Oh, hell yeah. I’m totally making these for my birthday dessert (Wednesday). Look at them! Aren’t they beautiful? They are flour-free, egg-free, gluten-free, low calorie, rich in omega-3, and from the comments on the site, absolutely delicious. AND MADE WITH CHICKPEAS! What?!

OK, here is the recipe (from the site)…

Genius Blondies

(makes 15-20 squares)

• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained and rinsed) (250g)
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• heaping 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1-2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup ground flax (20g)
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (or other fat source)
• optional: 1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend all ingredients (except chips) until very smooth. Mix in chips, and scoop into a greased (or tinfoil-lined) 8×8 pan. Bake for 38-40 minutes. You want the blondies to look a little undercooked when you take them out, because they’ll firm up as they cool, and you don’t want them to get hard.

And…the best part: The Nutritional Info [one serving]…

• Calories: 74
• Fat: 2 grams
• Sugar: 6 grams
• Protein: 2 grams

I’ll let you know how it goes! I’m so excited. And the best part is they are healthy enough to not be considered cheats! I’m not telling my fam that they are made with chickpeas until after they eat them. muuahaha.

(The source is listed below - her site an a bajillion healthy, delicious-looking recipes! Check it out!)

To be honest, last week was a mixed bag. I had a great week - eating well, exercising, drinking water…and then the weekend hit.

I knew the weekend would be tough, because of my gram’s birthday, my birthday “party,” and the Superbowl, but I guess those are just excuses. My brain is trying to write off the overindulging I did this weekend (with excuses), but I know there really aren’t any. Some things I overindulged in: pizza, lemon bars, beer, Chinese food, and homemade pretzels.

The only thing I can do now is 1) look at my success from last week, and 2) stay on track all this week (except for Wednesday, my birthday, and ONE cheat meal this week - cheese fondue! and I’m thinking the clean Peanut Butter Cups, thanks to The Fame of Health and Fitness, for dessert so that only the meal is the cheat).

Successes

• Ate clean and within my calorie bracket (+/- 150-200) each day, with scheduled, healthy snacks/meals, limited my grains and ate more protein and fruits/veg.
• Worked out 5 of 7 days for 45 minutes. 
• Drank 4 liters of water each day, M-F.
• Drank 2-3 cups of green tea each day, M-F.

I know I can stay on track during the week, and I know the weekends are always the hardest, but this weekend I vow to keep up all my goals, no matter where the weekend takes me, (and that is my goal for this week).

This weekend is going to be interesting. I think I’m up for the challenge, and have an outlined plan in my head, but…here are the challenges ahead…

• Friday (Today!): (a) Today is my gram’s birthday. There will be pizza, alcohol, cupcakes and other snack-y things at her “party.” I think there will be salad there, so I’ll just have a salad, and then eat more of a dinner after, at home. (b) Today is also a friend’s birthday and I’m going out to celebrate, but already offered to be the designated driver so I have an “excuse” for not drinking. And, I plan to eat enough of a dinner before so I won’t be tempted to order something out. Soda water and lime for me, plz!
• Saturday: Saturday is going to be a tricky day. My birthday is next week, so I’m celebrating this Saturday. It is going to be my one time per week to consume alcohol. Also, Saturday dinner is going to be my one cheat meal for the week. The key here is going to be moderation. However, one of my friends has already threatened to continually buy me shots, but I told her I didn’t want that and she started giving me crap…
• Sunday: Sunday, as most Americans know, is Superbowl Sunday. I don’t care about football or the Superbowl, but my friend invited me over to her place for “beer and snacks.” I’m not really keen on the idea, but I’m getting better at saying no to alcohol/cheats/treats, so I don’t foresee it being too much of a problem.

The thing about this weekend is that I know I could easily blow the progress I’ve made. And, especially because the progress I’ve made isn’t extremely measurable (mostly that I simply feel healthier/thinner/better), I know I need to keep up my work to get some tangible results. I will be hitting the gym everyday this weekend to work off those cheats/alcohol!

TGIF, everyone! Hope you enjoy the weekend. :)

So Day 5 was a rest day. I can already tell you I am going to love and cherish these biweekly rest days. 

However, the pitfall of my rest day yesterday was that I ended up have an entire CHEAT DAY. While I am semi-disappointed, I had been eating well the whole week up until then, and needed to relax a little so I consider it OK.

Because of this, I’ve decided to allow myself one free day per week, if needed. For example, on February 4th, I’m having my birthday party, so I will allow myself to cheat. The next week, the 8th, is my birthday, so that will be a free day as well. But, I don’t want to make it a habit (as in, I will have one free/cheat day per week); if there is a special occasion in a certain week, I will allow myself to have that day free. 

Anyway, I promised myself I would eat extra well today and tomorrow because Monday is my weigh-in. And I’m happy to say today, I have done. I also had a great run today, it felt easier, but I am having a little pain in my inner calves. I’m going to have to do some research on this pain.

Tomorrow is my long run, and I’m looking forward to the challenge. :)

Training Week 1 (January 23 - 29)
Mon.     Tues.     Wed.     Thurs.     Fri.     Sat.     Sun.     Total
off         2.5M      2.5M     2.5M       off      2.5M    2.75M   12.75M