One of my the things I am happiest about doing in 2011 is set up a fund to help third world entrepreneurs start or grow their businesses. The fund is supported by my company, Peak Sales Recruiting, and the focus is single mother business operators (..seriously, what could be tougher than being a single mom, running a business in a third world country???!). Since starting the fund this year, we have made more than 50 investments in businesses which range from farming and food production, to clothing, retail and services. Our goal is to get to 100 revolving loans by the end of December 2012 and ultimately to grow to 1,000 revolving loans. We are well on our way!

Read more about Helping Heroes here >> Link

A few weeks back, a friend, Rob Lane, dropped into the office and he and I and my business partner, Brent, were chatting about how our work projects have kept us busy and how time has flown since we had last seen each other.

We Are Wired to Climb Mountains

None of us like to think of ourselves as “busy” per se, but anyone who is achievement oriented is conditioned to take on a lot of things or “climb mountains” as Rob put it. If you are good at getting things done, then projects and commitments find their way to you, and if you also have a “can-do” attitude then you’ll say yes by habit when you receive invitations to speak at an event, start a new venture, or lead a charity. We don’t think about not being able to fit it all in, because we believe we can.

Good Intentions

We say yes to things because we want to be seen as contributors, making as big a difference as possible in the world during our short time. In spite of a sense of invincibility, we know we won’t be here a long time in the grand scheme of things so there is always a sense of urgency in our minds.

Competing with Others and Ourselves

Even leisure sports are taken on with a fervor in a “mountain climbing” kind of way. We don’t just want to participate we want to win.

And being surrounded by other like-minded, ambitious people, has it’s own gravitational pull. I know I sometimes find ourselves caught up in the momentum of achievement around me, feeling like I should be doing more and without knowing it, getting caught in a cycle of busy and getting busier.

But what if…

But what if we said no? Rob said someone recently asked him this. What if he said no to some of the things he takes on. What would happen?

As Brent put it, “I have a business and a young family to enjoy, and that’s plenty of mountain to climb. I don’t need to go looking for more challenges.” <<Amen to that, but if you knew Brent, this comment is funny to hear, since he is a guy who is highly motivated by challenges AND who can successfully balance a large number of commitments>>

I don’t suggest making a habit of saying no all the time, but just because we can climb mountains, does it mean we should climb mountains? The real question is whether climbing another mountain adds or takes away from the richness of your life and your happiness. Only you know the answer to this question.

Life is good!

Eliot

Great messages in here about the dangers of materialism and consumerism.

By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and
third by experience, which is the bitterest.

— Confucius

My wife and I were in Montreal this past weekend and decided to eat at a place we’ve both wanted to check out for a while. I don’t normally write about the great places we have eaten, but this place is different and cool on so many levels.

If you haven’t heard of O’Noir you might have trouble imagining the concept of the restaurant. You eat in total darkness. The staff are blind and there is not a spec of light inside the place. Think about that for a second. Pitch black.

If you think that sounds weird, you have no idea. Next time you are at your dinner table close your eyes, find your fork and try and get a piece of food. Now try doing that for a whole meal. That’s what we did.

Upon arriving at O’Noir, an otherwise non-descript restaurant on Rue St. Catherine in Montreal, we congregated with other patrons at the front of the establishment in a bar area waiting to be led to our seats by our server.

When it was our turn to be seated, we put our hands on the shoulders of our (blind) server who opened a door and led us into pitch black. Our server was obviously a pro at moving around the restaurant, while we hesitatingly took baby steps fully expecting to bump into a wall at any moment, even though we were promised there would be nothing we could trip on or walk into.

It was immediately disorienting. We could hear a room full of people that sounded like a busy restaurant. We just couldn’t see them. Or anything.

What it looks like inside the O'Noir restaurant

At our table, our server server stopped and took our hands and places them on a chair and helped us sit. Then she left us alone. Chay and I were stunned. We were laughing our asses off as we realized we were going to eat in the dark, sitting in a room that could be full of soldiers, ballerinas or basketball players. Or not.

There was no music. Just people chatting and giggling. All around us.

I found myself squinting to try and see things, but it was impossible.

Eventually, curiosity got the best of me and I had to reach my arms in every direction to find what was around us. Carefully groping around so as not to knock anything over, I found the edge of our table, a wall and by accident hit someone’s chair in the back and heard them mention they got prodded from someone (me).

To make things even more interesting, English was at least the third language of our server who I think was German. Try ordering a vegan meal…off menu…in the dark…. to someone who doesn’t speak English all too well. Fun fun. I did manage to order a meal without meat or dairy…I think.

While we sat our server would return every few minutes, seeming to be magically present one moment and gone the next, never making any sound as she came and went. For all we know she spent the evening standing behind us.

When the food came, Chay and I were still in disbelief we were going to eat in the dark. After carefully creeping our fingers across the table to find our drinks without knocking them over, we next fumbled for our cutlery and ate by feeling for the edges of the food and clumsily stabbing the bits and pieces we cut. We did our best to keep food from falling in our laps.

Each lift of the fork was an adventure. The menus are vague (by design, I am sure) so you are not really sure what you are eating and I kept on saying “I just ate something I recognize, but I am not sure what it is”. Plus one bite would be massive and the next would be empty because you can’t see what’s on your fork. Hilarious and all good at the same time.

Every now and then you would see a flash of light in your peripheral which may have been someone’s watch, but you are never really sure if it is your mind playing tricks on you. At one point I was certain I could see colors and shapes and I had only had half a drink at this point.

When Chay visited the ladies room, I sat in the dark alone and meditated on the sound around me. Many conversations in French. Laughter. Amazing.

I realized that without your sight, you focus entirely on what you are tasting and hearing, heightening those senses.

