Simple and Super Healthy Thanksgiving Side Dishes

This blog post was originally published on FitAfterFifty.com. Imagine not feeling bloated, heavy and guilty after dinner this year! Take a deep breath and close your eyes for a minute. I want you to imagine something very cool. You are sitting around the Thanksgiving table this year eating sublimely delicious food that is – drumroll please – actually GOOD for you! Imagine that! Imagine actually being healthier after your dinner because you’ve just indulged in whole, natural food that’s packed only with good things like vitamins, minerals and fiber, and has none or very little of the usual junk associated with Thanksgiving dinners. Imagine NO GUILT!  Imagine no high fat, high sodium. empty calorie, processed sugar, preservative filled excuse for food this Thanksgiving. Imagine not feeling bloated, heavy and guilty after your big dinner. Out with the marshmallow topped casseroles (are you kidding me?), out with the fatty bad-for-you desserts […]

Continue Reading

Simple Tricks for Avoiding Treats this Holiday Season

This article was originally published on FitAfterFifty.com Did you know that sugar is the new fat? Yup. It is. And with the holidays right around the corner, I’m going to show you a plan that will help you avoid being tempted.  First, understand why sugar is the new fat. Check out these 10 reasons why sugar is bad for your body and brain. I highly suggest that you print this list and post it where you’ll see it often. Read it every day as motivation to stay strong.  But let’s go a few steps further. Once you understand why sugar is not good for you, plan ahead for how you’re going to get through the holidays without falling into sugar temptation. You not only want to “get through” the holidays but you want to enjoy them. You’ll have a hard time enjoying the holidays if you’re wracked by guilt because you ate […]

Continue Reading

Ten Minute Healthy Crockpot Recipes

This post was originally published on FitAfterFifty.com There’s a reason why the term “comfort food” was invented – sometimes we need it! For me, that desire starts happening in the fall, when the weather gets colder, the days shorter, and I come home from work in the dark. So I decided to give myself the ultimate comfort food experience – I hauled out my old, trusty crockpot. You remember those things from 50s nostalgia? My crockpot is still one of my all-time favorite kitchen appliances. Think about it – I work all day, and my husband works all day. Lots of times, the last thing we want to do when we get home is cook. And on those dark, fall days? We love nothing more than the idea of walking into the house being greeted by the smell of a hot dinner bubbling on the stove. Enter our crockpot. When […]

Continue Reading

7 Tips for Freezing Meat for Quick and Easy Meals

Cut back on waste, save on costs, and keep your sanity by freezing meat before it goes bad. And here’s another great benefit: freezing your meat can simplify your life for quick and easy meals later on. Here’s how it works for me. One of my favorite ways to simplify cooking weeknight dinners is to plan and shop ahead. On Sundays I spend a little time browsing recipes and choosing the dishes I plan to make. Then I put together a shopping list that includes all of the ingredients I’ll need, and off I go to the grocery store. As a result, I don’t need to make multiple trips to the store, and I don’t need to spend any more time during the week planning what to make. But all of this planning creates a little hole of opportunity for waste. If we decide to eat out one night, or […]

Continue Reading