My Favorite Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 3 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 large egg
• teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cup chocolate chips (I use half semi and half milk)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray.
2. Grind oats in a blender or food processor. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in flour, baking soda and salt. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy. With the mixer running, add the dry ingredients, beating on low speed until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls, at least 1 inch apart, onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until firm around the edges and golden on top, about 15 minutes. Cool the cookies for 2 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Nutritional Info:

Per cookie: 99 calories; 5 g fat ( 2 g sat , 2 g mono ); 10 mg cholesterol; 12 g carbohydrates; 8 g added sugars; 1 g protein; 1 g fiber; 64 mg sodium; 41 mg potassium.

who dished it up first…www.eatingwell.com

That sweat dripping off your body is not necessarily more fat melting. Your heart rate increases because blood vessels dilate to increase blood flow to the skin to help your body cool down, not because more calories are being burned. Think about it this way, you burn the same amount of calories sitting in a sauna for 15 minutes as you do sitting in a chair. It’s the intensity and muscle challenge from exercise that produce the burn, not the temperature of your atmosphere. So my suggestion…where what feels comfortable

Ingredients:

• 3 C Dates
• 4 C  oatmeal
• 1 C Unsweetened coconut
• 1/4 C Chia (optional)
• 1/4 C Ground flax
• 1/4 C Cashews, chopped fine
• 1/2 C Almonds, chopped fine
• 1/4 C pumpkin seeds
• 2 T Peanut butter
• 1/2 C Coconut oil
• 2 T Cinnamon (other spices could be good too)
• 1/2 tsp Salt

Directions:

1. Put dates in a bowl with enough water to cover them. I have some harder dates so I left them in about 20-30 minutes (when I’m in a hurry I skip this step and just add some water to the blender).
2. Drain water into another bowl and pour dates into a blender and blend. You want it to be a paste when you are finished. You can use some of the water you drained off to help make the paste if your dates did not absorb enough. Add a little at a time. You don’t want it to be runny. The goal is a thick, smooth consistency.
3. Then pour the date mixture and all the remaining ingredients into the bowl. Mix until all combined. Roll into balls. The recipe made 28 balls. Put them in the freezer to harden on a cookie sheet. I freeze the ones I can’t eat right away in zip lock bags.

I challenge you to sign up for a run, a benefit ride, a relay, anything! Something to get you moving and have a goal to aim for!

This weekend I had the best time with my long-lost buddy Ashley and Gretchen Smith, we had a full 3.5 hours on our bikes to catch up on 10 years that have passed since we’ve last hung-out. Not only did I have an amazing time being with friends, it was for a good cause, to help raise awareness and raise money for the kidney foundation!

So do it, find something near by, even if it sounds a little intimidating, it will push you to get you out and moving. There is so much out there to choose from! Have fun and let me know what you sign up for…I would love to join you!

Spinderella 2012-Pocatello, Idaho

Before

We MADE it!

I’m Back! Just a quick heads up…my posts in the summer might be sporadic. I just can’t resist playing outside when the sun is shining!!! I did this work the last two Mondays and love every second, it makes you push! I try and isolate body parts when I lift, legs one day, biceps another, but there is to little time to isolate all parts every week so I often have to group two together. Back and chest I like to group together because they are completely different muscles and don’t rely on one-another. Where the two exercises are grouped together I super-set those together, meaning I do them back to back. So for example I perform the first exercise, BB bench press, 5x doing 12 reps, resting one minute between sets. Then I move onto the back exercises, I do 12 reverse-grip lat pull-downs then immediately following I perform 8 reverse-grip BB row, then rest for a minute and do that 3x’s.

GET FIT

in the gym

LOSE WEIGHT

in the kitchen

NO.

A recent article in Strength and Conditioning Journal concluded that working out on an empty stomach will not help you burn more fat and, in fact, could produce inferior results. Without food to fuel your workout, you might have less energy, so you could exercise less, or at a lower intensity, burning fewer calories. You also could end up burning calorie-torching muscle instead of body fat. The lesson: A little food can go a long way toward maximizing your hard workout.

Try this-Before you exercise, have something small to eat or drink that contains carbohydrates. It could be half a banana, a glass of orange juice or a piece of toast. The snack can help power the workout ahead so you give it your best effort.

Are you planning on barbequing this weekend for Memorial Day? This recipe is one of my faves, so I tweaked it a bit to make in more figure friendly I ommited the bacon, swaped the sugar for honey and cut down on the mayo fat with half light mayo and half plain greek yogurt. The results…AMAZING!!! I ate the entire batch myself! For dinner I would add a protein with it, veggie burgers, grilled chicken, or a turkey burger. It’s a great dinner to have, so low in carbs before bed.

INGREDIENTS:

6 C. broccoli florets

2/3 C. craisins

1/2 C. red onion, small dice

1/2 C. sliced almonds

Dressing:

1/2 C. light mayo

1/2 C. plain Greek yogurt

3 T. honey

Directions:

Whisk the dressing ingredients in a small bow. Pour over the other ingredients. Mix well and refrigerate for a few hours before serving.

Saturday Zac and I needed a date! We both feel that it’s super important to get away from everyday life and focus on each other for a couple hours each week. This weeks date was SUPER fun! We headed out on our bikes  to our favorite burger joint BIG JUDS! They have hamburgers the size of your head and fresh cut french fries (YUM)! Yes I eat burgers and fry’s! It was about 30 miles there so we were defiantly ready to pound a BIG JUD MEAL DEAL. We finished off the burger, no problem (we did ask for extra veggies ! What I forgot to think about as I was pigging out is the ride home. We had to climb a hill as step as my face, I thought I was going to vomit. We made it to the top and pushed the rest of the way. We got our date in, exercise, and yummy food all in the matter of a couple hours Mission accomplished!

I challenge you to go on a date this week and have it be filled with physical activities!

Okay I totally have been a slacker! The weather has been AMAZING and I just can’t stay inside and sit at a computer, I’m having way to much fun in the sun!! This is my favorite time of year. I can’t wait for the kids to get out of school so we can really let loose. This workout is a fun one, with the word fun comes the challenge of pushing yourself. I promise challenge and fun go hand in hand Have fun and as always get nice and sweaty!!!