I also found that I couldn’t multitask. Normally at dinner I chit chat and shovel back my food with nary a thought about it, but without my sight I could only do one of those things at a time. Chay said it was the slowest she has ever seen me eat a meal. Not a bad thing at all.

When we finally left and were led out into the light, it was like gaining a whole new sense. Everything was bright and new.

The food was great. The experience was unbelievable. We are still talking about it enthusiastically.

If you are ever in Montreal and looking for an exciting twist on dinner, you must check it out >> O’Noir

…And while I am tooting the horn for one amazing restaurant in Montreal, I must mention a couple more incredible vegan restaurants in Montreal.

Crudessence – If you like raw vegan, gluten free, organic food (like me), then you will think this place is heaven. We went to the one on MacKay downtown. The food is unreal. I could eat there every day.

Fushi – Great japanese-fusion place and quite likely the best vegan sushi I have ever had. What the chef brought was a labor of love. Three types of veg sushi rolls with avocado, seaweed, cucumber, sweet potatoes, many more goodies and even strawberries! The chef made me a fried sweet potato tower that was breathtaking. It was like nothing I’d ever had before. I could also eat here every day.

Lola Rosa’s - Cool mex-vegetarian place in the student district in downtown Montreal. I had a great vegan curry and Chay had some awesome nachos. And yes, it’s true, the brownies are to die for- at least that’s what Chay said.

With a few more weeks until year end, now would be a great time to review your progress on your goals for the year if you haven’t already done so recently.

Don’t get discouraged if you feel like you didn’t achieve enough of your goals and don’t give up on your goals thinking there is not enough time left in the year to make a difference. Keep pushing like you can and will get to where you want to get to.

If you are pretty sure you can’t achieve everything you set out to do this year, then simply scan your list of goals and pick your two or three most important goals yet to be reached and pour yourself into them for the rest of the year.

Review your goals, recharge your batteries and recommit to yourself.

Do you beat yourself up over consuming something that you said you wouldn’t eat? I haven’t drank coffee in a couple of years to avoid caffeine and inadvertently just ate a raw bar that had cocoa in it, which means I just got a dose of caffeine. I thought it was a berry bar and wasn’t paying attention (thanks Vega for packaging Mocha bars in a red wrapper! )… Should be a hyper afternoon for me. Anyway, no worries. Having an eating philosophy is not about being perfect. It is about sticking to it and being consistent over the long haul. So if you say you won’t eat meat or dairy or sugar or whatever and you accidentally do. Don’t lose sleep over it. Recommit to your eating philosophy and move on.

Life is good.

Eliot

It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.
— Anthony Robbins

“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Now that’s self discipline!

Anyone who has visited my house knows that when it comes to eating awesome tasting vegan food, I am not the go-to guy. I am all about convenience and nutrition. When it’s time to eat, I tend to comb the fridge for nutrient dense food, chop it up, put it all in a bowl (or bucket depending on how hungry I am), mix it up, and find something to dress it up with. And half the time I eat standing up. So un-zen I know.

On the few occasions that I have been motivated to cook up a proper meal or follow a recipe, I have managed to miss ingredients, prepare things in the wrong order make inappropriate substitutions, or scorch the whole thing on the stove. Cooking just ain’t my thing (or, I should say, I haven’t yet made it my thing).

My wife, on the other hand, is the person you go to if you want gourmet meals and she is an awesome vegan chef. She is a natural in the kitchen and has a library of awesome cookbooks on vegetarian, vegan and raw food cooking.

Where am I going with this? Oh yes, vegan recipes. I often get asked to suggest vegan recipes for people who want to get into preparing vegan food at home.

Before I share what I see as good sources for vegan recipe, it is worth mentioning a couple of common challenges people have when they start making vegan meals.

The first is that without meat on the plate, there will be an urge to add more food, often in the form of starch, like rice and potatoes. If you are looking to lose or maintain your weight, multiplying the starch in your meal will be counterproductive, so you will need to be creative in order to fill your plate with lower calorie food.

The second challenge with cooking vegan is that you can’t use butter, cheese, creme or other dairy products, which stymies some people who have been cooking for ages. Take these ingredients out and your food may seem bland or flat, so you will need to be creative about non dairy substitutes like nutritional yeast and cashew creme (yumm!!).

With these in mind, here are some cook book suggestions and recipe sites.

Vegan Cook Books

From Chay’s library there are two books that stand out. Tal Ronin’s The Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes That Will Change the Way You Eat and Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s The Vegan Table: 200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion. Some others that we have have enjoyed include Vegan Family Meals: Real Food for Everyone, reFresh: Contemporary Vegan Recipes From the Award Winning Fresh Restaurants, Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes, and Colleen’s follow up book Color Me Vegan: Maximize Your Nutrient Intake and Optimize Your Health by Eating Antioxidant-Rich, Fiber-Packed, Color-Intense Meals That Taste Great. I also tend to like the sports performance oriented and simple recipes found in Brendan Brazier’s book, Thrive Foods: 200 Plant-Based Recipes for Peak Health.

Vegan Recipes on the Web

There are many great sites on the web for vegan recipes. We have tried a few of these recipes, but most are on the list of meals we will cook in the future.

VegWeb – a huge list of recipes sorted by category

Vegan Cooking - many recipes and pictures

The Vegan Chef - lots of recipes by category

Low Fat Vegan Recipes – recipes with weight loss or maintenance in mind

Live the Smart Way - vegan and gluten free recipes, plus a link to what looks like a great cookbook by Ottawa-based Kathy Smart (now that’s a name that lends itself to personal branding!)

Vegansaurus – links to recipes and reviews

VegNews – more of a general site, but some recipes and reviews

Cafe VegNews – recipe ideas and links to cookbooks

Let me know if there are any other good ones we missed. Have fun in the kitchen!