Every Saturday morning, I love to cook a big breakfast. This past Saturday, I decided to cook some homemade organic pancakes. I am an old school cook, which means I cook without an actual recipe.  However, for those of you that need a receipe I have you covered at the end of the post.

Here is a list of all the items I used to make the pancakes:

• Soy or Hemphmilk
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg spice seasoning (You can use regular Nutmeg)
• Organic Sugar (Glass Container)
• Trail mix – this has cranberries, cashews, sunflower seeds and almonds
• Agave Nectar (Instead of syrup)
• Arrowshead Organic Flour – You can substitute this for any organic wheat flour mix

FYI- The spices were bought in the bulk section at Wholefoods but I reused old containers.  Wholefoods had a great “spice”  seasoning, which is a blend of popular fall seasonings such as pumpkin and chi.

Organic Cinnamon Spice Pancakes

Instructions

This is about 1/2 cup of pancake mix with 1Tbs each of seasoning. You can add 2-3 Tbs of sugar for a sweet pancake. I prefer my pancakes not to be very sweet so I only used 1Tbs.

I mixed milk and trail mix and mixed together. The more milk you use the thinner the pancakes are, the less milk you use the thicker the pancake will be.  Health tip: Add 1-2 Tbs of flax seed to the pancake mix for added protein and omega-3 nutrients! 

I added some organic extra virgin olive oil and cooked the pancakes over medium heat.

Flipping time! Sorry this photo is a little bit out of focus. Cooking and taking photos was a bit challenging. 

This is the end result! Organic homemade pancakes!!!  In the small cup is the Agave nectar, which I dip my pancakes into. I added some mix fruit for added color and a glass of organic orange juice. I threw in a few frozen strawberries for added color and flavor to the OJ. 

I only ate 2 pancakes because they were full of fiber!I threw the rest into a ziplock bag and placed them the freezer. Now I can have pancakes throughout the week. Sweet!

 Note: They are not burnt pancakes. The darkness has to do with photo and also the pan I used.  

For those of you who need an actual recipe to follow, try this one!

Whole Wheat-Cinnamon Pancakes (100 calories!) 

Ingredients

• Whole Wheat Flour, 1.25 cup
• Baking Soda, 1 tsp
• Splenda No Calorie Sweetener, 2 tbsp (You can use organic sugar instead. This will add to your overall calorie count.)
• Skim Milk, 1 cup
• Eggbeaters, .5 cup
• Vanilla extract, 1 tbsp
• Cinnamon, 2 tbsp

Directions

Mix flour, baking soda, and splenda in bowl. Mix milk, eggs, and vanilla in another bowl. Beat into dry mix roughly, so as to add more air to mix. Stir in cinnamon last. Serving size is 1/3 cup mix. Use PAM on skillet when cooking and sweeten with sugar free syrup and/or fruit!

Serving size is one pancake. If you use less than 1/3 of a cup batter (like 1/4, or 1/6) you can have two for 100 calories! Smaller, but more! 

• Servings Per Recipe: 8
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 92.6

• Total Fat: 0.4 g
• Cholesterol: 0.5 mg
• Sodium: 209.8 mg
• Total Carbs: 18.2 g
• Dietary Fiber: 3.3 g
• Protein: 5.2 g

For the last two segments, Whitney and Monisha have discussed their personal tales on growing up being slender and skinny.If you have missed any of the first segments, you can catchup by clicking the links below.

1. Why Black Women are Fat Part 1 – Alex’s Take (Brief Overview of the Situation)
2. Why Black Women Are Fat, Part 2 – The Skinny Girl Edition
3. Why Black Women Are Fat, Part 3: From Skinny to Thick to Skinny to ??? (Monisha’s Take)

After speaking with Monisha, she twisted my arm and asked me to talk more in-depth about my own life as I grew up being thick and everything in between.

Growing up, I have always been on the thick side. I have never been skinny. Never! For me, being skinnier at my private school and in sports was always preferred, while in the hood thickness was acceptable. Muscular and thick girls were always labeled “fast” or “tom boys.” I was the latter one and unfortunately I never appreciated my thickness. I recalled a teacher recommending me me for tap and jazz classes instead of ballet because of my muscular tone. I was not “fit” for ballet.

