Physical activity frequency

Another question we receive a lot is how Konstantin manages to stay in such a great shape at 47.

Well, he is training his clients on daily basis and since all of his clients are private 1 on 1 classes he really works them as well as himself. He is not a passive trainer. He does not just explain what to do, he demonstrates as often as necessary, he warms up with them, he spars with his clients, he stretches with them. So he gets plenty of cardio through out the week.

He also does his own Weight Training 2-3 times a week.
When he has time off he still stays very active with the kids, we always go for walk, play outside, swim. Konstantin is a great overall athlete. He is very good at Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, Tennis, he is an excellent swimmer...so anyway as you can imagine, our oldest daughter takes full advantage of her dad's abilities.

Konstantin's Diet

Konstantin asked me to address his diet in this blog. We get many questions regarding his diet and nutrition and this is the best way to make sure that anyone interested has access to that information.

Konstantin has always maintained a very healthy diet. Non of his choices are based on anything other than what he feels his body needs. He always listens to his body. He does not smoke, drinks in moderation, maybe a glass or two of wine or a bottle of beer a week. No soda. He loves coffee and until very recently had a cup or two every day. He drinks a lot of tea every day. Mostly white and green herbal teas, at least 4 cup a day. He no longer consumes red meet and pork.

Image via Wikipedia

Now his preference do change from time to time. For instance, red meet and pork he ate all of his life, but just few weeks ago all of a sudden did not feel like it anymore. So for the time being he completely excluded both from his diet.
He tries to consume as little processed sugars as possible. No while, brown or artificial sweeteners, no honey.
We use Stevia - a natural sweetener and love it.

Here are some staples of our diet. I say "our" diet because the whole family follows the same diet. For the most part I cook. Konstantin love to cook, but has little time for it. We eat rice pasta or wheat pasta. Sweet potatoes, yams. Beans. Buckwheat. Millet.

  Quinoa instead of rice. Not much bread and only whole grain. Chicken, turkey, some eggs. No cow's milk, instead rice or soy milk. Goat cheese and goat yogurt.
As much fruits and vegetable as possible. Almonds and sunflower seeds. Sunflower butter instead of peanut butter - and it is delicious. Our oldest daughter loves it.

Some of these changes came after Konstantin, myself and our oldest daughter all one by one had an appointment with a natural health nutritionist. Sports nutrition, "healthy diet" and the natural health nutrition are entirely different.
The nutritionist came highly recommended, we have heard about that office for years and finally decided it was time to make an appointment. We all have being extremely happy with the results.

One thing I must add is that we do not for the most part buy organic. It is still very expensive and we believe that there are many beneficial changes which we can make in our diet without spending too much money. As much as we would love to buy local and organic to support local farmers - they are just a bit out of our price range.

my personal trainer - Konstantin Selivanov

Ever since we moved to US and I started modeling here, I had to be in a great shape. It mostly meant to be as skinny as possible. At that time Konstantin did not compete and only trained private clientele. So since my looking good translated directly into $$$ my husband was nice enough to finally take over my nutrition and my training. His passion for nutrition started back in University where he picked up some basics and then as he was competing, training, working with other nutritionists he grew his knowledge base. I am also into nutrition, I read many books while always staying in tuned with on going research and new deverlopments in the field of nutrition. Between two of us it is wonderful to share, discuss and exchange all that information. But back in early 90th I was pretty clueless and followed Konstantin's directions to the T.
That's Konstantin and I back in 1992 in Arizona. We ran together every morning, then did a series of various full body Strength Training and Resistance Training exercises using own body weight, stretched, ran back to our apartment and swam in the pool. Every day.

We were based out of Arizona at that time, so weather was perfect. Always. No gym membership needed there.

My diet was very strict. Soy milk, chicken breast, some fruit, vegetables and that was about it. We worked with a sports nutritionist back then as well and he was the first one to tell us not to drink cows milk. He said that if we want to be cut and have a better muscle definition milk has to go. 

I was 125lb and 5'9"
Not much of a muscle - just skinny.
Now my ideal weight is 150lb.

I have never done any drugs nor did I smoke to stay skinny, but we did not drink alcohol, no soda and both followed pretty strict diet. Although Konstantin ate considerable larger portions we have always supported each other in our eating requirements as to limit the temptation. Imagine having half a chicken breast with some broccoli for dinner, while your spouse next to you is gorging himself on a burger with French fries.

Fitness, Konstantin and I

I started to workout regularly when I was about 17. That is when I met my soon to be husband. Konstantin Selivanov, a trainer and a professional kickboxer. 

But having a professional athlete for a spouse dose not necessarily mean you will be in shape as well. He worked out with me when he had time, but as he got busier and busier I had to find way to keep up my workout routine on my own.  

I always loved working out, I knew it makes me feel and look good, I knew there are tremendous health benefits both physical and mental health, but a huge AHA! moment came right after I had our first child. Withing first week of birth I developed a mild case of "baby blues". I would become overly emotional and for some reason happen it would in the evening. 
For about a week i was trying to deal with my emotions and finally my Dr suggester antidepressants. I am absolutely against taking drugs unless it is a last resort. So I picked up my prescription meds just in case, but fortunately have not had to take any, as that afternoon something wonderful happened. 

Later that afternoon, before I started to get all sad and emotional, driven purely by a feeling I had, I took my jump rope, went outside and started jumping. I only did about 10-15 minutes. Amazingly that evening I did not go into my funky depressed mood... So I began my little workout routine every evening. 
Konstantin had to train every night and travel a lot, so I was all along with the baby most nights. I had no opportunity to go to the gym nor did I have much time for a work out, but religiously every afternoon, before he left I would go outside of our apartment and jump my rope. That was my cure.

That was 10 years ago and since then I looked at fitness with new respect. Just recently I had two consecutive pregnancies withing two years. Tree month after one delivery I became pregnant again (don't ask, but it was planned believe it or not). Now my youngest is 11 months old. I ended up having two C-sections with these last two pregnancies. Worked out throughout each of those pregnancies and started being as active as I possible as soon as I could after each delivery.

That is me at my 33rd Birthday, few months before my second pregnancy. With third one to follow three months after the delivery...

Below is a picture of me now, it is not a great picture, but you get an idea. I am the one holding the baby. Although I have a long way to go to get into my pre-pregnancy shape, today I consider myself to be in a great shape considering how much I put my body through. 


And I truly contribute all of my health, mental and physical, my strength, my body's ability to recover so fast, to heal itself while nurturing another human being (I am planning to continue nursing for another month or so) - all of that and so much more thanks to Fitness and to people like you giving us tools necessary to succeed. I believe it is important especially for women to realize that Fitness does not have to be an enemy, an inconvenience nor a time consuming effort. You can do as little or as much as your goals and your abilities allow, as long as you JUST DO IT.