By Alanna Nuñez for Shape.com
On TV and in magazines, Kelly Ripa always appears to have flawless skin, a glowing smile and endless amounts of energy. In person, it's even more apparent! With such a busy schedule as a TV host, mother and now, the face of the Electrolux Virtual Sleepover campaign, which benefits ovarian cancer research, we just had to ask her how she does it. The results were not surprising: She follows a healthy diet and active lifestyle, even when her schedule is jam-packed! Read on to see what Ripa does to to stay fit and healthy, even when she's short on time.
1. She gets moving every day. Ripa says when she first started taking exercise more seriously after her kids all started going to school, she couldn't even walk up the stairs without being winded.
"I thought, 'Oh, no, this is all wrong,'" she says. "I should not be winded, walking up the stairs!" So, the star started slowly: "I took a walk one day," she says. "Then I took a long walk, and then a brief jog."
While she admits it was initially "terrible," her best advice to the people who were in her shoes is to "begin at the beginning," like she did and just get moving a little bit every day.
"If you're housebound and you're not feeling so good about yourself, just try walking around your living room," she suggests. "Or do five jumping jacks. It'll get your heart beating, you might feel energized, and you'll realize, you could probably do five more."
2. She focuses on her mental health. While the TV anchor admits that she'll generally get up an hour earlier in the morning if it means she can put in a full workout (what can we say, she's dedicated to her workouts!), she turns to yoga as her tried and true workout when she's really running short on time, not only for the fitness benefits but for the mental health boost.
"If I only have fifteen minutes in the morning, I'll just do some yoga or some deep breathing," she says. "For me, it's more the mental aspect than fitness. I'm glad [yoga] suits my body well, but I don't really do it for that, I do yoga more for my mind; it puts my mind in the right place."
For the same reason, Ripa is a huge fan of Soul Cycle, which she says encourages her to push through her "brick wall," or whatever it is that might be bothering her on any given day, and helps her to focus on her mind and body.
3. She avoids bad habits. Ripa says the best healthy living advice that someone ever gave her (which she admits she promptly ignored) was to avoid cigarettes at all cost.
"It's the one thing I wish I could tell every kid who's in high school or college who thinks, 'Oh, this one time won't be so bad,'"she says. "No. It's just the worst, and then it's just such a struggle to quit."
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