Kristina Rihanoff captivate millions of fans Strictly Come Dancing with her engaging personality, voluptuous figure and what she calls her sheer Sergeant's refusal to let non-existent health and fitness plan prevent him from shaping up on the dance floor.

Now, as so many of us resolve to tone up after the excess of the holiday season, 31-year-old Kristina reveals her own simple healthy living regime which promises she can help even the most couch potato ARDENT look and feel better in 2009.
Kristina, who is enjoying a break wellearned in sunny Palm Springs, California, before returning to the UK next week to prepare for an upcoming Strictly tour, reveals: 'The one question I get asked more than anything else how much weight is lost and John how on earth he did it?
'The truth of the matter is, when I met him he told me the only exercise I got was lifting a heavy stack of newspapers in the morning. He was considerably overweight, had wine every lunchtime and did not take exercise.
'John's case was a bit extreme because I went from doing nothing to dancing four or five hours a day with me. But I also started eating the way I told him to and he turned to me after a couple of weeks and said, "Goodness, I've not felt this well in years."'


Kristina continues: 'When we started, everyone laughed at us because he was so out of shape but I think the reason we did so well was that the public fell in love with our sheer refusal to give in to all the criticism.
'Yes, John was on the chubby side but he showed that anyone can get up and learn a new skill like dancing and have a good time doing it.
'He only made a few simple changes to his lifestyle but he's kept them up. I talk to him all the time and he's kept the weight off. He's not dancing any more but he is now Rediscovered swimming and going every week and enjoying it.
'The thing about exercise and healthy eating is you do not have to take it to extremes. Even small changes help, can make you feel better and give you more energy. John is 64 years old so if I can do it, anyone can. "
Kristina developed what she calls her "Healthy lifestyle plan 'on her own after years of hit-or-miss diets.
Born and brought up in Vladivostok before the fall of the Soviet Union, the petite dancer 5ft 3in was always worried about her weight: 'By the time I was 13 I had the curves you see now,' she says, sweeping a perfectly manicured finger over her generous bosom.


I was a dancer from the age of six but most of the other girls were super-skinny. I was always worried about being fat and constantly on one crash diet after another.
'The problem was that I knew nothing about nutrition. Back in the old Soviet Union was the diet full of carbohydrates. We ate lots of potatoes, pasta, bread and starchy vegetables like beetroot and dried beans.
"Vladivostok is a major Seaport so I grew up eating plenty of fish but I knew nothing about healthy eating.'

Kristina is Bursting with energy. Her hands move constantly as she talks in heavily accented English and, while she admits being ruthlessly ambitious, there is a vulnerability there which makes her undeniably appealing. Her face is meticulously made up, despite the fact it is barely 11am.
Kristina says both of her parents - Igor, a musician, split from her mother Larisa, a hotel receptionist, when she was ten - suffered from dietary ailments.
She explains: 'My father had constant stomach problems. He is lacking a certain enzyme that breaks down food so irritable bowel syndrome and had suffered from bloating.