Shalem Consulting

For 2021, I am going to pull back the curtain and display what I eat in a typical week. For the last 9 years, I have been cooking all my meals on Sundays as I work about 30 minutes away from my house and am away for both lunch and dinner.

I put in 2-3 hours on Sunday afternoon cooking.

This week I am enjoying

Breakfast 1 – Raisin Bran and Kefir, coffee

Breakfast 2 – Turkey patties

Lunch – Shrimp Stir Fry

Dinner- Easy Anabolic Chicken Burritos

http://anabolicgourmet.blogspot.com/2011/06/easy-anabolic-chicken-burritos.html

For snacks, there are mixed nuts, protein powder(Casein and Whey) mixed with milk and creatine, cheese and summer sausage.

The finished meals:

This is my off season, and I am running/biking/ swimming around 50-60% of my volume. My gym will be opening tomorrow and I will use this as a resource to lift which I will do 3 days a week. I plan on swimming two days, getting in around 1500 m each day. In season, I will try and get to the gym 4 days a week and get a mile in each training session.

I do not take cheat days, if I want a cookie or a sub or some other junk food, I eat it. I usually drink 3-4 alcoholic drinks a week.

Resources for Shrimp Stir Fry and Turkey Patties:

Carpender, D. (2012). 500 Paleo recipes: Hundreds of delicious recipes for weight loss and super health. Beverly, MA: Fair Winds Press.

Ramos, A., & Hughes, A. C. (2016). The complete ketogenic diet for beginners: Your essential guide to living the keto lifestyle. Berkeley, CA, CA: Rockridge Press.

Balancing Chaos:
Musings on Life – Part II

Mainstream and traditional are not terms one would use with my approach to Christianity. I work people who live in the dark spaces. These are the people that cause traditional church people to shudder when their plight is brought up. Homeless, the “bad kids”, “mentally unstable”, Gay, lesbian, transgender, questioning. Sometimes, bad things have happened to these people. In order to minister to these people, I have be non traditional in my approach. I am not much in to feel good Christian experiences, I live for the lingering of Christ’s presence in my life, in your life. I live to help you better experience Christ in your life. I feel that this presence can only be felt by the daily and often the mundane grind of applying the teachings of Paul, Peter, John and of course Jesus and his contemporaries to everyday life. As I mentioned, I work with the most destitute of our society as our society would see it. I understand life and Christ’s presence of grace from the ground up, where the rubber meets the road. In a day I can be exposed to the most extreme of behaviors and mental health crisis’ one can usually only see on a reality show, I come home after 8 hours to a house full of people happy to see me, yet almost completely tired of each other, all affected by their long journey from arising from their bed earlier that day. To keep my sanity amongst an ocean of corks that I am trying to keep underwater, I run. No really, I run a lot. A stupid amount. The statistics and scareticians say that it is bad for me, but so is a beer and eating a steak and watching Fox News everyday. I prefer running. and the occasional beer
Every day is the rebirth of yesterday’s death. You can never really enjoy yesterday’s experiences in total. Sure you can have a reunion, but there is always something different. The sun shines different, the air is cooler or warmer. Christianity is a great faith, but it like other monotheistic faiths is often isolationist and fails at times to see the wider connection with other faith traditions that have fed it’s roots in the past. Anyone who has come to know me for any amount of time knows that I am greatly influenced by my Catholic monastic upbringing and my investment in Buddhist philosophy. The media would have you all focus on tomorrow and gaining all the spoils you can before you die. I would ask you to consider otherwise. In Buddhism, they have a term called anatta, or the non self or non being. Catholic monasticism has a similar idea, but Buddhism really captures the essence of this term. Anatta is the sense that essentially, we are not to wear the mantle of the worlds concerns on our shoulders and carry the collective experiences and burdens with us on our daily journey. I would love to explain why, but that is a topic for another time.
Balancing the chaos of life for me is living for the non self, not carrying the burdens of this world on my shoulders, but worrying about me, feeding my soul, living for my children, my wife and living to serve others as has been the tradition set forth by my paternal grandparents. Which brings me back to running. In a house full of girls, I am the only guy. There are times when I find myself drowning in a sea of estrogen. Running is an escape from this. On a personal and serious level, running helps me deal with life. I once read that if you are still struggling with a problem after 4 hours of running, run some more. The contemplative practices I learned in my late teens and early 20’s are no longer available to me in my late 30’s. A full time job, a house full of kids, mortgages and bills do not allow for a whole lot of time alone. Carving out 1 -2 hours each day devoted to physical training often takes me back to that place and sets my mind for the work ahead. It helps me refresh my life challenge to live life in a way that reduces the suffering of all sentient beings.
Reading this, you may be well advanced in age, but strong spiritual practices know no age limits and it is never too late to take up a new practice. I would love to have a conversation about it sometime. Hit me up after or before church and we can talk.

