In early November if you recall there was a Healthy Living eBook bundle being promoted here and all over the web for a bundle of ebooks written by some of the top healthy living bloggers. It offered 34 books valued at over $300 for only $29. I know that many, many folks took advantage of this great offer. I am a proud owner of this set myself and it is an amazing collection for those who want to live and eat more consciously. I have all the books on my tablet and plan to do lots of reading over the holidays.

Well Fed will give me some paleo inspiration and motivation if I fall off the paleo wagon during the season. Simple Scrubs has great ideas for homemade gifts as does My Buttered Life. Apartment Gardening will provide some motivation to start planning our garden for 2013 (we rent a small space). It’s a wonderful collection of knowledge.

That sale might be over but happily you get a do-over if you missed out the first time. Nourishing Days will be offering this bundle for sale once again on November 26th for 48 hours only. If you want to be notified of the sale you can sign up on the site and you will get an email when the sale goes live. The video below highlights everything you get in the bundle:

In honor of this second chancel sale I am giving away two (yes 2!) ebook bundles to my readers (thanks to Nourishing Days). That is $600 worth of goodies for two readers. The winners will be chosen at random via Rafflecopter (below) on November 26th…the day the sale starts. If you don’t happen to win this giveaway you will at least have one more chance to get the bundle set for a rock bottom price.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Credit for the gif goes to a hilarious Tumblr blog about paleo living.

This week has been completely amazing. So very invigorating and enjoyable. In addition to making it to five CrossFit classes this week I also managed to drop some pounds. You see I put on a pair of my favorite pants a little over a week ago and they fit just a bit to snug for my taste. I hopped on the scale and saw that I had gained 12 pounds over 2.5 months. I traveled quite a bit in the tail end of summer with lots of parties and social stuff going on. I was in New York yo! I had to eat bagels and cheesecake. Early fall was spent at festivals (with festival food) and in the kitchen baking treats. I was only eating 50-60% paleo. So yeah I gained some weight.  I am already very encouraged though. I feel great being back to my happy 90% paleo place and I lost 3 pounds in the first week. Booyah!

My CrossFit box is in the process of moving to a new location but ran into some last minute issues with the city. This left us unable to move into the new place as scheduled and we were not able to stay at the old place any longer. The owner wrangled us up a temporary home at a private residence with 3 wooded acres, a long winding driveway (perfect for running), and an 18 car garage that will hold us if it rains. Most of the workouts have been outside among the beautiful Fall trees and falling leaves. I have enjoyed every second of it. It doesn’t get any better than this!

Monday: Warmup was 5 minutes AMRAP 15 squats, 10 lunges, 5 pushups, 15 leg kicks, 10 arm circles, 5 spidey lunges. Skill was snatches with PVC bar. WOD: Buy in was 30 deadlifts w/fat bar (93 lbs). 2 rounds of 200 meter run with sandbag, 20 pulls on rower, 10 pullups, 20 shoot throughs on parallettes, 10 box jumps (20″), 20 GHD situps, and 10 rope pullups. Cash out was 20 hang cleans (73 lbs).

The deadlifts and hang cleans were done in the middle of the woods. So cool!

Tuesday: I felt a bit “off this day…almost like I was getting sick. So I picked way lighter weights than I would typically select and just muddled through. Warm up was 15 minutes AMRAP and teams of 3: 500 meter row, Squat PVC pass throughs while partner is rowing, front squats w/DBs while 2nd partner is rowing. Skill was overhead squats with PVC. WOD was 10 rounds of 10 unbroken thrusters and stiff leg deadlifts.

After this WOD I came home and took mass doses of fish oils and echinacea throughout the day. Felt all better by the next morning.

Wednesday: Warm up was 100 squat hang cleans w/medballs and 100 pushups. WOD was 100 GHD hip extensions, 100 ring rows, x3 200 meter runs with sandbag, 100 Kettlebell Swings, 100 medicine ball backwards toss (14 lb ball for all medball exercises).

