INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. This may take some time, but just be patient with it - you can always leave the mixture a little chunky if you like as well!
2. In an 8x8 baking pan, place parchment paper on the bottom.
3. Add in the energy bar batter from the food processor - it will be quite sticky, so it's advised to work with wet hands to prevent it sticking to your hands!
4. Press down the mixture into a pan and use the back of a wet spoon to smooth the top.
5. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of pumpkin seeds, chopped pecans, and toasted coconut flakes to garnish, press these firmly into the bar mixture.
6. Freeze for 2-3 hours or until solid, and cut into 8 bars.
7. Store in the fridge or freezer.
8. Enjoy!

NOTES
If you prefer the bar to be more dense and last longer at room temperature, double the protein powder to make the batter less moist! 

Thanks to all of you who came by to see us and have some fun on Halloween this year! 

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with joy! The Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Holidays are a great time of year for family and reflection. We spend time together and eat well-prepared food (hopefully!), talk, pray, and laugh as a family.
So why would anyone needs tips to help avoid pain during the Holidays?
First off, we’re talking about physical pain here. The demands of the Holiday season with all the shopping, lifting of boxes, standing while cooking, and general preparations can wreak havoc on the body if these demands are not performed properly or if you are weak in certain areas of your body. This weakness in certain muscle groups can cause muscle soreness or muscle pain, joint stress, and even minor injuries, because your muscles and joints are not accustom to being used in this way (or at all).
Maybe you remember last year’s back pain, neck pain, foot pain, ankle pain, hip pain, knee pain, or general headache associated with everything that you went through during the Holiday season. It doesn’t have to be a painful experience! 
“The added demands of the holidays stresses the body, which may increase the risk of injuries related to the extra activities,” says APTA spokesperson and physical therapist E. Anne Reicherter, PT, DPT, PhD. “Using proper body mechanics can help prevent muscle and joint discomfort this holiday season.”
So let’s look at some tips that you can use to truly help avoid pain during the Holidays:
Shop, Don’t Drop: Nobody is saying you can’t go shopping just because it might hurt your back, but just be smart about it! Hopefully you stayed safe during the Black Friday rush and didn’t suffer any injuries while being trampled.

• Try to do a little warmup before you get out in the chaos. Riding a stationary bike or doing some simple at-home exercises will go a long way.
• Stretch the muscles of your lower back, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves to make sure these muscles are lengthened before you start shopping and walking long distances. Stretching these muscles will help prevent them from tightening up so much and causing muscle pain.
• Wear comfortable shoes. House slippers don’t count. Your shoes need adequate support. Think “tennis shoe”, not “high heel”. You’re going to be walking around on concrete more than likely.
• Always use a shopping cart and push it all the way to your car before unloading.
• It may be tough but try to find shopping times when the rush is as slow as possible. This will keep you from having to stand in line for long periods of time on hard ground.

Lift With Your Legs, Not Your Back: this is a tip physical therapists will always advocate. After you shop your bags, boxes, and presents are going to have to find a way into your house. Proper lifting and carrying form is crucial to avoid unwanted pains and injuries.

• If you have to pick up a box or group of bags off the ground, or even your trunk, focus on keeping your back straight and vertical while bending at the knees to grasp your items.Lift by simply straightening your legs. Your legs are much stronger than your lower back and much less susceptible to injury. The worst thing you can do is bend straight over at the waist with a rounded back (the same is true if you maintained a straight back at this point), kept your legs straight and then lifted the object with your lower back muscles. Even if you think the object is not heavy, don’t lift it this way.
• Keep the load close to your body when lifting it off the ground. An easy way to get hurt is to get the object out away from you.
• Make a few trips. Don’t try to be a hero and carry it all in one trip. This is a fast-track way to hurt yourself.
• Always call us if your back or neck pain last longer than 1 day or feels severe enough to need immediate help.

These simple tips will help you avoid pain during the Holidays. If you are experiencing muscle pain in any area of the body you feel needs the attention of a physical therapist, please don’t hesitate to call us today to come meet with either Michael or Chris for a thorough evaluation to help get the relief you need this Holiday season!

Learning how to stay healthy while on vacation can be tough, but it is absolutely doable. You may take a lot of vacations and just tell yourself, “It’s vacation. I’m going to eat bad, because there’s no other way around it.”

It’s no secret that Summertime and vacations do go hand-and-hand! They get us out of the monotony of life. Vacations get us to a new location where we can actually RELAX a little!

That being said… 

Vacations can be a doozy on someone’s health. The first step is telling yourself that you can make good, healthy eating choices while on vacation. The setbacks vacations can cause on one’s health are not simply due to what they consumed (or didn’t) while on the vacation, but rather due to the challenge of getting BACK INTO IT when they get home.

If you take a 7-day vacation and give yourself 100% freedom on food and drinks, you better believe that the first day back will be rough – and so will the second, and the third…

Now, for some of you, it’s a worthy trade-off. You are experienced at taking time away, and for you, eating like this ENHANCES your life. But for many, many others, it may be a ticking time bomb waiting to go off!

So what are we supposed to do???

Allow this trip to be a full splurge, or try to find some middle ground? Sometimes you might choose the last option, and sometimes you might choose the former. Ultimately the choice is yours. That’s the key to living a healthy life. You always have a choice, and you are in control of your decisions. The important thing is to get back on track when you return from your vacation.

There really is not “perfect” time or conditions to get and stay healthy. Becoming a parent, taking on more responsibilities at work, having less free time as your children grow up… these are all examples of ways that living and eating healthy can bring new challenges to your life.

However…

God hasn’t asked us to only take care of our bodies when it’s easy. He asks us to take care of the temples we have… PERIOD. We must work THROUGH our challenges, work WITH our resources, and EMBRACE the life God has given us!

If you feel overwhelmed by al these suggestions, or any of the tips we’ve laid out as we’ve blogged about making this Summer as healthy as it can be for yourself, just choose one to  try and implement it this week!

You don’t have to do ALL of these. Only do something that might lighten your load!

We hope the tips were helpful in giving you some new ideas and a fresh outlook on the Summer. Most importantly, we want you to know that you aren’t alone in the Summer transition!

Here’s to your health!!!