Real Talk: Lisa Edelstein's Secrets to Staying Healthy (and Zen)
Why yoga, veggies and discipline are the essential recipe for her everyday life.
Lisa Edelstein seems a world away from the turbulent life of Abby McCarthy, the Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce heroine she portrays. In reality, the veteran actress is a newlywed who subscribes to a healthy lifestyle of yoga, clean eating and disciplined choices.
Lisa tells Parade magazine how her relationship with yoga has evolved and is now less about fitness and more about feeling zen, "I used to have a very athletic yoga practice and I loved doing challenging poses and pushing myself," she explains. "Now I look to yoga for a more meditative connection with breath and movement and get my strength and cardio exercise elsewhere."
"Elsewhere" is a mix of bike-riding, stair-climbing, and other cardio as well as weight training. Lisa broke down the routine that keeps her fit but still ready to face 16-hour days on set: "When I'm working really hard I tend to keep my routine to about a half an hour of intense work, switching between a few minutes of full body cardio and then smaller, more localized exercises."
Lisa is aware that her commitment to healthy living takes work but she sees how valuable that virtue is in other areas of her life as well. "There is another kind of discipline that I think is important for any career, and that's making disciplined choices," she says. "I've always believed that it's important to say 'no' when it's not the direction you want to go in. We work hard to be where we are at and it's just as important to work hard as it is to curate what you work hard at. Then you can create the future that will make you happy."
As for her life off-set? One of the things that makes her happiest is feeding her loved ones: "I love cooking for people and I love feeding people delicious food that's good for them," says the vegetarian of 33 years. "I think I've been a vegetarian since Methuselah was born."
But she does see one downside to her diet. "It's important to me to eat quality, clean food that makes me feel healthy. This makes me a terrible dinner date." We doubt that.
[Source: Parade]