Peace,
Rob

A cheesy evangelism line that I used to use when I was doing some door to door evangelism stuff when I was at my last church went something like this: "how do you plan on getting off this earth alive?" To my memory, I cannot recall why or where I came up with this idea, it may have been my own musings. I spend a lot of time in therapy sessions with both kids and adults tacking existential questions of life. As silly as the evangelism line is, it does beg the question, how are you spending your time here on this side of the dirt? I feel that as I get older and I observe that people move away from organized religion and organized social clubs like Moose, Elk and others, we have instead turned to electric forms of social engagment, leaving us with the true inability to relate to those around us. So many questions I get asked as a therapist used to be answered by the older members of the community. Back in my day as many of the old Polish, Slovakian, Italian and Russian members of my community would say to me, I now find myself saying. I find that my clients and much of the other people I come in contact with, have no real direction because there is no one to be a way point for them. For me, the old people in my life were and are my way points. I find scripture too to be a way point. Our tradition points to scripture as one of the pillars of faith and a way point to understanding what we are doing here. But really, what is this "scripture"? Addressing our youth for a moment, what do you do with this book your pastor, your parents, and maybe your grandparents told you to read? Have any of you taken on any memorize scripture challenges? I challenge you to not do this. Instead, read the bible in it's historical context. I fear that when we memorize scripture alone, we are only memorizing sound bites. If instead, we memorize scripture AND the context it was written, we do two things: we learn the words obviously, but we also can understand what the people were thinking when they were saying the words. This is important, hold on, I am getting there. One of my devotionals for the week of May 30 came from the Henri Nouwen Society mailing list that I subscribe to. It offered this: Jesus, the Blessed Child of the Father, is a peacemaker. His peace doesn't mean only absence of war. It is not simply harmony or equilibrium. His peace is the fullness of well-being, gratuitously given by God. Jesus says, "Peace I leave to you, my own peace I give you, a peace which the world cannot give, this is my gift to you" (John 14:27). Peace is Shalom - well-being of mind, heart, and body, individually and communally. It can exist in the midst of a war-torn world, even in the midst of unresolved problems and increasing human conflicts. Jesus made that peace by giving his life for his brothers and sisters. This is no easy peace, but it is everlasting and it comes from God. Are we willing to give our lives in the service of peace?

With the words of Nouwen reflecting on Christ and reflecting on the context in which Jesus wrote, how do we live into the peace that Jesus offers? What was the social context in which Jesus offered this peace and how does it relate to the social context we live in today? In a tumultuous time such as this, how do we offer others the peace the world cannot give? Where then do we find the strength to give this peace?

Namaste,

Rob

Reference:
Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco.

I got to run another 50k recently. Not sure how many it’s been up to this point. Glacier Ridge 50k. I was joking with my partners on the Friday before the race about how my wife and I wanted to back pack this trail in a week back when we were in college. Yesterday I did it in 7 hours and 44 minutes.
The weather was cool, and the forecast called for rain and cold all day. Turned out by 10:30, we had sunshine and I was coming into mile 15 for the turn around. I texted my wife and told her I loved her. I would finish the race, and go on a date, grocery shopping and going out for dinner, just like we always do.
You do a lot of thinking on the trail. I was thinking yesterday how one does not get 2nd chances and as I got to thinking about this today, I realize that everyday is just a mulligan of yesterday if you let it happen. Life sucks sometimes and if you let it bring you down, you never really giver yourself that second chance.
Having faith is like having second chances daily. I heard someone the other day say that on cannot call themselves a Chrstian in the present tense because it speaks of the idea that one already is a Christian and there is a sense of finality to it. Instead, we should see ourselves as becoming Christians. In John 14:1-14, we hear that knowing Jesus is knowing God. And knowing is not something that you do in a single event. Knowing takes a life time. Jesus is knowing the one and only way to God. Jesus is the message bearer, the one who became enlightened through a symbiotic and an enmeshed relationship with God the creator. Knowing Jesus is experiencing the Holy Spirit moving through us. I got to experience this yesterday as I paused about 4 miles from the finish. I cam to this beautiful pond with a single white blooming tree off to my 11:00. This single tree was reflecting beautifully on the water. Pausing for a moment, I felt the Holy Spirit help me be aware of God’s creativity and Jesus’ compassion.
Till next time,

Namaste

As 2020 comes to a close, let us reflect on the year. COVID-19 has really taken a toll on my training, yet I managed to maintain a full training schedule.

My usual nine month schedule was quickly reduced to 7 weeks, from September to November. The original line up for scheduled events looked like this:

Winter Beast of Burden 25 miler – completed. Lockport, NY.  It was cold as hell.  17 degrees for most of the day.  Ankle deep snow, much of it very smooshy, like creamed butter and sugar.  First in my age group.  A friend challenged me to shave 30 minutes off my time for the summer event.  I would shave an hour. 

GORUCK Light, Au Shau Valley – Pittsburgh, PA, with my Daughter, Isabelle(Izzy) – March 14.  Great bonding experience and not too much for my daughter. 

