You know what? Everything I do these days has to be very low mental energy. I just don’t have it in me to get into anything complicated right now–especially in the kitchen. If I see a recipe that has too many steps I pass it by immediately. So when I came across this recipe, I was stoked: 7 ingredients + a wire whisk?
Quick, call the nearest kid. Ask if they want to make cookies with me. Grab a few mom-points for one-on-one interaction with a child. Get a few more for letting child lick the bowl.
In a few hours: more points from the others who get to enjoy the cookies.
Cha ching.
Win-Win-Win-are you seeing how many wins I am responsible for every day-Win-Win-Win. Okay. Did everyone get their win? Good. The entire day is now classified under “total success.” Peace kids, I am going to lie down.
Before I proceed, let me remind you of Heather’s list of coconut flour’s health bennies:
No other flour comes close to its fiber content at 58%.
It has the lowest net carb count of any flour.
It’s mildly sweet.
It’s packed with healthy fats, particularly lauric acid to support immunity–the only other natural source aside from coconut based products rich in lauric acid is breast milk–now that should tell you something right there!
It’s mineral rich, particularly manganese to support bone health, thyroid function, nutrient absorption, the nervous system, and blood sugar balance.
It’s relatively inexpensive and requires smaller quantities per recipe.
It requires extra eggs for moisture which boosts the protein content of the final product. Great for balancing that macronutrient teeter-totter!
I got the recipe from here, and I wanted to make sure everyone knows about it, it’s a gem. It will be on my regular rotation from now on.
Ingredients:
2/3 cup coconut flour 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted 1/2 cup pure maple syrup 2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 whole eggs 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips (Enjoy Life, or your preference!)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk all ingredients together except the chocolate chips. The batter will thicken as the coconut flour absorbs the moisture. Stir in the chocolate chips. Makes 24 small cookies. Use a spoon to drop the cookie dough onto baking sheet, and use your fingers to form them into balls, or to flatten them slightly.
Coconut flour products don’t spread like flour-based cookies, so you have to shape them the way you want them to turn out. I like the look of “drop” cookies, but it might be because I am trying to go as fast as I can. 😉
Store in airtight container in fridge.
Kid-approved
Make sure you check out a few of other yummy dessert recipes before you leave! Thanks for stopping by! Leigh
I have not made exercise a part of my life in well over a year. Every time I begin to think about which workout to pick, I do a mental down-spiral into a cesspool of despair about how far I have fallen. You know, back when I was so good at working out.
When I won THIRD PLACE at the Ft. Leavenworth Veteran’s Memorial WOD. Boom!
I am at zero. Maybe even below zero. Never been lower than this. (Something something two babies in two years something something five kids is hard something something homeschooling something moving from Hawaii to England excuses excuses).
I don’t have a workout plan to follow or to share with you. (However, up in our Fitness menu you will find a nice long list of “PRIME workouts” to choose from. They are all awesome, we did these in a large group class a few years ago in NY.) I do want to share some highlights that have helped me feel excited to dust off my lifting gloves, get back out there, and even anticipate the sweet pain that is coming as I begin training again.
How did I get back on the horse? One word. Fundamentals.
Step One. Get a Box.
Recognize that I want two things: physical fitness –AND– a hot body. It’s imperative to see these 2 desires as 2 ends with 2 DIFFERENT means.
Go ahead and adopt the mindset that exercise and weight loss are not related. It’s like I was born hardwired for thinking that exercise makes me lean.
When you place the burden of weight-loss onto the shoulders of an exercise program, you are already falling behind. Any earnest upfront motivation will drain away because it is too hard, it’s going to take too long. A handful of workouts every week can’t make you instagrammably instalean.
There was a time in my 20’s when training for a half marathon caused me to lose bunch of inches. I attribute it to a few things, but those inches came back. The body adapts. All that intense exercise made me legit hungry and it took about 3.5 seconds to undo the calorie burn from a really good run.
Running five miles is the exact same thing as eating a donut and a half. Not eating 1.5 donuts is the same as running five miles. That’s why I stopped running. It’s dumb to do it for weightloss.
