She triumphed on Strictly, conquered Kilimanjaro, and owns Britain’s best legs, but what keeps all-singing, all-dancing dynamo - and LA Fitness ambassador – Alesha Dixon so relentlessly energised? We put the UK’s answer to Beyonce through her paces….

A visit to the gym is a painful chore for many people. Does keeping fit come naturally to you?

Depending on my mood and what time of the year it is it can feel like a chore but it depends on my mindset and whether or not it’s something that I want to do. At the moment it is something that I want to do as I’m feeling the benefits of being fit and I’m feeling stronger. I’m focused on what I’m doing for the rest of the year and being fit helps me stay on top of that. But like most people I have those days where I can’t be bothered and I’ve had days where I’ve been in the gym and I get bored very easily so one of the things that is important to me is to work out and have fun; to not really think about working out. I work with a trainer as well and that’s hard graft. Sometimes it nearly reduces me to tears because it’s that painful but I think somebody else pushing you always helps.

If you’d rather slouch in front of the TV than work out how do you rouse yourself?

I’m one of these people that before I go to bed I’ll set myself a task for the next day so I wouldn’t wake up and slouch about and think I’ve got to go the gym. I go because I want to, otherwise I don’t. I don’t beat myself up about it too much. If I want to do it I’ll do it. If I don’t I won’t.

I do try to go to the gym at least every other day. And give myself the weekend off. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are perfect. And if I have days where I can’t really be bothered I take the dogs out for a walk and for me that’s good enough. People are quite hard on themselves. They think that they need to be doing, 'this this, this,' but I say, ‘just go at your own pace.’

Walking is just as good as running. It’s great cardio and it’s good for you and I love being with nature and the dogs and that is just as good for me as going to the gym but when you’re in the gym you’ve got the inspiration of everybody else working out around you which definitely helps.

Do you have a rigid routine at the gym?

No. I like to change it around. I’ve had days where I’ve literally walked on a treadmill up hill for an hour. And I’ll put on my iPod and I’ll just get into my zone. And I’ve had days where I’ve just run for 45 minutes. I’ve also had days where I’ll do 20 minutes running, 20 minutes on the bike and 20 minutes on the floor doing some yoga, doing some sit ups, and doing some press ups and then I’ll have other days where I’ll just concentrate on the weights. So I try to mix it up as much as possible. It’s got to be diverse.

You’re a strong believer in visualising your fitness goals. What are your own fitness aims?

You have to ask yourself what you want to achieve. That’s really important. The main thing that I wanted to achieve within exercise was stamina to get through my live shows. They’re an hour and fifteen minutes plus of full on dancing and singing and I need to be completely on top of my game. I don’t want to have to hold back on my dancing because I’m not fit enough to keep up with my own stage show.

So how do you manage to achieve such high tempo dance routines and sing in time and in tune?

It’s a discipline and obviously your voice is a muscle too and you have to work at it. It doesn’t come over night and it’s something you have to build up to. I performed at the V Festival in 2009 and I exerted so much energy and the sun was so hot and I was so flooded with adrenaline that when I came off stage I was sick because I’d just gone for it so much. I remember saying to my team I didn’t feel like my body was coping with the amount of energy I wanted to use on stage.

Was your stamina not quite up to it at that point?

I’ve always been relatively fit and I’ve got good basic stamina but the type of show that I want to put on I need to be as fit as I possibly can so that was my plan; to build my stamina. I also wanted to wake up in the morning and to jump out of bed and not feel sluggish.

And has it worked?

I can do that now. I’m getting up a lot earlier than I used to. I used to get up early only on days when I was working. Now even if I’m not working I’m finding myself getting up earlier. Another thing I have trouble with is sleeping well at night. It takes me a long time to get to sleep and I find that the more I exercise by the time I hit the sack I’m just ready to pass out.

So there are lots of other benefits to exercise in that people don’t always thing about. When you think about exercise most people think, ‘I want to get rid of my cellulite, I want a flat tummy, I want pecs, I want a six pack,’ and it’s usually the exterior we think about, and losing weight for all the vanity reasons and we’re human and that’s fine if that gets you in the gym.

But I think there are deeper reasons and better reasons to exercise and I feel like I’m looking after my heart. I feel like I’m being kind to myself. This is my body. This is my vessel. I have to take care of it and it will take care of me.

Things like being more alert and more energised. They’re things that I think are bigger benefits than the superficial ones - which we all love - but they’re secondary benefits to the key objective which is to live a healthy lifestyle and have a healthy mind.

Physical exercise releases the feel good hormone serotonin. In your own personal darker moments how valuable has exercise been in lifting your spirits?

When I’ve had really dark moments probably the last thing on my mind is to exercise but from a day-to-day perspective if I felt sluggish and looked out of the window at another grey day that reflects in our skin and in our face and in our appearance and I do think, ‘If I push myself to go to the gym and I treat myself to a steam room then when I come out and I’ve got colour in my cheeks again and I feel alive and that makes me feel great,’ then that’s one of the things I love about exercise. It has the ability to pick you up.

It might feel hard at the time but if you just push through it you’ll see the benefits. It’s all in the mind. When you’re training and you’re working out and you tell yourself, ‘I can’t do this, it’s too hard,’ it will be hard and you probably won’t do it. If you say, ‘I can do this,’ and, ‘I will master this,’ you will.

Even yesterday with my trainer, we were doing reps of these weights and it was feeling difficult and I was feeling rough as I’ve just got over a cold, and I’d literally only been awake for thirty minutes and I was like, ‘Oh this is hard, this is hard,’ and I was moaning and it was hard.

