‘Top Chef’ Host Padma Lakshmi Slays In Snakeskin-Print Bikini Throwback Photo For National Bikini Day

There seems to be a national day for every possible thing imaginable. Whether it’s National Puppy Day or National Doughnut Day; you name it, it probably exists. Thursday, July 5, just happens to be National Bikini Day and chances are there will be a lot of famous ladies donning the sexiest bikini they can think of to celebrate. However, as far as the unofficial contest goes, Top Chef host and judge Padma Lakshmi is definitely the woman to beat.

In honor of National Bikini Day, Lakshmi shared a throwback photo of herself absolutely killing it in a snakeskin-print two-piece bathing suit, per Bravo TV. Despite the fact that she happens to be on a show where half of the job is eating, Lakshmi’s body shows no sign of that. At 47-years-old, the chef has the fit body that mothers and women in general probably dream of.

So how exactly does the woman who consumes “up to 8,000 calories a day” when shooting Top Chef maintain her figure?

Simple. She sticks to a “strict clean diet,” which she has spoken about in the past.

“I eat a lot of vegetables and fruit,” Lakshmi said. “I eat fish and chicken and shellfish. I also eat a lot of lentils and beans,” she added.

As an Indian growing up in both India and the U.S., Lakshmi’s parents raised her “as a vegetarian.”

“When I’m not on the show, I’m pretty plant-based. I was raised as a vegetarian in India and in America. We had a vegetarian home. I didn’t really start eating meat until I was a teenager, so I’m used to eating like that.”

Of course Lakshmi pairs her clean-eating with some form of physical exercise and admits that her go-to workout of choice is pilates.

The host’s amazing throwback photo comes one day after she shared an adorable video on her Instagram of her with her daughter, Krishna, 8, showing off the Fourth of July cake they made together. During the video, Krishna totally steals the spotlight when she mentions that it was she who did all the piping with the cream cheese by herself.

While the video itself was very festive, the way Lakshmi chose to caption the video was not.

“Today thousands of mothers across the country are not able to be with their children because of Trump’s inhumane zero-tolerance immigration policy — they are still displaced, lost in a sea of red tape.”

She then asks her followers to take the time to donate to the ACLU or to RAICES Texas, which helps immigrant families with legal services and other resources.