Healthy No Bake Cookies Recipe: Energy Bites

I'm a sucker for No Bake Cookies. They just hit the spot. And with all the sugar and butter in them...they stay at the spot.

Dangit.

I've seen a recipe for "healthy" No Bake Cookies floating around in my Facebook running group.

"Healthy No Bake Cookies"?

*snort*

But I'm here to tell you, it's true! You CAN cut the sugar and butter and make No Bake Cookies that are healthy! In fact, you can even call them "Energy Bites" which makes them feel all the healthier.

Now, let's be honest here...They are NOT No Bake Cookies. Nothing is quite like a No Bake Cookie. But these Energy Bites come close enough on those days when you reeeeeally want to stick to your healthy eating, but you also reeeeeeaally just want a cookie or a bit of chocolate.

Even my kids liked them and scarfed them down. Methinks this could be the perfect recipe to turn to when they want a "treat" but I want to be good and avoid temptation.

Energy Bites
(recipe from Gimme Some Oven)

1 cup dry oatmeal 

2/3 cup toasted coconut flakes

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup ground flaxseed or wheat germ

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

1/3 cup honey or maple syrup

1 Tbsp. chia seeds (optional)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate for half an hour. Roll into bite sized balls. Store in airtight container and keep refrigerated up to one week (if they last that long).

Makes 20-25 balls depending on what size you make them.

The beauty of this recipe is that it's very versatile. Don't like coconut? (Yuck! Me neither!) Leave it out! Make sure to replace it with a little extra oatmeal or some crushed cereal or whatever you have hanging out in your cupboards. Use dried fruit instead of chocolate chips. Replace the peanut butter with almond butter. Go wild!

Also...They can be made gluten- and dairy-free!

These would make awesome hiking snacks! I'm sure I'll be making a few batches to take with us when the snow melts off the trails.

Again...NOT No Bake Cookies. But pretty darn close.

If I could just shut my mouth...

...then I wouldn't be so embarrassed on Monday morning when I haven't lost half of the ten pounds I said I was going to lose before Thanksgiving. Or lost any pounds for that matter.

At least I didn't gain.

I have a feeling that if I could just shut my mouth I would also be able to lose those ten pounds. (Chocolate covered pretzels what?!)

*groan*

I'm done. I can't do this. Not now. Not through the holiday season. I've had it.

New plan of action.

Maintenance.

Until New Years.

Why does this not feel like the brightest idea either?

Maybe Being Sick Isn't Such a Bad Thing Afterall...

We went camping last week which was so much fun. I hardly wanted to come back. Coming back meant having to face the real world again: bosses, work schedules, school prep, house work, even Facebook and blogging.

Oh and let's not forget...the scale.

Lest you thought that once a girl loses almost 40 pounds she has conquered her twisted love affair with sugar let me testify this is not so.

I caved and I caved BAD.

I tried to be good all week. I ate my veggies. I even brought along cans of V8 to chug when no veggies were available. I didn't have seconds at any of the delicious dutch oven meals. I even tried to steer clear of the community goodie box. But by Friday I had completely given up on healthy eating.

I crammed Milky Way Midnights like a woman obsessed. I had seconds on dutch oven pizza (How is it that everything is so much more delicious in the mountains?). I indulged in carbs, carbs, and more carbs.

Ohhh...I am so ashamed. The entire time I felt like everyone in camp was watching me, scrutinizing me, judging me for every little thing I ate. Now that doesn't sound psycho, does it?

When we got home on Saturday I just knew I had gained 5 pounds. Sure I had gone running twice and hiking once, but there was no way I could come away from all those calories unscathed.

Go figure. The scale was kind.

My stomach was kinder. It got sick. In fact, it got so sick that I had to literally RUN to the bathroom in the middle of the Primary Sharing Time I was teaching on Sunday (humiliating!). I think all that sugar finally caught up with me. I spent the rest of Sunday nursing a Gatorade and laying in bed.

My unintentional *ahem* "cleanse" eradicated my weak week. This week's weight loss: 5.3 pounds lost!

I did it! I lost 40 pounds (Actually 44.1 pounds total!) and broke away from the 240s!!

