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Wellness Habit: Start the Day with Warm Lemon Water

Yes, I do drink my cleansing lemon water in a Bud Light glass.

Drinking water is the perfect way to start your day.  Believe it or not, simply being hydrated will help you feel fresh and awake and ready to conquer your day!  Add an extra boost to your morning water with lemon.  Lemon has some amazing benefits that you can reap simply by squeezing some organic lemon juice into lukewarm water each morning.  Here are just a few great things warm lemon water can do for you:

Aids Digestion

The lemon juice you squeeze in to your water will help you flush out toxins and promotes bile production, all of which helps maintain a healthy digestive system.   Lemon’s aid in your digestive system will help relieve indigestion, gas, and heart burn, too.

Promotes Weight Loss

Lemons contain a good amount of pectin fiber, which helps regulate hunger and keep you from eating unnecessarily. Lemon also helps balance for bodies pH levels.  A body with a balanced pH level is much more readily able to lose weight than one with a highly acidic pH level. Go lemon!

Boosts Immune System

Lemons are really high in vitamin C, they are a citrus fruit after all! You need high levels of vitamin C in your body to help it repair itself when nasty bugs and bacteria attack and lemon’s naturally high levels of potassium helps reduce free radicals and increase red blood cell production!

 Increases Energy

Hydrating with water alone will help you increase your energy, but adding lemon gives you even more oomph! Lemon actually creates an enzyme reaction during digestion that gives your body an extra dose of energy and simply smelling lemon boosts your mood.  It’s science.

 

Those are just four of the many reasons lemon water is a great addition to your daily habits. Even on the days that I don’t consume my lemon water first thing in the morning. I make sure to have it at some point during the day.  I honestly do love the way I feel when I drink lemon water first thing in the morning.  I squeeze ½-1 whole lemon into my water for ultimate results and, voila, I feel energized, fresh, and ready to make healthy choices throughout my day. I highly recommend holding on to this wellness habit forever!

P.s. I’m drinking mine right now, are you?

 

Be well.

 

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Buffalo’s Best Healthy Eats: Veggie Combo Platter at Pano’s

Greek restaurants can sometimes be a challenge for  vegan eaters.  Souvlakis aren’t quite the same without the chicken and the feta cheese, right?   Luckily for us Buffalo vegans, or even just Buffalonians looking for healthy meal alternatives, Pano’s provides a hearty and worthwhile option: the Veggie Combo Platter.

The Veggie Combo Platter from Pano’s makes a great lunch or dinner that is chock full of fiber, low in fat, and super delicious. The meal includes a large plate of hummus, grilled vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini, peppers), grilled northern beans–you have to get them grilled!–and a lemony spinach and rice mixture.  It is a hearty, substantial dish and, as you can tell, very carb-heavy.  The good news is if you sub raw veggies for the pita, which I always do, you can cut out most of the refined carbs and add an extra bit of nutrition to your meal. You’ll get vitamins and minerals from your veggies, and tons of fiber and protein from your beans and hummus; it is a perfect vegan dish!

I absolutely love the Veggie Combo Platter.  The grilled vegetables are always cooked perfectly, the hummus isn’t necessarily special but it is still very good, the rice is flavorful, and the grilled northern beans are one of my favorite things to eat in Buffalo!  With all of that healthy vegetarian protein, fiber, and flavor, you won’t miss the feta cheese or chicken souvlaki at all, I promise!  Plus, at just over $10, this meal is a bargain.  I always take home leftovers and unless I’m super hungry, I can make two meals out of the dish.

Next time you’re on Elmwood, stop at Pano’s and try the Veggie Combo Platter; you won’t be disappointed.

Be well.

 

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Wellness Habit: Eat Final Meal 3-4 Hours Before Bed

Last week I embarked on a journey to develop a good habit for wellness, eating no less than 3 or 4 hours before bed.  This may not be hard for some people, but for someone who regularly works until 8 or 9 p.m., it is a HUGE challenge.  Many personal trainers claim eating too close to bedtime deters weight loss efforts and I think they may be on to something.  Here are all of the benefits you can have when you stop eating right before bed:

Lose Weight

It may simply be because the later it is in the evening, the more likely it is that you’re reaching for ice cream or potato chips, but striving to stop eating 3-4 hours before bedtime has proven to be an effective way to lose weight.  If you eat junk all day but stop at the right time before bed, don’t expect results, but as part of a healthy diet and weight loss program, cutting out eating close to bed can help you reach your goal.

 

Get Better Sleep

Gas, indigestion, uncomfortable full feeling in your belly; all of those can seriously impede your ability to fall asleep and stay resting through the night.  Also, eating at night may also upset your body’s natural day/night cycle, impairing your sleep cycle and causing you to have trouble managing your blood sugar levels. These food-induced sleep disruptions could even lead to insulin resistance and diabetes. Try eating lighter at dinner and giving yourself at least 3 hours between your meal and hittin’ the hay to see if your sleep improves.

