Shockingly, Vivica A. Fox is turning 51 in a week. She appears to be in her thirties! How is she aging so gracefully? Yes, she exercises and eats well. But that’s not the first step to keeping a youthful appearance. According to Vivica, we have to look within first. “The older that I’ve gotten, one of the main things I’ve learned to keep myself healthy and happy is that it’s got to come from the inside. A desire to be healthy and beautiful starts with your spirituality. Your spirit has got to want to be happy and healthy, which means you have to make the effort to be a healthy and happy person.” But that’s only the beginning.
Vivica makes an effort to stay healthy and happy by working out with a trainer, watching her diet, and making sure to get plenty of rest and by keeping good people around her. Vivica kills two birds with one stone when she gets trained by Basheerah Ahmad, both a professional trainer and a good friend. “We do light weights, cardio and floor exercises. There are hills where I live so sometimes we get out and walk and jog the hills. The one thing that I love about Basheerah is that she also implements my diet. We do low sodium, low sugar, low carb and eat a lot of tuna, a lot of vegetables, lots of seafood, chicken. I take a multi-vitamin. But I do allow myself a cheat day when I eat whatever I want, which is pasta and pizza.” The reason pasta and pizza is a “cheat day” for Vivica is because these two foods are empty carbs, which give little to no nutritional value.
As a child, Vivica was tall and skinny with a fast metabolism. With a fast metabolism, fat is burned quicker and easier than that of a slow metabolism. Vivica was involved in physical activities such as basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, and track for school. “I was burning calories on a continuous basis, so I surely loved burgers, tacos and pizza.” But as we all know, aging is accompanied with the slowing of metabolism. So with aging, Vivica’s attitude towards food has changed. When referring to soul food, she said, “We all have to learn to cook healthier. You can still eat the same kind of food but instead of cooking the greens with pork you cook it with turkey. Learn to just enjoy the natural. You don’t have to load up a lot of butter in your greens. Instead of lard or heavy grease fry your fish in something lighter or grill your fish. You just have to learn healthier ways that are more calorie-efficient. Learn to taste your food. Don’t drown your food in all that stuff.”
And still, Vivica is alarmed by the dormant lifestyle lived by today’s youth. “But you know when you’re young your metabolism is burning at 105 miles an hour. It’s unfortunate for kids today with computers and video games there’s not a lot of cardio and running and extra-curricular activities. They’re entertained by their fingers nowadays, whereas when we were growing up we would play hide and go seek, hopscotch, double dutch, we made up games.” In 2013, I worked at a learning center for grades 1-8, and I can tell you from personal experience that kids from all ages complained about trivial physical tasks such as walking three blocks or playing a game of dodgeball. Why? Because at least 90% of the kids were too invested in their iPads and cell phones (even 1st graders had iPads).
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Lastly, Vivica understands that in order to be healthy, we have to keep the biggest organ in our body healthy: the skin. “For my skin care I’ve lately discovered micro-dermabrasion because I have to wear so much makeup onscreen. I do that once a month, and I hydrate, take steam showers and drink plenty of water.”
