this week... and goals

I've had a pretty good week.

I've mostly just been hanging out at home! It's nice sometimes. =)

I've gone to the gym a few times and I had pretty good days. I completed some pretty hard climbs for me, and I was pretty happy with it!

Yesterday I went to Little Rock City in Chattanooga and climbed outside. I mostly just climbed moderate climbs - I was going CRAZY to climb outside so anything would have been good. =) I'll post pics later.



So I didn't really realize that the new year starts TOMORROW... until a couple days ago. Well, I have a "vision board" in my room - It's a bulletin board where I post all my goals and visions. Needless to say, It helps me keep track of what I want to achieve in my life. HOWEVER, I failed to spend time looking at it often and visualizing my goals. So... I did not achieve my 2009 goals. They included to climb 10 v6s, 5 v7s and 1 v8. Well... i probably sent 4 or 5 v6s, 2-3 v7s and NO v8. Bummer.

BUT... then i got to thinking... i never even FOCUSED on my goal at all! I completely forgot about it! I dont know if this is a valid excuse, but still... I ALSO DIDNT KNOW I'D CHANGE MY EATING HABITS! THis was totally a shocker in my life. I never would have imagined last year that i would become a vegan... much less a RAW VEGAN!

Being a raw vegan has changed all areas of my life. Yes, it probably took time and energy away from climbing for a little bit while i was first figuring it out, but now they work together PERFECTLY!

And whats a year anyways? I know I can achieve these goals!!! It was just the lack of trips... lack of focus... I know i can do them soon enough!!! =)

I DO like goals, because i LOVE the achievement factor of achieving them. (WOAH I JUST GOT THE CHILLS) anyways, the higher my goals, the better i feel when they are accomplished. If i set easy goals and achieved them with ease, i probably would have been as excited as i was when I did HALF my goals for 2008, you know?



I need to edit my vision board... start with a clean slate. I'll try and do that today, and then i can take a picture and let you see it tomorrow. =)

My goals for 2009 include:

1. To be 100% 811rv (I am already mostly this, but I just need to cut out the binges on nuts every now and then! I also need to only eat when I am hungry and stop when I'm full. Not to mention, I would love to eat as simply as possible, not mixing more than 2-3 foods in one meal.)

2. To compost more (I compost ALL THE TIME in the summer, but for some reason I've been slacking in the winter and I can really feel that my connection with the earth has not been the same)

3. TRAIN HARDER (I've been seriously slacking in the winter with my training for climbing. Yes, i do climb ALL THE TIME, but i do not train. I felt a lot more toned in the summer... maybe it has to due with time? Not sure, but I know I can do it! I want to be strong ALL YEAR ROUND!)

4. send more than one v8 and possibly a v9

5. Inspire others with my lifestyle

Christmas!!!

I wish I posted more on here!!! I always have so much to say... and then when I finally sit down to type it all out, I forget what I was going to say...

Anyways, I've had a wonderful Christmas!!!

Last night we had the traditional Christmas Eve party at my house! It was so much fun!!! I will post pictures later!!!

Today I woke up at 5:00am and COULD NOT go back to sleep!!! i was SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS!!!

It's kind of funny --- I'm still such a little kid when it comes to christmas!!! I am far from being materialistic but I do enjoy gifts... but it's definitely not the only reason I enjoy christmas! It's just... the memories i think... and hanging out with the family... and eating the goodies (which this year was fruit!) and enjoying the lights.. and... everything! I just love it!!!

I was waiting for everyone to wake up --- i was going crazy!!! I wanted to YELL "GUYS ITS CHRISTMAS, WAKE UP ALREADYYYYYY!!!" haha...

It's always tradition for my brother and I to wake up early and open stockings (anywhere from 2-5 in the morning) and then go back to sleep and wake up a couple hours later to open presents...

So this year my stocking was FANTASTIC!!! It included many things including my favorite incense (Nag Champa), raw nuts, a fruit giftcard to Kroger, raw chocolate truffles, and 2 small books by Dr. Douglas Graham (Grain Damage and The New High Energy Recipe Guide)

As soon as I saw the books, I ran to my room and began reading Grain Damage while I waited for everyone to wake up. I read the whole thing! It was so good and it made so much sense!!! ahhhhhh i love dr. doug!!!

Anyways, later on everyone FINALLY woke up!!! I also ended up having a few presents under the tree!!! =) =) =)

My wonderful gifts included an electric citrus juicer + a HUUUUUUUUUGE basket of oranges and grapefruits to juice!!!

