Change Your Mind To Transform Your BODY

Despite my being vocal online, a lot of people (even friends) don’t seem to know what I do. Most people imagine I am a personal trainer, and I am! But, only for a very select, high-paying few. What I specialize in is Mind, BODY and Life Transformations via fitness and nutrition remote coaching through the BODYbybianca Training System, a sixteen week program designed not only to change your BODY, but your habits and your mind. Working closely with me by email, phone, skype and text, your perception of health and fitness will forever be changed. Through the program, you will learn the skills personal training alone will never teach you, to reach, maintain and surpass your goals! When you enroll into my program, you become a member of Team BODYbybianca, a dedicated group of my clients from around the world; fitties training together online and supporting one another in a private group on Facebook where you will receive daily support from myself, my current and past clients (graduates of the program). You will receive a comprehensive meal plan tailored to your BODY and your goals with recipes to ensure that you never have a craving that isn’t met with a healthy alternative. Via email, every Sunday, you will receive your weekly fitness schedule (with images and video) for weightlifting and custom BODYbybianca cardio programs designed to target fat-burning while preserving muscle mass for a lean, toned and fit look.

In honor of “Transformation” and “Throwback” Thursday, here are some TBTs from clients and graduates at various stages of the BODYbybianca Training System:

This past year has been a period of transition for me. When chance landed me in Nicaragua on March 18th of 2014, I knew immediately that my life was forever changed and felt a strong sensation, right out of the airport, that Nicaragua was my home. I had eighteen clients enrolled in my program, I saw their contracts through without taking on new business, and proceeded to spend the next nine months on a sabbatical of sorts. For two months, I solo backpacked Nicaragua, traveling South through Costa Rica scouting locations for fitness retreats and a place to call home. Following my voyage in Central America, an extended month of travel lead me to Harbour Island, Bahamas; Scottsdale, Arizona; and New York City, where I caught up with many of my remote coaching clients and attended my fifteen year high school reunion. Assured Nicaragua was, indeed, where I was meant to be, I returned to my home in Florida where I settled my belongings, selling what I could, packing what I could carry and giving away the rest. October 16th, 2014 marks my homecoming to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, where the next 10 weeks were spent finding my way in a new country, exploring a new culture and learning a new language, in which I am now fully immersed. January 1, 2015, just one week ago, I started working again. Maybe you have noticed I have been rather busy online, updating the blog, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook with new recipes, pictures, stories of love and adventure and daily motivation inspired by my very real and really awesome life in the jungle. That said, I am accepting admissions for a NEW class, the first of 2015 for Team BODYbybianca!

The cost of the program, in which you are contracted for sixteen weeks — because I need sixteen weeks to change your BODY — is $200 per month with a $200 enrollment fee (half of which is credited to you upon successful completion of the program and delivery of biweekly progress pictures). Everyone changes! Are you ready? GET LOCKED IN!

Email me at BODYbybianca@gmail.com or message me on Facebook.com/BiancaSultana to inquire about enrollment.

Together in Health!

xob

Homemade Almond Butter

Since moving to Nicaragua, one of the U.S. treats I miss the most is my organic raw almond butter. In New York and in Florida, it was such a staple in my diet! A healthy fat, with benefits for my hair, skin, nails, and fat metabolism, a spoonful of almond butter helps curb my appetite for sugary carbs and chocolate. I love it on my protein pancake or in my oatmeal in the morning! But, in Nicaragua, nut butters are not accessible, and despite there being peanut farms, you cannot find peanut butter outside of the imported Jiffy brand which is highly processed and very expensive. So…

I MADE MY OWN!

This is my first attempt at making any nut butter, and it was so easy, I will never buy costly packaged nut butters again! Here’s how…
1. Soak raw almonds in water overnight (I left mine soaking in the fridge for two days because I was busy and no harm done!) I added just enough water to cover a large bowl of nuts (full raw almonds, skin intact). After a few hours the almonds greedily sucked up the water so I added a bit more and repeated that process once more.
2. Using a high powered blender (I love my Ninja blender, pictured), blend the almonds with all of the leftover liquid in the bowl.

This turned into a rather gritty almond mixture.

To smooth out the butter, I slowly added little bits of water to the blender until a creamy mouse-like texture was reached. And, voilà!

Today I used my homemade almond butter on my pancake with homemade strawberry-blackberry preserves! No berries in Nicaragua, I brought a large bag back from my Christmas trip to Costa Rica and made the jam as a way to preserve the fruit and enjoy it for longer! Another easy recipe which you can find, along with the BODYbybianca Pancake recipe on my blog (look for the jam recipe posted in April from Costa Rica).

Together in Health!
xob

Plan a FITivity For A Friendly Fun Fitness Activity

Happy weekend y’all!

Remember: GOALS do not take a weekend pass, so neither should you! Incorporate FITIVITIES into your social plans for fitness activities that are a friendly fun distraction from what is clearly a workout. Comment with your faves or try one of mine:

1. Surfing & SUP! In Nicaragua as in my past home in Florida it is beach season all year round! In South Florida visit my friends at Beach Shack Paddleboards for “SUP” stand-up paddle board tours!

