The Real Housewives of Atlanta and The Traitors star Phaedra Parks is clearly having a blast taking part in Dancing With the Stars. Parks, 50, shared a video of herself wearing purple workout pants and a blue shirt, clowning around with partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy as they practiced behind the scenes. "Cha cha real smooth with @valentin #dwts 🍑🍦," she captioned the funny post. "We can't stop thinking about this 🤣," commented the official Bravo Instagram account. Parks is in the best shape of her life in her 50s—here's what her wellness routine looks like.
Parks is all about women doing what makes them happy. "If you like to eat cornflakes, eat corn flakes if it makes you feel better," she told Woman's World. "As women, we lose ourselves in making everybody happy besides ourselves, and so I tell moms in particular—you have to take a moment for yourself, because if you're not your best self for you, you can't be yourself for others."
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Parks lost 18 pounds through time restricted eating and exercise. "Intermittent fasting," she told HollywoodLife. "I also started eating for my blood type [Type O], but I exercise too. It's a combo. 18 lbs. really isn't that much weight. Anytime you tighten and tone you're going to lose inches, so it's more about the curvature than the skin. I have absolutely beautiful skin! After having two kids, I never had stretch marks, thank God."
Parks swears by the Beverly Hills Rejuvenation center's CellSound machine. "It is a relaxing painless process and I'm all for pain free non-invasive beauty. I've done my legs and now my stomach," she told Life & Style. "You have to do it about six times on each area so luckily I travel a lot because while The Beverly Hills Rejuvenation Center does not have a location in Atlanta they have 27 locations across the country so I am going to complete this process. I want to stay slim and keep my skin taut and they help me to make that happen."
Parks enjoys plenty of lean quality animal protein with non-starchy greens. "I eat a high-protein diet, heavy on lean meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables," she told HollywoodLife. "And light on grains, beans, and dairy. In the morning, I have a cup of coffee or lemon water with my collagen and then during the day I eat a lot of green things and lean protein. A lot more green and lean. If I'm going to have meat, it's going to be some good Kobe beef and some spinach. I'm always eating. Or tuna over a bed of spinach. I don't eat a lot of lettuce, but spinach. I like arugula, kale in smaller amounts because kale can be kind of hard on your stomach sometimes."
Parks sees the aging process as a privilege. "I am an old bird … no … I'm a seasoned chicken, honey," she told Woman's World. "What women need to know is that aging is inevitable. I tell people all the time — you either have a birthday or a funeral – I think most people like a birthday… You just have to embrace it. Do what you want to do and what makes you feel good and be unapologetic for being a woman and standing in your truth."
Ferozan Mast
Ferozan Mast is a science, health and wellness writer with a passion for making science and research-backed information accessible to a general audience. Read more
