Sharing a super delicious and healthy homemade peanut butter protein bars recipe! Perfect for meal prep and grab-and-go snacks. Plus, they’re gluten-free and dairy-free.

Hey! How are you? I hope your morning is going well! I’m here getting everything together for Spring Shape Up – workouts and meal ideas go out on Friday! – and hopping on a podcast interview. I hope you have a lovely morning!

How about a little protein bar with your morning coffee?

I love protein bars as an on-the-go snack because they’re healthy yet delicious. At the same time, I don’t usually love the ingredients for many of the ones on store shelves. My top bars right now are these good! bars (which are impossible to find; usually Sprouts has them), Aloha, and the chocolate whole foods bars.

Homemade peanut butter protein bars

While it is possible to find tasty ones with good ingredients, they can also be a bit on the pricey side! They’re so quick and easy to make at home, way less expensive, and they don’t require any cooking or baking skills. Peanut butter is one of the popular ingredients used in protein bars (and one of my fave flavors!), so today, I’m sharing a peanut butter protein bar recipe that you can make at any time!

What Is A Protein Bar Good For

A quick snack when you don’t have time for a full meal

Sometimes it gets busy and instead of skipping a meal because you don’t have time to make a full meal, I’m ALL about relying on convenience. If these are in the fridge ready to go, you can enjoy one along with a hard-boiled egg or an apple – it’s perfect if you don’t have time to actually cook anything. Is it a substitute for a real meal? Nope! Buuuut it can give you extra fuel and nutrients when you’re on a time crunch and in a hurry.

For travel

I love wrapping up a homemade protein bar and popping it in my tote bag when we’re traveling, along with the usual suspects: jerky, tea, an apple, some chocolate, LMNT packs, trail mix, and a tuna pouch. I can never find any of my go-to protein bars at the airport, so it’s nice to have one on hand that you know you enjoy.

Post-workout fuel

These are great if you’re heading to the gym and then have to head straight to an appointment or back to work. It gives you a burst of protein, carbs, and healthy fats, plus it’s portable and not messy. 😉

Late-night snacks

Despite what you may have heard, it is not harmful to eat before you go to bed if it’s macro-balanced. Sometimes if you’re hungry, you may need a bit of protein and carbs to prevent a glucose crash in the night, disputing sleep. Just make sure that it’s balanced and not too sugary, which makes these bars an excellent choice. More of my favorite pre-bedtime snacks include hard-boiled eggs and some fruit, yogurt with some grain-free granola, and deli meat rolled up with hummus.

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Talking about adrenal fatigue, what it is, and some of the best foods to help with adrenal fatigue.

Hi friends! How’s the day going so far? I hope you’re having a great one! Today, I wanted to chat a bit about adrenal fatigue. It’s a huge topic and something that’s near to my heart because I suffered from chronic stress for many years. I couldn’t figure out why my hair was falling out, I was exhausted all of the time, and my hormones were out of whack. A huge contributing factor: stress. Stress affects so many processes and systems in the body and can take its toll.

Please keep in mind that this post is not medical advice and not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease or illness. I’m just sharing some of my own experience, some things I’ve learned, and things that may help in general for a healthy lifestyle. 😉 If you have questions, as always, talk to your doctor. I am not a doctor (obviously).

What is adrenal fatigue?

There’s some debate about adrenal fatigue (more below), but it’s something that affects a lot of women, which can lead to hormone imbalances and poor health. Adrenal fatigue can occur when you are under chronic fatigue for a sustained amount of time.

Your adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys (like a lil hat), and produce a variety of hormones, including cortisol. Cortisol is our “get up and go” hormone, which helps us to wake up in the morning, respond to stressors, and take action. Cortisol is often blamed for a lot of things, but it can actually be a good thing when it’s secreted in the appropriate times.

When you’re under chronic stress, it can deplete the adrenal glands’ ability to produce cortisol. This is why high cortisol eventually becomes low cortisol; the adrenals can no longer keep up with the demand and burn out. It can also cause them to produce cortisol in the inappropriate times, like late at night (which can lead to feeling “tired and wired” before bed) or in the middle of the night (when you wake up in a panic or stressed and can’t go back to sleep).

