Horses, goats, and hounds...oh my!

Visiting with goats and chatting with dogs, these experiences are par for the course on a good long run.  The day after Christmas I did my typical trail run just as the sun was coming up, we were heading out to the inlaws for second Christmas, so I needed to have my run squared away nice and early to have plenty of time to get cleaned up for the party and whip up a salad to share with the masses.  I have been dressing creatively for early morning runs, with temps in the 30s just before dawn, this thin blooded California girl has needed to bundle up to survive the chill. 

Wearing legwarmers (and armwarmers) my brother gave me a few Christmases ago. When he gave them to me, I bet he didn’t imagine me wearing them in public while running all over town!

At my favorite water fountain I spied a sneaky goat stealing hay from the horse’s feed bag.  The horse disapproved with low snuffling sounds, which deterred the goat for a few seconds, then the pilfering of  his breakfast would resume.  Other barnyard antics included these two fluffy kids head butting one another half heartedly, getting distracted and tired, then ending up resting their heads on one another, turning their sparring into a morning cuddle. 

As I left the trail and approached the freeway overpass, a white curly dog stood alone on the sidewalk watering a nearby patch of weeds.  I didn’t like the idea of this little friend being so close to the freeway traffic, so as I jogged up I called him over to check his collar.  Retirement home to right, new housing development to the left, and no other humans out on the sidewalk didn’t bode well for his being in the right place.  This cock-a-poo like mutt hopped up on the low wall between the sidewalk and the retirement home, seemingly so I could read his tag with greater ease.  Thanks, pup!  The address matched that of the retirement home and just when I was thinking how appropriate that a retirement community should have a communal dog for the residents to love or allow them to bring their longtime companion when with them when they move in, a friendly, “WooooWhoooo,” was called out from the covered patio.  I looked across the lawn to find a woman wrapped in an afghan swaying contentedly in her rocking chair giving me a reassuring wave.  “Is he with you?” I shouted across the lawn.  “Yes, thank you!” came the reply.  As if on cue, my snowy fluffy friend glanced back at me as if to request I release my grip on his collar then bounded off across the grass in the direction of the rocking granny.  Luckily that little doggie didn’t need my help at all, but how lovely to discover that my assumption that a retirement home wouldn’t allow dogs was dead wrong.  At least there is one facility in Claremont where canine companions are welcome. 

This reminded me of an episode of the Twilight Zone where a man and his dog somehow die during a hunting trip and an angel meets him on the road and invites him to follow him on the path to heaven.  The angel explains that the dog is not allowed so the man refuses to follow and takes a different path.  Eventually he arrives at the gates to heaven and he and his dog are welcomed.  When the man asks the true angel about the other man he met on the path, we are led to believe that the first invitation would have led him to hell, because an afterlife without dogs would be equal to damnation.  Similarly I imagine a retirement without our furry friends would be a wicked sentence to give to seniors.  This sounds like a campaign worth starting if there isn’t one already begun.  I would be interested to know if senior centers or retirement homes.

Random beauty on the trail.

Season of Change

 

This weekend I had a magical long run.  There were fallen leaves were underfoot and the humming birds did abound.  Even the always difficult first mile was absurdly mild, the uphill left me undaunted, I found myself gliding down the trail, embracing the elusive runner’s high!  

My magical run!  You can almost feel the runner's high, right?

 

Other than the constant that is my weekend long run, life is constantly shifting and like a good animal, I’m trying to adapt.  Since our sugar detox, there have been items in our pantry that needed to go bye-bye.  In fact, we have been eating less gluten for over a year now, and I’ve held onto my canisters of all purpose flour, wheat flour, viral gluten and more just in case I had to bake bread, though I’ve rarely even tasted bread over the last 18 months. In accordance with the yogic yama, apaigraha, non-hoarding or non-collecting, I am constantly trying to let go of that which no longer serves me (trusting that if I let it go and it is something I truly need it will come back to me). Why is this so hard to do with food?  Today I repurposed those containers and filled them with rice flour, coconut flour, coconut sugar and almond meal.  

Upside down view of those canisters, I'm fancy like that!

 

Likewise I took all of the brown sugar and granulated sugar I had I my well stocked baker’s pantry and make a batch of sugar body scrubs, some to use as an exfoliant and some to give away.  In addition, as a result of our healthier diet and my ongoing commitment to fitness, lots of the clothes I’ve held onto for the last 10 years don’t fit quite right.  I went through closets, cupboards, and dressers to weed out three bags worth of clothing for donation.  

Donations

 

Eliminating items that no longer fit my lifestyle or me and finding ways to gift these things that I once loved but no longer need to those who might enjoy them was quite satisfying. 

