Lauren Brooks Fitness

This is for all of you who have been asking me about the cookies I made for my kids to celebrate Chloe's 18 month birthday and Lyla's first day at preschool.  I didn't have a whole lot of time to spend and I have an abundance of Almond flour and Agave that I wanted to use up.  So I looked through Elana Amsterdam's cookbook to find a simple cookie recipe.  This cookbook is called the "Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook" which can be found at Elana's Pantry website. She has wonderful gluten free recipes for the whole family. Lately there has been some controversy about the use of agave.  I am on the fence and may give it a rest once I finish my stash.  At the moment I am using Organic Raw Agave minimally. Elana has also been getting some feedback from people concerned with using Agave. So she came up with this recipe below to substitute the Agave.  I have never tried Yacon but I think I will look in to it and give it a try.  Here is the recipe that she h

Continuing on...      August 4, 2010        JUST RECEIVED THE NEWS (I added this in the post below, but here it is for those who got confused on the date and who are still asking me what the prognosis is) Yesterday I had an MRI but left with no answers.  This morning I woke up feeling hopeful since the swelling in my knee was a little bit better.  I spent the morning playing with my 17 month old.  We played, then she watched me do some weighted pull ups, push ups, pistols on my right leg, seated presses, and seated rope waves.  Hey I am trying to make the best of it.  I was feeling pretty good. Okay so I have had quite a few emails from people so far with words of encouragement.  Thanks so much to all of you.  You guys are amazing.  Also many of you wise ones mentioned that if it's a meniscus tear it's a fast recovery.  If it's the ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) which is the primary stabilizer of the knee,  it's a very LONG recovery, 9 - 12 months until I can do eve

It's a bit ironic how the last blog I posted, I wrote how thankful I am for having a pain free, mobile, and strong body.  Now I sit here a little sad because I can't say the same.  I can say that I am thankful to have the inner and outer strength I have. This past weekend I went through a vigorous 6 hour Krav Maga test.  It was serious, nerve-racking, with tons of adrenaline.  It was one of the harder mentally and physically challenging events in my life.  To make matters worse I over rotated on my knee doing a round house kick.  My front foot was suppose to pivot allowing my whole body to turn.  However, that's not how it happened.  My entire body, including my knee turned with great power to kick the pad, but my front foot stayed planted.  "Pop"is what I felt and heard.  My left knee was blown out and I came crashing down to the ground during the "serious" part of the testing phase.  I gave out a yell and laid on my back in disbelief holding my knee