Climb for Hospice

Ali and I spent some time yesterday hashing out ideas to fund raise. Now for the most part, Ali comes up with really good ideas. And then… and then there are times when she comes up with really, REALLY bad ideas. We’ve decided to adopt one of those, much to my great dismay. But more on that later… hey! Guess what time it is!? It’s time for another installment of:

The Protein Bar Taste Test!

Brand: Lara Bar
Flavour: Cherry
Tag Line: “Fruit and Nut Energy Bar”
First Ingredient: Dates

This bar was recommended to me by Michael at Open Space Yoga, as it is the bar of choice for Roz Savage, an adventuress who is paddling her kayak through uncharted waters. Solo. So hey, I figured if it’s good enough for someone who is kayaking across the entire Atlantic Ocean, it’s good enough for me!

Aside from being “gluten free, dairy free, soy free, vegan and kosher”, this bar is the uncontested winner of the Least Ingredients competition. The Lara Bar contains the following: dates, almonds, dried cherries, and refined sunflower oil. That’s it. Pretty impressive, really. Now, these are healthy little treats! In fact, they made my Protein Bar Taste Test a little skewed because I could not find a Lara Bar that contained chocolate, or caramel, or peanut butter. What kind of crap is this?! (But seriously, I was attempting to test the same types of bars, and since the Lara Bar is simply too healthy, I just went for the one with the prettiest coloured packaging).

It was a good tasting bar, but again the texture really threw me off. Maybe I’m just picky, I don’t know, but I don’t want hyper-grainy things scratching up my tongue and tearing at the roof of my mouth while denying me the benefits of a hearty bowl of Cap’n Crunch cereal (yah, you all know what I’m talking about).

I liked the Lara Bar, and think that the company is good, as well. However, if I’m going to jam my system full of quick foods, I want it to be really bad for me. I’ll plan a trip across The Line to see what kind of exciting Lara Bar flavours they have down there in the good ol’ USA. I’m really hoping for chocolate-covered possum bits, or maybe milkshake-dipped caramel fudge clumps.

Mmmm… fudge clumps…

So, after discussing it with a couple of people, I decided to take the plunge: I’ve made a Facebook page. I created the group (it has the same name as this blog), but it took me a good 10 minutes to click the “create group” button that would publish it to the world. I sat and stared at it, hoping that somehow another idea would magically present itself and save me from having to do this. Nothing came about, so I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and published the page.

I was hesitant to do the Facebook group page because… well, I guess I felt like I didn’t want to hound people, or annoy them. With a blog, I can just passively type entries, and if people stumble upon it and read it, that’s great. But with Facebook, I am asking people to join… I’m asking my friends to give me money/support/time/gifts… I hate that. I feel greedy. I feel embarassed. I feel shy. I guess I don’t want to ever make people feel obligated.

When it comes to fund raising, I’m too apologetic, and not nearly assertive enough. I’m far too passive. I’m the Bambi of Asking for Spare Change.

“You know, maybe if you want to think about possibly donating (only a dollar will be fine!), I would be really grateful for your kindness and generosity. I’m so sorry to have to ask, but.. you know what? 50 cents will do. If you want. I mean, no pressure. I’m sorry. Here… have a dollar. You can donate that. You know, if you want to.”

Part of me is grateful for the Olympics being in town, because it allows me to procrastinate on my fund raising, as I can simply think that people are too busy with other Olympic-related thoughts to give any time to my cause. Come March, I’m going to get very, very nervous.

I have two weeks to get geared up. Two weeks to perfect my spiel. Two weeks to create the best posters and flyers known to all mankind! Two weeks to learn to trust that I am not, in fact, an annoying freakshow, drooling for money. I am a local girl with a good heart and positive ideas. Every cent I raise goes to The Delta Hospice Society. If I just keep those two thoughts in my head, everything will be just fine.

“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!”

My Valentine (my mom, as always) was so very thoughtful this year. As a way to support my climbing Kilimanjaro, she went the extra mile to get me a gift that would not only give me energy, but help me with acclimatization.

My mom got me Himalayan Pink Salt, dark chocolate caramel chocolates from Purdy’s. She figured that since they came from the mountains, they’d be full of acclimatized air, and so would benefit me greatly.

Thanks mom!!

xo

I went to see my doctor yesterday to chat about some things, namely, you know… climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, and the pain in my hips.

Now, my doctor is not your run-of-the-mill MD. He is the wackiest, goofiest doctor in the world, with the most bizarre sense of humor. For example, one time when he was doing one of those icky girly exams, he decided to start talking about Mustangs, torque, combustion engines, and other manly-man things. Or there was the time when he offered to give a meanie ex-boyfriend of mine a pap smear. My doctor and I get along fantastically. I actually like going to see my doctor because he makes me laugh so much. It’s kind of like going to Yuk-Yuks, but with more tongue depressors and less hecklers.