Yet, needing comfort food in the face of change, I made cookies!  Gluten-free lower sugar cookies, to be sure, but none the less delicious.  I make about 2-4 cups of almond butter weekly with my food processor, to bake with, to enjoy on an apple or banana, or simply to suck off a spoon with some raw milk in the evening if I’m hungry before bed.  I know butter sounds indulgent but my almond butter is made simply of almonds, a small amount of healthy coconut oil and a sprinkle of sea salt; very nutritious.  So by association I’m going to call these healthy cookies or at least healthier cookies!  

 

Ginger molasses cookies

1 cup almond butter

2 eggs

3 tbsp molasses

1 tsp maple syrup

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

(Blend these ingredients in a bowl with a hand mixer)

¼ cup coconut sugar

¼ cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

¾ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp allspice

½ tsp salt

1 sprinkle freshly ground pepper

(Combine these ingredients, whisking together, then stir into the wet mixture until Incorporated).

At 350 on baking sheets lined with parchment paper drop 1 tsp of dough, spaced 2 inches apart (it will spread considerably).   Bake for 5 minutes, rotate the cookie sheet, then bake for 5 more minutes.  Allow to cool slightly before removing with a spatula. 

Fall is falling!

Who says we don’t have seasons in California?  Exhibit A:  It has been in the 30s for my last 3 early morning runs. I have needed to wear running tights and long sleeves to cope.  (Note the lack of shorts!) 

Exhibit B:  Here are some trees on the street where I live doing something amazing, they are changing color. I don’t think I need further evidence fall is falling here in Claremont.  

Colorful leaves on morning run.

Leaves starting to change color on my street!

Cute husband with his cute car (fall leaves in background).

Raking leaves, late morning runs, teaching vinyasa flow and taking restorative yoga class, early afternoon hikes and bike rides; my fall break has been sublime. We enjoyed a snowflake filled Thanksgiving Day with the Jackson family in Big Bear. 

Photo I took leaving IceHouse Canyon at Mt. Baldy after a hike.  Any ideas what is going on in lower right hand corner?
Eyeball of hillside dragon awakening from slumber, alien space ship taking flight, spectral entity???... I haven't a clue!

Leaving Big Bear

I always feel like the days surrounding Thanksgiving are not complete unless you are eating pumpkin pie or something similar for breakfast.  I made this same crustless Paleoish pumpkin pie for breakfast last year around this time.  This year I cut the sugar even more and added an egg to help it firm up in the oven.  After eating this for breakfast for the past week, I think I’ve gotten my pumpkin fix for the fall.  Any ideas for what I should eat for breakfast as we start to welcome winter? 

1 banana (mashed)

1 can pumpkin puree (15-16 oz)

1 egg

¼ cup coconut sugar or (1-2 tbsp maple syrup)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp allspice

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ fresh grated nutmeg

Put everything in the food processor and run until smooth.  Pour into a brownie pan or loaf pan sprayed with coconut oil cooking spray.

 Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Top with homemade whip cream and toasted pecans.  Store in the fridge after baking.

Seasonal Shifts: from dawn to dusk

Yes, we recently celebrated Halloween.  No I’m not titling this post after the 1990s horror movie with a similar name.  With our daylight savings shift this weekend, my Saturday morning run was before sunrise, ending my five miles just at dawn. 

My Sunday afternoon nature walk, a speedy but  meditative two miles, ended at dusk.  I found that these sojourns in the hills were the perfect bookends to my weekend. 

Such symmetry helped to make sense of the otherwise disorienting shift of sleeping, waking, and odd light, that often times upsets my world with the time change.  I hope to remember this ceremony of greeting the light at either end of the horizon and carry this out from year to year when we make this seasonal shift. 

Among other things I hope to remember from this weekend, would be how much fun I had with my husband on Halloween.  His band played at the Black Watch Pub dressed as The Ghost Busters.  I dressed as Sigourney Weaver’s character Dana Barrett.  This is one of Greg’s and now one of my favorite movies.  So we spent the night quoting, snapping photos and enjoying good music.  The band even played the Ghost Busters theme song! 

We are entering into our final week of our Sugar Detox.  We managed to get through Halloween and avoided the temptation of all the candy that abounds during this week.  That doesn’t mean that we’ve been skipping dessert entirely.  Here is a sugar free pumpkin pie-ish recipe I concocted tonight.

8 oz canned pumpkin

1 egg

1 mashed banana

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

sprinkle of sea salt

(Put all ingredients in food process are run until smooth, pour into custard cups and bake at 350 for 20 min.) 

