Days of Our Lives Star Kristian Alfonso Shares Swimsuit Photo of Her "Beach Day"

1. No Dieting

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Alfonso believes in a healthy, balanced lifestyle, without any crazy diets. “Healthy living is very important,” she says. “I try to eat as healthy as possible during the week. I am not ever on a regimented diet. I take diet out of my vocabulary and try to eat in moderation. I try to be healthy during the week with chicken, fish, salads… but I love my meat, ribs, Italian foods. I eat everything. And I love my sweets as I know the fans will know undoubtedly! And I work out which I think is incredibly important for our health and our minds. I know that when I go work out, as much as I dread having to go, once I get through that first or second mile on the treadmill, I keep going. I try to multi-task to take my mind off what I'm doing, and I’ll work and try to learn my lines or on my jewelry line, and then I’ll go to my weights to stay toned. After I’’ve worked up a good sweat, I feel good. I feel motivated. I feel energetic. I sleep better at night. I also drink a lot of water. I don't drink soda.”

2. Positive Body Image

Alfonso has always had a positive body image, making adjustments to diet and exercise as needed. “I’ve never had a body image issue really… I wish I was a little taller,” she says. “I’ve never had any body image issues. There were times when I was heavier when I first started the show, but you know I had been an athlete. I lost my muscle tone, but I didn't lose my appetite. I love food. We plan a lot of events around food. We're all big eaters. But I never starved myself. It's so unhealthy to do. But I think exercise is very, very important. I don't think I exercised as much when I was younger after I was no longer training. Probably the last 10-12 years, I’ve really made it a point to exercise.”

3. Work Ethic

Alfonso never takes her work for granted. “I am always nervous because I want to be great,” she says. “I've never been the person who is like, ‘Let’s just get this done and I’ll collect my paycheck.’ I want the audience to feel what the character is feeling. I want to give it my best. I want to give them their money’s worth. They gave me their time; I want to give them some enjoyment. But even though I’d been at Days for so long, some actors would tease me for feeling nervous. But my parents would always tell me, ‘Kristian, it’s good to be nervous—you never want to be too comfortable.’”

4. Family First

After over 30 years on Days, Alfonso is proud to have always prioritized her family. “I never miss a family moment, a life moment, ever,” she says. “And Days always knew that. If something was happening back East with my family, then I'm getting on that plane. My family trumps everything. They are my heart and soul. So I was never afraid to ask for days off, and Days worked with me to make that happen.”

5. Jewelry Line

Alfonso is thankful she expanded into having her own business as a career fallback. “Being in the business world and having my jewelry line, I kind of learned as I went,” she says. “I had real estate ventures too and would buy property and manage it in addition to Days. I was brought up that you can do anything you want to do. And to believe in yourself. Not that there aren’t going to be tough times and you’re going to fall and stumble, but the important thing is to get back up. Sometimes you get back up a little slower, but don’t let anything or anyone hold you down.”

For all the twists, turns and characters coming back from the dead, one thing remains consistent in the world of soap operas: the stars stay fit. After all, some cast members appear for decades at a time, and the audience craves familiarity; like any stars, the actors and actresses here have to remain recognizable. They do so with a combination of nutrition, exercise and mindfulness techniques, as well as a unique approach to a long-lasting career. As a result, these stars are iconic. Here are the wellness secrets from Kelly Ripa, Lisa Rinna, Susan Lucci and many more.

1. Kelly Ripa

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Before becoming a TV host, Kelly Ripa appeared on All My Children as Hayley Vaughn. In an interview with Closer, she shared her favorite post-show breakfast. “What I will have is a green apple, cut up, and then I take two tablespoons of almond butter and a teaspoon of cinnamon. I blend it all together, I put the apples in there and then I eat that like a porridge, if you will. That is my first chewable food of the day.”

2. Galen Gering

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Galen Gering plays Rafe Hernandez on Days Of Our Lives. He revealed to Soap Opera Digest that he does calorie deficiency. “You have to look at the overall calories that you’re putting into your body on a daily basis and really pay attention to that. Once you do that, you can figure out how you get a calorie deficit. You obviously have to burn more calories in a day than you’re putting in your body [in order to lose weight]. It’s a simple formulaic thing that a lot of people fail to do. Once you do that you’ll realize how much you’re snacking throughout the day and adding calories to that pile, when you may not even be hungry. For me, when I want to lose weight, that’s the first thing that I look at.”

3. Lisa Rinna

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Lisa Rinna played Billie Reed on Days Of Our Lives. She shared her wellness secrets in an interview with People. Rinna says that she makes sure to do some exercise each day. “I just think it’s really good to move everyday. I really love the combination of SoulCycle and yoga. It keeps me balanced and sane.”

