Natural Energy Bars - No More Of That Processed Stuff!

I am so picky when it comes to food. For instance, when I was a youngster I use to hate yogurt, beans, eggs (I believed they use to give me headaches), peanut butter, nuts, raisins (I still dislike them), cottage cheese, peppers, onion, garlic, tomatoes, radishes, oatmeal, and I'm sure there are many others but this is all I could remember right now. As I have grown older I have expanded my palate to many of the above listed foods. I think one reason for my ever expanding palate is due to my love of cooking. Also, being an athlete many of the foods I use to hate I need in my diet, and now I love them. Plus, I love all the colors. Making colorful dishes is my favorite! And I've gotta have variety.

The last couple months I have been trying to think of foods that I can consume while on the bike. Foods that are more natural and still give me everything I need without upsetting my stomach. Of course, it's not as convenient as getting some gus or other "energy" bars from the store. Here anymore, it actually really creeps me out to think of some of those "foods" of how processed they are and how long their expiration date is. I know this isn't the case for all energy bars/foods out there but I would prefer to have something that will spoil within a week or less. 

I would like to share one story of foods that don't seem to spoil. A few months back we had some hamburger buns and we ate most of them but there was still a couple left that needed to be consumed. Therefore, into the bread box they went for later consumption. We didn't make anything that required the use of a bun for weeks, and eventually we forgot about them. I think it was about a month and a half to two months until we took them out.(Long time, I know) We examined them and to our surprise they looked exactly the same as the day we bought them. So into the trash they went! Creepy huh? Now I make all of our breads from scratch, and let me tell ya, they taste SOOO much better than the store bought, never molding, creepy bread!

Now back to the energy bars. I found a natural energy bar recipe online and tweaked it a little, and so far I love them! They have either peanut or almond butter (I prefer the almond butter), a variety of different nuts and seeds- almonds, soy nuts, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, etc - banana, dried fruit and sometimes I add chocolate chips.
So far, I have only tried them on the bike once. This is mostly due to weather and that I haven't done any really long rides that would require me to take some nutrition with me. Plus, I prefer liquid over solids, but that's for another time. Right now I have mostly been eating them as a post workout food.
Here they are. Aren't they pretty? :)

Yum Yum!

If anyone is interested in the recipe, let me know and I would be happy to send it your way!

I'm really itching to try my hand at making an energy bar with pumpkin. Considering my pumpkin craze through the holidays. I don't have any more pumpkin from scratch but I have plenty of canned pumpkin that needs using. I will be sure to write a post about it once I create them!

Monotonous Counting!

Counting is inevitable when it comes to training. Whether it comes in the form of counting seconds, minutes, hours, or laps! For the majority of my life I have been a runner. So having to count laps was never too bad, considering I never had to count over 4 laps at one time. If I wasn't running on the track I had my watch to keep track of the time for me. Now that I have become a multi-sport athlete I now have to count for biking and swimming.

So far I have not had a problem keeping track of time or number of intervals on my bike workouts. When on the road I mostly just have to keep track of time, a few intervals with recovery and at what time I need to turn around at, since most of my rides are out and back. These are starting to become quite monotonous as well.....probably about time I route out some loops around here! As far as indoor bike rides, these can sometimes be hard to keep track of since there are more intervals. But I shouldn't have to worry too much about that now since I just started TrainerRoad. I have yet to use it (just set it up today), but it looks awesome! All I needed in order to use this program is a Garmin ANT+ stick and a Garmin speed/cadence sensor (this is a lot cheaper than having to buy a power meter!). So double awesome!!

Now here is where the true problem lies with for me and monotonous counting...swimming! Swimming and keeping track of laps through an interval can sometimes be quite challenging. Most of the time I don't have a problem keeping my mind focused on the current interval I am on, but then there are those long intervals, such as a 400, 500 etc, that are occasionally hard to count since my mind will sometimes wander. And even if it doesn't I sometimes over think the counting (if that makes any sense). Come to think of it, I even sometimes have a hard time counting for a 200, which would be counting only 4 laps! (This is rare, but it does happen) So what should I do to make counting laps easier on myself?

I thought of having someone count my laps for me during a workout, but I don't think that is very realistic. First, it would be incredibly boring for the person counting. Second, they may even lose track because they are so bored! Third, where would I find this person? I guess I could always try and guilt one of my sisters to do it. Seeing that I have three to choose from :) However, the more realistic option would be a watch that interacts with you. I have been looking into watches that are specific to swimming and gathering data. The one that I like the best is the Garmin 910 xt. It is a bit of a spendy watch, but well worth it. Considering that it is THE multi-sport watch to have! It collects data for swimming, biking and running! I've never owned a multi-sport watch before but am hoping to in the near future. Now if I could just get Garmin to sponsor me and let me try out all of their amazing products! :D

I was looking at pools that would be marvelous to swim at and perhaps make swimming laps not so monotonous. But I'm sure after awhile it would come to that again. So I guess to avoid that, I just need to travel all over the world and change pools every month!