Jennifer Love Hewitt Wears Sexy Pink Bikini For Shape Cover

Jennifer Love Hewitt shows off her slender body in a sexy pink and white stripped bikini as she poses for the cover of "Shape" Magazine.

Jennifer Love Hewitt who lost her mother last June says that the loss has made her pay serious attention to her fitness.

"When life hits you so hard -- whether someone you care for dies or your lover leaves you -- working out can save your life," Hewitt explains. "It certainly saved mine."

And the actress has never looked better. Hewitt shows off her well toned, sexy body in a white and pink zig-zag print bikini in a picture for the cover of Shape magazine's March issue.

Buti - a class created by L.A.'s Bizzie Gold that combines yoga, dance and plyometrics - has been instrumental in reshaping Hewitt's body, says the actress. Hewitt finds her motivation to work out regularly from fans who view her as a role model. "I know they're counting on me to feel powerful," she says.

In 2007, the actress had unflattering bikini pictures of herself published online and in magazines. "I wasn't going to the gym or eating right when that unfortunate photo was taken," the actress recalls. "It was time to start working out and watching my diet more closely."

Even now, after having such a good figure, the actress is still hesitant to show too much skin on camera. "Like every woman, I have my good days and my bad days," she tells Shape. "There are definitely moments when I don't have any confidence and want to hide my body under four parkas and stay in a dark corner. But then I think, 'Hey, I've got this! I'm totally rockin' this corset!'"

So what's her secret?

"When you start to get fit and when you start to go down in weight, you think, 'Oh, I've got this! This is great!' And the joke is on you at that point because that's not how the body works. The body really does respond to what you put into it and how much you put into it . . . I find that when I'm rested and I'm working out and I'm drinking a lot of water, I feel better and so I look better," she explained. "I never look at a scale, I have no idea how much I weigh -- I never pay attention to that stuff. I go sort of on how I feel in my clothes, and that's what's important to me. And if I feel good in them, then I'm happy and it doesn't really matter what anybody else thinks," reveals Hewitt.