4. Shemar Moore

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Shemar Moore played Malcolm Winters on The Young & The Restless. He shared how he got in shape for his role on S.W.A.T. to Men’s Health. “I gained 10 pounds. It changed my physique," said Moore. "I’m looking to gain more. It’s just hard with the schedule that we keep, when we are working 12-16 hour days. Ideally, I would like to be 200-205 pounds, so I can add more muscle. For me, that’s a good weight in terms of flexibility, being able to move, be nimble and do all the action.”

5. Eileen Davidson

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Eileen Davidson plays Ashley Abbott on The Young & The Restless. She shared her hair and skin care secrets with Woman’s World. “I have gone the route of the super expensive before, but I guess I’ve just gotten kind of bitter. I’m wondering if it really makes a huge difference. So now, I use Cetaphil as a daily facial cleanser. I use Eucerin as a body lotion. Just your basic things. I do use Aveda hair products but every once in a while, I throw in Pantene. “

6. Lauren Koslow

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Lauren Koslow plays Kate Roberts on Days Of Our Lives. She shared her fitness secrets with Soap Opera Digest. “In terms of exercise and diet, I find it helps to think in terms of health and wellness and not necessarily in terms of weight. Make it a decision to be in the most healthy condition that you can be in. Some of the tips along that line, especially if you’re thinking about a plant-based or more healthy diet, is when you’re at the supermarket, read labels. Also, try to shop the outside aisles of the market, where they have fruits and vegetables, and stay away from processed foods. Try to shop organic, when you can, or sustainable or local.”

7. Kirsten Storms

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Kirsten Storms has appeared on both General Hospital and Days Of Our Lives. She notably had to have brain surgery in 2021, and shared her gratitude for her loved ones and medical team on Instagram. "I feel very fortunate that my situation wasn't more serious and that I had a wonderful neurosurgeon who immediately knew how to fix it," she said. "I'm not gonna lie, brain surgery had me nervous, but I'm immensely thankful to my family, friends, and incredible 'work family' who have been supportive, kind and loving during a time when I've been feeling a lot of emotions."

8. Katherine Kelly Lang

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Katherine Kelly Lang plays Brooke Logan on The Bold & The Beautiful. She tells Soap Opera Digest that she believes in moderation when it comes to food. “I generally eat healthy but I love to snack on potato chips. I love a hamburger and French fries once in a while. I’m not so much a sugar person, but I do like chocolate sometimes. You have to have a good balance. You can’t be too strict and you can’t just eat whatever you want, especially as you get older. You really need to watch what you are taking in because it’s easier to put on the pounds the older you get. But if I eat too much one day, I’ll eat less the next day, or have more green drinks or try to put more vegetables in my diet. Try to eat organic and fresh food as much as possible.”

9. Camila Banus

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Camila Banus played Gabi Hernandez on Days Of Our Lives. She tells Soap Opera Digest that she meal preps. “It really helps for me to meal prep at the beginning of the week, whether that be Saturday or Sunday. I’m okay to eat the same thing, although maybe one day I’ll eat something different, for the entire week. I love that. But I do have a huge problem with drinking [enough] water. Nothing worked except two things. One of them is a really cool bottle I purchased on Amazon. It keeps me motivated. It has little positive notes on the outside of it for every hour, like, 9 a.m., ‘You did it,’ 10 a.m., ‘Good job, keep going.’ The second thing is I add a couple of pineapple chunks to that bottle of water. It gives it a little bit of an acidy pineapple taste and makes it really easy to drink.”

10. Chrishell Stause

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Prior to starring on Selling Sunset, Chrishell Stause appeared on All My Children and Days Of Our Lives. Her personal trainer, Ocho, shared her workout secrets with Women’s Health. “A week of workouts for Chrishell can vary," he explained. "Her schedule is very hectic, so we get in what we can, and HIIT training is one of the most efficient ways she can build muscle and burn fat at the same time."

11. Jensen Ackles

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Before appearing on Supernatural, Jensen Ackles played Eric Brady on Days Of Our Lives. To get in shape for The Boys, Ackles told Men’s Health that he turned to a certain website. “I'll make a little shout out to beachbody.com because I went on there and that's how I got my cardio in… I just followed the random videos. All I had was those adjustable power blocks, so I utilized those as my weights."

