Carrot Cake Protein Bars and some new workouts…

So, I am officially addicted to all of these protein bars I have been making.  I am highly considering giving Jamie Eason’s Live Fit Trainer a (loose) try in order to really test myself with clean eating and getting this body strong again!  Although, I have a strong upper body, and legs, the rest of me could use some trimming and strengthening.  After focusing on running for so long (and nothing else), I injured myself and got a little weak in the process…

My love of exercise started with weights and weight lifting, which is why I think I can build muscle so easily (all be it, manly).  The thing I want to focus on is leaning out these muscles so they are not so bulky.  At 5ft2, muscle packs a punch and can make me look like I am much ‘heavier’ than I really am. 

Lean muscles would have a more complimenting effect!  I love being in the weight room, and I am pretty certain I could modify and do a lot of these at home!  I have all of the equipment and it would be nice to get into my workout room, even if I cannot run on the treadmill!  I think the strengthening will help with my overall fitness, and help with my legs once I start running again!  Besides, it is always fun to try something new…and eat be told to eat these yummy protein bars!!!

 

 

Carrot Cake Protein Bars

Ingredients:

• 1 cup oat flour (grind up one cup of quick oats)
• 2 scoops vanilla whey protein (I use Muscle Tech, 2 x30gram scoops)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 4 egg whites
• 3/4 cup Splenda (I do half splenda, half agave nectar)
• 8 oz baby food carrots (2 jars 4oz)
• 4 oz water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix flour, whey protein, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, baking soda and salt together in a bowl.

3. Mix egg whites, Splenda, baby food carrots and water in a bowl.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together.

5. Spray glass dish with non-stick butter spray.

6. Pour ingredients into dish.

7. Bake 20-30 minutes.

   Makes 16 squares, 2 squares per serving.

*TIP*  If you add some cream of tartar or xantham gum to the egg whites, it will make these more dense and the will get a lot thicker!!!!! 

I have done that for the pumpkin bars, and will do that for these next time!

 

Thoughts?  Ever try out Jamie Eason’s plans?  Like the protein bars?  What are your ‘get lean’ tips?

Defining Life Moments…in pictures!

In a time where I am feeling stress a lot more than normal (cough, cough, cannot run, cough that was my therapy, cough) I have decided to look at the things that have defined me!  The things that bring me pride, love, and happiness!  Since I can talk a person’s ear off (that translates even into my writing), I decided to do it with pictures only.

Nothing like a good trip down memory lane!!!!

Chocolate Protein Bars…recipe post

The first ones I made were the Pumpkin Protein Bars…and I LOVED them!!  Now, I cannot find canned pumpkin anywhere!  I found the Chocolate Protein Bar recipe and decided to give that one a try as well!  These  were AMAZING!!  I swear they taste like a mixture between cake and a brownie!  These do not taste like a healthy treat, they taste like an indulgence!  I usually enjoy these in the morning with an apple as part of my mid-morning snack!  So here we go:

Chocolate Protein Bars

1 cup oat flour (I grind up a cup of oatmeal to make my own flour)

2 scoops of whey protein powder

1/2 cup sweetener (agave, sucanat, or splenda brown sugar blend)

3 Tbsp raw baking cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

4 egg whites

1/2 cup water

1 cup no sugar added apple sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grind up your oatmeal to make it into a flour, then add the rest of the dry ingredients to the food processor and grind them all together.

Add in the wet ingredients and mix well.  Pour into a 9×13 baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake for 20 minutes and let cool in the pan.  Cut into 16 squares, wrap up into servings of 2 bars, and then refrigerate!  So easy and SO yummy!!

If you want an extra special treat, freeze a banana, blend it up to make banana soft serve ‘ice cream’ and serve on top!  I like to add some Wax Orchards Fudge Fantasy Sauce to the mix…oh, so good!!!

Bondi Band Shipment and FINALLY another giveaway…

So, to say I had trouble receiving the package from Clif Bar Co. is an understatement.  The German customs office did not want to deliver the and were not understanding why I was getting items to try without paying.  With the help of a great gal from work, we were able to finally get it figured out, and so here they are ready for a happy new owner!!  Another happy day was when the Bondi Band order came in for all of the gals at my work!  Now we are working on a custom band order!

