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Wellness Resolutions for 2017

‘Tis the season for goals! It may be a cliché, but we think the start of the new year really is a great time to assess how you feel, what successes you’ve had over the past 12 months, and what progress you’d like to make in the future. Giving yourself a moment to set your goals and priorities for the year is, in and of itself, a great way to increase mindfulness, decrease stress, and set yourself up for success.  Try setting both long term and short term goals, and consider reassessing your goals every week or month. You are allowed to be flexible, you are allowed to delay a goal, restart completely, or even decide that one of your resolutions is just all wrong for you.  Remember to consider your wellness and happiness, not just your waistline, to set yourself up for a happy 2017. Read more

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Homework Series: Calf Stretch

If you take classes at our studio, you know we are obsessed with the Calf Stretch.  But we don’t just want you to do it at the studio, we want you to do your Calf Stretch every day, even multiple times a day! The reason this stretch is a L + L favorite, and so important for you to do often, is because of how much our daily lives can lead to shortened muscles in the lower leg. High heels are a main culprit for shortened, tight calf muscles but take a look at your shoes, even if they aren’t “high heels” there’s a pretty good chance there is at least a small elevation at the heel. Even a small lift at the heel means you are constantly standing and walking with a shortened calf muscle. Sitting also shortens the calf muscles, and there’s a pretty good chance you spend a lot of time sitting in a chair throughout your day, right? Pair sitting with shoes with elevated heels, and you’re pretty much guaranteed to have tight, shortened calf muscles. Read more

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Jenn’s 5 Fav Healthy Lifestyle Tips

Long + Lean Pilates instructor JennStart the Day off Right
I like to start the day off with a smoothie filled with spinach, banana, frozen fruit and green tea matcha powder for an early morning boost. If I have time, I’ll normally make a piece of toast with avocado and two poached eggs.

Prioritize Exercise
Exercise is very important to me, which is why I went for my bachelors in Exercise Science and minored in Health and Wellness. Even though Pilates is my core, I also love to spice up my exercise routine from time to time. I absoutly love the outdoors, whenever I can I try to do any kind of activity outside to get the blood pumping and a dose of vitamin D. With winter upon us I try to get to the gym 3-4x a week or a few sessions a week of Pilates Jumpboard for cardio!

Stretch Every Day
Stretching helps increase range of motion, prevent injuries and overall keeps the muscles and joints of the body happy and healthy. In today’s world everyone is so busy that it’s hard to commit to stretching everyday. However, it really only takes 5-7 minutes to stretch all the major muscles of the body. I normally stretch when I first wake up or before I go to bed at night, in order to awaken or prepare my body for the day.

Enjoy Every Moment
In my mind there’s no point going through life without enjoying moments and indulging in cravings from time to time. Cheat days and red wine with dinner are what keep my health kicks going and my mind motivated!

Take Time to be Mindful
I take a few minutes before I fall asleep each night to be mindful of my actions of the day, make a note of what I’m thankful for and just take a minute to connect with my inner thoughts. This helps with stress levels, helps me fall asleep faster and just to be a better person when I wake up.

Long + Lean Pilates instructor Jenn

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Hayley’s 5 Fav Tips for a Healthy Lifestyle

Hayley, owner of Long + Lean PilatesWe all know life gets busy and it can be hard to maintain the healthy habits that keep our bodies and minds happy and well.  Here on our blog we’re going to share with you each Long + Lean instructor’s favorite tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, even when our worlds are spinning out of control! Today, owner Hayley shares the healthy lifestyle habits that she sticks to no matter what!

 

Lots of Variety

I need variety in my life. Luckily for me, variety keeps my body healthy, too.  I try to be adventurous in the grocery store, choosing a different fruit or vegetable that I don’t usually buy to add to my diet each trip. I always have apples and bananas on hand, but adding pomegranate seeds one week, persimmons the next, and staying open to new vegetables in salads and stir-frys, ensures that my body gets tons of different nutrients all the time. I also try to switch it up with my workouts.  Pilates is my foundation, but I like to try something different whenever I get a chance. From Yoga and hiking to dance classes and weight training, I give my body lots of different movement options!

 

Embrace Balance

Balance is my key to happiness and sanity. I find pleasure in green juice, and nachos. In 3 hours of Netflix, and a 3 hour hike. We can’t all be perfect pictures of health, and I personally don’t think we should try.  I believe in living life to the fullest, even if it means skipping a workout every once in a while or putting off paperwork for a day. We all work so hard, so make sure to give yourself plenty of time to do the things that make you deliriously happy to balance out all the tough stuff.

 

Never Skimp on Sleep

Don’t mess with a good night’s rest! I have learned the hard way that I do not function properly with less than 7 hours of sleep, so I refuse to compromise on getting the rest I need.  It’s my non-negotiable, absolute must have for staying healthy and well enough to be my best each day.

 

Walk Everyday

We are conditioned to live in a sedentary routine that can be super hard to break from, especially in a place with notoriously miserable weather. But humans are meant to walk. Our joint and bone health depend on us walking. Walking allows me to stretch and strengthen my whole body, breathe in fresh air, and let my mind wander without any buzzing distractions (buh-bye television). It’s exercise, injury prevention, and meditation all wrapped up in one very enjoyable experience. Even if I only have time for a brisk walk around the block, I get some walking in each and every day.

