Today, I wellness coached all morning (it was a great morning of talking to people, by the way! Lots of awesome blood pressure readings, good health updates, and positive attitudes/conversations). Next, I came home and worked some more…and after all that, I needed a break before I go to meet another client tonight.
So, naturally, I needed to eat something sweet and filling. I wanted a donut…but not a cake-y dense muffin in the shape of a donut (although sometimes, that is wonderful—the donut shape just has good associations, doesn’t it?).
I made this:
Vanilla Donuts with Lemon Cheesecake Frosting
Mix:
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup maple syrup (or you could use extra stevia to taste and/or another sweetener)
1/2 tsp vanilla stevia
1/2 tsp baking powder
Add:
2 Tbsp almond flour
6 Tbsp coconut flour
6 Tbsp coconut oil, melted (you could use butter)
Blend well, until all the lumps are gone (I used a hand mixer on high). Fill greased mini muffin cups or donut pan 3/4 way (one heaping Tbsp in each for the muffin pan). You may need to smooth out the batter before baking (it will be thick). Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.
Frost!
Lemon Cheescake Frosting
Mix:
8 oz Cream cheese
Juice from a whole lemon
6 Tbsp powdered sugar (or powdered xylitol or erythritol—you can powder it in a coffee grinder)
Add a few drops of yellow food coloring if you like (I use Select Yellow All-Natural Food Coloring)
Mix on high until smooth.
When the donuts are done, you can frost them right away–the frosting is thick and really won’t melt! I thought about trying to spread it, or thin it out and dip the donuts in it…but that sounded like too much work. So I used this: Easy Accent Decorator (I’ve had it for 10 years…and it is super easy/cheap). Notice: I like a high frosting to donut ratio! You obviously don’t have to be so generous, but I recommend it!
This recipe makes about 22 mini donuts, and has exactly enough frosting for the batch (ok, so I ate about a teaspoon of the frosting by itself) if frosted the same way as in the pic.
The donut is light and airy—and the frosting is thick and rich…the perfect combination in my opinion!
Have you ever made donuts?
News/Notes:
It’s interesting to me how when I have a conversation with a client about wellness and challenges/barriers, the same topic comes up several times in a row after that. I figured I would just share with you the topic theme that has been bouncing around for me and many of my clients for the past week.
I’ve been thinking and talking a lot lately about balance. It’s often a topic among my clients—how to balance work and responsibilities with self-care. There’s no one single answer to that, but I do know that the more you take care of yourself, the more capacity you have for your responsibilities…it’s a snowball effect.
The analogy I often use is to picture your capacity for life as a cup. You fill your cup with everything you do. Once your cup is full, you have to stop adding to it or it will overflow (and you’ll be stressed out and probably not do a great job at many things, including self-care). Most people in the overflowing-cup -situation just lament about how full their lives are and how stressed out they are. I really believe the trick is not to take things out of your cup (although that is sometimes part of the puzzle), but the best plan is often to work on making your cup bigger.
Being physically fit, eating healthy, managing your stress, and getting enough sleep are all ways to make your cup, your capacity for life, bigger. Oddly enough, those self-care actions are usually the first things we sacrifice.
You may think it’s easier said than done, and maybe it is (but I don’t think we should be afraid of hard work and a leap of faith that it will yield results either). I do know that if you make your self-care a priority, other things in life will (1) not feel so stressful and (2) not be so overwhelming. You’ll feel happier and more positive too.
The world isn’t actually happening to you (you’re not a victim of it)—you can’t necessarily control events and situations, but you can definitely control your reactions to them. Challenges are opportunities, and perceptions/reactions pave the way for your next steps. At the end of the day, your body does not care if you had good or bad excuses, it merely takes an inventory of how you treated it mentally and physically and then pays you back accordingly.
It’s a simple concept. Maybe it doesn’t feel easy to implement, but it is simple.
And that is my message for the day because it’s fresh in my mind :)
I’m heading out to do a yoga session with a client, and then I’m going to relax and go in the sauna–it’s part of my self-care routine, and I’m loving it! I’ve also been getting up at 5am to start my workday–I love crossing things off my list early, and it feels great to hit 9am with half a day’s work under my belt (at that time, I usually eat, exercise, and go in the sauna…and then finish my workday at a normal time).
Are you an early riser?
Do you make self-care a priority? Ever feel guilty about it? Please don’t feel guilty, by the way. The better condition you’re in, the better able you are to support everything and everyone in your life!
