Padma Lakshmi wants you to know that “50 is the new 30.”
The “Top Chef” star celebrated her milestone 50th birthday on September 1 by showing off her enviable physique at the beach.
In the photo, Lakshmi strikes a pose in her fabulous shades and pinkish, purple-ish bikini.
“50 is the new 30, feel like I’m just getting started,” she captioned the photo.
The “Taste of the Nation” host then followed up with two more bikini photos from her beach day.
In one, she’s looking radiant in the water as the waves crash behind her. Her caption simply included a wave emoji.
She embraces a sillier vibe in the second photo as she laughs off getting completely soaked from head to toe. “Just a little bit cold,” she captioned the pic.
She posted the same photos on Instagram with the caption: “Thank you for all of your sweet birthday wishes 💖 here's to the next 50 🌞.”
In another post on Instagram, she reflected on the year, which she said was a "mix of misery and elation."
"The whole world was swallowed up by the plague In March. We were lucky but so many weren’t and I felt an impending doom, a creeping anxiety I could not shake," she wrote.
She continued: “Then another Black life was taken and it was good that we all rose up- but so painful too. So painful that some of our fellow Americans could not even bring themselves to say that Black lives matter, some who hold our highest offices.”
Despite all the negative, she said her family became closer than ever. “But personally, at home things were peaceful. We made a cocoon for our family. We lived for the first time-all under one roof. We became closer,” she explained. “And professionally, I finally got to show the world what I would do if I got to build a show from scratch. 'Taste the Nation' was well received beyond my wildest dreams, 100% even on rotten tomatoes!”
She explained how blessed she felt: “I cannot ask for anything more. I am truly blessed: a loving and attentive partner, a child that continues to be a miracle every day and work that I am proud of and fully engaged by with people I love. I am today very lucky. But I am also a product of the toil and troubles my younger self endured. And I thank that version of me.”
On the Bravo cooking competition series, Lakshmi often has to sample up to 30 dishes an episode, which can quickly add up to nearly 8,000 calories a day.
In July, she told Women’s Health that to balance out the decadent food and keep her body toned, she maintains a regular workout regimen.
“I started going to Pilates a few years ago, because my chiropractor recommended it for my back,” she said. Lakshmi was diagnosed with scoliosis as a teenager and suffered a fractured right hip and shattered arm in a car accident at 14.
“Pilates changed my body. It made me strong in places I didn’t know I needed to be.”
Prior to the pandemic, she also liked to hit the gym to do cardio and lift weights five times a week.
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