Eagleton Trail Challenge – April 11 – cancelled.  Supposed to be my first 50 k for the year. 

Black Fork Gravel Grinder – May 2, supposed to be a 30 miler, cancelled, I am deferred to the 50 miler in 2021. 

Rock Creek Roubaix 50 miler – Gravel ride scheduled for July 11 – cancelled.  I will be riding the 50 miler with my wife in 2021. 

GORUCK Tough/Light – Buffalo, New York, honoring Operation Red Wing – July 17- cancelled

Chautaqua Gran Fondo 40 miler- Road Gran Fondo in Chautaqua Lake, NY, deferred to 2021

Labor Day Ride for the Refuge 50 k with the wife – cancelled, made a virtual event, I will ride the 100k with my wife in 2021. 

The following is the squishy 7 week schedule that actually happened:

Summer Beast of Burden 25 miler, originally scheduled for August, was cancelled and made a virtual event.  I would run it September 19 at Goddard State Park in Pennsylvania and shave an hour off of my winter time.  There was 700 feet more elevation at Goddard than in Lockport. 

Youngstown Ultra Trail Classic (YUTC) – 50k – September 12.  It was a warm one.  Not my fastest 50k time, but made it happen in 7:31. 

Sinemahone Gravel Ride in Emporium, Pa, 25 miler – September 26th

GORUCK Tough/ Light Zombie event, Pittsburgh Pa, October 23-24.  23 combined hours, 35 miles, carried a lot of heavy shit.  About 1.5 hours of sleep in between events. 

Fire on the Mountain 50 k.  Trail race in Western Maryland, 5k in climb.  November 1.  I was shooting for a sub 8, pulled in at 8:09. 

So what is your excuse?  For me it was “I don’t have anything going till September”  Guess what?, I trained.  Maybe not at the volume that I would have normally trained, but I trained. 
“I don’t want to get out of bed” – I got out of bed
“I am sore”- I did what my body let me do. 
I made goals, I spent time with my family, I enjoyed life. 

My clients come to me sometimes and ask how they can get into shape or get healty.  In no way do I advocate taking on the challenges that I sometimes put myself through.  For most, what I do is gruelling, hard and sometimes it outright sucks.  It rains, snows, sleets, is 100 degrees with a real feel of 110.  Guess what?  You don’t have to do any of that. 
Go for a walk, not a 1 mile mile stroll though, make it 3-4 miles at a brisk pace, you should be a little short of breath. Work yourself up to 5 miles and do this distance on the weekends. Walk the 3-4 miles 3-4 days a week. 
Add some weights.  Hire somebody to show you how. 
Don’t like doing all of this? Tough. Do it anyway. 
Another thing, everything in moderation.  I like a burger, fries, an IPA, cookies and doughnuts.  Not everyday.  Neither should you.  If you eat this way and you are not active, you will get fat.  Guess what?, that is not okay.  Now I don’t mean you are ugly and God does not love you.  I mean that if you are overweight, you are putting your life and the quality of your families life at risk.  Your back will hurt, your knees will hurt.  You will be plagued with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety and stress to name a few.
2021 is coming.  New Years resolutions are also coming.  “I am going to get in shape” some say. “I am going to go on a diet” say others.  Quit saying that shit and commit to it.  The way I live is not a diet, it is a lifestyle.  I come from short round people and I watched my colleagues all struggle with weight and physical health issues when I came back to Pennsylvania to be a minister.  On January 1st, commit to eating more fruits and veggies. Make a streak to see how many days you can go for a walk.  Even when the weather is bad. There is a philosphy in the fitness world called “fit at any size” and even Dick’s Sporting Goods and others like Nike have begun to produce plus size clothing.  Do not be lulled into thinking that obesity is okay.  For the sake of your health and overall satisfaction in life, do something.  It won’t be easy if you are pushing 50-100+ pounds over weight.  This will take you the better part of 18 mos to 2 or more years.  You can do this and your life quality will allow you to enjoy freedoms that you may have given up hope of ever feeling again. 
An immediate reaction my points may be that I am insensitive.  I hear some people say that they cannot help their obesity or that there are other problems leading to being obese.  As a mental health clinician, I adress all of these problems in my practice and often will systematically address functions of all behavior.  If you are struggling with weight, please understand that it is not all about losing the weight.  Sometimes, it requires one to address mental health, past trauma, current depression and anxiety.  Sometimes there are other physical conditions such as gut issues, auto immune diseases, a history of poverty and poor nutrition leading to over reliance on processed foods.  There is help available. 
On January 1st, commit to something.  In my practice, I ask my clients to consider seeing not only a therapist, but also a Psychiatrist, a Nutritionist and getting set up with a Personal Trainer or a Physical Therapist or both. 
  You are beautiful, own your beauty and compassionately love yourself. 

On January 1st, ask your doctor if getting off your butt is right for you.