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Pumpkin Cookie Calories

Hi guys!  So, I can’t believe we forgot to mention the calories in yesterday’s Pumpkin Cookie video.  I guess all things happen for a reason…this gives me a quick minute to talk about gluten/dairy free desserts.  I know so many people that think gluten/dairy free desserts are more “healthy” than traditional desserts.  While I won’t get into that debate today, I do want to remind everyone that a dessert is a dessert.  Period. They are a once-in-a-while treat.  Around here at myFitspiration we love treats and want to bring you many different options for when you do indulge. 🙂 Our goal is to sneak in as many healthy ingredients as we can.

The Pumpkin cookies breakdown like this:  if you make 12 normal cookies they are around 170 calories each…if you make 24 mini cookies they breakdown to around 85 calories each.

Most of the calories are in the almond flour & the coconut oil.  These ingredients…although heavy calorie hitters…have great nutritional benefits in moderation (including a good amount of protein which is great for weight loss and curbing hunger).  If you are really wanting to lower the calories even more you can substitute 1/2 of the coconut oil with unsweetened applesauce. You can also experiment with different types of flours….there are so many gluten free options….even garbanzo bean flour!!

Hannah & I both love cooking & entertaining….stay tuned for more fun & healthy recipes!!

Let us know what you think!!

Health & Happiness,
Olivia xo

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Delish Gluten-Dairy Free Pumpkin Cookies

Happy Fall Everybody!!!! We’re excited to be back with all sorts of fun new stuff to share. We’re going to be posting two new videos a week over at our YouTube channel.

Have you subscribed? Have you checked out the Channel??

We’ll post all the details of the videos (i.e. recipes for cooking, etc.) over here at MyFitspiration.com and we’ll still have lots of the lively discussion and community you’ve come to love. Comment here and over at YouTube and we’ll be dropping in!!

Today we proudly share a recipe for Pumpkin Cookies that are Gluten and Dairy free…but guess what…they are so tasty!! You’re going to love them.

What’s your favorite thing about Fall? Any ideas for other healthy treats? If you make these send us a pic!

Here’s the recipe…

Pumpkin Cookies (Calorie details here)

2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice, plus more for sprinkling on top of cookies
1/2 cup pure pumpkin puree
1 small ripe banana, mashed
1/2 cup maple syrup (or sugar-free if you prefer)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the almond flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.

In a small bowl mix together pumpkin puree, mashed banana, maple syrup, and vanilla extract.

Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until combined. Add melted coconut oil and stir to incorporate.

Drop spoonful of batter (about 1 to 2 tablespoons in size) onto prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with additional pumpkin pie spice. Bake cookies for 25 to 30 minutes until golden.

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Quick Fix – Is It Worth the Risk?

Hello myfitspirationers!! If most of you follow me on twitter (in case you don’t, join the party @BL11Hannah), you will know that I recently researched the HCG diet after watching a friend inject herself with the hormone on a lunch date with my gal pals. I was confused, thinking “Since when do you have diabetes?” Her explanation came after I was told that the injection was HCG known as Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. HCG is a hormone found in the urine during pregnancy that is the latest weight loss quick fix craze. In theory, the HCG hormone is supposed to suppress hunger and trigger your body’s use of fat for fuel. Which is what BootCamp does for me ;)!! I recently read that the hormone is now coming from female horse urine. Is that something you are comfortable injecting yourself with or putting underneath your tonque? If so, I would just stop reading now! 😉

Believe me when I say, I am no stranger to quick fix diets! If you know me on a personal level, you will know that I am obsessed, that’s right OBSESSED with infomercials! I was the first human to ever buy Oxyclean. Olivia calls my spare bedroom the exercise graveyard where made-for-TV exercise equipment go to die. To name a few….The Ab Circle Pro, The Ab Glider, Brazil Butt Lift (still have high hopes for that one), Food Lovers Fat Loss System, The Ab Dolly, Electro Muscle Stimulator…Need I go on? If you’re like I WAS, I bought into everything. I was so desperate to lose the weight quickly that I watched tons of money circle the drain as my diet dreams of success fell further and further from reality. Why did I ever think it was ok to eat Velveeta Cheese AKA: Liquid Gold for breakfast wrapped in bacon and lose weight? Hello low carb and lovin it! Eeek, so many diets so little time. Yet, I still managed to get close to 300 lbs. When I stepped on the ranch of the Biggest Loser, or should I say, when Olivia dragged me by my hair kicking and screaming, I was just waiting for production to give us a blue speckled pill (you know what I’m talkin about) a shot or lightening fat zapper. How else do those people lose so many pounds in a week?

