Changing your point of view

We are creatures of habit, but as I posted before, it only takes 30 days to break a habit. Changing the way you see your body, and your expectations for your shape can really help you appreciate and see the results.

Strive for progress, not perfection.

via Lorna Jane

Take photos of your figure every one, two or three months and compare them.

via Fitness Girls

Train with a friend, training alone can get boring and sometimes you just need someone to pull you out of the slump. You can also start a team sport, it's not only a great way to meet new people but sports are fun too!

via Lorna Jane

Eat well. Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym. Cut out sugar, replace it with natural sweeteners or honey. Snack on fruits, and find loads of yummy recipes which are healthy and good tasting. I follow Fitness Recipes on Facebook, but there are loads of applications, sites and blogs online if you do a search.

Dress sexy! I mean it...the point of training is to look and feel good, employ that belief WHILE training too. Don't wear anything that you wouldn't want to be seen wearing if you ran into a friend. Wear comfortable, breathable fabrics and invest in a good pair of trainers. Some of my favourite brands are Lululemon (Canada), Lorna Jane (Australia), Adidas and Nike. In case you haven't noticed, sportswear has become fashion wear too, with designers like Stella McCartney designing for Adidas, D&G sponsoring a Milan boxing club, and popstars like Niki Minaj and Justin Bieber strutting their stuff in the gear.

via Lorna Jane

It's Friday y'all...that means we doing Pilates at For Life Studio in Nicosia at 18:30 and Boot Camp at Aspida Team Academy at 20:00. 

Namaste!

Don't be another statistic

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Numbers like these are stratling. You can be part of the Move Nourish Believe movement anywhere you are, not just Australia. In Cyprus we are lucky to have sea and mountain all just a short drive away. Tonight we are rocking core, thighs and booty at Aspida Team Academy at 18:45. Move you ass and join us!

Namaste

Motivation for the weekend

Tonight, Pilates 18:30-19:30 at For Life studio and Boot camp 20:00-20:30 at Aspida Team academy. Join us?

The Fit Girl Look

Being fit is in, and being skinny is out! Thank goodness, too! Skinny is not healthy. Fit on the other hand, is powerful, athletic, confident, and sexy! The fit girl look can be described as looking athletic, no matter what body type you have. It's looking lean, toned and defined with a low body fat percentage.

Achieving the fit look takes work, and not only initial hard work but dedication. To achieve it you need to change your eating habits, train regularly, drink lots of water, it's a fit lifestyle. Looking fit is only maintainable if you're going to stick to a program. Don't confuse looking lean and athletic with looking like a body builder. Women tend to run from step aerobics, body combat to zumba expecting to get the same results I've gotten. While these types of classes are great for cardio, there isn't any weight training included to get your muscles looking lean and defined.

A program including TRX, pilates for core strengthening, yoga for bodyweight training and stretching, and weight training with kettlebells, medicine balls and sandbags for strength and resistance is functional training which is well suited to delivering the results that you’re after. By focusing on increasing your fitness in movement patterns that reflect the activities of your daily life, you’ll develop a nice, athletic physique, and discover other benefits, such as moving through your environment effortlessly, having more energy throughout regular daily tasks, and being a dominant force in any athletic activity in which you choose to participate - snowboarding, wakeboarding, skiing, cycling, etc. But functional training is also best for non-athletes improve in all aspects of fitness, including coordination, balance, flexibility, and strength!

Read the article about how to Get the fit girl look by Johnny Fit, who is a personal trainer, yoga instructor and fitness blogger.

Fitspiration

Fit is sexy

Photo of one of ALPHA's favourite fitspirations, Lisa-Marie of Bodyrock.TV. Awesome workouts by an awesome, sweet and motivational trainer.

ALPHA <3 's Lisa-Marie

Dear My body

Sometimes the hardest commitment to make is the one you make to yourself. Striving for perfection is unrealistic and by knowing this, you never have to keep that promise to your body. Make a commitment, not to strive for perfection, but to strive for progress.

I've struggled to get out of my lazy ways and make fitness part of my daily routine. I'm still struggling with making healthy eating a habit as I have a sweet tooth. But today I bought fruits instead of biscuits to snack on...I know I'm going to regret it when I'm craving later...but I promised my body I'd take care of it.

Don't start on Monday, too many Mondays have come and gone. Join me and comment below what one thing you will change today as part of your new lifestyle choice.

Motivation for the weekend

Via one of my favourite blogs for motivation and inspiration: Move Nourish Believe

Detox map

Gotta love Pinterest! This is a map of your organs and what to eat to detox them. You can follow my Fit & Fabulous board here, where I pin all articles and fitspiration images that have to with looking and feeling healthier and fitter.

Namaste!

