Don't forget

Don't forget how good you've got it.

Striving for Greatness - Mt. Shasta

I am happiest when I am making progress. Progress towards anything, really, whether its planning a vacation, stacking wood, working on our house, cooking a great dinner, running 10 miles, or working out for two hours till I can't walk. Making progress requires a sense of purpose, I believe. Each action that I take during the day is driven by the idea that it serves a purpose - if I vacuum the living room, I won't have to inhale dog hair when I do yoga later on - if I split and stack wood, we'll be warm this winter - if I spend a lot of time planning this vacation, we'll have a smoother time once we're traveling - if I run 10 miles, I'll feel hungrier for the gigantic plate of nachos I'm going to eat for dinner - if we work tirelessly on our house until it's done, we can rent it out sooner and start a financially-independent lifestyle that I'm so desperate for. You get the idea.

This concept is really important to me. I feel really good about my direction, and have a great sense of self-worth, when I am making measurable progress towards a tangible goal. Anyone who makes lists can probably identify with this concept. A lack of this seems to be the source of a lot of my frustration.

Along the lines of tangible goals I've set my sights on Mt. Shasta for the end of the summer. I attempted to climb this mountain in 2006 with E and his brother. We didn't make the top, so naturally I'm jonesing to try again. Here are some photos of our adventure.

Mt. Shasta

Driving to Bunny Flat Trailhead

Buddies

Looking up to the Red Banks from Helen Lake

View of Black Butte and the Trinity Alps

Lunch break

Traversing from Green Butte Ridge to Helen Lake

Green Butte Ridge

Gazing over Casaval Ridge from Helen Lake as the sun sets

Dinner time

Shasta Mountain Guides setup

View of the Trinity Alps from the Red Banks

Snowy ridge

Red Banks - tiny tents visible in a line near the center

Red Banks - stopping point for this crew

Packing up for the descent

My Moment of Zen - The Perfect Green Smoothie

In the past month I have suffered from severely intense migraines - not the kind of migraines where I'm vomiting and unable to speak English, but bad enough where I don't want to get out of bed, can't have the lights on, have no appetite, definitely can't exercise, and don't want to think very hard. Pretty bad. I spent a lot of time doing research on nutrition, exercise and migraines and I hope to do a longer post on it later. One thing I did learn in my quest to eliminate "trigger" foods from my diet was how to finally make a decent green smoothie.

The info came from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen: their focus on gluten intolerance makes them a very attractive resource for me. To weed out nutritional intolerance, whatever they may be, they recommend an "elimination diet" based on green smoothies. I admit, I didn't really follow any particular recipe on their site because a lot of the recommended fruits contain Tyramine, a known migraine trigger. This afternoon following my yoga practice I drank a concoction of blueberries, cherries, some mango chunks, a big handful of spinach, a spoonful of unsweetened applesauce, some chilled ginger water I made last night, chia seeds, a chunk of broccoli, and a strawberry. Bananas are out, plums and raspberries are out, all citrus is out, and avocados are definitely out.

The green smoothies I make are rarely green. They are more often a sick-looking brown color, so getting the taste right is KEY. If it looks sick and tastes okay, I'm not going to drink it. If it looks okay and tastes GREAT, I'll demolish it and lick the blender clean.

Wouldn't we all rather be eating donuts?

Here is what I learned about green smoothies:

•  Don't hold back on the blender - blend for a long, long time to eliminate chunks of leafy greens floating in your drink
• Add cherries. Definitely add cherries.
• Green apples add a lot of flavor - tart flavor!
• Adding ginger water is tastier than adding plain old water. Steep some ginger in boiling water for 30 minutes then strain out the chunks.
• Blueberries and strawberries are delicious, good for you, and help with the color, but your smoothie is still going to be a shade of reddish brown. Probably not green.
• Kale does not break down very well in my blender. Spinach works out much better.
• You don't need bananas.

The green smoothie mentioned above is pretty much the best part of my day now. I sit on the couch with my eyes closed and drink it very, very slowly, allowing the flavor to permeate my being. It's a relaxing but invigorating experience that makes my day.

Wordless Wednesday

Transformation

Lots to Think About

My dog has decided she's a three year old human who gets scared shitless from bad dreams in the middle of the night and has to wake up mom and dad over and over until they loose it. The bonus of her being a dog (for us) is that we can take her out to sleep in the car, which she loves. This is not something you should do with a toddler, so I'm told. The downside is that I'm finding it really difficult to fall back asleep at 3 am, which leaves me plenty of time to think. Surprisingly, I was able to avoid negative, stressful thoughts and tried to focus on positive, proactive measures I can take to pull myself out of this funk.

3+ years ago E and I did a round of P90X - his idea, not mine. I'm usually game for anything active that doesn't involve immersing myself in cold water, so we ripped purchased the whole program off the internet and got started. We were immediately beat down in submission. As the first two months went by I remember being constantly cold and having an appetite that just wouldn't quit. I think I actually gained a few pounds overall, but I looked way better. I actually had an 'ass crease', which was an exciting first for me. We completed month three halfheartedly because we were already so ripped and badass that we clearly didn't need it. Ahem.

The .mpg files are collecting virtual dust in a folder on my desktop labeled "Workout" - I think I'm going to brush them off, rework the overall plan to incorporate some running, and see what happens.

She looks so innocent