Yum! Want to mix things up a bit with your normal protein bars? Check out this no-bake recipe.

Ingredients

• Base:
• 2 cups nuts or seeds (almonds, sunflower, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc.  Mixing several kinds is fine too.)
• ½ cup flax meal (ground flax seeds)
• ½ cup unsweetened coconut (I used Bob's Red Mill brand in the health food section)
• ½ cup seed or nut butter (I used almond butter)
• ½ cup coconut oil
• 3 scoops vanilla or cinnamon protein powder 
• 2 Tbsp honey or real maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• Topping:
• 1 cup chocolate chips, melted
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1/3 cup chopped nuts (I used almonds)

Instructions

1. Place nuts or seeds, flax meal, coconut, seed or nut butter and salt in the bowl of a food processor.
2. Process until the nuts or seeds are ground into a coarse meal
3. Melt coconut oil over low heat or microwave for a few seconds until it is liquid.
4. Add coconut oil, honey or syrup, protein powder and vanilla to processor bowl and process until well combined to form a thick, yet crunchy paste.
5. Press the mixture into an 8x8 square pan.
6. Place in refrigerator to chill.
7. While bars are chilling, melt chocolate chips with coconut oil
8. Top bars with the melted chocolate/oil mixture, then sprinkle with chopped nuts
9. Place back in refrigerator to chill 
10. Cut into 9 squares and serve.
11. Store in refrigerator.

I have to admit, one of the biggest expenses my fat loss clients face is in getting themselves outfitted for their new bodies. It's usually a pretty happy expense, and often there are shopping sprees involved when a woman goes from a size 16 or 18 down to a size 4 or 6, of course, but the transition time is often the hardest part.

What do you wear? 
How do you shop?
Should I spend money on in-between sizes I may only wear for a few weeks?

​I've got some solutions for you!

First of all, clean out your closet. Take EVERYTHING out.

Yeah, that's all my stuff---yikes, right? But you need to do this all at once and quickly, in order to make it feel less painless.

So take it all out and see what fits right now. Put all of those things aside and then anything that is too big needs to leave your house immediately (unless you want to save one outfit for comparison purposes later). The reason for getting rid of it is that you should not have a fall-back position. It's dangerous to know that you still have "fat clothes" that you can turn back to. So put those things aside.

Then go through your "too small" clothes and decide what you might want to keep for your progress as you lose weight---I would keep no more than about 20 pieces, however---you don't want a closet full of wishful thinking making your progress harder than it already is.

Separate your "keep" pile from your "discard" pile, and then separate those into three groups: 

1. High quality (designer), in terrific condition, that you could resale or gift to friends
2. Good quality (not designer) clothes in great condition that could be donated
3. Things you should have thrown away/recycled ages ago

I recently did this exercise and kept about 20 pieces that I can wear right now, about 20 pieces that I want to save for this summer when I finish my Summer Shred plan, and then this is what I had left over.

The two giant IKEA bags had a ton of great quality clothes that are still in really good condition, so I donated those this morning to a thrift store---it was so nice to get those out of the house before I start poking back through them for things to keep.

And those white Clean Out Bags are the BEST thing ever---they are being sent (at no cost to me) to ThredUP, which is an online consignment store that specializes in high quality clothes (designer and non-designer) where you can buy and sell clothes.

I've taken things to the local consignment shops several times, but sometimes it's just more hassle than I want to deal with (parking downtown, hauling all my bags in the store, waiting for them to decide what they want to keep, hauling everything else they don't want back out, and then waiting 3-6 months to see if I got any commissions from my resale clothes....meh). 

Then I found out about ThredUP---they mail the bags to you (this happened while I was at a conference in California, so they were waiting for me when I got back), you stuff them full of your excellent condition items, seal it up, activate the pre-paid shipping label, and they can even send someone to pick them up. So convenient! So, those left my house today---I'll update you on what happens, but I also bought the cutest Lucky Brand jean skirt to add to my new wardrobe (I got $10 off with this coupon code and a free Clean Out Bag mailed to me). I actually ordered two bags....because apparently I'm a clothes hoarder.