Lemon Coconut Bar Recipe
This healthy dessert is loaded in Vitamin C to boost your immune system, promote glowing skin, and improve digestion and gut health. It also offers a boost to your brain and heart. The ingredients below make 12 bars!
Ingredients:
1 cup walnuts
11/2 cup dates, pitted
1 Tbsp vanilla powder or extract
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp lemon zest, plus
1 Tbsp for garnish
11/4 cups shredded coconut,
plus 1/2 cup for garnish
3/4 tsp sea salt
Directions:
Place the walnuts in a food processor and process to make flour.
Add the dates, vanilla, lemon juice, and 2 Tbsp of the lemon zest.
Process until mixed well and set aside.
Place 11/4 cups of the shredded coconut and the sea salt into a large bowl and mix.
Add the mixture from the food processor to the coconut and mix so that all of the ingredients are combined.
Line an 8- inch square glass baking dish with parchment paper.
Place the dough in the pan and spread out evenly.
Sprinkle the remaining coconut and lemon zest on top.
Place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to set.
Cut and plate!
Exercises to combat the effects of sitting from Josh Ray, Program Guide & Exercise Specialist
Since we are all a bit more sedentary at the moment, it’s important to move your body to prevent postural distortions. Josh recommends pairing the two movements below and doing them every hour to break up all the sitting we do in our lives.
Posture flex to forward bend
- Flex your feet, big toe into the ground with the arches lifted
- Tuck your tailbone and flex your glutes as you draw in your belly button and lengthen the spine
- Bring your shoulders back and down, squeezing your shoulder blades together to externally bring your thumbs out and reach your fingertips towards the floor.
- Tuck your chin, head moves straight back
- Hold this position and squeeze for 15 seconds
- Curl down into a forward bend vertebrae by vertebrae
- Hold and relax for 15 seconds
- Roll back up to posture flex
- Repeat 5 times
Shake it Out!
- Bounce, shake, and relax all muscles for 30 seconds
- Feel the blood flowing all over the body and brain, ready to think clearly and act swiftly!
Basic Meditation Tips from Yoga Instructor Alison Bristow
A regular meditation practice can offer a variety of benefits including helping to increase your attention span, improve sleep, lower blood pressure and reduce stress. Below, Alison offers a non-bells-and-whistles approach to help those just starting out and it involves three simple elements:
- Stillness: bring the physical body into stillness
- Quietness: choose not to speak or project sounds out into the environment through the voice
- Inwardly directed focus: this is at first most easily achieved by closing the eyelids.
Once these three elements are at play, you can simply watch what arises within you without the normal distractions and engagement with the external world. Sometimes, again because of the overwhelming importance that has been placed on thinking and doing, this can feel unbearable at first.
To ease this barrier, it often helps to engage in a practice like breath awareness – redirecting attention away from thoughts and onto the breath. Simply notice the breath as it flows in and then back out. Even keeping attention on that breath movement for three cycles in a row can noticeably shift the inner and outer state.
Make Your Own Foot Bath
At The Ranch, our guests enjoy foot baths post-hike to relieve sore feet but right now this practice can also be incredibly therapeutic and grounding to do at home right now. While ice water baths are geared towards reducing swelling and soreness, you don’t want to stay submerged for longer than 10 minutes. However, a warm bath not only relieves aches and stiffness, reduces inflammation, and improves circulation but also promotes a sense of calm and can serve as an opportunity to reconnect with your body and tune out the outside world.
You can enhance the effects by adding Epsom salt, flowers, and herbs to the water. If using fresh herbs or flowers, simply cut a few leaves and crush them before dropping them in your warm Epsom soak. Using warm water allows for their healing benefits and scents to be more easily released and because it’s more pleasant to soak in, you can better absorb the minerals and therapeutic qualities they offer.
Essentials Oils & More
Lavender/ Lavender Oil – calms the mind and is a natural pain reliever
Rosemary / Rosemary Oil – helps soothe tired muscles, improve memory and cognitive function, reduce stress and offers antiseptic properties
Sage / Sage Oil – boosts your mood and attentiveness, also a potent antiseptic with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that are particularly effective in calming skin conditions
Basil – anti-inflammatory & antimicrobial, while helping to combat stress
Eucalyptus / Eucalyptus Oil – soothes coughs and congestion, relieves allergies, calms the nervous system