Blueberry Coffee Cake (Redux) + Fueling Up for Workouts

Not Eating Enough Calories = Not Enough Fuel for the Day

It seems I’m quite behind in my food posts, but I’ll get to them soon enough. In the meantime, I wanted to share an interesting problem I ran into recently. Since I’ve been going to zumba 3-4 times a week on average, I’ve noticed I’ve been feeling a bit more tired than usual in class. Some classes were a struggle to put as much energy into my workouts as I wanted to. I remembered telling a zumba-buddy, who was complaining about the same problem, that she probably needed to eat more calories. Why I didn’t think to listen to my own advice sooner, I don’t know.

For awhile, several weeks ago, I was counting calories. At some point, I stopped counting calories because I thought I had the hang of it and could do a fair job estimating my eats, but it turns out I was wrong. After being puzzled about my lack of energy during my workout for awhile, I decided to get to the root of it. Yesterday, I thought, hmm…let me try to figure out how many calories I’ve had today to see if I’m eating enough to give me enough fuel for my zumba work out later. I had already eaten breakfast and lunch and was planning to only have a snack bar before class for some extra energy. Turns out, after oatmeal, a sandwich, some cherry tomatoes, and kashi crackers, I’d only downed a measly 600-ish calories.

Tack on that health food bar, I’d be closer to 800. This would be ok on a normal day, but not a zumba day. I estimate I burn 700-800 calories per class. I would have been net almost ZERO calories for the whole day! Not good at all! I decided to eat what I could from my desk and my co-worker saved me by giving me an extra snack. I had a Kashi TLC Honey Flaxseed bar and an individual packet of TJ’s dry-roasted almonds. This put me closer to 1000 and the addition of a health food bar put me closer to 1200. I think I could have stood to eat even more than I did, but I was running out of food at my desk. Even still, my extra snacks must have done the trick because I had an even-keel (maybe even high?) level of energy throughout the whole class. I felt awesome!

I may have to start counting, or at least estimating, calories again so I ensure I’m eating enough. We’ll see. Till then, lesson learned…I need to fuel up for my workouts!

An easier way to remember is how my mom always lectured me before skating practice. She would say that your body is like a car and if you don’t feed yourself, you won’t have any fuel and you’ll be running on fumes. I’m going to work on fueling up before class…hopefully with the “premium” fuel (healthy, real food). 🙂

On to the coffee cake…

Ellie’s Healthy Blueberry Coffee Cake

I’ve been having a lot of fun figuring out yummy things to make from all those blueberries I picked with my family over the Fourth. One thing we made at my parent’s house that I especially loved was Ellie’s Healthy Blueberry Coffee Cake. I was so infatuated with it, I made it again as soon as we got back to town. Here are some pictures from my baking day:

This recipe is a real winner! It’s so delicious and easy. Each 2×2 square is approximately 210 calories, too.

I subbed TJ’s white wheat flour for both the AP and wheat flour of the original recipe. I also swapped chopped hazelnuts for the walnuts because I had them in the freezer.

If you like blueberries, give this recipe a go. I can’t wait to make it again, myself!

Oh, and remember to fuel up before your workouts so your “car” has enough “fuel” to “run” on!