Final exams. Holiday parties.  End-of-semester ragers. Shopping, shopping, and more shopping. That last chance to hook up with the dude from Middle Eastern History, or your eagerly awaited reunion with your hometown honey.  You get the picture: this time of year, there’s a lot on your plate. So if you’re looking for something to fill up your plate (literally), may I be the first to suggest: clementines! Not only are they portable, affordable, and in-season, they’re powerhouses of Vitamin C—quite necessary to combat your surely-tired immune system from supporting your hectic schedule.

Easy Meals:

1. They’re the poor-man’s Mandarin oranges. Peel apart the baby slices and toss in your salad (I like them with feta cheese, peppers, craisins, and walnuts, with a little oil and vinegar for kick).
2. Two clementines a day give you 120% of your daily Vitamin C. Feeling a little sniffly? Toss ‘em in your bag on your way to class to nibble on during your lecture. (You’ll be glad you didn’t skip!)
3. Peel apart the slices of three clementines and toss in a blender with some vanilla frozen yogurt and dash of cocoa powder for a light, refreshing smoothie

The Recipe:

Want to get fancy? If you’re preparing for a holiday shindig, you’ll be sure to impress with this torte from Joy of Baking, which will stand out among the heaps of gingerbread men and chocolates. (Bonus! It’s gluten-free!)

Ingredients

1 pound seedless clementines (4 to 6 depending on size)
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups almond meal or ground almonds

Instructions

Place the whole clementines (with skin) in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and then simmer the clementines for about two hours. Drain and let the oranges cool completely. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Butter and line a 9 inch (23 cm) pan (springform, preferably) with parchment paper. Set aside.

Once the clementines are completely cooled, slice in half. Place the clementine halves (skins and all) in your blender, along with the eggs, and process until thoroughly blended. Add the vanilla extract and process until incorporated. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the sugar, baking powder, salt and ground almonds. Add the orange mixture to the almond mixture and whisk or stir to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean (cover the cake with foil about halfway through baking to prevent over browning). Remove from oven and let cool. Once it has done so completely, remove the sides of the springform pan.

This cake is best after it has been allowed to sit for a few days. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or garnish with almond slices.

Try incorporating any of these five foods into your diet and you will see and feel the positive health benefits. Seems daunting? I’ve even included some ways to sneak these foods into your everyday meals, so now you’ve got no excuses not to get healthy.

1. Fruit: Raspberries
These cute lil’ red things are a great source of fiber, potassium, and Vitamin C. As translation, eating just a cup of berries a day will reduce cholesterol levels, maintain organ balance, and improve your immune system. In fact, studies have shown that these great tasting berries even diminish risks for cancer. Snack on them in between classes, top them on your breakfast parfaits, or cool down in the summer heat with a raspberry-peach smoothie!

2. Nuts: Raw Almonds
Yes, that says RAW. That means no added sugar, salt, “honey-roasted”, or “dipped in chocolate”. If you snack on 20-23 of these organic nuts, you can be guaranteed some heart-healthy fats, 6 grams of protein, and over 35% of your daily need of Vitamin E. Okay, so “raw” and “nuts” doesn’t sound tempting for your belly? Slather some almond-rich, homemade beauty products on your face! Almonds have been proven to create an awesome complexion and soft skin.

3. Vegetable: Broccoli
Personally, I absolutely love broccoli. Not only does it taste good, but it can also be added to any dish! Put it in pasta, salad, soup; have it sautéed, broiled, eaten raw. Whatever you do, it’s a guaranteed yum. Imagine my great surprise when I learned that this super food was rich in fiber for a healthy digestive system, and abundant with calcium for my bones that endure so much shock from my daily runs. Oh and get this: adding this green healing machine to your diet may even reduce risks of Alzheimer’s. So don’t forget it!

4. Grain: Brown Rice
This replacement for white long grain rice may be difficult to adjust to at first, but the benefits are amazing. Brown rice contains a great source of manganese and magnesium, which can reduce the severity of headaches and migraines (goodbye boy drama!). In fact, studies have shown that when you replace white rice with the brown alternative, you lower not only your blood pressure, but your risk for atherosclerosis, too. Yay for long, healthy lives.

5. Fish: Salmon
Salmon is great because it has low mercury levels (if that’s what you were worried about), few calories (only 127 calories for 3 ounces), and good levels of Omega-3 Fatty Acids (necessary for proper brain development, and more). Bake it, grill it, eat with the above brown rice, make Salmon burgers, put it on top of your sushi…the possibilities are endless.

