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Body Watch: Bethenny Frankel Has Built an Empire On Being a 'Skinnygirl'

By Lauren Gerber on

Bethenny Frankel doesn't follow a diet, she is a diet. At least her name has come to represent the "Skinnygirl" lifestyle. Since 2008 when she became known as the outspoken sassy one on The Real Housewives of New York City, Bethenny has created a massive brand in Skinnygirl, which started as a simple low-cal margarita mix and has expanded to best-selling diet books, low-fat food and cocktail recipes, an exercise DVD and magazine columns in Health and Huffington Post. Bethenny's empire – based on the vision of eating in moderation and not obsessing over exercise, sold earlier this year for around $120 million. At 115 pounds, the once-reality star has become a moneymaking machine, and although she spends her days encouraging the "Skinnygirl" life, she is the essence of Skinnygirl.

Do Not Obsess: When promoting her first flexible-eating diet book, Naturally Thin (easy for her to say) she made a pretty valiant claim that even Oprah "is going to  be thinner. Nobody needs to freak out anymore." Since Oprah epitomizes yo-yo dieting epidemic, it wasn't totally out of left field for Bethenny's mantra. She says on her website: "Many of you ask me what I eat and what my workout regimen is like. Truly, my days are like snowflakes: no two are the same." She's helped hundreds of thousands of people shed weight by "actually living their own lives versus what some fad diet or workout class tempts them into trying."

Bethenny teaches people to treat their diets like a bank account (read: investing, saving and splurging when necessary in calorie form.) And she's one who knows extreme dieting intimately. "I spent my entire life being obsessed with dieting. Bingeing and then fasting or starving. Forbidding everything. My metabolism was totally wrecked," she told Us.

Eat What You Want, And Also Eat Healthy: You know when people say you can't have your cake and eat it, too? Well, Bethenny eats what she wants and is super health-conscious at the same time. After years of trying "5,000 diets" including Atkins, the Scarsdale diet, the Beverly Hills diet and the cabbage-soup diet and having an addiction to exercise, Bethenny's now only addicted to one thing: moderation.

The mother of 1-year-old Bryn and wife to Jason Hoppy, a sales broker, she's become the queen of comfort foods whipped up with nutritious components. She cooks up vegan banana-chocolate cookies, raspberry fruit smoothies, wheat lasagna, low-fat "mock-a-mole," vegan burgers, whole grain french toast, and naturally – a Skinnygirl margarita (silver tequila, lime juice, and a tiny splash of triple sec) here and there.

A Daily Diet: Suggested by Bethenny

Breakfast: Assemble a fruit salad packed with fiber and protein. Nut butter on whole-wheat bread or a low-fat frittata with veggies are good choices, she says.
Lunch: Go for a healthy rendition of pizza. Load whole-wheat crust with lots of veggies. She says dairy products can help flatten your stomach.
Snack: Try a low-cal refreshment -- especially because thirst can be mistaken for hunger. Bethenny's faves? A Starbucks lemonade, Dunkin' Donuts Coffee Coolatta, or just squeeze some lemons in water.
Dinner: Keep it light. Bethenny's staple is gazpacho -- which is packed with antioxidants, fat-fighting olive oil, and is still filling. She pairs it with cucumber salad, pita bread, and hummus.

"If you are Italian, you’re not giving up pasta. If you like a cocktail, you’re going to drink your Skinnygirl margaritas. The key is balance," she's said. "If you have pancakes for breakfast then maybe have a salad with chicken for dinner."

Bethenny also believes in a hearty breakfast , skipping super-salty foods, and staying hydrated. She's a serial "grazer," letting herself have mini bites of delicious treats but then filling up on nutrients. "Food is not your best friend or your enemy," she says on Bethenny.com.

Exercise – But Not Too Much: While the Skating With The Stars runner-up finds strict diet routines unsustainable, she does believe in consistency for working out. With that said, she's not an incessant gym rat like she was in her '20s. The 40-year-old prefers chilled-out yoga sessions at her house a few times a week, and believes being a former "madwoman" on the treadmill actually made her less healthy. "I used to be obsessed with spinning, doing it five times a week. I was working out like a madwoman. I would spin, then be starving, eat like crazy, then vow to spin like a lunatic again the next day. It gave me no peace."

Bethenny claims she's not in that great of shape and slacks about getting her sweat on, but doesn't punish herself for it. "I'm thin and marketing health and wellness and I feel a bit out of shape. So what do I do? What I do is know that this will pass, and on days like today, when I have a minute, I run and squeeze in a yoga class. I don't beat myself up," she wrote in Huffington Post.

Yoga is her go-to, but the Skinnygirl also loves surfing, rollerblading, walking...and sometimes hops on the elliptical. This is one of the coolest, most peaceful diet/exercise mantras we've heard in Body Watch history – we'll happily try it at home and test if Skinnygirl is the real deal.

Body Watch gives the dish on how Hollywood's hottest women get their bodies, keep their bodies, and create their own healthy lifestyle mantras.

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