turkey burgers with caper aioli

I’m not normally a turkey burger person. But this one, served with a bright aioli, is good. And it’s healthy. And it’s still January, so everyone wants “light/lean/skinny/healthy/paleo” recipes. So here we are. First a salad and now a turkey burger. Could I be anymore predictable? Sigh.

daily eats

Oh, hello! Are you surviving the post- long-weekend week of work? My week has been busy (newsletter time at work) so I’m kind of ready for the weekend! You?
workout: 45 minutes walking on treadmill. I’m still really content with low-key exercise, so that’s what I’m doing! Lots of walking, 7-Minute and barre workouts. Every once in a while, I think about signing up for a race so I’ll start running again – and then I decide against it.
beverages: coffee + 1/2 & 1/2, per usual
breakfast: blueberry bliss smoothie + a few kale cubes thrown in for good measure!

snacks: almonds + fresh fig. It was my first time trying a fresh fig and I’m still undecided on if I like them or not. The flavor was nice, but the texture was not my favorite.

easy, five-layer burritos

I love Chipotle. (Is there anyone who doesn’t? Please, make yourself known. We need to talk.)

84 Quick & Healthy Meals in Minutes!

Cooking for better nutrition and weight management doesn't have to mean hours in the kitchen or complicated culinary techniques. These meals and snacks, part of our 30-Day "Fit Food" Challenge, are quick, easy, and full of flavor!

Comfort Food That Burn Fat

Hot chocolate

Cocoa is packed with antioxidants, which reduce your levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that causes your body to cling to belly fat, says Tara Gidus, RD, a nutritionist based in Winter Park, Fla. In fact, one Cornell University study found that the concentration of antioxidants in hot chocolate is up to five times greater than it is in black tea. Hot chocolate's combination of carbs and protein can also help your muscles recover faster from a tough workout, according to research in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. Adding a dash of cinnamon boosts your treat's health benefits even more—it contains compounds that keep insulin out of the blood stream and from storing fat, says Gidus. 

7 Healing Foods

Delicious Options To Stock Your Kitchen With

Keeping a home well-stocked with healing foods will not only help keep you healthy, but can also boost your immunity if you start feeling under the weather. For optimal health, try adding these seven delicious foods that are well known for their healing properties and should be a regular part of a healthy diet.

Coconut oil. This incredibly healthy fat is made up of lauric acid, caprylic acid and capric acid which all contain antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial properties that help boost the immune system and fight disease. It has also been found to be beneficial for improving digestive disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome and microbial stomach bugs. Besides the dietary benefits, coconut oil is also wonderful to use on the skin as a healing lotion for dry skin, eczema, cuts and scrapes, wrinkles and even diaper rash and dandruff.

5 Food Swaps for Weight Loss

Kicking off the New Year also meant kicking off healthy kitchen choices for me. My husband and I spent the other weekend throwing out any excess junk and processed foods and shopping for fresh, whole ingredients.

When I opened the refrigerator the next day, I thought I was in someone else's home. Here are five diet changes I've made so far that have already made me feel a difference in my energy levels and hunger.

1. In: Leafy greens. Despite growing up in the South, I don’t think I had ever tried collard or mustard greens. I’ve been sauteing them every day with garlic and onion and found that they keep me feeling full for a long time.

2. In: Berries. If I struggle with overeating one healthy food, it’s fruit. I love grapes, oranges, bananas, mango, the list goes on. But since my glucose is fairly high and I suffer from low blood sugar, I need to do my best at keeping my blood sugar low. So both my trainer, Tomery, and dietician, Lauren, suggested that I ditch other fruit and eat berries because they are so much lower in sugar. I enjoy blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries fresh and use them frozen in my post-workout protein shake. The best part: My experts were right. I’ve noticed my sugars don’t spike after eating these tasty gems.

Top 50 Summer Diet Foods for Weight Loss

These sweet, juicy summer berries are tasty both fresh and dried in trail mix or in a salad, says Lisa Dorfman, a registered dietitian and author of The Reunion Diet. “At just 43 calories per 3.5 oz serving, they contain 61 percent of the RDA for vitamin C, and they’re also chock full of potassium, fiber, and resveratrol, a phytonutrient shown to protect the heart.”

5 Fat-Burning Foods For the Holidays

With the holidays here, it can seem like diet sabotage is around every corner. But it's not just about sugary office treats and endless holiday party spreads; some of the most common Fall and Winter foods actually help, not hurt, your waistline. Want to know which ones? Read on for five fat-burning foods you should be eating this holiday season!

Source: Thinkstock

The Top 20 Antioxidant-Packed Foods

If you’ve ever made a fruit salad, you probably know that squeezing lemon juice onto the apples, pears, and bananas will keep the fruit from turning brown.  This brown color happens because of a process called oxidation—a reaction between the oxygen molecules in the air and the molecules in the substance the air meets.

A similar type of reaction happens inside your body all the time.  Substances called oxidants, or free radicals, react with your cells, harming healthy tissue, weakening immunological functioning, speeding up the aging process, and contributing to chronic degenerative diseases.  These free radicals are formed through normal body processes, as well as through environmental exposure to the sun, pollution, cigarette smoke, too much stress, and the intake of alcoholic beverages and unhealthy food.  Antioxidants are substances that work like that lemon juice on the fruit, protecting healthy tissue by destroying free radicals before they do any damage. Antioxidants are believed to play a role in helping to fight and prevent cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other chronic conditions.

So how do you get these magical antioxidants to work for you?   Not surprisingly, a healthy diet full of a variety of fruits and vegetables will do the trick.  But are all fruits and vegetables created equally when it comes to antioxidant benefits? Not necessarily!