Do you know where you're going?

Wow, what a year 2011 was! I traded PhD study for a grown-up's job, I got engaged, I got married, then I quit the grown-up's job and found a new one. I started this blog, I learnt to measure ingredients (sometimes) and I got in the habit of taking photos of my food (when Bear reminded me). I had some big victories in my own CrossFit training, and I had times when I couldn't remember what victory felt like. I laughed, I cried, I loved, and I cooked. It was a pretty amazing year. Thank you, 2011.

And now, it's 2012. A new year. I'm stoked to have started a new job with lululemon athletica, my CrossFit training is back on track, and I'm super excited about what this year might bring. Now it's time to sit down, reflect on my vision of my life in 10 years' time, and set the goals that are going to help get me there.

Do you set goals? You should! Goals help provide direction and meaning. They give us a focus - a step-by-step guide, if you like, as to how to go about creating the life we want. When Chip Wilson (founder of lululemon athletica) started setting goals, he found that: "My mind calmed down. I knew exactly where I was going, I knew exactly what I wanted to do."

Chip's take on goal setting

If you haven't tried it before, why not start now? If you're not sure where to start, ask someone to help you. If you're in Auckland, lululemon athletica Britomart showroom is holding a goal setting seminar on the 25th of January (click here for details); Cliff Harvey is a goal setting guru; or you can always give me a shout for a bit of guidance.

Do it!

And while you're thinking about it, here are a couple of paleo festive options that we implemented this year...

Caveman Christmas Crackers
For as long as I can remember, we have made our own Christmas crackers. Typically, my younger brother and I do them the day before Christmas. They involve used toilet rolls, crepe paper, stick-on stars, ribbon, and as many lollies as can possibly be stuffed into each toilet roll!

This year, I wasn't so keen on the whole 'stuffed with lollies' idea, so I suggested I make a nut mix for mine and Bear's. Turned out the rest of the family also liked that idea, so we all had Caveman Christmas crackers!

Nut mix:

Mixed nuts (I used cashews, almonds, hazelnuts & macadamias)
Spoonful of coconut oil
Spices: cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, ground vanilla
Chopped dried apricots
Dried cranberries
85% dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Mix nuts, coconut oil & spices together in a bowl, then pour into a roasting dish and roast at 180 degrees until nuts are starting to brown. Make sure you mix it regularly so that they don't burn.

Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Once cool, add in dried fruit and chocolate pieces.

Stuff the mixture into your Christmas crackers...or just enjoy it as a tasty nut mix!

Paleo Stuffing
We've always traditionally had a bread stuffing for our turkey. Last year, I made a paleo stuffing with lots of dried fruit & nuts (from a recipe I found online), but Mum wasn't so keen on it, so this year, I had to try again. This one got Mum's seal of approval, so I think we can call it a success!

2 tbsp oil
1 onion, diced
Dried cranberries
1 apple, diced
1/2C chopped fresh herbs (I used Italian parsley and sage)
Zest of 1 lemon
3 x gluten-free pork sausages (meat removed and casings discarded)
1 egg

Almond meal
Salt & pepper

Heat oil in a frypan and fry onion until soft. Leave to cool.

In a bowl, combine cranberries, apple, herbs and lemon zest. Add onion, sausage meat and egg, and mix to combine. Gradually stir in almond meal, a spoonful at a time, until the mixture is gluey (i.e., it sticks together) but not too dry.

You can cook this stuffing in the turkey (we used a de-boned, rolled turkey, but a whole turkey would also work), or you can bake it separately in a baking dish (which we did with the leftover stuffing).

Body Conscious

In a post a few months ago, I made a bold claim. I announced to the world (or at least, to the people who read this blog) that I loved my CrossFit/primal eating body.

I lied.

Or rather, I was misinformed. I thought I was loving my body. In reality though, I had just been attempting to beat it into submission. I hadn’t been nurturing and honouring it, I had been training it and depriving it, in the hope that it would one day look the way I wanted it to.

But what way was that? When it really comes down to it, what is ‘beautiful’?

Is beautiful skinny? Pretty? Blonde? Brunette? Is it confident? Rich? Successful? Is it really what’s on the inside that counts? And is strong really the new skinny?

Sure, society has it’s own definitions of beautiful, but so do each of us as individuals. I’m sure that many of us have our own idea of what we want our body to look like, but then aren’t we taught that we should be happy with the way we are? How do we strive for improvement while still accepting ourselves and loving ourselves as we are?

I had a great conversation with Cliff Harvey about this very same thing. Like many women, I’ve had a hard time seeing my body as beautiful. I’d love to have a leaner mid-section, a visible a 6-pack…but then I feel bad for not accepting my body the way it was…and I didn’t really believe I had the body type for a 6-pack anyway. What a dilemma! Well not so much anymore. Cliff shared a great saying with me: “Happy but not satisfied”. There’s nothing wrong with having goals and striving for improvement – a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo, I think it’s referred to as – but that doesn’t mean we have to be ‘unhappy’ with where we’re at currently. And as for my 6-pack, who says I don’t have the body type for it? If I tell myself I can’t, then I won’t. We create our own truth. So I’ve started to tell myself that I can; and it’s starting to become my own truth.

Returning to the idea of beauty now, I think we’d all agree that for many people, their definition of beauty includes some concept of fitness and health. But what happens when getting fitter means getting bigger? How do we reconcile that with the ‘feminine ideal’ of smallness? The other week, for the first time ever, I found a pair of pants (in my size) that wouldn’t fit over the increasing circumference of my thighs, and another that didn’t fit my calves. Oh the excitement! I’m actually getting muscly!! But while I love what my increasing size means in terms of my strength and capabilities, it’s kind of hard when all my clothes are getting tight because of it. In the past, tightening clothing have never been a good thing! Loving my new muscles doesn’t necessarily provide protection against the depressing feeling of not fitting into my clothes.

Happy but not satisfied. It can be a fragile balance, and one that’s not always easy to achieve. But now, every morning, I look at myself in the mirror and I accept myself. I look myself in the eye and tell myself that I love myself – right at this moment, for who I am and where I am. But I have goals, I have things that I’m striving for; and that’s ok too.

6-pack, here I come…