Here I am coming back from one of my sandbag runs…

Thursday: Warm up: Buy in was 200 meter run with medball overhead (14 lbs) then 10 rounds of max L sit on bar, max L sit on rings, and max L sit on parallettes. Skill was 5 minutes hang cleans and squats cleans with medball. Buy out was another 200 meter run with medball OH. WOD was 200 meter walking KB overhead swings, 500 meter row, 30 GHD hip extensions, 20 bench presses (65 lbs), and 50 medball toss (16 lbs).

I blistered my hands pretty badly on this day so I bought a pair of gloves for future classes!

Friday: We did a crazy ”Fran”kenstein WOD today. It was terrifying alright. Warm up was 100 spidey lunges, 100 crab walk steps, 100 side plank steps. Skill was overhead squat and thrusters form/practice. WOD was 100 meter run with barbell overhead and 21 overhead squats. Drop bar and run back for weights, farmer carry weights back to bar and then 15 statue of liberty situps with weights overhead. Load up bar with weights run back to do 9 toes to bar. Run back and forth from barbell to bar doing “Fran” 21-15-9 thrusters and pullups. 150 meter walking lunges with overhead barbell, 9 Burpee Box Jumps, Break down your barbell, 15 Sandbag Thrusters, 200 meter run, 21 MedBall tosses. I used a 42 lb barbell which is kinda light for me but hey it was a rough week and those lunges are killer!

I am looking forward to a restful weekend and at least one more week of workouts in this awesome temporary location.

As mentioned when I made my Primal Coconut Raspberry Muffins last week I am trying my hardest not to buy LaraBars or any prepacked snack/meal bars anymore. Too much packaging and too much money spent voting for companies that do not share my values. There are some pricier bars I could buy from more ethical companies but those bars would cost upwards of $2.00 a piece. No thanks…and it doesn’t solve the packaging issue.

Well this weekend I found a darn near perfect solution and I am rather excited. These are primal/paleo though peanut butter is not preferred it just happens to be one of the saltiest nut butters and I love the sweet/salty factor. You could make these with any nut butter though and I plan to make some with almond butter this week. They are perfect for eating before CrossFit class and they are super fast to make! My kids also ate them before school today and have some in their lunch boxes.

For this recipe I opted to use raisins instead of dates because they are easier and cheaper. Also because I used a high quality peanut butter with its natural oils and not a creamy, whipped mainstream variety, my cookies were very soft and required refrigeration to harden them up a bit. If you use a harder nut butter (like almond) this is not so much of an issue. If you want salty cookies then use a salted peanut butter.

Tip: To reduce packaging buy as much of this stuff as you can in bulk and in your own bags/jars.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies/Nests

1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
2/3 cup raisins
4 T roasted peanuts or other nuts
2 t vanilla
2 T cocoa powder
2 T dark chocolate chips (in the mix – optional)
Dark chocolate chips for on the top

Mix together in a food processor or high powdered blender (Vita-Mix). As seen in the photo I made nests with my cookies but it you have a harder dough or refrigerate it first you can make them into balls and then use a spoon or fork to press down and make an actual cookie shape…your choice. Top with dark chocolate chips. Makes 8 cookies.

Another great “option” would be shredded coconut, which I plan to use for tomorrow’s cookies. Yum!

I am trying to avoid buying anymore LaraBars. Primarily this is because I am sick of spending so much money on them and because they bring needless packaging into our lives. Their parent company is also throwing money at legislation that would limit our rights to know if we are consuming GMOs. There are plenty of reasons why my LaraBar habit needs to be kicked but it is so hard! I love those tasty little bars, they are paleo/primal friendly, and they are the perfect light meal to eat on my way to CrossFit class.

This week though I am trying out a few recipes for homemade muffins, breakfast cookies, and bars that will be nutrient dense and light enough to get me through CrossFit. Anything too heavy is no good because it will just come back up…not a pleasant thing.

Today was my first day sans LaraBars and I am super happy with the day’s alternative…Primal Coconut Raspberry Muffins. I made them earlier this week to test them out and then again last night. They are delicious and two muffins before class was perfect. Next up I hope to make something similar to my fave LaraBar, which is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip.

The muffin recipe was sourced from Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations. I added walnuts to mine. Enjoy!