Archive for the ‘Diet’ Category

A Li’l Bit Sick

Friday, March 5th, 2010

No wonder my energy levels dropped off this week—my body’s fighting a cold. Always happens, just before the cold starts to take hold, at least for me. I’m not sure if the cold comes first or the tiredness, actually. It’s entirely possible that I get really exhausted, and this makes the opportunity for the cold to invade my body. Or, the cold could step into my vessel, and it could respond by making me feel more tired as it focuses its efforts on killing the invader instead of recovering from workouts and building new muscle. Funny how “I” have little to no direct control over physical me, though, in instances like this. I often wonder if my mind games and efforts to expedite healing as the driver of this body work at all—as in, I visualize my body fighting off the cold, and I do what I can (more vitamin C and zinc and rest) to help it.

In any case, this doesn’t feel like that bad of a cold—I’m very sneezy, but it’s a dry kind of sneeze, dry throat, dry nose, and yet still that detached sort of woozy-in-the-head feeling. Not all that awesome, actually. And just a general mild achiness all around.

This didn’t stop me from having a really mellow bouldering session in the gym with Jody late in the afternoon yesterday. We caught the end-of-day sunshine while we moved around, making up mostly easy problems just to stretch out and enjoy. Definitely a low-energy session, but not a bad one at all, and not a bad way to end the day—I’d been writing all day before that, and I was ready to catch some of the sunshine before the return of grayness today.

At least it’s not a frigid gray any longer. March waltzed in and took over from February’s meanness, replacing it with blustery spring weather or sunshine, but no more single-digit cold snaps. I actually wouldn’t mind some rain, I think just because I haven’t seen rain in so long. Plus, it would probably help melt the remaining patches of snow away.

Today, I honor my body’s need for rest, with several articles to write to finish out this week of work, and then perhaps reading and watching a movie…and oh yeah, enjoying more of the amazing grass-fed beef. It really does taste different than the hormone-packed corn-fed cow that’s so readily available these days. Much leaner, and more flavorful, too. Delicious.

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A Nightmare in Dreamland

Monday, March 1st, 2010

The most frightening recurrent dream I have isn’t always the same dream, but rather, the same result at some point in the dream-state: I’m suddenly quite aware of my body—my real, physical body, I think—but I have the terrifying experience of feeling completely not integrated within it, and therefore, I cannot move or control it. Perhaps this is what paralysis feels like. It’s a sense of total dissociation, including my neck and head. I’m just not a part of my body, and yet I know it’s mine and that I’m supposed to be able to operate it.

On most of these occasions in the past, I’ve completely panicked in dream state, trying to scream or shout or just make some sort of noise, knowing (somehow) that this will cause the terrifying out-of-body feeling to cease, because I’ll wake myself up. However, this morning, for some reason, I completely managed to quell the rising panic. Instead, a calm inner voice took over, commanding with assurance that I just needed to move my arm, and everything would be okay. After what seemed like quite a struggle (who knows how long this really takes in dream-time), I moved the arm, and, just like that, I was back in my body wholly, though I didn’t really even wake up. I actually didn’t even remember this until I was reading this morning, and read about a patient in the book falling asleep in a way that put her arm to sleep—and just like that, as so often happens with forgotten dreams, my intense early-morning experience came flooding back.

This came after a sound night of sleep, probably a result of yesterday’s thorough and much-needed replenishment of my energy stores. After a morning workout (decent, had some progress), I headed to the State Bath House for a soak in the hot healing mineral waters. I can never make myself stay in longer than the recommended 20 minutes, so I was soon out of there and on my way to pick up my quarter of a grass-fed cow. I met the rancher (interesting how you can tell who the person is who’s waiting for you even when you’ve never met them and have no idea what they look like…I pulled up, looked over, and thought, “Yup, that’s him.”).

With the beef loaded up, I drove back over to Worland and went grocery shopping—something that I actually always really enjoy. I even succumbed to the pricey lure of the delectable-looking fresh sea scallops. Where they came up with those on a Sunday in the middle of Wyoming, I don’t know, but wow—they were amazing sautéed in butter and olive oil with a little garlic and parsley and dill. I think my physical body will be much happier now, with my food variety restored. I know that whatever part of my mental being relies on food is already happier.

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FOOD!

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

I don’t have much time this morning, as I have to do my second-day on power workout pretty quickly here, and then get going so I can go pick up my quarter of a cow, plus all of the groceries that are going to bring a new magic into my world. I’m ridiculously excited about this, after at least two weeks of extremely boring and repetitive food choices. I don’t know how dogs manage it, but I guess they don’t have much of a choice—being presented with a bowl of the exact same food every single day must be dull.

