Good morning :)
Hopefully you can see this post!!!!
Last night, Eric and I were up until 1am working on the blog transfer. He finally fixed the error message we were getting on the home page, so hopefully everything is good to go now! The website seems to load a lot faster now, what about you guys?
I don’t know why, but I have been having the worst sleeps lately. I can’t fall asleep for hours and then I am up numerous times throughout the night. Very strange.
Maybe it is because I was excited about this…
I decided to make the Banana Soft Serve Vegan Overnight Oats again after loving it so much this weekend.
Banana Soft Serve Vegan Overnight Oats
Ingredients
VOO:
- 1/3 cup regular oats
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1/2 scoop (2 tbsp) Amazing Grass Amazing Meal Chocolate Powder
Directions: In a small bowl, mix together above ingredients with a whisk and throw in fridge overnight.
In the morning, make the Banana Soft Serve:
Give your VOO a quick stir:
And start layering!
Look at these awesome nutritional stats!
14 grams protein
11 grams fibre
11 grams healthy fats
Total Omega-3 fatty acids: 3047mg
Total Omega-6 fatty acids: 1011mg
22% of daily iron intake
15% Vitamin C
10% of daily calcium intake
Amazing!
Gosh, I am in love with this. It is like a delicious ice cream parfait for breakfast (only super healthy!)
A Monday Sundae might become a regular thing around this place!
Are You An Athlete?
Yesterday, I was writing a Foodthinkers juice article and I was doing some research on athletes and sodium intake.
As I was writing, I got thinking, do I consider myself an athlete?
I was going to call myself an athlete in the article and then I felt like a fraud!
Why did I feel this way?
Was I really an athlete?
What would ‘real’ athletes think if they read that I called myself an athlete?
I looked up the definition of an athlete:
ath·lete:
a person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill.
I determined that, yes, I am an athlete!
Obviously there are all kinds of athletes in this world and just because I am not a pro athlete doesn’t mean that I can’t consider myself an athlete. I train hard and compete, is that not enough to call oneself an athlete?
I think it is.
I posed the question on Twitter yesterday:
Here are some of the responses that I received:
@veganbooty: I totally think of myself as athlete! I don’t know exactly what an athlete is, but I still think I’m one. :-)
@lianewil: I actually don’t think of myself as an athlete, even if I have a steady stream of physical activity
@superrsana: I was a tennis player for 15 years so kinda?
@runningbuddy: I have decided that I am an athlete! I bet others would think otherwise but I believe I am, therefore, I am!
@caitlinHTP: I am most definitely an athlete, regardless of whether or not my husband laughs at me when I describe myself that way!
@bonniegartley: I consider myself a runner. Don’t know if that makes me an athlete
@sarahwalnuts: I consider myself an athlete because my sports I participate in take up more than 75% of my spare time
@imahappycat: No. B/c I don’t have a sport I do/like. I make myself not be a couch potato. :)
What about you- Do you consider yourself an athlete? Why or why not? Do you have to compete in an ‘event’ to be considered an athlete or can you simply compete against yourself?
Gee, good question. I would consider myself athletic, I suppose. My husband calls me an crazy! Tri-training, and half marathon training keep me hopping as well as any extra like core classes or weight training, keep my week pretty full at the gym.
I consider olympicc competitiors and ironman competitiors athletes,…..so maybe oneday!!
I do consider myself an athlete. I’ll be competing in my first 5k this month, but I’ve always played sports throughout highschool and college. Ccan’t wait for summer softball league too.
I am an athlete though I cringe at being labeled as so. Weird? I have an athlete’s body. I will never be long and willowy. I suppose I feel as if being an athlete and looking like one makes me un-feminine, in a way.
Those soft-serve oats looks amazing – and their stats are phenomenal! I don’t know if I consider myself an athlete…I consider myself athletic though….but I’m not sure why I make the differentiation.
I’ve been playing with this question a lot lately. I run, bike a swim, yet I don’t consider myself an athlete. Why? I think it’s because I didn’t do these things in college and high school when the term athlete is used often. I want to know when I’ll feel good to call myself an athlete. I’ve ran races, will be biking a century on Saturday and doing a triathlon next month…can I then call myself an athlete? I wonder, in other people’s eyes, if they consider me an athlete? Good post!
