Nutrition & Wellness Archives

What I Ate This Month & Meal Planning

April 28, 2013 by Melanie Flinn, MS, RD13 Comments

I had such a wonderful weekend in Seattle with my girlfriend Heather. I had no idea Seattle had such an awesome downtown- the shopping, the restaurants, the market! Fabulous! We live about 50 miles south of downtown so we haven't had a chance to visit much since we moved here almost a year ago. I am definitely going to start my list of places to try before we leave. Luckily we stayed in such a great location that we were able to walk everywhere- Pike's Market was 4 blocks away, shopping started at 2 blocks away and all restaurants were visited by foot. I loved that we didn't have to get in the … [Read more...]

Filed under: Meal Planning, Weeknight Favorites Tagged with meal planning, sample menu

Simple Ways To See The Bright Side

April 5, 2013 by Melanie Flinn, MS, RD17 Comments

This week I am looking on the bright side.... Part 1: When Training Doesn't Go As Planned I was going to run a half marathon last weekend. I found out about it not too long ago and didn't mention it because I wanted to be certain I was ready. Two and a half weeks ago I worked myself up to 11 miles and felt great. I was happy with my pace and my endurance during long runs. I felt ready. Until right after that long run when my right foot started hurting. At first the pain was all over the bottom of my foot, then it remained around the ball of my foot. I rested for a few days then continued … [Read more...]

Filed under: Campaigns & Product Reviews, Nutrition & Wellness Tagged with mental health, positive thinking, self-improvement, stress, tips

Bestowed Box Giveaway

April 3, 2013 by Melanie Flinn, MS, RD99 Comments

I love trying new products but am always hesitant when buying things I haven't sampled first. Blogging gives me the chance to try a lot of new things that I can in turn recommend to you all! Today I am introducing Bestowed! A monthly care package subsciption full of 5+ amazing nutrition and lifestyle products hand picked by celebrity nutritionist and author Heather Bauer. You pay $19 for one month's box, but you don't have to commit to a certain number of months which is great. Try it once, sign up for a year. What ever works for you! I was sent March's box and here is what was inside … [Read more...]

Filed under: Healthy Snacks, Product Review Tagged with Bestowed, giveaway, health products, nutrition products, review

Eat the Colors of the Rainbow {National Nutrition Month}

March 7, 2013 by Melanie Flinn, MS, RD8 Comments

It's Friday and it's been one heck of week. Here's a recap: soccer, dance, gymnastics, hubby out of town, water in house turned off because some irresponsible housewife forgot to pay the bill (ahem), had my 6 year old son's first tooth pulled yesterday (long story but it's been loose for a very long time)......I am SO ready for the weekend. The positive of this week is that it has been successful for my running. I think I have narrowed down some choices for the half marathon that I will run hopefully sooner than later. This week I did a 4 miler, 5 miler, 4 miler and will do 10 miles on … [Read more...]

Filed under: Nutrition & Wellness Tagged with colors of the rainbow, fruits, national nutrition month, nutrition in fruits and vegetables, nutrition tips, vegetables

Eat Right for National Nutrition Month

March 1, 2013 by Melanie Flinn, MS, RD19 Comments

It's time to eat right. March is National Nutrition Month and the theme for 2013 is "Eat Right, Your Way, Every Day" which encourages personalized healthy eating styles and supports the fact that different factors affect our diets such as lifestyles, cultural traditions, food intolerances, allergies, etc. I think this is a great theme because not all eating plans or diets work for everyone. There are so many factors that impact our food choices, yet we can all find a way to eat healthy. I really love this campaign, obviously because I am a Registered Dietitian so encouraging others to … [Read more...]

Filed under: Nutrition & Wellness Tagged with #eatrightNNM, health challenge, national nutrition month, nutrition

Tomato Kale Soup and Meal Planning

February 24, 2013 by Melanie Flinn, MS, RD21 Comments

What do you get when you have a big bag of kale to be used, a husband with a cold and a Dietitian wife trying to make him better? Homemade tomato kale soup! I have been trying hard to work on my own recipes- as in no adaptations, no inspiration or guidance from cookbooks or the internet and ya know what? It's not easy! Sometimes the recipes-in-progress take several tweaks or repeats until I get them right which makes blogging tough. It can be expensive and a long evolution so to all those food bloggers that post all (or mostly) original recipes, kudos to you! This soup however, I dreamed up … [Read more...]

Filed under: Meal Planning, Nutritious Eats Original, Soups, Vegan, Vegetarian Tagged with kale, meal planning, quick and easy, soup, tomatoes, under 30 minutes, winter cooking

Heart Disease: Go Red and Blog Your Heart Out!

February 22, 2013 by Melanie Flinn, MS, RD12 Comments

Today I am writing about a topic very important to me, heart disease, along with many other bloggers as part of the American Heart Associations' Blog Your Heart Out Campaign to fight heart disease in women (and no we are not getting paid to do this, we simply support this movement and want to spread the word)- Go Red for Women. Do you know that heart disease is the number 1 killer of women?! I would've guessed breast cancer but according to the American Heart Association heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined. It's not just old men that need to worry about this deadly … [Read more...]

Filed under: Nutrition & Wellness Tagged with American Heart Association, Go Red, heart disease, nutrition, risk factors for heart disease, risk factors for high blood pressure, women

Healthy Living Survey

February 15, 2013 by Melanie Flinn, MS, RD4 Comments

My mother-in-law is visiting from Texas so I will be a little busier than usual. Since she is in town for 10 days we jumped at the chance to take her up on her baby sitting offer and go out to dinner for Valentine's day. I think it's been over 6 years since we went out to dinner on Valentine's Day, basically since we started having kids. I typically cook a really nice meal for us after the kids go to bed, but this was such a treat to go out. We went to a little Italian restaurant close to downtown Olympia. It was fabulous! The misto frito was amazing (fried calamari, salmon, clams, … [Read more...]

Filed under: Nutrition & Wellness Tagged with healthy living survey, questionnaire, Valentine's Day

Chocolate Covered Marshmallows & More Valentine’s Treats

February 11, 2013 by Melanie Flinn, MS, RD11 Comments

I totally on board with a little dessert splurge around the Holidays. I tend to gravitate towards chocolate but that's just me. I wanted to make an easy Valentine's treat for the kids and when I saw these heart shaped marshmallows I knew I needed to make something with them. I didn't have to think very long because as soon as I got home and looked at the back of the package I saw this easy recipe for chocolate covered marshmallows. Better than buying the store bought ones! I used a few different options for toppings- sprinkles, shredded coconut and candy hearts. Use your imagination … [Read more...]

Filed under: Desserts, Meal Planning, Other, Valentine's Day Tagged with chocolate, easy, marshmallows, treats, Valentine's Day

Spinach-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms & Meal Planning

February 3, 2013 by Melanie Flinn, MS, RD18 Comments

How was everyone's weekend? Two of the kids caught a cold last week and passed it along to me. Luckily I caught a mild case of it and with a good nights' sleep Friday was still able to run 8 miles with my running group. The only problem was that running for over an hour in the cold didn't exactly make me better. Sore throat, congestion and fatigue set in...probably not a good move. I'm going to crawl back in bed as soon as I can. Aside from being a little sick I did manage to get out of the house a few times. My husband takes the kids fishing quite a bit so I joined along on Saturday and got … [Read more...]