Age matters less and less in the fitness industry and modern fashion. Dozens of brands are increasingly embracing elegant models well over forty.
This once again proves that fashion has no age limits.
In Ukraine, women over forty are often considered "aunties." And, unfortunately, they tend to behave accordingly. However, there are exceptions, and very pleasant ones.

Meet Galina Shpak-Levenberg, a 45-year-old Ukrainian originally from Borodyanka, near Kyiv.
Galina shares that she has been friends with sports and dance since her youth. Her genetics blessed her with a strong, muscular build and long, powerful legs, though she found little use for them beyond her family garden.
Her mind, however, found a more promising path.
In the 1990s, Galina went abroad to study, became a business consultant, founded her own company, and by forty, she was the owner of the historic Ringhaus Hotel, located on the Nürburgring circuit, where German Formula 1 cars were prepared.
But after achieving such heights, she decided to step back from business and dive into fitness.
In 2014, weighing 85 kg, this successful woman decided to lose weight and professionally try her hand at bodybuilding. Her transformation story has since become well-known in Ukraine.
Today, it would be impossible to call this fit woman with sculpted features a "grandmother," even though she is one by status.
Consistently appearing among the top fitness models in the world in her category, Galina has conquered stages in London, Las Vegas, and Toronto. The founder of the WBFF (World Beauty Fitness and Fashion), Canadian Paul Dillett, was so impressed by her physique and charisma that in 2018 he accepted her invitation to visit Kyiv to plan a potential fitness show.

"I sincerely believe that success begins ‘under the clothes,’ maybe even deeper — inside the mind.
The state of your inner self determines what comes out: silky smooth skin, muscle definition or fat rolls, and even the sounds you make — whether they are received as melodic words or a verbal flood of meaningless phrases. Today, those with something to hide inside tend to cover it up with branded clothes or professional media."

With these sharp words began my conversation with today’s heroine — a businesswoman, a woman radiating vitality, who calls herself a citizen of the world and a lover of piloting all types of vehicles.
She is not shy about showing off her body in a bikini in her late forties!
She is more than just a person — she’s a Person of Smiles.

"Many compare my hobby to professional bodybuilding. But it’s far from what bodybuilding really is.
Bodybuilding, as defined by Wikipedia, is the process of building and developing muscle mass through weight training, consuming large amounts of food, specialized high-energy nutrition, and sometimes pharmacological substances.
I, on the other hand, have transformed my body into an attractive shape and maintain it through a healthy and comfortable lifestyle.
I changed everything: my place of residence, my husband, my job, my social circle, and my approach to nutrition. In essence, my worldview and values changed completely. It was my life values that underwent a transformation, just like my body.

— Galina admits.

— говорит Галина и признается, что в ее спортивном клубе в Кейптауне ее называют «MISS RUSSIANGALAQUIN».

I created a life surrounded by smart fitness and convenient business."
"At first, I planned to participate in a single competition in Kyiv, but the spirit of competition drew me in

"I couldn’t stop at just one event — I needed more results. It wasn’t about winning first place or a champion title for me. I wanted to stay in great shape all the time. Not just for a few weeks before and after a competition, like many athletes do, but always!
My husband deserves to wake up every morning and see me in perfect shape. I shouldn’t have to hide my cellulite under a 500-euro lace negligee or photoshop myself for Instagram!"

"I have always been interested in the process of transformation, the process of learning: how my body and my muscles change. How my body reacts to various external interventions (sports, nutrition, rest, regimen, etc.) and how my life changes along with it! It's ALL very simple. Everything always works according to a system. Planned and deliberate. As you plan, so you get. I have learned how to control my body! You can't imagine how much potential is hidden in our body, in our muscles! And in our brains, my God! Ours and yours, almost everyone's brain is a factory for producing the world's treasures! Everything you wish can be invented and realized there! Only the main thing is to know how to do it!"
"My calendar year is now divided into two periods. In our European winter season, I am in South Africa: I enjoy the sun, the sky and ecologically clean air (Africans have learned to spoil food with chemistry). I study and invest in myself, in my health. I help the local population for nothing, for thanks. My knowledge and experience, as it turned out, are in demand more in other countries than in the country where I was born. But that, as they say, to each his own. Americans didn't recognize Deming and his ideas on quality management until he went to Japan. Few people know that it was he who influenced the outcome of the industrial revolution in the middle of the 19th century: thanks to training based on his principles, the Japanese economy took the lead at that time.
In the summer, I come to Europe or fly around the world and spend all my accumulated investments (laughs).
I attend about four or five WBFF shows. It's definitely Vegas, London, Canada, Australia and hopefully in 2019 it will be the Bahamas and New Zealand. Participating in the show is not only a competition, it's meetings, news, emotions, possible contract projects, it's like traveling to a new planet!
I love to travel, I spend a lot of time in airplanes - I guess it comes from my last name Shpak. I love the sky in general - there are a lot of rules and few violations. And also the sky does not forgive ponces and “avos” - what on earth is now very much. That's why I find something to do closer to possible freedom.
I like this lifestyle, it's a completely new existence for me - compared to my previous business life.”
“In fitness, as in business, it's important to set goals, plan a strategy to achieve them, find a budget, choose trainers and doctors (it's about choosing the right one for me, not the one given or forced to take from not having the best). I love the baking or burning body from working out, I love being hungry and enjoying a sip of wine after a long abstinence from sugary and alcoholic beverages.
I love connecting with those who you motivate, those who have something to learn from, those who have something to look up to for their own development, those who, because of your word, change their lives. It inspires me to take the next steps, and that's my WHY.”
“I'm already 45, but I'm not ready to give up my bikini, my feathers, or my hobby.”

says Galina and admits that in her sports club in Cape Town they call her “MISS RUSSIANGALAQUIN”.