Then came the first workout.

Jillian Michaels perched on my treadmill and announced to the ranch team “You’re gonna move more and eat less, the quality of your food is going to out-weigh the quantity and you will literally heal your sick bodies with food”. Excuse me? Did I sign up for this? This sounds like my Weight Watchers hell! Even though I think WW is one of the best plans out there, I didn’t want to do it again! Flashes of “Congrats, you lost a quarter of a lb this week” ran through my mind. Then Olivia pulled me aside and said “Have we really given our bodies a chance to heal through diet and exercise?”

Well…..um…..errrrrr….I’ve tried everything, right? WRONG. I had never really trusted my body for a SIGNIFICANT length of time to truly operate the way it was created to, without all of this excess weight! So I committed to the old fashioned way and low and behold it worked! My body began processing chemical free food, I had energy, my mood was better (except when Olivia made me wake up early) and miracles happened! My oily skin and hair became dryer, my skin clearer, I even had less hair on my legs to shave. Ridding my body of excess hormones by eating organic, pesticide and chemical free changed everything. I didn’t even miss my infomercials because for once I was starting to break the cycle. That’s when I became one of those people I loathed in the past who preached “Lifestyle” and guess what? I got one! My very own lifestyle!

Does doing things this way take more time? Yes. More effort? Yes.

BUT….It will get you off the yo-yo diet train for life. Food and exercise and A LOT of prayer, healed my body from the inside out, I have also learned many great tips and recipes with cbd oil, with the Vita Hemp USA discount full spectrum cbd oil gummies to improve our general health.  I learned discipline, worked on my confidence and was finally able to de-cloud my mind of this Quick-Fix syndrome that I had been oh so accustomed to! My blood pressure stabled, I became fertile, and I began to see life in a different way. Healthy can be a state of mind but it is also a walk. Sometimes you fall, sometimes you don’t, but the point is, you keep walking! I started researching long term effects of fad diets. Heart attacks, high blood pressure, cancer, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, starvation, vital organ shut downs, and so many more. So ask yourself, is this really worth it in the LONG RUN? We all know there is no “Quick” way to make money! So why would you think the same about your body? Why would you treat yourself this way and for what? So I challenge you to quit the quick fix (say that 10 times fast). Lay down the diets, and get yourself a lifestyle, try the programs from the nutrisystem reviews ! After all, you’re worth it and so are those higher priced groceries. We spend so much $$ on our homes and cars, why wouldn’t you on your body? This blog is for EVERY person out there who has tried the quick fix and failed. NO MORE! You deserve better and so do your children’s children. Trust me, you will thank me later!! If anyone is trying to figure out how to wrap velveeta cheese in bacon without it melting, it can’t be done, I’ve tried. Step AWAY from the yellow box!!

Now, below in the comments, I want to hear the fad diets you’ve tried and did they work??? Don’t be shy, Let’s hear it!!!

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Setbacks

So, yesterday I was at Crossfit212 (I know surprise, surprise)…and the WOD was the type that I usually KILL. Anything with Olympic lifting in it I not only love, but I have found it to be something I excel at. Anyway, I was feeling good & working up to my “working weight” for the WOD on the deadlift. The actual workout consisted of 3 deadlifts, 6 one legged squats, & 9 dead hang pull ups…as many rounds of that as possible in 12 minutes. The prescribed weight for the deadlift for women was 185 pounds. Now, the awesome thing about Crossfit is you can modify anything!! Most of the women were lifting much lower weight. BUT, of course you all know me so well by now to know that I was going to do the prescribed 185 pounds. Usually that weight is not too heavy for me. However, yesterday it just was too heavy. I ended up doing the WOD, but only lifting 165 pounds. Instead of really embracing the workout at 165 pounds all I could see was a setback. Sigh.

After leaving Crossfit I started really thinking about setbacks. We find them in ALL aspects of life, but they are especially hard with weight loss. These emotions that were bubbling up inside really reminded me of a certain setback I had at the ranch. It was a couple months into being at the ranch & I was approaching a number on the scale that I had NEVER been able to overcome. Never. I just had decided that like every other time I had tried to get over that hump this time would be no different & I was going home. Jillian, & her super powers of discernment picked up on this immediately. She pulled me aside during a workout & said “Pookie, (she has AWESOME pet named for everyone) what’s going on?” I began to share with her my fears about the impending setback. Jillian simply looked at me and said, “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you believe in science? More importantly…Do you not believe in me?” I stood there with my mouth on the floor. What did my possible setback have to do with science? AND why on earth would she think I didn’t believe in her? She is superwoman mistress of the universe in my eyes. Per usual I dropped in a puddle of tears. She hugged me and looked into my eyes & said, “You are doing everything right…you are eating on point & putting in the work in the gym. Trust your body…it’s science and it will let the weight go. Let me believe in you while you’re not strong enough to do it alone. When you are strong enough to believe in yourself again I’ll give it back to you.”

