Peace, love and... Granola.

I wake most days and the house is a disaster of kids and clothes and dishes and so much to be done...... ..... I WANT to clean a barbell... I need to clean my life... I mean my house.... ugh... and then I  think... you can look at your life and call it mess OR you can look at your mess and call it a life.  Then I start searching for beauty.. in everything I see.  Beauty is never hard to find.  Just looking outside can truly overwhelm me.  How beautiful it is to be alive and see the vibrant ever changing colors of a season's evolution.... But there is also so much beauty in the people around me... in who they are... what they have accomplished... or overcome... how much kindness and love they give.... I think about that saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"... if life doesn't look beautiful... all you have to do is change your vision....

FITNESS: 

It has been an incredible journey.  I have learned that I will always be a runner... running is something that brings me so much happiness and peace. My life zen.  My greatest friends,  greatest moments, my greatest accomplishments all formed by.... one foot in front of the other... breathing... living... taking it all in... my heart breaking with disappointment and swelling with pride all at the same time. Never feeling closer to death or more alive.   Running is so entwined in my life and always has been.... since that 5th garde cross country race where tears streamed down my face in fear and pain.... and the amazing feeling of finished.... again and again and again. 

Running: 

These days I am at the track 2 days a week for speed and power and running random miles 2 other days a week... No races... no goals... just pure happiness and trying to build muscle and strength while doing what I love.... Here are some of my favorites:

1200 repeats - Of this my running coach said... if done properly nothing is more effective ( that is latin for painful) 1 mile warm up - 3 rounds of 1200 meters with a speed burst in the last 50 of each 400/ 400 mt recovery jog. Cool down. 

3-5 easy miles 

800 warm up 8 400s (with 2min pure recovery between each 400) 800 mt cool down

Crossfit: 

2-3 classes a week. FUN FUN and more FUN.  I find myself working harder than ever on my skills... the technical stuff... and speed.... I try to focus on making the work out really fun... and something that I can do with an emphasis on fast.... if I could recommend one at home move to do---- burpees... all the burpees...

Olympic Lifting: 

AHHHHH my baby.  The new love of my life... what is that they say about your 3rd love... ? The first one is sweet, the second breaks your heart.. but the third..... I work on this about 4x a week. not heavy.... but breaking down form and detail and trying to LEARN ..... I am obsessed with the elegance in Olympic Lifting... the speed and the power and the technique..... that a tiny person can harness the power to control incredible amounts of mass.... it's amazing... I have never had more satisfaction in 5 seconds!!! Ladies... lift heavy things... realize that you can be powerful... and guys... it is just straight up amazing to see your strength... always...

Everyday I am humbled by my own abilities and inspired by the talent of others.... and I am so thankful for both.... 

Nutrition:

Man this is tricky... I truly try to eat when I am hungry.... balance my meals with meat, veggies, fruit, nuts, granola.... ice cream :) I try not to emphasize it or become obsessed... somedays are better than others and I give myself grace here.... I let the bad days go and just start again. It is not about a day,  or a week,  or even a month.  It is about a lifetime. 

My favorite recipe these days is to grill meat with peppers and sweet potatoes.  Peaches are also fantastic on the grill.  I throw extra chicken on there too and eat it with hot sauce as a snack through out the week.  I love grilling- most days I can't believe I am just outside... grilling food... I am going to stick my granola recipe in at the end of this blog,  because it's what people ask about most! 

LIFE:  

Hey there Covid.  WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK...... like is the world coming undone at the seams? Is the ceiling caving in? People are really up in arms about... masks... schools...social distancing... I am not even going to address the political chaos and the riots.... because.... that is just a no from me... So here we are walking around in a pandemic with NO ONE on the same page... because everyone has their own thoughts and ideas and so hence... we are ALL adding to the problem... I mean it's great and all that you want to live your life.... but I would truly appreciate it if you tried to NOT kill our entire senior population ... I mean at this point people who are exposed to the virus literally go out in public because... well... you know the flu... and here we are wondering why our numbers are sky rocketing and other countries are containing the virus... oh and everything is a lie and some hoax and OMFG I wish we could just delete this virus... is there an app for that? Can some one get on that? 

ohhhh dating is amazing. no seriously I am having all of the fun that I never had... in my life.... meeting crazy people, cool people, scary people :) And I am learning things like: You have to see people for who they are.... not for who you want them to be... and sometimes you really want to fix something or some one...but you can't... because it's not broken... ( read that again....) sometimes... not everything works the way you think it should... and that's life.... and that is ok. Better than ok... 

Today, a client was telling me that they started measuring the quality of life based on how they feel physically - the amount of days we wake up and feel good.... on a physical level.  What an incredible way to measure happiness and success...not; what do I have or what can I do or anything else outside of my body or control.... but simply... how does my body feel today? How am I doing? What if good days were literally that simple... and why aren't they? That sounds very.... peaceful. 

And I find that the only thing I search for is peace.  Not love or happiness or success. Just peace.  I have no idea where to find this.......or where to look.....

I really want to be more forgiving.  I think about forgiveness every day.  I think there is something in forgiveness that would undoubtedly bring me peace.  But I also think the person I need to forgive most is myself.  And so in searching for peace, along the path of forgiveness,  I must first define: what is peace.  Is it a quiet place, an inner contentment, a soft and gentle run, freedom, beauty, love.... What is peace?.... is it an inner stillness..... an inner sense of calm? Is it happiness? Does it feel like perfection... or is it being content with the flaws in reality.  Is it simply waking up and feeling good.....And why is it so important to me? 

I am sure I'll find peace... I know it's somewhere in this mess... buried under plies of clothing... and dishes and dust.....between all of the love and laughter that surrounds what we choose not to clean...because we are busy living.... and I know it's worth it and I know life is always going to be messy... and maybe that's it... maybe if we are lucky life is a beautiful, peaceful, mess that we wouldn't change for anything.

Granola - I would recommend organic if possible... 

Preheat oven to 350

3 cups of oats

1 cup of finely chopped nuts: I like to mix Almonds, Cashews, Pecans.  

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut

1-2 tablespoons vanilla

1 cup honey( or pure maple syrup)and coconut oil - depends on your sweetness preference... I like a 1/2 to 1/2 ratio on this. 

Mix all dry ingredients.  Then in a separate bowl or cup mix all of the liquid.  I heat the coconut oil and then stir it in with the honey and vanilla.  Begin to combine ingredients by slowly adding the liquid to the dry mix, stirring to combine.  Once it is all mixed spread on to a cookie sheet - I like to do parchment paper on the cookie sheet because it is WAY easier to remove once cooked and clean up is non existent! 

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes... until light golden color....( if your edges start to brown it's done!). Also if you are more patient cooking for 45 min at about 275 will make it a bit more crunchy with out any brown on the edges.  

Add any dried fruit - we like cherries or chopped apricot.... and let it cool... the longer it cools the more crunchy it will be... you will get big granola bar chunks if you cool for hours.... but for cereal like granola 30-60 min is fine.

Store in Ziplock gallon bags or Tupperware container....