Christie Brinkley is feeling in touch with nature! On Tuesday, the former supermodel shared a photo of herself in a bright blue bathing suit, lounging on a beach in the tropics with water lapping at her feet. “One with the Earth,” she captioned the tranquil snap. How exactly does the beauty manage to make 68 look like 38? Read on for 7 of Christie Brinkley’s top tips for staying in shape and the photos that prove they work—and to get beach-ready yourself, don’t miss these essential 30 Best-Ever Celebrity Bathing Suit Photos!
Christie encourages movement, no matter what you happen to be doing. “Don’t stop moving because you’ll rust. You have to grease the joints and keep moving,” she explained to The Cut. “As long as I do that I feel great. If you start to hold still, they’ll start acting up.” She even makes daily activities into exercise sessions. “While I’m brushing my teeth, I’m doing leg lifts. When I’m drying my hair, I do all kinds of squats,” she said.
Christie is a breakfast person. “A lot of mornings lately I will take a bowl and I throw some oatmeal right into it,” she told Shape. “I rarely have time to cook it so I just eat it raw. Then I’ll pour some flax seed on top of that and maybe a little wheat germ, then I’ll grab a couple of handfuls of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and rinse them off, toss them in and then I pour one of those Dannon things on top and stir it up. I always describe it…it’s like a really moist juicy muffin. It is so good. I feel like it is giving you a lot of good things. You can also throw a handful of walnuts in there.”
Christie maintains a very plant-focused diet. “I haven’t touched a piece of meat since I read a graphic description of Chicago’s slaughterhouses when I was 12,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “I call myself a flexible vegan because, you know, Italy exists. Mozzarella and pasta exist. In France, I may have to have a piece of Camembert, you know. Un petit sandwich au fromage,” she added to The Cut.
Christie has a tactic when she puts together a meal: Make it as colorful as possible. “For lunch, I go into greens and do a salad, then add a protein like a bean or nuts,” she explained to The Cut. “For many, many, many years, I’ve always said go for as many colors as possible in a day,” she said. “That’s my main concept for making sure my kids get all the nutrients—making sure the deep greens, yellows and reds and purples, all of that.”
Christie is one of the many stars who begins her morning with this simple beverage. “I start every day with warm water and lemons. It’s something I picked up on my Instagram,” she told The Cut. “Some days I alter it, and I get fancy and I put a little bit of mānuka honey on the rim of the glass, turn it upside down, and dump it in red cayenne pepper. Then I put the lemon juice in and then the hot water. That’s when I have a little time. I figure that the pepper gets my system all revved up, and the lemon water gets everything flowing through.”
Christie’s lifestyle is incredibly active, and she tries to get outside as often as she can. “When I was doing Chicago, I noticed that the second you do any activity and you add your arms as though you’re dancing, it revs you up. Whether it’s walking down the beach and moving your arms like you’re swimming, or picking up rocks and walking with them, you really start sweating and breathing heavily,” she told The Cut. She also likes cycling, paddleboarding, surfing, skiing, and swimming are also her faves, she added to Harper’s Bazaar.
You will often find Christie working up a sweat in a group class. “Everyone asks if I really use the Total Gym, and I do! It’s perfect for stretching and lengthening my body. Last summer I got into SoulCycle, and in the winter I do yoga at Yoga Shanti,” she told Harper’s Bazaar.