Alix’s Natural Sick Remedies

If you know me, you know my thoughts on, well, pretty much everything.   Kidding. If you know me, you should know that I really don’t take any medicines, unless it’s a life or death situation.

Unfortunately, however, I do get sick from time to time and feeling better quickly is much more enticing than staying sick. These are a few ways that I manage to feel great by either not getting sick, or feeling better faster without loading up on pills. Check out my top 6 natural sick remedies below.

1. Eating healthy and eating enough! 

Throughout the year, and especially during cold and flu season, I make sure that I’m loaded up on healthy, non-processed, and organic foods. I try to get most of my vitamins and minerals from my foods, as opposed to taking supplements. Above and beyond what I eat, making sure I eat enough is just as important. Many years ago, I went through a period where I thought ...

Alix’s Top 5 Daily Must-Do Pilates Exercises

New Year’s Resolutions

After the plethora of holiday parties, dinners, sweets and treats, the new year offers a chance to start over with a clean slate.

Almost everyone decides to make a New Year’s resolution and very often it’s about losing weight or something vague. I prefer to make many small resolutions. I think we all have more than one area we can improve upon in our lives so why not pick a few, attainable changes we’d like to make in 2016. Here are some ideas for possible 2016 mini-resolutions that I hope you can add to your list.

Stop texting and driving

I have to admit I am guilty of this myself sometimes. When the phone is sitting right on your lap it’s hard to fight the temptation of looking at your phone when it lights up and makes a noise. Yet, I think the research is undeniable that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunk driving! With that in mind, let’s decide to break this addiction and put the phone away while...

Get In Bed With Pilates

1. Pilates makes you look good naked

Holistic Health and Pilates

How Pilates takes a 360 degree approach

In Lance Armstrong’s 2001 autobiography, It’s Not About The Bike, the pro cyclist depicts his inspiring journey from cancer diagnosis to Tour De France champion. He helps us to understand how the miles on his bike led him to a state of enlightenment far more powerful than any victory ever had. His words resonated with me, particularly because throughout my many years of teaching Pilates to people of all ages and abilities, I continue to witness a similar kind of mind/body/spirit transformation in my Pilates clients.

Connection between mental and physical health

Pilates founder Joseph Pilates believed that our physical and mental health are closely connected, and as a result, centered his method on principles that provided both internal and external benefits. Initially, such benefits are generally physical. We feel more toned, more flexible, stronger and leaner. Most people will admit that they started...

Pilates for a Healthy Spine

“If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30, you are old; if it is completely flexible at 60, you are young.”

This is probably my favorite Joseph Pilates’ quote. For many of us, the majority of our day is spent sitting at work, walking forward, sitting in the car, sitting on the couch, and lying in bed. If we’re being good we might run, use the elliptical or stair master, or go to a spinning class. All great options but there’s something missing. All the aforementioned activities are in what’s called the “sagittal plane”, where everything is moving forwards and backwards. There is very little side bending or rotation in the spine- or even the extremities.

Flexibility

A healthy spine is able to move in all directions with an appropriate distribution of movement throughout the entire spine. When we focus on only one direction of movement, usually flexion, we lose both flexibility and stability in all...

My DIY Home and Beauty Favorites

I love the idea of certain commercial products and what they do, but I just hate all the chemicals and toxins they’re loaded with, so I started making a lot of my own home and beauty favorites.

Below are some of my absolute favorites that are easy and smell great.

DIY home products

“Febreeze”

1. Keep an empty bottle
2. Fill about ¾ of the way with distilled water
3. Add 2 TBS of baking soda
4. Add essential oils of your liking to the concentration you like. I use Doterra oils: 20 drops Serenity, 20 drops lavender, 15 drops cedarwood, 10 drops sandalwood. (I tend to go heavy on the oils because of having two dogs in the house.)
5. Spray as you would Febreeze

Bathroom/shower cleaner

1. Keep an empty spray bottle
2. Fill about ½ way with Seventh Generation Chlorine-Free Bleach
3. Fill another ¼ of the way with distilled vinegar
4. Fill rest of the way with water
5. Add essential oils of your liking to the concentration you like. I use...