Strictly's Karen Hauer is loving life right now. The star is ripping up the dancefloor on Saturday nights with her celebrity dance partner, comedian Chris Ramsay, and looks to be in the best shape ever. Following her divorce from fellow professional dancer Kevin Clifton, Karen has found love again with opera singer David Webb, who she told us is 'her rock'. In an exclusive interview with HELLO!, Karen revealed how she is more in tune with herself than ever and also gave us an insight into her daily diet. Here she explains how she stays so positive and her personal goals for the year ahead…
WATCH: See inside Karen Hauer's home in the video above
Back in December 2018, Karen told HELLO! she'd had an 'intense' year following her breakup from Kevin Clifton, but the star reveals how 2019 has been a year of self-awakening. She describes it as: "Knowledgeable, aware, and conscious of myself. I feel stronger, I feel like I know the person I want to be, and I am not afraid to just say it as it is, to believe in myself even more. It has definitely been an eye-opener of a year."
MORE: Kelvin Fletcher opens up about impressive weight loss journey since starting Strictly
Karen on 2019's Strictly with Chris Ramsey
What is Karen asking of herself in 2020, we wonder? "To be even more gentle with myself," she tells us. "I love learning, and experiencing things, and discovering things about life and how I feel about people, to be open to new things coming into your life, to put myself out there when perhaps it feels scary. It is continuing to be brave, standing my ground, and being consistent with that.”
We could all take a few wellness tips from Karen with this positive life philosophy. The dancer also takes good care of her body, telling us: "I try to eat everything, I burn so many calories, I like having my turmeric shots and my ginger shots in the morning, and usually David makes me a packed lunch so he will do kale, slices of steak, onions, tomato and balsamic vinegar."
Karen and boyfriend David Webb
She adds: "That is when I am at home, then when I am away from home I eat a lot of pasta throughout the day, and pretty much keep on munching on fruits and whatever I can get my hands on that has a lot of calories - because literally, I need to feed my body, and my mind because I am not only creating and dancing around but it is everything working at the same time, to be attentive, to teach, to have energy for me to dance.
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"The more I eat and drink, and keep my fluids up, the better I am. I stay away from the pizzas here and there but I will never deny myself if there is one lying around!"
Karen is excited about her upcoming dance tour with fellow Strictly pro Gorka Marquez, revealing how the idea came about. "Gorka and I had been doing a couple of gigs here and then, and we both said, ‘Wow this works, this is really cool, we make an awesome partnership, let’s just join forces and do something with those strong romantic powerful fiery dances, the salsas, the sambas, the Argentine tangos… The fact he is from Spain and I am from Venezuala, we built the tour around that."
We can't wait to see it and we're definitely taking some of Karen's lifestyle tips on board!
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