As she faced the sun, she cast no shadow...

Like a dream, she moves from sweet to savoury, pouring the nectar of her happiness in to every bite of her creation. Usually overcome with some exhaustion turned delirium, her squares most often transform from wish to will just hours before the sun can catch up. But ungodly hours and the secret solitude of the night are the ingredients that only she can bring from lonesome song into symphony with sweet nectars, power yielding grains, skin-illuminating seeds and smile stimulating goodies.

Have I ever talked about squares? I believe I have mentioned them once briefly. If there is a reason you can trust a skinny chef, it is squares. Well, more speicifcally, if there is a reason you can trust MY beloved skinny (aka slender, strong and sassy sister) chef, it is because of her squares. Squares typically are the product of some late-night inspiration. My sister would stay up late, concocting and positing all kinds of political and philisophical academic arguments. Once that was done, or rather, when she was done, she would move quietly down to the kitchen, wave her magic wand and create these colourful, delicious and incredibly nutritious squares for her and I. My sister, being a very distance-happy runner (and former competitive superstar) and myself, being something of a weekday/weekend warrior - we really believe that good food happens when you take the best of what the earth has to offer and stir in some pontification (a la late night studying) and voila - you have these delightful little guys. My sister has made squares of every conceivable grain, and including everything from apples, carrots and zucchini to carob, chocolate, coconut and tahini in her cast of characters. Most remarkably, these squares never involve any refined sugars. In fact, they almost always involve a harmony of low glycemic carbs, omega3 rich fats, and tons of fibre. Designed for perfomance, tuned for taste and splashed with funk.

Well, days and nights have passed since the last square and the last Simmi moments. You see, my sister also happens to be (in addition to a professional chef) a ragingly accomplished academic, athlete and activist! So, I've lent her to the Migrant Forum in Asia to do Human Rights work in the Philipians until the end of February. It was only a matter of siderial days until I would crack and find myself leafing through her baking bible, running my fingers along the stray bits of batter and sugar that had brought the recipes to life on each page. Reading through her book made me feel for a few moments as though I was looking through her eyes and suddenly I found the courage tonight to make my first batch of squares.

Like Sim, I took a bit of inspiration from squares bygone, but decided to freestyle it and subscribe to the flow. So Sim, in retrospect, I could have included a lot more things, but I opted for the basic square: oats, toasted quinoa, bananas, honey, pepitas, Just Peanuts[tm], a few drops of NSA, apple bits, blackstrap mo', zucchini, an egg, the usual spicey suspects, belinda extract, raisins and in one corner of the pan, I tossed in a dark chocolate square for you.

I realized something so important tonight...
I am so not a baker.

But that aside, the smell coming from the oven tells me that hope is only another batch (or 10) of squares away. I'm still scared of baking soda and powder :/
The book, the squares, the grapes. EssentialSimmi!

Sisters don't let sisters be without squares.

A Heart Full of...Grub.

In no particular order, the top 10 signs that you might just qualify as a "sporty" girl...

1) You own only 2 regular bras which you grudgingly wear to work. The balance of your lingerie is made by New Balance, Under Armour, Sugoi and Nike.

2) You lead the office in terms of daily trips to the loolee, outnumbered only by the number of trips made to refill your water bottle.

3) Your daily lunch consist of as many containers as most people use in a week.

4) You wear a heart rate monitor as a watch.

5) The emergency preparedness kit in the trunk of your vehicle includes: a foam roller, therabands, shin guards and your Mom's million kitchen design samples. (Find the intruder!)

6) You generally eat breakfast #1 before the sun comes up.

7) You eat more than one breakfast.

8) You own more tournament/technical/sports event t-shirts than you do purses, non-sporty shoes or fingers and toes.

9) You start to seek out increasingly hellish ways to make your training more intense. Examples include training in peak heat, uphill when possible and sans visual aid (as evidenced by Simmirathon's scar),

10) Although you wound't dare tell a soul, you can spend hours watching those horridly corny NBC sport specials. I particularly love the yearly IronMan edition.
Oops, I somehow slipped in to first person...