Can we go camping again?! I do believe my weight loss regimen requires it.

sTResS is an Emotion

In an earlier post I fessed up to being an emotional eater.

Emotions like: sadness, hopelessness, depression, fear, anxiety, happiness... (Yep! She eats when she's happy too, folks.)

And let us not forget STRESS.

Newsflash: I eat when I am stressed.

I hear about people NOT eating when they are stressed and unintentionally losing loads of weight. As much as I wouldn't want their problems that caused the stress in the first place, sometimes I wish I had THAT problem.

Instead of losing weight I find myself packing on the pounds in periods of pressure.

Times like now, when Joe is out of town AGAIN and I am left alone for days on end, but not really alone thanks to these four kids. These four kids who I love more than life itself, but who have a particular knack for driving me into a stress-induced feeding frenzy.

Tonight was particularly trying as bedtime was going later than usual, not less than three children were making some sort of tumult about various issues, I am tripping over toys and shoes strewn across the floor to get to the screaming baby who has been demanding my attention for the last twenty minutes while I try to hurry and finish making dinner or hurry and serve dinner or hurry and eat dinner or hurry and clean up after dinner so the mess isn't ten times worse tomorrow. Just hurry hurry hurry so I can soothe her screams.

Stress, I tell you.

And as that stress builds I can feel that demon inside me demanding one thing and one thing only.

"CHOCOLATE...CHOCOLATE....CHOCOLATE!!! CHOCOLATE NOW WOMAN!!!"

I can hear it even now as I write these words with a particularly alert at such a late hour Cee in my lap.

I am writing this post just trying to keep my mind and fingers busy and ignoring that inner voice, that call of the wild, that Jekyll to my Hyde, that incessant lust for chocolate.

Call a priest. I may need an exorcism.

Lest you thought I forgot...

Hi.

*waves*

Remember me?

I didn't forget.

In fact this little blog and its proclamations of fatty defiance kept me going some days and trying most days. there was one day when I wanted to completely give up, but I knew I just couldn't because I would be just too ashamed to face my 15 followers with the news that I had fizzled out so quickly.

Fizzle I did not. But almost.

See...There's this little thing called emotional eating.

*raises hand* Guilty as charged.

When things begin to get rough, the very first thing I want to do is run into the safe embrace of my refrigerator doors.

I had been doing quite well at my healthy eating this week. It had been really difficult to get any exercise routines in (besides the one half hour of playing Just Dance Wii with the kids that I am TOTALLY counting as exercise) but I had been eating healthy. Very little sugar. Decreased carbs. Lots of fruits and veggies and water.

Then Friday came and I got some rough news.

What was the first thing I did?

Well, after crying a bit, I scarfed down a Milky Way Midnight, my very favorite candy bar.

I don't know why that seemed like a logical thing to do or something that would make me feel better, because immediately after I felt...broken. I had lost some sort of control I had gained over the past couple of days.

The gate had been opened.

The rest of they day I also consumed pizza, three sodas, and a few other unhealthy things.

I felt defeated. One little candy bar David took out this Not-so Jolly Green Giant.

Dumb.

When I weighted myself the next day and saw my weight loss had not been as dramatic as I had hoped (Hmm...pizza, soda, chocolate...Oh My!) I had the nagging thought to totally give up and just resign to being fat forever.

But then I thought of this blog.

Can't do it.

I've got an audience now that's keeping me true to my word.

Dangit.

So...Thanks for following, thanks for spurring me on, thanks for making me embarrassed enough to keep going out of pure shame.

P.S. I have had a couple of people say they want to join me. Honestly, it takes me everything I have just to watch out for my own weight loss progress. I don't have the energy or time to host any kind of "Biggest Loser" contest. Not yet. A little friendly competition would be...good. But I'm not sure how to construct it without getting too overwhelmed or going overboard. Any ideas?

P.P.S. I am down 3 pounds this week. Nothing to write home about, but nothing to scoff at either.

P.P.S.S. I am rededicated today. Exercise, water, and limited calories. On to a better, candy-bar-less week 2!