Spring Smoothie and Free Yoga!
March 27, 2013
Spring is in the air Passover and Easter are time for celebration, gratitude and new life.
Spring also means our 12-Day Cleanse is right around the corner, with the first meeting on Thursday April 4th.
This is a wonderful time of year to lighten our diet, open the windows and let in new air, and to take time to reconnect with ourselves and nature. With the holiday weekend approaching, let’s all commit to time outside, eating healthy meals (with chocolate of course), rest, and appreciating friends and family.
My mom has been in the hospital this week, with bronchitis and low sodium resulting from dehydration, she is home now and the importance of family is top of mind for me. We had planned a trip to Florida this weekend, we’ve put that off to a later date and will spend a quiet Easter in Ottawa.
So as a result I am here this Friday and in gratitude to this new season upon us, my mom’s health and all our amazing students, I am offering a FREE YOGA CLASS. Friday, March 29th, 7:00 – 8:00am. Everyone is welcome, we can hold about 30 people, when capacity is reached I will close the doors.
Come and Celebrate, express gratitude and be part of a wonderful and uplifting community on Friday morning.
Recipe
Post-Yoga, here is super fast, delicious and nutrition smoothie, bursting with spring flavours. Enjoy
Springtime Smoothie
- 1 banana
- 10-12 small strawberries
- 1/2 cup mango or peaches
- 2 heaping tablespoons hemp
- 1 cup or more Almond/Coconut milk
Blend and feel the spring sunshine!
Free Sunrise Yoga Boot Camp Classes
August 28, 2012
Come and experience the beauty of Sunrise Yoga and enjoy free Yoga Boot Camp classes.
As our “thank you” to all of our loyal Elation Centre members, we are offering 2 mornings of free classes during the week of September 3rd. Regular Boot Camp sessions are not scheduled this week, but we would love for you to join us on Wednesday, September 5th and Friday, September 7th…our gift to you! We will have classes at 5:45am and 7am both days and we’ll also have yummy snacks to share (made by Donna). A great way to try out our Boot Camp classes if you have been thinking about giving your fall workout a kick-start!
Also, a big thank you to all of our boot campers! You have done an amazing job getting up early and practicing with us over the past few months. It has been great to reconnect with previous members and meet new people since Sunrise Yoga Boot Camp was re-established in April. Hopefully you have enjoyed some of our recipes and learned some tips and tricks that you can use to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
Do you have a friend who would like to try our Boot Camp class? We’d love to meet them. This is a great week for you to bring in a friend who wants to try out our Boot Camp. Everyone is welcome.
We look forward to seeing you next week.
For more information on our Boot Camp classes, click here.
Yoga at Sunrise? Really?!
March 29, 2012
I was looking for some inspiration as I was preparing to write this blog post and a newsletter about our amazing new Sunrise Yoga Boot Camp, and as the universe would have it, the perfect email appeared in my inbox!
The email was from the No-Meat Athlete and it was all about inspiration for predawn running, some of the points and all of the enthusiasm pertain perfectly to getting up at dawn to practice Yoga.
The article starts out by saying, “If you’ve got the flexibility to run any time of day you want, with no other commitments to worry about, you can safely stop reading. Still here? I thought so.”
Are you still here? Ok let’s carry on.
According to this Forbes online article “Early rising also means a built-in block of exercise time, which pays dividends in the boardroom. Besides fitness, regular exercise boosts mood, focus and energy levels. When asked about her before-dawn gym habits, Avon’s CEO Andrea Jung told The Sunday Times: “I try to be disciplined. If I don’t do it early, it falls off the schedule.”
The article continues to say “Perhaps ironically, getting up earlier also creates healthier sleep patterns. According to psychiatrist Tracey Marks, author of Master Your Sleep, going to sleep early and waking early—while getting the suggested seven to nine hours—syncs the body clock with the earth’s natural circadian rhythms, which is more restorative than trying to sleep while the sun’s up. And if you’re getting out of bed to exercise, that’s even better for sleep. Marks says physical activity helps create “efficient sleep” that is deeper and uninterrupted.”
Inner Peace
There is an amazing inner peace and calm, getting up when all is quiet. You’ll find less to disrupt your flow and rhythm early in the day, according to yogic tradition the perfect time to practice is when the sun is rising, you are connecting to your bodies inherent rhythms creating a balanced energy for the day ahead
5:45am, 7:00am – REALLY!?
