fun with balls.

soo… i had a couple encounters with balls today. let’s talk about it.

my gym recently purchased 35 swiss balls (also known as stability balls) and i got to play around on them today for the first time!

i am not good at sports involving balls. like.. i’m straight up BAD at them. no hand-eye coordination here! consequently, i rarely play with balls. i’ll throw the occasional medicine ball into a routine, but when it comes to baseballs, basketballs, or footballs.. count me out. swiss balls, on the other hand, just might be my new favorite thing!

i have used a swiss ball plenty of times in my workouts in the past, but never have i tried to balance on one. i always lay on them for movements like chest press or crunches. but today we used the swiss balls to do balance drills. it’s flipping hard! a lot harder than i expected. today we worked on balancing on the ball from our knees, from a sitting position, on our bellies, and on our backs (hardest for me!) doing swiss ball balance drills definitely is a new type of challenge. it engages muscles you wouldn’t expect and it also takes a certain skill that i am most definitely lacking. something to work on!

after about ten minutes of practice, i finally got the hang of balancing on my knees. once we get the knee balancing mastered, we will start using dumbbells while balancing on the ball. shoulder presses, lateral raises, biceps curls, and other dumbbell movements while balancing on the ball is gonna be rough! but i am sure it will be possible with a little more balancing practice. here is a quick vid of my balancing progress after my first stab at it this afternoon.

it’s a lot of fun! i think i like it so much because it reminds me a little bit of snowboarding. minus the snow. and the board. plus a ball. yep. we will be playing with them in tomorrow’s workout. i’m pumped.

as if one ball encounter wasn’t enough.. i doubled my ball fun tonight when i wanted a healthy, tasty treat.

i was inspired by candice’s recent ball recipe to make up some balls of my own. i was craving chocolate chip cookie dough and cashews (or cashew butter) always give a recipe that cookie dough flavor i love so much.. so i used some cashews to make up these bite size balls. i added some plant fusion to them for a protein punch!

no bake chocolate chip cookie dough protein balls
makes 18 balls
adapted from this recipe

 ingredients:

• 2/3 cup unsalted, roasted cashews or cashew pieces (i used pieces from trader joe’s)
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 3 scoops plant fusion vanilla bean protein powder
• rounded 1/8 tsp salt
• 3 TB organic brown rice syrup
• 3 TB agave (i used xagave)
• 1 TB vanilla bean paste
• 2-3 tsp almond milk (or more, if needed)
• 2 TB dark cocoa bits (or powder.. or mini chocolate chips)

directions:

1. combine cashews and oats in a blender or food processor and pulse until it reaches a flour consistency.
2. in a bowl combine cashew oat flour, protein powder, and salt. mix well.
3. add syrup, xagave, and vanilla. mix well.
4. add almond milk as needed until mixture reaches dough-like consistency.
5. fold in chocolate.
6. chill dough for 30 minutes.
7. use a cookie scoop to form 1″ dough balls.
8. eat immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or the freezer for up to a month. see notes.

nutrition stats per ball:

notes on the recipe:

• these are STICKY. they aren’t portable balls. they have the consistency of cookie dough.. so don’t expect something else.
• they will firm up in the fridge and even more so in the freezer. i recommend freezing them on wax paper first and then transporting them to a freezer bag.
• you can use any combination of sweetener. if you don’t have brown rice syrup, you can use all agave. or you can replace some of it with honey. just make sure it’s a sticky sweetener. that’s the binding agent.
• i used these dark cocoa bits i got from the dominican republic. not sure if you can find them in the states.. but you can always just use mini chocolate chips in place of the bits. cacao nibs would also be a good option.

these are a great alternative to eating a whole bowl of this cookie dough. not that i have ever done that…

Qs~

1. what’s your favorite sport involving a ball? (to play or to watch.. or both.)

2. what is your favorite kind of cookie dough?<–not cookie.. cookie dough!

xo. janetha g.

Tagged as: cookie dough protein balls, swiss ball