She put the chocolate in the coconut, she ate 'em all up. That's how that song goes right? Chocolate & coconut > lime & coconut. For sure.  When I was at the Garden of Life Blogger Summit back in May, I met Sophie Jaffe, a Cali-based yogi and creator of Philosophie superfood products. She was kind to send me some of her products to try out and I have to say her Cacao Magic Superfood Blend is delicious!! Especially for baking and making energy bites. I try to make a batch of energy bites or protein balls every week for when I need a quick little pick me up and for something sweet after lunch or dinner (let's be real, this is the main reason).

Choco-Coconut Superfood Bites 

At the Garden of Life Blogger's Summit I also learned the key to making these energy bites from Moreya's FitBites demo...always use boiling water!! It breaks the oats down so you end up with a truffle-type consistency. It makes all the difference! 

These lil' things are truffley, chocolatey, nutty and filled with superfoods. In addition to the superfood blend, I used chia seeds for an extra superfood kick and of course chocolate chips, the superfood of all superfoods. You could totally just sub in chocolate protein powder or regular protein and some extra cocoa powder for the superfood blend. 

[yumprint-recipe id='27'] Enjoy!! 

What's your favorite superfood?

It's been a while!! 

Where did we leave off?! I'm a bit frustrated that I haven't been able to keep up with this blog as much as I would have liked to this summer, but you know what? Life gets really freaking crazy sometimes!! I had next to no motivation to keep up with social media for the past month for a couple reasons. For one, creating recipes gets pretty expensive. Michael and I try to keep our grocery bill under $100 every week for the both of us, and there's not much wiggle room there for me to experiment with super cool ingredients. I'm starting to think however, that this could be more of an opportunity to create BUDGET friendly recipes with minimal ingredients. Aside from that, I had to go home for a while because some unexpected news hit my family like a truck. Everything is going to be totally a-okay, but cancer fucking sucks. My mom is as strong as a horse though, so I know this will be a bump in the road. I mean look at her, she's a boss. 

I've also been absolutely loving my job. It's a little physically exhausting so whenever I'm home I veg out instead of turn my brain on to write and do work (this needs to change). Along with my job as a Thrive trainer, I've been able to pick up some more Body Cycle spin classes and I will be starting at another studio, Unite Fitness real soon here! I'm psyched. I always know I made the right choice by switching to fitness full time when I wake up and have to decide which gym I want to train at that day...HA. Totally kidding, there's so much more to it (although it is a pretty sweet perk!)

Speaking of, last week I had such an awesome opportunity to be in a promo shoot for Idalis Velazquez's (@ivfitness on the IG) All In 18 Women's Health DVD! It was SUCH a blast. It was so lovely to meet her and see her in action! I also loved being able to see what goes into making a short video. SO MUCH. I finally kind of understand what my boyfriend does for a living now. The coolest part was that I got to share this experience with one of my own clients, Diana. She killed it. Here's some BTS action...

So thankful for that awesome opportunity. Now I've gotta get my shit together for a busy week at work. I should probably also start packing considering we're moving again next weekend! Packing would be a good idea. 

Okay everyone, have a great Monday. 

XO - Rach

How's your summer going?

Any big plans for the weekend?

Hey there! Happy Friday. I've got a good little strength workout to share with you today. Ever since I started working as a trainer for the Thrive program, I've totally been sold on the effectiveness of total body, functional workouts. They're hard, practical, and most importantly - safe! Unless you're training for something like a race or competition, I totally believe that functional fitness is the best way to get you feeling good and looking good. It's so important that we do things inside the gym that make things outside the gym easier. That's functionality.  Anyway, just a few random thoughts about my first world life over here...

Firstly, always thinking and praying for all of those in Orlando who were affected and continue to keep all my family in my thoughts after finding out some scary news about my mother. Love is love is love is love is love is love!! And my mom is as strong as a horse so no worries, she's totally going to be fine. 

Bloodline is back and season 2 was SO intense!! If you don't watch Bloodline (it's a Netflix original series) please go do yourself a favor. It's set in the Florida Keys and the cast is SPOT ON. These people are straight up Florida Keys natives. OMG it's so good. I've also tried to get into Orange is the New Black, but I think this season stinks. 

Also in my spare time I've been trying to take advantage of the warm weather by doing unnecessary yoga poses on rocks and taking photos of it...

The Wissahickon Trail in Philadelphia is so wonderful. I had a morning off last week and took an hour stroll through the trail. Such a great way to start the day!

This past weekend was an awesome one, too. On Friday I taught a spin class at Body Cycle Studio, grabbed a beer at Rogue's Gallery with good company and then Michael took me out to my favorite Mexican restaurant, El Poquito. 

I worked Saturday morning, and then finally made it down to Spruce Street Harbour Park for the first time this Summer on Saturday night. Followed immediately by a trip to Big Ass Slices in Old City...

Yesterday we head down to Brigantine beach for a gorgeous day! Wishing I was still in this exact position...

And now because my mind is on beergaritas, Big Ass Slices and beer on the beach, let me just share this workout to help reverse the effects of beer...

Total Body Dumbbell Workout

This workout is a great way to work on your functional strength while keeping your heart rate up the entire time. If you can't tell, circuit style training is my favorite way to train - mostly because you can get in an awesome workout in less time and work your entire body. 

Here's a video of the exercises:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL6CjJU36vM[/embed]

Make sure on every single exercise that you keep your core tight for proper alignment! Especially on the shoulder presses and front squats. You'll avoid low back pain by keeping your back flat the whole time. Try to make rest periods short and keep moving! You can also modify the mountain climbers by slowing them down. You can also modify the ploy lunge into a reverse lunge, just take out the jump. 

Enjoy and have a great week! It's the first day of Summer, YAY!

XO- Rach

Did you have a nice weekend?

Any summer plans coming up?

Favorite Netflix shows at the moment?