A clean, dialed-in diet will improve your physique in a matter of weeks. I am hoping to teach my kiddos this lesson, (in an age appropriate manner) so that they don’t have to relearn this in their 20s or 30s after years of wrong thinking.
Don’t attribute exercise with weight loss.
Dr. Susan Peirce Thompson in Bright Line Eating goes into this concept with complete scientific research. Read that book!
Now that we have drawn clear lines in the dirt, let’s go over step two.
Focus on what exercise will do for you.
Memorize the following, or post it somewhere:
Cardio-Respiratory Endurance.
Strength.
Stamina.
Flexibility.
Power.
Speed.
Capacity.
Agility.
Balance.
Accuracy. (NB: Again, weight loss is not one of these components)
We had to memorize these in the CF level-one course, and it was one of their koolaid shots I happily chugged. I’ve listed the definitions of these terms for you at the bottom of this post. But those 10 words stand alone. Yes!! I want those things!!
Good news. One four-minute tabata pushup session instantly hits the body with all ten of those components.
The ship hasn’t sailed. You might have been off for a while, but it’s parked right here. Get back on it and get a dose of those ten for yourself. Right now.
Step Three.
Think Positive.
Stop telling everyone who will listen that I am not currently where I used to be.
Some time in the past, I had a larger, quantifiable measure of those ten components of fitness. It’s intimidating and disheartening. I am stretching my arms way back into the past, crying out, “I used to be better!! I am alone in a sea of despair about lost time and look at those chicks over there who are wodding at 39 weeks pregnant and I’m gonna order a “has-been” shirt for myself right this minute.”
Turn around, face forward. Turn eyes and heart back toward that list of ten. I want those! I need all ten of those for multiple reasons! –to take part in life as actively as possible. –to enjoy sport and recreation. –to be able to move heavy things around. –to do everything in my personal power to maintain/improve my body’s capacity to operate at its peak. (Its peak. Not that instachick I keep seeing. Unfollow.)
Take the has-been t-shirt out of the shopping cart. Also go ahead peel off the “I used to be cool” bumper sticker off the back of the 07 Odyssey.
Four:
Form.
A 15-month hiatus forced me to rework my form from the ground up. It has been refreshing in a lot of ways (after taking a couple hundred humble pills) to work out slow, study the movements again, and practice good form.
This is one of the foundations of the CrossFit** method: form is paramount. Once you have established consistent good form, build upon that foundation with speed and load.
Form. Then consistency. Then speed and load.
Rolling it all the way back to the beginning renewed my interest in this hobby. I’ve been using the pipe or the naked bar to train. I am actually stoked to re-hone my form…bring it back to what it should be. After a couple of years of working out like crazy, my form absolutely backslid. I was getting by with some pretty bad habits. I don’t think I would have carved out time to fix it.
The one good thing about losing overall fitness was that the bad habits got lost along with it. Now, I because I am slower + using a lighter load, I can truly focus on consistent ideal form that I formerly overlooked. I can’t wait to have amazing new push-ups, proper foot stance, a properly aligned core, fix my early arm pull, use the hook grip every time, reset my lazy running form. All of it.
A break can be a good thing.
Five:
A little actually does go a long way.
This is something I can attest to because of my age. I have seen that it does not take hours upon hours of training to make quick improvements in one skill or another. It is surprising to see how much headway you can make in a short amount of time.
The couch to 5k program is the perfect example of this… and it applies to every skill in the book. Can’t knock out ten pushups in a row right now? I bet you can do 4 sets of three. Knock those 12 out, and go again tomorrow. If you want to do pull-ups, you gotta do pull-ups. 😉
Do a little bit a couple of times, you will be able to do more the next time.
Part of getting over the mental mountain of a major restart is to clarify yourwhy. In this endless onslaught of fitspiration (ahem, marketers trying to make money off of you) it’s harder than ever to keep your head down. The products, the before and afters, the programs, the plans, the PR’s, the results, the finishing times. It all throws me off my own course.
I have to be calculated and deliberate about keeping my goals in my direct line of sight. You can’t have all the goals, and that doesn’t make you a weak person.
I’ll be vulnerable and let you in on the goals for this mom of five living in a relatively isolated situation.
