Wake up and weigh in 206.4…and voila down 5.2 total pounds in 3 weeks.

The exercise that I have still been getting is simply walking, some weight training, hiking, and the stair climber to prepare us for the long treks up the mountains.

I did find out, that I am not a fan of the protein bars that I have tried so far. If anyone has any advice on palatable protein bars let me know.

Since protein bars and drinks are not my jam, I made some protein bites. I have made these many times before when my girls played volleyball. I did, however, change the recipe up a little bit this time. I previously used honey, but I am not a huge fan of the aftertaste of honey, so I tried them with maple syrup and voila, MUCH MORE TASTY AND NO STRONG AFTERTASTE!

I combined 1 1/2 cups of oats, 1/4 cup maple syrup, 3 scoops (84 g) of vanilla whey protein powder, 251 g of creamy peanut butter, and 3 tbsp dark chocolate chips. Mix the oats and protein powder first. Next add the peanut butter and syrup. Once that is combined add in the chocolate chips. If mixture is too dry, just add in one tablespoon of peanut butter at a time until the mixture is where you can roll it into balls. Refrigerate whatever you don’t eat right away and enjoy! These should last up to a week in the refrigerator, but trust me, they are so good, they wont last that long; everyone in the house will be a fan. This recipe makes about 16 protein bites (balls).

For one ball, there are 139 calories, 7.4g of fat, 12.7g of carbohydrates and 6.6g of protein. So you can’t eat a ton, but one or two a day, is a nice treat.

I do however need to find snacks that are within my macros to eat on long hikes. When we are doing hikes in which we drive, it isn’t such a big deal, as I can bring everything from home. When we fly to our hiking locations, which our first will be next month, it is proving to be more challenging for meal and snack planning.

We also went to REI this weekend while we were in Atlanta to try out some different packs and check out all their gear. We decided on two packs; mine is a 40L trailpack in women’s with the metal frame and my husband got a similar 40L trailpack in men’s). We also got water bladders for them; we chose the osprey water bladders because we were told they are easier to clean and maintain. We found a map for Rocky Mountain National Park, for our trip there next month, so we threw that in our basket as well.

Slowly but surely we are getting our gear, so we have plenty of time to prove that it is tried and true before the big trek in Peru.

So many things are changing and so many exciting things coming!

Stick around to see my next adventure or update…which ever comes first!

Until then

XOXO

-S