Have you ever thought about how wasteful water fountains are? I have.
Fried ice cream doesn’t make sense in my mind. So I made up my own version. Because I can. And I can rant about random stuff. Like this crap below. I’m warning you, I’m on a soap box right now.
I want to talk to you about something. Just because I like to talk about feelings. Because I have a lot of them. It’s just something that has been looming on mind for a couple of months now. I think it’s absolutely crazy how much things can change in a year’s time. How much relationships can change. How much a mind can change. And how much a body can change. This time last year, I was training incredibly hard to try to make it to the CrossFit Games. Well, even though I did not make it that far, I placed 8th in Regionals in the Southwest, and did so by gaining almost 20lbs to be able to stand a fighting chance. Not that I meant to, but I somehow did. With lots of training and lots of workouts.
But after Regionals ended and I injured myself a couple times, I had to take a step back. I stopped doing the prescribed weights in workouts, I started resting more than I had in the past two years, and I started looking into more goals I had. More things I wanted to accomplish. More things I wanted to do. These injuries made me take a step back and look at my life. It made me stop and think about what JULI wanted instead of what other people wanted.
And when I took that step back, I noticed that I hadn’t been happy for a while. I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin. And for me, that is very important. I started competing because it made me happy. And made me confident. I never cared if I did poorly, I never worried about not finishing a workout. I just tried my hardest and tried to smile through it. But when disappointment began to appear on others faces, I knew it was absolutely time for me to take a step back. I never want my performance in the gym to disappoint someone. That is not why I work out. I work out to better myself. To improve myself physically and mentally. Not to upset someone because I didn’t do all my wall balls unbroken. Or because I didn’t set a PR.
This has been a hard thing for me to come to terms with. I haven’t wanted to admit it, but I don’t want to compete right now. I don’t want to train to the point that I’m spending hours in the gyms, aching constantly, and gaining 15-20lbs to be able to keep up with the amazing CrossFit ladies in my Region. That’s not what I want nor is it what my body wants. And since I’ve stopped training to my max every day, I feel better. Even though I’ve lost a ton of strength and endurance, I’m happier. I feel better in my own skin and I’m finally not crying on a regular basis because I was unhappy with how I looked. Yeah, I cried because of that. No fun. I’m an emotional mess without that crap on my mind.
But I want to make one thing clear. I LOVE CrossFit. CrossFit is one of the biggest things in my life. It’s absolutely changed my life. I have a CrossFit tattoo on my ribcage for gosh sakes. It’s really changed me and how I look at things. I set goals differently because of CrossFit. I see food differently because of CrossFit. I view health differently because of CrossFit. If I didn’t know CrossFit, I wouldn’t know me.
But this year, in 2013, I’m doing what will make me happy. And that means eating fried ice cream. My version, of course.
Banana Fried Ice Cream
Ingredients
For the ice cream
- 2 (14 ounce) cans of coconut milk
- 1/4 cup raw honey
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
For the toppings
- 2 bananas, peeled and sliced
- 2 tablespoons coconut butter
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- sprinkle of maple sugar or coconut sugar
Instructions
- Place 2 cans of coconut milk in a medium saucepan along with the honey, cinnamon, almond butter, vanilla extract, and salt.
- Add saucepan to medium heat and mix well until well combined.
- Once mixture is well combined and smooth, put in freezer until completely cooled.
- When the mixture is cooled, add to your ice cream maker and turn on.
- When your ice cream has almost completely thickened, place a small skilletover medium heat and add your coconut butter and bananas.
- Then add the cinnamon, coconut sugar, and a pinch of salt to the pan.
- Mix around in pan and cook until bananas are caramelized and soft.
- Top bananas on ice cream and sprinkle with a bit more coconut sugar.
- Eat. Emotionally eat.
______________
You May Also Like:
Sea Salt Caramel Brownie Ice Cream
______________
Click Here To Get All My PaleOMG Recipes Into Your Meal Planner With Real Plans!
I may be compensated through my affiliate links in this post, but all opinions are my own. This compensation helps with expenses to keep this blog up and running!
I will save this recipe for an emotional day!
It takes a brave person to take a true honest look at themselves. Kudos and inspiring!
So I know this may be an obvious question, but I will ask it anyway. Are you saying those of us who do not own an ice cream maker are SOL and can’t make this awesome recipe? Do we have to continue to live a life sans your Banana Fried Ice Cream FOREVER? I make Paleo Banana Ice Cream all the time (Here is my recipe: http://ourfullplate.com/recipes/healthy-banana-ice-cream/) without an ice cream maker using frozen bananas. Do you think if we freeze the coconut milk then blended it with your ingredients, it would work?
Juli, This post was beautiful. Thank you for sharing because so many look up to you. I think you are an amazing athlete and I admire you for your heart.. not your PRs or your muscles. For me, this post is strong and honest. Keep it up. Live your life in balance is always best =) Physically, mentally, and spiritually =)
Awesome post! I’m glad you took a step back to realize what makes you happy and you made that change regardless of everyone else’s expectations. I had to make a similar adjustment for other priorities in my life so your post was reassuring that someone is experiencing a similar struggle. 🙂 Keep up the amazing work and you are truly inspiring!
I love this post, and admire you so much for over coming adversity and injury and coming out stronger, maybe not physically but you came out better for it by learning from it. I’m struggling with some things right now and its always inspiring to see someone turn a negative into a positive.
Also this recipe looks amazing, and I just got an ice cream maker. I can’t wait to try it!
Atta girl! I think you’re young to already be figuring out these big life lessons. I’m much older and just starting to learn that I can know my own mind and still be nice. I would guess you aim to please in most cases. Our greatest strength can often be our greatest weakness.
Thanks for that Juli! I, too, have been thinking about my goals and about perhaps setting some for myself in CrossFit but honestly, that takes the fun out of it for me and makes it yet another part of my life that I have to worry about and be disappointed by. At least at this time in my life, I want to just go and see myself continue to get better and feel good knowing that I’m working out and having fun and being healthier in general. Love you and your blog! (made the aloo gobi for the second time yesterday and loved it!)
I love your honesty in this post.
If your reasons for not wanting to compete ended at the fact that you didn’t want to disappoint people, I was going to argue that you should forget about them and continue doing what you love. When you said that you were unhappy with your body and that competing led to crying and general unhappiness, though, I think you made the right choice. Do whatever makes you happy. If you want to compete, go for it. If your performance upsets others, that’s just too damn bad for them. They can compete for themselves. If staying out of competing makes you happy, then do that. We’re here to support you no matter what 🙂 Keep rocking.
Amen sista. I love this post! Crossfit is awesome, but I think sometimes when people take it to an obsessive state, it’s because they’re trying to fill something else that’s missing from their life. And… it’s not even GOOD for your body to train hours and hours a day. I wish that more Crossfit gyms took the attitude of “we are a great workout for anybody” rather than “we’re badass crossfitters and anything else is inferior.” thats not helping or inspiring others to get healthy, and I see it too much. You should be always doing it for YOU. And YOU, Juli Bauer, are amazing, not because you crossfit, but because of who you are. You have touched so many peoples lives, because you are real and people relate to you. You wanna win the games? Great, we’ll support you! You wanna quit crossfit and make ice cream all day? AWESOME. We will all love you no matter what you do! I prefer the ice cream part, personally 🙂 can’t wait for the cookbook girl!!!
I heart you, Juli. I can’t add anymore than the others have written here……just know you are refreshing. Thank you.