Good Morning America host Lara Spencer welcomed the New Year from a beach in sunny Florida. Spencer, 54, shared a picture of herself posing on the sand in a black cut-out swimsuit, her beloved pup by her side. “Feeling good, Louis!” she captioned the post. “Happy New Year Lara. You look absolutely beautiful,” a fan commented. Spencer seems to be getting fitter with every year that passes—here’s how she stays happy, and why she calls herself a jock.
Spencer starts her day before dawn, arriving at work around 5am, which is where she eats breakfast. “I usually have eggs and a grapefruit, but believe me, there’s a huge tray of muffins that call my name every day!” she tells Greenwich magazine. “For beauty, I do yoga once or twice a week. I play tennis a lot—about three times a week—and I run around like a lunatic and never sit down. I have really ridiculous energy. I try to eat well but don’t deny myself delicious things.”
Spencer loves thrift store shopping for hidden gems. “If you judge the book by its cover, then you won’t bring anything home, because most of the stuff is like a girl badly in need of a makeover,” she tells Out. “The number one thing that I look for is good bones, and by that I mean classic lines, quality construction, designers’ marks–in terms of labels–some clue to see if it’s a designer I like. I look for pieces that make me smile. I trust my gut–if I’m looking at a vintage oil painting, it doesn’t matter to me whether that artist is well-known. It just matters whether I find beauty in that picture. And it doesn’t matter if it’s $5 or $500, if it makes you feel good, and you think it will brighten up your world and help create your personal space, then go for it.”
Spencer loves her shelter pups, and rescued them after hearing about trucks of dogs being taken out of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. “I adopted them after Hurricane Katrina,” she tells Greenwich magazine. “There’s not a dog I meet that I’m not in love with. The weirder looking, the better. I love the offbeat—in everything, really. Harry is a golden-doodle and Dandy is a Lhasa apso–Shih Tzu–German shepherd… I did a story for GMA on dog DNA testing—that’s how I found out.”
Spencer has a unique approach to decorating. “I love a house that has different feels and different looks,” she tells Out. “Great designers will tell you that symmetry and scale are everything, and it’s true. As you’re looking at a room, it should feel restful to your eyes. You can do that by using pairs of things, or make sure that your coffee table isn’t tiny next to a big, cozy sofa. Make sure all the sizes feel right together. Listen, hats off to people go to school for this, and the great decorators of the world–I’m not saying that I could do what they do–But I was taught, I approach interior decorating by trusting my gut, my intuition, and my personal style. Don’t worry about what’s in or what’s out, worry about what’s right for you.”
Spencer is a former Penn State diver. “I’m a big jock,” she tells Greenwich magazine. “I had a great twisting one-and-a-half. My dread was the reverse two-and-a-half, because you’re moving forward off the board and then spinning back toward it head first. I broke my hand in four places doing it. I still get nervous every day—it’s live TV—but I know I’ve got this. With that dive, I never got past the thumping heart, where I was like, ‘Get it together! Get it together!’ I loved diving, though. It was a huge educator in life in general. I’m a huge advocate of sports. My mom plugged me into everything because I was the youngest of five and she didn’t know what to do with me. It was a very happy accident.”