Birthday Cake the Primal Way . . .

Well this past weekend was Robin's birthday and our first "challenge" since going Primal with our daily nutrition. What to do for a birthday cake?
For those reading that are unaware of what "primal" means, part of the diet change is eliminating processed sugars and grain carbs. (There is a lot more to it and I will save that for another post.) Since learning the basics it has been fairy easy for us to follow - no grain carbs and no processed sugar. Kind of a no-brainer until you need to bake something! How do you bake without flour? (Generally flour = wheat = grain = NO.) I have been pretty successful making non-flour pancakes but a whole cake is a different story. After some Googling and forum searches (like Marks Daily Apple) I found a couple options I was willing to try. The first was Carrot Cake with Coconut & Pecans and the other was Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cake. I added/swapped/changed a few things with both based on what I wanted or had in the house.

Both have limited ingredients:



As you can see, almond butter, pecans, bananas, eggs, chocolate, honey and some lemon juice. (There is also baking soda but I did not have it in a picture friendly container.)



This one is just as easy with almond meal (just ground up almonds), bananas, grated carrots, eggs, pecans, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. (Cream cheese & agave nectar for the frosting.)

For the chocolate cake it is the almond butter and eggs that hold it together, and the baking soda helps get it to rise. With the carrot cake it is pretty much the almond meal and eggs. So, this means all the other ingredients are more for taste and texture. So feel free to mix it up to your liking!

So really quickly (because it is that easy) for each dessert just mix up all the dry ingredients together then add the eggs/liquids. Bake both at 350 degrees until they are done in the middle. Use the toothpick test. The chocolate cake takes only about 15 minutes and the carrot cake closer to 25 minutes. I used heavy cream to whip up a topping for the chocolate cake and cream cheese whipped up for the carrot cake. Both are sweetened with agave nectar.

Here are what they look like:








Here is the rundown:

Carrot Cake

2 cups almond meal (ground up almonds)
1 Tbs cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped pecans (I used the Magic Bullet so they were more than chopped!)
1 cup shredded coconut
2-3 cups of grated carrots
3 bananas
½ cup almond milk
3 eggs
2 Tbs agave nectar

Frosting
8oz cream cheese
2 Tbs agave nectar

Mix all the dry ingredients together then carrots/bananas. If the bananas are less ripe you might want to mash them a little before mixing in. Then add milk, eggs and nectar and thats it.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. I used a glass 8x8ish Pyrex dish and sprayed with baking spray. This one needs more time to cook than the chocolate cake so make first if you want to bake both at the same time. I have seen various times for different recipes but this one was done in less than 30 minutes. Just make sure to use a tooth pick to ensure center is baked. You do not want to over bake this!!
When done let cool and frost with cream cheese. I bought the prewhipped plain and sweetened with agave nectar. I still whipped it with a hand mixer but for only about 20 seconds.

Chocolate Cake

2 cups almond butter
3 eggs
2 Tbs agave nectar
1 banana (the more ripe the easier to mix and more sweet)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 bar of chopped dark chocolate (I used 90%. Remember the high the % the less sugar and less sweet)
1 Tbs lemon juice

It really doesn't matter what ingredients you mix first with this one. The size of the chocolate pieces will determine how "gooey" it will be. Once all mixed I used a pie dish (buttered/lard) and put in a 350 degree preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes. Make sure you do the toothpick test! This "cake" rose very nicely but you do not want to overbake!
When done let cool and frost with a whipped up heavy cream sweetened with agave nectar.

** NOTE **
Robin really liked both of these but I thought they could have been just a little sweeter. You can add more honey/agave to the mix or to the frosting but I wouldn't want to do both.

Nutritional Values per serving

Carrot Cake:
Calories - 516
Fat - 40 grams
Protein - 13 grams
Carbs - 35 grams

Chocolate Cake:
Calories - 570
Fat - 44 grams
Protein - 18 grams
Carbs - 29 grams

** If you know Primal then you will also know that most of the fats in these recipes are "good" fats and the ratio(s) will be more fat than carbs.

So thats it. I hope you found this of interest and maybe even a little tempting to make . . . Ounce for ounce they are more nutritious than conventional desserts. If you are looking for a better and healthy alternative I hope you give them a try.

2010 Beachbody Coach Summit

This past weekend Robin and I had an opportunity to attend this years coach summit. We learned a lot more about the Beachbody products (including new releases), were touched by so many healthy transformation stories, motivated by successful coaches, and met a bunch of great people.
And we had LOTS OF FUN! So as much as I would love to talk about the business, I really want to share with you some pics and talk about the great time we had . . .
Part of the planned weekend included workouts with the celebrity trainers. On Friday night there was the "Super" workout where all the celebrity trainers shared the stage and we did 10-15 minutes of each of their popular workouts.
Here is Robin & I waiting to get in:



















We never attended anything like this before and did not know what to expect. It felt like we were at a Bruce Springsteen concert the way everyone started lining up and pushing toward the doors. We were standing about 3 feet from one set of doors but when security opened them, we got left in the dust! I guess like at a concert you need to run as fast as you can (screaming) and hope no one gets in your way. So by the time we made it down to the stage we ended up this far away:














Yeah . . . we felt the same way. What just happened??? So much for coming early and waiting. There were over 1500 people attending this event and if most showed up for the workouts, there will be a lot of arms, elbows and knees flying around.

Of course there was always enough room to take a pic of my sweetie . . .


















Anyway, we had mini workouts with Shaun T of Insanity, Hip Hop Abs . . .



