Health Archives | Page 2 of 2 | Winstead Wandering

3 easy, tasty breakfasts under 300 calories

April 6, 2015 by Abby

It’s three months into the new year. Maybe your weight loss resolutions aren’t going as well as planned. Or maybe they are, but you’re growing tired of the same boring, low-calorie options. Here are three winstead wandering-approved recipes to break you out of your breakfast rut without busting your resolutions.

egg sandwich from a cup of jo

This recipe is touted as “the best egg sandwich you’ll ever have. While I have to disagree (the breakfast sandwiches J. and I make, my mom’s recipe, are hands-down the best ever) this is likely the best for under 300 calories. The recipe is actually written by Deb of Smitten Kitchen, so you know right off that it’s a winner.

The recipe basically has you beat an egg and and pour it into a pan. You cook the egg a little, like a crepe, pile cheese in the middle, and wrap the egg up around the cheese. When you put the egg-wrapped cheese on a toasted English muffin, you have a delicious treasure chest of hot egg and gooey cheese, all wrapped up in a 270 calorie* package.

*calories are based on using a whole wheat English muffin and a slice of American cheese

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5 favorite beauty products under $10

February 23, 2015 by Abby

Those who know me are probably perplexed. “What business does she have writing a post about beauty products?”

It’s true. I don’t wear much makeup, my hair is pretty low maintenance, and I don’t use any fancy creams or serums. I’m going to suggest, though, that my no frills beauty routine makes me that much more qualified to write this post. If I only use a handful of products every day, each one must be pretty special to make the cut.

So even though I don’t spend too much time on my hair and makeup, I do know what products I like, and I’ve tried several different brands of most of those products, searching for the best.

fiber mascara

I’m pretty sure I originally ordered this product by accident. I didn’t mean to add it to my cart from my phone, but then I forgot to remove it and checked out the next day. Best mistake ever. I love what this mascara does to my eyelashes. I’ve never worn false lashes, but I would guess this is as close to those as you can get with a mascara. I think I have pretty average lashes; they’re definitely there, but they need help. This mascara makes them look longer and fuller than any other brand I’ve tried (and I’ve tried a lot of different brands).

Note: the mascara works by attaching tiny little fibers to your lashes. For this reason, I would recommend not using it on your lower lashes, to avoid getting the fibers in your eyes. Also, as the reviews on the product suggest, you should follow up the fiber mascara with a coat or two of your regular mascara, to seal in the fibers.

coconut oil

Maybe this scenario is familiar to you: I didn’t have great skin in high school. I never had acne, but I struggled with breakouts and never could find a product or a skin care routine that cleared things up. My mom would say, “it’s your teenage hormones; you’ll grow out of it.” Fast forward through college and beyond. I never really grew out of it. My skin got much better, and there were times it even looked great, but breakouts were never completely behind me.

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what i’m loving wednesday

February 18, 2015 by Abby

My favorite things this week:

this essential oil diffuser

This winter has been one illness after another in this house. J. has had I-don’t-know-how-many sinus infections, G. had strep and the flu at the same time, B. has battled upper respiratory infections and asthma, and as I write this, I’m home sick with strep.

We use our Zaq Noor diffusers– we have two- for lots of different things, but lately they seem to be working overtime diffusing essential oils to help ease the symptoms of our sicknesses (or to hopefully help others from getting sick). There are a ton of different oils, and combinations of oils, out there that we use for specific situations, but my favorite resource for oil information is everything essential.

this blog post

Please check out this post on The Giving Place about the author’s nine-year old daughter, Selah. I promise her wisdom and passion for helping others will brighten your day, if not inspire you.

this way we watch TV without cable

We’ve had our roku for about a year and a half and I seriously can’t recommend it highly enough. We don’t have or want to have cable, but we still have shows that we like to watch. The roku connects to our TV and allows us to stream Netflix and Hulu, as well as Amazon Prime Video and several other channels, ranging from children’s shows to workout videos. We even have an ESPN channel, which allowed us to watch several college football games last Fall.

this photo editing app

What app do you use to edit photos? I’ve really only ever used one, Afterlight, and it offers everything I could want. Afterlight allows you to crop photos and adjust clarity, exposure, brightness, and more. The app also has tons of different filters that can be applied to photos. I don’t edit every photo I post, but I do clean most of them up with Afterlight.

this floor cleaner

Why oh why did it never occur to me to buy a floor cleaner that is applied directly to the floor? We’ve always used either a) a store-bought cleaner that is mixed with water that you dip your mop in or b) a combination of water, vinegar and essential oils that, again, you dip your mop in. And it was always gross to me, that I would mop a section of the floor and then dip the dirty mop in the water, swirl it around, and then “clean” some more.

That’s why I had to try this Method squirt and mop floor cleaner. It works exactly the way the name implies: squirt the cleaner straight from the bottle onto the floor and get to mopping. If your mop needs to be rinsed during the mopping process, just stick it under running water in the sink. No dirty water to spread across your floors, just a light lemon ginger scent.

What are you loving this week?

(Note: this post contains affiliate links. When you click those links and make purchases, you support me, this blog, and my family. To learn more, read my disclosure policy.)

5 non-medicinal quick fixes for a headache

February 6, 2015 by Abby

Headaches are kind of a pain (see what I did there?). I get a few every month and, at the risk of over-sharing, they seem to closely follow my “cycle” if you know what I mean.

When a headache strikes, most of us don’t have the luxury of dropping everything and holing up in a dark room with a cool cloth. But sometimes, for whatever reason, we want to avoid over-the-counter pills. Maybe, like me, you just try to avoid pharmaceuticals if there’s a non-medicinal alternative that’s just as easy and just as fast. Maybe you’re allergic. Maybe you don’t have access to medicine.

Whatever your reason for seeking alternate solutions, here are five that have been successful for me in getting rid of a headache.

Note: I am not a doctor, nor have any of these statements been evaluated by a doctor. These are just the remedies that have been successful for me.

1. drink a coke

Drinking a Coke gives you a blast of caffeine and sugar. Sometimes a headache can be caused by a lack of caffeine (lack might be the wrong word, but if your body is used to getting caffeine but doesn’t, it certainly thinks it’s lacking), which is why over-the-counter headache medicines contain it. Sometimes your body can use a little sugar, too, which makes Coke a one-two punch.

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