Kelly Ripa will not only grace the cover of Fitness Magazine [1] this January to show off her super toned mommy bod, she also is showing her support for HEART for Women, a bill before Congress that requests funding for and education about gender-related aspects of cardiovascular health. It's not all serious though, she also fully admits that vanity enabled her to keep working out.

Here are highlights [2]:

On being vain: “A month or two after I started working out, I wore a sleeveless turtleneck to work. Regis was like, ‘Pipa, your arm muscles look incredible!’ it was the first time anybody had ever said anything to me about my muscles. And because I am a vain person, that’s all I needed to hear to stay with it.”

On starting her fitness regime: “I figured, I work in an industry where there’s a stylist and a makeup artist—they’ll make me look fine but I began feeling tired-just playing in the park with my kids wore me down…So I started walking on a treadmill. Then I started jogging on a treadmill. Then I began jogging outside. Now I’m running outside, three to five miles, and taking toning classes.

On her best confidence-boosting trick: “I buy jeans that are tight in the rear end. I’m not kidding. I treat my cheeks like breasts in a push-up bra. I just reach down in there, lift them up and push them together. And they’ll stay put if the jeans are tight enough in the seat.”

On regrets: “I used to smoke, so lung cancer is the thing that keeps me awake at night. I worry, Did I quit in enough time? Did I do it for too long? It’s one of those things where I think, Boy, what a foolish thing I did. I’m not from the generation where you can go, ‘Oh, I didn’t know it was bad for me.’ No. Everybody knew it was bad.”