Priya Prakash Varrier is enjoying the gorgeous scenery and culture in Bangkok, Thailand. The Indian actress posted photos of herself relaxing in a rooftop pool, wearing a pink-knit bathing suit. “Stunning!” said one of her many admiring fans. How does she stay so fit? Read on to see 5 ways Varrier stays 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!
Varrier makes time every day for yoga, which benefits both her physical and mental health. “Yoga develops inner awareness,” says Harvard Health. “It focuses your attention on your body’s abilities at the present moment. It helps develop breath and strength of mind and body. It’s not about physical appearance.”
Varrier is passionate about world travel, which experts say is beneficial for health. “Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and integrativeness of thought, the ability to make deep connections between disparate forms,” says Columbia Business School professor Adam Galinsky. “The key, critical process is multicultural engagement, immersion and adaptation. Someone who lives abroad and doesn’t engage with the local culture will likely get less of a creative boost than someone who travels abroad and really engages in the local environment.”
Varrier loves to treat herself to good-quality chocolate. “The higher percentage of cocoa solids, the more flavonoids and the lower sugar,” says Devon Peart, MHSc, BASc, RD. “If you’re doing 75% or 80% dark chocolate, there’ll be less added sugar than if you were at 50% dark chocolate.”
Varrier refuses to diet, instead focusing on healthy foods, which experts say is the sensible approach. “If you’re told not to eat things that you like, maybe for the first few days you can resist eating them. But then your brain will start taking over and you’re going to want what you can’t have,” says Sarah Halter, MD. “I have patients who are exercising or doing yoga and eating healthy foods but those last 10 pounds haven’t come off, and you can tell they just have this intense feeling of failure that they have messed up their lives. I think we’re doing a real disservice to people if we’re just looking at the number on the scale and not looking at the whole picture.”
Varrier likes nothing better than relaxing with a good book when she has free time, which experts say is incredibly beneficial for health and wellbeing. “Researchers studied the records of 5,635 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, an ongoing investigation of people who were 50 or older and had provided information on their reading habits when the study began,” says Harvard Health. “They determined that people who read books regularly had a 20% lower risk of dying over the next 12 years compared with people who weren’t readers or who read periodicals.”