After two months of steadfastly lifting, tracking my macros and keeping cardio at a minimum, I am feeling dandy and ready to start running again. This time, rather than focusing on trying to PR, I want to experiment with running three times a week and cross training twice a week…and seeing how speedy I can run my half! There’s a super flat and small half marathon called the Bay Ridge Half in Brooklyn that I have run the last two years. It’s a monotonous, flat, out and back course right along the water…and it’s the perfect course for me to zen out and focus on my stride and pace. Plus, it’s about two months out, which I’ve decided is the longest amount of time I am willing to dedicate to race training. After two months, I get bored and crazy and lose commitment to the task at hand. Hey, I don’t call myself a rebel for nothin’… give me a goal and I’m bound to rebel against it at some point…even if it’s a goal I picked for myself when it seemed shiny and exciting. After finishing a 6x400 meter workout yesterday, I came home hungry and dying for some foods before my weekly Facebook Live in my FREE Facebook Community, Real Foodies (oh, you’re not a member? Well, that’s dumb. Join right now) . I quickly made a porkchop and ate it with a ton of leftover cauliflower fried rice…totally balanced except homegirl needs carbs after rockin’ a track workout!!! (YOU GUYS! I was so excited, I ran my last 400m in 1:26!)
So I shuffled into the kitchen and decided to give homemade RX bars a go. Ya see, I loveeee me some RX Bars. They are real food based, they are a balanced source of nutrition providing vitamin dense carbs, fiber, protein and fat… and they’re SO DELICIOUS. Dark chocolate sea salt is my favorite ever ever ever. But they cost $3 to $4 a pop. I’m like… so I can eat 13 grams of protein in this bar for that amount of money, or I can buy a dozen pastured chicken eggs and get 168gm of protein from nutrient rich eggs for the same price. It makes me cringe that I so often shove out the dough to buy the deliciousness that is RX Bar (even though I love it so!). Lucky for me, my Vitamix knows HOW TO TREAT A LADY. Geeze Louise, I would marry my Vitamix if I could. We have been happily in love for about 5 years. Its pretty serious. So I decided to make my own RX bars. And they are DELICIOUS. Sooo delicious. The other perk is that used whey protein isolate in my recipe instead of egg whites. Nothing against egg whites, but whey protein is actually a way higher quality protein. Studies show that it is the most “filling” protein, in that it will actually fight hunger pangs way longer than egg white protein, and it also is the best at stimulating muscle-protein synthesis (the pathway that helps you boost muscle growth and therefore BOOST METABOLISM). So, um, yeah. Make these. Use that $4 to buy 168 grams of protein from pastured eggs instead. homemade “FAKE” RX Bars Creates 6 bars
1 cup pitted dates ½ cup raisins ½ cup salted almonds or pistachios (I used half and half) ½ cup chocolate chips 2 scoops whey protein isolate Coarse sea salt
If you are using fresh dates, you can skip this step, but if your dates have been chilling in your cabinet for a while and have lost their stickiness, I recommend soaking them in hot water for about ten minutes.
Add nuts, chocolate, raisins, protein powder and dates to your food processor (in that order). If using unsalted nuts, add a pinch of salt!
Blend until fairly smooth but with some texture from the nuts.
On a large piece of wax paper, spread out the mixture and flatten with your hands. Form the batter into a rectangle. Top with additional coarse sea salt, if desired.
Optional: Fold the wax paper over to package the contents and refrigerate overnight.
Cut into six bars!
NOTE: If you will be eating these as a pre-workout snack (since they do have the PERFECT ratio of protein to carbs for pre-workout!), I would use two scoops of hydrolysis COLLAGEN protein powder instead of whey, since collagen is a hydrolyzed protein and much easier on the digestive track!