olivia gird photography (oliviagird.com)

Welcome to my first attempt at introducing you to the Alayne White Lifestyle Blog. My thoughts and joys of my past 10 years of being a self-proclaimed spa goddess and inner beauty advocate. The queston may arise, "why would anyone care about alayne white's lifestyle"?  This thought has been ruminating in my inner compass for too long  to not give it a creative whirl. Coming to our spa may seem like external beauty, but the rest and peace you get from even the shortest of our treatments will surprise your inner voice. I want to talk to you about taking care of your body in this blog today and my favorite places to visit when I need a great workout, yoga class or pilates session. By the way a great fit body usually means great fit skin.

We women are so freaking confused about what to eat, what not to eat and the guilt and shame that so often is connected with everything that goes into our mouths that I think it is causing us to forget to simply enjoy our lives. I have met so many wonderful people in the health and lifestyle industry over the years. I am going to share my favorite people with you and their influence over me and me finally getting it when it comes to food, movement and health. In my daily contacts with many women, many like minded business owners, many moms, the community of us and our ability to share with each other our thoughts, dreams, desires and places we choose to do business with, are in my opinion, worth sharing. I am grateful for the first 10 years of business and the outcome of a creative space to begin this next 10. WELCOME.

               olivia gird photography (oliviagird.com)

First things first, these lifestyle pictures. This is me in the morning with my first cup of coffee in my favorite mug. No makeup either, that comes later. No it is not a cup of green tea, or hot water with lemon, though I have occassionally gone that route and I always feel great when I do, but I usually miss the aroma and taste of a great cup of coffee. This is my usual (caffinated) Organic Italian Roast, with a big splash of 1/2 and 1/2. I share this with you in my first intro to me as I am going to start telling you about my journey of the past 3 years into the world of taking better care of myself. This is my starter to introduce you to the celebration of your inner beauty.

 

         olivia gird photography (oliviagird.com) oggi photography (oggiphotography.com) in the back right

 Let me start with this mirror and the pictures in general. I think that a great introspective thing to do is to have some pictures taken of you in a creative way. You can not (or if you are like me, you probably can) imagine all the negative self talk that comes up when you are sitting for a photo trying to look (or feel) attractive. I wish that the photos that Olivia took of me could also share the thoughts running through my mind. You would never know it as they came out so nicely, but the insides... well how about, "when did these wrinkles appear, do I have a double chin? All this sun over the years is finally showing up on my chest... maybe I should color my hair again... what about those frown lines in the middle of my brows, I should have listened to my mother all those years when she told me to stop frowning, (really it was squinting because I always forget to put my glasses on)." You get the point. Though the photos are really pretty, the person seeing them has no idea that I had all these thoughts.The mirror I am looking into was my grandmother's. She got it in Florence, Italy and I remember looking into it when I was a little girl. My grandmother never felt any beauty when she looked into it, I know this because she told me this. I feel like when I look into the mirror and try to see the good things about me, I am honoring my grandmother's lack of positive image. This lack spilled over into her diet and exercise as well as the way my mother and my aunts learned body image from her poor example.

This was defintely the part I have struggled with my entire life. I have never looked at fitness with reverence and grace, but as a chore that I never felt like doing. I also grew up with a steady stream of amazing food in my house. There were never any packaged foods, but everything was inspired by the great cooks of the times, Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, aka, cream, sugar, sour cream, chocolate, etc. We also stress ate without realizing this as the term didn't exist back then. Food was either super controlled, "no snacks before dinner." or we ate the whole plate of cookies because we had 1 so since we "screwed up" we may as well give up the day, eat the plate and then start again tomorrow. I am no fitness expert, but I do know that all this yoyo-ing is self defeating and we never really learn what is making us tick and usually why we can never seem to stay at or get to the weight we want.