I also got a book called the Raw Secrets by Frederic Patenaude... its AMAZING!!! I am not finished with it but it is definitely the best researched book i've seen! it is OUTSTANDING and makes complete sense! His book goes hand in hand with 80/10/10 by Dr. Douglas Graham. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!!!!

Anyways, I'm gonna get off of here. How was your christmas? I'll add pics later!


This is me, my brother, nick from germany, and my friend marcus... looking at these incrdible lights:

the past few days

FOOD:
I've been drinking SO MUCH ORANGE JUICE LATELY!

It is basically all I want!

Yesterday I drank about 96 fluid ounces... that is about a half gallon and 2 pints!

I finally have been able to eat smoothies again (there was a short period of time where I couldn't stand bananas on their own OR in a smoothie.... now I can stand them in a green smoothie with spinach, but I still cannot stand them on their own.)


CLIMBING:
I had a good session at the climbing gym yesterday. I climbed with Colette McInerney and Joe Kinder.... they are both so ridiculously strong! and down to earth, i love them!



ART:
Today I went to get prints made of my art. I made prints of this piece:


If you would like one, I sell prints for $25 and I'd be glad to send you one! =)


TONIGHT:
I am very excited because in about an hour my best friend Josh is coming over with his girlfriend Kristin (also one of the coolest people ever) They are eating dinner with us. Not to mention, my brother came home from McCallie (his boarding high school in chattanooga) and his friend from Germany is staying with us over the Holidays. My mom is making the typical dinner for everyone.... ribs and potatoes and broccoli and corn.... but I made something else for Kristin and I (Kristen used to be vegan and raw and she is vegetarian...) I pretty much made this up as I went along, but it is basically a blend between a slaw and a salad:

-a bed of lettuce with a mixture of:
-grated jicama
-grated fuji apple
-chopped celery
-chopped cucumber
-juice of 1 lemon and 1 lime and the extra juice from the grated apple
-raisins sprinkled on top

The grated jicama and apple made almost a very thick moist slaw type of thing... and so i was thinking that with the bed of lettuce we can just take a few spoonfulls of the meal and put it on top of the lettuce... then we can sprinkle raisins and maybe even pecans or something! It is very sweet! I really hope Kristin enjoys it!

I will definitely post pictures later. =)

new art

I didn't get to add this art piece to my other post.

It is probably my favorite one so far.



=)

I have no idea what to name it.

this week

I have not been motivated to blog recently... I apologize!

Eating has been weird lately... i haven't been very attracted to fruits lately. I think it might have something to do with the winter. The only thing that I am attracted to is orange juice. Mmmmm...



On Saturday I went to a climbing competition near Nashville. It was a blast! However, I was the only person in my division. UGH. I hate how there are hardly any strong girls in my area who compete. =/

After the comp, I went to the holiday staff party at the climbing gym... it was SO MUCH FUN! We played dirty santa and I ended up with a "quad camera" which takes 4 pics at ones in one frame. COOL! After the game, we played twister on the climbing wall for a LONG time. And let me tell you, I have never EVER EVVVVERRRR been this sore. Ever. its ridiculous. =)

ART

Since I finally got some more pics of my art, i will share them with you. Tell me what you think!!!

Triple Crown... and a relaxed week.

I competed in Triple Crown (its a climbing competition) last Sunday. I climbed until my fingers were dripping blood and until I couldn't climb v2. I worked myself to the max and it was probably my best climbing day ever. I was extremely sore for 4 days after!!! I ended up placing 2nd in advanced which I was psyched about!!! It was one of my goals for the year!






My week has been very relaxed.

I was extremely sore from Triple Crown! I hardly got to do anything active this week because I have been resting for the comp I have TOMORROW.

On Tuesday I tried climbing for my friend's exam video... and after the filming, I realized that my body didnt want to climb. It needed rest, so thats what I gave it. My tips were totally shredded!!!






On a food note, I had a box of oranges delivered to my house this week!!! My cousin is doing fundraising for her school and is selling beautiful oranges!!! They are delicious and well worth it!

Today I had a snow day..... but there is no snow. People in Nashville don't know how to deal with snow.... we freak out and close schools, and then the snow melts 30 minutes later, HAHA. It's nice though! It was a good day off... I needed the rest!

St. Nick's Day

Have you heard of St. Nick's Day?

I used to think everyone celebrated it... but apparently not!!!

