Ballerina Body.

Misty Copeland’s secrets to Leaner, Stronger and More Graceful You.

5 min readMar 25, 2017

I love reading about nutrition and the science of food, all the nitty-gritty geeky details.

But I also love books like this one — books from living and breathing examples of vibrant health and vitality, that pours into all areas of their life. Personal approach to healthy eating, exercise and movement, balanced and mindful lifestyle of someone, who has it all — fulfilling career with meaningful service and impact, quality heart-felt relationships with people, the world, inner self, healthy balanced vibrant beautiful and inspiring body and mind.

Every time I read a book like this one I confirm to myself once again, how important and vital well-rounded daily health practice is — mindfulness, meditative practice, healthy food, that works for your body, mind and soul nourishing you on all levels, movement practice. It reminds me, how fundamental to everything we do and achieve, everything we feel and experience health practice is.

Truly successful people are not just lucky (we all are when we follow our bliss), they are not special or born talented (we all are) — they are committed to their health, their calling, their inner peace with actions.

Daily.

Every time I read a book like this one, I see, how the more people get in touch with their bodies (through health practice), the more they get in touch with their minds and hearts (mindfulness and meditation) — the more they grow and open up not only as people, but also as creators of their work, their best work.

You can’t play Mozart most brilliantly on a badly tuned piano.

You can’t play your best life theme with a badly tuned body instrument.

Ballerina Body.

Leaner, Stronger, and More Graceful You.

The book is very enjoyable, very personal. Alive and breathing. Beautiful and graceful. Just like Misty herself.

It’s divided into 4 main parts: Mind, Motion, Meals, Mentors.

Mind.

It all starts with your Mind. Anything you achieve or don’t in your life, everything you live, feel and experience, it all starts there — in your Mind. Your goals and dreams? Before you achieve them — you got to see them, feel them, think them, write them down, affirm and claim!

It’s all in your Mind. Work with it. Or struggle and suffer.

Motion.

Workouts, movement, exercise — it’s a way of life, it’s a healthy body maintenance, it’s what you got to do, if you consider yourself a human being. Our mind is a powerful thing, but that sucker has such some ego! It made us believe, that we can live fine without taking a proper care of our body — making it move daily, stretching it, making it stronger, fitter, beautiful.

The book has a ballet-based workouts, consisting of a few exercises on the floor and standing. Workouts, that can be done anywhere, require no equipment, and can be suited for any level of fitness — in fact, Misty was doing floor part of the workouts, when she couldn’t do anything standing, because of an injury. So you have no excuses not to start your movement practice!

The Motion part has movements, stretches, strengthening exercises to do during the day. Because our body needs movement throughout the day, not just an hour a day in a gym or class. You got to move consistently. All day long changing your positions, stretching, breathing with your body, working on your posture!

Meals.

This part shares Misty’s favorite recipes and eating habits — she is a pescatarian by the way (Misty only eats fish, no beef or other meats).

There’s a 21-day meal plan she recommends for people, who don’t know how and where to start, who need a meal plan, at least at the beginning.

There is a shopping list and all the recipes for the plan.

Misty eats a healthy diet of healthy fats

vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, smoothies and juices, focusing mostly on healthy fats from fish like salmon, sardines, mackerel, herring, from nuts and seeds, focusing on fruits and complex carbohydrates like oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice.

She enjoys her desserts like donuts occasionally, but definitely not daily.

Mentors.

The chapter is about teachers, role models, inspirations, that guided Misty, supported her, inspired her, believed in her, when she didn’t.

I couldn’t say it better that Misty.

If you want to be inspired and start taking actions, start your health transformation, that inevitably will lead to life transformation — get the book.

It covers everything you need to practice to transform your body and life — mindful practices to shape your mind, meal plan and movement routine to make your body ready for amazing life and the dreams you have.

And besides all that — it’s a very enjoyable and beautiful book, you’d want to have to read from it, once in a while, it’ll keep you on a graceful path to the best you.

Enjoy!

Healthy living trivia