I never appreciated being thick or having boobs and especially a butt. I was very shy about showing any skin and never wanted to be considered “fast.” I avoided tight clothes and resorted to baggy ones if possible. I used to always be teased growing up because my gym shorts were extremely tight on my butt thus showing my underwear line   . Ha!

The above photo shows the smallest I have ever been. I 14 and fresh off  a summer track and field team. A white tee, jeans and some kick were a staple item. Yes, that is all my thick hair and I had a perm too. Yikes!

Nothing ever fit my body. Being petite, with a butt, curves and a tiny waist made it almost impossible to find clothes to fit me. The worst was wearing my private school skirts as I would be teased because my skirt would be higher in the back than in the front. I could never borrow my friends’ clothes because they were all smaller than me. I became very confused and my self-esteem was always in conflict as one environment said I should become smaller yet the other said I should flaunt it.

When I was in college, I was finally didn’t care about being skinny anymore. Going to Texas Tech University, I was ready to make myself and I had worked hard to look “rip.” I was at a great weight and very muscular. I gave Serena Williams a run for her money! *3 snaps … I also had a amazing boyfriend at the time, who was very supportive and was one of the critical people in teaching me about nutrition. He was studying to be a nurse so I got my fair share of a nursing education as we dated through college.

However, college life caught up to me along with the daily chicken strips, mashed potatoes, fries and dr. pepper meals. I wasn’t working out anymore with being a full-time student, working 3 jobs and a butt load of stress. I had gained a significant amount of weight and steadily fluctuated between gaining and losing 10 to 15 pounds.  I admit, my college boyfriend loved me through out my increase in weight but we did have a difficult discussion about my weight. Although he didn’t have the right words to say “Alex you need to lose the weight and get it together,” he did support me and loved me through it all. It was one of the worst positions to be in for us both. He even helped trained me for any race as he was a ex-cross country runner.  (He was a bit to pushy I am not gonna lie lol.)

When I  graduated college, I slowly kept those 15 pounds and added more on thanks to more stress, emotional eating, lots of long hours and happy hours, mid-life crisis, traveling and a desk job. Being thick wasn’t so cute anymore as my face became fatter and fatter. Standing 5 feet 2 and half inches, I slowly found myself 1 pound shy of being 200 pounds- the heaviest in my life. The word thick was not thick anymore- it was just simply fat. I still had some curves but not being able to walk up a flight of stairs or a 5k anymore was not sexy nor acceptable by any means. I was fat, depressed, angry and malnourished.

But instead of accepting this, I started to look around me and see I was still smaller than my environment. Everybody else was the same size or had gained weight- it was acceptable. I started to see the health of several people deteriorate thanks to blood pressure medications, obesity, daily fast food intakes, diet pills and much more. It was nothing I could do about it, it was just the way things were.   I thought…

One Christmas holiday, I was able to spend a lot of time with one of my best friends Latoya (above). LaToya and I have been friends since elementary. One day while hanging out with her, a lady went on a tangent about how fine and thick she was. She argued that guys loved her “thick” plus size body and she will continue to eat fried chicken and bbq each week no matter what the doctor said. The person who said this had a beautiful face but was close to 300 pounds. I said to myself “Self, if she is thick. You must be skinny!” …..

Like most women, she wasn’t exercising because “she got her hair done every week and wasn’t about to mess it up unless it was due to clubbing or getting some nookie.”- Being real you guys..

Listening to her made me realize my surrounding and how misguided they were. My life was changing before my very eyes and I was just letting it all go away.  I suddenly realized I didn’t want to follow the same path and become another number. It was time to do something about this unhealthy weight for once and for all.

As time went along, I dropped back to my “normal” size and have maintained being a healthy size. I am still thick and in the past few years, I have appreciated being made the way God has made me. I know what my trigger points are when it comes to overeating and I also discuss a lot with Richard Mack, veteran fitness trainer, who helped me gain my Serena Williams body back in the days. (I know I lost it!! Argg I will get it back!) I also learned that skinny does not equal healthy. Don’t let those skinny girls who eat McDonald’s every day fool you…

While at times I do wish I could be skinnier like Monisha and Whitney, I know that it’s more important for me the be healthy inside and out than to focus on being skinny.  I am comfortable and focused on being physically fit for my triathlons or half-marathon training programs, eating organic and  healthy meals, staying away and off all medications but most importantly taking time to recharge and appreciate every day that God has given me.

