What motivates you?
I can’t believe I almost didn’t get out on the trails today. Let me tell you how the morning started. The alarm went off at 5:30,which thank goodness for the end of daylight savings time, was actually only 6:30. Nonetheless the alarm was set early as Leigh was heading out on a hike/climb with some friends and I decided to take a day to myself (yes sometimes we do things separately). I thought I may as well make the most of the day, get up with Leigh make some breakfast and coffee and then head for an early morning training session at the bouldering gym, as I would probably have the gym to myself at that hour of the morning. Where Jack-o’-Lanterns go to die? How I would have felt if I stayed home. The bouldering gym. Sunlight beams through the trees. This is exactly how it played out as well. I seen Leigh off and was at the gym by 7:45. I played around for an hour, and I say play because it is way too much fun in there to call it training, and then decided to call it after I started to feel a bit sore and too pumped to stay on any of the holds. Made it home by around 9:00 and decided to have a second breakfast, which ended up being a little more leisurely than it should have been, but hey it’s Sunday! It’s always good to take some time for reflection. After a little perusing on the computer I came across an article (check it out here) by a local ultrarunner about staying motivated during the dark, rainy winter season of the PNW. Now today was nothing but sunshine but it was a good thing I read it when I did, because at that moment I was contemplating a nice long nap! I was starting to lose motivation fast, my mind was trying to convince me I was too tired and that I should be kind to myself. This is the oldest trick in the book though, my brain was trying to convince me of something I knew I would deeply regret later, and I almost fell for it. I read through the article and it smartened me up right quick! “The less you do, the less you’ll want to do. The more you do, the more you’ll want to do.” Those words kept buzzing through my head and as I lay on the bed feeling sorry for myself I firmly decided to get up and just put my running gear on. “You know you’ll feel better after you run.” “Just take...
What gets us Stoked, III
Check out this weeks selection of video clips that we’re loving here at Pebbleshoo. They really motivate us to get outside and moving. ...
Amazeballs
I wanted to share one of my absolute favourite recipes. You have probably seen quite a few versions of “snack or energy balls” around, but as a lover of everything that is almond I love this one. No cooking, no fussing and no prep time required. These are a cinch to make. Just throw the ingredients into a food processor, wiz it up and then roll into balls.Within minutes you will be enjoying a delicious healthy treat. Here is the recipe: Amaze Balls (Raw Cacao Almond Balls) Ingredients: 11 dates 1/2 cup almond butter 1/4 almond flour (optional) 1 cup raw almonds 1/4 raw cacao powder or nibs 1 tbsp raw honey 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 2 tbsp hemp seeds 2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 goji berries (soak for 1-2 minutes in water to soften) 2 tsp chia seeds sesame seeds Directions: Place all the ingredients except for the sesame seeds in a mixer and wiz until smooth. With your hands roll the mixture into small balls. Then pour the sesame onto a plate or in a bowl and roll the balls in until covered. Place the balls on a plate and refrigerate until hard. Tip: If you love the taste of sesame,try toasting the seeds before hand. It really adds an extra layer of flavour! Enjoy! (This recipe has been shared and adapted from one of my lovely friends who was kind enough to make and share more than a few versions of this recipe with me until it became what it is...
Running the Arc’teryx Squamish 50 23k
Photos by Lesley Morgan Loree Photos by Lesley Morgan Loree On Saturday, the 10th of August, I ran in my first ever race, road or trail, the “Squamish 50” 23k. It’s called the Squamish 50 as the main race is 50 miles long, but they also offer variants of the course that are 50km’s and 23km’s in length. Spring, the other half of pebbleshoo, ran in the 50km, a mammoth achievement, and will be posting her thoughts on that also. If you’ve been following this blog you might remember I posted about my reasons to run this race back in January, you can read that original post here: Twenty Three Well, did I hit my goal of losing 23lbs in weight? No. I did not. I’m around 15lbs lighter. I guess something changed between writing that initial post and actually running the race. Weight loss is still happening but I don’t frequently monitor my weight so it isn’t like I’ve set weight loss goals and am keeping track that I’m hitting them. I imagined I might lose around 23lbs by the race simply by being very active. I guess my body is happy with its current weight and doesn’t want it to drop much lower for now. Another aspect is that I don’t like feeling hungry. It’s an unnecessary mental distraction. Since January and when I wrote that first post about signing up for this race I’ve been doing a lot more Skiing, Mountain Biking and Rock Climbing, as well as some Backpacking and Mountaineering. Primarily though, compared to the last 3 years, I’ve cut back on Backpacking and spent a lot more of the Spring and Summer Mountain Biking and Rock Climbing. Generally, when my body is losing weight quickly, I feel hungry. When climbing it made me feel weak and when biking it made me feel shaky. This wasn’t good. I decided that I’d rather feel satiated and enjoy learning to get better at these activities than spend time thinking about food I could be eating. It seems to be working. I’m eating enough and I’m still losing weight, it’s just very, very slow. What has helped is that rather than reducing the quantity of food I was consuming I’ve changed the quality of it. I’m eating a lot more organic fruits and vegetables. I’ve cut out a lot of dairy as well, I consume no milk anymore (replaced it with Almond milk), I eat a little cheese and yogurt and trace amounts of butter. I’ve also cut back on wheat, refined sugars and canned foods. You might have noticed above that I didn’t mention running as...
Sometimes I forget…
I forget that I’m mortal. Ah, that macabre topic, Mortality. Oh how we like to ignore it. Posts like this usually stop being read around this point. We were all happily wrapped in our cocoon of distraction on the internet and in general and I had to remind us of the inevitable, that hourglass over our shoulders that never stops trickling sand. I like to read about Entrepreneurs and those that are driven by a singular passion. They all share one important way of thinking in common, they are all acutely aware of their own mortality. But they don’t view it as a negative, they channel that knowledge into fueling their passion to live well and follow their dreams. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. - Steve Jobs Procrastination and laziness are symptoms of forgetting we are mortal. Sometimes I waste a day doing nothing. The weather is bad and my energy is low and I’ve lost focus, like today actually. I spend time locked in a mental ouroboros of questions like: “what does it mean”, “where am I going”… the usual ones we all ask ourselves at some point. Sunrise comes and sunset goes and the day is gone. At the end of each day, before I sleep, I try to take stock of how I’ve grown. Even if that growth is mental alone or purely physical then I will sleep well. As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. - Henry David Thoreau But just wasting time to pass the day will ultimately bother me. I do it, I’m human, I need to decompress sometime. I also see the benefit of taking some time for personal reflection. But it’s important to not let oneself get into a habit of it. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. - Mahatma Gandhi I read once that feeling a nagging sense of dissatisfaction is a good thing, it’s what drives change in our lives. If we were satisfied and comfortable, why would we ever change or grow? So I embrace that feeling of dissatisfaction. I am mortal. The knowledge of it pushes me out of bed earlier in the morning to experience more of the day. When I sit idle watching fiction on TV that teaches me very little I feel a visceral unease to move. I...
