Last week I started back at the gym again. I was a pretty regular gym rat prior to our little nugget working out right up until he was born. Five days a week I did strength, cardio or yoga. Plus Dave and I were pretty active with biking, kayaking, and other outdoor activities. But a winter baby--born during the worst winter in recent history (do the people complaining about the lovely summer heat forget our 7 feet of snow?)--plus the lack of time, energy and shear access to get to the gym has meant I've neglected my former workouts. I workout to be healthy and this body was built by baby and cookies, so getting back into some sort of active lifestyle needed to take on a new priority level in my life. So the other day I found myself on day two of my new workout routine, on the elliptical and really pushing hard. It felt great and I surprised myself by not being nearly as out of shape as expected. And then I remembered I wanted to make brownies or some sort of bar for work the next day. Browsing Pinterest on my phone, the irony hit me right away that while I was working to shed the pounds from baby (and yes, far too many cookies and other sweets since then), I was also researching a new way to enjoy sugar and chocolate. But really these bars have oatmeal so that means they're healthy, right (right?!?). Soft, chewy, gooey bars mimic a perfect oatmeal cookie all full of nutty goodness but made more awesome with an overabundance (is there really such a thing?) of chocolate chips. Plus, hello simple. I got these done in about a half hour, after work, start to finish, including washing the dishes while they baked.