 

Feel Good to Look Good

The key to looking good does not live in your make-up bag.  The truth is, if you feel your best on the inside, you’ll look your best on the outside.  My best beauty plan is to get lots of sleep, keep my diet full of raw foods, stay hydrated, consume lots of healthy fats (I love you, avocados) and move as much as I can all day. And when that fails…mascara and lip gloss. 😉

 

Stay tuned for Jenn’s tips next week!

 

 

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How Can You Add Walking to Your Life?

Image courtesy of photostock at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today I’m going to give you a challenge. It’s a really simple challenge, but I know that doesn’t make it easy. I am currently growing an obsession with walking and limiting my “sitting time” every day. It is fascinating how much of our daily lives are spent sitting in a chair with our tailbones tucked underneath us (not ideal!) when our bodies are made to be standing and walking around. My current inspiration and role model,  biomechanist Katy Bowman, says every single human should be walking 3-5 miles everyday. I believe her. But I also believe myself and everyone else when we say it is an almost impossible task to add 3-5 miles of walking into our everyday life. Especially since this means literal walking. Not running. Not spinning. Not even walking on a treadmill or elliptical. Real, honest to goodness, walking outside allows you to utilize all of the muscles in your leg as they were meant to work, including your glutes and hamstrings which are almost impossible to use correctly on a treadmill or bike. Walking is natural movement that our human bodies need to be doing. Standing too. Sitting for the prolonged periods of time as most of us are these days is detrimental to our posture, joint health, cardiovascular health, and overall wellness. So we’ve got to start making a change, right? RIGHT!

I believe in baby steps. I believe that something is always better than nothing. So today I want you to challenge yourself to think of a few ways that you can add more standing and walking to your life. Start small. Don’t worry if you miss a day. Whatever you start doing helps! Here is a list of some easy ways to incorporate more walking and standing in to your life so you can spend more time out of your chairs!!

Take Calls Standing Up
If you’re in an office, or even at home on your couch, make a point to stand up and walk around a bit while you are on the phone. Even if you’re only on the phone once today. You will have used your  muscles to get up out of your chair, changed the alignment of your body, and begun a new habit.

Discover Your Walking Errands
I live in the city, I know that makes me lucky because I have coffee shops, drug stores, grocery stores, and restaurants within a mile of my house. But even at my parents house in the suburbs, the local drugstore was just two blocks away. Our favorite lunch spot was about a 5 minute walk. And we rarely walked there. Take a moment and think about what is close to your home or office. How far is the Tim Hortons where you grab your coffee? Or the bank where you deposit your check? Can you pick an errand that you can walk to? What if you walked to pick up your lunch? I’m not saying you have to walk 7 miles, but find something that’s doable for you. I bet you can think of something!

Make Friend Dates Active
Plans with my friends are almost always getting drinks, getting coffee, or having dinner. Anyone else feel the same way? It’s awesome. I love drinks and coffee and going out to dinner. But what if we added an option or two to our list of possible things to do with friends (or family). Next time you’re making plans, see if your friend would like to take a walk or hike. Even if it means going shopping or touring art galleries, I bet you can find a way to incorporate walking in to your date.

p.s. Please don’t wear heels to go shopping, gallery walking, or to explore the city. It doesn’t feel good for a reason!

Drink Water From a Smaller Bottle or Cup
You have a huge 1 liter bottle sitting on your desk at work so you make sure to stay hydrated throughout the day, right? I love that. But, you don’t have to get up and refill that bottle much do you? Try using a glass, mug, or smaller bottle instead so you have to fill it more frequently. The more often you can get yourself out of your chair and moving, the better. So take separate water and bathroom breaks to increase the frequency of your trips. And if you think someone at your office will have a problem with you getting up from your desk a bit more often, you can have them call me. I’ll yell.

Walk Around the Block Before Getting Into your Car or Home
This one may be my favorite because this is how I started to introduce walking in to my life and it took me less than 10 minutes. Ideally we’ll all be able to add more than 10 minutes of walking in to our lives but we’ve got to start somewhere! If you can’t possibly imagine making time in your schedule to take a walk, challenge yourself to walk around the block when you get home from work, before you even walk in the house. Maybe you can keep your sneakers in your car so you don’t even think about walking in the house before you’ve taken a brief walk. I will often walk out of the house completely ready to go, toss my bag into my car, keeping my keys and phone on me, and take a walk. Then I don’t even have to get back in the house and get ready, I just hop in my car and go about my day.

Stay Standing When You Get Home
A body in motion, stays in motion, right? I have noticed that if I sit down on the couch as soon as I get in the door and take my shoes off, I’m done. I’ve started to take care of the things that need to be done around the house (or at least some of them) as soon as I get home, so that I can stay moving a bit longer. Although I’m not a lover of cleaning, I’ll get the dishes done, or put away some laundry, sweep the kitchen, whatever it takes to just stay standing a bit longer before I give in to relaxing on the couch. Every little bit counts and the more you do it, the more natural it will feel. If you’re sitting down to chop vegetables for dinner, start there, stay standing!

Take up Hiking
This isn’t necessarily the simplest change to make, but it is incredibly rewarding. Even if you can only fit in a half mile, add a hike to your weekend plans. The weather is improving here in the Northeast and being outside to enjoy it will drastically improve your mood and overall health.

There you go! Seven ways that you can start adding a bit more standing and walking to your day. Remember, every little bit counts!! I would love to hear other ideas you may have or methods that have worked for you! Please share in the comments below or on our Facebook page!

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