Naomie Harris’ diet and fitness hacks revealed – from shepherd’s pie breakfasts to ‘gyrotonic’ workouts – as the Bond Girl celebrates her 50th birthday

Naomie Harris made history when she became the first black actress to play Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise.

But to step into the famous secretary’s shoes, the actress also had to get in shape.

Jokingly she was ‘very unfit’ before landing the role on Skyfall in 2012, now Naomie is prioritizing strength training and is ‘obsessed’ with her health.

Celebrating her Naomie turns 50 on Sunday and doesn’t keep the secret of her healthy habits a secret.

She’s a big believer in the importance of sleep and the fact that she doesn’t believe in breakfast foods, revealing you might even find her eating a Shepherd’s Pie first thing in the morning.

Naomie’s most important rule is: ‘Without sleep, exercise is nothing.’

Speak with Women’s health In 2020, she explained, “Everyone focuses on ‘get exercise,’ but if you’re only getting five hours of sleep a night, it doesn’t really matter and you’re probably doing yourself a disservice.”

‘Sleep is incredibly important, especially good quality sleep.’

She focuses on strength work and prioritizes gyrotonics, a mix of yoga, pilates, tai chi and swimming.

The martial arts element helped her fight scenes in Bond, as she explained: “With Bond I had two months before we started filming and even then during filming I got a personal trainer who took me five days a week to do kickboxing, circuit training and stunt training, including driving and working with weapons.”

‘You also have to be very agile, swinging bags at people, fighting the bad guys and so on – to make it seem believable you do indeed have to be fit.’

As for diet, Naomie makes sure to stay away from sugar, caffeine and alcohol – so there will be no cereal or pastries for her breakfast.

The star revealed that her breakfast is quite unconventional and she tends to eat the same thing as she does for lunch.

‘I have a huge breakfast. “I have the weirdest breakfast ever, everyone is always really weird about my breakfast,” she said Women’s health.

‘I actually don’t see any difference between breakfast and lunch. So I’ll eat the same thing for lunch as I did for breakfast – I ate Shepherd’s Pie in the morning. Or sometimes fried fish and vegetables.’

She explained that it’s the same in Jamaica, adding, “They have fried fish and plantains and callaloo and stews in the morning, and that’s normal.” So they are actually my roots! It’s in my genes.’

She admits she is lucky with her genetics and is “obsessed” with health, she said TRAIN: ‘I’m very lucky with my figure, I have a great metabolism, but working on the Bond films has definitely put me on a health journey.’

She explained: ‘I tried the whole raw food diet but got sick. I got so sick and anemic, so I stopped taking it and became a vitamin junkie. I just ate a lot of vegetables and exercised.

‘My diet is very balanced, and I’ve really come to appreciate the benefits: I have much more energy and feel much more alive, I sleep better and eat better.’

Naomie’s healthy lifestyle in her adult life came after she was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11 before undergoing surgery in her late teens.

She explained: ‘I had a rib removed, my lung deflated and then all the muscles near my spine were cut so they could insert a metal rod all the way into my back. I had to learn to walk again. It was a horrific experience.

‘Going through something so traumatic taught me that my health is a very fragile gift.

“So at that young age I made the decision to do whatever I could to keep it going.”