(PCM) Giada De Laurentiis is known for cooking up decadent Italian dishes, but how does she manage to stay so thin and healthy eating pasta and prosciutto? She revealed her slim-cooking secrets to Health, from how she stays slim on pasta, to her fitness and skincare routines!
Here are a few highlights!
How she eats such great food and stays so slim:
“I eat a little bit of everything and not a lot of anything. Everything in moderation. I know that’s really hard for people to understand, but I grew up in an Italian family where we didn’t overdo anything. We ate pasta, yes, but not a lot of it. Pasta doesn’t make you fat. How much pasta you eat makes you fat.”
How she stays fit when she’s not on the road:
“I do yoga with an instructor for an hour three times a week. I started doing yoga when I was pregnant, and I was told by my OB/GYN that I could no longer go to the gym because my daughter wasn’t growing enough. I was a big gym rat for a long time—treadmill, elliptical machine, StairMaster, weights. But I started doing yoga and paddleboarding, which is peaceful, almost like a meditation. And I go hiking.
How she keeps her energy up when she’s on the road:
“I do yoga—stretching and core work. Every morning I do sun salutations. Sometimes I do a little meditation. My sister-in-law introduced me to Deepak Chopra’s website, which sends you daily reminders. I try to center myself because I’m around a lot of different energies, and it gets a little crazy and chaotic.”
Her travel must-haves when it comes to food:
“Almonds are my staple. They’re nonperishable and can sit in my bag for the entire book tour. Plus lots of water, and—I’m not gonna lie—Americanos [an espresso-based drink] everywhere I go, with a little agave because I don’t do sugar.”
How she stays healthy aside from exercise:
“Lots of water. Two liters of water a day at least. And lots of olive oil. It keeps my skin healthy. It keeps my whole [self] healthy and glistening.”
How she keeps her skin looking so young and healthy:
“I do use it [olive oil] on my face. I have a whole 30-minute regime that I cannot go to bed without doing. And I keep my skin—especially my face and neck—out of the sun. My brother died of melanoma eight years ago, and I’ve got SPF on all the time, 24-7. It makes you realize, the sun is a wonderful thing, but it can be a very devastating thing. So sunscreen is key, and a lot of laughter, too. Laughing is so, so, so important in your life. It keeps you happy.”