It can lead to symptoms that include:

– Poor mood

– Fatigue

– Brain fog

– Sugar or salt cravings

– Poor healing and recovery from illness and workouts

– Sleep disturbances

– Inability to fall asleep

and so much more.

You may hear people say that adrenal fatigue isn’t real because it isn’t thoroughly backed by science. But, there’s a huge problem with people feeling constantly stressed and exhausted. There’s also a chance that the things you’re experiencing could be due to HPA axis dysfunction: when the signals between your brain, pituitary gland, and adrenals get mixed up due to chronic stress.

Even if the adrenals are functioning properly and you’re under a huge amount of stress that’s affecting your daily life, it’s worth it making some lifestyle changes that can help your body deal with the chronic stress. 

Your body under stress:

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F45 is a high-intensity, 45-minute workout that challenges every muscle in your body. Learn more about the program, and tips for beginners and first-timers here.

Hi hi! Happy Monday! How was the weekend? I hope you had a wonderful one. Ours was packed with fun events: rehearsal dinner, Trevor and Danielle’s wedding, Liv danced in a parade, family brunch, women’s basketball game… it was so much fun, but a total whirlwind. I’d love to hear what you were up to!

Since I’m off to cardio day at F45 – let’s be real, I work much harder there for cardio than I do on my own – I thought I’d share some tips for beginners or for friends who are considering trying it out for the first time.

F45 For Beginners: What To Expect At A Class

What is F45?

F45 stands for Functional Training 45 – it’s a team training environment with a functional workout that only takes 45 minutes. Their little tagline/motto is: team training, life changing.

One of my favorite parts about this workout is that they don’t waste any time. They go through the demos, start the workout, and you GO. I LOVE that it’s not an entire hour – except for the weekend classes – which makes it more reasonable for my schedule. I typically go to F45 once or twice a week, usually on a pure cardio day and pure strength day.

You can check out my post comparing F45 to Orangetheory here!

How are the workouts structured?

One of my favorite things about F45 is that the workouts alternate each day, so you can go MORE days without risking overworking certain muscle groups and overtraining. The intensities also vary, as each day has a specific emphasis. (Unlike Orangetheory, which I think is best around 2x a week depending on your goals. I think it’s too much to do every day and can be counterproductive.)

A week at F45 *right now* looks something like this:

Sunday: Strength hybrid – 60 minutes

Monday: Cardio (High-intensity interval training)

Tuesday: Resistance training – full-body

Wednesday: Cardio (HIIT)

Thursday: Pure strength (upper or lower body)

Friday: Hybrid workout (total body cardio and strength)

Saturday: Total body cardio and strength – 60 minutes

How do you know what to do?

It’s a screen-guided workout, so once the trainers go over the demo, you follow the exercises for each station on screens throughout the studio. They also have a heart rate monitor option on the screens, but I find that a majority of people at our studio don’t use their heart rate monitor but rely on their own fitness trackers instead.

What to expect?

Classes are different every day, but you can expect to sweat in the 45 minutes you’re there. I feel like it’s a balanced and challenging workout for your entire body using functional strength and cardio exercises. They use ALL the equipment, too: ski erg, assault bikes, rowers, kettlebells, TRX, Y bells, dumbbells, sandbags, Revo bars, BOSU trainers, slam balls, and medicine balls.

Here’s what you can do if you’re a beginner or if you’re taking class for th

Hi friends! Happy Friday! How’s the week going? The weekend is off to a good start: I met up with a friend for a Pure Barre class – the Reform class included bands and gliders for an intense strength workout- and a smoothie. Next was a quick trip to the chiropractor, a stop at the girls’ school, and now it’s wedding celebration time!

It’s my brother Trevor’s wedding tomorrow and I can’t wait for the giant fiesta with the fam. Trevor and his wife eloped in Vegas last year, but now it’s time for the celebration. The Pilot is officiating the ceremony (!) and I can’t wait to see family members that we haven’t seen in forever. I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead, too!

