Good Snacking

Sometimes I feel like food hoarder. There are those days when I absolutely forget to eat anything until 4 pm or so. Then, the to-go menu is my oyster and there is no amount of fries in the world, nay universe, to satiate my hunger. Those are bad days that are usually followed with the most bloated feeling ever. 

What I have noticed, along with most other dietitians out there, is that my body works waayy better when I eat plenty of small meals throughout the day instead of a couple of big ones. I stay fuller longer, have more energy, and restaurants do not confuse my order for one as an order for four. Really, I think all restaurants should make a rule to only give a max of two plastic forks or sets of chopsticks per order. There is no reason to feel judgment from your cutlery, restaurants. 

Thankfully, there are plenty of easy, healthy ways to snack that do not include food hoarding or way more chopsticks than I could ever use. One of my absolute favorite snack combos is nuts and dried fruit. Nothing is as filling for me and it combines that sweet and salty taste that I cannot get enough of. Having easy to eat, easy to get to snacks around is one of my secret weapons for staying on a healthy track, both physically and mentally. 

It is pretty obvious then, that I was psyched when Graze told me about their yummy, healthy subscription box that sends me snacks whenever I want them. Even better, all health and nutritional information is on the site and we get to choose what comes in the next order. Yea, its kind of the best thing ever. 

Snacks range in health benefits from being low carb to high protein. All snacks are easily categorized into types of food and health benefits so no matter what you want, you can find it and get it quick. And, if you get something that you love or hate, you can add a note to that item. Yep, Graze will learn your preferences and keep them in mind for choosing your future snacks. 

There are two types of boxes you can order from Graze, the nibble box and the calorie counter box. So far, I have tried the nibble boxes and love them. My favorite snacks have been the Banana's Foster and Apple Cosmo. So good! I am also dying to try the Cheese Board and Veggie Sushi Plate from the Savory Selections menu. 

Since Graze hooked me up big time, all links here will take you through my personal site. For every three friends I refer, Graze sends me one free box. The awesome news is that this perk is available for you as well when you start up your Graze account. Be sure to let your friends know and get those noms for free! 

Each box has four snack packs that are one serving each and cost a total of $6. Depending on where you live, you can get snack packs delivered once a week or twice a month. The boxes are quite small, so they will also fit into almost any regular mailbox. 

Increase Your Reading

There are a few times of the year that I seem to naturally increase my reading intake. For some reason, these times last a few months and start in May and October. Since this last May has been super crazy intense, reading actual books has been happening less, but reading blogs have been increasing more. Of course, I will always read and love Emily Henderson's blog and Joanna Goddard's. They are two of my absolute favorite lifestyle blogs, but I do have a few in the fitness realm that cannot go unread as well...

Pumps and Iron

Of course. There have been at least 50 blog posts on P+K that have links to or talk about in the past two years. For real, Nicole over at Pumps and Iron is one of my favorite bloggers. Maybe it is because she openly admits to drinking carb laden beer, or, maybe it is her incredible recipes. What I think it just might be, even more than all those things, is that she does completely different workouts that my usual. I love mixing it up and I absolutely love trying Nicole's high cardio interval workouts. 

According to Elle

NutritionElla has recently become According to Elle, also known as ATE. Really, how could I not love a blog that has the acronym "ATE" in it's title? I do not know.

Elle is one of those girls you could see yourself sipping mimosas and chatting about shoes and yoga over brunch at a super chic outdoor cafe. She is also the type that you will feel totally natural doing this with. If that is not a sales pitch enough, Elle is a knowledgable dietitian who keeps health simple and makes some ridiculously yummy noms. She also does really great giveaways and has fantastic style. 

Peanut Butter Fingers

I started reading PB Fingers almost a year before starting this here little blog. You could even say that Julie was one of the big inspirations for me to jump into the health and fitness world. Julie does multiple blogs a day and they are all related to her life, workouts, eats, and puppy Sadie. Her cataloging all these things is a wonderful inspiration to me when working out sounds like the worst. thing. ever. Yes, I have those days. 

Thankfully, Julie can help encourage me out of any possible workout rut and keep me happy with super adorable pictures of her pooch. 

Side note: Do you like the pic? It was taken on our trip to California last summer while driving through Malibu. It was so pretty I made the hubs stop the car, pull over, and take selfies of us next to a canyon. True tourist here. That is also not a pose, I was just FREEZING. Canyons are windy and cold! 

Amazon Smile

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Amazon recently started up a whole new buying program that I am absolutely loving. This is definitely for all those people who enjoy giving back and love certain charitable organizations- because now, a portion of your purchase can go to funding the charity of your choice! 

I was super surprised by this the other day when I logged on to Amazon and was asked to be redirected to the "Smile" page. Amazon Smile is just like Amazon normal or Amazon Prime, except now 0.5% of your purchase goes to the charity of your choice. Sure, 0.5% is really not a lot, but when thousands of people are donating 0.5% on a daily basis, we can make a really great difference! 

The charities current;y available on the main page are World Wildlife Fund, Charity: Water, Wounded Warrior Project, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and The American Red Cross. If, however, none of these fit your fancy, you can also search for any organization that you wish and donate to them instead. Searching is super easy and really does seem to have it all. We regularly donate to an organization called Free Wheelchair Mission which gives wheelchairs to those who do not have mobility. It is an incredible organization but quite small on the big charities scale. I was able to search them out, get some info about them, and choose it as our Smile sponsor. Pretty neat! 

What I also loved is that ridiculously local charities are on this list as well. The St. Jude All Children's Hospital Guild I work with is on this list along with our local marine laboratory. For now, I to support Mote Marine. 

What are your favorite organizations to give to and are they on the list? 

Small Thyme Cooks [Review]

When it comes to learning about food, I am all about having fun doing it. Coming from the age of not-so-great cooks and not really knowing my way around the kitchen in those college years, it seems vitally important now to know what I am eating, how to make it, and where it is from. 

That being said, I was super excited when this book arrived in my mailbox to peruse and review. Small Thyme Cooks (punny, right?!) is a culinary coloring and activity cookbook created by winemaker and all around foodie, Andre Hueston Mack. Andre started out as a sommelier and has now graduated to full on winemaker of Mouton Noir Wines- which I am absolutely dying to try! You may also recognize him as one of the guest judges on NBC's The Taste and brings quite a few chef friends into this book project with him. 

Each page has culinary questions, coloring possibilities, and games for all those who, like me, like learning but love having fun doing it. A few more well known chefs in the book include Graham Elliot (Master Chef) and Anthony Bourdain (No Reservations). 

All the games in it were super fun and, gasp, did teach me things! Example: do you know what animal brie is from? Yea, the cheese to animal pairing was one of my favorites and I, shamefully, needed this lesson. The crosswords, matching, and cuts of meat pages were pretty awesome as well! 

I would recommend this book, for sure, for any culinary Dad's out there (cough, cough, Father's Day) or anyone you know who keeps a pulse on food and enjoys fun. And, it's Prime, so you can definitely get it from Amazon in time for Sunday! Just be sure to also get some crayons for this... I do not remember the last time I used crayons, but man was it fun to test them out again! 

When was the last time you used a coloring book?