How does Kelly Ripa manage it all? She’s not only the host of Live!, but a full-time mother of three, wife to hubby Mark Consuelos, and a serious exercise enthusiast. And somehow she makes it all look so easy.
What’s her secret to powering through her days? She tells Good Housekeeping:
“I think exercise has everything to do with it. Before I started exercising, I was exhausted all the time. I remember when Joaquin was about 7 months old, I was carrying him up the stairs, and was completely winded when I got to the top. I thought, I’ve got to figure this out, because I shouldn’t be exhausted like this. My husband encouraged me and said, ‘If you worked out, you’d feel so much better, and it would quiet your mind down.’ I started out three days a week, walking for a half hour on a treadmill; then it was five days a week, and then I started jogging. It was like a drug. The gateway drug is the treadmill.”
Her exercise routine:
“I work out every day. It’s part of my life. That’s one of the benefits of having kids in school full-time. I’m usually done with work around 11 A.M., so I have time before I pick the kids up from school. I do it more for my insides than my outside, but the outside gets a nice benefit, too. I feel like my mind is a little quieter when I exercise. And I don’t have the best family history heart-wise, so I really try to keep my heart strong.”
But she doesn’t eat very much for all that exercise she’s doing. She shared her usual daily menu:
“Breakfast is usually a piece of grainy toast. I have a piece of toast and coffee with Mark in the morning. After work, I’ll have a protein bar and some flaxseed snacks. And then for lunch, I’ll have either salad or yogurt and blueberries. For a snack, I always have Pepperidge Farm Goldfish. I cannot give them up. At dinner, I eat a ton of vegetables — and a salad, soup, or a light piece of fish. I try not to have too much cheese or too many high-fat foods, even though I love them. I would love nothing more than to have pizza and french fries every day, but I try to limit those treats to once a week.”
That doesn’t seem like enough, but it’s no wonder why she’s so thin! If you’re exercising everyday, eating such a small amount cannot be great for your energy level. Make sure you’re eating at least 1,200 calories a day – dipping too low will slow your metabolism and deplete energy levels, making exercise harder to get through and stick with.