Yoga asanas inspired by animals

Many of the yoga poses we have come to know in class were named after animals both for the resemblance itself, and for the quality of the animal itself.   Ancient yogis observed animals in nature; their abilities and beauty.   To emulate these animal qualities through asana was considered a high sign of spiritual enlightenment. Here are some yoga poses and the animal they are named after:

Downward facing dog

Upward facing dog  

Balancing Bear

Butterfly

Cat stretch

Cobra

Scorpion

Inspiration of the day

This true not only concerning your health and fitness goals, but every aspect in life!

Just do it

It's never easy to take the first step towards a healthier lifestyle and body, especially if you have many bad habits. They say however it takes 30 days to break a habit. 30 days is only one month, not long at all considering many habits we have stay with us for years and decades even. The physical craving we have will happen in those 30 days after breaking the habit, after that, it's psychological.

Baby steps: Break it down into baby steps, to help ease the path to the new you. If your bad habit is not eating breakfast, start with a small bowl of cereal or a cereal bar in the morning. If you want to make daily exercise part of your routine, clear a time slot in your schedule so that not having time can't be your excuse any longer.

Write it down: Don’t leave commitments in your brain. Write them on paper. This does two things. First, it creates clarity by defining in specific terms what your change means. Second, it keeps you committed since it is easy to dismiss a thought, but harder to dismiss a promise printed in front of you.

Get a support: Start a new fitness routine with a friend who has a similar goal or join a group that supports each other. If you can't motivate yourself, set a goal, like running that marathon next year, or dropping a dress size by Christmas. Pick a change you want to work on and post it right here in the comments. You’ll get the benefits of writing it down and making a public commitment. The best time to start is right now.

For more tips on how to break a habit, read this Pick Brain post by Scott Young, although there are many articles and book written on the subject. My advise is to get out that thick black marker and write your goal on a large board. Put it somewhere you will see it everyday, or even write it down at different times of the day to remind your brain what your goal is. Just do it!

Today I'm at For Life Studio for Bootcamp circuit training from 6:30 - 7:30 and  Aspida Team for Yoga at 8:30-9:10. Join me...

Namaste!

Motivation for the weekend

Yoga for strength

The general opinion seems to be that yoga is mainly for flexibility training, and never considered for strength training. The truth is that during yoga practice you are putting your body in positions and orientations that you ultimately have to support with your muscles, constantly working with your own body weight. Like Pilates, yoga is an excellent toning tool, and beginners can make significant strength gains. For women in particular though, the older you get, the more you will have to include a weight training sessions in your schedule. Because of dipping hormone and activity levels, a woman typically starts losing about half a pound of muscle a year during her perimenopausal years. That loss can jump to a pound a year once she hits menopause. You can read more at this link on this topic.

However yoga is a more well-rounded approach to fitness and strength training. 

A regular yoga practice can reduce your risk of injury and condition your body to perform better at things you have to do every day: walk, sit, twist, bend, etc. A form of functional fitness, yoga moves your body in the ways it was designed to move to help ensure that it keeps functioning properly.   

Yoga tones muscles all over your body, in balance with each other. Weight training exercises typically isolate and flex one muscle or muscle group at a time.

Yoga relies on eccentric contraction, where the muscle stretches as it contracts, giving the muscles that sleek, elongated look while increasing flexibility in the muscles and joints. Weight training relies on the opposite physical principle of concentric muscle contraction, which means the muscle gets smaller as it contracts.  

Yoga increases muscle endurance because you typically hold any given pose for a period of time and repeat it several times during a yoga workout.

You can read more about the benefits of Yoga replacing strength training here. 

Namaste

Body By Alpha

As this is my first post, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Anastasia Gerali and I am based in Nicosia, Cyprus. Originally from South Africa, I was a ballet dancer for 16 years and a qualified ballet teacher. At 18 I completed my Group Trainers Course at Reebok University, and became qualified to teach Power Yoga, Step, Aqua aerobics, Body Pump and Spinning. After a 5 year spell in London, upon moving to Cyprus I was given the opportunity by the wonderful Toulla Poullas of For Life Studio to teach power yoga and also attended the Stott Pilates course, after which I started teaching as well. Body By Alpha is a new fitness and lifestyle group. Here I will share various benefits, tips and articles about yoga, pilates, fitness and health in general. Fitness and health is not just an interest but a lifestyle. A lifestyle that will prolong your life, youth and improve the quality of your life. Remember your body is a machine that needs it's parts oiled, cleaned and the best quality gas, if you do not use it at all it will rust, if you use it incorrectly, it will break. An some parts are expensive or irreplaceable.
For those of you who are based in Nicosia and would like to come and train with me, please be in touch and I can inform you about my schedule.

Namaste