I think it is a German or Dutch holiday. I found this online:

"It's not celebrated much in the U.S. -- although there has been some awareness of the holiday in Wisconsin -- but in Northern Europe St. Nicholas Day is a big thing. Traditional celebrations included gifts left in children's shoes (from which American Christmas stockings developed).

Good children receive treats -- candies, cookies, apples and nuts -- while naughty children receive lumps of coal. In Germany, children still put a shoe outside their bedroom doors on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day, and hope to find candy, coins and maybe a small gift in them on Dec. 6. In the Netherlands, children put their shoes in front of their chimneys in hopes of finding chocolate or a small toy in their shoe when they wake."



Anyways, since I was going to be out of town for the real st. nicks day, he came a day early!!!!!!

St. Nick used to always leave me candy and chocolate and maybe a toy, but not this year! He must've somehow found out that I was a raw vegan!? He gave me 2 kiwi, 2 starfruit, a package of dates and a package of raw macadamia nuts!!! I WAS SO EXCITED! It was the best st. nicks day ever!!! =)

TRIPLE CROWN

Wow, this weekend was a total blast!

After school on friday I headed to Chattanooga. We hung out and went to Rock Creek (an outdoor store) to see a climbing movie/presentation. After that, we headed over to a party at a rock climbing gym that will be opening soon. IT IS TOTALLY COOL! The bouldering has SO MUCH POTENTIAL! There are so many angles... check out these pics!






TRIPLE CROWN:

Triple Crown is a series of 3 bouldering competitions. The first one is in North Carolina; The second is in Alabama and the third is in Chattanooga. This was the last comp of the series, Little Rock City in chattanooga. I was PSYCHED:

The next day we woke up bright and early. It was the day! I had been looking forward to that day for a year! We ate breakfast at greenlife, the health food store. I ate a couple oranges, 4 clementines and a grapefruit. Mmmmmm.

Around 8:30 all of the climbers started filling up the buses and we drove to Little Rock City, a boulder field in soddy daisy, TN, which is right next to Chattanooga. The boulder field is in the woods right next to a high-class golf course. It is beautiful there!

I had a fantastic day climbing! It was the best day I've ever had. It's pretty hard when you only have a certain amount of time to complete 10 of your hardest climbs in!!!

Since Chattanooga is the place where I climb the MOST, I knew many of the climbs very well. I had a whole list of problems to do and I was ready!

Not long into the day, it started SNOWING! It was so amazing and so beautiful! I was in SUCH a good mood and it made me SO happy!

After I had 5 of my hardest climbs finished, a few of my fingers started bleeding. It only went downhill from there. I had 5 more to go!!! I went to this one climb that was SOAKING wet.... but it was on my circuit so i HAD to do it. If you fall on it, you will hit the boulder behind you.... but I trusted myself and hopped on it. I got to near the top and I was really sketched out. I thought I was going to fall. I kept thinking abotu what would happen if i were to give up... so I stayed strong and pulled through! IT WAS SKETCHY!!!!!

More and more fingers started bleeding throughout the day... it was my tips being totally shredded from climbing so much! I had 8 fingers bleeding at the end of the day!!! I still climbed and BARELY got 10 climbs in. Near the end of the day, I was SO PHYSICALLY EXHAUSTED that i was falling on some really easy climbs! This really proved to myself that I climbed until failure and tried my absolute hardest. I was very happy with my performance!

After climbing, we headed back and ate dinner. I ate dates and macadamia nuts - I put the macadamia nut inside the date, OMG - MMmmmmm!

After dinner we headed to the awards ceremony at Coolidge Park. I had to stay in the Evolv tent and help get people interested and psyched on evolv shoes!!!

I did really well and I was really excited!

I placed 2nd in advance and 2nd at overall triple crown!

And guess what? I was only one climb away from getting first! So that means I really did perform well!!! =) =) =)

a couple days of 80/10/10

This weekend I will be in Chattanooga for an outdoor climbing competition. To prepare for it, I am resting today, tomorrow, and Friday. I always do this before comps to let my body fully rest. I also make sure that I am eating 80/10/10 at least a week before a comp to be at peak perfomance (which isn't a problem here because I'm doing this challenge)

With this being said, I will not be exercising (except maybe stretching) until the comp on Saturday.

Food for DECEMBER 3:

I woke up LATE and didn't have time for breakfast. Thankfully I made it to school and into my class with a couple minutes to spare. Whew, I was lucky there wasn't traffic!

LUNCH: 3 oranges and 7 bananas (I ate [most of] the bananas about 30 minutes or so after the oranges...)

