Gwyneth Paltrow spent the first day of the last year of her forties soaking up the birthday wishes! On Monday, the actress and Goop founder was flooded with warm wishes on her special day, resharing many of them on social media. She also treated fans to a glimpse of how she spent her 49th—lounging in a bathtub on her patio. How does the star manage to look half her age? Read on to see 8 ways Gwyneth Paltrow stays in shape and the photos that prove they work—and to get beach-ready yourself, don't miss these essential 30 Best-Ever Celebrity Bikini Photos!

Gwyneth is "a total die-hard" fan of the celeb-beloved Tracy Anderson Method. "Her method works so well for me. I've seen all these fads come and go, and nothing works for me the way that Tracy's approach does, so I really stick with it," she told Shape about the dance inspired workout. "She's amazing." "Many of you may already know of my passion for the Tracy Anderson Method and my investment in it. She has kicked my formerly sagging ass into shape and I will be forever grateful," she added on Goop. 

Gwyneth meditates regularly, recently revealing to Vogue she went from doing it "sporadically" to every single morning during the pandemic. "I do Transcendental Meditation, so that's something you learn with a teacher and they give you a mantra. There's an app called Insight Timer that I use, and then sometimes when I need a little meditation in the afternoon [I use] The Breathing App. You follow a ball expanding and contracting and breathe along with it. Even five minutes is really helpful," she explained. "Paparazzi'd while meditating…" she captioned a recent Instagram photo. 

"I love to take an infrared sauna; it's really detoxifying. It's a real gift to myself," she told Shape about the detoxifying practice. "I haven't tried cryotherapy yet because I'm kind of scared to, but they say it's great for pain. Our diets are so full of inflammatory foods that I think we need to do increasingly extreme things to combat it."

"At Goop they call me 'GP the guinea pig,' because I'll try anything," she told Shape. "I just tried a goat milk cleanse for eight days to rid my system of parasites. That was really interesting. It's only goat's milk and herbs. The theory is that we all have parasites, and they love the milk protein. So if you eat nothing else, they all come out of the intestinal wall and then you kill them with the herbs. I had to try it for Goop, but I felt so good after it."

Gwyneth tries to "eat pretty clean during the day" fueling up on "good proteins and lots of vegetables and not too much grain or sugar, and nothing baked" during the day. Later in the day she is more lenient she explained to Shape, eating whatever she wants for dinner, but shying toward lean proteins like fish and chicken. 

Gwyneth doesn't just take supplements, she makes them. "The way the modern food system is, we're always depleted of nutrients, so I take a good multivitamin, and a fish oil, and then I have other herbs for various things," she told Shape. 

In addition to indoor workouts Gwyneth loves exercising outdoors. "Always trying to get as close to Mother Nature as possible," she captioned a post of herself paddleboarding.

Paltrow is one of the many stars who incorporate intermittent fasting into their lifestyle. "This year, I've been working with my dear friend and functional medicine practitioner @drwillcole and experimenting with the program from his new book, Intuitive Fasting. Will's clear, but flexible, four-week plan combines intuitive eating with intermittent fasting and Ketotarian foods. It's designed to optimize our well-being and set us up to feel our best for all the other weeks to come," she explained in a recent post.