Since we’re well into the lazy days of July, I have no doubt that by now you’ve taken in your fair share of reruns and reality TV.  Between puttering back and forth from a boring job at the mall and babysitting the kids down the street, you’re bound to slip into that coma only a comfy couch and summer television can bring.

As you watch the celebs parade around in all their glitz, do you find yourself yearning for a more sparkly life?  Do you wish you were drinking Cristal instead of Crystal Light?  Maybe wearing Gucci instead of Gap?  Fear not, we’ve all been there.  With visions of sugar plums and Rachel Zoe dancing through our heads, it’s not hard to wish we were someone else.  Someone, perhaps, more like… Read More »

Much like everything else in a college girl’s life (finding the perfect pair of jeans, balancing relationships, deciding where to party, etc.), sugar seems complicated. And I’m sick of complicated, so I’m going to break it down for you.

Should you go for natural or artificial? Low-cal or all natural? Corn syrup or aspartame? Honey or agave nectar?

Here’s your guide to satisfying your sweet tooth in the healthiest way possible.

What It’s Called
There are secret code names for sugar that you’ll find in everything from crackers to vegetables. Look for: Sucrose, Fructose, Glucose, Corn Sugar, Sorbitol, Dextrose, Maltose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Aspartame, Lactose… and more.

What It Does To Your Body
Carbs and sugars turn into glucose, which gives us energy to function. Glucose determines your blood sugar level, which affects your appetite, emotions, athletic performance, and more. You do not want to screw with this system – ideally, you want your blood sugar level to stay pretty even all the time. Usually people do this by eating fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and things that get metabolized at a steady rate in your body.

Sugar has two parts. Besides the glucose, there’s fructose, which is in added sweeteners, and in smaller amounts in fruits and veggies. Either way, eating too many calories from glucose or fructose is a sure way to gain weight and mess up your blood sugar level. Read More »

Um, yes. Things get even worse for Mel Gibson.

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5 hot ways to rock those jeggings.

Beautiful, right?

Okay, so I have to level with you. It took every ounce of my will power to not use this column as a LeBron bashing zone. I know that not many people are as passionate about their sports teams, but when you’re a die hard Cleveland fan, you understand that being a Cleveland fan is pretty similar to being in an unhealthy relationship. A very, very unhealthy relationship. Where your heart is constantly being broken and just when you think that everything will be okay, and you’ll get a ring, then all of a sudden your man goes on national television to publicly humiliate you and announce that he’s dumping you and moving to Miami to hang out with his bros and hook up with the Kardashians.

But, like I said, I’m not going to use this as a forum to stoop to that level and tear apart that cowardly, embarrassment to the state of Ohio, LeBrat LeBron. Instead, like any good Midwestern girl should, I’m going to take the high road and focus on all the reasons that Cleveland will survive without the self-titled “King” and still rules, despite all the flack that people give the beautiful “Mistake on the Lake.”

10. The people
Who doesn’t love a good-hearted group of people? I’m hard pressed to find a nicer bunch of humanity than the homegrown heroes of Cleveland Ohio. I heart the Midwest and their genuine, laid back attitude.

9. Severe sports hotties
LeWHO? Have you seen Grady Sizemore (granted- he’s for the Indians, but still)? Total babe.

8. The Browns?
Come on, we’ve got a shot this year. Right?
Read More »

One of my favorite movies is the 1954 version of Sabrina. It’s a beautiful romance only enhanced by crisp black-and-white film and the charm of Audrey Hepburn. Her character, the fledgling Sabrina Fairchild, leaves Long Island to study cooking in Paris and comes back a glamorous woman. But what always bothered me about the movie is what signals the transition: Sabrina cuts off her flowing pony tail. (For the movie buffs, Audrey’s character does the same thing in Roman Holiday). I mean come on! As a high-schooler, I used to groan at the television as the short-haired, sophisticated Sabrina slowly appeared on screen. That’s the only difference?

I wouldn’t realize until I hit college that a haircut really can be life changing.

Before I hit college, the last haircut I had been subjected to was in second grade. I remember it clearly. Tears rolled down my face for the better part of a half hour as my relentless stylist yanked my hair with various combs and burned my neck with the curling iron. After that, I swore off cutting my hair, and for good reason: the pain wasn’t even worth it. Looking back at pictures of my as a little girl, my hair was always atrocious: rounded bobs and long bangs adorned my circular face and what little forehead I had. I must have never felt pretty, because judging by my pictures, I never was.  I decided to keep my scraggly long hair au naturel, thank you very much.

Then, at the age of 18, I moved from the rural Midwest to Boston to go to college and I felt myself transforming from country mouse to city mouse. Just like in all of the fairy tale-esque movies I never believed in, a fashionista took me under her wing and changed my life. She sat behind me in one of my classes and we ended up working together on a lot of projects. One day she looked lovingly at my long hair and mock turtleneck and said, “You have a lot of potential. Let me help you.” We tore up H&M and Anthropologie. The only thing left was my hair. “A bob,” she insisted. “You would look so ’20s hot!” I never did quite get what she ordered. Read More »

[Everyone’s got a morning after story (though some are way more disturbing than others) and we wanna hear yours! Send it over to us and we’ll post it – anonymously, of course – right here!]

Every time my roommates and I have a party we tape our kitchen cabinets shut, empty out the fridge and hide all of our food in our locked rooms. We want to protect ourselves from those random drunk idiots that may come through and steal everyone’s sh*t, eat all their food and make a big mess.

A few weeks ago, I realized I was that random drunk idiot.

