Baby on board? 6 Benefits of Pilates during pregnancy

Since Pilates is a low impact workout that increases flexibility, alignment and strength, it’s a wonderful and safe exercise option for mothers to be.

It is ideal for pregnancy because of it’s gentleness on the body while reducing most unwanted side effects of the pregnancy including back pain, poor posture, loss of muscle tone, poor sleep, edema, collapsing foot arches, and ultimately helps with labor and delivery. It can also help boost your mood and energy level too! It is a very adaptable form of exercise that can be modified as your body and abilities change throughout the pregnancy.

Here are a few specific areas of focus that Pilates will target for pregnant woman

1. Pilates incorporates pelvic floor work into its workouts.

The pelvic is a group of muscles that work to keep organs, and your baby (among other things), inside the body instead of falling out from the force of gravity. Not only do pregnant...

Birthday blues? Embrace your age!

I used to always dislike having a birthday. It was my least favorite holiday of the year. Growing up as a dancer with a long career in theatre where youth was in and old was out, kept me lying about my age for years. You see, agents and casting directors were not allowed to ask our real age. They could only ask our age range. Well, that gave me a chance to shave off about 5 years. How fun is that? So when I was 40, I was telling everyone I was 35. This went on for years. It was exhausting.

So about 10 years ago I realized that this was crazy. Age is just a number. The way you live your life is what keeps you young. Pilates and staying active has kept me young. Our bodies are like the ‘Tin Man’ from the Wizard of Oz. If we don’t move we get stiff. And if we get stiff we get old.

I can now say I am a true believer and example that Pilates keeps you flexible, strong and young from the inside out.

So now you are trying to guess my age...

Why Everyone Needs a “Rocco”

As far as I’m concerned, everyone could benefit from having a dog.

I have only had Rocco for a year and a half, but I can’t imagine my life without him now. He may drive me nuts sometimes, but he’s a wonderful companion who comforts me when I’m sad, keeps me company when I’m bored, watches TV with me, and runs with me, just to name a few. Some may think that dogs are just pets (any dog owner knows that isn’t the case), but there are actually quite a few health benefits of living with man’s best friend.

1 – Petting a dog has been proven to lower your stress and anxiety levels, and therefore blood pressure levels

2 – Dogs need to be walked; walking your dog means you’re getting more exercise than just sitting on your couch when you get home from work.

3 – People with dogs have lower cholesterol levels; researchers aren’t sure why, but they’ve found a strong connection...

Spice it Up: Baked Turmeric Chicken Tenders

If you have a busy schedule like me and love to cook healthy dinners but just don’t have the time, here’s an easy, tasty, and healthy dinner that I created. All you need are 2 bowls, baking pan and 6 ingredients. I hope you like it!!

INGREDIENTS

6 organic medium chicken strips
1/4 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 teaspoon of turmeric ( I usually add a little more )
1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

1) First you’ll need two medium bowls
2) In one bowl add 1/4 cup of coconut oil
3) In the other bowl add whole wheat bread crumbs, turmeric, cinnamon and sea salt.
4) I use 6 organic chicken strips. I dip one strip at a time in oil, then coat the chicken with
my bread crumb mixture.
5) Place the strips on a baking pan of your choice.

Set oven to 350 degrees and bake for 35 minutes. The chicken turns out crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. I serve it with roasted vegetables or a very...

A Beginner’s Guide to Meditating

This year instead of making one big resolution I decided to have several mini-resolutions.

The first was a week of meditation:  5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes in the evening. The number seems so small, yet it’s amazing how easy it can be to tell yourself that you don’t have time that day. Especially in the morning, I found myself rushing to get out the door to work and passing on my morning meditation. Imagine though for a moment how different your morning would be if instead of rushing out the door the second you finish getting ready with this mind set of ‘hurry, hurry’, you instead spent your last 5 minutes at home cultivating a calm and clear mind to carry throughout your day.

So why meditate in the first place? Meditation is not a new practice and has been around for centuries. There has been plenty of anecdotal support for this practice but more recently we now have the scientific evidence to back it...

Why it’s All About that Bass!

It’s an awesome new song with great lyrics. Megan Trainor certainly isn’t lying when she says, “it’s all about that bass”, and I’m going to tell you why, from a Physical Therapy stand point, at least. Anyone who takes my Pilates classes knows that I LOVE teaching glute exercises – squats, lunges, bridges – anything to get that “bass” going! … and it’s not just because I live in Miami, where “basses” are… ahem… popular. The Glutes, all three of them, are wonderful, but not just because they fill up jeans.

These three muscles: the gluteus maximus, medius, and minimus, are pivotal in not only squatting and lunging, but in walking, standing from a seated posture, holding us upright, providing amazing stability to our hips and spine, standing on one leg and many more. The gluteus maximus, the largest of the three, attaches from the ilium (on the...

Seven Steps to Minimizing Stress

STRESS – that inevitable part of life that can foil any day, week, or month!

With school quickly approaching, stress levels are likely to rise, which can really ruin a healthy lifestyle routine. Whether you have kids in school or not, I think the seven steps I’ve shared below can really keep you on track with life, exercising, and healthy eating.

1) Food organization

If you know me at all, you know I love food – healthy food, in particular. Unfortunately, when a week gets insanely busy, the first thing to go is the healthy meal plan. In order to eliminate (or at least limit) the take out and delivery, the most important thing I do in a week is meal prep. On Sunday morning, I come up with meals I would like to eat during the week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I then head to Fresh Market, grab my ingredients and then prep for the week. 6 breakfasts, lunches, and dinners are made and packed in individual containers; fruits and...

ROLL IT OUT: Foam Roller Functionality

The foam roller is my favorite at home exercise tool.

It’s wonderful for soothing tight fascia. Fascia is a structure of connective tissue that surrounds muscles, surrounds groups of muscles, blood vessels, and nerves, binding some structures together while permitting others to slide smoothly over each other.

Below are four more reasons to ROLL IT OUT!

1. It reduces soreness and tightness from working out.

You know that feeling when you wake up the day after a really hard workout and your muscles are so sore it’s hard to move? Yeah, we’ve all been there. But foam rolling right after your workout (or even the next day) can help reduce some of that soreness and tightness.

That’s because foam rolling works by massaging away fascia buildup in your muscles, which often lead to painful, sore muscles. Reducing this means you won’t have to skip your workout because you’re too sore from the previous day’s...