Your Best Body

Some mornings, the only thing I want to eat is an ice cream sundae. (Okay, maybe most mornings.) A healthier option? A yogurt parfait. With some maple syrup and crunchy granola, this recipe from Pointe's favorite dancer-chef, Shelby Elsbree, hits the spot no matter how badly my sweet tooth is acting up.

Greek Yogurt & Granola Parfait:

1 cup of Greek yogurt

1/2 cup of apple sauce

1/3 cup of granola

1 to 2 tablespoons of maple syrup

You're jealous of her extensions. You compete with her for the same roles. You wish you didn't resent her as much as you do, but when she gets that smug look on her face after your director gives her a compliment, you can't help it.

When Carrie Lee Riggins joined New York City Ballet at 16, she had no clue how to cook. And living in New York City, she never had to—delivery was just at the other end of a phone call. Jump ahead sixteen years to the present day, and she found herself still lost in the kitchen. So she wrote an email to the Food Network’s reality competition show “Worst Cooks in America,” featuring restaurateur Bobby Flay.

Ballet dancers are no strangers to aches and pains. Because we know our bodies so well, we sometimes fall into the dangerous habit of self-diagnosing. A new free app, HealthTap, lets us refer our health questions to knowledgeable physicians. Over 32,000 licensed medical professionals weigh in on all sorts of questions to help spread much-needed accurate medical knowledge. Dancers have already started to take advantage of the application, asking questions about bunions, foot spasms and toenail bruising.

The night before a big audition comes with a terrible catch-22: You know you need to get a good night's sleep to be on top of your game in the morning, but with all of the anxiety and nerves coursing through your body, it becomes nearly impossible to nod off.

What can you do? Here are 5 surefire steps for getting on the express train to Dreamland.

Want to keep your appetite in check? Start running. Even though exercise often makes us hungrier, certain types of workouts appear to increase hormones that cue us stop eating once our bodies have enough fuel. A study done at the University of Wyoming last year found that after walking, women overate, consuming more calories than they had burned.

Stress fractures are one of the most common injures in ballet dancers. Keep your bones strong—don’t smoke. A new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health reports that even low or irregular amounts of smoking during girls' teenage years lowers their bone density. Adolescence is a critical time for bone growth: As much as 50 percent of your lifetime bone accrual happens during these years.

Between Nutcracker and holiday madness, it's all too easy to wear your body down and become vulnerable to colds. The moment we start sneezing, most of us instinctively reach for a glass of orange juice. A better bet? Grab a kiwi! One cup of the fruit has 273 percent of your daily vitamin C. And with 5 grams of fiber and only 100 calories, it's waistline-friendly, too.

Wish your pointe shoes were slightly less painful? Get more sleep! A recent study found that when people stayed in bed for at least 10 hours a night, by the fourth day they experienced a 25 percent decrease in pain sensitivity. Researchers think this happens because we have more pain receptors in our blood system when we're exhausted. How's that for an excuse to sleep in?

Love fruit smoothies? If you drink one to keep you going through a long day of dance, make sure it’s nice and thick. Recent research at the University of Sussex has shown that thicker drinks not only make you feel fuller more quickly, but they also keep you satiated for a longer period of time. In fact, the quality of food texture has a greater impact on your sense of fullness than either creaminess or calorie content. Next time you make a smoothie, add thick frozen fruits, like bananas or mangoes, or even fiber-rich thickeners like tara gum or spinach. You’ll feel satisfied for hours!