How sweet it isn't

Life got busy, as it is prone to do.  I won’t dwell on all the events over the last couple of weeks I wish I had time to blog about. Instead, I’ll focus on now.  My husband, my mom and I are on Day 7 of a 21 day sugar detox.  I can’t say it has been easy (we have each had our moments) but I think we are all learning lots about our habits and choices.

Greg eyes the gluten and sugar-free muffin suspiciously, but they turned out to be great!

One of the helpful tips I’ve read about doing any type of a cleanse or detox, is to spend some time in nature.  So I ran on my favorite trail on Saturday and my sweet husband took me on a Sunday drive to Mount Baldy, our local mountain town, to see some trees and get some altitude. 

We are choosing not to eat many things for these three weeks so we are broadening our horizons as to the things we will eat.  I haven’t made a pot roast in almost 20 years, but that is what we did tonight.  It took a long time to cook it but when it was finally done, we felt satisfied. 

Dessert is tricky when you aren’t adding sugar.  With Halloween coming up, I’ve been craving a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup like crazy.  So tonight I looked through the items on my list of permitted foods and concocted this treat.  Homemade almond butter, frozen by the teaspoon and cocoa powder mixed with coconut oil to make a chocolate sauce drizzled over the frozen treats.  While these lack the traditional sweetness, we are used to in candy, they are quite decadent and rich.  Two more weeks?  We can do this!  

Sugar-free chocolate sauce

Chocolatey nutty goodness= almond butter and cocoa drizzle

So much to write about, so little time!

So I've been having lots of fun as a 40 year old!  So much fun in fact I've had no time to update the blog!  Here are a few highlight to hold you over until I find a free moment.

Biking trail in Ojai

I had a wonderful birthday week.  A special Cheese Cave lunch with mom and grandma.  Biking in Ojai with my hubby. Family and friends galore visiting, sharing generous gifts and generally making me feel special in a variety of ways.

Beautiful Ojai

I just finished up an awesome yoga weekend that I hope to blog about in more detail soon.  Until then, I'll just say the 40 and fit challenge will be open to you all year, friends!  Join me for a hike, take my yoga class or request a walk or a run.  I already have some requests to schedule fitness dates, if you've told me you are in, I'll be checking my calendar and contacting you!

Sunny Daze

My favorite Burt’s Bees lotion, colored chalk, earrings, all sorts of delights and essentials have been included in the bag 40 gifts for my 40th that my mom gifted me.  There is still about a week left in the countdown.  Greg whipped out a big box tonight, which of course equaled hours of fun for our curious cat, Nala.  I was the recipient of a new bike helmet!  I think my husband might be planning to ask me on a bike riding date in the near future. 

  

Our weekend consisted of avoiding the still oppressive heat with a predawn run/ ride.  Greg rode his bike along with me for my seven miles on Saturday, the first 3 of which were in the dark.  As the sun started to come up, I realized one of my favorite things that running does for me is gets me out in nature as the world is waking up.  Those first three miles of silence punctuated with hushed conversations with the husband and listening to the sound of my breath, were gently broken with the first rays of light as the birds began to announce, wake up world, here comes the sun. 

We took shelter indoors most of the weekend as temps continued to climb to the upper 90s but we did make it out on Saturday Night to Dale Bros, where Greg’s band rocked out and helped several birthday boys and girls celebrate their special day.  I met up with several old friends but two young friends took me by surprise.  These young men were both my students and met in my class about 10 years ago.  It delighted me that they came out to see Mr. Jackson’s band and say hello to their old teacher.  However, my greatest joy was realizing that these young fellows had maintained their friendship all these years. At 18 and 19 years old they still nurture the friendship they forged in Room One.  I felt a little odd with these kiddos of mine towering over me and perhaps I felt a little old too, but I also felt loved.  Not just because these boys took time out of their busy lives to come say hello but also because they both submitted to posing for a picture with their old teacher in a public place, what could be more torturous? 

It’s too darn hot!

We are still hanging out in the high 90s here in So. Cal.  That means that the majority of the weekend gives way to air conditioning, movies and naps.  However we are blessed to have a few hours of cooler early morning temps and I certainly took advantage of those this weekend.

On Saturday, my running friend, Talia, invited me to join her for a 10K to prep for her upcoming ½ marathon.  We had hoped that starting at 6:30 would make us feel like we had slept in at least a little on Saturday morning. Unfortunately we were both still pretty sleepy as we started out. Once we got moving however, we pretty much beat the heat finishing our run before 8am.  On Sunday, my former student, Adelina, invited me for a birthday hike.  I met sweet Adelina when she was a 4^th grader in my very first full time teaching assignment about 18 years ago.  I was a very green 21-year-old teacher and Adelina is kind enough to remember me fondly.  I’m so delighted we have been able to keep in touch over the years.  Greg and I met her at 7am to hike Sycamore Canyon.  We got plenty sweaty but had some beautiful views on our early morning jaunt. 