2. Skiing/ Snow boarding. If your climate is opposite mine, there is no better FITivity workout for the legs and booty! When you ski/board you are in an constant squat position. “PLUMP THAT BUMP!”

3. Rock climbing! One of the many FITivities I love! I used to compete in indoor lead climb. It is so much fun, a brilliant workout and with indoor/outdoor facilities, available almost anywhere!


From Nicaragua with love,

xob

The Importance of Rest

My alarm just went off telling me it’s gym time, but I’m going back to bed. I will caution you here to never make the decision to skip the gym in the morning (it is far too easy to want to get out of your commitment at this seemingly un-Godly hour). After weighing the pros and cons of this morning’s workout, I made the decision to play hooky yesterday.

As important as it is to stay on course by keeping one’s commitment to a program, it is just as essential to listen to one’s BODY. The healthier you become through good nutrition and exercise, the more easily your mind will communicate with your physical BODY to decipher when you can be pushed (most of the time) and when rest in needed (essential time).

My day yesterday included three workouts. After lifting weight, followed by a boxing session and then the longest, highest mountain bike climb of my life, just getting home from town on my bicycle, my BODY felt broken. Spent to the vey last cent, I was close to tears on that last hill ascent! Have you ever exhausted your physical energy to the brink, such that your emotional self comes out to play? You are literally brought to tears from a training session? That was me yesterday. And “legs” were planned for today… Yeah, right! No dice!

So I turned my attention to healing through my restorative practice of stretching. People want to label me a “yoga girl,” because I manage a yoga wellness center, but I am not one. Yoga is a brand like any other; it is a money making machine. What I am, if you must label me, is a FITNESS queen! Fitness is all encompassing physical health. I lift weights to be strong, perform cardiovascular activity for my heart health, and I stretch my BODY for flexibility and anti-aging. Decades of ballet, Pilates and yoga have all lead to the formation of my own technique of stretching, whereby I combine the knowledge of all my disciplines and use yoga poses to enhance, but not set, nor restrict my practice. One-on-one stretch sessions are a gift I offer my clients, as healing as a day at the spa, therapeutic as a massage and more restorative than a yoga class. Yesterday, I spent several hours stretching throughout the day with a focused session in the evening showing myself love on my Manduka yoga mat, using a foam roller and a tennis ball for some self-appointed myofascial release (a massage technique of sustained applied pressure into areas of the muscle that are sore or “knotted”).

Today, I’ll continue to stretch my BODY, possibly after taking an anti-inflammatory ( I do not subscribe to Western medicine, but sometimes it is needed), applied heat, and followed by ice therapy on my back. Yes, I really am that sore! As my friend Isaac Williams loves to remind me, though I have many superhuman attributes I have built over years of training, I am indeed NOT Wonder Woman!

The image is a picture of my spine, showing my severe scoliosis. As crooked as as my back has been made strong, if I can do all that I do, then YOU CAN too!

I’M POSSIBLE. Are YOU?

Together in Health!
xob

PLUMP THAT BUMP!

The day is not over till you’ve gotten in a BODY burn! Try the BODYbybianca Booty Workout:
1. Leg Extensions. 4×20 (a great way to warm up your quads for squats!)
2. Goblet Squats. (NOTE: the heavier the weight, the greater the plumping power on your glutes!) 4×10 –> notice that lower reps allows for heavier weight = more plumpability!
3. Sumu Squats (with a wide stance, hang a dumbbell between your legs, these will really hit your inner thighs as well as lift and shape your glutes from the outside in!) 4×15
4. Walking Lunges with Suitcase Dumbells (hold a DB in each hand as if you’re carrying two suitcases) 4×20 each side (that’s 4 sets of 40 total! –> higher reps promote toning and sculpt long lean muscle!
5. Leg Curls (targets the hamstrings and lower bum connection) 4×20

Of course you can also make some easy modifications and eliminate the weight if you can’t get to the gym and you are doing this at home. Just do exercises 2-4 and substitute forward leg raises for #1 and rear kickbacks or bootyblasters for #5, which don’t require gym equipment. No Excuses!

“PLUMP THAT BUMP” BODYbybianca Style!

Together on Hump Day!
xob

Only You

By far, the MVP on your team is YOU. Others will question you, test you, take from you, and use you… Few will Believe in You, keep Few close. Let your God be your guide and stay rooted in your conviction as your Future is YOURS to write and your Present is YOURS to Live and to Love.

Recently, I made some decisions to change my life. I took action in pursuit of a Dream in which I Believe. In just two weeks from the job offer to my flight, I sold what I could and abandoned the rest. “They are just ‘things’,” I reminded myself, worthless possessions, STUFF I do not need. I moved myself, my dog and only that which I could carry to run a retreat center for yoga, surf and adventure in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.

(If anyone is curious where that is, it is where the current Survivor was filmed. It is a place rich in culture, music, beauty and food. It is the very place I began my journey in March of this year. It is the place where I fell in Love and where I wished to return. I am here. I Live Here.)

