Protein Waffles and Workout Channel Reviews

Chococat stays chocolatey with lots of chocolate protein powder! One day he will be able to lift the protein powder jar. For now, he can only scoop.



 

Mmmm, back to the delicious Raw Proteins from Garden of Life.

I neutralized the last of the nasty Sun Warrior protein powder in an un-sweet waffle. They smelled sickly sweet while cooking but they are in fact pleasantly not-sweet and go wonderfully with strawberry compote.



Protein Waffles

Makes 3-4 Belgian waffles

• 1 1/2 cups GF rolled oats


• 3 scoops (about 3/4 to 1 cup) protein powder (I used SunWarrior Raw Vegan Blended Vanilla Protein)


• 3 tablespoons coconut flour


• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum


• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder


• dash cinnamon


• 1 cup unsweetened nondairy milk (unsweetened vanilla almond for me)


• 1/2 cup water (more or less, depending on your powder)


• 3 tablespoons coconut butter (or oil, or margarine)

 Preheat and grease waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions.

In a blender, blitz oats, protein, coconut flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, and cinnamon until oats are processed into flour. Add the dry ingredients and continue to blend (use the tamper in the Vitamix to prevent air pockets).

Dollop the batter onto the prepared griddle and cooking according to manufacturer's instructions.

Serve warm with fixins'!

 

Workout Channel Reviews

I am a YouTube fitness follower. I grew up seeing my mom follow video workouts (on VHS!), and when I was at Princeton, I began doing yoga in my room following videos on YouTube. In fact, I "discovered" pilates and bellydance through various YouTube channels.

Cassey Ho (Blogilates) provides thorough workouts and free calendars, but after doing her workouts for three months (I've followed her and her workout calendars on and off since 2011), I got bored. Three months is long enough for a workout program in my world. Wayyy too happy music, corny jokes, lack of certifications (in pilates, yes, but not ACSM or similar), personality & taste clash, what can I say. I'm no longer a fan. Will I return to do her workouts? Probably, but I need to do other activities for a while. It's funny, though, to see some certain Raw til Four channels hating on Cassey; jealousy is such an immature emotion. Popilates has grown a lot in a few years, and it's been exciting to see Cassey's journey as a businesswoman and fitness instructor.

Here are my new favourites for fitness. Note that these are *my* favourites based on my preferences in exercise videos and my fitness goals. Feel free to disagree.

Sean Vigue: He wins already because he's male. Most yoga videos one finds on the YouTube are taught by women, and women have that habit of ending everything like this? Or having breathy "yoga" voices. Anyway. Mr. Vigue's videos are difficult, and all the "yogi push-ups" will truly build upper body strength. Videos have no or quiet music, plenty of difficulty levels to choose from, power yoga and classic pilates and some HIIT, jokes aren't stupid (unlike Tony Horton jokes), a bucketload of certifications, and is in Colorado. He has minimal salesiness, a brief 30 seconds before and after the meat of the workouts.

Fitness Blender--Free workouts of all stripes taught by certified professionals. Videos feature no music, excellent technical instruction, and sales pitches are in SEPARATE VIDEOS. Their workouts are awesome, sweaty, adjustable difficulty, can be modified for "quiet" cardio.

XHIT Daily--Short workouts, metal/rock soundtrack, great for circuits or stringing a bunch of videos together, minimal salesiness or corny workouts (though the doughnut video got me hooked because it's true yet also harmful thinking). Trainers are all certified, but the workout themes do suffer from the same lack of imagination that many "women's fitness" channels have: I don't want legs like a Victoria's Secret model, and I will never be 6 feet tall with a BMI of 19. That kind of comparison only leads to suffering. Gotta work with what ya got and be yourself, in fitness, too.

Ali Kamenova--Difficult yoga! Love it! Perfect pair with a cardio workout to stretch out and stretch your yoga limits, very cool. AK is a high carb low fat vegan, which is also cool. Keeps nutrition/philosophy videos separate and in discrete channel. Workouts are right to the point with minimal to no salesiness about her workouts for sale.

Sadie Nardini--What can I say, I've loved her workouts and yoga flows since 2011, since before I heard of Cassey Ho. Her channel features short or long workouts, some yoga HIIT, great philosophy, funny jokes, no/little music. The best part of her practices is that she provides useful and unique instruction, not just the "Melt down into the floor" kind of yoga BS but "Play the edge of the stretch." That speaks to me more than melting.

Oh look, paper plates for lower abs!



Getting back to Cassey, too bad she didn't recognize And One's album Bodypop (despite my commenting on her IG about it...) before she released her activewear line Bodypop. iTunes says And One is pop...so, why no And One on Pop Pilates?

That's all for now, meows.