The 5 Secrets to Michelle Obama's Fitness

Michelle Obama has made empowerment through fitness her turf. As hubby Obama is busy running the superpower and leading the world, she, with her Let's Move program is doing her bit in tackling a more grassroot problem that affects almost 1 in 3 Americans - Childhood Obesity. And what's more, she practices herself everything that her fitness program preaches. Here are the 5 key thumbrules she has stayed true to, to become and stay the leanest FLOTUS ever. Binjal Shah collates her hi-five.

1. Her 5 tasks begin even before 5 am:

To a very baffled and almost unbelieving Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama revealed that she makes it a point to wake up before most of the human race- usually between 4:30 and 5 am, and beats POTUS to the gym to get some Cardio-action going to start off her mostly exhausting day. She believes that we wake up at all sorts of ungodly hours for our kids and other responsibility - then why do we have trouble doing this for ourselves?

2. She's not one for counting calories:

You might call it choosing cure over prevention, but MObama just calls it an undying love for fries. She doesn't believe in blindly mincing out the good things in life - especially when there is a way to have it all. Blasting apart superficial notions of fitness, she told Women’s Health in 2010, “Being a healthy woman isn’t about getting on a scale or measuring your waistline—and we can’t afford to think that way. Instead, we need to start focusing on what matters—on how we feel, and how we feel about ourselves.” In fact, she eats five meals a day- the usual breakfast, lunch, dinner with at least two healthy snacks squeezed into the day to not keep the gap between two meals too long. And these could include anything from a salad, to that salad on a whole wheat bread base topped off with a mound of cheese.

3. Her GimmeFive Video Spills the Beans on those arms:

Responding to a challenge from Obama to reveal her top five hacks to fitness, she made a video that showed her doing convenient-ish exercises and maneuvers. She's all for the treadmill, the jump-rope and no prizes for guessing- the weights. Everyone knows to think twice before getting into an arm-wrestling duel with the First Lady - but those intimidatingly glorious arms didn't come to her easy - she lifts weights regularly. “You don’t have to be a weightlifter,” she said to ivillage. “I know a lot of women get worried about muscle definition. But actually, I’ve been told by fitness experts that the average person will not bulk up on the weights that we can lift.”

4. But aside from being Johny Bravo, She's also a Yogi Bear:

Not only is that a wordplay on the fact that she does Yoga, it also means that just like the cartoon character, she also gives her entire body a rest and let's her face do the work. She decided to pick up Yoga because it does wonders for her flexibility, which is something she would like to sustain to keep up with her hardcore regime even as she enters the other side of 50.

5. "Drink up":

POTUS and FLOTUS are both strong advocates of this one : in both their #GimmeFive videos, they concluded with the importance of staying hydrated. While the President's schedule doesn't permit him to really exercise, he counts on drinking up constantly to do the trick. And as for Michelle Obama exercises like there's no tomorrow, the water intake keeps her from burning out completely- and she recommends it to everyone with any lifestyle as the least they can do to stay fit.

Image Courtesy: The Daily Beast