Being a Professional Ski Instructor is a very physically demanding job. Skiing by it's nature is an activity where the body is exposed to tremendous forces in short but intense bursts. This combine with cold temperatures and high altitude makes Skiing a major calorie burner. There is no way I could sustain the level of energy my day demanded without consuming a lot of calories. In fact, I have not felt so consistently ravenous since being a teenager.
Mid season, once I started to get worn down, my immune system went on the fritz. I readjusted my choices at the Staff Cafeteria to vegetables, protein, and water avoiding the chips, chocolate bars and Root Beer I had been routinely indulging in to that point. At altitude the body needs more water and you become painfully aware of this fact on the mountain surrounded by a sea of water, none of it drinkable. At home I took a regimen of supplements to bolster my immune system and made sure I got lots of sleep. Even with all these efforts I still found myself battling through a couple rotten colds. While it's possible to take sick days as a Ski Instructor you really don't want to for a variety of reason most important of which is powder days.
The sun was not my friend. Every day I would put on an SPF 70 sunscreen to battle goggle tan. For a while I thought I may have had it licked but one very cold but sunny day in late January I forgot. That was all the base tan my face needed to go crazy with the 5pm shadow that I later developed. The Sun on the mountain is amplified several times by the reflection off the snow. There isn't much you can do short of wearing a full ski mask every day and that would probably scare the clients.
There were periods in the season where I felt deeply tired to an extent I have never experienced before. The nature of the profession is you work when it's busy and play when it's not. I routinely skied through my days off making for long stretches without significant time to rest. At first I really tried to take days off and do nothing but sometimes I would get back on the mountain and my muscles felt like mush. Even though I had rested a little bit I hadn't rested enough to allow the muscles to completely heal.
The thing that worked the best was to just push through the discomfort and tiredness. Once I started to do this I really noticed an improvement in my energy level. It's not really my style to endure discomfort and tiredness, anyone who know's me well will atest to this. I'm really a with gravity kinda girl which is why I like Skiing so much. However, all my colleagues are such incredibly talented and dedicated hardcore's it seamed no matter how sick I was someone else was in good spirits while even sicker. No matter how big my bone spur got someone else's was even bigger and in a worse spot. No matter, how tired I was someone else had cheerfully pushed through even more days off and went to the Gym 2 night a week on top of it.
So It was peer pressure that made me so bad ass this season. If your trying to change your lifestyle I would recommend surrounding yourself with people who are living the way you want to live. After my experience this season I am convinced that positive team dynamics create a positive feedback loop. Great individuals are attracted to good teams and good teams make even better individuals. So if you are not totally happy with things in your life right now look at the people who are around you and ask yourself if your on the right team?
.JPG){kind=link}
