Two things I am loving right now: cucumber in my water (enough said) and my new Fitbit.
Donny won earned quite a bit of money in Blackhawk this last weekend! He has been on a roll playing Blackjack. I’m diggin’ it…. I don’t gamble but I am great support emotionally and comedically (is that even a word?!?!).
Last week he came up to me and said “want to know when it’s time to get new tennis shoes?” Of course I did…. he said “when they do this….” and showed me one of his tennis shoes that had a 4 inch hole across the side of it. Yeah, I’d say it’s time for a new pair of shoes! I like buying shoes too much to let myself go that long without buying a new pair. He bought that pair probably two years ago and wears them a lot so probably time to retire them. By retire, I mean throw in the trash. Those cannot even be donated. Just trash them.
The fact that he blew a hole in the side of his shoe actually benefited me greatly! We left Blackhawk (with his winnings) and grabbed a light breakfast at Panera Bread. There was a Sports Authority 1/2 mile away so he wanted to stop and grab a new pair of shoes. He kindly said “why don’t you finally buy yourself that Fitbit you’ve been wanting while we are here”. What?!?! Oh, course I will! I have been wanting the Fitbit Charge HR for a while but couldn’t get myself to spend $150 on myself for no particular reason. But yes, I will take some of the money he won and buy one finally!
I wanted the Charge HR because I wanted the heart rate displayed on the device so I could look at it while I was exercising. On the Fitbit Charge HR there is a little bottom on the side that you press it is goes to the clock, number of steps, heart rate, miles traveled, calories burned and flights of stairs taken. Then the app that you get to set it all up has all of that information as well. It compares it to goals you have set and things like that. The Fitbit Charge HR also monitors sleep. The app part also tells you number of minutes slept and then number of minutes awake. It shows on a graph where you were awake and where you were restless throughout the night. I find that part very interesting. I feel like I get a lot of sleep, but it will be interesting to compare that data throughout the month.
Do you track your fitness? What about sleep? I’m interested to know what type of tracker you use and if you like it!
Now on to more important things….Snickerdoodle Energy Bites. These taste like snickerdoodle cookie dough, but they are healthy for you! Made up of all clean ingredients.
I love energy bites and make them quite a bit. I like to grab one before I head to the gym in the morning or snack on one if I cannot make a sugar craving go away. These are made up of mostly dates and oat flour. I threw in a little protein powder as well for flavor and well, extra protein! They come out to under 90 calories.
In my opinion, these definitely need to be refrigerated before eating. I tried a mini one right away and I did not like it… something about the truvia baking blend on the outside just didn’t taste quite right. I tried one later and it was a completely different story – delicious!
- 1 cup pitted dates, soaked (for at least 15 minutes) and drained
- 1 cup whole grain oat flour
- 1/4 cup vanilla protein powder
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 1 tsp grass-fed butter, melted
- 1 tsp butter extract
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup Truvia baking blend (or other granulated sweetener of choice)
- In a small bowl, stir together the cinnamon and Truvia. Set aside.
- Place the dates in a blender or food processor. Puree until smooth and paste-like.
- Transfer the date paste into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Add the oat flour and protein powder to the date paste and combine.
- Add the coconut oil, butter, and butter extract. Stir until well combined, mixture should be thick and dough-like.
- Measure 1 Tbsp of dough and form into balls. Then roll the balls in the cinnamon-truvia mixture to evenly coat.
- Store in an air tight container. Keep in the refrigerator.
- These taste better cold, so enjoy after letting them sit in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.