I think much of my weight gain has come from my lack of excercise. At one point I was quite active, skateboarding nearly everyday. At 25, I broke my leg, and hadn’t hopped on a board since. Considering that I didn’t have health insurance, it was a wise choice.

Now I am finally insured, so today I skated to the office and back multiple times. It is a gradual downhill, so I can work my muscles by carving down the streets. Coming back, I am really working my quads and calves pushing uphill. I couldn’t believe how tired 10 blocks made me, 6 years ago I could have done that all day long.

The added bonus of skating my way to health is that it’s way more fun than going to the gym, as it’s something I loved to do from ages 11-25. I need a new pair of skateboard friendly shoes though. I find myself pretty sloppy though, it’s been so long. My ankles are a bit weak and combined with my extra body weigh, and I can no longer ollie as high as I used to. Even simple shove-it tricks and nose wheelies are rough. But, I think if I make this a daily routine, I’ll be looking pretty good in a few months, both physically and in my abilities.

After recieving a rash of weight loss spam involving some mysterious product callled “Hoodia”, I decided to do a little investigation.

Hoodia is a flowering plant from south African countries and enjoys a protected status in these nations. One particular species “Hoodia gordonii” is often promoted as a weight loss “dietary supplement” by multi level marketers and late night infomercials. TrimSpa also markets it as “X37″ with that lovely psycho, Anna Nicole Smith.

Scientists supposed isolated the ingredient that causes appetite suppression, though it’s true effectiveness has yet to be confirmed, and it should be approached with caution.

Here I am, at least 4 months from the fattest, heaviest time of the year: The holidays. But I figured I’d take steps now to curb holiday weight gain by making this very visible reminder to myself: Don’t eat so much and excercise more during the holidays.

Of course, with family serving up all manners of pies and cakes and bacon, it can be quite difficult. Just remember, refusing grannie’s pecan pie and impossibly unbearable hard candy isn’t a bad thing at all.

That’s just my theory. Nicole has been trying to get my ass back to the gym more months, yet I tend to be resistant. Nicole on the other hand has finally started going back, which makes me feel all fat and blobby. Though my business partner made an observation last night that made me feel good: “Hey Kyle, that guy looks like a fat gothic you….”

And I thought the dude was thinner than me. Fat-astic!

Nicole has been taking some sort of Stacker Ephedra thing to curb her appetite. I don’t heartily agree with it, as it seems more reasonable to simply eat better an excercise more (both of which we suck at).

For quite some time, ephedra was banned in the US, but it was recently challenged in April of 2005. Interestingly enough, it was challenged in Utah, one of the most notoriously controlled states in the Union. So now it’s legal and Nicole is taking it. She’ll have to give her thoughts on it’s effectiveness.