Lucky.

I am still a few weeks away from reviewing my summer BUT there is something very important that I realized this weekend.

I have some absolutely amazing friends.

For almost my whole life I have searched for true friends... and this summer I found them.

Thank you, CrossFit Chilliwack, for providing a place where such wonderful people can be found.

I SUCK AT BLOGGING

I officially suck at blogging.

I don't think there are many people following my blog, but I am disappointed in myself for my lack of keeping up with this blog!!

GRR

so, new goal:

BLOG AT LEAST TWICE A WEEK.

the point of this blog was to keep track of my summer, and I want to do better. As of today, I will try harder. I promise myself.

But I have nothing to say today so I'll make a much more solid attempt this weekend.

Night !

PALEO

June is nutrition challenge month at CrossFit Chillwack. Translation?

4 days of hungry, irritable Morgan, but come day 5 my stomach had adjusted to my new diet AND I am now even enjoying it!

The Paleo Diet is summed up quickly into lean meats, seafood, vegetables, fresh fruits, and nuts and seeds. No sugar, dairy, grains or non-real/processed foods.

The most important part of this diet (for me anyways) is being ready for meals ahead of time. I like the food, and I feel good when I'm eating healthy, but when I'm in a rush and there's no veggies or fruit cut up and ready to go it's so much easier to grab something else (like a sandwhich or worse...). That being said, I haven't cheated once! EXCEPT, of course, for my once daily coffee which I will not give up... it has cream and sugar in it.

I've found some AMAZING recipes here, and the favorite so far are the Paleo Candy Bars... they are a freaking God send, any craving is completely combated by them AND they're totally healthy which is GREAT. I made a massive batch and gave them to some of my fellow CF'ers doing the challenge.

Best part? I've lost weight already AND I feel so good, and it's only been 6 days :D

Thank you CrossFit Chilliwack for this challenge! Can't wait to see the results come June 30th!

My Physio is a Superhero

So, I think I have seriously been slacking in the blogging department for the last 2 weeks, it's not that I don't have anything to say (and those of you who know me will agree with that... he he) I just can't focus enough to pick something to blog about. But I've decided to blog about my latest drama...

It's not what you expect I promise, but it's still driving me absolutely freaking mental...

I have a strained rotator cuff.

It sucks.

May 24th was the mark for one month of shoulder aches and pains. Rotator cuffs are a If you're wondering how I did this (besides the fact that some days I'm a clutz) it was a lovely combination of 3 hours of a CrossFit Olympic Lift "Snatch" clinic, mountain biking, sleeping funny while I was sick for 1.5 weeks and basically just overuse.

I started with just resting it and modifying all my CrossFit WOD's so that they don't work my shoulder. but here's the deal, it's my right shoulder... I'm right handed. It is absolutely impossible to clean my horses stalls, groom my horse, type at work, sort traffic tickets and do nearly EVERYTHING else without using your right shoulder.

After one month of limited movement, the aching and soreness was getting worse so I finally gave in last Thursday and went to see a physiotherapist. Today I had my second treatment and i only have one thing to say about it:

My physio is like superwoman mixed with the best magician ever.

Seriously though, the 80 minute sessions which have included ultrasound, weird little suction massager things and massages have made all the difference in the world, it's definitely not 100% but the mobility is coming back and the aching has all but disappeared, on Saturday I had absolutely no pain at all. I'm really kind of amazed at how much one, and then two, treatmenets has made.

This feeling better has come with some sad stipulations though... icing 3 times a day (I hate being cold!), no riding (and Levi's finally sound too!), no mountain biking, no guitar playing, and nothing involving my arms at CrossFit. Hopefully it will just be another week and I can slowly start adding some of those things in again, I am missing them ALL so much! On the plus side though, I've finally accomplished big box jumps at CF, and I've been able to work my lower body/core lots which tends to be my weaker areas!

