Heidi Klum at the 2010 Grammy Awards. Photo: Getty Images
In a telephone interview, Klum said health is important to her and her family. But her attitude is pretty healthy as well. Here's what she had to say about baby weight, family meals and permission to break the rules sometimes:
StyleList: This is your third year of supporting The Heart Truth -- why do you feel it's such a vital cause?
Heidi Klum: It is such an important issue, because heart disease is the number one killer of women in America, more than all cancers put together. It's just an enormous number. If I can do anything in terms of spreading the word to women to do more about their healthy heart, then that's what I want to do.
SL: Have you been personally affected by this issue with a family member developing heart disease?
HK: No, no one in my family -- but I don't want that to happen either. I'm a woman, and I have two daughters. As a woman, it's my issue too. You can't think, "No one in my family was affected so therefore I'm not affected." It doesn't work that way. Women have to know that it can happen to anybody--you have to watch out.
SL: Do you like to wear red a lot?
HK: I think red is a beautiful color -- I think it's powerful and strong. I think it's sexy. Red is a color of love and it is a very bold statement color. You're definitely not a gray quiet mouse--when you wear red, you definitely get noticed.
SL: You look so amazing having had a baby so recently [Klum's fourth child, daughter Lou, was born in October.] Do you have a magic way to lose to the baby weight?
HK: Thank you for the compliment, but there is not magical method to the madness. I'm not at my fighting weight, and maybe I'm never going to go back to my fighting weight. People say, "You have a few pounds here and a few pounds there" but I'm quite happy the way I am right now. I'm very healthy and my little daughter is only 3 ½ months old --I'm still breast-feeding and enjoying being a mom. So I'm not too concerned about losing all the weight and being 100% like I was before - -it's just the way it is.
SL: Running around all the time juggling your work and family commitments must help keep off the pounds.
HK: I do run around all the time, but my lifestyle is very healthy. I eat very healthy and we cook at home. We don't eat out a lot, we don't go out for fast food a lot -- and it's the same with the children. I'm a pain in the butt with my children. I want them to eat right. They hate me for it a lot of times, but I don't want to make my life easy and skip those roles that I feel like I have to have as a mother.
SL: It's great to give your kids the lesson that eating healthy is important while they're young.
HK: That's what I'm trying to do. We are sitting at 6 o'clock around the table and talking about school and what they've done in the day. I think a lot of people don't do that anymore -- kids maybe sit in front of the television and the mom doesn't cook. Not everyone has the time to -- I understand that a lot of women work late and can't cook a lot at home. You can only do what you can do, but if you can, I would try and make the effort to cook more and live a happy life.
SL: Does the occasional fast food meal still sneak its way into your family's healthy lifestyle?
HK: Are you kidding? Yeah, we go to McDonald's. They understand that's a special thing--we go the Micky D's and they have chicken nuggets and the big fries and a Coke. They love it--and I love it too!
SL: I guess it's OK as an occasional treat.
HK: Absolutely!
For more on the keeping your ticker happy, check out our heart health tips paired with our favorite pieces of red clothing.
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