The 2 people who helped me change my entire thought process about my approach to food and movement are Sue Pasqual and Orlando Lugo. What I learned from both of them is the better way to eat, the reeducation of my crazy brain. I learned that for the most part I wasn't eating correctly, I wasn't eating enough (hallejuiah!) I learned that when women don't eat "enough" they send their bodies into starvation mode which is a primal response, and our bodies begin their magical journey of storing fat to self protect. Isn't that fablous? I am in awe of that basic concept. Now this of course does not mean that you can run off to the pastry shop and eat that sugar laden bun that you have been avoiding like the plague. The other fact is that usually we are not eating enough protein in our meals, so that 1/2 bagel or that english muffin that may be low in calories, is not giving you enough sustanance to tell your body to metabolize. WOW!

I am not fitness expert and I am not trying to tell you to do this without education, but I hope I peaked your interest enough to begin exploring. Just like great skin care, (we can teach you that at our spa) we are never taught nutrition in school or from our medical doctors. Our parents for the most part did not know alll the information that is out there now. I invite you to just consider taking a look at some new ways to be grateful for our healthy bodies. If you are blessed with the ability to move, if you are not sick or with health issues, why not take a look inside yourself and think about the gratitude for that health. Move today somehow, even if it is just a simple stretch to the sun, or a deep contemplative breath. The laundry will be there later, start taking care of your insides and everything starts to change. Life is lovely, I am grateful for my healthy body and having the choice to move today.

I don't belong to a gym, but rather have a bunch of cards at smaller boutiques style places. This way I can decide what I feel like and when I feel like it. Here are my favorite places and people I have come across in the past 3 years. This is just a start. I am going to add my fitness schedule to give you a flavor of a week in the life. When you think about the amount of time we spend on the computer, or texting or on facebook etc, an hour goes by in a nanosecond, fitness has to be put in your schedule, I know this now. I make the time. This is inner beauty.

www.bristolyogastudio.com    bristol, ri   tracy is one of my mentors, yoga, workshops, inner beauty and peace at its finest.

www.aullpilates.com bristol, ri, + middletown, ri , colleen and remy run a first class pilates studio, get your core insides aligned, I highly recommend this as a start to make sure your form and balance are in great shape. The toning that happens is magic. colleen is a rockstar.

www.shri-studio.com pawtucket, ri, alison bologna opened this studio and it is not to be missed. her mission is lovely. check out her message and her studio to get you started in real inner beauty.

Fuse_Fitness@yahoo.com bristol, ri, sue pasqual is an expert in better eating habits and fitness. i learned how to eat the right way from her.

www.Quicktofit.net barrington, ri, cindie demello is one of my favorite reality fitness people, she is direct, funny and knows her stuff. Her bootcamps created a habit froming routine for fitness. I highly highly recommend her program to get you started in all aspects of healthy eating and fitness.

www.catrained.com bristol, ri, orlando lugo, like cindie is an expert in nutrition and fitness. he is a great instructor, one of my heros and mentors for integrity, and a most lovely unintimidating gentle spirit.

www.pulsenewport.com newport, ri, once you get rocking and want to really step out of your fitness comfort zone, Pulse Gym is a crazy and invigorating workout. My favorite class is Bellevue Barre, squat central, your legs and abs and rear end will never feel so fit. This gym is not for a beginner, but they do have incredible boot camps on the beach which are pretty famous. Be Ready, Their team will kick your ass. I will be starting a beginner running camp next week and will be videoing it so look for that humor soon.

www.rootedinradianthealth.com, Just met Lynn Goodwin, her approach to eating and fitness and life was so refreshing, i just want everyone I know to meet her and know her. I think she will change you.

www.corefitprov.com providence, ri, Denise Chokoian runs a schedule of classes that are pretty famous in Providence. She is the real deal when it comes to fintess classes.

Fitness Together providence, ri, + barrington, ri, one on one personal training in a very provate environment, aaron in providence and matt in barrigton, great guys.

www.212healthandperformance.com, I met Kerry few years ago and loved him immediately. One of my favorite spa goddesses, jenna, goes to this gym and absolutely loves it. I think this is a gym that everyone will like and i JUST found out that my friend Orlando is good freinds with Kerry, so it must be awesome.

Feel free to email me directly with any questions.

alayne@alaynewhite.com