For years I’ve espoused the many benefits of weekly meal planning. I rave to anyone (and even brag a little) about how it ensures we have home cooked meals most nights, how it keeps our grocery budget in check, eliminates a lot of food waste, and leaves little room for excuses about time. I can’t remember the last time I heard “What’s for dinner;” if I do, I point to the calendar on the refrigerator door.
From pen and paper to iPhone apps, there are numerous ways to adopt a meal planning habit in your house. Food On The Table is one digital tool that helps families plan meals almost effortlessly. The cooking, well, that will require a bit more muscle. I spent some time this week “playing” with the app and site, and asked Josie Maurer at YumYucky.com to take a look with me as well. She’s an equally health-conscious and busy mom who hasn’t quite adopted the meal planning strategy that I have. However, I think FoodOnTheTable.com changed her mind.
At FoodOnTheTable.com, or through their Android or iPhone app, you can make a weekly meal plan that is family-friendly (read: the kids will like it), keeps you organized, and reduces strain on your grocery bill. The app is free, as is a base subscription on the site; however, for more bells and whistles a monthly subscription is offered.
The site and app are both designed well. In fact, Josie and I agreed on her note that “It’s very interactive and highly visual, which encourages easy to understand navigation.”
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You think you’re busy, so busy that you just don’t have time to eat right and exercise? Well, if a young mother of four who works full time and runs a successful health blog can find the time, you probably can too.
Meet Josie Maurer, who, when she’s not busy raising her kids and working every day, keeps up with a health blog. She blogs from the perspective of a regular person with plenty of experience in diet and fitness to share with her audience in a fun and colorful style. I asked Josie to share her weight loss experience:
Was there a moment that made you think “enough is enough”?
In my mind I still looked pretty good in a mirror despite knowing my weight was creeping up. My family also patronized me by not being honest when I asked their opinion on my weight gain with the old, “you look fine, mom.” It was only after looking through some summer photos that my eyes saw the real picture. I thought to myself, “This is not me. This is not who I am.” That was back in 2006, and it was from that moment on that I made serious changes and never looked back.
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Growing up as a little girl, I can remember my mom spending a lot of time straightening my hair. She would go through the process of washing and pressing it, then she would section it out into some nice, pretty ponytails and I would head outside to play. On my way out the door she would yell, “Don’t sweat your hair out!,” a phrase most black women heard growing up.
What my mom meant was I shouldn’t go outside and get all sweaty, because that would reverse all the work she had just done. Any moisture on my hair would result in it becoming puffy and curly again. Many women grow up with the mentality of avoiding any type of sweat for fear of messing up their hair. Some even go as far as avoiding exercise in the name of beauty.
Black women have the type of hair that requires a lot of maintenance, and if time and money are spent in the beauty salon getting it styled and straightened, most aren’t likely to hit the gym and allow sweat to ruin it. Unfortunately, when this happens, health suffers. Some may think avoiding workouts to keep their hair intact isn’t a big deal, but the issue is serious.
In fact, Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin made an appearance at the recent Bonner Brothers International Hair Show in Atlanta, an annual show that features around 60,000 hair stylists. Dr. Benjamin, who is an African-American woman, wants to make sure black women know that a hairstyle shouldn’t keep you out of the gym.
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Josie Maurer, creator of YumYucky.com, spreads the message of finding balance between fitness and your greedy side. She lost over 40 pounds after the birth of her fourth child through sensible eating and exercise, yet she still maintains her love for large slices of cake.
You’re sneezing and throat-hacking. You may cough up a lung. Your head feels 10,000 pounds heavy and your nostrils are host to a faucet of liquid boogers. Cold and flu season is approaching. Are you ready to do battle?
Germs are pretty sneaky. Today’s innocent sneezing fit could very well morph into a barrage of “I can’t go to work” cold symptoms by the time tomorrow comes. But there’s a way to put those symptoms in a headlock and quite possibly bounce back faster. There are 5 natural remedies you can wield against a cold.
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Josie Maurer a freelance writer. She also blogs at YumYucky.com and is the co-founder of Fit Blogger’s Guide.
So, you watched Food, Inc. and made some serious dietary changes to safeguard your health. McDonald’s burgers are banned from your stomach and you eat organic as much as possible. Your meat and dairy purchases are antibiotic and hormone-free. Life is good, right?
What about your vegetables? Pesticides are not the only issue.
Sound the alarm because those veggies you’re eating may have been fertilized with manure that comes farm animals given antibiotics and hormones. This isn’t exactly breaking news. Antibiotics in vegetables has been discussed for awhile now, but as people like me and you become more health-conscious, news like this bubbles to the forefront. And quite frankly, I’m ticked off.
Do a Google search for “antibiotics in vegetables” or any similar phrase, and articles like this will pop up. Yes, it’s a big time drag. So what do you do when you think you’ve already done all you can do?
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