On a more serious note, getting back to training for athleticism instead of aesthetics has moved my life in such a positive direction in the past few months. I can scarcely explain how my attitude towards my body is beginning to shift and how my views regarding the mind-body connection (my own, at least) are evolving. I won't make any secret of my views regarding the figure/fitness industry and my concern that it is positioning unsustainably low body fat levels under the guise of the "healthy lifestyle" label. I have the utmost respect for the efforts and wishes of my friends who compete in these contests, but I fear for the scores of women who, looking at photoshopped pictures of Oxygen cover models, are considering figure contests as a means to an end. Looking around me, the people with the most fantastic physiques and healthiest glows are all the people who simply have a passion for healthy living, fresh air and an active lifestyle. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that is NOT what I noticed first about Dave.

(I think they believe me!)

Is there anything wrong with wanting to look good? Absolutely not! I feel the same occasional nose-wrinkling emotions about my own figure as any girl, but if my body is the most impressive thing about me, then my mind is in trouble. It took me a damn long time to appreciate my body for being a very accomodating vessel (even at times a little TOO accomodating) and a means to living, rather than simply existing.

One of my strongest motivations for pursuing the study of Nutrition is because I believe with all of my rate-monitored heart that eating local, natural, whole foods (including occasional treats) allows us to spend the 14 hours a day when we aren't eating or sleeping, at our best. Sometimes I think I'd like to work in conflict zones, or for the UN World Food Programme. Other times I think I could spend my days having a personal practice or working with elite athletes. There are also days when I know that I want to help people walk out of the darkness of disordered eating and into the light of day although more often than not, these situations call for counselling and behavioural change as a prelude to conquering eating issues. I know that conventional medicine is not my calling, but I am certain that there is a kind of comfort that I wish to explore and combine with the theoretical knowledge that I need to connect with others.

This post has turned into a huge foray in to randomland, but by suzie, I needed it!

I wish you all experimental salads and sun drenched evenings in these final few days of summer.

P.S No training today :D

What do you think? Should we let her back in to the sisterhood now that she's smartened up a bit? Who said she smartened up a bit? Alternate caption: My sisters who have loved me through thick and thin. And yes, I've been both thick and thin!

More on "More on Role Models" (Moron Role Models?)

Sometimes I need to be a bit "heavy handed" while managing my thoughts. Though I gleaned a record number of unrelated ideas during my morning walk, it was actually the reading that accompanied my breakfast that roused my alertness like a big stir-stick for in my inner-coffee.

My good friend Cassandra Forsythe wrote a follow up post to a previous blog entry about Role Models. The actual content of her post wasn't the impetus for this blurb, but more the head-tilting-ness of reading about role models on the blog of one of my very own role models! (The mention of "moron" is in refence to unrealistically portrayed women on magazine covers, as mentioned in Cass' blog.)

Role models are such an underrated component of success. I implore anyone with a dream to seek out the person who best emulates the qualities and experiences that you desire for yourself and get in touch with him/her. I've never had to look far, as my Mom and sisters have brought so many bold dreams to life, that the "anything is possible" mantra (so cleverly taught to me while I was still learning the ways of the potty) has remained always in the back of my mind. Lately this message seems to have branded itself into my cerebral cortex (much to the dismay of other neural activities) and reminded me to reach out and find those people who are emulating any part of what I want from myself or in life.

Most noteably, from my sisters, I am grateful to have developed a strong awareness of community and social conscience. Observing them helped me to develop a certain brand of diplomatic critical thinking that allowed me to learn more acceptingly about the perspectives that aren't always aligned with my own. They also steered me away from most things uncool, enabling me to appear "advanced" in my tastes for music, books and food..when in reality, I was just monkey-seeing, monkey-doing.

Anyways, had to get in a plug for Simmi and Dd and Mom just because they really are my biggest role models, but what about those dreams and goals that fall outside of anything you or your family has ever done? What then?

Whatever it is that you want, that you aspire to - research it, learn it and live it. Whether it is an academic, a celebrity, an athlete, a writer or just someone in your community who you admire, email/write/contact them and tell them! Invite them to coffee, offer your help in their activities or just let them know who you are and then let magic begin..

I can't say enough about people like Cassandra, Dr.Lowery and Terry Lee. Find your passion, find your people and make it happen. Like a magnet, north and south are no match for the magnetism between like-minded people. So venture across time zones, area codes and convention, seek out the people you admire, tell them why you do and ask them to play a role in your dream. I have witnessed these relationships flourish in to full out friendships and feel that the repeated message to seek out mentors (from Berardi, Waterbury, Eric Cressey and countless others) is some of the best advice out there.

And the best part of all? One day someone will seek you out in turn and so goes the circle of life and learning...