“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
–Mother Theresa
I actually haven’t made these delicious dates myself, but my friend (who also introduced me to Healthy Cookies) left these in my freezer a few weeks ago. (And I only have two left so that is what I took a picture of) They are a great little treat if you have a sweet tooth. Here is the official recipe. Her suggestions are below. When I make them I am going to use almond butter and dark chocolate chips. I am not a huge coconut fan, but I really enjoyed these.
Ingredients
- 8 medjool dates
- 8 tsp almond or peanut butter (or your choice of nut butter)
- 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp shredded coconut
Suggestions and Preparation
- Start with the recipe above.
- Make sure to take out the pit.
- You may want to cut dates in half.
- Stuff with your choice of all-natural peanut butter, almond butter, or other nut butter.
- For the chocolate, buy a bag of your choice of dark or milk chocolate morsels.
- Microwave in 30-second increments, stir in between. Skip the coconut oil on the recipe above.
- Cover dates with melted chocolate.
- Sprinkle with coconut.
- Stick them in the freezer when done.
- Each 1/2 is one.
Enjoy!!
“Holidays–any holiday–are such a great opportunity to focus on bringing the family together.”
–Lidia Bastianich
“Kindness is like snow. It beautifies everything it covers.”
–Kahlil Gibran
Equipment Needed
- ab mat (optional)
- one of the following for triceps: (dumbbell, resistance band, or bumper plate)
Weekly Wednesday Workout
In today’s workout, you will do three rounds of the following four moves.
- 30 standing abs (see video below)
- 25 overhead tricep extensions
- 20 lunges
- 15 squat pulses
How to Do the Moves
Click here.
Don’t forget to warm-up! Make this workout work for you.
“You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle three things: a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
–Maya Angelou
“Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.”
–Larry Wilde
As a child, I was involved in gymnastics. I wanted to be the next Mary Lou Retton and participate in the Olympics. I loved doing and watching the floor exercise. Back handsprings and roundoff backflips were my favorite. I did gymnastics up until eighth grade. (up until age 36, every summer, with the support of my sister, I would do a roundoff backflip in the backyard. I wanted to prove to myself that I was still young.) In my eighth-grade year, I had to make a choice between gymnastics, basketball, and Friday night football games. So as a 13-year-old girl, I realized I wasn’t going to the Olympics so I might as well concentrate on basketball and watch my friends play football on Friday nights.
After all those years of practice, I could never do just a standing backflip. I remember practicing in our living room one night when I was younger. My mom was sitting on the couch. I had taken the huge cushion off of the couch and put it on the floor. I went straight up… and straight back down… landing flat on my face. I may have quit trying after that one 🙂 I don’t know why, but I could never do it. It was beyond frustrating. I could do a roundoff back handspring into a backflip, but just standing there would not work for me.
About a year and a half after starting CrossFit, I felt stronger and more flexible. For some reason, I felt like a teenager again and thought I could do anything I put my mind to. Already I had done the Murph WOD, which is a 1-mile run, 300 squats, 200 push-ups, 100 pull-ups, and another mile run. I figured if I could do that, I could do anything!
One Saturday morning, we were doing back squats at our gym in Pennsylvania. There were usually about 8-10 of us that would do squats then a WOD. One of the women who was squatting that day was a gymnastics coach in our area. I told her how much I loved gymnastics and how I always tried but I could never do a standing backflip. She mentioned I was welcome to come to the studio to do gymnastics anytime to work on my backflip. However, I was feeling confident so I asked if she would spot me over at our stretching mat right there in the gym. I was really nervous because there were several people around, but I was also confident that she wasn’t going to let me land on my head! So we counted to three and can you believe it… I did it!! I was so excited! I think I proceeded to do about five in a row. It was so much fun. I couldn’t wait to call my sister to tell her and to send her the video.
I couldn’t believe I had done it. I was one week shy of becoming a 42-year-old woman and finally did a standing backflip! Thank you to my spot for giving me the confidence to try! And thank you CrossFit Meadville for making me stronger every day!! A lesson learned to never, ever give up on your goals no matter what they are or how old you are! Check out the video of the backflip here!
“Love the giver more than the gift.”
–Brigham Young
“May your walls know joy, may every room hold laughter, and every window open to great possibility.”
–Mary Anne Radmacher