Let me know what your other favorite super foods are. Better yet, share some of your favorite recipes with me! Body blog cook off, anyone?

Graduation is no longer just a corny Vitamin C song to me anymore. Next week is my own high school graduation, and now that the event is nearly here, it all feels so incredibly real: leaving home, heading to college, living mostly on my own without the guidance of my parents. I remember starting freshman year thinking that high school would be the longest four years of my life. In reality, the time flew by all too fast.

Looking back on my high school career, I was never that sentimental about moving from one grade to the next. I often counted down the last days of school on a huge calendar on my desk, just to make crossing off the final day that much sweeter.

But now, I find myself feeling rather schmaltzy about it all. On the last day of classes, I shambled after classmates and teachers to get signatures for my yearbook. I spent most of last week reminiscing with friends about the past few years the way my grandparents do about the “olden days.” I’m normally not one to wear my emotions on my sleeve, but something about this particular milestone in my life has been bringing these feelings the surface. The sadness about leaving friends and family, the uncontainable excitement of a new adventure – the mixture of the two is something I’ve never experienced before now.

When I think about crossing the stage at graduation to receive my diploma and move the tassel on my cap (an act that, I admit, I’m oddly eager for), that mixed bag of emotions, as well as the Vitamin C song, makes me realize that graduating isn’t going to be a cakewalk. Transitioning from high school to college isn’t like going from one grade level to the next; I can’t just count down the days on a calendar and brush off the change as nothing. Graduation day, I realize now, is going to be bittersweet in a way no other event in my life has been. So cue the music and break out the tissue box – graduation day is on its way!

What stories do you remember from your high school graduation?

So finally it is spring…well, at least the snow is sort of melting here, and the temperature is starting to average above freezing during the day. This is the time to be outside on the slushy grass or walking around campus, right?

Well, I wish. It seems like spring at college, I am realizing, is the time of the cold, the headache, the sore throat, and the contagious undergrads.

I’ve noticed everyone here is getting sick. I’m told it’s because I’ve never lived with so many people before, and that we’re all staying inside so much. Basically, germs are running wild. So drink your orange juice for Vitamin C and avoid sneezing classmates. Not that any of that really worked out well for me. And I must say, I’ve learned a very important lesson: taking care of yourself when you’re sick at college is the worst.

Despite feeling like death-slightly-warmed-over, I still have to get up and go to class, or at least go downstairs to get food. Unlike home, I don’t get chicken noodle soup and crackers (served to me in bed), but whatever is on the menu. All the way downstairs. Nope, there is no change in food or service just because I’m ill.

I have to get my own water, walk all the way down the hall to go to the bathroom, and share my room with a healthy person who is avoiding me like I have the plague. Which, thankfully, I don’t. Just a cold, and sore throat, and sinus headache and fever.

Even if I were home, with my family waiting on me hand and food, this week would’ve sucked. But at college, it’s even worse: I have to deal with it myself. I have to get myself to the health center if I think I need it, I have to walk to the pharmacy in town if I need a prescription, and I have to deal with the fact that everyone else on campus is dealing with this too, so no one is there to help me.

All that responsibility and independence I have loved at college has just become a nuisance.

Sure, I’m getting better. Somewhere between watching episodes of  House and making up fake diagnoses I began to recover. And I am grateful, because now I know that being sick is work here. It’s not a day-off or a sick day from school where you can just chill and relish in your bacteria. Life doesn’t stop when you get sick in college.

I guess that whole “college independence” isn’t so great when all you want to do is depend on getting better. There is nothing like a cold to make every college kid wish they were back home with mom.

That, of course, is not an option. You are going to have to try something else to get you to the finish line. The good news is that there is another – much healthier – option: these natural and healthy snacks will nourish your noggin and get you to the end without breaking a mental sweat.

Green Tea: Research keeps popping up everywhere celebrating the magical effects of Green Tea. It is chock full of antioxidants and other great stuff that increase alertness, improve learning and relax the brain. Sigh. The stuff doesn’t always taste so great, but there are lots of fun new flavors coming out every day (I prefer blueberry pomegranate), so you can actually enjoy this typically icky green beverage.