Amazing…simply amazing. That was the week I not only overcame a number on the scale, but I also lost 16 pounds.

Ok, now what does that have to do with my setback at Crossfit? I was brought back to that moment because I needed reminding that it’s all a process. Our bodies are not machines…when it comes to weight loss 2+2 doesn’t always equal 4. Sometimes it adds up to 1.5…sometimes it’s 16!!!! The point is progress WILL happen you just have to believe in yourself & trust in the science. That’s what I’m doing…I’m believing in myself & trusting that if I continue to train faithfully the next time deadlifts come around in a workout I’ll be lifting 185…no problem!

Lastly, (I know this has turned into a novel) Jillian also gave us this tip: don’t concentrate so much on the number each week…average your weight loss over the month. Especially us ladies…our bodies fluctuate with water etc throughout the month. If you are keeping on point with everything, you will be amazed at how consistent you are month to month.

How do you handle setbacks?? Are you a glass half full or half empty person?? Let me know in the comments…I’ll be checking back in to answer questions in the comments tomorrow morning. Let’s chat!!

XXOO,

Olivia

Ps. If you are not strong enough to believe in yourself yet…I got your back. I’ll hand it back over to you when you’re ready!

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To Treat or Not to Treat…

…THAT is the Question

That title (and pic!) got your attention right? There is something about the word “Treat” that evokes some serious emotion! For some people it’s fear…for others it’s sheer joy. I think I fall right in the middle of the two. Whatever you might feel I’m going to break it down for you today. Well, I’m going to at least share with you what works for me.

This last year of maintenance has been a HUGE lesson in balance and boundaries. I’ve learned that “depriving” myself is actually not a bad thing. Yep, that’s right I said it. I feel like the diet industry is always saying “don’t deprive yourself”, because it will lead to binging. I agree & disagree with that statement. Let me explain. Basically, I still want to eat a cupcake for breakfast instead of egg whites…EVERYDAY!! I know that I will struggle with food choices the rest of my life…it’s just a fact. It’s taken some time, but I’m ok with that. Everyone has a cross they carry daily & this is mine. So, I get up every morning & I choose the egg whites. I do this because I know it will yield the results I’m looking for…AND I know it gives my body what it needs. Call it what you will, but this is “depriving” my desire for the cupcake. I choose to look at the word “deprive” as positive because I have found POWER in those choices. Every time I make a good food choice…even when I don’t want too…I gain strength & power over my weakness. I know that I’m a food addict & just like an alcoholic I will struggle with this till I die.

Ok, this is a blog about treats right? Now, does this mean I’m never going to have a cupcake ever again? Ummmm….NO WAY! Everyone needs treats in their life!!! That being said…it’s my opinion that if you have ever had a weight problem…like me…we have to be a little more strategic. (at least in the beginning) I try to always stay present while I’m eating…no more mindless decisions in that department. So, Hannah & I decided very shortly after The Biggest Loser that we would in fact have treats, but we would plan them. That’s right I schedule my cupcake liaisons…no seriously, I put it in my calendar.

I know it sounds a little crazy & controlling…but hear me out. How many times have you had a treat on the fly? Even if it was totally deserved & maybe it was the first treat in a long time…you felt guilty after…right? Right. You probably immediately thought…”that wasn’t worth it” or “Ugh, that was so many calories” or my favorite “why did I do that”! Trust me that is NO way to live. Hannah & I have found that by planning out our treats really allows us to not only enjoy them, but there is no guilt because it was planned for! How often you decide to treat yourself is up to you…but plan it out. We usually have a treat once a month…that might change over time, but for now it works really well. It gives me something to work towards. Remember it’s a TREAT…think about what you really want…don’t make it just an after thought. I literally keep a running list on my phone…I’m not kidding. If I see something throughout the month that looks amazing it goes on the list. That way when treat time rolls around I go to the list and pick what I really want. If I’m waiting a month for a treat I’m not wasting it on a candy bar from the gas station. Just sayin!

So, go forth and TREAT yourself…but plan it out. If this is a new concept for you try it & let us know what you think. Tell us in the comments what you think about treats! OH, and my favorite….let’s chat about our favorite treats!! I’ll go first…I love double chocolate cookies from Levain Bakery here in NYC!!! Yummo!!! Now your turn…and GOOOOO!

Big Love,

Olivia xo