But then again, I found it quite laughable once long ago when I lived in a place full of people with more money than they knew what to do with, and I wrote an article about what they did for their pets—some of them bought their companion animals fresh food for every meal, serving Fluffy and Fido organic chopped steak and other such delicacies. I guess I’m human-centric, but I actually found this rather offensive in a world where other people are going hungry. I’d rather feed my dog dog food and send the difference in money saved to help feed hungry people, personally, if I had that much extra money floating around. But that’s just me.

Anyway, I feel pretty decent this morning, considering yesterday’s workout. I’m still getting crushed by the end-of-session power endurance training. Nothing I’ve done this winter has made me so totally exhausted and lacking energy as this. After everyone else left, I tried to make up some problems in the gym, but I found myself just burnt out and barely able to do much of anything.

Back inside, my hands were trashed (yet again); I guess the power endurance kills them, since I rely so much on my hands to perform (they are my strength; I fall of almost always because I can’t pull to the next hold). I managed to slog through everything else, somewhat slowly, drawing it out but getting through it, nonetheless. But what a huge difference it is from how I was feeling before we added this power endurance work. Amazing—means that it’s something I have to keep working on until it doesn’t annihilate me in this fashion.

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Returning Sun and Red Rocks

Friday, February 26th, 2010

I had the most amazing experience yesterday—I went for a run, and I didn’t need to wear a hat or gloves. Plus, it was actually sunny and warm. What a change of pace from what I’ve grown used to, and I can only hope that this general trend will continue now, banishing the frigid parts of winter back from whence they came for yet another year, even if there’s undoubtedly still some blustery spring snowstorms yet to come. Of course, this melt-off means that Jedi’s white coat automatically gets saturated with red clay from his chest down—even though I tried to avoid the muddy-dog phenomenon yesterday by not driving out to the desert, this failed, and he came home coated in clay. Oh well. I’ll deal with this if it means sunshine and warmth.

What I didn’t do yesterday is go grocery shopping—I put it off yet again, until Sunday, when I will actually go. That’s because I found out that my one-quarter of a grass-fed, synthetic-hormone-free cow is ready for pickup, and Sunday’s when I’m going to do that. This made it seem silly to go into town a scant three days prior, so I figured I’ll suffer through a few more days of culinary boredom. It will be a total of 37 days from my last grocery shopping trip before I restock my shelves, a new record for me.

Today marks three weeks until I do get to (hopefully) sample some truly warm desert sunshine at this year’s Red Rock Rendezvous in Vegas—I’ll be teaching the “Climb Like a Girl” clinics, for men who actually want to learn how to better utilize those two things attached to the ends of their legs in their rock climbing endeavors (they’re called feet, and you can actually stand on very small edges with them when you’re climbing).

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Listening and Learning

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

One degree Fahrenheit this morning, covering the world outside in a thick layer of brittle frost instead of more snow. I woke up way too early, at 5:15, and gave up, after reading my book for a time, on going back to sleep. Oh, well. Downstairs, build a fire, meditate, drink my coffee, read my book (different book). Prepare myself for today’s power workout mentally, after yesterday’s bouldering session.

It was a good one, despite my achy pinky finger on my left hand. Such is life; I simply stopped using it about halfway through the time, and then decided wisely to forgo any additional finger training yesterday—my hands are pooped at this point, so it’s time to just let them recover as long as they need to, until they feel fresher and less worked. I felt like it was my forearms that gave out before my power yesterday, which is the opposite of what usually happens, and so I listened to my body’s message and took it to heart—let the hands rest, and focus on other areas for the moment.

What helped with this, too, was my joining in with my bouldering partner’s efforts at building endurance and power endurance at the end of the session. I first did the problem he was working—a laps problem—saying I was going to try for 10 laps on it. I did this (140 moves), and stepped off, then witnessed a post-climbing pump I haven’t felt in quite some time, the kind that you don’t even feeling happening while you’re climbing, but that rises up and seizes your arms when you’re done. It was great!

After this, I mused aloud about possibly creating a laps problem like this for myself on the ultra-steep wall. I did this, then climbed it up and down once (17 moves). Then, after a rest while my partner worked his problem, I did it again, this time with maximal effort—I managed two-and-a-half laps, up and down climbing, with the final up-climbing mirroring pretty much exactly what climbing in the Red tends to turn into for me—I was hucking, screaming, and thrutching from hold to hold, feeling my body turn into a jumping, ever-smaller coil as I no longer had the power to move fluidly and easily. Forty-three easy moves were all I could manage on this angle, and that last time up, they felt anything but easy.

