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Office ready snacks for more energy

by in Healthy Tips

Amanda O'Brien

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…

Office ready snacks for more energy

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

by in School Lunches

Amanda O'Brien

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…

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

Using the Internet to Find Healthy New Recipes

by in Tech

Amanda O'Brien

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…

Using the Internet to Find Healthy New Recipes

Setting realistic goals and seeing them through

by in Fitness and Weight Loss, Healthy Tips

Amanda O'Brien

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:

Setting realistic goals and seeing them through