Bauer Griffin I Getty ImagesGwyneth Paltrow has become something of a high-brow, organic Martha Stewart. She's developed a "lifestyle" website, Goop.com, written a cookbook called
My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness and explored the food of Spain, on a TV series with famed chef Mario Batalli.
While pursuing various career tracks – the mother of two has dabbled in a singing career, launched a perfume, modeled, and served as a Save the Children charity ambassador – Paltrow has always maintained her lean figure. She's wavered from macrobiotic fanatic, to junk-food girl, to cleanse devotee, and everything in between, though two behaviors have stayed consistent. Paltrow follows a demanding exercise plan and has a keen, genuine interest in staying healthy, no matter the cost.
Day 1 of Gwyneth's Cleanse - 7am (or upon rising): Glass of room temperature lemon water
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8am: Herbal tea
- 10am (breakfast): Blueberry and Almond Smoothie
- 11:30am: Coconut water
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1:30pm (lunch): Salad with Carrot and Ginger Dressing
- 4pm (snack): A handful of mixed pumpkin and sunflower seeds
- 6pm (dinner): Broccoli and Arugula Soup
(Make sure that the coconut water has no added sugar. Fresh is ideal but the brands Zico or Vita Coco are readily available)
Diet: Until a few years ago, Paltrow followed a strict macrobiotic lifestyle – meaning no dairy, meat, shellfish, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, or anything processed – which she adopted when her dad was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998. She's since dropped the super rigid guidelines and written
My Father's Daughter, a comfort-food cookbook in honor of her late dad, who taught her there's nothing better than a Mallomar. She's also started a high-end lifestyle website, Goop.com, which aims to encourage readers to "nourish the inner aspect." The site's been ridiculed for suggesting expensive lifestyle fixes like cocktails with apple butter, a $716 blender and Four Seasons presidential suites in Hong Kong. In early 2010, Paltrow was widely criticized for posting a breakdown of her 21-day juice fast on the site.
After the holiday season left her feeling a bit muffin-topish, she wrote: "I need to lose a few pounds of holiday excess. I like to do fasts and detoxes a couple of times during the year." Paltrow touted the benefits of the
detox menu, which gave tips like drinking a few teaspoons of olive oil at night and relying on pumpkin seeds as a main source of solid food.
Since her cleanse/macrobiotic days, Paltrow has seemed to let go a little. Despite the fact that her 7-year-old daughter, Apple, is supposedly a self-proclaimed vegetarian (she came to the decision "entirely on her own," Paltrow says,) the actress now eats essentially what she wants. Her trainer, Tracy Anderson, has said she "loves to eat." Paltrow's spoken with foodie-affection about fancy indulgences like fried clams, pasta with duck sausage, and red wine. In April of 2011, she told
Self she fuels up on snacks like raw almonds, coconut water and juices during the day. In fact, Paltrow has told Oprah that she "just cannot diet," and evidently her model-worthy body is mainly a result of hardcore workouts.
Exercise: Paltrow has admitted she goes to pretty painful lengths with exercise to keep her Twiggy-meets-sophisticated mom look. "It's not an accident. It's not luck, it's not fairy dust, it's not good genes. It's killing myself for an hour and a half five days a week," she said at a 2011
Good Housekeeping event. Anderson, who also trains
Madonna and
Kim Kardashian, designed a workout plan for Paltrow which includes 45 minutes of dance aerobics and 45 minutes of a "muscular design program" – some magical combination of toning, realigning, and lengthening.
Paltrow finds positivity in her grueling workouts since they mean she can dig into the fried chicken, bread, and Italian pastas she loves. She told Oprah: "It's worth it to me to do that extra exercise so I can eat what I want and not think about it." And when she's really loaded up on the pie and potatoes, she ramps up her training schedule to two-hour sessions, six days a week.
Not only does Paltrow's regime give her permission to order the fried chicken dish
and look sizzling in a minidress, it's also given her mental therapeutic benefits. After Paltrow struggled with postpartum depression and felt like a "zombie," she said fitness gave her the healing power she needed to "access her heart" again.
Body Watch gives the dish on how Hollywood's hottest women get their bodies, keep their bodies, and create their own healthy lifestyle mantras. More pictures of Gwyneth promoting her cookbook:
Gwyneth Paltrow poses up with her new cookbook "My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness" during a book signing at Barnes & Noble in New York City. (Pacific Coast News)more pics »
Gwyneth Paltrow clutches a copy of her book during the RHS Chelsea Flower Show press & VIP preview day at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. (Bauer Griffin)more pics »On the red carpet:
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow arrives at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards held at the Kodak Theatre on February 27, 2011 in Hollywood, California. (Getty Images)more pics »
Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala celebrating "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty".Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York.May 2, 2011. (Bauer Griffin)more pics »And working out:
Gwyneth Paltrow gets in a good workout at her gym. (Bauer Griffin)more pics »
Gwyneth Paltrow gets in a good workout at her gym. (Bauer Griffin)more pics »
Since her cleanse/macrobiotic days, Paltrow has seemed to let go a little. Despite the fact that her 7-year-old daughter, Apple, is supposedly a self-proclaimed vegetarian (she came to the decision "entirely on her own," Paltrow says,) the actress now eats essentially what she wants. Her trainer, Tracy Anderson, has said she "loves to eat." Paltrow's spoken with foodie-affection about fancy indulgences like fried clams, pasta with duck sausage, and red wine. In April of 2011, she told Self she fuels up on snacks like raw almonds, coconut water and juices during the day. In fact, Paltrow has told Oprah that she "just cannot diet," and evidently her model-worthy body is mainly a result of hardcore workouts. 
