I am going to start blogging more regularly! It’s just that people say “blogging is dead” and then I also feel like I have so many updates that I don’t know where to start.

So, I’ll start with these cookies. These are super simple and impossible to mess up. I make a no bake version of these all the time but this winter I was craving a warm cookie so I decided to bake them and they turned out awesome. I usually don’t measure anything, I just estimate but they always turn out. The recipe is below and I will just leave it by saying these are good for breakfast, snack or dessert.

Ok, then on to my healing updates! I am just about 5 months post-op now!! I can’t believe that much time has already passed but I’m stoked! I have my eye on that 6 month mark because that’s when the surgeon said I can consider running.

The #1 question I get from people (almost daily) is: So are you back to running? And the answer is a big N.O.! Like, not even close, haha! Only this week going up and down stairs has started to feel a littler easier. Anything very jumpy is still out of the question, so jumping jacks and anything of that nature still isn’t happening.

To be honest, running has “lost it’s sparkle” a bit (a lot). That’s the expression my dentist used and I loved it! I was like, YES, it has lost it’s sparkle! I think when an activity can take you down like this for so many months and in such a major way it makes you re-evaluate what is really important. And, I love running, but I love not being injured more. So, I hope that in another month I will be able to start doing some easy running and maybe do some 5K’s over the summer. But, as an active person with many hobbies, I kind of quickly moved on to something else. I changed gears. Re-prioritized. And now running long distance has about zero appeal. I am already looking forward to mountain biking and hiking more this summer and less running is life kind of thing.

Instead I have been doing a TON of yoga & walking. It’s funny, but I started doing yoga in about 2000 I think. My grandma gave me a yoga mat (her old one, LOL! She is 92 now.) and I bought a few VHS videos and would practice in my living room. So how crazy is that, I have been a yogi for almost 20 years! It’s cool that it’s the thing I always come back to over and over and it has always been there for me. I have a pretty regular home practice and then I go to a studio a couple times a week and teach a couple times a week as well. It’s been really nice to practice yoga without being sore and stiff from running and I’ve actually gotten so much more flexible. So yay. The other thing I do is a good 45 minute walk just about every day. It sounds lame I know and I can’t walk very fast still. I walk at around a 2.7 for speed. Last week I tried going up to 3.3 and I was in so much pain that night so that was a bad idea.

Healing wise, it turns out breaking a hip is a pretty painful injury. Not everyone is bothered by their hardware but I sure am. I can’t lay on my side at all and sitting is also painful because it feels like my muscles smoosh into the screw heads. So, if they still bother me in a year I can get them removed but I really don’t want to do that! But yeah, almost everything still hurts a little and sleeping is probably the worst. I think in time all will feel better.

This picture is kind of hard to see but there are 3 screws in there and they have washers at the end to hold them in place. So they go in on the side of my thigh and go all the way to the end of the femur head so I think they are approximately 8 inches long. So I guess that explains why I can feel them, ha. They are stainless steel and I did not set the metal detector alarms off at the airport so I was kind of disappointed by that. But I was in the TSA pre check lane so maybe when I’m in the regular line it will be different.

Alright, on to the cookies now!

4 Ingredient Oatmeal Choc Chip Cookies (vegan & GF)

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups old fashioned oats (use GF if you need these certified gluten free)
• 1/3 cup nut butter (I use almond or peanut)
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons nut milk (I use almond milk)
• 1/3 cup mini chips (I use enjoy life)

Ok, so there are more than 4 ingredients but there are only 4 MAIN ingredients. The other 3 you could technically do without. Place all ingredients except chocolate chips in a food processor and process for a few seconds until you get a cookie batter consistency. If it’s too dry add more milk. The oats will soak up the milk so if it seems runny wait a few minutes before adding more oats. But if it is too runny add more oats. Or peanut butter. Or both!

Transfer the batter to a bowl and stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon heaps of dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. I love my dough scoop!

Bake in the oven at 350°F for 15 minutes.

Makes 1 dozen so I recommend doubling this 😉

Bye for now!

Laura