Thanks, Adelina, for remembering to snap this selfie at the end of the trail and for the lovely visit!

So friends and family, I have had a few takers in my Fit at Forty challenge.  There are still a couple of weeks until I turn forty.  Hit me up for a hike, come visit one of my yoga classes, invite me out for a jog or walk.  Something else you would like to try?  Let me know.  I’m hoping to fill this whole year with active visits with family and friends. 

My mom’s special 40 gifts for my 40^th bag is more than half empty now.  This past week I opened many lovely gifts; a new lipstick on picture day, an adorable jar for serving homemade jam, lime essential oil, but by far my favorite was the Hello Kitty Colorforms!As a child, I remember passing many happy hours playing with Colorforms and I was completely in love with Hello Kitty!  My mom knows me pretty well!  I am so lucky to have her in my life! 

Weekend Update

This week in the birthday countdown gift opening marathon (that my mother has so kindly provided) I received some cute clothes, a storage box, some crayons, hair conditioner, and these cute fall cloth napkins and place mats which do a lovely job of Autumning up my dining room.  Hopefully the weather will get the hint soon and cool down, autumn is almost here on the calendar, time to cool off So Cal!

Nala loves helping me open my presents! 

Other than the impending 40^th birthday, I’ve been busy teaching.  Yes, elementary as usual but I am also teaching a level I Vinyasa Flow class at Claremont Yoga on Monday and Friday at 4pm.  Come and join me, friends! 

On Saturday, I was so exhausted from taking 33 kids to the fair in the heat and then teaching an active flow class on Friday afternoon that I opted to sleep in rather than do my long run.  Actually I got up and tried to find my running clothes, stumbling around the bedroom.  My sweet husband asked me, in just the right tone, “Honey do your really need to do a LONG run today?”  My body was so sore and exhausted that I knew I really shouldn’t be pushing and could use a rest day.  “No, I don’t think I should run at all today,” I replied on the verge of tears because I was so relieved.  After a restful Saturday of swimming with our nieces and going out for an early sushi dinner, Greg headed off to play a late night gig in the O.C. and I went straight to bed. 

Sunrise on my morning run!

I awoke on Sunday feeling ready for that long run.  The first three miles uphill were slow and purposeful. On top of exhaustion, I’ve been fighting a cold or allergies, not sure which.  At the top of the hill, a young man was using that first and necessary water fountain, so I waited my turn and watched him jog off.  This 14-15 year old African American fellow sporting glasses and a grin seemed to be setting a good pace for the downhill.  I made it my secret goal to catch up with him after I quenched my thirst.  I could barely keep this kiddo in view as I headed down the first stretch, he was pushing me to achieve sub 9-minute miles (which is a challenging pace for me especially in this heat, not setting any records here, I’m not fast but I go the distance!)  I had to weave in and out of a good number of joggers and walkers. At one point a gallant tall dark and handsome man who was certainly my senior, though I could not tell you by how many years, jogged off to the side to allow me to pass.  As he slowed, he smiled at me as I sped by and congratulated me for my effort, “Great job, Miss!”  I had to smile and puff out a strained “Thank You,” in his direction.

I don’t think my young running friend was aware of me at first but as I matched his pace he seemed to be alright with me pacing with him, not needing to pull ahead or fall behind. He ran on the horse path and I ran on the paved section, so we often lost sight of each other through the trees but as we neared the crossing at Mountain, he was only a few steps ahead.  I’m not sure what happened in the final stretch of the trail, but somehow I made it to the final water fountain ahead of the young man.  Finishing my drink, I noticed he was cuing up for a sip.  Catching my breath, I smiled at him saying hello as he wiped dripping water from his chin.  He smiled back and replied, “Great job, Ma’am!” Then he raced down the path leaving me to ponder.  Did this young fellow just happen to go to the same charm school as the older gentleman I saw on the path, or were the two father and son?  I got my answer at the end of the trail as the young man (who was apparently 16 or older was sitting in the driver seat of the vehicle waiting for dad who was slowly approaching the car, there were some younger siblings on scooters who were joining this group also).  So I had to wonder as I ran 8 miles instead of my regular 7, because I had some thinking to do, if I am between “miss” and “ma’am” depending on the age of the polite individual addressing me…what does that mean?  I guess it means I am almost 40!