With the growing epidemic of obesity plaguing many people in the United States, health and physical fitness happens to be an inspirational goal for a lot of people. Many of us make promises with ourselves to get into shape but sadly lots of us have failed to follow through with this goal. It doesn’t make you a bad person, life often gets in the way of our intended goals. Staying in shape is a loads of hard work especially for the working class people who may not have time to go to the gym everyday and can’t afford to eat healthy all the time. However, the beauty of living a healthy lifestyle is that it just takes one step a day at a time. For those ladies looking for that one step who want to get into shape, legendary performer Dionne Warwick has teamed up with her Brazilian daughter in law, Luana Elliott to launch a new active wear called Healthy Gal Active Wear. The brand is for women wanting to get in shape and look good doing it. Parlé Magazine recently caught up with Luana to discuss the line and her growing business empire.
Luana has known Dionne since she was 9 years old. For the majority of Luana’s life growing up, Dionne was like a Godmother to her, but it wasn’t until Dionne returned to Brazil in 2000, when Luana would meet David, Dionne’s son and the two fell in love and got married. A little known fact about Dionne Warrick is that she is of African-American, Native-American and Brazilian ancestry. When Luana moved to L.A. from Brazil she brought along her business mindset and was able to quickly assimilate herself in the fashion industry. Juggling a new environment, college, and a new marriage, Luana was not only determined to grab herself a slice of the American Dream, but a whole pie. In 2012, Luana became a certified trainer to inspire women to live and lead an active healthy lifestyle. 2012 was also the year her company Body Construction was officially launched. “We don’t just help people to exercise, we inspire, we motivate and life coach,” Luana explained when discussing the primary goal of Body Construction.
In 2014 Luana started developing active wear for women under the company. calling it Healthy Gal Active Wear. The line benefits from being made by raw fabric materials only found in Brazil due to being in short supply in the U.S. Luana first introduced the product to Dionne. “She wore it and absolutely loved it,” Luana excitedly recalled how she got Dionne to be a part of this revolutionary active wear movement.
Healthy Gal Active Wear is different from any other active wear out there due to it’s fabric material that shapes to the wearer’s body no matter what size they might be “It’s a tight, shape fit that gives a natural lift to the butt and tummy, allowing the person wearing it to not only look good but feel good as well.” Luana also noted that the texture and look is something that has never been done before. Luana stressed that in Brazilian culture it’s important for the woman to look good no matter what she might be doing, which is what she wanted to bring to the States allowing the working women to feel sexy all the time no matter the occasion.
Healthy Gal Active Wear looks to empower women. With the booming success of The Healthy Gal, Luana hopes to launch a Healthy Guy line in the near future. It is currently being developed by Luana’s husband, David Elliott.
The product may only be available on Luana’s website at the moment but she does have plans to get into retail stores so that it’ll be available to everyone and everywhere.
When asked about any words of advice to readers looking to get in shape, Luana said “There’s no magic pill. Today we have so many products that claim to help you lose weight but really it takes hard work and dedication. Weight loss is more about committing yourself to yourself and changing your lifestyle.”
Readers can learn more about Luana Elliott and her Healthy Gal products by going to www.healthygal.net. They are also invited to check out Body Construction’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/bodyconstruction.me and on Twitter and Instagram @Byhealthygal and the official Body Construction website for the United States www.bodyconstruction.us.
Luana can be found on Twitter @luaelliott and facebook.com/LuaElliott
