Summer fun calls for summer drinks! With all of the BBQs and parties, we might find ourselves reaching for sugary cocktails and calorific beers. If you want to stay looking fierce and tight, look to these delicious low-calorie beverage alternatives! You can finally have your cake and eat it too!  What more could a gal (or guy!) ask for from a cocktail?

The Pro-jito

This is one of my favorite recipes and and tastes so much like the real thing, but has significantly less sugar and calories! What’s the icing on the cake? This cocktail has a dose of healthy probiotics to maintain a healthy digestive track.

Ingredients

1/4-1/2 cup light rum

2 15oz bottles of Kevita Mojita Sparkling Probiotic Drink

Quartered limes

1 tbsp. of coconut sugar

1/2 cup fresh mint leaves

Directions

Mix your rum and Kevita together and gently stir. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes or until chilled. Moisten your glasses with the lime wedge, and drip in the coconut sugar until the rim is covered. Pour your drinks, add the sprig of mint and enjoy!

Can’t find Kevita in your local Whole Foods or grocery store? Don’t fret. Try this alternate version that is just as healthy and delicious.

2 large limes, peeled and cut into pieces

4 cups water

2/3 of a cup of agave (add more or less based on your palate)

1/4-1/2 cup light rum

1/2 cup fresh mint leaves

Quartered limes

1 tbsp. of coconut sugar

Add 2 cups of water, the rum, the limes and agave to a blender and blend until smooth. Strain through a sieve. Add the 2 additional cups of water and place in the fridge until chilled. Moisten your glasses with the lime wedge, and drip in the coconut sugar until the rim is covered. Pour your drinks, add the sprig of mint and enjoy!

The Kombucha Cosmo

We all love a good cosmo from time to time, but this one is sure to make any wellness warrior weak in the knees.

Ingredients

½ a cup of vodka

½ ounce of lime juice

1 16 ounce bottle of Cranberry Kombucha

A lemon twist

Directions

Mix all of your ingredients together and place in the fridge until chilled. Pour into a glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

Cucumber Blueberry Gimlet

This one is light and fresh, just like you after a workout.

Ingredients

¼ cup of blueberries

2 ounces of gin

1 tbsp. of agave nectar

2 ounces of fresh lime juice

A dozen slices of cucumber

A few sprigs of mint

Ice

Directions

Add your cucumbers, mint and berries to a bowl and muddle until the juices are released. Add to a cocktail shaker along with the gin, agave, lime juice and ice. Shake well and serve!

The Avocado Margarita

This one might sound like a cross between a margarita and guacamole, but trust me, it tastes like a dream! Plus, the avocado helps prevent blood sugar spikes people often experience with alcoholic beverages.

Ingredients

1 Medium avocado

1 ½ cups of ice

3 ounces of lime juice

2 tsps. of agave

4 ounces of tequila

2 ounces of triple sec

2 strawberries for garnish

Directions

Add your avocado, ice, lime juice, agave, tequila and triple sec to a blender and blend until smooth. If you like a salted rim, go for it, but choose a healthier salt like pink salt. Pour your margarita into your glass and garnish with a strawberry. Sip away, guilt free!

It's been a great week in the world of wellness.  From the US Supreme Court's decision on abortion rights, to a surprising report on corporate wellness, here's our roundup of all things well-being related.  

US Supreme Court Firmly Backs Abortion Rights

A women's right to choose gets backing from the Supreme Court!

The First Wellness-Focused Co-working Space 

Wellness-centric start-ups now have a place to call home in NYC complete with yoga, wellness lounges and more!

Surprise, Surpise: Smoking May Hinder Breast Cancer Treatment

A recent study finds that smoking may inhibit some breast cancer treatments.  One more reason to quit.  

WSJ Reports: Companies Are Over Corporate Wellness Programs! 

Flu shots, health coaching and other perks declined over the past year, human-resources study finds. 

More Veggie, Less Meat Could Reduce Risk of Type 2 Diabetes 

Not surprisingly, a plate full of colorful veggies has far-reaching health benefits, including reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.  So load up that plate!  

How You Fight With Your Spouse May Effect Different Body Parts

Over 15 years of research correlates couples' fighting styles to particular ailments.  

By Resha AlTai

It’s that time of year again! The trees are beginning to bloom, birds are singing outside windows, and parkas are finally shed. With all this physical renewal, it can be easy to forget that our minds also need freshening up. Allow your heart and mind to flourish with these four incredible reads for Spring:

1) Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders This quick, informative read delves deeply into the workings of our digestive system, including its effects on our mental well-being. The language is totally accessible to those of us with a basic understanding of anatomy and physiology and makes wonderful use of illustrations (drawn by the author’s sister) to complement her explanations.

2) The Places That Scare You by Pema Chödrön In our current age of anxiety, Chödrön is both a refreshing and challenging voice — she encourages us to see problems as spiritual opportunities. Instead of trying to run from discomfort, she advocates staying put and learning about ourselves. This a wonderful read for those of us who are facing uncertain or difficult times and looking for a little spiritual boost!