Ok here are some tips to get you up and ready – I’ve been doing it for over 6 years, 3-5 times per week, these work!
Lay out all your workout clothes the night before.
Have it ready to go so you don’t need to hunt through a dark room in a semi-awake state.
Prepare the night before.
Get lunches packed, kids’ stuff ready for school, your clothes ready for work. Doing these things the night before means you won’t be thinking about them during yoga, and rushing when you get home.
Get to Bed!
It’s only reasonable that staying up until midnight does not encourage you to get up at 5am. Set new habits getting to bed 15-30 minutes earlier each night until you hit 10pm. Shut off the TV, shut off the email, turn off the lights and go to sleep.
Food and Drink
Limit how much you eat and drink 2 hours before going to bed so you are not energized by your digestive system; and yes avoid alcohol before bed, it may help you fall asleep but it mixes up your sleep rhythms, you’ll be awake at 3am worrying about having to get up in 2 hours, defiantly not worth that glass of vino!
Keep your bedroom clock set 10 minutes fast. (this is from the No-Meat Athlete)
Yes, you’ll know it’s a trick. But early in the morning, you just might convince yourself that you slept longer than you did. Plus you get a little buffer on that super-precise estimate you just made on how long your morning routine will take – you’ll appreciate this occasionally.
Don’t let the snooze button become a tool of your resistance. (This is from the No-Meat Athlete too)
There are several ways to beat the snooze button.
You can put the alarm out of reach so you have to get out of bed to turn it off. You can set the alarm loud so as to jar yourself awake (and, if you have a sleeping partner, no doubt they won’t want to hear that alarm a second time). Or, you can just be so motivated that the snooze button is never a temptation.
Excuses are taken care of you know you need to do it, join us and feel amazing! Here is the link to register
Sunrise Yoga Boot Camp
March 21, 2012
Invest in You for a Change
With a constant bombardment of new fitness, health and weight loss information constantly coming on the market, what do you choose and where do you start?
The good news is you’re come to the right place. I’m Donna Davis, owner and CEO (Chief Empowerment Officer) of Elation Centre, and, one of my passions in life is to dig through all the information and find out what is relevant – what really works!
This program delivers results
I desire to live a life full of energy, to stay fit, trim and lean, to fuel my body and mind to prevent disease and live life to it’s fullest – all in the most efficient and effective way possible!
Sunrise Yoga Boot Camp combines all the elements that work for me; drawing on the extremely popular and successful Powerful Woman Boot Camp I created over 6 years ago, I am so happy to offer you this new and cutting edge program, open to both men and women.
With over a decade of experience as a fitness, health and wellness coach, and the benefit of having trained with some of the top Yoga, Fitness and Nutrition experts in the industry – my creation of Sunrise Yoga Boot Camp offers you the beauty and perfection of the ancient practice of Yoga with cutting edge physiology exercises resulting in outstanding results and in a brand New You!
Sunrise Yoga Boot Camp is our signature Elation Vinyasa Yoga flow class, which builds endurance and burns fat, combined with postures proven to both build lean and toned muscles, and move deep in to muscle tissue to release tension and prevent injury. You receive the benefits of strength training without the gym setting and the mind body calming benefits of yoga, all in one program.
Exercise is just part of the plan
Research has shown the up to 80% of the results you are looking for from your fitness routine – weight loss, toning, fat burning, disease prevention, are a result of what you eat! A diet high in fibre, one that eliminates unhealthy cholesterol, one that is high in anti-oxidants and micro nutrients and of course one that fits a busy lifestyle, is one that works.
Our Sunrise Yoga Boot Camp program combines our cutting edge mind-body fitness program with the most up-to-date information on diet and nutrition to fuel you, promote lean muscle and fat-burning and create long-term health and prevention.
A comprehensive program
We give you the tools, tips, motivation and guidance to guarantee you succeed. You don’t have to go anywhere else.
This is a new movement in health, fitness, and well-being.
Our members constantly tell us that Elation Centre is more than just Yoga, we are a community where you can feel at home, supported and inspired. Join us on the leading edge of health and wellness, and become a leader in your own health movement, one that you can spread to your peers and family, educating, empowering and enriching lives, and living with energy and passion!
For more details on the Sunrise Yoga Boot Camp, click here.