Reese’s celery sticks. I think the name says it all: any meal involving “Reese’s” has to be good. I was packing celery sticks with soy butter (my son is allergic to peanuts) for me and Nutella sandwiches for my boys for lunch one day and thought “What if I…? Oh yes, please.” If you use smaller amounts of nut butter and Nutella, it makes a cravable, mostly healthy snack. When I find myself looking forward to celery, I know I’m onto something good.
For other healthy snack ideas check out 100 Calorie Snacks and More 100 Calorie Snacks.
“Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift—a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds.” Genesis 43:11b
This week a 60 second documentary about The People Walker popped up in my Facebook feed and I have to say, I loved it. (The mini doc, not the fact that facebook clutters up my feed.) Chuck McCarthy hires himself out as a walking companion in California. His customers get accountability, exercise, and conversation; they get out and get moving and that’s the part I think is fantastic.
I’m already entered into the drawings and excited: 
All About that (Brain) Fat 
Our patented cerebrospinal fluid will flood your brain while you sleep, carrying away those pesky sticky A-beta proteins. Pesky proteins can build up over time, hardening into plaque and blocking communication between neurons. When you sleep, the spaces between brain cells widen by 60%, allowing our patented fluid to clean every nook and cranny of your precious cranial organ.
This desire for control applies to our health as well. There are many things we can do to keep ourselves in good health like 
When you consider what we learned about blood pressure and the heart, it becomes obvious why blood pressure affects the brain. If blood pressure is too high for too long, blood vessels become damaged. Damaged blood vessels don’t deliver oxygen and nutrients so cells suffer and die. If those dead cells are in the brain, it affects the way we think, respond, and remember. The brain is only 2% of the body’s weight, but it receives 20% of the body’s blood. That’s nearly 1 liter per minute.
My brain works out several times a week. It seems to enjoy it—especially the surge of endorphins—and man, when it feels stressed, it can’t wait to get moving. I wish I’d taken a before and after picture so you could see how much my brain has bulked up since it started working out.
Let’s take learning, for example. A few schools in Texas increased recess for their kindergarten and first grade students. With an hour of recess per day, those students’ grades and behavior improved. When Naperville Central High School near Chicago beefed up their physical education classes, their students not only became physically fit, but they finished first in the world on an international science exam.
When my brain works out, it’s even protecting itself against the natural effects of aging. As your brain ages, the production of new neurons slows down and the cells it has die more easily than when you’re young. The brain can actually shrivel and shrink over time. Exercise is one of the few ways to combat this trend because it boosts neuron production and makes your cells harder to kill. It’s like car maintenance: if you drive your car all the time, you’re going to maintain it. The older the car gets, the more prone it is to breaking down, but if you keep it well maintained, the car will last a long time. Exercise equals driving the car: the body is forced to maintain the cells because you’re using them. If you stop using your cells, they rust away and die. “If your brain isn’t actively growing, then it’s dying” (Spark).
Sex, Soup, and 2 Fisted Eating 