Christina Applegate takes no vacations from her health routine

By Cindy Pearlman | Big Picture News Inc.

LOS ANGELES — She could really use a vacation.

Christina Applegate, 43, says sleeping late would be first on her R&R list.

“My daughter usually bounces into my room at 5 in the morning to say, ‘Mommy, look! I found a feather!’ I’m like, ‘Can you give me until 6 to start breakfast and have the feather talk?’ ”

Just like any other working mom of an active 4-year-old, she has that morning routine that doesn’t stop. “It’s a crazy hour of ‘get you fed, get me fed, sunscreen on, pack the snack and get the family out the door.’

“I might burn more calories before 9 o’clock that going to a gym.”

Yet, Applegate is just joking because the “Vacation” star is serious about her health.

A breast cancer survivor, she says good health is her focus. Applegate actually was on a macrobiotic diet for a few years after her 2008 diagnosis. Now, she follows that plan with days off, focusing on healthy grains and vegetables. “Basically, I started eating as a vegetarian at age 15. Now my goal is to eat what makes my body feel good,” she says. “I will grab pizza, but it’s the gluten-free kind.

“My goal is to serve foods that don’t have preservatives, which is why I make sure that my family eats organic,” she says of her lifestyle with husband Martyn LeNoble, a bassist and founding member of Porno for Pryos.

Exercise is also key to her lifestyle. She loves to go spinning or take a dance class, but the time factor is tough. “You don’t always have those chunks of time to just go off and take an exercise class when you have a young child,” she says. A fan of the treadmill, elliptical and cycling, she also does weight training and core work.

In the reboot of “Vacation,” opening Wednesday, she co-stars with Ed Helms as a new generation of Griswold parents taking the family to Wally World.

Her own travels require everyone to get their workout in.

“Growing up, we didn’t have big vacations,” she said. “It was just my mom and me, so we’d go into Manhattan and see a Broadway show. But it was great because we’d also walk the entire city for hours. You don’t even realize how walking leaves you in such great shape.”

Now, she is repeating that with Sadie. “We just got back from New York a few days ago. I was working there for three weeks and had five days off. Sadie and I never take cabs when we’re in the city.

“We walk everywhere. It’s the greatest exercise, plus you really get a feel for the place.”