Martha Higareda in Bathing Suit Says "Gracias Vida"

Martha Higareda, the Mexican actress best known stateside for Altered Carbon and Queen of the South, was once known as ​​"The Mexican Sweetheart" after her hit romance Amarte Duele—and she’s still beloved there, with more than 5 million followers and a thriving career on camera and behind the scenes. She appreciates it. “Gracias Vida :) #thankful” she captioned a new photo of herself in a swimsuit. How does she stay so fit? Read on to see 5 ways Martha Higareda stays in shape 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 Learned to Box

“Boxing today is not just a sport,” says Jackie Cheung, a personal trainer at Longevity. “It is also a form of aerobic training that has been shown to improve health outcomes. In those with chronic conditions, it has been shown to improve cardio, respiratory fitness, improve muscular strength, endurance, and power, improve bone mineral density of balance and improve your body composition. But above all, it also relieves a bit of stress. And this is especially important during these times of COVID.”

2. She Did Martial Arts

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“There are many, many different benefits of training, martial arts, not just physical, but mental and a more spiritual one as well,” says Nora Csiszar, an ITF Taekwon-do 4th Dan Black Belt. “It also makes you more confident and more peaceful at the same time, which is very interesting to me. So in this day and age, many people want to live a more healthy lifestyle because they suffer from obesity or different kinds of diseases. We as humans—we are sitting more. But in the meantime, you and I both have to walk. We have to run. We have to move our body as much as you can. When you are in your body, you are moving your brain as well. Your brain starts working better.”

3. She is a Vegan

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“Even though ‘plant-based’ and ‘vegan’ are often used interchangeably, there can be a big difference between the two. While the vegan diet strictly avoids all animal products, a plant-based diet either refers to the majority of your food coming from plants with no animal products, or to eating mostly plants with some animal products occasionally thrown into the mix,” says our sister site, Eat This, Not That! “Many people are both vegan and plant-based: They don't consume any animal products and mostly eat plants, avoiding many of the processed vegan junk foods available on store shelves.”

4. She Ate a Lot of Protein

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When training for her role on Altered Carbon, ​​"Let's say that from Monday to Friday, and on Sundays, we were all under a very strict diet, based on many vegetables, many carbohydrates, and I don't eat meat, but well, the others ate a lot of protein, I vate egetable protein and that's it,” she said.

5. She Likes Sushi But There’s a Catch

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When in Los Angeles, “I definitely like eating sushi. I think [that] in the whole country, this is the best place to eat sushi,” she told Locale, but: “Really, I eat very little sushi because I’m vegan. I think it’s the only way that we can help the planet,” said Higareda. Her veg-based diet is great. "One large study found that people who ate more vegetables had a smaller risk of chronic heart disease; in fact, the more veggies they ate, the more their risk went down," says the Mayo Clinic. "Researchers compiled the findings of 95 different studies and concluded: Eating more fruits and vegetables daily reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. Apples, pears, citrus fruits and leafy greens all helped heart health."