The weather is finally starting to warm up, and summer will be here before we know it.  While I love summer and I’m excited to have the time off to relax and have fun, just thinking about the fact that sundresses, short-shorts, and bikinis are in my not-too-distant future makes me cringe. The fact of the matter is, my body isn’t quite ready for skimpy summer clothes just yet.  I’ve begun to slack off a bit on the eating and exercise goals I set in the beginning of the year, and it’s time to get back on track.

DailyBurn, a website that tracks your diet and exercise, is helping me do just that.  Once you login and create an account, DailyBurn asks you a few simple questions about your body, activity level, and health and weight loss goals.  It then creates a customized nutrition plan that tells you how many calories and grams of fat, protein, and carbs you should be consuming daily, and users log everything they eat into the database to track their diet.  This has really helped me make smarter eating choices; by logging everything I eat, I can see what I’m eating way too much of (carbs), and likewise what I don’t get enough of (protein).

The site also helps you create customized workout plans to follow. Users also record exercise into the database, which helps track your workout goals as well as shows them how many calories they burn in relation to how many they consume a day. Read More »

I am horrible when it comes to eating, and my metabolism is probably waiting until I’m thirty to get its revenge in the form of cellulite and love handles. I skip meals all the time, and have been known to go days without food.

No, I don’t have an eating disorder. I have a working disorder—I’m a total workaholic.

When I do eat, it needs to be healthy and somewhat portable. I’ve considered trying Atkins or Southbeach protein bars, Power Bars, or even Slim Fast Shakes as a snack I can pound in the car on my way to work. But, honestly, I can’t justify consuming 400 calories in the form of a little bitty rice bar that is not going to quiet my growling stomach, or 13 grams of fat in a similarly unsatisfying wannabe-milkshake concoction.

Instead, I live off of caffeine.

One morning, before work, I stopped at my favorite coffee shop to grab a skim milk, sugar-free vanilla latte, and saw a display of Vegan Energy Bars at the counter. I’m not vegan, but was hungry and I thought that those little heart-shaped bars might be crazy enough to work! I mean, the vegans are picky about what they put into their bodies and without meat or dairy, they still need nutrients, right?

I purchased a package of chocolate chip flavored (if it has chocolate it can’t be that bad), heart-shaped, soy-filled cakes of pure delight that day, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Read More »

100-Calorie Packs are the new Starbucks Skinny Latte. They are taking over the world, one grocery store shelf at a time. Though these snacks are making bank for Kraft Foods, Nabisco, Frito Lay, and every other conglomerate on the single-serving bandwagon, there has been some recent media backlash, which brings to light the fact that:

a) The 100-calorie packs are often more than twice as expensive per ounce as the products they mimic.

b) In meeting the 100-calorie limit, the snacks or sweets inside the packs are sometimes pale imitations of the originals. The 100-calorie Oreos, for example, are 20 mini “chocolate thin crisps.”

c) Smaller portions don’t make snacks good for you, especially when they are as highly-processed as 100-Cal Packs.

Still, as Americans, we have issues with self-control. I can go through a box of Cheez-Its in three days and think nothing of it, until I look at the box and realize I averaged about 5 servings of Cheez-Its a day. So, when a small package helps me know when to stop, I dig it. I do agree with above comment on the 100-calorie Oreos: these are a waste of money. So, friends, what follows is a list of my top five picks. All of these are so tasty, I thank my lucky stars that they are measured out for me in 100 calorie intervals. Read More »