What I’ve Been Up To in January

As some of you may have noticed, I took the month of January off.  I didn’t necessarily intend for a one week break to turn into four, but it happened.

And, as it turns out, I’m okay with that.  I don’t feel compelled to apologize (something that I do too often as it is), because it was necessary, though I will explain why I needed that time.

The fact is that I needed a little re-boot.  I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, somewhat uninspired, and totally worn out.  Taking a few weeks for some hibernation was important. None of this is to say that I haven’t missed it around here.  Or that I haven’t missed you all, because I have.  So, hello again!

I may not have been blogging, but I have been doing things over the last month.  The running hasn’t stopped, of course.  I’ve been at it consistently and with a relaxed outlook – enjoying the time off between training cycles.  I’ve also selected my primary running goals for 2014.  They are:

• complete two marathons (Newport, OR in May and Portland, OR in October),
• run at least one of those marathons at a sub 4-hour pace (though I’m really shooting to run both under 4 hours, and I do think that it’s totally possible),
• PR at the 10k distance, and
• run at least 1700 miles during the year.

All of this seems pretty darn exciting to me!

I’ve also been filling my brain with lots and lots of information and stories.  I’ve been reading voraciously – 10 books in the month of January!  I’ve learned and escaped and laughed and fantasized with these books in the last four weeks and it’s been wonderful.

I’ve been cooking some delicious food.  Banh mi inspired noodles.  Delicious soups from this book.  Cauliflower parmesan.  You get the idea.

And finally, I’ve been thinking about what I really want this year to be about.  In a few short words, my primary goals for 2014 are about living deliberately and with intention.  In the words of my fantasy BFF Bob Harper, I need to remember in any given moment that all I’m doing is exactly what I’m doing.  Be present and concentrate on what’s at hand, making choices and plans with intention, rather than constantly battling stress and anxiety about the future.

I hope that this approach will be reflected in my posts this year.  I aim to write and share very intentionally and with deliberate thought towards what’s worth writing, sharing, and reading.  I hope you’ll join me!

Foodie Firsts: Ugali (Is it really magical running food?)

Foodie Firsts is a Move Eat Create weekly feature focusing on my adventures in the world of food.  Over the course of a few short years, I have transformed from a picky, fearful eater to a curious and open-minded foodie.  In a commitment to continue to expand my culinary experiences, I have started Foodie Firsts.  Each week I will commit to trying something new and sharing that experience with you.  My endeavors may include experimenting with cooking techniques I’ve never tried before, testing a single new ingredient, or drawing upon my creativity to combine foods in ways I never imagined.  Whatever it is, I will eat (or maybe drink) it and share it all with you.  You can decide for yourself whether you, too, would like to try.  Let’s be bold and eat good food!

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If you’re a runner, you may have heard of ugali.  If you’re not a runner, that’s okay, too, because I’m going to tell you about it.

Kenyan runners have been dominating competitions for several years now.  The question of what makes them so good, so fast, and so strong has been asked over and over again, but the answer has yet to be fully articulated.  In fact, one man, Adharanand Finn, wrote an entire book in a quest to answer this question.  In Running With the Kenyans, Finn travels to Africa to live amongst, train with, and learn from some incredible athletes.  I found this to be a highly valuable book, not just from the standpoint of a runner, but as someone who appreciates getting glimpses into cultures different from my own and learning about people in general.  It is an engaging and insightful read and I do recommend it.

But back to the food.  One of the many aspects of Kenyan life examined in the book is the diet of a typical Kenyan runner.  What do they eat?  Do they have a secret food or ingredient that gives them some sort of edge?  The answer (sorry to spoil it for you) is: not really.  A Kenyan athlete’s diet tends to be relatively high in carbohydrates, based in whole, real food found naturally in their environment, and eating quantities which provide nutrition, satisfaction, and fuel for their high training levels, but not to points of excess.

Taken in those terms, it sounds pretty similar to what I eat and how many other runners (and non-runners) eat.  One food that did get a lot of mention, though (besides bananas – which we all know are GREAT runner food), was ugali.  Ugali is a simple dish, really, not to say that it doesn’t serve extraordinary purpose.  It’s made from only 2-3 ingredients (maize, water, and optional salt) and is a staple in many parts of Africa.  If I were to offer a comparison to something that most Westerners may be more familiar with, I would harken it to polenta.  I wasn’t sure what I would think about ugali, but as a runner and a foodie, I absolutely knew I had to give this dish a try.

Ugali is made by combining maize (or cornmeal) with boiling water.  I had read that taking the time to let the cornmeal sift slowly through your fingers into the water was important, so that’s how I chose to do it.  It is then cooked over medium-low heat until the water is absorbed by the cornmeal, creating the thick, mushy pot of ugali.  Ugali is traditionally eaten with one’s hands, so the thickness serves an important purpose.  Once served, you can roll the ugali into a ball, press your thumb into the ball to create a well, and use it to scoop up soups, stews, and other fare.  I gave this a try, but I’ll admit that I eventually put my ugali right into my bowl of stew and ate it together with a fork.  It was totally enjoyable both ways.