While I am about 15 pounds from my ideal weight,  I am far more healthier than I ever have been in my life. I am focused on losing the weight the correct and healthy way so that I can keep it off and make being healthy a lifestyle. It takes time and it’s a daily journey.

I was not born skinny or slender nor tall, I was born muscular with killer curves and all. (Cue the poem Phenomenal Woman ..Yeah that’s me! LOL ) One thing is for certain, this body is a temple and a vessel. It was never meant nor designed to be fat and out of shape. It was meant to be a blessing for others so that God can work through me to inspire His people. — Okay let me stop.. I am about to start preaching to you all. LOL

In short, I am determined not to be another number in the obesity rating for black woman…. You don’t have to be.

The choice is up to you!

The other day, Whitney asked me to share my experience of growing up skinny. Well, it’s sort of unique. So after reflecting on where I’ve been and where I am now body image wise, Alex, Whitney and myself decided to make it a separate post. Hopefully through us sharing our individual stories you can see how growing up as a black female in the South molded our image of what was sexy when we were children.

O’Conner Family circa 1990. That’s me squished in the middle   I love my family!

I’m in the 7th grade in the picture. I actually thought the strings on my glasses were cool. LOL

My Senior Year of High School

My junior year of undergrad. Were Kangols even in? LOL

This is a picture from grad school when I was fasting. But this is exactly how I looked when I returned from Costa Rica.

Striking a pose before I run the Rock N Roll New Orleans Half Marathon. March 2012

When I read the Alex’s take on the “why black women are fat” article I wholeheartedly agreed. There are other factors at work here such as lack of access to healthy food, lack of knowledge about fitness and how food affects your health. But I think the biggest problem is the cultural perception. In the black community it is widely accepted to be overweight or “thick”. Growing up as a skinny black girl, I was affected by this first hand. I always felt like I was an alien from mars because I was taller and skinner than all of my friends.  And boy, did I get an earful. Constantly. I usually heard one of the following lines from boys:

• “Oh you’re cute, but you’re too skinny” Usually followed by “call me when you gain __fill in the blank__ lbs”
• “Dang girl do you eat?”
• “Where’s your butt?”

The list goes on and on. I used to long to be a thick, curvy girl so the boys would like me. I had dreams of having a figure like Beyonce when I grew up. Clearly that didn’t happen. I was ridiculed by kids and teachers alike. One of my sixth grade teachers asked me if I as anorexic. Really?! All of the guys I’ve dated (which isn’t very many) have asked if I could gain more weight. Except for my current boo, John. He thinks I’m a perfect! Woot! I finally found a guy who likes skinny girls!

I mentioned all of this to say that I think we as a community have a long way to go to get our health in order. We lead the nation in obesity rates and preventable diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure.  Along with educating black people about diet and fitness, we need to work on changing our cultural perception about whats beautiful. We need to work on accepting ALL body types. Just because you are a normal weight for your height and weight doesn’t make you anorexic.

Now that I’ve gotten older, Ive accepted my body type and tuned out all of the negative comments that I still hear from time to time. I strive to live a healthy lifestyle from my food choices to working out 3-5 times a week. As long as I do those things I don’t care what the scale says.*Three snaps in a circle*

Here are some pics of me growing up as a skinny girl…

That’s me in the middle. I was in 7th grade.

This was senior year of high school before Homecoming….Can you tell I didn’t want to take the pic?!

This was senior year of high school. The guy in the pic was my BF at the time. We ended up dating for 5 years…oh how things change.

I was a size 1 in this pic. It’s the skinniest I’ve ever been since I was 16. I had to get all of my clothes taken in! I had recently dropped about 15 -20 lbs due to stress. I gained it all back though 

Don’t judge my outfit in this pic, this was sophomore year of college and we were on our way out to the club….geez.