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.