healthy and beautiful

Something happened during last week’s debate and I’m not talking about Trump losing his s#!t or the Hillary shimmy. No, the something I’m referring to happened to those of us watching. The hullabaloo disguised as a debate left viewers unsettled and fearful. I felt as if I had witnessed an accident and posted “ I need lavender and chamomile and kava and natural calm...and Xanax”   I wasn’t kidding. I couldn’t sleep with the thought that there are people who support “that”. At this point, it’s not being partisan, it’s being human. The WSJ called it “political anxiety disorder". Sure enough, when there’s anxiety there’s eating, as my clients the next day attested to. Even Carolyn mentioned a half pint of Halo top disappearing as she tried to calm her “Donalds". We coined these election-induced munchies “debate weight” at the office.   With the VP debate tonight, we have a solution: Election Survival Kit It contains: healthy, almond cookies, delicious (grain free!) rosemary crac...

We have an online shop and perhaps you know this already. Last week I mentioned, to a friend, “we have those in our shop” and she said, “shop, since when do you have a Foodtrainers’ shop?” Carolyn and I can add that to the list of under promoted, overthought work-related items but I’ll tell you why we have a shop. It’s not really to make money (I recently read the best way to make money is to do something for free for 10 years….almost there). It’s because some of our “Foodtrainers’ Favorites” are small, difficult to find brands. There’s enough to stress about. We don’t need you annoyed with us because you cannot find the protein bar we recommended.   Speaking of bars, our Monthly Morsels newsletter today featured our top 10 nutrition bars . We didn’t delve too much into flavor specifics but my current loves are the strawberry coconut Yes Bar, peanut butter RX Bar and the chai by Yawp. I will also admit, over the course of a month, I made a good dent in the cranberry Perfect Bars t...

Not my boys, boys- I promise It's a little tricky when you're a mom and a nutritionist. Sadly, I tend to keep my mouth shut when out of the office (when it comes to food-related matters, mouth rarely shuts in general). I say "sadly" because so much of what kids eat at school and after school is pretty crappy. And if that "kids are kids" argument popped into your head, I will say that this "kids are kids" thinking has resulted in a crap overload. And ironically after parenting for 13 and a half years, I can say no where is this junk-a-thon more prevalent that in children's sports. * 13 year old asked "what am I getting for my half birthday" I said "nothing" and he sulked. I shouldn't single these out but I will So, after years of appalling food and sports incidents: one coach felt a pile of candy bars at halftime was a good idea, cookies when games end at noon (how about lunch or a pizza perhaps) or the millions of munchk...

I wrote a Super Bowl (or super snack post) for Fitbit. If you’re curious about creative crudité, the world’s best guac or the secret to game day weight control (nobody, right?) check it out. Today, I wanted to be a little more snack centric and talk chips. Here are Foodtrainers' top 5 ways to “get chippy” Popcorn gives you so much more snacking leeway than chips (3 cups versus 10-15 chips). Two favorites here are Kettle Brand Sriracha or Quinn’s new ”farm to bag” popcorn in coconut oil (kale and sea salt a runner up) Carolyn and I were swooning over Seasnax Chompers when we tasted them at a fall trade show. Crunchy, salty and of course with that nutritious nori. Foodtrainees love these ParsnipChips , we cannot wait for our Ranch “Dipperz” with broccoli and cauliflower to arrive. And don’t forget their Brussels Bytes. And finally, I love a lime chip. Something about the flavor- does it for me every time. I bought these “for the kids” and this big kid really likes them. In Ne...