Bored at home after 6 weeks of summer with the parentals, a bunch of my friends decided to make the 45-minute drive back to campus for the night. One of our friends was still living up there and taking classes, so we decided to party and crash with him. It was your typical night full of drunken shenanigans: we chugged 64-ounce Long Islands on an outdoor patio, danced in a sweaty basement bar with no windows, then stumbled down the street with nowhere to go.

We were standing on the corner in front of our favorite liquor store where we had just purchased 6 Boones Farms and a 30-pack of Natty Ice (and I pocketed a bag of PB M&Ms….) when a party bus pulled up. We didn’t know where it came from, we didn’t know why it was there, but it was $5 to get on, the guy would take us anywhere we wanted to go, and when the bus stopped at the corner we watched a very drunk girl fly forward and tumble to the ground as Lady Gaga blared from the speakers…

Duh, we got on. Read More »

If you’ve been a CollegeCandy reader for some time, you know we run our Intro to Cooking series every week, where even the most kitchen-shy co-ed can find easy, yummy recipes to please her suitemates (and sweet tooth!). Well, we’ve changed up the syllabus for Intro to Cooking: you’ll still get the fabulous recipes you love, but we’ll be including background nutritional info on specific ingredients that are must-haves in every college girl’s pantry.

This Week’s Ingredient: Sugar Snap Peas

It’s well known that a surefire way to rev your metabolism and curb hunger is to have a healthy snack on hand for a quick nibble between meals. But have you ever noticed that most of the go-to snacks (raisins, granola bars, apples) we pack to stabilize blood sugar are really just…sugar? Although many of these items are perfectly healthy and have naturally-occurring (rather than added) sugars, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. So if you’ve been looking for a tasty, portable snack that won’t give you a sugar crash, look for a different kind of sugar: sugar snap peas!

For a one cup serving size, these little babies (a hybrid between the green and snow pea) weigh in at just 41 calories, packed with riboflavin and dietary fiber. And while most of their calories do, in fact, come from natural sugars, consider that a single serving contains but 4 grams, while just one small box of raisins contains a whopping 25 grams.

Easy Snacks

1. Toss a handful in a sandwich bag with some sea salt and/or some parmesan cheese.
2. Serve with hummus and carrot sticks as a side.
3. Serve with cold pasta as a light and summery meal or warm with a little olive oil, basil, and chicken for a complete dinner. Read More »

Do you avoid wearing your hair wavy or curly in fear of the crunch? Do you blow dry and flat iron your hair just so you don’t encounter it? Then this video is for you.

For years I lived with crunchy waves, but now there are so many products to make your waves soft and lovable. Here are a few techniques you can use to have your hair looking beachy and touchable in no time! Read More »

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. This month we're following Christie on her quest to stop gossiping. The first few days were rough. Let's see how she's holding up sans gossip now.]

And so ends my first full week of no gossip…. and it was pretty tough.  I would go to tell my family, friends, or boyfriend something and before I even opened my mouth I would have to ask myself if it was gossip. A lot of times, it would be, so I would have to stop, come up with another topic and start over. Naturally, it created an abnormal and totally awkward pause, but overall the people I spoke to were very supportive.

At the beginning of the week, it was refreshing having this challenge, because it felt good to talk about someone positively when others were talking about them negatively. When my boyfriend was venting to me because he was frustrated, for example, I immediately tried to look at things from the other person’s perspective. It wasn’t reprimanding; it was just being rational. Rather than being upset, my boyfriend thanked me, and told me that he understood the situation better after me being positive about the person he was talking about.

So, yeah, things were going pretty good.
For awhile…

Then at the end of the week, I started making excuses for myself. “That isn’t gossip,” I would say. “That’s just something they posted on Facebook.” It wasn’t right, I’ll admit, but I did it nonetheless. And seriously, Facebook is like a gossip machine. I mean, come on, how many of us talk about things that come up on our feed? Like a gag-worthy status or a really mean wall post? It’s nearly impossible to hop on Facebook and not gossip. Lesson learned. Read More »

True story: after Craig R. got sent home on The Bachelorette two weeks ago, I was a slight mess. On the one hand, I felt so bad for the guy. He had to cover himself in olive oil and wrestle men in tight black pants on national television…and he still got the boot. And he looked so sad. So, so sad.

On the other hand, Ali didn’t want him, which meant he was single and ready to mingle….with me.

Once I regained my composure and put down the tub of hummus I may or may not have been crying into, I did what any normal person would do: I Facebook-stalked the sh*t out of the guy and tracked him down. I just needed to woo him talk to him, find out what went wrong and get the dirty deets on what goes on behind the scenes at The Bachelorette.

Fortunately, my FB skills paid off and I found him.
Unfortunately, he may or may not have already found a rebound lady.

CC: Had you watched The Bachelorette before coming on the show?  Was applying for a spot your idea or did someone apply for you?
Craig: I watched Ali’s season of The Bachelor because I had was told that the Bachelorette would most likely be one of the contestants from that season.  Applying for the show was actually my good friend’s idea.  He felt that I would be great for the show and he had complete confidence from the minute he submitted the application that I would ultimately be chosen.  I never expected to be chosen and it was a real surprise when I got the call!

CC: What is the application process like?
Craig: The application and interview process is somewhat rigorous, including a background check, numerous phone interviews, and a sit down interview with the producers.  The producers ask a variety of questions regarding dating history, family life, hobbies, ambitions, characteristics I am looking for in a girl, etc.  They really try to make sure that the guys that are chosen will be a good match for that season’s Bachelorette. Read More »