It's Time

Chocolate Banana Pancakes!

Makes 18 servings, 32 calories per serving :)

Although keep in mind, each pancake is pretty small (around 3 inches) Ingredients:

¾ cup of Flour

¾ cup of Skim/Non-fat Milk

2 Egg whites

2 Tbsp of Cocoa (I used Meijers hot cocoa mix which is 36 cals per tbsp!)

2 tbsp of baking powder

1 dash of Salt

½ medium Banana

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, egg whites, baking powder, milk, salt and cocoa until smooth

2. Slice the ½ a banana into small slices

3. Heat the griddle or frying pan on low heat. (If you decide to use oil, add those calories, I use cooking spray!)

4. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle or pan, use approximately a tablespoon of batter for each pancake. 

5. Add banana slices onto the pancakes as they cook.

6. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Enjoy! 

Nutritional Information per 18 servings: 

Calories: 570  

Total Fat: 2.9 g  

Sat Fat: 1.8 g  

Cholesterol: 24mg  

Sodium: 469mg

Total Carb: 110.6g

Dietary Fiber: 4.6g

I’ve been wanting to make homemade granola bars for a long time. It’s nice to know exactly what’s in your food, especially with something that you eat for energy and a healthy snack.

I’ve been intimidated up to this point by the large amount of ingredients people put in them. I just wanted a basic granola bar: simple to make and inexpensive.

If you want to make them… 

What you’ll need:

1 1/2 cups of rolled oats

1 cup chopped almonds (or other nuts)

1 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup honey

What you’ll need to do:

banana-runner submitted: 

 1) Do not drink your calories Drink water, tea, coffee, whatever you want which is HEALTHY, with no chemicals and is not processed. You want orange juice ? Well, take some oranges and do it yourself.  “but diet coke is healthy, it’s 0 calories”. No. No it is not healthy, this will fuck up your entire body and metabolism. No calories doesn’t mean healthy, a smoothie is healthy. Between 1.5 and 2.5L of water a day is a good amount to my mind 2) Change step by step. You can’t change your lifestyle overnight, who can ? Otherwise it will end up the same way our new year’s resolutions usually end up : forgotten. Honestly, if you want to replace your Friday’s pizza with a salad, you gonna freak out and be frustrated. Advice : eat half of the yummy weekly pizza and the other half will be a yummy salad.    Try to replace the things instead of erasing them. If you are used to eating between meals and know that if you stop you’ll binge at the end of the day, why not PLAN snacks between your meals ? A hand of nuts with fruit, and a tea for example.  3) Exercise  They say exercise is 30% of a weight loss journey, because you cannot out exercise a bad diet. You don’t need to spend 3hours at the gym every day to get results, you don’t even have to pay for a membership to get results.  I started with videos of Cassey Ho ( @blogilates) 3 times a week. Each of my training sessions lasted between 20 and 30 minutes. Then, I started to train longer and harder by doing strength training and I started running.  The most important thing to remember is to stay active : choose a walk instead of the bus, take the stairs, do 30 squats before your shower… Your 1h workouts are important, but what you are doing the other 23h of the day are super important. I hated sport at the beginning because I used to do it only at school and I couldn’t chose the sport I wanted to practice, I wasn’t comfortable to run or play any games in front of everyone, but when I started on my own, I became addicted to the feeling, to the burn (yeah, it’s gonna burn, but in a good way), and my health improved significantly. Choose a sport you love, it can be swimming, biking, hiking, dancing, walking, skating, just move ! 4) Is healthy eating boring ?  NO ! Before I got healthier, I thought of healthy eating as disgusting boiled zucchinis or a boring salad, something without a lot of taste. SURPRISE. It is not. Spice up your veggies (basil, bay leaf, celery seed, chives, cilantro, dill, fennel, lemon grass, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme) If you are not sure about their uses, thyme is good with everything :)  Find water boring ? miss your soda ? Look at this. Add lemon in your water, it’s delicious !  5) What about calories ?  My first mistake was to think that calories were enemies, whereas they are your best friends if they come from good nutrients. They are units of energy, not fat indicators. They make you breath, walk, laugh, jump, kiss, they make you live, not fat. As Ann Wigmore said, “food can be the best medicine or the slowest form of poison” . I promise that if you are careful about nutrients and chemicals and don’t get nervous about calories, you will lose weight. Between a 0 calorie diet coke and a 250cal huge smoothie, take the smoothie.  The magic number of 1500 calories ? Bullshit. It’s not because you eat 1500 calories that you will get fit, or lose fat, and depending on your height, it can be insufficient ; as a consequence, you will GAIN weight. Indeed, when your body misses nutrients (or water ), it stocks them every time you eat. So, eat enough, eat well, not less ! (and drink, or become a camel ;) ).  If you get easily nervous, please, don’t count the calories, you could develop an eating disorder and I promise you don’t want that. It took me 3 years to fight bulimia and anorexia, do not start. Be kind to yourself, and ask yourself if you’re falling into it.  6) Eat better, control the cravings, but don’t deprive yourself. I eat approximately 12300 calories/week. So, what is this 300 calories piece of cake ? Nothing. Breath.  7) The sugar in fruits Do I really have to argue about this one ? It’s a fruit. Eat the fruit. Be the fruit. But veggies are cool too.  I started for my appearance because I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin, but I’ve had so many other benefits… No more headaches, no more stomach pain, I’m sick 2-3 times a year instead of every 1-2 months, I gained so much energy, and the less you eat junk food, the less you crave it. I’m way happier and I know I’ve made the right choice by becoming healthy. I’m here if you have any questions  ! Make 2016 count.