light whole wheat pineapple upside down cake & home HIIT moves

i had a little cabin fever Tuesday after my Total Conditioning class was canceled cause of the freezing temps and icy Houston roads. i have to be honest with you guys... home workouts are still hard for me to get through :shock: . being up in front of my class at the gym is my motivation to keep going and never quit. i know my members are looking up to me for motivation but they provide the exact same thing for me.  i'm 58 times more likely to stop when it burns when i'm at home. when i'm up on stage i don't feel a thing. i just look at my HR watch an hour later and it says 800+ calories burned :lol: . anyway, i make up my class routines the night before so i pretty much did the whole thing without a step bench in my dining room and got a really good sweat going.

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got the job done. try some of these exercises for getting your heart rate UP.

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HIIT is great for burning fat while keeping all your hard-earned muscle, e.g. like sprinting on a track or treadmill.  you can only hold this high rate of intensity for so long, so you give it all you got for 30 seconds - 1 minute then recover. i do it gradually by starting with a basic exercise move then building on it from there (see example vid above).  my heart rate has to stay in the safe range of 140-150 since i'm preggo, so i don't go full throttle anymore. but YOU can! if you're not preggo.  if you have never taken Total Conditioning at Lifetime Fitness, YOU MUST.

on to one of my favorite cakes to eat growing up.  i don't have it often at all and i didn't want to have to resort to a boxed cake mix (even though they taste awesome too) so i created this one. finally got it right on the 3rd try.

light whole wheat pineapple upside down cake

the stuff:

• 1/3 cup coconut crystals (or organic brown sugar or sucanat)
• 2 tbsp organic whipped buttery spread (i used Earth Balance)
• 7 fresh or canned pineapple slices
• 3.5 **maraschino cherries
• 1 whole egg
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/3 cup fresh pineapple juice (you can use more milk if you'd like)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup white whole wheat flour OR cake flour (i used King Arthur)
• 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 2/3 cup coconut crystals (or organic brown sugar or sucanat)
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

do this:

1. preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. coat a 9 inch round or square pan with no-stick cooking spray.
3. melt and coat the bottom of your pan with whipped butter spread until even.
4. next, sprinkle 1/3 cup of coconut crystals in the bottom of your pan on top of the butter.
5. lay pineapple rings flat in bottom of pan; place cherry halves in center of the rings.
6. mix egg, 2/3 cup coconut crystals, coconut oil, milk, pineapple juice, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl.
7. in a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder well.
8. slowly add your wet mixture to your dry and stir until all combined, no lumps.
9. pour batter on top of pineapple rings evenly.
10. bake for 30-33 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

let it cool, then flip the pan over and convert it onto a plate. see below.

 ta-da.

**let's chat. maraschino cherries are not healthy. no way around it.  i used them cause they just go with the standard pineapple upside down cake recipe. they just do. it's not the same without them. you don't have to use them though! chances are you don't even have any in your fridge anyway. you can actually make them yourself using fresh cherries, or find another fruit to use. be creative.

i equate the area under the individual pineapple slice as one serving, so there are seven up there.

per 1 serving: 264 calories, 10g fat, 38g carbs, 4g protein.

not too shabby when compared to Betty's stats ;)

so i'm taking my very first cooking class at Sur La Table tomorrow, aaaagggghhh!!!! and guess what we're making?! the best food ever on earth. homemade PIZZA.  this class had my name all over it.  i plan to start teaching my own cooking & exercise classes as early as next month so i'm getting all the tips, info, and advice i can stuff into my brain. more details to come VERY soon- it's pretty much February already :shock:

le