Carrie Underwood Shares Diet and Fitness Tips with SELF Magazine April 2012

Carrie Underwood graces Self Magazine's April 2012 issue looking seriously lovely and joyful. The 29-year-old country superstar shares her tips on staying healthy, happy and in love, and she also reveals her preshow food and exercise routine. Check out these snippets from Carrie's interview!

Carrie Underwood is not just a beautiful girl but also a super talented singer who managed to release three albums, 14 number-one hits and five tours, everything in seven years. This time, the 29-year-old country star slowed down "for more than a second" and shared some of her tips on staying healthy, happy and in love with Self Magazine April 2102.

"I'm a very regimented eater. I've kept food journals for years. Now I do it with the LiveStrong.com phone app, which is great with nutrition info for restaurant meals," she confesses.

In her interview, Carrie reveals the reasons behind her decision of becoming a vegan. "I love eating and talking about food. I've been a vegetarian for seven years. But after seeing a friend who looked amazing and had recently gone vegan, I thought,' What's holding me back?,'" she says.

The singer also explains her veganism saying that, "Now I'm 95 percent vegan. Sometimes you're at a birthday party and there's cake and...you know, you can't resist. My veganism is based on a concern about where my food is coming from. In my perfect world, I'd have webcams wherever food is processed so I'd know how clean it is."

Underwood admits she loves cooking and sees this as a great opportunity to spend some time with her husband, hockey pro Mike Fisher, 31.
"My husband would rather go out to restaurants than eat at home — it makes me mad! I really enjoy cooking and eating together at home. If he's watching TV and I'm cooking, I'm like, 'Hey, you're being lazy — come help!' It's a nice time to be together and talk. Plus, I don't know what to do with meat, so if Mike wants it to taste good and doesn't want to end up in the hospital with food poisoning, it's best if he makes it himself," Carrie says.

The singer's regular breakfast is "a vanilla smoothie with pea protein powder, half a banana, a cup of berries, almond milk and ice. Or I'll make a tofu scramble with whatever I've got in the fridge, like spinach, onions and peppers, with salsa on top. If I'm working out in the morning, I'll also have an orange or a grapefruit. And black coffee. I like a little caffeine boost!"

For lunch, Carrie says she does "a stir-fry with precut veggies. I like broccoli, carrots, broccoli slaw, fake chicken and onions. I eat it with brown rice and season it with Bragg Liquid Aminos, then I'm good to go. It's a lot of food but not a lot of fat or calories." And what about dinner? The singer admits that, "I'll always be a fan of veggie burgers!"

On her pre-event diet, Carrie told Self Magazine that, "I lay off starches. I'm not a fan of the nocarb thing; you're going to get yourself in trouble that way. So I have lots of veggies and fruit but no other starches or bread."

When it comes to her fitness plan, the singer says that the secret is to keep it fun.
"I have a game I love for when I'm working out on my own, without a trainer. I take a deck of cards and assign each suit a body area — say, diamonds for arms, hearts for legs, spades for core and clubs for cardio. I split the deck in half and write down exercises for each suit, a different one for each half," she told Self Magazine.

On her style, Underwood confesses that the idea of being criticized used to scare her. "In the beginning, my biggest fear was being criticized. Now I'm a lot better with saying, I feel good about myself and that's enough," the singer says.

Carrie also reveals her pre-event beauty tip. "Get plenty of water and sleep. That's it! I've heard horror stories about people who've done peels or fake tans before events. What if my face melted off? I'll stick to hydration and a little extra night cream," she told Self magazine.

Photos courtesy of SELF Magazine