Tony Horton of P90X, 10-minute Trainer . . .
(sorry bad pic but he is doing the X)



and many others! (Chalene Johnson - ChaLEAN Extreme/Turbo Jam, Leandro Carvalho's Brazil Butt Lift, Brett Hoebel - Revabs and Debbie Sieber - Slim in 6) It was impossible to get pictures of everyone. These fans were CRAZY!
Okay, this workout was nuts. I think I was more worried about getting kicked in the teeth than using proper form. It was a lot of fun and really exciting to be a part of it. So what to do after an hour of this madhouse on a Friday night? Chill by the pool? (It was very cold out) Glass of wine at the bar? Nope . . . had to go and do a Bikram Yoga class!














This was not just another Bikram Yoga studio but THEE Bikram Yoga Studio. The one Bikram Choudhury (creator of this style of yoga) headquarters out of and actually teaches at! Why is this important? Robin is a certified Bikram Yoga instructor. So yeah . . . had to do it. Nothing like another 90 minutes of sweating in a hot room moving my body in all sorts of different positions. I tease because I know Robin will be reading this. Bikram Yoga is actually very beneficial to the body, mind and soul. I recommend it for everyone!

And now time for a funny story . . . The yoga studio was about 3 1/2 miles from the hotel so we took a cab to get there. During the drive there we realized that we will need a ride back. So we asked the driver how long he was working tonight and if he was going to be at the hotel when we finished at 9:30. He enthusiastically handed me a business card and explained that if we call any of the 3 numbers on the card a cab will come. Well that sounded good so in the studio we went. Once class ended, we came outside and I called the 1st number. Out of order. So I called the 2nd number. Out of order. (See the pattern?) I then called the last number and to no surprise, it too was out of order. Now what? The driver also said not to worry because this is a busy street and cabs drive back and forth all the time. Yeah well, if the numbers were out of order do you really think his comment about cabs driving up and down the street would be correct? Never saw one cab! Anyway, 30 minutes later and a cold and windy walk back we made it to the hotel.

Saturday morning (7am) was the individual workout with your favorite trainer. Of course Robin and I wanted to do Insanity with Shaun T. Insanity was our first Beachbody workout program we did together. After 60+ days of seeing Shaun on our TV we felt like we knew him. After Friday's workout fiasco we decided to get there early and be ready for a mad dash to the front of the stage. We were actually the 3rd and 4th person in line and looking pretty good at this point. After we finished the Insanity program at home we each were sent an Insanity T-shirt. We brought them with us hoping to catch Shaun for an autogragh. (I know hard to believe I will be 50 in a few months . . .) It was a good thing we did because security was starting to pick out people wearing these shirts so they could be closer to the stage for the video Beachbody planned on shooting. HAH we were ready for that one! We quickly tossed on the Insanity shirts and merged in with the others. Our little group of shirt wearers were allowed in before anyone else and slowly, ok quickly we walked to the stage. Since no one else was allowed in yet we had the run of the place:
(To make it easy for you I am the old dorky guy)





Just as we were finishing up goof'n around, Shaun T came in to work on setting up for his routine. Well what were we supposed to do???
(Right about then I mentioned that Robin was my Fiance and warned him to be careful)



I guess it was a big shirt because he signed it again . . .



What the heck . . . do mine too!



Well the workout was a killer and we expected nothing less. Shaun brought his trainer and had him on stage facing us, along with one of his friends. The room was packed, Shaun was on fire and we all were pushing ourselves to the max. I'm not sure if it was because we were pumped up or scared that if we stopped to rest we would get trampled, but we kept up pretty damn good throughout the workout! Every now and then Shaun would call someone up onto the stage to do the next part of the workout. Yeah he called me up to do a piece. I wish I had a pic to prove it but that would have been hard to pull off. "Excuse me Shaun, can you stop everything for a sec so I can get my camera?" It was still pretty awesome to do it. Right next to Shaun as he was screaming out commands to everyone. Yeah . . . very cool . . .
Of course there was the after the workout mob wanting to take pictures. Geez . . . can't they leave the guy alone???






Yeah, those abs are real . . .




We even got pictures with his trainer Daniel. If Shaun T is super fit just how fit does his trainer have to be????




Both Shaun and his trainer were super nice and accommodating. We even found out that Daniel is a Bikram Yoga fan!

The rest of the morning and afternoon was training, seminars and a conscious effort not to passout from exhaustion! After a mini nap late afternoon we were ready for the dinner. We haven't had an opportunity to dresss up in a while so we didn't have any clothes that fit! Good thing we had time for a little shopping right before we left.




Here we are with Dave and Monica Ward our sponsor coaches:



And now . . . the man . . . the myth . . .
Mr . . . . Tony Horton:


















Tony was very gracious at the dinner. He must have been standing taking pictures with everyone for at least 2 hours. When we got up to him and introduced ourselves, I told him that we get up every morning at 4:30 to do P90X. He shouted out "Whoa Hero Status!"

We had a great time the whole weekend!

Ok I can't keep it in any longer. I have to mention the following:

They are coming out with a new Insanity called Asylum - due out possibly the end of this year (and we can't wait!!!)

Chalene Johnson has a new workout program called Turbo Fire - coming out by summer

There is a new program combining faith & working out called Body Gospel - due out by summer

They cannot make a vanilla flavored Shakeology because it would compromise the quality of the product. Vanilla flavoring is not monitored by the FDA and what is out on the market now (vanilla flavored products) are full of extremely unhealthy chemicals that you would not take individually if you knew what they were. The general public is so accustomed to what they "think" vanilla should taste like that it would be impossible to match that flavor without using the same ingredients.
** What does that say about Beachbody? How easy would it have been for them to just throw out a sub-par product and pretend that it is high quality? Way to go BB!

Also I feel the need to say that both Robin & I were blown away by how committed Beachbody is to changing the world to a healthier and happier place. Not only that, everyone was down to earth, easy to talk with and truely sincere.

Thanks for reading!

Jim