Giada De Laurentiis is revealing her go-to yoga stretches in her workout clothes. In a new social media post the celebrity chef shows off her amazing body while discussing her love for yoga. “It’s officially summer and also happens to be #internationalyogaday, so I thought l’d share some of my fav stretches to help with back pain,” she says in the caption of the Instagram post devoted to her practice. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.
As a celebrity chef, Giada doesn’t restrict herself. “I eat a little bit of everything and not a lot of anything,” she told Food Network. She tries to satisfy her cravings in a healthy way. “But I still love chocolate,” she says. “That’ll never change.”
When Giada wakes up in the morning, she starts her day with two glasses of warm water with lemon. While the ayurvedic practice is said to help with digestion, drinking water in the morning is also great for hydration, important for a variety of reasons. Mayo Clinic explains that water helps get rid of waste through urination, perspiration, and bowel movements, keeps your temperature normal, lubricates and cushions joints, and helps protect sensitive tissues.
Giada starts her day with a protein-rich chia seed pudding. “You don’t need to eat a lot,” she says. “It’s very substantial.” At 11 a.m. she will have a green juice. For lunch she opts for an updated Waldorf salad. “The nuts give me some protein,” she says. “And I like the combination of crunchy, creamy and soft all together.” For a late afternoon snack she will have “fried” chickpeas, and for dinner, protein with no carbs, like a piece of salmon, because “if I don’t eat protein at night, I don’t sleep well,” she says.
“You need to take care of your mind and your body before you can take care of anything else,” De Laurentiis told an audience at an event hosted by Create and Cultivate. “You need to take care of yourself first.” She revealed that she learned about self-care from family. “My mom was very good about self-care, my grandmother was very good about self-care,” she said. “I watched them, and I became very diligent at a very young age about taking care of my skin, using sunscreen and just keeping it healthy all the time.”
Meditation, “even if it’s just for two minutes,” yoga, acupuncture and supplements, are all part of her routine. She added to Food Network that she does an hour of yoga daily. There is a laundry list of reasons to do yoga, explains Harvard Health. “Researchers found that people who practiced yoga for at least 30 minutes once a week for at least four years, gained less weight during middle adulthood,” they said. “People who were overweight actually lost weight. Overall, those who practiced yoga had lower body mass indexes (BMIs) compared with those who did not practice yoga. Researchers attributed this to mindfulness. Mindful eating can lead to a more positive relationship with food and eating.”