We had a wide range of head bands that came in!  We have a nice variety to keep us giggling during our runs (only a few more weeks, hooray)!  Since I am still going to Paris to cheer on my girls, I plan to attempt my first very small jog while there.  This, of course, is a test.  If I can jog 1 mile with intervals, then I am okay.  I have to go by my shin pressing test, and if it still hurts to push, then I know this little jog will be scrapped.  I do plan on bringing my “I love running, I love hating” band with me just in case!  I have to say that I love the “Run like a BAMF” band…I have a somewhat colorful way of speaking, so this is my kind of phrase!  We have our Texas AM girls at work, so they were pretty excited to see the “Aggies” band!  Then the “13.1” was supposed to be for my Half Marathon in Paris…but it will just hang out for some training and then a future race once I am A-OK!

The even more exciting package that arrived was my Clif Bar Shot Bloks from Dean Mayer!  This took a week of emails, phone calls and even letters to my house for these to get delivered to me!  I guess I will have to be more careful about getting things sent to my German street address!  Either way, it was a very happy day when the delivery guy finally came!

There are a great variety of flavors and tastes!  Even though I am sidelined right now, I gave these a taste to see which I would like best!  I would have to say my favorite flavor is a tie between the strawberry and the tropical fruit!  I love the sweetness!!  I am going to hang on to these for when my running starts up again, because I know these will be a staple in my SPI belt!!  I am super excited I was able to get these here and I know I will be ordering from Dean when I run out!  I am pretty sure I will have a few others that will want to be ordering these as well!

So in order to give these a try, let’s have a nice little giveaway!!!  I am going to be sharing more of these individual packets with some runners from my group and work to get their opinions as well…I will post here to let you know their overall thoughts!  For one reader, I will give a nice little stock pile of Shot Bloks with all of the flavors!  All you have to do is 2 of the following options:

1.  ‘Like’ Clif Bar on Facebook

2.  ‘Tweet’ about this giveaway with “Gimmie a Shot courtesy of Clif Bar @ Groffsgirl”

3.  Comment here about what fuel sources you love for your runs!

Make sure you send those comments so you get your chance to win!  I will do a random drawing on Tuesday, February 21st!

The Highs and Lows!

So Thursday my girls and I headed out for a nice, cold run in the snow!  It was about 24 degrees (or maybe a bit colder) and we were excited because it started snowing just as we were walking outside…

We did the regular trail run and got to our one mile marker as carefully as possible since there were some big icy patches on the trail.  There was some hopping and skipping in order to avoid falling on our butts!  When we started out loop around the pond, we were surprised to see people skating!  I did not realize the ice was thick enough for that, and quite honestly, I don’t think it was!  I didn’t have my iPhone with me for a picture of that!

When we got to our killer hill, we went at it full on!  We ran the whole thing and made it to the top with pride (and screaming lungs)!  There was someone burning wood or something, so right at the peak of the hill it was like breathing in front of a wood stove…ah well, we just ran right through it!  The only negative part of the run (because there is never a negative when I get to run with these gals) was that my legs were hurting pretty bad.  They probably don’t want to read this because I must have said it a million times while we were running!  The old lady legs were screaming, that is for sure!  At least Gavin was cheering for me when I was done!

Friday started off as an exciting day because I knew I was going to finally see the podiatrist about the constant pains and aches I have been experiencing over the past year.  The reason for going was to see about getting custom orthotics and solve those pesky pains once and for all!

Right away I was sent for x-rays of my left ankle (the one that had the sprained peroneal tendon).  I was feeling pretty good about the whole visit and was only anxious about the possibility that I would need orthotics that would be uncomfortable in my shoes.

When Dr.Duffy came in, we joked about me being an East Coaster from Canada and him being from New york…I guess he could tell right away.  He pegged me as a stubborn runner with control issues.  NO idea where he would get that idea!  He told me that the ankle x-ray came back okay.  I had to walk around a bit, jog in the hall, push on his hands with my feet and then he rolled the ankles around and pressed on the outer ankle bones.  All seemed well…hooray!

That is when sh!t started going badly!  He pressed on my calves a bit and then pressed on my shins (about 4 inches up from the ankle)…I yelped and pulled my legs away.  I basically yelled at him, “Yeah, don’t do that!”  He shook his head and told me that it was a very bad sign.  Long story short- all that is there is  skin and bone, and it is not my skin that hurts.  He sent me for more x-rays, this time of my lower legs.

That is probably really hard to make out.  The bottom of my bones are clear and crisp lines at the outside edge of the bone, which is how they should look.  Up in the center, the edges are very foggy, cloudy and not clear.  The edges are not defined at all, this means new bone is laying down and that it has been stress fractured.  It is already trying to heal itself, which means I have had these stress fractures for a while. Normally you would see nothing on an x-ray to determine a stress fracture (that would take a bone scan); however, mine is already trying to heal so the new bone laying down shows up.  This problem is on both tibias and both fibulas…yikes!  At least my calves look super defined!  So what does this mean?