But by the time we got to the third set of reps in my head I told myself, ’Come on woman, fix that attitude, you can do this, this is nothing, it’s all in your head,’ and then I found myself able to do it and then I realised that the minute I switch my mental state then my physical state becomes stronger.

So I’ve grasped that now. I know that I’m my own worst enemy. If I start moaning or if I’m being negative it comes out in the workout but the minute I switch it round the workout becomes better.

Show business is a notoriously competitive, exhausting industry. Is exercise a valuable stress reliever too?

Oh God yes. One of the things I love about working out is the boxing. It’s so difficult but you get that inner strength within your tummy and you get that fire in your belly. And I’m not saying you picture the face of someone you don’t like….

Do you do that?

I have done it. I’m not going to lie. But I’m not saying who I was thinking about! But what is great about boxing is that you can just get out any stress or anxiety that you’re having and that’s one of the things I’m trying to work on.

Throughout my life, even though I’m a person that 90% of the time I’m in a happy state, I can get stressed really quickly and I’m trying to work on that and I think exercise is a great way to get it out.

You’ve attempted several serious physical challenges including arduous world tours, winning Strictly Come Dancing and scaling Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief. Which of those was the greatest challenge?

The mountain was the toughest. I honestly believe that even when I’m 90 years old and someone asks me that question I will still say the mountain because it really was the most demanding thing I’ve ever done, not just physically but mentally as well.

Why?

Because it took so much. It took every ounce of my being and spirit and brain to get me up that mountain. Imagine going to the gym and there’s only 50% of the normal amount of oxygen that you would use so you’re doing this exercise with not much oxygen. Then add the fact that you are in these strange temperatures. You’ve got minus 20 one night and there were 75 mph winds and you’re in strange environment and it just feels like this uphill battle and I honestly felt – without sounding odd when I say it – like I was having a face off with God. Because you are just in an area of the earth that you never thought you would see. You’re like, ‘where am I in the world?’ It’s just you against the elements and you’re fighting against it and it’s a test of your character and it’s a test of your mental strength.

So how did that euphoria of reaching the summit compare to the joy of winning Strictly or performing a huge concert in front of tens of thousands of fans?

When I hit the top if the mountain – and I honestly believe that everybody that climbed the mountain would feel this too - that whatever happens in our lives now there is nothing that we can’t master.

Really?

Yeah. It’s like, ‘if we can do that, we can do anything.’ And I truly, truly believe that.

And you’ve also got to consider the more spiritual side of it and the humanity of it. The fact that we went out to Africa and were spending time in villages with people that were dying of malaria and people that were living in these wooden shacks and have to walk miles and miles to get water. You don’t see those things and come home and get complacent. It changes you.

You go there and you see these things and you realise that no matter what stresses we go through on a day -to-day basis in this society, in this country, we are OK. We are OK and we will always be OK. We’re very lucky and we’re very rich and I’ve always believed that from a young age, even when we didn’t have much money or clothes, I was always brought up to believe we were rich because we have so much compared to other people. So all of that plus the physical side plus the mental side and you hit the top of that mountain and it changes you.

I came home in complete shell shock and any time anybody would say, ‘tell me what it was like,’ for about three weeks all I could say was that there were no words. I just couldn’t find the words to describe the experience so that has put me in good stead so whenever I tackle anything I just visualise that experience and how I felt when I was there and it makes me stronger.

But with everything you do it’s about become stronger and growing and it’s the same with my collaboration with LA Fitness.

So physically, do you feel totally happy with your body?

At the moment I feel really strong. I’ve been eating healthily as well. If I was being nit picky, there are the normal areas that any woman has, your tummy and your thighs and stuff but I’m still happy with my body. There are areas that are not perfect, and that’s OK.

If you could alter anything what would you change?

I’d love a bigger bottom.

More like J-Lo or Beyonce?

It’s a known fact within the black community that black women are usually gifted with large bottoms but I missed out on that.

Are you disappointed by that?

Yes. So I thought if I wasn’t given a bum I’ll sculpt one, so this is what I’m trying to do.

Is that possible?

Yes. You have to work with a personal trainer that makes you nearly cry. Trust me, there is a way of sculpting a bum.

I look at people like Beyonce who are very curvaceous and voluptuous and I think that that is a beautiful way for a woman to look. She’s got curves.

I’ve always just made a joke of it. I’m happy with my body but I would have loved to have had a bigger bum. Most people want to lose a bum but I want to gain one.

As a joke to my trainer I was like, ‘can we concentrate on the buttock area,’ and there are so many exercises you can do that lift your bum. It takes time and it takes pain but you can do it.

Diet is important to overall fitness too and many people, women especially, believe that eating less can lead to a healthier lifestyle…

That’s terrible. You need to actually eat more but you just need to eat the right food. It’s little and often rather than eating three massive meals that are going to make you feel sick afterwards. It’s about eating all through the day. For the last week or so I’ve been eating really well. I’ve been eating things like poached eggs on toast, a big chicken salad for lunch or fish and the then steak and vegetables and drinking lots of water and green tea and I feel good at the moment but if I woke up tomorrow and had a craving for a chocolate bar I’ll go and eat it. I’m not going to deprive myself.

Do you have a guilty food pleasure that you occasionally overindulge in?

Pastries. I love anything that is bad for you. I love pizza I love cakes. I love chocolates and I have my moments where I just completely binge out and I have struggled with it and it’s difficult when you completely deprive yourself so I think the best thing to do is just eat well as much as you can and when you get a craving don’t ignore it, just roll with it.

And what else does the rest of the year hold for you?

Just to continue to do what I’m doing and be passionate about it and keep working with LA Fitness through the year, keeping that exciting and hopefully have another successful album.