Deepika Padukone swims with sharks, jumps out of airplanes and can beat you at badminton! In an exclusive interview with Vogue India, the stunning Deepika Padukone talks about her healthy lifestyle and daily fitness mantra.
 
Standing at 5ft9in and weighing 60 kilos, she confesses that she has never loved her body as much as she does today. “I am definitely looking my best now,” she says contentedly.
 
Deepika confesses, “While I believe that when you are in the glamour industry, you have to look your best, I also believe being skinny is not ‘hot and happening’. A really skinny person may not necessarily be fit. I endorse fitness, which combines a healthy lifestyle, diet and exercise.” She adds, “Fitness depends on fat per cent, not body weight. Lots of skinny people have a high fat percentage. That’s unhealthy, and one day they will expand.”
 
During the shooting for Homi Adajania’s Cocktail in Cape Town, South Africa with Saif Ali Khan and Diana Penty, once the shoot was over, Deepika would take off to the village of Gansbaai with Adajania and Penty to swim with great white sharks. As if this wasn’t enough to pump her adrenaline enough, she also leaped out of a plane, not once, not  twice but three times. “I wouldn’t be able to do any of this if I weren’t fit and healthy,” she says, rather proudly.
 
It becomes apparent just how much of her current success is a result of years of training and self-control instilled by her parents. “With Dad being an athlete, fitness was a part of growing up. Not just in food and exercise. They also ensured that we slept and woke up on time. These little habits formed the person I have become.”
 
There was a brief period in her life when she let go and felt that she’d exercised enough. “I even put on five kilos in two months while holidaying alone in Europe. Fortunately it didn’t show because of my height and the way I carried myself.” It was only when Padukone decided to join the world of glamour that she realised she needed to get back into shape. “Even then, I didn’t push myself to knock off those kilos quickly. I just worked out with Mum at the gym every morning and slowly got back into a fitness routine,” she says.
 
Now a bona fide screen goddess, Deepika still relies on exercise and healthy eating to keep her desirable shape. A few years ago, Padukone also started practising yoga seriously. “What I like about Yasmin Karachiwala’s workout is that it is all free-hand, forcing you to use your core, your own body weight.”
 
Furthermore the stunning beauty reveals her 10-steps guide to a better body in the June issue of Vogue India.