Maggie Q Swears By These Health Habits for Her "Happy Place"

Maggie Q is happy and healthy in her bathing suit. In a new social media post the actress flaunts her super fit figure in a bright yellow bikini as she frolics on the beach. "Happy Place. 🌊🐬🐳," she captioned the series of Instagram snaps and videos. "😍😍 I almost have a heart attack 😍😍," one of her followers commented. "Beautiful as usual!!!😍😍" added another. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here are some of the healthy habits she reveals in her recent post. 

In the first photo, Maggie holds a coffee as she stands on the beach. According to the Cleveland Clinic, there are several benefits of drinking coffee in moderation. "It acts on your brain to improve memory, mood, reaction times, and mental function," they say, citing a study finding that caffeine can improve endurance and performance during exercise. It is also antioxidant-rich, can ward off diabetes, prevent neurologic disease, lower cancer risk, and ward off depression, they point out.

As can be evidenced from her post, Maggie is a dog lover. You can always find her taking her beloved pooches on walks. Going for a daily walk can be a game changer in terms of exercise, especially at a brisk speed. One study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that walking at a brisk pace for about 30 minutes a day led to a reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, dementia and death, compared with walking a similar number of steps but at a slower pace.

Maggie is a swimmer. In a video in her post, she swims in the ocean. Swimming is a good way to get regular aerobic physical activity, according to the CDC. Just two and a half hours per week of aerobic physical activity, such as swimming, bicycling, or running, can decrease the risk of chronic illnesses. In addition to the many physical benefits, there are multiple studies supporting the mental health benefits of swimming as well. 

Maggie maintains a healthy diet. She tries to eat as many veggies as possible, including various types of greens like kale and spinach, broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, and tomatoes. "I don't [call myself vegan], because it has become a weird, negative term and people feel very judged by it," Maggie told The Beet. "So I like plant-based better because it's friendlier: It's inclusive. You can't judge people. They have to be where they're at, and you have to accept them for where they are."

Maggie, who has "struggled" with gut health, takes probiotics. "Whatever brought that on, I couldn't say, but breaking down foods has been a challenge for me even before I knew what that challenge was," she told Thrive magazine.