While she has a healthy relationship with food now, she grew up obsessed with food, resulting in her longtime struggles with bulimia, anorexia and laxative abuse.
"I grew up eating quality food but in a very obsessive household about being thin and eating disorders," Frankel told Health Nov. 13. "Food was an obsession in my house — out to restaurants every night — but then, so was dieting."
Bethenny experienced an epiphany in 2006, when she took a trip to Italy, where she learned that she could eat her favorite foods but in small portions.
Once she realized that being thin didn't require starvation diets and obsessive exercise, Frankel said she got thinner naturally.
"When I was in my thirties, I just unlocked the safe. I figured out how dieting doesn't work. I'd been on every diet and it took me all those years to realize: Diets are hopeless. They are hope, and then they break your spirit. It's learning how to allow and to indulge. That works."
Bethenny still enjoys sugar snacks like chocolate-covered pretzels, but doesn't go overboard. "It's ridiculous [to say sugar is evil]," she said. "I don't buy into anything that's extreme. I eat a lot of sweets. I like a small brownie in the afternoon."
Most people may think Frankel exercises obsessively to maintain her willowy 5-foot-6, 115-pound body, but she does yoga workouts sporadically, and doesn't beat herself up when she misses a workout.
"I don't have time to exercise," Bethenny said. "I could always stay thin, but I'd like to be fit. But what happens is if I go for four days to a spa, I'll work out for four days. It comes back. But I have to get a rhythm, and it's hard right now."
Frankel is busy juggling her fitness empire and her TV talk show, but says her top priority is spending time with her three-year-old daughter.
"I want to be a great mom and spend a lot of time with Bryn, and I'd never take an hour away from her to work out," she said.
After spending two decades being obsessed with weight loss, diet and exercise, Bethenny is more relaxed about her body.
"I like that I have a nice figure, but I don't any feel pressure about it," she said. "It's not the thing that people identify me with. I mean, they do, but it's not who I think I am. I'm flawed. I've created a success based on being flawed."
Meanwhile, the divorced mom isn't looking to get married anytime soon. "I don't think you can have it all at once," said Bethenny. "It's hard to have a career and a personal life and a love life and a sex life. If it happens, I'll let you know!"
And what does she wants in a man? "Acceptance. Confidence. Sense of humor. Ability to take charge," she said. "I'm always so in charge, I'd like someone else to take charge.
"And it's not that easy. I'm not that easy a person to take charge of. I don't want anyone to take charge of my business. I want someone to take charge of my personal life."
