So you’re on your way to the beach to have the greatest spring break ever. You’ve worked hard to get that body bikini-ready all semester long, and now you’re ready to show it off.

You could pack chips, sandwiches and candy to get you through those grueling hours of sunbathing, but why not bring along some yummy nutrition bars that help your figure and make your taste buds happy?

Here are my recommended top 5:

Gnu Flavor and Fiber Bars

Does your mouth water every time you smell the cinnabons at the mall? Do you have a hard time not finishing the whole bag of raisins once you start? If either of those apply to you, then you’ll love the Cinnamon Raisin bar. It’s only 130 calories and gives you 12g of fiber, already half of what you need per day! It is definitely my favorite, with Chocolate Brownie coming in second. The Banana Walnut is good for all you nut-lovers out there, and the Peanut Butter is a great substitute for everyone’s favorite (and surprisingly high calorie) PB&J sandwich. Plus, your heart will be thanking you for the lack of added sugar and artificial ingredients. All-natural, all the way.

Pros: flavor, fiber, and filling!

Cons: The price. And the Orange Cranberry bar. It was very… citrusy. Read More »

Yikes, that doesn’t look appetizing.

Let’s be honest: when I get home at the end of a long day of work and classes and studying, the last thing I want to do is whip up a fancy meal for myself. Sometimes, I just need something fast and simple. But after a few months of take-out and pizza and dining-hall food, I realized that I was sacrificing my waistline for the sake of convenience.

What’s a calorie-counting busy girl to do?

Embrace the frozen entrée. I know, I know. Frozen entrees make me think of my Mom and Weight Watchers and scary-looking meat products in soupy liquids. No thanks.

However, there are some delicious frozen meals out there if you know where to look. The best part? Every last calorie and carb and gram of fat and milligram of sodium is right on the box, so you know exactly what you’re getting. To top it all off, they provide us with something this entire country is severely lacking—portion control. You shouldn’t need a hamburger the size of your head just to feel satisfied—frozen meals are a great way to teach yourself what is considered normal (the measurement for a normal serving of protein is the size of your fist…not your head).

Since I’ve become somewhat of a connoisseur of the frozen meal, I thought I’d round up a few of my favorites, for your thawing pleasure: Read More »

Birthdays are days when you’re allowed to do whatever you want, eat whatever you want, and bask in amazement that you’ve actually gotten this old and still haven’t managed to find Ryan Gosling’s home address (what? Just me?). Anyhoo, being that I am now officially old enough to have a quarter-life crises, I’ve decided to share some things I’ve loved ever since I kicked my way out of the womb two months early (I’m impatient).

The Last Unicorn

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“I know you don’t drive in New York…but haven’t you at least noticed the increase in food prices?” my dad asked me. I licked the peanut butter off of the knife in my hand. “Hmm….yeah…come to think about it, my peanut butter WAS more expensive today.”

For my own sanity, I find it necessary to pay as little attention to finances as possible. Money was always at the core of the stress in my family growing up and to combat that irrationally frugal gene in me, I try to swing as far into the ever-indulging and financially irresponsible realm as possible. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t noticed.

The recession HAS affected me. I lost my steady job two months ago. While it was disgustingly easy for me to find new jobs to replace that job, I was still a bit shaken. The supposed millionaires I once relied on for my income no longer could afford me…or most of their staff, for that matter. It seems as though the recession affected them, too, and their ability to buy their dog $30 steaks for lunch (I wish I were kidding about that one).

So I found other jobs and kept on trucking. Metaphorically, of course. If I were actually trucking these days, I’d be even poorer. Read More »

I stopped eating cereal a while ago and just recently had a craving for it. I scanned the boxes in that gluttonous aisle for the perfect thing. Luckily, I was having an ‘I want to be healthy!’ day and I bought one of Kashi’s many delightful cereals- — which has treated my taste buds wonderfully. But my purchase has not stopped me from day dreaming about the sugary goodness I used to ingest daily as a kid.

You have to admit, it’s a lot easier to get out of bed every day when you know a bowl of marshmallows and milk awaits you. Of course kids and adults alike are hooked on this crap — it’s got freakin’ crack in it. And I don’t care that everyone and their mother is outlawing it and forcing kids to be healthier…there is STILL something to be said for eating a bucket of sugar for breakfast, so here’s my shout out to the top 5 most unhealthfully delicious cereals:

LUCKY CHARMS

They’re magically…charming. They say their serving size is 3/4 a cup..and yet most people, myself included, eat at least twice that amount. So…24 grams of sugar in one sitting? Ah. Who cares. They’ve got rainbows and marshmallows and sugar dripping from the cardboard box.

FRUITY PEBBLES

They’ve got fruit in them…right? Right? Okay. Maybe they don’t. But they’re still awesome. PLUS, they’re accompanied by awesome front-of-box graphics. Read More »

Andy Rooney, a super old guy who used to make movies and now just sits in an office and lets 60 Minutes totally take advantage of his oldness, recently ranted about how Americans are carrying “more stuff than they used to”.

The Duhness factor of his rant notwithstanding (I mean, what did people carry around in his day? Keys to a car they powered with their feet?), I decided to take a cue from Jezebel and go through my own purse to see if all the crap shoved inside was stuff I actually needed.

(This is a day when my bag is not splitting at the seems from carrying my giant, heavy laptop.)

1) Burt’s Bees hand cream: Totally needed. Since I can’t ever hold onto a pair of gloves longer than a week, my hands take a beating every winter. Unless I want the skin to rip off, I gotta moisturize at least twice a day.

2) Three tubes of Chapstick: Okay. Three might be an excessive number…but sometimes I want my lips fruity, other times I want serious moisture action, and every once in a while, a little instant caffeine. Read More »