I am sidelined from the Paris Half Marathon.  I was told that I had to stop running for about 3 weeks.  From then I have to see how my bones feel…literally.  If I push on my shins and they hurt, I cannot run.  Any twinge of pain, I cannot run.  Any limp or nursing with my strides, I cannot run.  He said I could aim for the Edinburgh Half Marathon in April, but that math doesn’t add up unless you include re-injury into the equation.  I need to take this slow, especially since I have been running on these bones for a lot longer than I should have!  I will take my time off, get a stationary bike from the neighbor, go to the parent room at the base gym 2x a week after work and do yoga/pilates 2x a week.  When I start back to running I am going to follow the Pfitzinger ‘return to running after a stress fracture’ 7 week training plan. I think it will be good for me to stick to a structured plan, so I don’t get ahead of myself.  After talking with my running mentor, Lisa, I decided that for now the only goal I am setting is to heal.  From there I will look at how I am doing and then see about some shorter races to get me back in the game!  It is time to truly ‘suck it up’ and remember it is better to have found out what is wrong and get to healing, than to have kept going and possibly snapped my tibia!  Chin up, young person!

Any words of wisdom, or motivational quotes for a control freak who was just told not to run the two races she has been training her ass off for???

Ice Run Sunday!

After the fail of last Sunday’s 7 miler attempt, I was bound and determined to redeem myself for my training by getting in 8 miles today!  I didn’t sleep well and woke with a huge headache…probably because Gavin decided wake up was 5:30am!  I ate up my English Muffin, Peanut Butter, Chia Seed, Banana contraption, layered up and headed out to the door to see this when I started my jeep…

Oh yes…that is very cold temps!  Reminder that it is 6F, not 6C!  I had to scrape ice from my windows and everything!  I met up with Emily in a parking lot and we got out 1.65 miles before Robin joined us.  We continued on and kept a pretty even pace despite the cold whipping us in the face!  I talked a majority of the run (as per usual), but we had Emily chatting as well…probably more than she wanted to!  As I always say, it helps build your endurance when you talk while running!  It is my excuse, since we all know I can never shut up!

When we went away from the wind it was so perfect, the sun was shining and it felt great!  That wind was a real killer today!  I kept trying to cover my face with my hood…note to self and others, it doesn’t work!  We had a couple very quick stretch out sessions and then just kept on going!  When 6 miles hit, Emily was on her way (she did a mile more than her training required…woo hoo!).  We took I forced a photo op before saying good-bye, then Robin and I continued on for her to hit 5 miles (at my 6.65 marker).

Of course we were running in the direction that gave us that lovely wind burn, but it kept us going and we chatted about races and how great training was going!  Robin did 5 miles last week and again this week!  Hello, remember I just mentioned that she was started out recently!  Talk about showing me up for her distance jumps!  Once she hit 5.25 miles, she was able to jump trail and head home.  Not before a photo op of course!!

Then, I continued on with just myself and my iPod…until it died right after I took some trail pics!  Of course, no one to talk to and no music to listen to.  I did what any loser English major would do….I started reciting “The Walrus and the Carpenter” to myself (memorized in 8th grade for bonus points and I always practice it so when I go home and visit, I can still recite to Mr.Johns)!  I did that a couple of times, then sang to myself, then talked to myself about how amazing I was doing, then told jokes to myself and then I thought about how excited I was that when I got home Eric would not have to go to sleep, because he is enjoying his first weekend night shift free!!!

I kept an eye on the Garmin and just kept pushing myself a little more, because I was feeling good and knew I could go a little bit farther!  I finally ended up with a great run, with a great distance.  The last 3 miles I was speeding it up a bit with about a 9:30/mm since we kept about an 11:00-11:30/mm for the majority of the run.  When I finally finished I had:

A total of 9.11 miles, with an average pace of 11:04/mm.  I will take it!!  I now feel so much better!  The fact that we got out there in single digits temps and ran the distance we did, and just kept going really shows the dedication!  I was very proud to come home and tell Eric that I added 39 minutes to my longest running time….Yes!  The longest I have run before this was 1:01, today was 1:41!  I didn’t fuel up during the run, because I felt great and didn’t want to feel sick from my sport beans, so I made sure to do it as soon as I finished!  Luckily, I have a shipment arriving tomorrow from Clif!!  Yes, that is correct!  Clif is sending a pile of Shot Bloks to me for review and a give-away!!  Stay tuned for the announcement so you know how to win!!!!  Happy Sunday, everyone!!!