So yesterday we have a chat, and he carefully examines my painful hips. He stands back, looks pensively at me with his chin resting on his thumb, and says, “So. You want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. In all honesty, I think you should wait.”

What!? WAIT?! I can’t “wait”! I have this whole blog thing, and some money already raised… I’ve been in The Optimist, man! I can’t “wait”!

“Ohh… I… I see…I mean, I guess I can understand that…” I say, as my brain starts reeling with the thousand and one things that I now need to do in order to stop this freight train.

“Yes”, he says, “I think you should wait”.

“Well, how long do you think I should wait for?”

Nodding his head sagely, knitting his brow, he takes a breath…

“Well, until they build a Mount Kilimanjaro in Vegas. Climb THAT one. And then you can go gambling after!”

Now THIS is my doctor in a nutshell.

“Well, really Doc, that does make sense. I mean, I can see the Eiffel Tower, go to the Pyramids AND climb Kilimanjaro all in one trip”, I say.

“In between the MGM Grand and The Mirage!”, he joyfully replies.

And in the end, after I stop laughing, and after he stops babbling on about Las Vegas, showgirls, and palm trees, he tells me that I’ll be ok to climb. Of course he knows very well that he wouldn’t be able to stop me anyway.

So for now, I will take it easy on myself. Maybe rest on the couch a bit more, put my feet up, have a bath, and take pleasure in the little things, like reading the magazines I deftly steal from his office.

How the simple act of living in my home is preparing me for the many different facets of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro:

The Cold
As a way to save money, I have basically had my heat off for the entire winter season. The reason for this is because I only have costly baseboard heaters, which some fantastically intelligent designer placed right under the biggest windows in my condo. Heat gloriously comes up, heat evilly gets sucked out into the great unknown.

The Heat
I have decided that in order to get myself used to the heat that I will be facing when I go to Tanzania, I am going to use my oven more often. If this means that I have to bake more cookies, then by god, I’ll just have to suffer through it. Cake in the name of adventure!

The Scree Slope
My dog Jenn is a tennis ball addict. At any given time, there can be upwards of 17 tennis balls scattered around my home (I’m not kidding). Often, as I stumble through the dark of night or the bleary morning, I am jolted awake by stepping on one of these fuzzy landmines and having my foot slip out from under me.

The Rain forest
I have a highly effective black thumb, and so no plant life has had the fortune to thrive in my home. Therefore I have had to resort to other means in order to try and understand the rain forest environment. I now take extended, hot showers with the bathroom fan off.

The Wild Animals
It is a common occurrence to be woken in the morning by the glorious feeling of a cold nose being shoved in my eye. Yes, my eye. If this does not work, my way-too-intelligent dog will slap her paw across my nostrils, causing me to splutter awake and be forced into the happy, waggy morning.

The Ascent
To best prepare myself for climbing more than 19,000 ft, I have made the decision to not use the elevator in my building. I use the stairs to go up to, and down from, my condo. Even if I have groceries, have just gotten back from having Cara kick my butt at the gym, or if I’ve had a long day, I still make the effort to climb those stairs. Sure I live on the first floor, but still!

The Altitude
I believe I can accurately understand the effects of Altitude Sickness due to my fondness for, and happy consumption of, champagne. This can lead to dizziness, giddiness, hallucinations, headaches and nausea. But usually it doesn’t. Usually.

By the time August comes around, I believe I’ll be fully prepared.

Quite a few of you have been asking about who I’m climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with in August. At this point, the team isn’t fully dedicated yet, but I certainly have a good number of people interested in joining me. I’m one of those don’t-count-your-chickens-before-they-hatch type of people, so until the money is where the mouth is, I’m holding off on revealing the full team. But for now, Team Kili consists of some work colleagues, some acquaintances, and a couple of really good friends*.

Some of you have also asked if you can join me on my climb. The short answer: absolutely! However, please know that you are responsible for all of your costs (flight, guide and porters, food, accommodations, etc…), and it can be quite costly. But the thing is, it’s really a once-in-a-lifetime trip, so maybe you’re more than happy to put some money into this incredible adventure. If that’s the case, please contact me and we can discuss you becoming a part of Team Kili. I’d love to have you stand atop the highest peak in Africa with me.

On a side note: please excuse the lack of ha-ha in my last few blogs. I love to entertain you all, and from the feedback I get, you seem to rather enjoy it, too. However, when my body is in pain I tend to want to focus solely on healing that pain and making it go far, far away. I’m feeling much better (aside from a twinge on my morning commute today that nearly had me drive off the road), and so will hopefully be getting back to making you laugh in the very near future. In the meantime, if you’re really hard-up for a giggle, I highly recommend coming by my place and watching me as I try to get into my car with one wonky hip.

