

The Fitness Tips That Keep Jada Pinkett Smith Looking Like A Whole Snack At 48
Due to the increased amount of time being spent in the house (and the grocery store), it's safe to say that my summer body is still loading and it is upsetting me and my homegirls. Thanks to the quarantine, our Hot Girl summer has been postponed indefinitely, but thanks to Jada Pinkett Smith just reminded us that this is not the time to slack on your summer body goals. Jada has consistently had her foot on our necks since securing her film debut in Menace II Society in 1993 and more than two decades later, our good sis is still our forever fitness goals.
While the pandemic may have limited our access to the gym, the Red Table Talk host has recently taken to Instagram to fill us in on the at-home workouts that keep her looking like a snack at 48, and we have all the details. From using a pair of fuzzy socks to get her core all the way together to towel workouts that will have your waist snatched AF, Jada won't let lockdown stop her from breaking a sweat because, according to her, physical wellness isn't an option, issa priority. In a previous episode of Red Table Talk, she explained:
"Taking care of your body in the way in which you want is an act of self-love."
Along with using household items as equipment, Jada says that enlisting the help of online personal trainers like Jeanette Jenkins, Brittne Babe, and Whitney Simmons, and her workout partner, Willow, has kept her motivated AF to work on her fitness. In a previous interview, she told W Magazine:
"I started at [Willow's] age, and I've been doing it ever since. We go hard. Because I've had so many different types of bodies, so I know I don't need a trainer, and I know how to train her for what she wants. I know exactly what she needed to get, where she wanted to go."
It's high time you put down those snacks and start looking like one, sis, and these workout tips from our good sis Jada will have you snatched and Hot Girl Summer-ready in no time.
1.Consistency Is Key
"So I make sure I do something physical every single day. But that doesn't mean you have to go to the gym and freakin' kill yourself! I do 20 minutes of cardio a day. Everybody's thinking you gotta be in the gym for an hour and a half. Literally, I'm never in the gym longer than 45 minutes. Just be consistent—that's it! It doesn't necessarily have to be intense, and you will see a difference. Just go out of your house and do a brisk walk!"
2.Make It A Family Affair
"I usually do my yoga at home in the evenings for about an hour. Sometimes I go to a class, but with my schedule, it's really difficult for me — and my kids like to join me. We do a lot of yoga together."
3.Allow Time To Rest
"I used to go so hard on my body. In the gym every day, lifting heavy weights, to have that hard body. it was and I'm just learning to love it that way, and not feel that I have to beat my body up to be this muscle-bound thing."
4.Eat For Nourishment, Not Pleasure
"My real diet though, well, I don't eat for pleasure. I probably had the only West Indian grandmother that could not cook. [Laughs] She was an awful cook, and she taught me that you don't eat for taste, you eat for nourishment. And I have kept that over the years, so I can eat anything that's healthy. I eat for my schedule so I have to eat high-protein, lots of greens and healthy carbs so that I don't fall flat on my face.
Featured image by Instagram/@jadapinkettsmith.
Taylor "Pretty" Honore is a spiritually centered and equally provocative rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a love for people and storytelling. You can probably find me planting herbs in your local community garden, blasting "Back That Thang Up" from my mini speaker. Let's get to know each other: @prettyhonore.
Smile, Sis! These Five Improvements Can Upgrade Your Oral Hygiene Instantly
This article is in partnership with Sensodyne.
Our teeth are connected to so many things - our nutrition, our confidence, and our overall mood. We often take for granted how important healthy teeth are, until issues like tooth sensitivity or gum recession come to remind us. Like most things related to our bodies, prevention is the best medicine. Here are five things you can do immediately to improve your oral hygiene, prevent tooth sensitivity, and avoid dental issues down the road.
1) Go Easy On the Rough Brushing: Brushing your teeth is and always will be priority number one in the oral hygiene department. No surprises there! However, there is such a thing as applying too much pressure when brushing…and that can lead to problems over time. Use a toothbrush with soft bristles and brush in smooth, circular motions. It may seem counterintuitive, but a gentle approach to brushing is the most effective way to clean those pearly whites without wearing away enamel and exposing sensitive areas of the teeth.
2) Use A Desensitizing Toothpaste: As everyone knows, mouth pain can be highly uncomfortable; but tooth sensitivity is a whole different beast. Hot weather favorites like ice cream and popsicles have the ability to trigger tooth sensitivity, which might make you want to stay away from icy foods altogether. But as always, prevention is the best medicine here. Switching to a toothpaste like Sensodyne’s Sensitivity & Gum toothpaste specifically designed for sensitive teeth will help build a protective layer over sensitive areas of the tooth. Over time, those sharp sensations that occur with extremely cold foods will subside, and you’ll be back to treating yourself to your icy faves like this one!
