Due to the increased amount of time being spent in the house (and the grocery store), it's safe to say that my summer body is still loading and it is upsetting me and my homegirls. Thanks to the quarantine, our Hot Girl summer has been postponed indefinitely, but thanks to Jada Pinkett Smith just reminded us that this is not the time to slack on your summer body goals. Jada has consistently had her foot on our necks since securing her film debut in Menace II Society in 1993 and more than two decades later, our good sis is still our forever fitness goals.
While the pandemic may have limited our access to the gym, the Red Table Talk host has recently taken to Instagram to fill us in on the at-home workouts that keep her looking like a snack at 48, and we have all the details. From using a pair of fuzzy socks to get her core all the way together to towel workouts that will have your waist snatched AF, Jada won't let lockdown stop her from breaking a sweat because, according to her, physical wellness isn't an option, issa priority. In a previous episode of Red Table Talk, she explained:
"Taking care of your body in the way in which you want is an act of self-love."
Along with using household items as equipment, Jada says that enlisting the help of online personal trainers like Jeanette Jenkins, Brittne Babe, Whitney Simmons, and her workout partner, Willow, has kept her motivated AF to work on her fitness. In a previous interview, she told W Magazine:
"I started at [Willow's] age, and I've been doing it ever since. We go hard. Because I've had so many different types of bodies, so I know I don't need a trainer, and I know how to train her for what she wants. I know exactly what she needed to get, where she wanted to go."
It's high time you put down those snacks and start looking like one, sis, and these workout tips from our good sis Jada will have you snatched and Hot Girl Summer-ready in no time.
1.Consistency Is Key
"So I make sure I do something physical every single day. But that doesn't mean you have to go to the gym and freakin' kill yourself! I do 20 minutes of cardio a day. Everybody's thinking you gotta be in the gym for an hour and a half. Literally, I'm never in the gym longer than 45 minutes. Just be consistent—that's it! It doesn't necessarily have to be intense, and you will see a difference. Just go out of your house and do a brisk walk!"
2.Make It A Family Affair
"I usually do my yoga at home in the evenings for about an hour. Sometimes I go to a class, but with my schedule, it's really difficult for me — and my kids like to join me. We do a lot of yoga together."
3.Allow Time To Rest
"I used to go so hard on my body. In the gym every day, lifting heavy weights, to have that hard body. it was and I'm just learning to love it that way, and not feel that I have to beat my body up to be this muscle-bound thing."
4.Eat For Nourishment, Not Pleasure
"My real diet though, well, I don't eat for pleasure. I probably had the only West Indian grandmother that could not cook. [Laughs] She was an awful cook, and she taught me that you don't eat for taste, you eat for nourishment. And I have kept that over the years, so I can eat anything that's healthy. I eat for my schedule so I have to eat high-protein, lots of greens and healthy carbs so that I don't fall flat on my face.
Featured image by Instagram/@jadapinkettsmith.
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While speaking to xoNecole, Eva shares that she’s a lot like the beloved 1994 character in many ways. “Lyric is so me. She's the odd flower. A flower nonetheless, but definitely not a peony,” she tells us.
“She's not the average flower you see presented, and so she reminds me of myself. I'm a sunflower, beautiful, but different. And what I loved about her character then, and even more so now, is that she was very sure of herself.
"Sure of what she wanted in life and okay to sacrifice her moments right now, to get what she knew she deserved later. And that is me. I'm not an instant gratification kind of a person. I am a long game. I'm not a sprinter, I'm a marathon.
America first fell in love with Eva when she graced our screens on cycle 3 of America’s Next Top Model in 2004, which she emerged as the winner. Since then, she's ventured into different avenues, from acting on various TV series like House of Payne to starring on Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Je-Caryous Johnson Entertainment
Eva praises her castmates and the play’s producer, Je’Caryous for her positive experience. “You know what? Je’Caryous fuels my audacity car daily, ‘cause I consider myself an extremely audacious woman, and I believe in what I know, even if no one else knows it, because God gave it to me. So I know what I know. That is who Je’Caryous is.”
But the mom of three isn’t the only one in the family who enjoys acting. Eva reveals her daughter Marley has also caught the acting bug.
“It is the most adorable thing you can ever see. She’s got a part in her school play. She's in her chorus, and she loves it,” she says. “I don't know if she loves it, because it's like, mommy does it, so maybe I should do it, but there is something about her.”
Overall, Eva hopes that her contribution to the role and the play as a whole serves as motivation for others to reach for the stars.
“I want them to walk out with hope. I want them to re-vision their dreams. Whatever they were. Whatever they are. To re-see them and then have that thing inside of them say, ‘You know what? I'm going to do that. Whatever dream you put on the back burner, go pick it up.
"Whatever dream you've accomplished, make a new dream, but continue to reach for the stars. Continue to reach for what is beyond what people say we can do, especially as [a] Black collective but especially as Black women. When it comes to us and who we are and what we accept and what we're worth, it's not about having seen it before. It's about knowing that I deserve it.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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Feature image by Leon Bennett/WireImage
