Homemade Energy Bar Experiment

Today has been pretty much the perfect day, besides the fact that I have (yet another) cold and have been blowing my nose and sneezing all day. (Seriously, if you want to dramatically weaken your immune system, go to law school. I feel like I have a cold about once a month). But other than that, it's been great. I was able to sleep in for the first time in two weeks. I woke up around 10, checked my email, then basically went back to bed, dozed off, and woke up again around noon. After a week of getting up at 6, it sure was nice! Then I went down to the mall, bought some much-needed new foundation as well as some soaps from Bath and Body Works, and went to the library for awhile. Then I came back, read one of my library books, took a nap (clearly, I needed to catch up on sleep), and journaled. I've been around people almost constantly for the past few weeks, so it's been really nice to have a day to do my own thing and to not feel like I have to go out and to just have a girls' night in with myself. So tonight, I ran over to Walmart and picked up a random Nicolas Cage thriller from the $5 DVD bin and a few ingredients to make homemade energy bars, something I've wanted to try for a long time. I just whipped them up and they are delicious. Mine have natural (no added sugar, just peanuts) peanut butter as a base, mixed with oatmeal, finely chopped medjool dates, a bit of vanilla extract, flax, and some blueberry-flavored Craisins. I mixed them up and let them chill in the fridge for awhile, and they're going to be my go-to healthy snack this week. They taste a lot like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, except with a lot more nutritional value. I'm sure you could do tons of variations on this basic recipe--add other kinds of dried fruit, or chocolate chips, or a little coconut oil, or whatever. I also have chocolate milk, bananas, and peanut butter to make workout recovery smoothies, because I absolutely have to get the half-marathon training in gear this week. I've been slacking off big time, and if that doesn't change, I will never be able to complete the race. So this week, I'm just going to need to be going after it, starting my long runs and speed workouts and cross-training in earnest. I just have to make time/ energy for exercise, and I know eating right is the first step in that process, so hopefully having some healthy and protein-rich snacks around will help. I also really want to start swimming again as part of my cross-training. There was a time in college when I swam 3-4 times a week, and I loved it. I have no idea why I stopped doing it, but I need to get back into that too.

OK, well I'm off for a little quality time with my Nicolas Cage movie and my Lisa Scottoline book. :)