3) Floss, Rinse, Brush. (And In That Order!): Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not what you do, but how you do it”? Well, the same thing applies to taking care of your teeth. Even if you are flossing and brushing religiously, you could be missing out on some of the benefits simply because you aren’t doing so in the right order. Flossing is best to do before brushing because it removes food particles and plaque from places your toothbrush can’t reach. After a proper flossing sesh, it is important to rinse out your mouth with water after. Finally, you can whip out your toothbrush and get to brushing. Though many of us commonly rinse with water after brushing to remove excess toothpaste, it may not be the best thing for our teeth. That’s because fluoride, the active ingredient in toothpaste that protects your enamel, works best when it gets to sit on the teeth and continue working its magic. Rinsing with water after brushing doesn’t let the toothpaste go to work like it really can. Changing up your order may take some getting used to, but over time, you’ll see the difference.
4) Stay Hydrated: Upping your water supply is a no-fail way to level up your health overall, and your teeth are no exception to this rule. Drinking water not only helps maintain a healthy pH balance in your mouth, but it also washes away residue and acids that can cause enamel erosion. It also helps you steer clear of dry mouth, which is a gateway to bad breath. And who needs that?
5) Show Your Gums Some Love: When it comes to improving your smile, you may be laser-focused on getting your teeth whiter, straighter, and overall healthier. Rightfully so, as these are all attributes of a megawatt smile; but you certainly don’t want to leave gum health out of the equation. If you neglect your gums, you’ll start to notice the effects of plaque buildup, which can irritate the gums and cause gingivitis, the earliest stage of gum disease. Seeing blood while brushing and flossing is a tell-tale sign that your gums are suffering. You may also experience gum recession — a condition where the gum tissue surrounding your teeth pulls back, exposing more of your tooth. Brushing at least twice a day with a gum-protecting toothpaste like Sensodyne Sensitivity and Gum, coupled with regular dentist visits, will keep your gums shining as bright as those pearly whites.
Megan Thee Stallion Shares The 'Intense' Workout Routine That’s Got Her Snatched
One thing about Megan Thee Stallion is that she’s going to motivate you to stay active. From afar, she seems like the perfect gym bestie, and up close, it looks like her workouts would have us gasping for air. But hey, she doesn’t call her routines “bootcamp” for nothing.
After an extended break from social media and the public eye, the Houston Hottie is back sharing the high-energy workouts that are keeping her lean and she’s happy to report that “the results have been resulting."
The 28-year-old rapper dropped an Instagram Reel, detailing the workout routine that’s putting her endurance to the test. With the help of her personal trainer, Megan has one word in mind when it comes to her progress and that’s: “Consistency.”
The “Savage” artist has been traveling, making “hot girl moves," and after returning from a trip to New York, she expressed that her trainer is pushing her to keep the same energy back in the gym.
“I had just gotten back from New York and I told my trainer, ‘Look, friend, I was having a time. Can you please take it easy?’” Megan said. “He said, ‘Hmm, I’ve seen you doing all that hot girl s—, so what you need to do is get in that gym and have that same energy.’”
Her trainer then instructed her to do jumping squats with an exercise ball and resistance band around her legs for an extra burn. “I put my thing down, flipped it, and reversed it and that’s what happened. This sh– burned like a motherf—,” she teased in the video’s voiceover while executing both forward and backward jumping squats.
It’s clear that when it comes to Megan’s fitness, her trainer doesn’t play around about pushing her to her limits. In the next set of her cardio moves, we see the Grammy-winning artist jumping rope and moving on to a combination of mountain climbers and lateral jumps over a speed hurdle.
“Right here, that’s when I realized: I’ve been saying my trainer’s crazy but I know he’s really, really crazy because he must think that I’m trying out for the Houston Texans or something,” she joked.
To finish her workout, Meg hit two more barbell exercises, one being a set of cleans with 10-pound weight plates on the barbell. She then closed out by doing lunges with the barbell racked on her shoulders.
Of course, the best way to close out a workout is to nourish yourself with a balanced meal. Meg showed off her delicious post-workout plate with salmon, a sweet potato, and assorted veggies.
With so much of her public life being shared on the internet, it’s nice to see her letting us in on her progress in a fun and motivating way. “I just want to be transparent with y'all. Working out hurts, but it’s really a mental thang, so go do it!”
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Featured image by Taylor Hill/Getty Images