12. Arianne Zucker

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Arianne Zucker, who plays Nicole Walker on Days of Our Lives, talked about her fitness on her blog. “I can't stand the gym. I will do anything else, but go to the gym. I did work out with an amazing trainer for 3 years, so that he taught me a lot. I bought my own weights for home, so I could at least work out my arms while watching a movie or listening to a great podcast like Everything From A to Z. Shameless plug. I also just recently started working out with a system called TAPfit. It's like these taps shoes that fit over your work out shoes and you can do a tap dance work out with it. I love tap dancing and I thought this was a fun way for me to do both.”

13. Justin Hartley

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Justin Hartley played Adam Newman on The Young & The Restless. He talked about his approach to fitness in an interview with Men’s Health. "As you get more and more into working out and fitness, you start to understand it starts to impact different phases of your life," he says. "It can impact your emotional state, it can impact your stress level—it's way more important than just physique and looking good."

14. Josh Duhamel

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Josh Duhamel’s acting career began on All My Children, playing Leo du Pres. He shared his fitness routine with FabFitFun. “It includes a lot of circuit training lately with cardio and weight training intervals, but I’ve really started doing a lot of yoga lately — which for me is so important. My flexibility has gotten better, and I feel stronger than I have in a really long time. I’m not as injured as I was before because of yoga, so that really has helped.”

15. Melissa Ordway

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Melissa Ordway plays Abby Newman on The Young & The Restless. She shared her approach to wellness in an interview with Food Republic. “I tried going on diets, or saying, I'm only gonna eat healthy this week and eat salads, or I'm gonna go on a juice cleanse, and I last like half a day. I find it important to eat what I want and then go to the gym and run on the treadmill. I'm lucky that I can do that so I don't have to do some crazy diet. I just try and do outdoorsy things and keep active.”

16. Kimberlin Brown

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Kimberlin Brown plays Sheila Carter on The Young & The Restless and The Bold & The Beautiful. She shared her diet secrets with Soap Opera Digest. “To lose weight, you have to cut your carbs. You really need to cut out the white flour and the sugar. When I found out I was coming back to the show, I really hit Keto/Atkins. To me, Keto and Atkins are basically the same, and that’s just the removal of sugar and flour and that helped the pounds come off super-fast, which is hard for me because I love my bread! But, it was something I was willing to give up to get myself back into soap opera shape. I still have a ways to go, but I’m really happy with where I started and where I’m at now, and that is important.”

17. Kelly Monaco

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Kelly Monaco plays Sam McCall on General Hospital. She shared some of her favorite workouts in an interview with SheKnows. Monaco says that her workout routine is quite varied. “My workout regimen varies. I do everything from the gym to yoga to cardio classes, hiking and swimming. I’m pretty active. I’d rather stay outdoors than be cooped up.”

18. Krista Allen

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Krista Allen stars as Taylor Hayes on The Bold & The Beautiful. She shared her favorite vegan recipes with One Green Planet. “Burgers and Fries are my specialty. I am a Texas gal so the grill is my significant other at this point! I also have been doing some very cool raw dishes and I’m enjoying that, too. So, I have a group of hungry beach goers coming over at 8, and I am making some Hang Ten Burgers (a Veggie Boom Boom original) and super crispy oven baked steak fries. I’ll maybe throw in a cool micro brew for the drinkers and some organic sparkly soda for the non-drinkers and I usually do some chocolate chip cookies for dessert, or some fresh organic fruit with mint if it’s hot outside.”

19. Tanisha Harper

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Tanisha Harper, who plays Jordan Ashford on General Hospital, shared her fitness secrets with Soap Opera Digest. She says that she does a variety of different workouts. “I go to a place called Natural Pilates that uses the Reformer machine. I do that about three days a week. I also incorporate yoga at least once a week, and occasionally, I will work out with a trainer, lifting weights, which is really great for the body and helps you be strong. I hike about two days a week, but I don’t even really consider that exercise; it’s more about being out in nature. Maybe once a month, I play tennis just to stay active and keep my body moving, and occasionally I do boxing, which is great for strength conditioning and keeping my stamina up.”

20. Susan Lucci

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Susan Lucci played Erica Kane on All My Children. After having two heart surgeries, Lucci told FOX News that she has changed her diet up. "My doctor told me, 'You keep doing what you're doing because something good will come from that.’ It started with superfoods. I do have the occasional pasta and carbs. But the key is moderation."

1. Acting Dreams

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Booth knew she wanted to act from an early age. “I always sort of loved performing for my family when I was really little,” she says. “When I was twelve, I auditioned for Huron Country Playhouse, which is a summer stock theater in Grand Bend, Ontario, and I was cast as an orphan in the musical Annie. It was that summer when I was walking into the first rehearsal and saw the adults there, and I don’t know why I’d never put two and two together before while watching TV, but it was like a light bulb went off for me, and I was like, 'Wait a second. You can actually do this for a living?' And that was it. And I was like, 'That’s what I wanna do.'”

