Healthy Body = Healthy Mind

Yesterday I worked a Mental Health fair, and was sharing with corporate workers the benefits of practicing Pilates when it comes to keeping a healthy mind. Even just combining a good deep breathe with some movement is a great way to relieve stress and tension from the mind and body.

Today, in our busy lives, breathing is a way to renovate the balance of our body and  nourish our minds. Deep breathing is used to aid control panic, anxiety attacks, and mental stress. It is been found that there is a relationship between breathing and mental health. 

 Pilates, Yoga, and cardiovascular exercise facilitates deep breathing so you can get out of your head and into your body.

Try the Pilates Breathe to relieve stress, anxiety, and fatigue:

Sit or lay so your spine is long and straight.

Inhale: Place your hands on your rib cage  to feel it expand as you stretch the muscles between the ribs, the diaphragm, and the muscles across the upper and mid back. Imagine your lungs are balloons and you are blowing them up to full capacity.

Exhale: Now that all of your breathing muscles are stretched, contract them as you push all the air out. Think of squeezing every last drop of air out of your body while drawing your belly button to your back. Creating an negative space in your chest and abdominal cavity contracts all of your deep core muscles that support the spine.

Pilates incorporates breathe with movement  to connect the mind to the body.  The relaxing breath allows tension to be released from the body and movement to happen freely.

Super Breakfast Shake

I’ve discovered a smoothie that has revolutionized my perspective about breakfast.  I’ve always valued breakfast as the most important meal of the day, but this nutrient packed protein shake has given me more energy,  more endurance, and vigor than I’ve ever had. I didn’t realize the powerful influence of the shake until one day I switched it up and had a breakfast that consisted of eggs, hash browns, muffin, and fruit.  My body and my mind felt like useless rubber by mid morning. If you are looking for a new, revitalizing breakfast you may want to give this shake a try, I’m completely addicted to the increased metabolic rate and mental alertness I receive from it.

 Combine:

½ banana

¼ cup of each: Goji berries, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds

1/3 cup of blueberries (I prefer frozen- could be any type of berries depending on preference)

2 TBSP of flax meal

1 scoop of protein powder (I use Vega berry flavour brand)

½ cup of almond milk.

½ cup of water

Blend and Drink.

Train For Life

On my trip to Saskatchewan I was really fortunate to get an exclusive tour of the new Train for Life studio. Check out this sweet workout I got from personal trainer and owner Andrea Doepker.

Sleeveless Dress Party Success

Thanks to all who attended the Sleeveless Dress Party.
The North Shore Women's Centre was truly blessed with several bags of non- perishable food items which they were in desperate need of at this time of year. Thanks to lululemon, l'Occitane, and Milestones for thier donations to the raffle draw.
I certainly had a lot of fun connecting with all the ladies who attened, and loved seeing you all in your eautiful garb.I wish I had taken more photos but here's a few of the ones I did capture.

Tone Up For Your Sleeveless Dress

The swan dive is a great exercise to tone the backs of the arms. I created this video with all of you in mind who are attending my The Sleeveless Dress Party to Support the North Shore Women's Centre. All ladies are invited, please view party details below.

You are invited to the Summer Sleeveless Dress Party

Hosted by Connect Fitness

When: August 22, 7:30 pm

Where: Milestones, Park Royal

Who: Ladies everywhere!

How: Put on a sleeveless dress and come out for a fun ladies night out with a purpose.

Connect Fitness wants to encourage North Vancouver women to come together, bear all arms and embrace our beauty in sleeveless dresses. Connect Fitness cares for the women in the community, and we want every woman to feel beautiful and valued in her own skin. To support the women in our community, we also want to take this opportunity to help North Shore Women Centre, which aids so many women. The centre is currently in need of supplies, and Connect Fitness wants to help them stock up!

Join us at Milestones, on the patio, for their featured Monday night special: A Night for the Girls. Bring your girlfriends with you and treat yourselves to 440: four bellinis and four appetizers for $40.

We will be hosting a raffle draw with some exciting prizes. And all donations for these tickets will go towards the North Shore Women Centre. Raffle tickets are $10 each, or two donated toiletry items for one ticket. With your tickets, you can win personal training packages and group fitness packages from Connect Fitness, as well as more prizes that will be donated by other local business.

North Shore Women Centre provides women with access to resources to assist them with life choices, supplies for those in need, and counselling. They address violence against women in the community, challenge discrimination against women, and work towards ending situations of poverty for women. As well as this, the centre does much more for women in the community. We at Connect Fitness are happy to help support the centre, to help them continue to make a positive difference in women's lives.

I'm Taking Requests

Do you have any requests? If so I'm taking them. This video demonstrates exercises you can to do to tone your backside, as was requested by a loyal reader. If you have any questions or areas you would like to work on let me know, and I'll put together a mini workout for you.

Leave a comment below to let me know what you'd like to see.

Advanced Hundreds

Last month I put together workout videos demonstrating the Hundreds exercise and how to stabilize the lower spine with the deep core muscles. This week I'm sending you a video that combines both of those exercises to take your core workout to the next level.  Give it a try and you'll feel the fire on the inside radiate through your whole body!