Coconut Flour Donut Holes and My First Personal Training Session

First thing’s first… I made donut holes that had no sugar added, and no grains. And they actually turned out amazingly well. I won’t mention the donut recipe Matthew and I tried a few weeks ago that was disgusting. We made a huge mess, and were completely disappointed. Hey, I mean, it happens sometimes. Shortly after that, we went to my Mom’s house to see what she had to eat.

But I totally redeemed my faith in grain free donuts today.

If you haven’t checked out recipes at freecoconutrecipes.com, you should. I got this donut recipe there.

The recipe’s great attributes include that it: is grain free, contains coconut flour, is baked instead of fried, and is SO easy.

Things I changed: I used ZSweet instead of sugar (I will use less next time, and also, I imagine you could use maple syrup or honey if you’re into those sweeteners over white sugar). Where the recipe gave the option for butter or shortening, I used Kerrygold butter (my favorite). For the coating, I left half of them plain (and they were awesome this way!), and the other half were rolled in a combo of 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp ZSweet, and 1/8 tsp stevia. The chocolate ones were great—I rolled them when they were still hot (and burned my fingers doing it), so the cocoa actually melted and they got kind of gooey—I saw this as a benefit.

I can’t wait to make these again! I am not crazy about the taste of ZSweet (it kind of reminds me of diet soft drinks), so that was slightly annoying (and my own fault for using it). However, I’m also not into using any sugar, so I have to compromise somewhere. I can see using maple syrup (I don’t use much honey due to the fructose content) because at least there is some good nutrient content in it compared to white sugar. I’ve found that since I don’t eat a lot of sweet things, I can usually cut the sugar amounts in recipes anyway, and still be happy with it.

Note: These were good hot/warm, but I strongly suggest that you hold off and put them in the fridge until they’re cold.

They are really amazing cold.

Here’s what it looks like broken in half—I’m not sure if you can really see the texture, but chill your donuts and have faith that they will be amazing!

News/Notes: I know you’re dying to hear about my personal training session today. Let’s just say that I was filled with optimistic skepticism at this plan when my alarm went off at 4am. Seriously, I’m an early riser, but that’s pushing it a little! I had all of my stuff ready to go, but I needed to have coffee and check into my classrooms first thing (since I would go directly from working out to work/wellness coaching). I was on the road by 4:45, and early enough to see my friend finish up her training session.

I feel like I’m totally ok with getting up that early one day a week—it may sound inconvenient to drive 40 minutes to work out, but if I go on the day I’m wellness coaching 5 minutes from this trainer’s gym, it’s actually like driving 5 minutes for a workout.

And besides, why did no one tell me how great it is to have a personal trainer? How have I always been the trainer and never been trained? Wait, don’t answer that—I know, I should have done it before this. I just want to say, I love not being in charge of my workout. Not only did it feel good to just follow directions, but it also made me work harder.

So, I’m going back every Tuesday. I also loved this trainer because he was super blunt, but still nice (kind of). I told him what I’m looking for, and he totally pointed out my flaws–that’s why my client/friend liked him too. When you’re not overweight or out of shape, no one will ever be 100% honest with you about what you look like. And that makes sense—really, would you tell a friend that they look good, but maybe they could work on their muffin top a little? (I hope not).

Having a slight tendency toward being an overachiever means that when I get an indication from someone else that I could be better at something, it helps me be motivated. Ok, it makes me want to be the best at it. But until this guy told me (yes, I’m being honest with you) that I could trim my inner and outer thighs and the backs of my arms (I was totally aware of the thigh thing, the arm thing surprised me), I’ve really only had my mirror to rely on (and it’s darn hard to see yourself realistically in 2D). I have strong legs, and so I’m looking forward to making them look a little more streamlined. And no, I’m not posting pics of my thighs here. Ha. But I am doing “Before” pics tomorrow morning, and Joe is going to record my weight and body fat (I can’t look at the numbers yet because I am not weighing myself till 2013, but I figure he can keep track for me so I can reflect on it later on). I think my “After” pics and measurements will happen in October. I’m not going to mention my weight here right now because I know that is not healthy for some people to read about that kind of thing (and it doesn’t seem necessary until I have some results to report). Let’s just say, I’m not overweight and my body fat and BMI are on the low end of “Normal.”

I’m taking a stand though, and saying that it’s ok to have goals to be even better than “good” by normal standards. Do I need to improve my fitness? Probably not–my heart is probably in pretty darn good shape already. But I want to, and sometimes that’s enough.

So how’s that for a post whose beginning and endings don’t go together?!  Except, I suppose, if you like donuts and want to get in better shape, these would be the ones to eat!

Do you have fitness goals? 

If you’re thin (or even if you’re not), do people tell you that you look great? And/or that you don’t need to lose weight? Do you have anyone in your life who will be totally honest with you about what you look like? (Does this dress make my butt look big?)

I think we can all improve if we want to—sometimes you improve because you need your health to improve, but sometimes you just want to take it up a notch. As long as the approach is healthy, it seems like an ok thing to do.