No Bake Energy Bites

Hi everyone!
With all the stress of wedding planning, moving, school, and much more I found myself letting myself go. (No excuses though, purely my fault). However, I REALLY have no excuses now. It's time to get back into it! Jacob and I have been swimming and bike riding a lot plus playing softball twice a week. I have been doing a lot of meal prep and eating whole foods instead of processed. And we both have committed to drinking a gallon of water a day. And even within the last two weeks I've personally felt a difference in how I feel throughout the day. My face has cleared up, I'm not as bloated, my metabolism is getting faster, and I have much more energy.

But even with clean eating... my sweet tooth is still something fierce, even more so with eating right. So what do you do about it? Ice cream? A candy bar? Cake and cookies? Sometimes... sure. (No judgement here) But every day? NO. So this is one of my absolute favorite recipes to crave a sweet tooth in a healthier way.

No Bake Energy Bites

In a medium bowl mix oats, coconut flakes, peanut butter, flaxseed, honey, vanilla and chocolate chips.

When you choose your ingredients, remember CLEAN EATING! So with coconut, either buy your own coconut and roast it and shred it yourself or get unsweetened organic at the store. The other important ingredient to get clean is the peanut butter. Don't go with Jif or Skippy with all of the extra unnecessarily ingredients, go with a much natural peanut butter. Take a look at the difference in ingredients from Skippy on the left, to what I used on the right...

Once you're done mixing all of the ingredients together, use your hands to make ball shapes. I make mine about an inch by an inch.

Then pop them in a big ziplock bag and refrigerate them until you are ready to eat them. I usually like mine in between breakfast and lunch as a little pick me up. They're SO good and very filling.

Ingredients:
1 cup of whole wheat oats
2/3 cups of unsweetened coconut flakes
3/4 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup of honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup of chocolate chips (you can add more or less depending on what you like)

You can add more or less of whatever ingredients you'd like. I usually add craisins, chia seeds, or any type of nut as well. Since they are no bake, there doesn't have to be an exact ratio of anything. I like to substitute honey for agave nectar sometimes too. The possibilities are endless!


Happy Healthy Eating!

-HW

Young, Wild, and Married

I got married 5 days after I turned 20 years old. Because of that I got a lot of "Wow you are SO young" "Are you sure you're ready!?" "You already are getting tied down THIS young!?" A lot of the comments I got were pretty negative or doubtful. And I know that some may look down on young marriages, but honestly, I don't get it. I found my person that I want to spend the rest of my life with... without having to search for very long.  I didn't get my heart broken a bunch, I didn't sleep around, I didn't have a ton of failed relationships. It's not a negative thing, it's a blessing. A big blessing. Not only did it save me a lot of heartache spending many years to find the one... but it also means that I get more time with my spouse (God willing). Do I regret getting married young? Not one bit. I am so incredibly in love with my husband and best friend.

Marriage has honestly been the best thing to happen to me. While Jake and I have a lot of similarities, we are also pretty different in some aspects. It's these differences that make life interesting. Before being with him, I think I lacked every possible ounce of compassion where he had plenty of it. He was patient, I wasn't. He was kinder with his words… I wasn't. But never once did he look down on me for that, or love me less because of it. Instead, he used his compassion, patience, and kind words to help me. We grew together, and that is a beautiful thing. I have been blessed to see many wonderful marriages in my life, and I always prayed that one day… someone, somewhere, would be able to look at my marriage and think the exact same thing. And I truly believe that that will happen.

At the moment, Jake and I are simply a family of two. Our own little Williams family. One day, not anytime soon, but some day… we will expand our family. Until then, Jake and I are working to create that strong foundation for them. It is our job as husband and wife to love and live deeply. To set our family rules and beliefs into place now rather than later. To work hard and play hard. We are only four months into creating our family's foundation… and by golly I think we are doing a pretty damn good job.

So to all the "haters" who questioned, doubted, and thought we were stupid… you were wrong. I'm not in this to "prove anyone wrong" because ultimately that isn't my goal nor my intentions. My goal is to have the best marriage possible with my absolute best friend. And while doing that, sharing my revelations, recipes, DIY projects, thoughts, and anything I feel like on our blog. And maybe that one person… somewhere… someday… will stumble along our blog and be inspired by our marriage and our love.
-HW

In Sickness and In Health

This past week Hailey has been feeling a bit ill. Yesterday she really wasn't feeling it, but went over to the beach to celebrate our little sisters' 7th birthday. We were planning on staying the night, but decided to cut the trip short, and head home.

She tossed and turned, and once kicked me trying to get comfortable, but with antibiotics, and even with a tub of sunscreen on her, she still got pretty burned on her legs. Last night, I was up thinking about how marriage vows really do play into married life, whether we notice it or not.

"In Sickness and In Health"

I took her to be my wife, and with those vows that I said, I promised to be there for her when she's healthy, or when she's down and sick. It isn't too hard to do, being there for someone when they're sick. Granted, this is nothing more than a small cold and some sinus issues, but I've heard older family friends of mine talk about how they have to take care of the kids, run the errands, make dinner, go to the meeting for work, etc. and their spouse is off in their world doing what they need to do for them. I'm not saying I'm not selfish, and I'm the worlds' best guy. But I actually enjoyed taking care of her. Running to CVS to pick up some NyQuil and cough drops, and grabbing a Jamba Juice C-Booster for her.

I know we're young and married, and older couples will probably say 'just wait, life hasn't fully kicked in yet'. They're probably right to a degree. But that view is cynical. It's not that positive and it doesn't make a good impression on me when I promised her to be there for her when she's sick, and when she's healthy.

Which leads me to another thing: Why is it so hard for married people to keep their promises? After all, the promises and vows they made get broken when divorce happens because of whatever reason, right? Is working hard at a relationship that much of a struggle? Or is it that people just aren't as willing to work for it when the going gets tough? Why do people end something they loved?

New Changes

Sitting here in this cozy little apartment, still with wedding gifts scattered around, curled up on the couch with my bride, catching up on The Following, and faintly, I hear drops. It's an unfamiliar sound, for sure, especially in this part of California. Bakersfield hardly, if ever, gets rain. But tonight, I mute the TV, and just listen. The drops start to increase. Slow at first, but faster and louder as they hit the concrete and small bushes just outside my door. Hailey's curled up and not paying attention to anything but the psycho-horror show we both love, so I stand and step outside for a moment.

That smell. It's not one I grew up with in the country. It's new. Warm, wet asphalt. Soaking up as much water as the dirt that once surrounded me as a kid. It's harder to breath in, but it smells great. Somehow, oddly refreshing. The alarm on my phone goes off, so instead of stepping inside, I take a quick walk to the small building in our apartment complex that houses the washers and dryers. A few minutes still left on the cycle, so I wait it out, still listening to the rain outside and the humming of the old dryers drying out our clothes.

These things are still new to me. Rain on the asphalt. Laundromats. And all of it now, is because of a new life I'm living with my wife. It's only been just over a week, but we're starting to acclimate to living together, and tonight with the rain in a dry county such as this, it's a good promise to me that new things are good, and can be a wonderful change of pace in life.

Now, the clothes are dry, and it's time to walk back through the rain and back to my wife. Back to the new changes.