But nothing worthwhile in life comes without challenges, as success is Earned and not “deserved” (note back to the blog post I wrote several months ago about this word, “deserve.”) And since before my arrival, facing “challenges” on this particular path has been a recurring game, in which difficulty tells me I am but a pawn, but wisdom assures me I am the Queen. How am I to earn your Trust? To secure your Faith in my Vision and my Ability? Will you Love me? Follow me? Serve me? Not undermine me?

I have crossed language barriers, been met with venomous creatures and flying mice (turns out Batman is more of a house mouse with wings, then a muscle-y man I would want by my side), gripe (Spanish for the flu has plagued me)… But no challenge is as great as the clash of the Ego(s). WHO is in charge? WHO is the Boss? WHO knows best? WHO is a sound owls make. I cannot change your mind or make you do as I please. I have only control over one thing: Me. So, to Me and to You I say, “get our of your own way for your own good!”

Keep going. Never stop. Yours is a path worth traversing cavernous mountains, crocodile-laden rivers, and valleys as great and your gaze…

BELIEVE.

Together in Health! In Life! And in Love!
xob

Wherever You Are, From Wherever I Am…

As a child, I was always taught I could be anything I wanted, but I never imagined I could be everything I wanted.
I started my professional career building a boutique PR firm in the fashion industry. A natural writer and social butterfly with an appetite for luxury, it was perfect for me at the time. I got to live out a childhood fantasy of high fashion, high heels, VIP access and champagne cocktails. But all that shines would dull and approaching 30, I was no longer satisfied in an industry I found vapid and unfulfilling. I returned to my roots in health.
I had always been an athlete and studied pre-med at Wesleyan University. As a trainer, I found myself on the front lines of the health industry; I see my clients three times a week, they see their doctors three times a year! I loved it immediately. I started competing in fitness. I felt alive; I was an athlete again.
Getting healthy on the inside, I sought health on the outside. I moved from NYC to South Florida to live on the beach. I transitioned my business from Personal Training to Remote Coaching. By emailing my clients their workout programs and meal plans, I could help more people all over the world and I, in turn, could live anywhere, or… Everywhere! I realized early on that selling my time wasn’t going to get me anywhere, but selling my knowledge could get me everywhere. I love my job as a coach! It is by far the most rewarding experience I have every had. And now that I am working on a yacht, the only difference is that my home floats. I’ll be traveling the world and learning new and exciting skills! But with the magic of the internet, wherever you are, from wherever I am, I want to help you get healthy and fit!
Fitness changed my life; fitness gave me life. Be Everyday Better!
Together in Health!
xob
For details on how we can work together to achieve your goals, email BODYbybianca@gmail.com.

Photo credit: AJG FILMPRODUCTIONS for BODYbybianca, Inc.

EAT Like An Athlete. LIVE Like A Warrior. LOVE Like A Woman.

“Double fisting!” A red juice and a green juice!

The red is watermelon and mint blended with ice. Watermelon has a little sugar, but I’ve been surfing, swimming and running around all morning, so a little of nature’s sugar will do me some good! Plus…. Mint is a powerful anti-inflammatory, the herb is great for your digestive system, it also promotes a healthy respiratory system, and reenergizes you when you need a pep-up! Mint has also been shown to have positive effects for cancer patients and breast feeding women… Watermelon, a natural aphrodisiac? Watermelon is 6% sugar and a whopping 91% water, which puréed, makes this fruit an amazing way to rehydrate after a workout or surf-sess in the hot sun. Like mint, watermelon also has cancer benefits and may help men with erectile dysfunction. Hear that, ladies? Feed this fruit to your man! Preferably in a frosted glass with mint for when he gets out of the surf!

And in my green juice? That’s where I get my life and I can feel the liquid as it penetrates my veins, feeds my BODY and fuels my activity. In this one, I added fresh kale from the market in Quepos, Costa Rica (the nearest town to where I am in Manuel Antonio) about 1/3 banana (1/2 is a full serving, but I cut it down since I also have the sugar from the watermelon in my other glass), and almonds (6-10 raw almonds is a serving). I blend the green juice with a small amount of water and more ice because I like it thick like a smoothie.

TIP: I make all my juices into smoothies in the blender because you will use less fruit than in a juicer and that means less sugar. Also, a blender retains all the nutrients and fiber of the fruit, verses a juicer with which so much of the “good stuff” is lost in the pulp.

Together in Health!
xob

http://www.BODYbybianca.com

The Deejay

Man,

It is easy for me to fall in love with you. I bear an open heart, and see beauty in all of you.

Readily, I invited you to know me. I did not know you, but by day two, I knew that I would like to; so easily I gave my trust to you.

So, when a man shows me kindness, I melt into the feeling; it feels like love, and I want more.

So, when a man decides quite finally to share with me his reality, and it is not kind, and it is not welcome, certainly it is not free, and most essentially, it is not consistent with all that he has played me to be… Fuck. Him.

I do not regret the love I gave to you, for from me to you, my body with my heart was given freely. Unconditionally, though not eternally. Truly. Genuinely. You got me… For, a time.

“Hey, Mr. Deejay,” yours is not my favorite song.

K.I.S.S. xob