Totally delighted, I raved about this, realizing that this, along with my pull-up workout, hammers directly on an area of my climbing that could use serious improvement. This workout also thoroughly exhausted me—after all, continuous climbing is one of the top calorie-burning activities a person can do, and I felt the burn for sure. That’s when I decided to not do the finger workouts, feeling my sore pinky and just the overall fatigue levels soaring. Instead, I did all of the other supplementary stuff, the triceps lock-offs (which I’ve suddenly and finally improved tremendously at), squats, jumps, opposing muscles, core, and stretching.

This took me to the end of the day, when, exhausted, I watched the final episodes of The Wire (great show), soaked my hands in healing lineament, and had a dinner of salmon ‘n’ seaweed quinoa, making the best of my scanty pantry, which I’ll hopefully manage with until this Friday, when I have to go into town anyhow.

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More Snow

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

More snow this morning…for three days now, the snow has picked up in the evening, and apparently continued through the night, falling in tiny, barely discernable little pellets, topping off what’s already there for a time in the morning before stopping around midday. Yesterday, it kept me from meeting with my CPA and getting groceries—after a month of not doing any grocery shopping, I’m nearly out of food, but no matter. Now it’s turned into the grocery game, as in, how long can I make it and how creative can I get with my food? Probably until this Friday, when I have to go into town anyhow—and then it will seem like the most amazing abundance, having all new grocery items after a week of grains and beans or grains and fish, plus seaweed.

Today I boulder in the gym, followed by a training session. I’m looking forward to it, though I can feel that skulking, draggy feeling that starts at some point every winter, a pesky little thought tugging on the edges of my psyche, saying, “Hey, hey…psst…hey…won’t it be nice to climb outside in the sun again?” Impatience is its rightful name, and as I’m just over halfway through my three months of winter training, I’m not surprised at its appearance at this point.

However, since I’m nowhere near where I want to be at the end of this training time, I’ll just have to deal with it accordingly, reasoning with it about how important this consistent training time is, and how disappointed it will ultimately be if I give in to its seductive attempts to pull me from my course. I won’t get waylaid, that’s for sure. I’ll just feel antsy until this training time is up, and that’s fine…good to eagerly anticipate what’s to come while still staying present and dedicated to the task at hand.

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A Day in the Life

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

A Day in the Life…

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Notes ‘n’ News

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

10 degrees this morning, and cold in the house, too. For some reason, I didn’t keep the fire going for very long yesterday, so it dropped down to near 50 in here last night. Good for sleeping, but hard to very excited in the morning before the heat from the woodstove has penetrated beyond the main room of the house. But it will, soon enough, and today’s a training day, so by the time I’m done bouldering and doing another day’s worth of drop-down pull-ups, the house will be toasty, much easier for me to work in.

Yesterday, I took Jedi out for another run in the desert. This is now my absolute favorite winter outdoor activity here—it’s warmer up there, less snowy, totally gorgeous, and completely devoid of people. Awesome. It’s just a great place to take a dog out and let him run wild and free, as every dog should have the opportunity to do regularly. And it’s a great place to take one’s self out to run wild and free, too, as every person should have the opportunity to do regularly.

I received word yesterday that I’m now the Rock Climbing Feature Writer on Suite 101. What does this mean? More articles, especially on climbing, and more diversity of articles, too—another push to write more materials, which I’m excited about, starting with today’s articles, Bouldering Training Games for Indoor Climbing and Lamb Curry, Squash, and Black Bean Stew Recipe.

Also, I will be teaching clinics again this year at the Red Rocks Rendezvous in Las Vegas, which takes place March 19-21, thanks to the efforts of Petzl and prAna in supporting my travel to the event. For fun today, check out prAna’s latest video on Chris Sharma.

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A Dreamy Sunday & Two Spills

Monday, February 1st, 2010

What a dreamy Sunday that was! After training for about three hours in the morning, I drank a little Clif Recovery shake, and then headed out to the gym to put holds up while I awaited my coaching student. She arrived shortly after, and I spent a fun hour watching her climbing improve dramatically as she learned—fast! Always my favorite, students who just pick up on what I’m saying right away and start moving their bodies better, making improvements rapidly. By the end of the hour, she was tired, and her hands were torn up, so it was time to be done.

