Food - 5 Healthy Breakfast Ideas

Women's Health Magazine has lots of great recipes and workout tips - that both men and women can use. Don't be intimidated that it's main appeal is to women...

This particular nugget I found shows some yummy breakfast recipes that are quick and healthy. We like quick.

Click here to see 5 Healthy Breakfast Ideas article.

Recipes Featured:
• Breakfast Burritos - these will keep you feeling full through the morning
• Strawberry Parfaits - you can easily throw in your favorite fruit(s)
• Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon, Asparagus, and Goat Cheese
• Orient Express Oatmeal
• Multigrain Blueberry Waffles

Exercise - 15 minute workout to fit into skinny jeans

Women, ever tried to pull those pair of skinny jeans on only to get them stuck as soon as they hit your thighs? Or if you manage to pull them on, how about that belly blob that hangs over?

Women's health has a great segment of 15 minute workouts and my favorite is the one targeting those skinny jean problem areas! And you can't make too many excuses since it's ONLY 15 minutes!

Click here to see the workout: Skinny Jeans Workout

Moves include:
• SQUAT, LUNGE, CURL
• DUMBBELL SUMO SQUAT
• STABILITY LUNGE

Food - 5 Vending Machine Snacks to Avoid

Yahoo Health does a great job posting relevant food articles with nice slideshows. This article, 5 Vending Machine Snacks to Avoid (and 5 Healthier Options) comes at a great time for us - deciding what to buy to quelch those afternoon munchies! Snacks to avoid run around 280 calories (also check the number of servings on your favorite snack)

Snacks to Avoid:
• Lays Classic
• Famous Amos Cookies (which are my favorite!)
• Snickers (breaking into a Snickers Bar will cost you 280 calories)
• Skittles
• Entenmann's Jumbo Iced Honey Bun (I don't know about you but the ones in our work vending machine look like they've been rotting the past year!)

Healthier Choices:
• Triscuit Original
• Chex Mix Traditional
• Planters Peanuts
• Planters Trailmix (just keep an eye on the number of servings!)

Food - Vegetarian Recipes

You don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy vegetarian meals. It's great for non-vegetarians to eat at least one vegetarian meal a week for a healthier, more balanced regimen. Mayo clinic has some great recipes here Recipes include: Chinese Noodles with Spring Vegetables, Soft Tacos with Southwestern Vegetables, Eggplant with Toasted Spices, Apple-fennel Slaw, Baked Apples with Cheeries and Almonds

Food - Calorie Counter

Before starting any diet plan, you need to have a general idea of how many calories you can consume each day to at least maintain the weight you have (this is the baseline). More calories than the baseline will end up in weight gain. Less calories than the baseline will end up in weight loss. Pretty simple. Use Mayo Clinic's Calorie Counter Tool - Input your age, current weight, height, and activity level and see what your baseline calorie count should be.

Food - Cholesterol: Top 5 foods to lower your numbers

Mayo Clinic presents Cholesterol: Top 5 foods to lower your numbers - a wonderful article that provides the top five foods which are heart healthy and in turn will lower your high cholesterol numbers. The foods include: 1. Oatmeal, oat bran and high-fiber foods 2. Fish and omega-3 fatty acids 3. Walnuts, almonds and other nuts 4. Olive Oil 5. Foods with added plant sterols or stanols When you review the list, the first four are typically mentioned in almost every single diet book on the market. We all know we should eat high-fiber foods and more healthy fats (fish, nuts). What I like about this article, however, are the tips the author provides for actually increasing your intake of these items. Very practical advice.

Food - Butter Flavouring Linked to Alzheimer's Disease

According to this article at Food Navigator's website, "An artificial food flavoring compound used for its butter-like taste and mouthfeel may be linked with key processes in the development of Alzheimer's disease." How scary is that? The chemical, Diacetyl (DIA), is used in a wide variety of food and drink products giving users a rich, butter flavoring. For example, "buttered" popcorn that you heat in the microwave might be a mixture of chemicals. What is good about this article is that it makes the consumers more aware of the products they eat contains CHEMICALS and not real or natural FLAVORING. One can only imagine all the chemicals we ingest with every meal. As we continue to ingest more and more chemical products, we are causing long-term damage (ie, disesases like Alzheimer's) to our bodies. That is why it is so crucial to investigate what you eat, the ingredients on the label. If you see a long list of chemicals, please reconsider. Read the article here: Butter Flavouring Linked to Alzheimer's Disease