Veggie Pumpkins
Lifestyle, Nutrition

The Halloween Vegetable Tray

Here at TOPS, we’ve made a veggie skeleton, we’ve made “candy corn” by layering yellow and orange peppers with cauliflower on toothpicks, and now we’re at it again. We bring you, the Halloween vegetable tray! If you’re planning on heading to, or hosting, Halloween festivities this year make your veggie tray anything but ordinary in just a few simple steps:…

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Exercise Room and Equipment
Fitness, Lifestyle

The Best Form of Exercise for You

Working for a health and wellness organization, my team and I are often asked, “What’s the best form of exercise?” Well, swimming is an awesome way to burn calories and is easy on your joints…but what if you hate water? Running is a popular form of cardio and requires little more than a good pair of shoes…but what if you…

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Scale with bare feet
Lifestyle, Weight Loss

How to Avoid Weekend Weight Gain

Have you ever experienced, or are you currently experiencing, FOSAW? I’m talking about Fear Of Scale After the Weekend. If we’re not careful, FOSAW can become a weekly occurrence. We often hear about how difficult it can be to manage weight in the winter. After all, we have the holidays, the heavy comfort foods and the gloomy weather that’s rarely…

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Purple Asparagus
Lifestyle, Nutrition

Happy Eat Your Vegetables Day

Whether you’re following a gluten-free meal plan, a strict vegetarian or vegan, or you’re a fan of the primal or paleo diet, I think we can all agree on these three words: vegetables are awesome. They’re so awesome, in fact, that they have their own day – Wednesday, June 17, is Eat Your Vegetables Day. I like the fact that…

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Can we please go walk now?
Fitness, Health, Lifestyle

3 Tips for Making Exercise Fun

I wish I loved any form of exercise the way my dog Nellie (pictured above) loves walks. It doesn’t matter if it’s sunny or rainy, chilly or warm, windy or calm, Nellie greets me with the same unabashed excitement every single time I pull out her leash. I don’t know if it’s the chance to get out of the house,…

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Maggie Food Selfie
Lifestyle, Motivation

Get Healthy With Food Selfies

If we’ve learned anything from social media, it’s that people like to share … a lot. This sharing can stretch beyond kitten videos, internet memes and vacation photos and can actually be a great way to stay on track with healthy goals. Enter the food selfie. Just in case you’re unfamiliar with social media jargon, “selfie” was actually named Oxford…

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phone with apps
Health, Lifestyle, Weight Loss

New Weight-Loss App May do More Harm than Good

When it comes to staying on track with healthy goals, some people prefer having a cheerleader in their corner offering encouragement and positive vibes, while others prefer more of a tough-love approach. Perhaps the latter was the idea behind a new weight-loss app that shames you into losing weight by offering snarky comments and ridicule. After learning about this app…

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Vegetables
Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition

When to Choose Organic Fruits and Vegetables

Last week we had a nutrition presentation for staff here at TOPS Headquarters. A lot of great information was shared and employees had the opportunity to think about nutrition in a different way. One of the topics touched on was organic foods. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, organic agriculture uses methods that preserve the environment and avoid…

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