Law & Order: Organized Crime Star Mariska Hargitay Shares Swimsuit Photo From Italy

1. Real Food Diet

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Hargitay once employed Bethenny Frankel as her natural food chef, before Frankel’s Skinnygirl success. According to Frankel, Hargitay enjoys a mostly Mediterranean diet. “She is fortunate to love everything from meat to poultry to fresh seafood,” Frankel said. “She loves healthy grains, vegetables, fruits and the occasional indulgence, but one constant throughout her entire diet is that she eats real food. This is one of my most important basic rules for everyone.”

2. Trampoline Workout

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Hargitay likes to stay active as a lifestyle. "I'm athletic, but I'm not a gym person,” she says. “I do things that feel like I'm not working out. I do short exercise videos in my dressing room, and I'm going to install a little ballet bar so I can do, like, knee bends and get the thighs burning. I bought a trampoline for my son that we jump on together, and never in my life has my heart rate gone up so fast. It's an incredible workout."

3. Hair Evolution

Hargitay admits her hair hasn’t always looked the way she wanted over the years. “I love to play around and try new looks, but I’ve definitely had some hair crises over the years,” she says. “I had short hair for a while, and then I hated having to grow it out. We didn't have the styling right, and I made some mistakes with the color too. I was trying stuff out and didn't have the experience with hair or the attention to detail that I have today. Now I know immediately what works and what doesn’t, but it took me some time to get there.”

4. Comfortable Style

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Hargitay’s sense of style focuses on how she feels as much as how she looks. “I don’t like putting myself in a box in any way,” she says. “That’s a gift that my father gave me. He was like, ‘They don’t tell you; you tell them. Don’t let anyone define you.’ That’s my shtick. That applies to fashion, too. Sometimes at seven in the morning, when I’m taking my kids to school, fashion is just putting something on where I won’t embarrass myself. I’ll go safe, and I’ll just throw on a pair of jeans and a groovy robe and shoes that I know are cool. But as I get older, I take more risks, and I think the biggest thing is, How do I feel in this?”

5. Family and Friends

Hargitay prioritizes her loved ones above all else. “Friendship is everything to me,” she says. “I value my friendships the way I value family. Real friends — long-termers, the lifers — become apparent pretty quickly. Friendship is about showing up. It matters to show up for people and say, “You matter. Our relationship matters. Your artistry matters. Your work matters.”