Have your cake and eat it too! Bethenny Frankel shared how she keeps her diet in check during the holiday season in an exclusive interview with Us Weekly on Tuesday, November 12 — and it involves plenty of treats.
“I’m a fan of indulging,” the Real Housewives of New York alum, 49, told Us at the Le Mystere event at Bloomingdale’s 59th Street in New York City. “I think people are always told how to restrict and my feeling is you have to teach people how to indulge. It’s OK to have some cake, it’s OK to have some cookies. If you’re getting buckets of popcorn and brownies, choose how you’re going to invest — the way you invest in shopping, the way you invest in money. You don’t go and just buy everything, you just pick your spots. So, that’s how people should handle the holidays.”
For Frankel, it’s more harmful to have a strict diet during the holiday season because it can lead to unhealthy binging. “You say you’re going to be drinking green juice and eating steamed vegetables for the holiday season, you’re going to eat five times the amount and blow up like a tick,” she told Us.
She advised people to eat before attending holiday parties “otherwise you’ll be grabbing every hors d’oeuvre.” When it comes to sipping festive cocktails, Frankel urged partygoers to drink water in between drinks to avoid overeating while buzzed. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint, the holiday season. Can’t call in full the next day,” Frankel said.
The Skinnydipping author added that cheat meals aren’t in her vocabulary because she doesn’t “think it’s cheating.” Instead, she believes the word can cause people to not achieve their diet goals.
“I eat everything,” Frankel said. “If you think it’s called cheating, then you beat yourself up for it, then you rebel, then it’s a vicious cycle. My book, Naturally Thin, is all about ‘treat your diet like a bank account.'”
Frankel also gave her favorite healthier food alternatives that she claims are just as mouthwatering.
“Cauliflower rice with vegetable stock and enough seasoning pureed is as filling, and almost as delicious, as mashed potatoes,” she told Us. “Zucchini noodles are not noodles, but cauliflower crust is really good. I’m not saying it’s pizza. You have to make sure it’s crispy. I will say, cauliflower has to be represented by kale’s publicist because cauliflower is coming in hot. She’s the new It girl and kale is a C-list actress. It’s not as hot as cauliflower.”
The reality TV star will have plenty of time to cook delicious dishes for her 9-year-old daughter, Bryn, this holiday season. Us confirmed in August that Frankel decided to leave The Real Housewives of New York City after appearing on and off the show since 2008.
“She wants to focus on being a mom to Bryn,” a source told Us at the time. “She’s also got other business things going on and doesn’t need the RHONY paycheck.”
In October, Frankel told Us that it wasn’t a hard choice for her to forgo the Bravo gig for her daughter, who she shares with her ex-husband Jason Hoppy. “Family time is always first, so that’s why work time is very stressful,” Frankel told Us at the time. “Because I put my daughter first, I’m the pick-up, I’m the drop-off. I’m with her every moment that I can be with her, so then all of that work has to be jammed into such a small part.”
With reporting by Marisa Petrarca