But it's time for me to ice now so I should go, if you ever need a fabulous physio I know just the girl!

Here's a great big shout out to Glenn Mountain Orthopaedic and Sports Physiotherapy in Abbotsford! Thanks for fixing me!

Day 35 of 133 Days of Summer

Eat Pray Love

Tonight I finished my first book of the summer, "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert! And I am kind of sad about it because it's the best book I've ever read!!

It's the true story of "one woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia", and I have gotten more out of it than any book I've ever read; I went through the book "dog ear-ing" pages with good thoughts and insights that I wanted to read again once I had finished the book... turns out I need to read the entire book again :)

I don't want to give away too much about the book because I genuinely hope that anyone who happens to come across this post will consider picking up a copy, but there are two main parts I want to share briefly.

A major part of the Gilbert's novel is her search to strengthen her spirituality through meditation, and near the beginning of the book she talks about God, and her religious background and where she is now; I admire her greatly for her ability to take into consideration all faiths and their ways of connecting with their respective God's (who is really just One) and this is what she says:

"In the end, what I have come to believe about God is simple. It's like this - I used to have this really great dog. She came from the pounds. She was a mixture of about ten different breeds, but seemed to have inherited the finest features of them all. She was brown. When people asked me, 'What kind of dog is that?' I would always give the same answer: 'She's a brown dog.' Similarly, when the question is raised, 'what kind of God do you believe in?' my answer is easy: 'I believe in a magnificent God.'"

But perhaps the greatest thing Gilbert says in this novel, and the statement that I connect with the most, she makes at the end when it seems as though she has succeeded in finding "everything":

"What keeps me from dissolving right now into a complete fairy-tale shimmer is this solid truth, a truth which has veritably built my bones over the last few years - I was not rescued...; I was the administrator of my own Rescue.

My thoughts turn to something I read once, something the Zen Buddhists believe. They say that an oak tree is brought into creation by two forces at the same time. Obviously, there is the acorn from which it all begins, the seed which holds all the promise and potential, which grows into the tree. Everybody can see that. But only a few can recognize that there is another force operating here as well - the future tree itself, which wants so badly to exist that it pulls the acorn into being, drawing the seedling forth with longing out of the void guiding the evolution from nothingness to maturity. In this respect, say the Zens, it is the oak tree that creates the very acorn from which it was born.

I think about the woman I have become lately, about the life that I am now living, and about how much I always wanted to be this person and live this life, liberated from the farce of pretending to be anyone other than myself. I think of everything I endured getting here and wonder if it was me...who pulled the other, younger, more confused and more struggling me forward during all those hard years... and maybe it was this me who whispered lovingly into that desperate girl's ear... knowing already that everything would be OK, that everything would eventually bring us here. "

That statement is exactly what my hopes are for this summer. I know that it's going to take longer than the 133 days my summer has, but these 133 days are a start to finding the self that I seem to have lost after falling over and over again. I know that I'm here somewhere, and already, every day that I have spent reading, hiking, running, CrossFit-ing, and being with my horse, has begun the process of becoming the person I want to be, and who I know is inside of me somewhere, waiting to be set free.

Day 20 of 133 Days of Summer

let go

I just have to let go and hope that one day you willl realize what you've lost and come back.

So there it is, I'm letting go.

Please don't forget me.






Day 16 of 133 Days of Summer

fairy tale

You know how when you were a little kid and you believed in fairy tales, that fantasy of what your life would be, white dress, prince charming who would carry you away to a castle on a hill. You would lie in bed at night and close your eyes and you had complete and utter faith. Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Prince Charming, they were so close you could taste them, but eventually you grow up, one day you open your eyes and the fairy tale disappears. Most people turn to the things and people they can trust. But the thing is its hard to let go of that fairy tale entirely cause almost everyone has that smallest bit of hope, of faith, that one day they will open their eyes and it will come true.

- Meredith Grey
Grey's Anatomy