questnutrition

My nutrition has been all over the place these past couple of days. Don’t ask me why, but I’ve been a ravenous monster every evening. Quest bars have often been my go to at night, but they’re really expensive and have a lot of mystery ingredients that I don’t always feel the greatest about eating. So, when I was perusing instagram and stumbled upon a recipe for homemade protein bars with ingredients I had in my pantry, I just had to make them.

Homemade 5 Ingredient Protein Bars!

2 scoops of vanilla protein powder
4 TBSP peanut butter
2 TSP honey or agave syrup
1 TSP or so chocolate chips
4 TBSP water

Mix the first three ingredients together in a bowl with a spoon or spatula. Add water one TBSP at a time until the desired consistency is reached (you may not need all of it). Shape them into bars & put them the fridge for 30-45 minutes and voila! If you want, you can add some extra coconut flour to thicken up the batter.

Nutrition (4 servings): 155 calories, 10 carbs, 9g of fat, and 10g of protein.

This weekends workouts, unlike my nutrition, were on point. I have been trying to tone down my running a little bit because of some knee pain I had been experiencing, but I still decided (for no reason in particular) that it would be a good idea to run anyway on Saturday.

My run was surprisingly enjoyable. I felt no pain at all and felt weightless and in the zone. I can only hope every run is just like this one to be honest. I also began Week 11 of the Bikini Body Guide today and it was just as enjoyable as when I did the Leg session in Week 9. I’m feeling so much stronger these days and I am really just soaking up these last two weeks. I have decided that after I finish the guide, I will be taking a week off from any and all exercise. This will be a challenge, but I need a reset for my body and this will be the perfect time. After my brief hiatus, I will restart the guide again and I can’t wait to see how things have changed when I do the same circuits after building up all of this new strength and endurance.

If you give the protein bars a try, let me know what you think down in the comments!

-sj

What a whirlwind weekend. My alma mater was having a huge alumni event, so Friday afternoon, I jet set off to lovely Houston, TX to meet up with some of my college friends. I knew that jet setting halfway across the country would put a little bit of a damper on my workouts, but I packed my jump rope anyway and set off.

I always like to challenge myself to try and get a workout in where ever I go. I actually had a conversation with my mom about this once when I was headed off to a conference. I was more excited about checking out the new gym than I was about the conference itself. I like to try running and working out in new spaces because it adds a little bit of spice to whatever you are doing. Some of my best runs have been in the oddest places; a cruise ship pulling in to a port as the treadmill I was on was facing the open sea, Central Park in the middle of a rain storm when I ran the wrong way and ended up running 5 miles to get home in a tsunami, etc. There’s something just cool about trying to find a way to fit it in and make it work no matter what.

I have a personal philosophy that I will never go more than two days without working out. Even if my workout is just a long walk around somewhere, that will suffice, but I just don’t feel like myself if I haven’t sweat in two days. So, when I was planning this trip, I got one of my friends to promise to workout with me on Sunday morning since we didn’t have brunch plans until 12:30 and had the morning all too ourselves.

We had a pretty exhausting Saturday full of running and round and over indulging in both food and drink, so come Sunday morning I realized I no longer had a workout buddy and I was on my own. I unpacked my trusty jump rope and borrowed a couple of her weights and head out to a park a block away from her house and got down to BBG Week 7 Legs and Cardio.

I’m not going to lie to you, I did not want to do this workout and I probably looked like a darn fool in the middle of the park jumping around, but I ended up loving every minute of it. The weather was so beautiful and it was just nice to be out in the green. Although, pro tip: don’t do Burpees on cement. your hands will not be very happy with you. After my last timer went off for my final circuit, I was jazzed. I just didn’t want to stop which is the greatest feeling in the world. I gathered up my assorted accessories and headed back to my friends to drop them off before taking the most enjoyable, leisurely run I think I’ve had in awhile.

I didn’t track it. Didn’t go for speed. Just went. I just ran. And I ran and I ran. Luckily, I was pretty familiar with the area since I had just lived there not even a year ago, so I had the freedom to go exploring. I found a community garden that they had just started building, a cute little dive restaurant with brunch goers, and a dog park full of playful pups. I would definitely tack this on to the list of just great workouts.

I knew I needed to refuel following my workout, so I chowed down on a Cookies and Cream Quest Bar.

These little protein bombs are all over the fitness world right now. I see them constantly on blogs and instagram accounts. They offer 21 grams of protein, 1 gram of sugar and 68% of your daily dietary fiber all for 180 calories. Oh, and they’re delicious. This flavor, the smores and the chocolate chip cookie dough are my favorite. They’re a little expensive and they don’t sell them at the grocery store that I frequent in New Jersey, so when I saw them in Houston I picked up a couple to treat myself.

It is extremely nice to be back home though. I can’t wait to get back in to my regular groove and start hitting the BBG and my runs hard this week to keep with it. But for now, here’s a little picture of my crazy friends and I from this weekend.

-sj

Love & Lunge

homemade protein bars. 5 ingredients. let’s do this.

fitness is not for the faint of heart.