with a gentle cleanse, followed by hydrating toner splash, then some kind of hydrating serum, and lastly apply same lotion as in the morning or a thicker cream if you prefer. Honestly, I like to use a cream in the Winter and a lotion in the Summer.

Learn how teabags can save your skin in the back country.

The first time I went to a ski resort I never made it to the slopes because I chickened out. I ended up spending the weekend hanging out at the lodge by myself. The next trip was unsuccessful too. I went with experienced snowboarders to Lake Tahoe where I fell off of a chairlift and ended up having to slide down the mountain.

If you don't know what you're doing, skiing and snowboarding can be pretty dangerous. The equipment is tricky and not knowing how to maneuver yourself on the mountain can result in serious injury. Don't forget that you're sharing the slopes; not knowing how to stop properly is all it takes to hurt someone else. Thinking back to the day that I fell out of the chairlift, I'm lucky that no serious damage came to myself or anyone else. I made a promise to myself that the next time I went up, I'd learn the ropes.

To find out how I finally made it onto the slopes, read more

The following post was written by North Face athlete and champion freeskier Kit Deslauriers.

Why bother with cross training
My first philosophy is to never get bored so it is important to me to mix it up as far as cross training goes. Secondly, to carry a big pack and still ski the things we do, the core of the body has got to be incredibly strong. Combining this concept of core strengthening with keeping it fresh is the most important cross training combination to me since power comes both from our core and our minds.

Mountain post meets the mountain
If you can guess a single workout that targets both the core and the mind you will discover what I call my secret weapon: yoga. A strong body is a flexible body. I first discovered yoga when I was in pursuit of my World Freeskiing Tour titles and I became fascinated by the concept of ‘embracing my stiffness because I worked hard to get it’ while full of enjoyment with the moments of mental clarity during the challenging poses, and well-rounded by the humility required to continue to practice at something that I am most likely not the best in the room at.

Beyond yoga here are some more cross training tips:

I love going up to the mountains in the Winter to try my hand at snowboarding for a day. But since I only make it up once a season, I'm far from an expert snow bunny. In fact, I spend much of the time making it precariously down the easiest of slopes, tumbling and scooting along the way.

Even though next-day sore muscles are always a painful reminder about how much I have yet to learn, I love the feeling of gliding down a mountainside. But while skiing and snowboarding are fun ways to exercise and burn calories, the sports can seem intimidating if you don't know what to expect.

Preparing for the mountains is essential to making sure you have a safe and fun time, so if you are a snowboarding or skiing newbie looking to hit the (gentle) slopes, check out some of my tips for beginners after the break.

If you're planning on snowboarding or skiing this Winter, but don't own any gear, rent equipment from a local sports store before leaving for the mountains. You can rent gear at the resort, but renting in advance saves time and guarantees that you'll see action on the slopes. Here's why:

No wasted daylight hours at the rental booth — From personal experience, renting gear at the ski resort (or a nearby shop) is always hectic and takes longer than anticipated. With gear already in hand, you can head straight to the mountain and bypass the rental shop, which is especially important since most ski resorts close around 5 p.m.

First come, first served — Resort rental shops have a finite amount of sizes, and once they run out, you're left out of the fun. A friend of mine once lost an entire day of skiing because the mountain rental shop ran out of her boot size. Secure your gear before you go so that you'll have everything you need to hit the slopes.

If you're unable to rent gear ahead of time because of time or car size, call the rental equipment shops near your ski resort to see if they will hold equipment for you. And remember: rent a helmet!

I am pleased to introduce North Face athlete Kit Deslauriers. She shreds on the mountain, is a champion freeskier, and is guest blogging on FitSugar for January.

The Beginnings: Loving the peace of snow
With a resume that includes two-time World Freeskiing Women's Champion and being the first person to ski from the highest point on each continent, aka the Seven Summits, you would think that I started skiing when I was 2 years old, but that's not the way it went. To be sure, my two daughters started skiing at 15 and 17 months respectively and using sign language to ask for more since they were still too young to speak many words. But my story is more of one where I didn't grow up near a ski area nor could we afford to travel to one, so I learned to walk around outside in the woods in Winter on Nordic skis and found at an early age that I love the peace of being in nature in the Winter.

Learn why Kit thinks freeskiing is similar to meditation.

The East Coast is knee-deep in a snowpocalypse — or as some call it, snowmageddon. While some people are understandably pissed off at the headache that all of this snow presents, there are others who are making the most it by turning their city into a ski resort. I've seen pics of cross-country skiers making their way through Central Park, people snowshoeing in Philly, and others snowboarding their way through DC. My favorite has to be all the sledding and snowball fights that are going on. I admit that I have no idea what it's like to deal with a blizzard: temperatures at Sugar HQ are in the 50s.

If you're stuck in the snow this week, give yourself a snow day pass and burn some calories, too. Sledding burns over 300 calories an hour, snowshoeing over 400, and a hike through the snow will definitely get your blood pumping. And while a little fun in the snow might not take away all of the burn of the snow storms — think: school closures, airplane delays, and just getting to the grocery store — it might kill a little time until things can get back to normal.

Jessica Biel isn't lying when she says that she's most at home in the mountains. During an appearance on David Letterman last night, the A-Team star shared that her latest snowboarding trip came close to turning into an episode of Man vs. Wild — Jessica even contemplated building a snow cave! The actress — who has been snowboarding since she was a kid — describes herself as a "chill kind of groove rider." But after seeing this interview and knowing she trekked up Mount Kilimanjaro, I'm thinking she has a bit of an extreme sports gal inside of her.