Happy Thursday! Hope you’re having a great week. Thanks to everyone who entered the Chia Warrior giveaway.

Our randomly-selected winner is Michelle @ Lively Chicken.

Congrats! Send your contact information and mailing address to info(at)jessicacordingnutrition(dot)com and I’ll get that sent out to you.

I’ve been busy recently. So what else is new? I know, I know. Still. Thank god for food prep. I totally rely on this for breakfast and lunch. Here’s a little breakfast assembly line of chocolate zucchini bread oatmeal from the other day.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned I was doing some non-food writing just to mix things up. A few tidbits you might enjoy:

*My recent post on HelloGiggles about how keeping a spreadsheet of everything I buy changed my spending habits—and my life. I actually found myself relying on the spreadsheet habit a lot earlier this week when I was feeling the urge to go shopping even though I have a few big purchases I’m saving up for (continuing education, travel for another continuing education thing) and really don’t need another sundress it’s not warm enough for. Pausing to check in with myself showed me that, actually, I was just feeling guilty about having to miss Mother’s Day because of work (so many people talking about going shopping with their mamas made me want to cry) and wishing for a break from working too hard for too many days and wanting a reward. Instead of buying stuff, I called my mom to chat and also made happy hour plans for Tuesday and reached out to some friends.

Suffering from allergies this season? Me too. You might enjoy this piece I wrote for New York Spirit about Traditional Chinese Medicine approaches to a healthy spring.

Do you prep meals to save time later in the week? Do you ever go shopping when you’re feeling emotional?  

This post has been part of another Running with Spoons Thinking Out Loud link party, where randomness is the name of the game. Thanks to Amanda for hosting.