Q & A

What is one of the best abdominal exercises? 

• Here's a great one you can do at home! Sit tall on the edge of a sturdy chair, place your hands on the edge of the chair with your fingers pointing towards your knees. Pull you abs in and up toward the rib cage and tighten, bring your toes off the floor and then lift your seat off the chair - HOLD! See if you can hold for 10 seconds or more! Slowly lower down and repeat 5-10 times!

What is one of the best tricep exercises? 

• We at Soul Body LOVE tricep push-ups! Try this challenge variation! Come into a plank position with wrists under shoulder, toes on the floor, abs drawn in and up and tightened. Shift slightly forward, lift right leg up - Squeeze the seat and keep leg lifted to hip height. With elbows squeezing in toward your rib cage slowly lower chest toward the floor until you are in a hover and slowly push back up - Try to do 4-8 - SLOW! Then lift opposite leg and repeat! The lifted leg not only strengthens you tush, it challenges the balance and the triceps! 

What should I eat right after a full body workout?

• Eating within two hours, get your carbs from whole grains, fruit and veggies and get enough protein in your body to help promote muscle growth. You could even eat half your protein thirty minutes before your workout and thirty minutes after!  Adding the carbs with the protein helps slow down protein breakdown and speeds up muscle growth. SB Barre, SB yoga and many Pilates exercises break down the muscles, our bodies need amino acids to repair these muscles and build them back up! 
• What kinds of healthy proteins to we recommend??
• Beans (mix with brown rice to add amino acids)
• Quinoa (a perfect protein)
• Tofu
• Carrots/Beets/Squash (great carb options)
• Tempeh (a complete protein)
• Almonds (jam packed with fiber and protein and actually help you loose weight!)
• We also go for raw almond butter on gluten free toast
• Tuna Fish
• Eggs
• Hemp Protein powder - mix with coconut or almond milk and frozen bananas, mangos or peaches!!

• How much sleep do I really need??

• Sleep is an individual requirement - there is no magic number according to the National Sleep Foundation. Healthy adults need seven to eight hours of sleep every night. One thing is for certain, sleeping too little can affect your productivity, cause moody swings and forgetfulness and can even lead to more serious health issues such as depression, substance abuse and heart problems.
• Experts say preschoolers (age 3-5) need 11-13 hours of sleep
• School aged kids (ages 6-12) need 10-11 hours of sleep
• Get the sleep you need! And if you have a night or two with little sleep because of stress or illness - that sleep debt can "paid off" with a nap or a few good nights sleep!

Eat Pure Thrive Smoothie 101 Workshop

Here are two great recipes from our
Eat Pure Thrive Workshop that was just held at
Alice Jane in Baltimore!

FROZEN GREEN/FRUIT SMOOTHIE WITH HEMP/FLAX/CHIA…

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup frozen fruit (Organic if available) (pineapple/mango…or frozen fruit of choice

 2 cups Spinach or Kale or green mix

½  - 1 Avocado

1 tsp Agave nectar or natural sweetener (DATES/FIGS/DRIED FRUIT)

1 tablespoon of each - hemp/flax/chia seed/maca, raw cacao/coconut oil….take your pick, choose one or more

1 cup Coconut Water

PREPARATION/SERVES 2
Put all in blender and blend until smooth – add water for a less thick consistency.

FROZEN NUT SMOOTHIE

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup frozen fruit (Organic if available) (I like frozen banana but you can use any fruit you want – ie, blueberries, strawberries …)

1 cups raw pecans/almonds

1 tsp Agave nectar or natural sweetener (Or DATES/FIGS/DRIED FRUIT)

1 tablespoon of each - hemp/flax/chia seed/maca/raw cacao/coconut oil….take your pick, choose one or more

1 cup Almond milk or water

PREPARATION/SERVES 2
Put all in blender and blend until smooth – can add water or almond milk for a less thick consistency.

Soul Body Spotlight on Kelly!

Kelly Berger is not only one of Soul Body's top SB Barre instructors, she is also a fitness enthusiast and United States National Team Lacrosse player. 

Residing in Baltimore, Kelly is a Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Instructor with several community gyms. She teaches multiple classes a week, including Spinn, Cycling, Bootcamps and Barre. 

Kelly also runs her own business that offers private and group training for young lacrosse players. She loves to be surrounded by people who have a passion and drive to reach their potential everyday. In 2007, Kelly graduated from James Madison University, with a focus in Sports Management and Kinesiology. This summer 2013, Kelly was a member of the Gold-Medal Women's Lacrosse National Team, competing in the World Cup in Oshawa, Canada. 

You can come take one of Kelly's SB Barre classes at the Merritt Athletic Club in Canton on Friday mornings at 6:00am - great way to get an early kickstart to your weekend!

Soul Body Pick for the Kitchen

While on our travels this weekend to beautiful Long Lake, NY in the Adirondacks we stopped at a fantastic food store in Saratoga Springs called Healthy Living Market. Not only was it's support of local farmers and artisans unbelievable but their home goods were exciting to look through...we even made a stop on way back to airport again!

One of our favorite gadgets was is the salad zinger by Zing Anything. Their line of products that help infuse food to create delicious liquids is ingenious! All of us bought the salad zinger and I tried it out tonight. I put pear & dates in the bottom to be infused & I filled the bottle section with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, a bit of water, pure maple syrup (from a local farm in Long Lake) and salt & pepper. 

Learn more about Zing Anything on their website... Zing Anything

In good health!
Stacey

Great Granola Made Easy

Gra-no-la

noun

a kind of breakfast cereal consisting typically of rolled oats, brown sugar or honey, dried fruit, and nuts.

Want to make your granola count? Want to make it worth every bite? It's easy & you don't have to make it from scratch. (although you can...that recipe is in an earlier blog & not too difficult either:))

Here is a way we make ours count...start with a bag of granola...KIND is one of my favs

Then I add lots of extras to make it count! In this batch I added:

Goji berries, raisins, sunflowers seeds, unsweetened coconut flakes, chia seeds, cashews, chopped walnuts. 

These are ingredients that are wonderful to keep around just to snack on as well. Remember to always have go-to food available. We are a culture of snackers and we also like things that are quick and easy. So make your pantry count as well & keep whole foods around...make it COUNT!

Enjoy and as always, let us know if you have any questions.

Stacey

PS...per the definition above...granola is not just a breakfast food:)