A little something new on the blog: a partners page! I always love (and am so thankful) when you guys ask me for referral/affiliate links and shop through my links. I thought it was would be convenient to put my favorite brands and discount codes in one page so it’s easy to find, and as always, I’m happy to help or send along a link or discount code if I have one.

In full transparency, ad revenue has declined over the past couple of years, and affiliate income has become the majority of my revenue (along with digital product sales/memberships and coaching). I just wanted to say a huge thank you for shopping through my links and supporting the lil blog. The partners page is here if you’d like to check it out!

It’s time for the weekly Friday Faves party. This is where I share some of my favorite finds from the week and around the web. I always love to hear about your faves, too, so please shout out something you’re loving in the comments section below.

Friday Faves

Random:

New Aviator Nation hoodie. These are the best hoodies in all the land. Betsy got me hooked and they’re SO insanely soft. Once you go AN, you’ll never go back. I opted for a grey one that will match with everything. Perfect for lounging, layering with gym clothes, and travel.

I’m at a special point in life where I get excited by a mouthwash lol. I don’t typically use conventional mouthwashes because the ingredients can be sketchy, but I found this one on Thrive Market that had excellent reviews. It does have a licorice taste to it from the fennel, so don’t order it if you hate licorice, but if you like the taste of fennel, you’ll be a fan.

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I am always in awe of all the amazing women in the LSF Community who push themselves mentally, physically, and emotionally during our challenges, but especially during LSF30! The beginning of the year is not an easy time to get back into the swing of things and push yourself to get into a consistent routine. Coming off of the holiday season is exhausting and often a fitness challenge is the last thing on your mind, but I am SO proud of everyone who decided to choose themselves in 2023 and do LSF 30!

I am constantly impressed and inspired by the amazing transformation photos and stories shared during LSF 30. 

Together during this challenge we lost over 200 pounds!! Can you believe it?! Also to note, that is ONLY from women who submitted their transformations at the end of the challenge, so I know there are more pounds lost out there! Follow Team LSF on IG to see more! Everyone finished this 4 week challenge stronger than ever and I am so proud!

Now it’s time to shout out our LSF 30 winners! These women stayed dedicated and consistent with their Hot Body Meal Plan and LSF app workouts.

These inspiring women, not only have incredible transformation photos but the most heartwarming stories!

4 WEEK TRANSFORMATION | GRAND PRIZE WINNER

 Lauren Sackett, @lsf_lau

Lauren is so inspiring! She lost a total of 12 pounds during this challenge! Lauren often would join a challenge with LSF and start it, but never saw it through. This is her first challenge she saw through the entire way and clearly, her hard work and dedication paid off!

Lauren has PCOS (polycistic ovarian syndrome) which has always made it more difficult for her to manage her weight since it greatly affects her hormones. She noted, “Just this past month realigning healthy habits has tremendously helped my mental health and I think my hormones – I’m not entirely sure because I haven’t gotten tested or anything but my cycle was very regular. No intense cramping, not super bloated, it was a set number of days instead of spotting for two weeks post period, all of the key things that I was struggling with the past six months and kind of gave up on.”

Lauren attributes a lot of her success also to the Hot Body Meal Plan, which helped her to guide her food choices and make her excited about a healthy meal! 

“Overall, this challenge was amazing, I don’t feel like it was even really a challenge, because I feel like this is how I want to live my life now, so it was more of a steppingstone to the lifestyle that I have been telling myself in my head I was going to do but wasn’t actually implementing. Your mind can be very convincing when you tell yourself over and over again that it’s impossible for you to lose weight and it doesn’t matter what you do you won’t lose weight — when in reality, all I had to do was sit down with myself and recognize that I am in control of how I live my life and if I want to live healthier and be stronger and back to how I used to be when I played sports and was super active then I need to move!! it feels isolating to feel stuck and lost and hide yourself underneath baggy sweatpants and sweatshirts but I’m so proud of myself for coming this far and I’m so happy that my boyfriend joined me on the meal plan because it helped so much to have support and encouragement. Started at 248 and ending at 236 pounds – woohoo!”

We are so proud of you Lauren! You’re an inspiration