I ate my ugali with a version of kitheri (African kidney bean and corn stew).  I was totally unsure of what I would think of this meal going in and I am happy to say that I was blown away with how much I loved it.  The ugali was hearty, dense and provided a perfect base for the chunky stew of beans, corn, zucchini, potatoes, and onions.  It was simple food that tasted wonderful due to quality, fresh ingredients, and not too much fussing to muck anything up.  Perfect.  Plus, I couldn’t get enough of this as leftovers.  I took it to work the next two days, layering some ugali on the bottom of the stew to warm up for lunch.  It was incredible.  The textures and flavors held up remarkably well.

As I said, simple as this dish may be, it is quite impressive in other ways.  To say that ugali is a staple seems to belittle its prominence in African cuisine.  From what I have learned, it is a dish that nearly every family knows how to make and nearly every restaurant serves next to your main dish.  Plus it serves double-duty as a utensil for a variety of stews and provides a warm dose of comfort, familiarity, and reassurance to many Africans with each meal (sounds a bit like white, starchy bread here in the States, doesn’t it?).

There are many moments in Running with the Kenyans, where the presence of ugali is shown to be fundamental to their lives.  Runners needs carbohydrates – lots of them – and ugali provides that in spades, but it was also clear that this dish is more than just nutritional necessity.  It is a food so deeply embedded into culture, family, and life in that community that to attempt to replace it with some other starchy food would be impossible.  The carbohydrates can be made up in other ways, sure, but the connection to the tradition and meaning of that food most certainly cannot.

Notes & Final Thoughts:

Serving Suggestions:

Follow this simple recipe found here at Runner’s World for making the ugali.  Serve with a hearty stew like I did.  I used this recipe for kitheri, though I did modify some quantities to suit my available and desired vegetables.  Delicious.  Eat the night before a long run to fill up those glycogen stores!

Lessons Learned:

I’m not going to run like a Kenyan (surprise!), but I can eat like one.  I can also learn from them.  This may sound a tad bit cheesy, but having read this book and admired what I learned about the culture, I felt a bit more connected to the elite runners when I prepared and ate this meal.  I realized that maybe some of the magic of ugali for them isn’t a special ingredient or a magic carbohydrate ratio, but rather it just may be the feelings and comfort that this food evokes that fuels the runners most of all.

Why Wednesdays? – Why Libraries Are Worth Saving

A Note About This Feature:  Why Wednesdays is a Move Eat Create weekly feature determined to turn the mid-week doldrums upside down and celebrate things I love to do and blog about.  I have completed series on the topics of running, creativity, and food.  Now, I’m being a bit random and discussing whatever strikes me at the time!

 

I come across quite a few blog posts, memoirs, and other stories that reflect back on happy childhoods, filled with innocence, fun, and fond memories.  If I’m going to be honest, my childhood wasn’t really like that.  I wasn’t a happy kid.  I was generally lonely and out of sorts.  I never really felt comfortable with my peers, was often trying to escape gloominess within my home, was all around a bit awkward and entirely lacked confidence in social settings.  Now, lest you think I’m sharing this to drudge up sympathy, that’s not the case.  Rather, I’m setting the scene for you, you see.  Because, though this was the reality of my childhood, it is not the whole picture.  And, it is not the whole picture, because I had the library.

My grandparents lived right behind the library and this was probably the single best thing that could have happened for me as a kid.  From a very young age, I would head over to my grandparent’s home after school, make a quick stop to drop off my schoolbooks, and then march out the back door, hurry through the back yard, hop over the wire fence, and find myself in the parking lot of the local library.  In I went, eager and full of anticipation for the time I would get to spend there.  Forget Disneyland, the library was my happiest place on Earth.

My library had a kid’s area with a sunken floor that was carpeted with game boards.  There was a giant hop scotch laid out, a checkerboard, even chess if you were that adventurous.  My library had tables just perfectly made for leaning over, with my eyes intently flying past words on pages.  My library had a magazine area with shelves of magazines covering news, politics, fashion, and entertainment all wrapped around a fireplace and a sofa.  My library had an atrium that was lined with plants and shrubbery and let the bright Arizona sun shine in on you, without also bringing the heat of being outdoors.  My library had shelves and shelves of books that offered me endless opportunities to feed my busy little head with images and stories and information that I devoured.  And, my library had Cheryl, the librarian, who knew me by name and welcomed me as an honorary young librarian.

It was extraordinary.

I spent hours there.  I read everything.  I read fiction and non-fiction.  I read all the books for kids, but when it became apparent that my reading level and comprehension were advancing rapidly, Cheryl recommended books for older kids, young adults, and adults.  I read those, too.  I got lost in pages of worlds, both real and imaginary, and used them as fuel for my creative fire.  I wrote stories of my own – some which lived only in my head and some which manifested on paper.  Not caring yet that I was a terrible artist, I drew pictures to illustrate the stories I read and wrote.  I let my vivid imagination run wild with ideas of what the world would be like when I grew up.  I could live in any of the amazing places I had read about (New York, London, California, Amsterdam).  I went on grand adventures with Charlie Bucket, learned compassion with Shel Silverstein, survived grade school with Ramona Quimby, made sense of high school with the Wakefield twins, fantastized about love with Danielle Steele, and learned to think abstractly with Vonnegut at my side.