2. Her Perfect Saturday

Booth loves to just relax on the weekends. “My perfect Saturday would mean slightly sleeping in—to like, 10 a.m. I’d get up and have an almond milk latte that I make here with my little Nespresso machine that I love,” she says. “Then my husband and I would get the dogs all leashed up and go for a walk. We’d come back and probably go out for brunch to Bonjour Brioche—it’s on Queen Street East. My husband and I both love pancakes so we’d probably end up having them with fresh squeezed orange juice or something like that. Maybe a side of bacon, too—gotta have some protein!”

3. Horror Movie Fan

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Booth is a big movie buff, enjoying both rom coms and scary flicks. “I have my favorites that I watch: The Princess Bride and Bridget Jones’s Diary,” she says. “Those are two of my go to feel-good movies. My best friend and I have a bit of a weird obsession with horror films, so generally when I’m at home she’ll come over and all three of us will sit around and watch really bad horror movies, like the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s so bad. It’s awful. But then there are some really great ones. We just watched the original—I think it’s Swedish—of Let the Right One In. I like to be scared—to sit for two or three hours on the sofa with my stomach in knots.”

4. Playing Ethel Kennedy

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Booth once played Ethel Kennedy on The Kennedys and took it seriously. “Well, you know, the first time around, it kind of haunted me a little bit–I’m not gonna lie,” she says. “And even almost more so the second time. You’re portraying someone who lived this life, who is a part of history, who is still alive, and you obviously want to do them justice and portray them as close to who they are or who they were at that time as possible. I pored over biographies and books about the Kennedys, videos and all sorts of research material in order to create this character who then became Ethel Kennedy.”

5. Bubble Baths

Booth sometimes enjoys a bath as part of a relaxing Saturday. “Sometimes I’ll take a bath before bed—I do enjoy a good bubble bath,” she says. “I like lavender essential oil in it to help me sleep. But usually it’s just us crawling into bed and passing out. I’m sort of religious about washing my face before I go to sleep. But I will admit that on more than one occasion on a Saturday, I will skip that. That’s why I have towelettes on my nightstand!”

1. Ready To Work Out

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Sweeney is used to incredibly busy days, and has learned to fit in a workout whenever she can. “My days are packed; there’s always something going on,” she says. “Often, I’m at work at 6 a.m. on the set of Days of our Lives until 1 or 2 p.m., pick up my kids from school, get a workout in, then head over to The Biggest Loser in the afternoon and shoot until midnight. The best tip I can give busy moms is to plan ahead, even if that means bringing your gym bag with you in the car, so when you drop your kid off you can go for a run in a nearby park on your way to work!”

2. LA Marathon

Sweeney is proud to have run the Los Angeles Marathon. "I definitely wasn't a runner naturally,” she says. “It came to me over time because I really wanted to run the [Los Angeles] marathon as a bucket-list thing. And I just sort of made it happen. I'm so proud of what I did. It's one of those achievements where I'm like, Yeah, I ran a marathon. Can I bring it up?' "

3. Fun Workouts

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Sweeney learned the best way to stick to a workout regimen is to find something that’s fun. “I’d been through all of the fad diets and was still unhappy with how I looked,” she says. “But instead of being negative, I decided that I needed to go after positive things. I changed my eating habits and learned more about nutrition, including the importance of portion control and making healthier choices. Going to the gym used to be torture for me; I hated every minute I was there. So I found workouts that I like to do, like spinning, yoga, and CrossFit. I also do a Filipino stick fighting called escrima, which is like a street version of fencing—it’s really fun and a challenge, and I like learning the skill.”

4. Home Cooking

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Sweeney enjoys cooking at home with her family. "I'm sort of an at-home would-be chef,” she says. “I'll make a stir-fry. I make chicken using mashed up almonds as a crust instead of breading. It's really delicious. I put a Dijon mustard coating on it and then a little bit of honey or a tiny bit of agave just to create a sweet/savory thing, and then you crust it with the mashed up almonds as a coating and bake it. It's supereasy."

5. Almonds All Day

Sweeney loves delicious, nutritious almonds. “One of my all-time favorite snacks is almonds,” she says. “I keep them on my counter, and I put some in my purse so I always have a healthy snack with me when I’m on the go. I’ll also use crushed almonds as a crust for chicken or fish—it gives it a flavorful, satisfying texture.”