Leafy Greens: Nothing goes better with studying than pizza, breadsticks, or anything fried. But that crap is not good for your body, or your brain. Stick to the dark, leafy green things, like spinach. The iron will help you concentrate and absorb all that stuff you highlighted all semester. Afraid of spinach? Throw some in an omelet, get a veggie sandwich or head to the nearest Greek diner-y place for a spinach pie. So good. Or, if you are absolutely, positively, never-gonna-eat-it grossed out by spinach, try a citrus fruit. The Vitamin C helps your body absorb iron faster, so these are also great options to feed the brain.

Power to the Purple: Don’t want to forget all those flashcards you memorized on American History from the Pilgrims to the Bush Administration? Stick to the purple stuff (grapes, berries, eggplant, etc.). Studies show that the stuff that makes these guys purple can help protect you from memory loss. (Ed: If only they could help me remember how I got this phone number scribbled on my inner thigh last night…)

Toss out the candy bars and coffee cans; it is time to brown-bag it at the library. And bring some extra to share,

First day of class. I’m sitting in the front row, binder open and pen at the ready. The teacher is going over the syllabus. “This is the attendance policy in the class. You are allowed…”

“*sniff.*”

“…absences.”

I wrinkled my nose in distaste and glared at the various people in my Criminology class, coughing and sniffling and sneezing for a while, leaning forward and straining to hear my professor. “As for the papers, the due dates have been posted on…”

“*cough*”

Gritting my teeth, I glanced over my shoulder at the girl to the left, covering her mouth and looking miserable. I turn my head back to my teacher and listen to her explain to me why I’m taking a course on crime when a horrendous gurgling grunt comes from the back of my throat, and I am horrified at the way I just cleared my throat and made the same sound my mother’s Camry makes when it starts up. No way in hell on the first day in class was I already sick.

I was determined to not be taking off days to roll around miserably in my dorm so early in the semester, and sure enough, a few days and a few tissues later, I’m back to my normal and almost entirely healthy self – without the help of anything from the “Cold/Flu” aisle in Rite Aid. How?

Sit back and learn, ladies.

The first key to getting better is to not get sick at all: Everyone knows that Vitamin C is vital to keeping your immune system ready incase it needs to punch some cold’s lights out, and you should have some every day, either via your daily glass of orange juice or through products like Emergen-C. There are also things that include Vitamin-C but also keep your immune system ready for a fight, one of my favorites being Airborne.

Then there are things that don’t have any Vitamin C at all, but are still well-known to help your immune system, like Echinacea/Goldenseal. You can get this stuff as a vitamin pill or as a tasty tea, but keep in mind that Echinacea is a mild bloodthinner and you should really only use it when you’re in a place that surrounds you with sick people – like school.

Once you reach the point of no return, it’s a matter of getting better as quickly as you can: Colds and especially flus are things you have to nip in the bud, like your beau’s bad habit of chewing his fingernails. Make sure you drink plenty of fluids and yes, chicken soup can help you feel better. I swear by Progresso.

SLEEP. It keeps you well rested enough so that your body can fight the good fight, and it’s a good excuse to lay around, watch TV, and get your guy or girl to bring you food.

Stay hydrated, especially if you have a slight fever (if it’s over 100 degrees, get your rear end to the hospital right now!). Soup, water, orange juice, and tea can help. Chamomile helps you rest. Lemon and ginger will ease your sore throat, especially if you add a touch of honey. Horehound, as disgusting as it is, works like magic to clear out all the phlegm and gross crap in your lungs. Hold your breath while you drink this stuff.

Try your best not to run to CVS: I know you’re miserable and the last thing you want is to be snorting like an angry warthog all night long, but most over-the-counter medicine only make your symptoms a little more bearable and don’t help you get better, even if you’d like to think they do. If you’re feeling stuffed up, take a nice hot shower or invest in a humidifier. It’ll help clear up your nasal passages without drying them out and thusly making you sicker.

Err on the side of caution: If your cold lasts for more than about a week and a half, if you get a high fever, if your ears start to ache or if you start coughing up weird-colored mucus, go to a doctor or the hospital RIGHT AWAY. These could be flu symptoms, and trust me on this one when I say you don’t want to screw around with that virus.

Fool me twice, shame on me: Once you feel better, take better care of yourself! Take things that will keep your immune system ready to win a KO match and eat a healthy, varied diet. During cold and flu season, it’s important that you stay clean too: wash your hands as often as you can. After that, there isn’t much you can do but stick it out and pray for the best.

Being sick isn’t fun. For a person like me who has allergies to just about everything, I know this. But there’s stuff that you can do to stay at least relatively healthy and, hey, they’re pretty damn cheap. And what’s to lose aside from that irritating sniffle?