“Lil sumthin for ur timeline,” La La Anthony captioned a post of her in a bathing suit on Instagram. It was nice to see—and not just because she’s beautiful. The movie and TV personality recently revealed she had a heart procedure, in an interview with Self magazine. “Thank you so much to @selfmagazine for giving me a safe space to share my story for the first time about my heart condition & why it’s so important to pay attention to your body,” she captioned the cover. Read on to see 5 ways La La Anthony stays healthy and the photos that prove they work—and to get beach-ready yourself, don't miss these essential 30 Best-Ever Celebrity Bathing Suit Photos!
1. She Was Diagnosed With This Heart Condition
A few years ago, Anthony was diagnosed with premature ventricular contractions, a type of abnormal heartbeat. “Premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) are extra heartbeats that begin in one of your heart's two lower pumping chambers (ventricles). These extra beats disrupt your regular heart rhythm, sometimes causing you to feel a fluttering or a skipped beat in your chest,” says the Mayo Clinic.
2. At First, She Wasn’t Too Worried About Her Heart
“I felt my heart racing all the time, but because it’s all I ever really knew, I didn’t even know that it was necessarily something wrong,” the Brooklyn native said. “I just thought, ‘Oh, you just feel your heart racing sometimes because you’re working too much, you haven’t slept, you’re stressed.’ You know, we, especially Black people, like to self-diagnose. We got all the answers,” she told Self. In fact, her tests showed she was having “about 25 percent more heartbeats over the course of the day than the average person.”
3. Her Experience Was Terrifying
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“They would wake me up during the procedure and say, ‘We’re going to speed your heart up now. Just take deep breaths. Those doctors were just so incredible, but it was a terrifying experience,” she told Self.
4. She Now Prioritizes Self-Care
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“This made me reprioritize myself because it’s always about everyone else and work and this and that,” she said in the interview. “And it’s like, if I’m not good, I’m not gonna be good for anyone.”
5. Here’s How She Eats
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"For breakfast, I am a cereal person and always have been. I love Special K. They have so many flavors that I'm into. It's a great breakfast to get you going and get your energy up. When it comes to lunch, I love seafood. It could be a shrimp salad or a taco with shrimp with vegetables. For dinner, I love Spanish food, or a nice piece of fish with veggies. Baked chicken with sweet potato is another one. Again, I try not to go too crazy but those are some of my typical meals,” she told Eating Well. “That said, I am a chocolate fanatic. I won't sit here and make it seem like I'm this extremely clean eater that only eats vegetables. Like any kind of chocolate, I want to get my hands on it."