3) The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit It starts off with a basket of apricots sitting on the authors floor and morphs into an allegory. The gift of apricots that Solnit’s estranged mother gives her starts to decay, much in the the same way as her mother’s mind (she is suffering from Alzheimer’s) is doing. Through the observing of the apricots, she makes sense of her mother and her relationship with her. Solnit reminds us of the importance of empathy in our lives in this brilliant work of non-fiction.

4) Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation by Sharon Salzburg While this work is technically a 28-day program, it can totally be used as a reference guide for your existing or burgeoning meditation practice. Don’t let the self-help sounding title scare you away from this book, Salzburg shares incredible insights best illustrated by this quote:

"Real happiness depends on what we do with our attention. When we train our attention through meditation, we connect to ourselves, to our own true experience, and then we connect to others. The simple act of being completely attentive and present to another person is an act of love, and it fosters unshakeable well-being. It is happiness that isn't bound to a particular situation, happiness that can withstand change.”

Happy reading! 

When i'm not working from my home office, I can often be found at the local healthy coffee shop, typing away, and occasionally indulging in any vegan treats they might have that day,  

Cleverly, the checkout counter is also full of other craving-inducing goodies such as lollipops, rice krispy treats and chocolate peanut butter cups.  But it's the peanut butter cups that seem to taunt me the most.  Having both a chocolate and peanut allergy, I haven't tasted the perfect balance of sweet and salty like that in years.  Well this week, I decided I was going to be taunted for the last time and figure out a way to make tasty and healthy replacement.  Enter: Healthy Almond Butter Cups with Strawberry "Jam" Filling.  

Ingredients:

5 ounces of almond butter

3 tablespoons of melted coconut oil

1 scoop of vanilla protein powder

A dash of salt

Filling:

1/2 a cup of mashed strawberries, simmered in 1/4 cup of water

1 scoop of vanilla protein powder

1 sliced strawberry

Instructions:

Melt the coconut oil on the stovetop and whisk in the almond butter.  Once you've achieved a well-mixed consistency, whisk in the protein powder.  When it's all melted together nicely, separate the concoction into two, then spoon one tablespoon into silicone molds and pop in the freezer for about 20 minutes.  Set the remaining half aside.

For the "jam" filling, add the mashed strawberries to the water and simmer until the strawberries breakdown.  They whisk in the protein powder to thicken up the filling and add some extra protein.  It's not a gorgeous color, but it tastes great!  

Remove the frozen base from the freezer and spoon on the jam.  You want a small amount, about the size of your fingertip, then top with a fresh slice of strawberry.  Then cover with another tablespoon of the almond butter mixture and pop back in the freezer for another 20 minutes.  Remove them and eat right away.  I dare you to try and stop at just one!  : )

Who doesn't love to travel?  But it can be such a challenge to stay healthy while we do.  Business travel is forecast to hit an all time high and it’s one of the biggest ways that healthy professionals lives’ get sidetracked. We reach for convenient foods, stay out late, and drink more than we probably should.  Additionally, when you’re out of your routine it can be harder to hit the gym, find healthy spots to eat, and avoid the temptations that work dinners pose. 

Even when it comes to vacations, it can be hard to stay on track.  Holidays are often synonymous with overeating, drinking too much and an absence of workouts. So what's a busy gal/guy to do?

This well wanderlust has spent a lot of time in the air (and on busses, trains, rental cars) and have perfected my routine.  Now there's no need to arrive feeling and looking anything less than stellar.  K?

Pro tips:

•Airports have come a long way in the last few years in terms of healthy options, but they still have a long way to go.  Try and prepare as much as you can ahead of time by bringing your own food and snacks and make sure you hydrate more than usual.  My go to?  A gluten free wrap with hummus and hormone-free turkey and lettuce, or vegetable quinoa.  

•Moisturize your skin in-flight so you don’t arrive dried out and inclined to a breakout.  I've even been known to do a full on face mask in-flight.  But no need to be ridiculous.  You can simply use a hydrating mist, or your regular lotion.  

•Bring detox tea in-flight.  Nothing is worse than landing with cankles or with hands so swollen you can hardly type.  Choose a tea that has dandelion root, which acts as natural diuretic. 

•Clean your area: Airplanes are a breeding ground for germs and you don’t have time to get sick.  Wipe down the arm rests, screens, remotes and tray tables. 

• Bring a portable workout: Hotels are getting more healthy (Thank you, Even for paving the way!) but in case you’re tight for time and there is no gym, bring a jump rope, or simply do some HIIT in your room.  

•Map out healthy places to eat: A fellow health coach and marketer once told me that he mapped out the healthy restaurants and groceries stores near his hotel on every business trip.  It’s super smart and it keeps you from making poor decisions when you’re hangry. 

•Get a massage on arrival.  If you’ve been flying for a while, massage can be a great way to reduce aches and pains as well as anxiety.

•Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!  Drink water before, during and after your flight to keep your body hydrated.  Flights can be extremely dehydrating and that can worsen jet lag.  

•Take digestive enzymes.  Flights can slow your digestion.  Keep things moving by taking digestive enzymes during your flight.  

•Limit the booze.  Alcohol at high altitudes impacts your body even more than at sea level.  Keep alcohol to a minimum (avoid it all together if you can) to keep your body detoxing at it's optimal levels.  

How do you stay well while you travel?  Share your tips in the comments below.