DINNER: Salad containing: 5 cups romaine lettuce, 1 orange bell pepper, 1 red grapefruit, about 45 inches worth of celery, juice of one lime, and a SMALL handfulof sun-dried raisins


Food for DECEMBER 4:
Today I had:

Breakfast: 1 red grapefruit, 7 clementines

Lunch: 9 dates, 2 bananas

snack: 4 dates

Dinner: pomegranate-orange juice (1 pomegranate, 3 oranges), grapefruit juice (one grapefruit), and I ate 2 oranges


This is my fruit basket last week or so:

REALLY HYPER

I don't know why, but for the past 2 days i've seriously been bouncing off the walls!

I can't stop moving! I can't stop talking!

Even one of my teachers asked me what kind of drugs I took today, HAHA.

Whenever I am hyper like this, I am also very absent minded. Whoops!

I ran around school in my santa hat and acting like my banana was a phone... having fake "real life" conversations with people through this banana.

THEN I ATE MY PHONE!!! =O

I went to the climbing gym and was extremely scatter brained!!! I just kept jumping around... and finally I remembered that I was there to CLIMB!!! I had a really good climbing day - I felt really strong! (someone even told me, "Dang ash, you are so strong today!")

I think it was all my energy built up and releasing through climbing!!!

I did an hour of yoga... it chilled me out through the hour and about 10 minutes after, and I was jumping around again.

I don't know what is causing this... maybe 80/10/10?

I enjoy it. But I fear I am being a little TOO hyped up... maybe too annoying.

I AM REALLY CRAVING GREENS RIGHT NOW. Maybe my body wants them to help GROUND me... !?

=) =) =)

December 80/10/10 challenge

I joined a December 80/10/10 challenge. I will try my best to stay 80/10/10 for the whole month and beyond.

For those of you who don't know, 80/10/10 is a type of raw food diet. It is low fat, raw vegan. It is where 80% or more of your calories come from carbs, 10% or less from protein and 10% or less from fat. It is OPTIMAL for all humans, especially athletes. Dr. Douglas Graham is the author of the book - you can buy it on Amazon or on his website, www.foodnsport.com

I was doing REALLY good on 80/10/10 for a WHILE... until a period of intense depsair had me eating nuts again....(the death of my friend) ...it was something I naturally did, probably because my body wanted the fat to help my emotions numb!? Anyways, then the cold came and I just kept eating a higher fat percentage. I felt sluggish, sickly, and unhappy. But most of us raw foodies know that nuts are definitely an addiction... so it was pretty hard to stop. But once I did, it felt great!

Now I am doing the challenge, and I am honestly excited!

I will try my best to post what I eat and what exercise I do for the day.

Today my eating schedule was pretty messed up (especially in the morning) because I woke up later than usual and had to rush out the door to school. I ate one orange before I had to leave, and then some bananas in the parking lot at school. Heres what my intake looks like:

Breakfast: 1 orange, 3 bananas

Lunch: 7 bananas

snack: 2 apples

pre-dinner: Sarah's "Thankfully Raw Cranberry Sauce" made out of cranberries, apples, dates, and an orange. I ate a little under a cup of it, i believe.

dinner: 1 grapefruit, 4 oranges


OVERALL:

calories: around 1876
protein: around 23 grams
carbs: around 485 grams
lipids: 6 grams

RATIO: 93/4/3

____________________________

With 80/10/10 comes exercise... it is practically required.

Today I went to the climbing gym for an hour and a half and messed around on the boulder. It was really hard to get warmed up because it was so cold. Tomorrow I plan to do a better workout.



How was your day today?

Death

Two people who went to school with me at Father Ryan got in a fatal car accident late Saturday night. Zak died. Brittany is in critical condition. She is unconcious. From what I hear, she has blood clotting in her leg and it is moving upwards...and if it reaches her lungs/heart, she might die. I'm pretty sure they had to amputate her leg today. I really hope she makes it.

I don't know if you guys noticed, but there was a short period of time around election day where I didn't post... this was because my friend Ben died in a climbing accident. I wrote up a whole big post about it and forgot to post... and decided not to... It was a really hard time for me. Really hard. 18 years old is too young.... TOO YOUNG...

What is happening in this world? My best friend Brandi's cousin just died yesterday in a car accident. She found out about Zak and Brittany not long after.... and she was pretty good friends with Zak.

I just don't know what to say anymore!

I can't have 2 friends die within a month... I cannot!

DAMN... RIP Zak!

RIP BEN!

I'm praying for you, Brittany!