Photogenic and the Picture of Health
Kim Alexis may be busy with her post-supermodel career--as host of “Healthy Kids” on the Family Channel and spokeswoman for CitriMax, a natural diet aid--but never too busy for her family.
“I’m a whole better person when I’ve had my time with my family,” she said. “It helps to keep me happy. When I’m happy, I work better.” Alexis is married to former National Hockey League player Ron Duguay.
“But if I feel like someone’s taking away that precious time with my children--I have three sons and two stepdaughters--or my husband, then I almost get . . . what would be the word? I guess ‘grumpy’ could be one word.”
We settle on a non-grumpy time to do a phone interview, between family, work and exercise.
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Alexis lifts free-weights, and she runs on Tuesday, Thursday and sometimes Saturday--depending on what the kids are doing.
“I’ve found, for my body and my age--I’m 37--that it’s better for me to run less and to rest. So I run anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. Forty sort of wipes me out. Then I need a nap. It used to be, if I ate a big meal, I’d go out the next day and run 10 miles and I’d be fine. I can’t do that anymore.”
So, the solution is sensible eating, and that is actually appetizing after all those years of modeling and dieting. She still watches what she eats, but it’s all healthy. Moreover, denial is not on the menu.
“It makes me feel like I’m on a diet, or it brings up that whole yucky thing of being a model,” she said. “I snack whenever I feel hungry--hard-boiled eggs, raw vegetables or a piece of fruit.”
Alexis starts the family off in the morning with a fresh vegetable juice of spinach, parsley, garlic, romaine lettuce and, occasionally, carrots. For breakfast, the mainstay is fish. “I’m from a Scandinavian country; my blood is all Swedish. I like salmon, and orange roughy is a favorite.”
A chicken, shrimp or tuna Caesar salad is the lunch favorite--with fat-free Parmesan cheese--and Alexis goes light on the dressing. A typical wintertime meal is stew.
“I do a lot of stews where I put my meat in and a lot of different vegetables,” she says.
Everything’s home-cooked, except the whole-wheat sweet potato pie crust, which Alexis buys frozen “because I do not want to be a mother of five children crabbing in the kitchen because my pie crust is wrong.”
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Guest Workout runs Mondays in Health.