That’s an excellent question. Right off the bat I would say I’m a former athlete since I was a gymnast for 15 years.. but I would feel weird saying I’m an athlete now, but if I think about it, I would call anyone else who trains like I do an athlete so why not me?
It is soooo difficult to give yourself a label like this! At least it is for me. I have recently accepted the label of “artist”. I create art regularly, and absolutely adore the process. It is a passion. So, therefore, I am an artist! The same goes for being an athlete. I engage in physical activity, constantly push and challenge myself, and am always improving. Plus, I love it. So, I am an athlete! I always find myself wanted validation from someone else. Someone who can slap these labels on my forehead for the world to see! But truly, it has to be YOU that declares these labels, and accepts the fact that they are amazing. Athlete or not.
That breakfast looks absolutely incredible–so perfect for summer!
oo great question! I actually have thought about this myself a good amount. I usually see athletes as people who are really “serious” about competition & I really just consider myself a recreational participant. Even when I was training for a marathon, or when I play tennis which I competed in for years, I don’t feel any different. I guess because I do this for myself rather than for a team it feels silly (maybe a little presumptuous?) to call myself something I’m not.
Just because we don’t get PAID to workout, and we don’t have sponsors, doesn’t mean we aren’t athletes!! :)
Man, that does look like a tasty breakfast!!! And thanks for posting the nutrition stats!
I have a hard time calling myself an athlete evening though I have indeed trained for an event multiple times (I’m a runner). My best friend calls me an athlete and I always feel weird about it. I don’t know why though, I think it’s just a mental thing. I train hard for my events and I now eat like an athlete BECAUSE of my events. In all sense of the term, I *am* an athlete. But I think because of the years I spent being overweight and sedentary, it’s a hard adjustment to admit (not that I don’t want to!).
I don’t think of myself as an athlete… I think because when I played sports in high school and college, that was when I called myself an athlete. I run and work out and do all kinds of active stuff… so I don’t know why I don’t consider myself an athlete?
I guess I’m with you on this one. I wouldn’t naturally consider myself an athlete but according to that definitely I am.
I love exercise, and competing but I suppose I always assumed that to be an athlete you have to be given that title.
This is so hard. I would like to consider myself an athlete, but I don’t know that I’m naturally gifted enough in sports to make that claim. I love running, swimming and Bikram, but do I do them competitively? Not anymore. I may have considered myself an athlete when I was in high school and competing regularly. But now I exercise for health and happiness rather than competition.
I also don’t know if I have that same commitment and determination that other athletes have. For instance, my roommate is a triathlete (a serious triathlete). He works out every day multiple times, he eats a special diet, when he’s training he cuts out all alcohol. If for some reason he isn’t able to compete its the end of the world. I don’t have that same drive. I work out for enjoyment instead.
I don’t comment often, but wanted to add my voice to this one. I was a pretty serious competitive swimmer for about a dozen years, and definitely thought of myself as an athlete. I stopped after having double rotator cuff surgery my freshman year of college, and took a handful of years off from organized athletic activity. I started training for my first marathon three and a half years ago through Team in Training, and since then have competed in several marathons, an ultramarathon, an ironman, and many adventure races. But only in the past couple months have I really begun to define myself as an athlete again. It was as though my definition had stalled during my swimming days, and I felt like because I wasn’t training 35 hours a week, it didn’t count or something… I had no problem thinking of my training and racing buddies as athletes, but couldn’t see myself that way. I’m not sure why it shifted a couple months ago, but I can point to the moment when my mindset changed, and I’ve been enjoying this very conscious embrace of what feels like a newfound identity.
Thanks for posting on this – definitely struck a nerve!
Hey Angela! I don’t consider myself an athlete because I rarely race. I love working out and pushing myself physically, but choose not to do competitions. That parfait looks amazing! I might be trying one of those pretty soon. Take care and the blog looks/loads wonderfully!
I’d like to think so, bt I know there are more intense athletes than me!
I guess I don’t consider myself an athlete because I don’t think or running or working out as my main focus, passion, or career. Okay, and also because I keep falling off the wagon.
Maybe I’m a part-time athlete? That’s kind of like one of my favorite running quotes…I’m not a runner, I just play one 3 days a week.
Interesting question about the athlete. Though with little ones, I feel like less of an athlete these days, I still treat physical fitness as a challenge and during games the competitor in me will surface.
haha I run xc and track for a division 1 school. So I’ll say yes.