Kelly Ripa is flourishing at (almost) 50 — just ask her husband of 24 years Mark Consuelos!
The Live with Kelly and Ryan co-host, who rings in her milestone birthday on Friday, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview that Consuelos, who is away in Vancouver filming Riverdale, recently gave her a much-appreciated compliment.
"Mark said to me something that really stuck. He said to me, 'Your skin is shiny.' And I said, 'What do you mean?' He goes, 'You just look so healthy. Your skin is shiny,' " Ripa recalls.
"When you've been married for such a long time, statements like that mean so much more. For him to suddenly notice that my skin is shiny. And I feel good, so I assume that I look good. But when he made that statement to me, it really resonated."
Ripa, who shares sons Michael, 23, and Joaquin, 17, and daughter Lola, 19, with Consuelos, 49, credits her healthy lifestyle to a mostly plant-based diet and exercising every day, which she has kept up during quarantine.
"The older I get and the more nutritionists that we've had on the show and the more I work out with my trainer, they all say the same thing. It's 80 percent nutrition and it's 20 percent fitness," she tells PEOPLE. "Now that I'm on the eve of 50, it really is so true that it's the nutrition thing that really is … It's what forces the exercise, right? So if you don't have proper nutrition, you don't have the energy to exercise."
Ripa also takes nutritional supplements to "fill in those gaps" — crediting her partnership with Persona Nutrition, a personalized nutrition company.
"I've never felt better," she says. "I've never had better energy. And I have never slept better at night, which is so fascinating because I'm a notorious lifelong insomniac."
Ripa also prioritizes her mental health and admits that she, like many others, has experienced anxiety throughout the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
"I just try to manage it as best as I can. I try to stay in the moment. I try to control the things I can control and I try not to worry about the things that are out of my control," she says.
Looking ahead to her 50s, Ripa tells PEOPLE she's focused on staying healthy for her family.
"There are so many people that count on me," she says. "Not just my work friends and my children, but my parents, my in-laws and there are people that rely on me for certain things. And so I just like to stay as healthy as possible. And that has been really the benefit for me of knowing that I am fortified internally."
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