Happy Thursday! xo

*In the upcoming weeks, I am going to be announcing a VERY exciting addition to my Kili Team!

It really is remarkable how a few days off of exercising can make one feel rather puddle-esque. I’ve been laid up for a couple of days now, taking time off of work, running, yoga, and life to just heal. About a week ago my arthritis started giving me problems, and for the past three days I’ve been on crutches and taking medications to allow me at least a little sleep at night.

That being said, as I look down at my wee muffin-top flopping over my pants, I shake my head in wonder at how little time it takes to go from lean, mean, hiking machine to puffy, round, love-lump. I’m really looking forward to getting back on track with my exercising. I know that I’ll be going hiking this Sunday, but to ensure that actually happens, I need to take another night off. No yoga for me, I’m afraid.

I’ll admit to you now, that I really haven’t been eating well of late. I’m eating too many processed foods, and it makes a huge difference in how my body looks, works and feels. It really is remarkable how all those easy-snacky foods that are stuffed in the bottom drawer of my desk at work make such a large impact on, well… my butt. My love handles are getting pretty over-developed, too. This is not a good look for me.

I think I need to ask my personal trainer, Cara, to make up a new eating plan for me. That could help. The first time she made me one, I felt amazing after only three days on it. After about a week, I noticed that my pants were getting quite loose. About three days after that, my belts didn’t fit. And so when I went to see Cara the next day, she added a couple ‘cheat meals’ to my eating plan, because she really wasn’t expecting my body to react so quickly to the new eating regimen. I have to admit, it was kind of frightening how much weight I shed in so little time. Just goes to show that filling up on bad stuff, leads to bad stuff filling you up.

I think I’ll call Cara right now…

Brand: Clif
Flavour: Peanut Butter
Tag Line: “High in protein, 23 vitamins and minerals”
First Ingredient: Soy protein isolate

The best part about this protein bar was the fact that it tasted like I was straight-up eating a sin. This was a really good tasting treat, I must say! And hey, at 270 calories a bar, I can see why it was so good – I think it was made entirely out of butter and bacon fat, lovingly hand-crafted by chubby, winged angels who giggle a lot. I’ll be honest with you – this bar is out of contention because it is too good. Like a diet pill, or an honest politician, it was simply too good to be true. Sorry Clif.

On Sundays, I usually go for a 3-5 hour hike with my good friend Ali, somewhere in the great, beautiful awesomeness that is Vancouver.

Saturdays and Mondays, I get on my treadmill for at least an hour and a half.

On Tuesday nights, I go to the crazy (but incredible) Core yoga class at OSY.

Wednesday nights are when I attend my Hatha yoga classes at OSY.

And Thursday nights I go to my extremely difficult (but fantastic) personal training class with Cara Thien.

Every day of the week starts with me walking Jenn and Luna for about 30 minutes, and every day of the week ends with me walking Jenn and Luna for about an hour.

And as tough as all this physical training is, the hardest, most tiring, most brain-draining part of this whole adventure… is planning the fund-raising gala. It’s the one thing (aside from altitude sickness) that stresses me out the most. It’s almost head-explosion worthy.

I like having things planned out pretty far in advance, and not being able to do that with the Kili Gala is really quite difficult for me. It was good to *not* hike with Ali yesterday, as we just sat down and chatted about all of our upcoming find-raising events a bit.

This is way more work than I thought it would be.

This morning I braved the cold (of my underground parking garage), and Ali braved the elements (running across her driveway in the misty rain to my waiting car), and together we forged ahead (to Ricky’s). We faced difficult decisions (sourdough or whole grain?), endured tests of strength (those little creamers can be hard to open!), and stared in the face of mountains (…of hashbrowns).

Together we discussed important aspects of the journey (bathroom: down the hall to the left), questioned the imperative issues (is it Superbowl Sunday? I thought that was at Thanksgiving or something), and pondered the breath-taking beauty around us (Non-smoking restaurants RULE).

We fought hard-won battles (over the bill), but we were prepared (cash, debit, credit). And when the time came for us to leave it all behind (plus a 20% tip), we did so full of pride, joy, and renewed vigor (in a word: coffee).

Another morning spent in the beauty of nature!

Hey, check it out! I’m on the Ladner Business Association website!

LBA Home

Thanks to Kate and the LBA!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand… I have a meeting with a Vancouver restaurateur next week to discuss having a fund raising dinner at his fantastic (and so very appropriate) establishment.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand… I got my very first donation for the silent auction that will happen at the fund raising Kili Gala in May (more info to follow). This is so exciting!

If anyone is interested in donating items for the silent auction, please feel free to contact me at any time.

This is going to be so freakin’ cool!