Benefits of healthy sleep

I'm currently taking a class called Sleep and Sleep Disorders and was reading a section about sleep in terms of good health and longevity and thought I should share some important advice with you all.

While exercise and diet are extremely important for living a long and healthy life, studies have shown that sleep might actually have a greater effect on longevity than diet and exercise.

There's enough things that we as humans do to take years off of our life that we need all the sleep we can get! If you're in college and have a big exam or project coming up, don't make it a habit to always pull all-nighters.  It's best to do a little bit every day to stay in the school mode as well as get a good night's sleep!  This can be difficult sometimes during finals time, but your performance and mood will suffer if you aren't getting enough sleep.

Healthy sleep strengthens your immune system, promotes tissue growth, increases vitality and may increase longevity. Sleep deprivation leads to risk for diseases, colds, or the flu, impairs the immune system, and your mood and happiness will be directly affected.

Your body requires 1 hour of sleep for every 2 hours that you're awake.  When you are awake throughout the day, you are acquiring sleep debt.  If you were to get one less hour of sleep than you need for 8 days straight, you have now acquired 8 hours of sleep debt that your biological clock keeps track of.  This needs to be repaid or you'll be hurting your physical, emotional, and mental health and performance. 

The take away: Get a good night's sleep regularly.  Of course there are exceptions, but be sure to repay your sleep debt!!

Delicious salads

I am by all means NOT a huge huge fan of salads, but I've been on a salad kick lately and am learning to love them. 

On this post, I'll show you some great salads that are super delicious.

 Make your own chopped salads!

What to chop:

• tomatoes
• lettuce
• onions
• cucumbers
• cheese
• chicken breast

Add a little dressing and toss it up! 

Try a tomato bean salad!

What's in it:

• green beans
• grape tomatoes
• yellow tomatoes
• soy beans (edamame 
• yellow beans
• a light dressing

Chicken ceasar salad

• Lettuce
• chicken breast
• shredded parmesan cheese
• ceasar dressing 

 Also really great to put all of these ingredients into a wrap! 

Homemade spinach salad with chicken

• Baby spinach leaves
• chicken breast 
• balsamic vinnaigrette

(Similar to the salad right above this one)

Spinach, mozzarella, chicken salad

• Baby spinach leaves
• fresh mozzarella cheese (Bel Gioioso is a great brand)
• chicken breast 
• balsamic vinnaigrette 

Very fresh taste!  My boyfriend loved it when I made this salad for him and that's saying a lot since he is all about meats, pastas, etc.  

The Simple spinach salad

Just 3 ingredients + dressing!

• baby spinach leaves
• fresh mozzarella
• chopped roma tomatoes
• dressing

Tomato, chicken, Spinach salad

• baby spinach
• grillen chicken breast
• tomatoes
• dressing 

Have fun experimenting with different variations of these healthy salads that taste great! 

This salad is one of my absolute favorites and it's from a restaurant from where I work, Sophia's:

What's in it:

• Romaine lettuce
• grilled chicken breast
• roma tomatoes
• cucumbers
• onions
• almond encrusted goat cheese
• orange ginger vinnaigrette 

YUM!