Birthday pancakes

My wife often comments to me how good the meals I make for our family are and that I should share the recipes.  Well, this morning I made another version of my ever popular Sunday morning pancakes but this morning was a bit special as it is my daughter's 5-year birthday.  I added some "special" ingredients and per my wife's request, I am going to share this concoction along with future dishes I create.

WARNING: THIS INFORMATION DOES NOT INCLUDE QUANTITIES.  FOR YOU QUANTITATIVE RECIPE FOLLOWERS, I APOLOGIZE BUT UNDERSTAND THAT I AM ITALIAN AND GREW UP IN THE KITCHEN ADDING A LITTLE BIT OF THIS AND A LITTLE BIT OF THAT.  I VERY RARELY FOLLOW RECIPES.  

My cooking involves opening the cabinets, fridge and freezer to see what I have to work with then I put on my artist's hat and begin creating.  Sorry that I will not provide exact amounts but I try to teach people how to be creative when it comes to cooking.  Use your senses, especially your taste buds, and sample as you cook! 

Enjoy my Princess Birthday Pancakes:

Ingredients:

-Whole grain pancake mix

-Olive oil

-Ground flax

-Vanilla soy milk

-Crushed walnuts

-Dark chocolate unsweetened baking cocoa

-Mini chocolate chips (the special ingredient of the morning!)

-Rolled oats (optional)

Mix in a bowl, pour onto hot griddle and enjoy.  These certainly do not need toppings as they are delicious just the way they are but you can certainly add some natural peanut butter on top for a mouth watering combination of chocolate and peanut butter.

Mmm, mmm, good!

Oh, and the best part, I shaped my daughter's birthday pancake into a heart on the griddle and put a candle on it for the start of her special day!

Stay tuned for more of my creative kitchen concoctions!

Coach Bob

coachbob@fuel4mance.com

What a great weekend!

It does not happen often enough but I had an absolutely fantastic weekend!  It began on Saturday morning coaching my U8 boys soccer team and I have to say that my boys made their coach proud.  They passed extremely well, opened up the field and hustled 100% of the time without giving up.  It is the best that I have seen them play all season!  Chase, my oldest son, managed to finesse a goal in the first half from what seemed like the most impossible angle on goal...and with his left foot no less!  He was surprised but very excited, especially after I just told him the day before how good of a left foot I had growing up.

Then the weekend just got better and better.  I went for a short (my longest in the past 6 months but short based on what I am used to) run with Chase riding his bike next to me and let me just say that I was struggling trying to keep up with that little speedster.  Then some good quality time with the kids washing the cars, playing soccer and just hanging out before my weekend was topped off by taking Chase up a beautiful local canyon for a 14 mile round trip bike ride.  Yep, my seven year-old did his longest ride to date and I cannot tell you how proud that makes this dad.  I see a future triathlete in the making!  

As I reflect on this wonderfully serene weekend, likely the last good weather one until the snow and cold hit, I leave you with some very enjoyable photos that I took on our bike ride today.  As you can see, the colors where I live are in true peak!  And yes, those are bighorn sheep beside my boy...we saw 17 of them on our ride today and as you can see, got within about 5 feet of them at times!

Enjoy!

I honestly live in paradise.  Enough said!

Coach Bob

coachbob@fuel4mance.com

Second run back and an interesting observation about our society

Today marked my second run in 5.5 months since I benched myself from running to try to get my Achilles healed.  I ran outside for 25 minutes with a bit of tightness but no pain at all!  Success! My plan is to run 3 times per week for the next month and not going over 45 minutes so we will see how that goes.  I am also following a pretty aggressive functional strength program that I devised for myself that focuses on my deep abdominal, back and hip rotator strength and a huge emphasis on my lower body flexibility.  I figure this aging thing will not give so I have to be even more proactive about prehab/rehab than ever before.  

On a totally different note, my interesting observation came after I was debriefing with my oldest son after his soccer game this weekend (39 degrees and rainy...perfect soccer weather!).  I always spend some time asking him to evaluate the game and how he felt, what he had fun doing and how the other team played.  He mentioned that he didn't play well and I asked him why he thought that.  His response was because he didn't score a goal (he did hit the top crossbar with a gnarly shot but it bounced back into the field).  He seems to judge his performance based on whether he scores or not.

Of course, after about a minute of reflecting on his response, I sat him down, looked into his eyes and told him that success is not measured by winning or losing or scoring or not scoring a goal.  Success is measured by how much fun you had playing the game, by not giving up, by trying your best and by contributing as a team member.  I think he got it as he saw the seriousness in my eyes and facial expression but it made me think of the messages that kids are getting these days in terms of what success is and how self worth is measured.

I very bluntly tell the parents of my soccer team before each season that I do not and will not focus on winning and losing because at this age, my focus is on teaching the kids to love the sport of soccer by teaching them skills and continually supporting their successes with positive feedback and praise.  Of course, that doesn't mean I don't have them run if they do not obey our teams three rules: 1) never give up, 2) never sit down and 3) always listen, but it is all portrayed in a very positive manner.

Sport in society today, in my opinion, carries some very interesting mixed messages for kids.  I'll just leave it at that and will get off my soapbox knowing that at least this coach is doing the right thing to promote a lifelong love for sport and physical fitness.

Until next time...

Coach Bob

coachbob@fuel4mance.com

Shout out

A couple of shouts out to some great performances from two Fuel4mance elites this past weekend:

Kristin Hilger, placed 5th at Tinley's Triathlon
Sarah Haskins, placed 2nd at the Dallas Lifetime Fitness Triathlon


Great job ladies!


Coach Bob
coachbob@fuel4mance.com

Where in the world is Bob?

Okay, maybe "world" is not the best descriptor as I have not left the country but the past 16 days have been crazy! I have been to Oregon to support Sarah and Becky at Elite Nationals and to present at the USAT Art and Science Symposium, Virginia to present at a Strength Symposium, Iowa to present to high school athletes and other groups about nutrition and my experience at the Olympics, Arizona to speak at a sports nutrition conference and finally Louisiana to speak at a USAT Coaching certification clinic on nutrition periodization and strength training.

Whew! I'm back now and enjoying some down time. Not really, I'm back to work but am very happy to be home with my kiddos!

And great news...my Achilles is getting better finally! I went for a 30 minute walk while in Arizona and did 2x30 second jogs and didn't feel anything the next morning. Great news which I hope means good stuff for the future! I'm getting a pair of orthotics hopefully this week and will try to hit the roads (albeit flat) hopefully by this weekend. Stay tuned...

Coach Bob
coachbob@fuel4mance.com