Guiding Stars » Amanda O'Brien

Can’t Find a Local Food Pantry? Try a Virtual Food Drive

Amanda O'Brien — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:19:11 +0000

Recently I have had the pleasure of two speaking opportunities with Clara from the Good Shepherd Food Bank. While the folks at Good Shepherd always do a nice job, I was especially excited to see one of their latest initiatives – a Virtual Holiday Food Drive.

Frozen Vegetables vs. Canned

Amanda O'Brien — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:15:58 +0000

As the air gets a little cooler and we start thinking about turning our clocks back, many of us become more dependent on our pantries and freezers to help us prepare our meals. We all know fresh vegetables are usually the best but what about when your vegetable of choice isn’t in season? Or when it becomes too expensive because it is out of season?

4 iPhone Apps for Healthier Eating

Amanda O'Brien — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:10:26 +0000

Recently I have started bumping up my iPhone apps to not only help me with my work and social life but to boost my healthy lifestyle choices as well. Here are four iPhone apps that I have found to help me stay on the healthy track!

What if you HAVE to Eat Late at Night?

Amanda O'Brien — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:53:42 +0000

We all know it can happen. No matter how much you prepare your schedule and your meals, sometimes life can fight back. You find yourself overtired and overworked; you get home late and haven’t eaten dinner yet. This is in no way ideal, but it happens. What do you do? Eating late at night is not good for you. Your body doesn’t have time to burn off the calories before you go to bed and your body will be digesting when it should be resting. Late night eating can be detrimental to a healthy eating routine.

5 Tools to Make for Better Eating

Amanda O'Brien — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:53:23 +0000

Many of us are trying to eat and be healthier. Have you stopped to consider all the little things you do and have in your house that are helping you achieve those goals?

I am a board member for a nonprofit in my community. At a recent meeting planning our upcoming fund-raising event, someone asked the Logistics Coordinator what her duties were for the event. She said ‘I do all the things no one else wants to do’. I stopped her in her tracks and said she does all the things that hold the whole event together. It got me thinking about all the little things we do or have that hold the rest of our lives together. Here's my list of 5 tools I use in my house to help me eat better.

Office ready snacks for more energy

Amanda O'Brien — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:31:04 +0000

I have lived most of my life in New England. I love all four seasons but I have to admit, winter is tough sometimes. The days are shorter and much colder. I crave hearty meals and warm coffee drinks. I am restless, while at the same time I have less energy.

This winter, armed with some advice from my friends and my favorite healthy living bloggers, I am going to focus on one trouble spot in my day – the mid-afternoon work snack. Right around 3pm I hit my afternoon slump and I seem to crave a gingerbread latte and some sort of huge pastry with lots or frosting or crumble on top. I did a little research and talked to my friends to get some ideas for how to combat that 3pm urge.

So here are some healthy snacks that are known for being tasty and for giving you a much needed energy boost...

School Cafeteria Food Makeovers You Should Work Back into Your Adult Diet

Amanda O'Brien — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:52:57 +0000

It is back to school time for just about everyone now, which also has me thinking about all my first days of school and how we ate in school. I was a public school kid. Some kids had bag lunches they brought from home but most kids were ‘hot lunch kids’ and we ate what the school made us for lunch each day.

Some days were obviously better than others. I think in just about every school’s pizza day was the favorite. Much of the food was lacking taste and some was even unidentifiable (like a block of ‘cheese’ that we cleverly found could also be used as a pencil eraser – more functional than tasty).

Here is a list of some old cafeteria staples that with a little grown up TLC can be updated to fit back into your grown up diet and provide lots of nourishment and maybe some fond memories...

Using the Internet to Find Healthy New Recipes

Amanda O'Brien — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:16:56 +0000

One of my biggest hurdles in eating healthy is I feel that I run out of recipes I can make on a regular basis. I feel as though I eat the same few healthy things over and over and my taste buds get tired so I find myself returning to not-so-healthy options.

Lately I have been leaning on a few great websites to help me cure my taste bud exhaustion by giving me good, easy recipes, with ingredients I already have that are also good for me. Some let you choose by ingredients, some give you creative way to prepare your regular shopping items in not such a ‘regular’ way and others are just plain fun to try out.

Real Simple has a great menu suggestion tool that lets you choose by ingredient, convenience, course or keyword. All the recipes we have used have been...

Setting realistic goals and seeing them through

Amanda O'Brien — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:46:01 +0000

A year and a half ago I couldn’t run a mile without stopping. As of right now I have completed four 5Ks, a 10K and 2 half marathons and I can’t wait to see what I can do next! If two years ago you told me I would run 13.1 miles, I would have laughed at you. How I got this far has taught me a lot about life in general and the importance of setting goals.

No matter what your goal is – running a 5K, cutting your grocery bill, getting a promotion, losing weight – all of them have a desired end result and it can be actualized. The end result can seem staggering to achieve and you may have stalled before because climbing that proverbial mountain seems overwhelming.

Here are a few tips to help you chart your way to success, no matter the goal:

Traveling and not letting the train fall off the tracks

Amanda O'Brien — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:28:43 +0000

We try to watch what we eat and be healthy. We have our routines and meals reasonably planned out. When we travel, the routines and diets we are accustom to can be completely derailed.

Here are a few ideas to keep fitness in mind when you are on the road...