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3 Reasons to Meal Plan + a Quick Guide to Getting Started

by | Feb 25, 2015

pea soup

JULES CLANCY loves keeping things simple, especially in the kitchen. She has a degree in food science and blogs about healthy meals made easy at www.thestonesoup.com.

3 Reasons to Meal Plan + a Quick Guide to Getting Started

by Jules Clancy

When I was first getting into cooking in my early 20s, I spent loads of time planning my meals each week. I’d pore over cookbooks and magazines, and write lengthy shopping lists. I actually enjoyed it in a funny way, but as life got busier my meal planning habit was one of the casualties.

I found myself falling into the trap of either picking something up on the way home from work or, more often than I’d like to admit, getting takeout or going to a restaurant.

Over time, I realized that having some sort of plan and shopping on a weekly basis was not only better for my waistline, it was also easier on my wallet. But the best discovery was that meal planning didn’t have to be as time consuming as I’d originally thought.

These days I only spend a few minutes a week on meal planning. I’m not kidding.

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Rest for Success: Performance Lessons from Wicked the Musical

by | Feb 18, 2015

wicked-musical-movie1

Sophie Wright is an actor and wellness advocate currently in the Australian tour of Wicked the musical. She writes about how to incorporate wellness, mindfulness and healthy habits for performers and people in any creative industry. She has a new E-book coming out very soon with guided meditations, mindfulness worksheets and healthy recipes.

Rest for Success: Performance Lessons from Wicked the Musical

by Sophie Wright

I wish you could be a fly on the wall backstage of Wicked the Musical. It is manic.

Among the miraculous array of beautiful costumes, set pieces like Glinda’s bubble and the Wizard’s giant face, are a group of 25 sweaty, loud actors, singers and dancers who look like we’ve just done the world’s most intense bootcamp.

We’ve mastered the 30-second changes where we run off stage, change from ball gown to wiz costume, grab a prop and run back on stage to sing a high F in perfect pitch with a gleaming smile on our faces. No biggie…

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How To Have Healthier Lunch Meetings (Willpower Not Required)

by | Jul 14, 2014

Photo by Yarden Sachs

Len Markidan writes about productivity and work/life balance at Home Office Hero. He’s also the Director of Marketing at Groove. To get his latest posts, sign up for his newsletter or follow him on Twitter.

How To Have Healthier Lunch Meetings (Willpower Not Required)

by Len Markidan

A few years ago, I decided to start making healthier food choices.

I threw out the cookies and processed junk in my house and went on a farmers market shopping spree, where I finally learned to properly pronounce “jicama.”

I felt GREAT. I was a new man.

For the first eighteen hours or so, anyway.

Because eighteen hours later, you see, I had to meet a client for lunch.

And while I walked in confident about my commitment and eager to pick the healthiest salad on the menu, here’s what actually happened:

Len: [Open the menu and catch myself lingering on the cheeseburger description. Quickly flip to the salads.] Mmm, the spinach and chicken salad looks good. The avocado jicama one, too. [Look up to make sure everyone caught me pronouncing jicama like a boss.]

Client: I’ll have the bacon cheeseburger.

Len: [Slam menu closed, hate myself.] Make that two, please!

Willpower has never been my strong suit.

To deal with that, I’ve had to build systems to make myself less dependent on willpower, in all areas of life.
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5 Steps to Stop Emotional Eating

by | Dec 3, 2013

Photo by RenaudPhoto

Ashley Palmer is a Registered Nurse and holds a Masters degree in Human nutrition. She is the owner and founder of Youtrition®, a diet free, guilt free approach to lasting weight loss. Find her on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.

5 Steps to Stop Emotional Eating

by Ashley Palmer

Emotional eating can be frustrating if you are trying to improve your health. Even if you’ve worked hard to make good habit changes, emotional eating can cause you to reach for a carton of ice cream after a bad day and undo the progress you’ve made.

Emotional eating is one form of non-hunger eating, meaning it is triggered by something other than physiological hunger. For some people, emotional eating is a rare occurrence, only happening when a loved one falls ill or an incredibly stressful life event happens, while others may have developed a habit of daily emotional eating.

The danger in this is obvious on the surface: if we eat when our body has no true need for calories, it stores those extra calories (mostly in the form of body fat) for later use. But there can be danger beyond this: using food to calm emotions can become an unhealthy coping mechanism when underlying issues desperately need addressing.

Prior to receiving my Master’s degree in Nutrition and opening my own nutrition counseling practice, I worked as a Trauma Nurse in a large regional hospital. It was then that I learned, first hand, just how damaging emotional eating could be.

Although I was actively seeking positive change in my life and attempting to lose weight, I found that the stressful days at work made it all but impossible to stay away from large quantities of comfort food. Despite my desire to use food to make me feel better, it actually made me feel worse––uncomfortable, lethargic, sick, and guilty.

Over time I learned some incredibly useful strategies to help me overcome these tendencies. Years later, as a nutrition counselor, I continue to use many of these strategies successfully with my clients.

I’ve found that while each person finds one or two of these strategies to be the most beneficial, they still get the greatest benefit from using and implementing them in the order provided. So here they are, my top five tips for combatting emotional eating:
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For The Love of Food

by | Jan 22, 2010
For The Love of Food

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

This week I was interviewed by the Bay Area Women’s Journal about my favorite healthy eating tips for the new year. Also be sure to read Dr. Steve Parker’s analysis of a new study that proves conclusively saturated fat is not associated with heart disease.

There are also great stories about the dangers of salt and snacking, and a hilarious flow chart describing exactly how to handle it if you drop your food on the floor.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there. (Note: If you want a follow back on Twitter introduce yourself with an @ message).

Links of the Week

What inspired you this week?

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For The Love of Food

by | Jul 17, 2009
For The Love of Food

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

I had to make some tough cuts this week because there was so much good reading. I even doubled up once (shhhh, don’t tell). Featured, of course, are the two appearances Summer Tomato made on other blogs this week, including the coveted #1 spot on Chef2video’s Top 10 Thoughtful Food Blogs. Anyone interested in Twitter should definitely check out the crash course I wrote for Food Bloggers Unite! Seriously though, every single one of these stories are worth reading.

If you would like to see more of my favorite articles each week or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there.

Submissions of your own best food and health articles are also welcome, just drop me an email using the contact form. I am currently accepting guest posts at Summer Tomato for any healthy eating, living and exercise tips.

For The Love of Food

What did you find this week?

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For The Love of Food

by | May 29, 2009
For The Love of Food

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

I’m pleased to announce that I did another guest post, this time over at TwiTip about Twitter and the value of food tweets. I also found some divine homemade pizza recipes, great advice for choosing (and not choosing) smart seafood and an urban legend debunking session. Oh, and I call B.S. on Men’s Health for pretending slightly-less-fattening fast food is “healthy.”

If you would like to see more of my favorite articles each week or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page.

Submissions of your own best food and health articles are also welcome, just drop me an email using the contact form.

For The Love of Food

What links did I miss? Share your faves of the week in the comments.

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For The Love of Food

by | May 22, 2009
For The Love of Food

For The Love of Food

Welcome back to For The Love of Food. We’ve got some great stuff for you here this week, including my guest post at the renowned MizFitOnline and the first ever “B.S. of the week.”

If you would like to see more of my favorite articles each week or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page.

Submissions of your own best food and health articles are also welcome, just drop me an email using the contact form.

For The Love of Food

What great articles did you read this week?

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