RECIPE: LaraBar Bites

About a year ago, well before I did The Whole Life Challenge, I was already trying to look for minimally processed foods to feed my family, and was especially dismayed at the long list of artificial crap in almost all of the supposedly healthy “nutrition” bars we were used to eating. The one brand that didn’t contain a ton of added sugar and other awful ingredients? LaraBar. Honestly, most of the flavors contain a mere four or five ingredients—and virtually none (except those containing chocolate chips, as far as I can tell) has added or refined sugar of any kind.

This is why LaraBars are a perfect grab-and-go snack when you’re doing The Whole Life Challenge. Again, not all of the flavors are completely sugar-free, so they’re not all compliant, but many of them are—including my favorite flavor: Coconut Cream Pie. However, as much as I love LaraBars, the more I thought about how few ingredients there were, the more I wondered if I could just make them myself. So I did a quick online search and behold! There were a ton of websites sharing their recipes. Coming in at the very top of my “Coconut Cream LaraBar Recipe” search was a site called My Whole Food Life. The recipe looked awesome so I decided to give it a try and OMG was I glad that I did. These things were like coconut crack. Almost too good—and, I hate to say it, a billion times better than the store-bought LaraBars. They’re also crazy-easy to make. If you want to check out the recipe, click here. (Note: My Whole Food Life also has recipes for a ton of other LaraBar flavors that I have yet to try, plus plenty of other recipes that are Whole Life Challenge compliant!)

Is Coconut Oil Really Good For You?

In the nearly fifteen years that I’ve been writing about health and fitness, I’ve seen a lot of nutrition trends come and go (and occasionally come back again). There was the fat-free craze, which backfired in a whole host of ways. (Hey! Licorice is a fat-free candy! These cookies taste like cardboard but have no fat! That means they’re good for you…right? Um, no.) Then there were the low-carb/high-protein diets, which were discredited by a lot of experts but are now sort of back in sleek new (or, really, incredibly old) Paleo packages.

There have also been countless super foods, from chocolate to chia, kale to quinoa, touted for their health-boosting benefits—and some of the evidence is certainly compelling. Coconut oil* is another recent addition to this list, and a lot of people (including plenty of fans of The Whole Life Challenge) have eagerly embraced it. However, it’s also been met with scrutiny, especially because of its saturated fat content. So what’s the deal? Is it a miracle cure for all that ails you, a sensationalized jar of snake oil or, even worse, a heart attack waiting to happen? I’ll admit that I’ve been consuming a fair amount of it myself since starting The Whole Life Challenge, so I decided to take a look at the science behind the health claims. Here are some key facts worth considering:

RECIPE: Simple and Speedy Vegetarian Chili

When you're doing The Whole Life Challenge, cooking can take up a huge chunk of time. This chili, however, does not. It's vegetarian (vegan, in fact!) because I like it that way, but it would certainly be WLC compliant if you added in some browned ground beef or turkey. I've been making it for years now, and my husband and son love it (as do I!). You can serve it as-is or over brown rice (WLC compliant at the intermediate level), as well as garnished with some cilantro or onion or even a dollop of Greek yogurt (again, intermediate level compliant).

I used to feel weird about making a meal almost entirely from cans (and if that bothers you then you can certainly chop up your own tomatoes, and soak and cook dry beans!). But ever since discovering the truth about BPA in the canned goods that I use, I can now make this stuff without feeling the least bit guilty (and while saving a whole lot of time in the process). Anyway, give it a try and let me know what you think. (Note: I know my food photography blows. I'll be working on that in the months ahead!)

3 Ways to Boost Your Water Intake

Most people have a hard time drinking enough water. Just like eating healthy foods and exercising, it's something they know they need to be better about but they just can't seem to do it. I'm no exception. Most days I barely manage to drink one full glass (about 16 ounces), even though I know all the benefits: It helps to curb appetite, makes your skin glow, keeps you from getting constipated (you can get especially backed up if you're having a lot of fiber but not increasing your fluid intake!).

That's why the first lifestyle requirement of The Whole Life Challenge was such a good one for me (and a lot of other people too). For the first two weeks of the challenge, if we didn't have 1/2 ounce of water for each pound of our body weight (so, divide your weight by two and that's how many ounces you need daily), we lost 1 point that day. I set out to get a perfect score for every single day of this challenge, so not meeting my water goal was not an option!