Bikini = Chia Choco Peanutty Blues Protein Pancake

"Be careful about reading health books, you may die of a misprint."

Do you ever find yourself being a bit too obsessive about reading everything there is to know about being healthy, eating well, working out and being overall ridiculously awesome? Probably just me yet again. So at the end of last week I was preparing to head out to the river so was obviously working out a ton, eating for a bikini, and mentally preparing myself to relax and just be in my bikini. Not easy for me to do at all.

Ordinarily I feel the pressure of eating too healthy and find myself reaching for anything sugary salty and delicious to ease my pain. But this week was different. This time I was armed with Chia Choco Peanutty Blues Protein Pancakes. This is a recipe I have created in adaptation of various protein pancakes I've tried from Tone It Up, PB Fingers, and a few others. This recipe is delicious, nutritious, packed with protein, fiber, antioxidants and to me tastes better than the daily morning Pop Tart I'd rock my day out with in high school.

Start with 1 tablespoon of Chia Seeds

Add a tablespoon of Flax Meal (grounded flax seeds), and a scoop of Chocolate Protein Powder

Add 1/4 cup of Organic Egg Whites

Start mixing it up!

After the mixture is smooth, start folding in a handful of blueberries. About 1/4 of a cup. It helps to scrape the bowl with a pastry spatula!

Cook it up like a regular pancake, you will hear it start to pop and sizzle, and just ease your spatula underneath the pancake to see if it's ready to flip. It helps if you use one spatula to flip, and a spatula or spoon to help guide the pancake on the flip spatch!

Add a teaspoon of Organic Peanut Butter after it's cooked!

Avoid peanut buttah face!

After a week of working out, eating well, and setting yourself up for success every morning with a Chia Choco Peanutty Blues Protein Pancake, go enjoy yourself at the river! Jump with your friends, and remember you work your arss off everyday to feel good about yourself. So ACTUALLY feel good about yourself, or what is it all worth? xo

Chia Choco Peanutty Blues Protein Pancake

1/4 cup Organic Egg Whites (Whole Foods)
1/4 cup Organic Blueberries (Whole Foods)
1 scoop Chocolate Protein Powder (Sun Warrior is the BOMB DOT COM)
1 tablespoon Flax Meal (Henry's)
1 tablespoon Chia Seeds (Whole Foods)
1 teaspoon of Organic Peanut Butter (Whole Foods)

Mix all ingredients except blueberries and peanut butter. Fold in blueberries, fry it up like a pancake. Add Peanut Butter as syrup. Nom nom nom away!

Nutrition Facts:
265 Calories
26.5 grams of Protein
10 grams of Fiber
4 grams of Sugar (that's it!)

it's goal time.

A view from the wedding location in Santa Fe.

Just got home from a wonderfully hot and delightfully fun weekend in Santa Fe. Close friends got hitched up in the hills, hubs and I drank too many sangrias to compensate for the heat, and today my body is craving the path of wellness full of kale, water and morning workouts. For the first time in years, I traveled sans laptop and took a much needed digital siesta.

Standard goal setting tools = Postcards, Nylon Magazine, fruit.

Leaving my laptop and worries in San Diego felt amazing, but 30 minutes into my 4 hour layover at LAX sent a rush of anxiety through my bones. I had mentally prepared myself to set some goals during this trip and how could that happen without my laptop? Not to fear, the trusty airport gift shop saved my goal setting intentions with postcards and a few magazines. $50 later I was ready to write my way to my future.

Mile high club goals!

There truly is no better feeling than putting your goals down on paper, and remembering why it is you work so hard and what you are actually out to accomplish in life, in work, and in yourself.  Here are just a few of my goals.

• In June 2011 I am enrolled in dance class or martial arts (Check first class is on Tuesday!)
• In May of 2012 I have completed my group fitness certification!  Yep, that's right.
• In July of 2011 I run at least 18 miles and attend 3 yoga/dance/fitness classes a week.

Swagger in my step headed to the wedding rehearsal dinner. 

In the past few months I have severely neglected my goals and was kind of feeling like a ship without oars if you will.  For some reason setting a few goals before a weekend escape relaxed me even more, and got me out of bed every morning to work off some sangrias.

So cheers to the good life.

As a rather skeptical person in general, goal setting was really something I had to trick my stubborn self into doing and then enjoying (gasp).  But it truly feels good knowing I am working towards a few things again.  If you are a stubborn skeptic like myself, reluctant to set goals, set in your ways, happy with where you are at, then that's fine, I'm not gonna go Tony Robbins on you.  But, you really should at least try it once.  The fact of the matter is, there are things in your subconscious mind you may not know about until you start to think about where you are, where you are going, and where you ultimately want to be.  No one will tell you where you will be in 5 years, but you can tell yourself.  

peace.love.goals.homies.