1. Look good in my clothes–the clothes I already own. That is completely raw and honest of me. If I am not entering into any lifting competitions, then do I need or want to work on a double-body-weight back squat? No…but I sure as heck want to ensure I can keep my guns out if the sun’s out.
lifelong wodnas
2. WODdates with the man. Nothing gives more butterflies than grabbing the hubs, sneaking away to our gym, and having a go with Pukie the clown. Same workout at the same time, It’s GREAT. It’s exhilarating for me. It builds solidarity, it’s a shared passion, and we accomplish something productive together. My goal is to get my fitness levels back up for our WODdates to be back on.
3. Eventually: return to finishing WODs at rx.
So that’s me. But whatever it is you are hoping to accomplish, define it. Goals can change from season to season.
Seven:
Internalize the difference between a goal and a desire.
Goals are attainable, measurable, quantifiable. You set them, create a plan of attack, and reach them. Desires are different: aspirations, wishes, longings.
Goals are achievable–they are blocks you can check off. Desires are arrows aimed at targets. We can do everything to set up perfect conditions for the arrow to hit that bullseye, but we have to keep our fingers crossed that a rogue gust of wind doesn’t knock it off course. A desire cannot be a condition that defines my success.
Fitness goals vs. desires kind of merge into a murky gray-zone… because injury, malady, timing and circumstances can throw things sideways. So it’s wise to guard your fitness-heart. How much power am I giving those desires in my life? It helps to identify what’s in my power to accomplish, versus what I can only cross my fingers for.
Use the power of a strong desire to propel you into doing what it takes to meet the goal you have in mind. Then can begin working on the plan to successfully accomplish the goals.
Good luck!
So, while I am not going to win a third place medal any time this year, it feels fab knowing that each opportunity of exercise is another productive step forward. It is one of the few things in my day that can’t be undone. That feeling is the best.
Have you had a long hiatus from exercise? Do you have any other tips that has helped you get into the right mindset for a solid restart? Please share in the comments!!
**CrossFit disclaimer: I am using the CrossFit terminology and verbiage because that is the organization that taught me most what I know. CrossFit lit a fire in me, gave me a dose of motivation for exercise/fitness so large. I have been impacted for life because of what they have taught and shared. I have to (and want to) give them the credit for every bit of insight I have gleaned from them. However, if the word “CrossFit” causes you to recoil…if you have a bad taste in your mouth about it…if you have a preferred/better method for physical fitness, then you’re still good. Just stay on your favorite method/program you love the most.
It really only matters to keep moving and enjoy it.
If you don’t like CrossFit, then this will be hugely validating.
My sister texted me a screenshot of this one from Food and Wine magazine and I could not wait to pull all the ingredients off the shelves and whip it up…and sure enough, it is so good. I adapted it a little bit, because the original was slightly too bitter/spicy for my preference. (Maybe I just measured wrong.) The dressing is so savory and unique and exotic tasting. It tastes restaurant-level good — I would order it over and over!
I named it Thai Indian. Thai for the fish sauce. Indian for the garam masala. 🙂
Another thing that makes this recipe so awesome is that you get to use up your somewhat obscure pantry items that otherwise end up expiring: fish sauce, garam masala, and sriracha. (If you want some inspiration for those ingredients, make Kheema and Green Curry.)
This is another one of those salads that I could sit down on the couch and eat the whole bowl without abandon. Along with the original kale salad and the pistachio herb salad, this one completes the Prime Pursuit Salad Trifecta. 🙂
Here you go, bring this to your next potluck and everyone will be thanking you!
DRESSING: 1/4 c olive oil juice of 3 limes 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 1-2 tbsps honey 2 tbsp soy sauce/coconut aminos 1 tbsp fish sauce 1 tsp sriracha 1 1/2 tsp garam masala 1/2 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp salt
SALAD: 1 large or 2 small heads of cabbage cored and finely shredded (I use one green and one purple) 6 scallions thinly sliced 1 bunch cilantro finely chopped 1 bunch mint finely chopped.
Whisk the salad dressing ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the cabbage, scallions, cilantro and mint, toss to coat.
Same Slaw, topped it with Peanuts, Avocado, Tomatoes and Mandarins
This slaw would make an amazing meal topped with seared fish, grilled shrimp, beef, or chicken.
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