In South Africa it is very difficult to explain the difference between Russia and Ukraine - we are just “white” for them, and whether you are from America or Belarus, no one really cares. Your passport is not important to them! What is important is your face and body. And also how you behave, how you look, what strength you have. You know, like in the old days, when they used teeth to determine health. It's almost like that here. (laughs). Sometimes it's even a problem if you're a white South African! Like with jobs. But luckily I've been bypassed by that. I'm a business and fitness person. And definitely not a politician, and I won't comment on what's happening in my home country right now. One thing I can say for sure is that I was created for evolution, for development and creation, not for revolution and destruction.”
“Every woman should be a little bit of a princess! It doesn't matter what age she is - princesses don't have it! All of us kids in the eighties didn't have enough costumes for the Christmas tree, jeans and a skirt were one for three girlfriends. The first costume for the new year my mother made me, having re-stitched her wedding dress. And I became ZIMOYA or Snow Woman! Everyone loved my mom's creation! Why did she choose me to be Winter? Just on the Snow Maiden did not pull my at that time already “athletic dimensions”. But since then I decided that I would grow up and buy myself the most expensive dress and be a princess!
I got it, though, a bit delayed. But better late than never. And on stage I am more often without a dress than in it - well, such are the conditions of the competition. Now I am proud of my body and I think that this is one of my most successful projects in life.
And in general, I have many projects.
The most important one is my daughter. She is already 23 (I always forget her birthday, or rather, I confuse the dates). Now she is in New Zealand - she decided to build her own ladder up! And I'm happy for her. She always has somewhere to go down and rest )))) (not without irony).
Another project is my business. In a nutshell, I've been working since I was 16 years old. In the truest sense of the word! And always 24/7 - without sleep or rest. And at forty, I'm already on my own hard-earned pension. And I pay it to myself, not depending on political and economic situations in the world. I have enough, probably because my demands are small. They don't advise eating a lot on a diet, and the sun shines equally on everyone, the air is free for everyone, and so on!
About the project “A man in my life” I will say briefly. I have a third marriage, and I think it will be my last. I love my German husband and I think that he was sent to me by God very timely. What I dreamed, I got!”
“Any dream you have in your brain can always turn into a real life. Therefore, it is very important for each of us to think only about the best, positive things. If you dream, dream realistically. As if it's going to come true in five minutes. But here it is - the dream has come true. So what's next? How will you behave in a situation where you already have everything you dreamed of? What's the next step? You certainly can't eat more than you need, or buy up everything there is in the stores, or stick your butt in two cars at the same time. It is VERY IMPORTANT NOT ONLY to be able to VISUALIZE your dreams, your goals, but to understand exactly what you will do with it next and why you are doing it.This is one of the problems of our modern society. Very many people live by inertia.
Everyone is busy with the daily routine, living from vacation to vacation, from the new year to the next one!
And this is how the whole life goes on!

Meanwhile, Galina is mastering aerobatics and surfing, writing a textbook for amateur pilots and leading her fitness group “Lovers of Transformation” in social networks. Maybe in the near future our Ukrainian Grandmother will become the first Space Guide for your children on a flight to Mars!
Galina has 13 contests (photo-video) and many flights under her belt.




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WBFF Ukraine Fitness and Fashion Show | Luxury shows in the world of fitness

World Beauty Fitness & Fashion Inc. | The Most Glamorous Show In Fitness

Author: Alina Avdeeva-Lanina

“Time is the only resource for me that has value. Relationships, money, health - everything can be built, bought, created. Finding or buying time is impossible!
“And if at the beginning of life we are put in our brains that we will die someday, we will begin to value time differently and not waste it on nonsense.”

By her example, Spack-Levenberg wants to show other women: it is possible to be beautiful, smart, and happy at any age.

“Any woman can be just like me, and maybe even better - it's just a matter of discipline and perseverance,” she believes. “You don't have to look up to anyone. You are you. And I am me! We are all unique. And we are responsible for our own lives ! Only you decide how to look and where, how and with whom to live”.

Galina gets up at 5 a.m. every day and does a cardio jog along the ocean, then starts working out. Her diet includes chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, eggs and lots of water, coffee and tea! Vegetables and fruits are rarely present. Alcohol outside the season of training for competitions is present very rarely and then only in the form of wine tasting! Galina's appetite is smoothed by her passion for piloting airplanes. This is her main passion today. Galina's husband, a physics professor and pilot-instructor, inspires her to set new records. She dreams of flying higher than the sky.

If you had a chance to choose your profession today, what would you want to be?

Galina:

In this regard, guides who will accompany travelers in flights to the stars will become in demand. And if at the initial stage they will be cosmonauts, then in the future the specialty will have to appear even in ordinary universities. I would also like to become a body designer. Bioengineering should make a breakthrough by the mid-2020s. In the future, a person will be able to easily change tissues and even organs. The possibilities of medicine and plastic surgery will help people to become as they would like to see themselves. And body designers will be able to translate a person's desires into models that will guide surgeons in their work.”

Our dreams are quickly transforming into realities! The question is only a matter of time!

Contact:

galina@skyberg.ch