Paleo pumpkin protein pancakes

I eat (almost) strictly paleo and for the longest time I’ve seen people posting photos of their protein pancakes but never got around to cooking them! I used to love pancakes (store-bought, boxed mix) covered in syrup… but we all know they aren’t the most healthy option – so why not make a healthier option?!

I searched around for several different recipes, but in the end kind of went for what I thought would work the best. Here’s the recipe I thought worked the best:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (pure canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 serving of protein powder (I used Visalus, it takes like cake, enough said)
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/4 almond milk
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (you can use cinnamon or nutmeg if that’s what you have)
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder

While beginning to measure all the ingredients out… this disaster took place:

OOPS! Surprisingly, coconut flour is much more dense which made it easier to clean up than wheat flour!

(There is a positive side to everything, right?)

Preparation

Step one: Measure out all ingredients in processor/blender.

Step two: Blend until smooth. My batter sort of resembled cookie dough, so I went with it! If you prefer it to be slightly runnier, add more water and mix again.

Step three: Turn burner onto 3-4, place batter in a little coconut oil, and let it cook!

Step four: Let cook about 10 minutes on one side (remember, LOW heat) and flip – if you really want to work your cooking skills – give the flip in the air a shot! I’m happy to report I landed the flip!

Since my dough was like cookie dough, it looks like a peanut butter cookie – don’t be fooled – there is no sugar or wheat in this!

Step five: Once cooked (mine was still soft like a cookie) top with your preferred toppings! I chose natural peanut butter and raspberries!

A few tips:

• My batter was quite dry, but I liked that. If you prefer runnier batter, use more water and or another egg.
• Some recipes call for stevia or some kind of sweetener. You’ll see I didn’t use any because I used Visalus in this recipe – it already has a sweet flavour to it so I didn’t need to add sugar or sweetener of any sort.
• Pumpkin is my favourite – feel free to swap that part out for whatever fruit/nuts you prefer!

Do you have a protein pancake recipe that works well for you? Please let me know – I’m looking to try others to see which I like the best!

90-day Challenge: workout plan

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the type of workouts I do so I thought I’d share my full workout plan and explain the workout I did tonight in detail.

For the 90-day challenge I’m planning to do the following:

Weeks 1-4: 6 workouks a week

• 3-4 metabolic strength and conditioning classes with my friends over at Element Athletic
• 2-3 strength/body building workouts

So far this week has looked like:

• Sunday: Upper body workout
• Monday: off
• Tuesday: EA class
• Wednesday: EA class
• Thursday: EA class
• Friday: Lower body workout
• Saturday: EA class

After a month of this routine, I will assess how my body is reacting and decide if I want to mix up my routine more (I may add a few swims a week) or just keep my workouts varible.

To give you an idea of the type of kickass workouts we do at Element, they look something like this.

Crazy, right? I know – and I freaking love it!

Last night however I went to the gym and cracked out a lower body workout. When focusing on the lower body, I make sure to do exersices that target the five main lower body muscle groups: glutes, calves, hamstrings, adductors and quads. I also throw in abs during or at the end!

Ttonight’s workout looked a little something like this:

• Leg presses (glutes, quads) – 4 sets
  • 2 x 12 at 180 lbs
  • 2 x 12 at 230 lbs
• Superset: Stiff-legged deadlift (hamstrings) + double handed swings (all lower body muscle groups) – 4 sets
  • Instead of a barbell I used two 20kg KBs
  • Supersets are when do one exercise, followed immediately by a second exercies
• Superset: Calf raises (calves) + lying leg raises (abs) – 3 sets
  • I used 2 x 20 kg KBs instead of a bar
• Double kettlebell front squats (glutes, quads) – 4 sets
  • 2 x 20 kg KBs
  • 5-7 reps per set
• Backward and forward alternating lunges (quads) – 4 sets
  • 12 backward reps with one 20 kg KB racked on my right side – then the same on the left
  • 12 forward reps with KB bottoms up x 2

I finished off with 2 rounds of:

• glute bridges (30 reps) + glute kick backs (30 each leg) + 2 minute plank

It felt good and since I haven’t done a weight training lower body workout in awhile, and as predicted, I’m a little sore this morning. Which is wicked :)

I plan to share more workouts as this challenge progresses, please let me know if you have any questions about the above workout!