Whether Cheryl the librarian responded to my apparent loneliness, to my ever-growing precociousness, or both, I’m not sure, but she let me at the whole place like it was my own.  When the return bin was full of books, she swung open the half door, letting me come behind the counter where I picked up one book after another, running it’s spine along the machine until it bumped up against the edge, in order to activate the security sensors.  I loved the sound of this process.  Sliiiiidddde, Thump.  Sliiiiidddde, Thump.  She let me wheel carts of books out to the floor and put them away on the shelves alongside her, lining up the spines straight and even as we went.  She gave me old copies of magazines when their time was up.  I carted them home where I lingered over the glossy images and studied how to write copy, imagining myself in the future as an editor, rushing to meet deadlines.

When summer came around, she invited me over to the annex where I helped her put together props and prizes for the youth summer reading program.  She asked my not-so-sage advice on which games to play and what theme to feature each year.  I prepped for the event and had such pride when other kids came to the program and enjoyed the fruits of our labor.

I always felt safe there.  I always felt at home.  I always felt a sense of belonging that I hadn’t been able to find anywhere else.  And I firmly believe that it is because of my experiences there, my discovery of the power of words on paper, that I developed my own creative streak.  The joy I find in a good book, in transferring my thoughts to written words, in painting images in my mind, was born in my time at this library.  As I’ve grown up, I still feel a sense of wonderment each time I’m in a library.  It’s easy for me to connect to the fact that in a relatively small, enclosed space, there exists millions of lives and stories, centuries worth of history and an abundance of prospects for the future.  I watched television and I played video games like other kids, but it was the library that taught me how to dream, how to imagine, and how to be at peace with myself (surrounded by books).

Last year, in the city that I live in now, my libraries were threatened.  Apparently, there are plenty of folks out there who don’t see the value in directing tax dollars to such a ‘luxury’.  Fortunately, Portlanders spoke up and voted to support our local library system.  Through news stories and personal accounts, I know that libraries are starting to be seen by some as a relic.  In the age of e-readers, Wi-Fi, and digital downloads, brick and mortar libraries with shelves and shelves of books may seem cumbersome.  But, for this reader and writer, they are comfort, creativity, and contentment personified.  They’re my oldest friends and my strongest inspiration.

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A Sampling of Prior ‘Why Wednesday’ Posts:

Why I Run: Crows and Tortillas

Why I Run:  The Pleasures of a Neighborhood Adventure

Why Creativity Counts: Series Recap

Why Creativity Counts:  It Connects Us

Why I Eat . . . Strictly For Myself

Why I Eat . . . Local

Updates: The Countdown Continues, Breakfast Greens, and Hooray for Learning!

Hello!  This is a quick post to share some updates on what’s been going in the Move Eat Create household.

* I am excited to say that training for my first half-marathon is progressing nicely.  The countdown is now officially at 57 days until the big event.  For the first few weeks of my training, I’ll be honest that my self-doubt was nagging at me that I may not be able to do it.  I am pleased to report that somewhere over the last week or two, I have turned a corner.  I am feeling confident about my ability not only to finish the race, but to do so with a time that I can be satisfied with.  I am by no means the fastest of runners yet, but I do seem to be continuously knocking off seconds from my average pace times, so things are looking good.  The race takes place 3 days after my birthday, so I’m also getting excited about birthday and half-marathon celebratory shenanigans!

** I recently finished reading The China Study and Eat to Live.  Both are exceptional books about nutrition and the benefits of plant-based

© Ersler | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

diets.  Focusing as much on what to eat, as what not to eat, they clearly detail the many benefits of greens and have inspired me to make a change to my daily food habits.  Although I already eat quite a lot of vegetables, I have added a large bowl of leafy greens to my breakfast this week.  Simply dressed with a few sunflower seeds, salt, pepper and some flavored vinegar, citrus, or ponzu, I’ve been eating it before the rest of my breakfast items.  It has really been making a difference in my morning, as I used to start to get pretty hungry about an hour before I ate my lunch, but I’m staying more full and satiated throughout my morning.  And, I’m starting off my day with a bowl full of tasty nutrients.  I can’t beat that!

*** Have you heard about Coursera?  Several elite colleges and universities have been moving forward with finding ways to provide some of their courses available for free online.  I am super excited about this movement, as I think creating access to continued quality learning opportunities is a great thing.  Coursera is a fairly new platform for some of these opportunities and several courses are now available for registration.  I have registered for a couple of courses, starting in the fall and winter, and am interested in several more.  Learning, in just about any format, helps me feel nourished and inspired.

**** Finally, Mr. Move Eat Create’s birthday is this weekend.  I’ll be baking a birthday cake, with hopefully a good balance of indulgent goodness and wholesome goodness, too!  I’ll report back on this one, I’m sure.
Happy Friday!