If you’ve read some of my past postings, you may have noticed that I kind of have a thing for veggies. And I don’t mean that in an “I-always-choose-carrot-sticks-over-potato chips kind of way.” Far from it. I still enjoy foods like chips and the occasional cheeseburger; I just love the versatility of vegetables. I love the endless list of nutritional…
A Healthy Farmers Market Salad in 3 Simple Steps
Have you ever pored over a recipe, carefully planning every ingredient, only for it to turn out to be a big dud? If you’ve ever cooked or baked, chances are you may have made a flavorless side dish or cookies that could pass for hockey pucks. It happens. Throughout our weight-loss journeys, TOPS encourages us to keep trying and to…
3 Tips for Flavoring Water Without Extra Calories
A major natural food store chain took some flak last week for having bottles of water containing asparagus stalks on one of their store’s shelves. The asparagus water turned out to be a mistake and a big “oops” moment for the chain, but not drinking enough water shouldn’t be an “oops” for you. I’ve been paying more attention to this…
Waste Not, Want Not : How to Prevent Food Waste
Be honest. How much food do you end up tossing out every week? If you’re anything like me, you find yourself throwing away produce you had every intention of eating (but has since turned into a terrifying science experiment in the back of the fridge) more often than you’d like. Turns out I’m not alone. In the U.S., 30-40% of…
The Domino Effect
Have you ever thought of how one choice you made in life affected the life you’re living right now? Maybe you wouldn’t have met your spouse if you hadn’t nervously agreed to that blind date. Maybe you would never have landed your dream job if, without knowing much about it, you hadn’t decided to apply anyway. While there are certainly…
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…
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…
A Weight-Loss Claim Debunked
“Lose inches without any diet or exercise!” “Drop pounds by eating cookies!” “Trim and tone your tummy in days!” If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, or if you’ve ever watched TV or opened a magazine for that matter, you’re probably no stranger to these types of lofty claims. While promises like the aforementioned are usually pretty easy to detect…
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,…