 

Feel Fresh in the Morning

There may not be any scientific reasoning, but when you go to bed with a full stomach you’re going to feel it in the morning.  Waking up feeling heavy and lethargic is not the best way to start your day and it can be hard to get a fresh start when you’re still feeling the effects of what you ate last night.  You may not think what you’re eating at 9:00 p.m. today will make a difference in how your day goes tomorrow, but it will; eat accordingly.

 

I must admit, it was very challenging for me to enforce this habit for myself for a week.  I often work until 8 or 9 at night and go to bed by 11 to get up at 5 a.m. That kind of schedule makes dinner time obsolete but on the days that I was able to eat earlier and give myself a nice break before going to bed, I really did feel lighter and more energized the next day.  I will continue to eat as far away from bed time as possible but when reality sets in, or I just get too hungry, I’ll make sure to reach for a light and healthy snack to avoid the heaviness and discomfort of eating late.

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Buffalo’s Best Healthy Eats: Cafe 59

As an advocate for health, wellness, and the quest to be your most awesome self, I’d like to share with you my favorite destinations for healthy meals in Buffalo and the delicious options they offer that are both nutritious and yummy.  Today’s featured restaurant for great healthy eats in Western New York is Cafe 59, a casual and charming cafe on Allen Street in the city of Buffalo.  The staff is always wonderful, the soup is homemade, and the salads are bountiful; Cafe 59 is the perfect place to go for a healthy meal.

Anytime I go to Cafe 59, I get one of their vegetarian soups. From pumpkin ginger to white bean and kale, the soups always taste fresh and are never overly salted. They have vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, and meat-eater-friendly varieties to choose from each day and I’m convinced they’re the reason the line goes out the door around lunchtime each day. That being said, my absolute favorite healthy lunch item at Cafe 59 is the Mediterranean Salad. This salad is unbelievable, and arguably the very best in Buffalo. Sitting atop a large bed of mixed field greens, you’ll find house-made hummus, tabbouleh, and grilled eggplant, plus your dressing of choice (go Greek!). The hummus is the best I’ve ever tasted, the eggplant is always cooked perfectly, and the tabbouleh is delightful.  I love the way all of the ingredients blend together to make a truly delicious and hearty meal filled with protein, fiber, and so.much.flavor.  I get my salad without feta to keep it vegan and skip the pita to keep it light, but enjoying those would not completely ruin the nutritional value of the salad.

Cafe 59 is definitely my favorite place in Buffalo for soup, and their Mediterranean Salad is literally my favorite salad in the entire Western New York region. Besides my favorite items, the cafe provides a very large menu full of great sandwiches, soups, salads, and other items.  I hear from a reliable source (my boyfriend) that the reuben sandwich is outstanding!

Check out Cafe 59 as soon as you can…You can thank me later. 🙂

Be well.

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Pilates Exercise: Knee Folds

Photo via nocpilates.com

Knee folds are a component of the Pilates Fundamentals, which means they are a great tool for teaching beginners important concepts that will help them advance through their Pilates practice. Knee folds also help you find and work your deep core muscles while allowing you to feel how your legs can move while keeping your pelvis and torso completely stable. Additionally, knee folds teach moving without tension and maintaining length through the spine. In order to stabilize your pelvis and minimize tension during knee folds and other Pilates exercises, you must engage all of your powerhouse muscles from the abdominals and glutes to your inner thighs, pelvic floor and hip rotators. This exercise really allows you to engage all of those muscles to do just the right amount of work, teaching efficiency and movement without tension.

How they’re done
Knee folds are a very simple exercise:
• Lay on your back with your legs bent, feet on the mat, feet lined up with the middle of your hip.
• Find a neutral spine position, maintaining the natural curves of your spine.
• Keep the spine stable as you exhale, pull the belly button in to the back, and float one leg into a tabletop position (90 degree angle at the knee).
• Return the leg to starting position and repeat with the other leg.
• Continue alternating legs, exhaling on the lift, inhaling to return.

Why I love ‘em
What I really love about knee folds is that they are great for ALL clients, from first timer to expert. With the right variations, knee folds can be a huge challenge, and for everyone they engage the transversus abdominus muscle, instantly narrowing the waist and increasing your core strength and stability. Creating a deep fold in the hip socket while keeping the pelvis stable is a great core stability challenge and lesson in efficient movement.

Helpful hints:
• Engage your abdominals to bring your leg up.
• Think of your leg floating into tabletop position to keep the work out of the leg.
• Do not let your pelvis tuck as the leg comes up, maintain space between your lower back and the mat.
• BREATHE! Exhale to engage the abdominals and lift, inhale as you lower

Kick it up a notch:
• Try the knee folds while lying on a roller for an extra core stability challenge.
• Add a cervical curl (like a crunch) as you lift your leg.
• Once you find your core and build up strength try lifting two legs at once for a double knee fold.
• Try it while sitting on a physioball!

Be well!

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