I'm sure you've heard of kale, and know it's super healthy, but are you a little bit confused about how to use this superfood?

(I know I was, that's why I wrote this post  ;-) )

Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance found in our body cells and our blood. We need cholesterol, as it aids in digestion, hormone, bile acid and vitamin D production and more. We get cholesterol from two sources. Our liver makes it and the rest we get through the foods that we eat.

Which foods have it? If it has a tail, a face, a wing, a gill, a hoof, a mommy or comes from one of these, it has cholesterol. If it comes from the ground, it’s cholesterol free.

Over the past year, I found out that I’m either really good at planning and organizing my work OR really good at planning and organizing home, but the marriage of work and home has proven to be quite difficult.  One of my New Year’s Resolutions focused on adopting something that I learned nearly 10 years ago in a Stephen Covey course focused on ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People”: plan yearly, plan monthly, plan weekly and plan daily.  (Isn’t it something how you often have to learn something on your own to make it a reality?)

Working full time and preparing healthy dinner meals every night can be challenging at least and frustrating at best.  Picking up a pizza or drive-thru dinner saves time and reduces stress.  But I encourage you NOT to give up.  You can have your "carrots" and eat it too!

I often say that sugar substitutes, aka artificial sweeteners, can evoke a similar emotion among us as politics often does. Many of us embrace a candidate wholeheartedly, others cautiously dip in a toe or two, while there’s another group of us who are ardently against them. That’s okay. We have the right to our own opinions and choices. Given that, many of us consume sugar substitutes in beverages and in thousands of other products. Some of you may be surprised to know that sugar substitutes also can be found in some toothpastes, mouthwashes, cough drops and even some medicines.

I was recently asked a question about meal planning and diabetes. This is important, because food affects blood sugar and it’s essential that diabetics manage their blood sugar. If they don’t, they put themselves at potential risk of complications such as heart problems, kidney issues, nerve damage, vision problems, amputations and more.

I get so many nutrition- and health-related questions through my Facebook page (Lisa Tillinger Johansen) and from my web site (

The holiday season, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, is one that is often filled with food, food and more food. We all know that it can be a calorie minefield. There are parties, family meals, and the seemingly all-day dessert and high calorie snack buffets camped out on many a kitchen table or counter.

A reader or writer, which would I rather be? What a question that is! I love both so much and to choose one or the other is difficult. It’s the perfect conundrum.

Change can be hard. Many of us, including myself, go kicking and screaming into it. It’s just not always that easy to do. Why? Because we’re creatures of habit. We like we what we like and we want to do what we always do. But sometimes life gets in the way and we discover that our habits won’t work for us anymore.