In the house, she held up her end of the bargain. A massage student, she set up her portable table and sent me off into one of those dreamy massage trances for over an hour. Ahhh. Pure relaxation, right when my body really needed it. I’d thought that perhaps after this, I’d put in some time writing on my personal book project (that I finally started on Saturday, realizing that if I didn’t just make the time to work on it, I’d never start it, because there will always, always, ALWAYS!, as I’ve observed before, be “something to do” that needs doing). After the massage, though, and walking the dog (who’d been waiting and crouching with his bum in the air wagging his tail all day long in anticipation for this incredible happening), I felt more like just giving myself the rest of the day off.

It was already evening, after all, and I had a movie and the start of the second season of The Wire to watch, so why not? Plus, I just felt purely tired, ready to kick back and relax, and I decided to honor this desire, and let my whole being recharge, body-mind-spirit. I treated myself to a delicious dinner of chicken noodle soup and date-nut bread, followed by a divine whole-milk yogurt, which is perhaps one of my favorite treats in the world. It’s so different entirely from the gelatinous hyper-sweetened nonfat goop that passes as yogurt for most people these days. I highly recommend it—find a brand that’s sweetened with maple syrup and/or honey, and is whole milk with cream on top, and oh, man, are you in for a treat. It’s an entirely different food.

After the yogurt, I was walking down the stairs, which are very, very steep in my house, and it finally happened—about halfway down, my slipper-clad foot lost its footing, caught an edge, and off I was, sledding down the rest of the stairs on my butt and flinging the spoon from the empty yogurt container off into God-knows-where with a clanking clatter (I found it this morning sitting on a shelf as if it had been placed there for decoration on purpose; last night it eluded me). Nothing hurt, I giggled to myself as I picked myself up from the base of the stairs in one piece, reflecting on just how klutzy I tend to get when I’m really tired from climbing training.

This revelation didn’t stop me from dumping near-boiling hot spiced tea all over my thigh a few minutes later as the teacup slipped slightly in my hand. Lovely. I didn’t hurt myself in this episode, either, and at least it was only a small amount of the tea. Hello, self. Please pay way more attention to those little, everyday tasks like walking and drinking tea when you’re pooped from training!

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Creative Cookery

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

“Be simple. Have a beginner’s mind. Allow plenty of time and don’t overload yourself with complicated recipes. Cookbooks and measurements are good guides, but use your own creativity and trust yourself to cook well without them.” ~ Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition, by Paul Pitchford.

This short passage resonated deeply within when I read it, for it reflects my approach to cooking these days. Once an avid user of cookbooks and established recipes, writing out long grocery lists of specific ingredients, I no longer do this—ever, actually. What I do is write down a general grocery list of supplies I need, and I work from that to purchase whatever looks good in the store. Then, I plan meals from day to day, choosing from whatever ingredients I happen to have on hand.

Still, I occasionally use a cookbook as a guide, as I did yesterday, in preparing that whole chicken. But once I had the chicken and the broth cooked, I departed from the recipe, and will probably never look up how to cook a chicken that way again; it’s filed away for future use. The result was a delicious chicken noodle soup with lots of green leafy vegetables and whole-grain egg noodles. Fantastic, especially when accompanied with a fresh-baked loaf of honey-date-walnut whole wheat bread (my own recipe) straight from the bread machine.

I highly recommend this approach to cooking. The more you do it, the better you become at it. I’m pretty cavalier about exact measurements for almost everything I make, and it always seems to turn out okay. Try out new spices and new combinations; shop according to what looks freshest and most healthy, and go from there. If you’re not sure, pop out a cookbook or check online for ideas and guidance, but don’t feel like it has to be an exact science. It doesn’t.

Guiding others to prepare their own healthy meals at home is the reason behind all of the recipes I post, such as today’s Healthy Vegetarian Breakfast Egg Frittata Recipe. I created this one morning earlier this week, and of course, then I wanted to share the idea with everyone, because it’s yummy and really easy to make, plus it’s packed with good nutrition. Along with the Easy & Quick Healthy Breakfast Cereal Recipe (I make mine with goji berries usually), it’s one of my breakfast mainstays these days.

The more you cook for yourself and your loved ones, the more confidence in and comprehension of the power of your own culinary wizardry you’ll gain, and the more delicious your meals will become. As in any endeavor, it takes time and effort to master, and there’s always room for improvement. But it’s fun and freeing, a time for you to use your imagination and play with your food. And if you occasionally make something really terrible tasting, the best thing to do is announce it yourself, remove everyone’s plates, and try, try again, laughing all the while.

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