Kate Hudson Shares Lifestyle, Fitness Tips in 'Pretty Happy'
The actress calls her new book a "tell-true" book.
— -- Kate Hudson is a mother-of-two, businesswoman and actress who seems to have it all.
The "Kung Fu Panda 3" said today on "Good Morning America" that there is "no secret" to her success.
"It takes a lot of work," she said. "For me, it’s more about how do you motivate women to want that to be a part of their lifestyle, the actual work part, because it is a discipline."
"It also has to come from each different aspects of your life," Hudson said. "It’s mental and it’s physical."
Hudson calls her new book, "Pretty Happy: Healthy Ways to Love Your Body," a "tell-true" book because in it she shares how she really stays fit, confident and grounded.
"It’s never too late to start that process of enjoying what it feels like to feel strong," Hudson said. "For me that’s really what it is, it’s about feeling strong."
Read an excerpt from the book here:
I hope this isn’t disappointing, but this book is not meant to be some kind of weird tell-all. Rather, it’s a tell-true, focused on how I figured out how to connect to myself, understand what my body needs, and put that information together so I no longer have to worry about or overthink how I eat or how I work out and for how long. I finally feel confident that I have something to share. I want to give others a way to feel as positive and motivated as I try to be, because seeing that I can help makes me feel my best. This book is also about how I learned to slow down and fine-tune how I eat and exercise and practice meditation in a way that grounds me when life gets bumpy.
Why do I feel more confident about what I’ve learned? Lately, I’ve been realizing that just as my public roles have changed and evolved, so too have my inner roles—especially my relationship with myself. People may see me as buoyant and always smiling, but the truth is, I’m not always like that. No one is. Like everyone else, I have my good days, my not-so-good days, and my totally awful days. I’m in my midthirties now, and my life is even more complicated and busy, with more and more responsibilities. But I also happen to be more carefree than I was even in my early twenties, before I became a mom. I also feel stronger than ever, more self-assured and more resilient. Does this sound like a contradiction? Let me explain. I guess you can say that I finally feel at peace with myself, ready and willing to take on new challenges, looking forward to the years ahead with fearlessness, confidence, creativity, and lots of humor, not shy or afraid of any upsets that are bound to happen in my lifetime. And I just feel more confident that now I can share some insight, and even if it resonates with only one person, I will have contributed in a positive way.
Another reason I decided to write this book was out of frustration. I’m often asked how I stay in shape. How I lost all that baby weight after my first son, Ryder, was born. How I seem to effortlessly lose ten pounds in preparation for a new film role. How I look and seem so healthy. The responses captured and then reported by the media are typically just sound bites—“I love to jump rope.” “I’m into yoga. ” “I do Pilates.” “I’m vegan.” “I work out twenty minutes a day.” “I work out two and a half hours a day.”
It’s not that these sound bites aren’t true—some are, some are not—but they just don’t tell the whole story. And though I understand that nowadays we have become accustomed to getting our information immediately, in bite-size snippets or tweets, learning how to really take care of yourself doesn’t happen immediately at all. In other words, if you want to make lifestyle changes, it doesn’t happen with a Like on Instagram! It takes time and discipline.
My frustration comes from the fact that learning to take care of yourself will never be captured in a sound bite, just as how I live my life could never be captured in a four-minute interview. So since I really want to spread the word about some of the lessons I’ve learned and the things I’ve found that make me feel great, and I can’t sit down for a long conversation with you over hot tea, I decided to put my ideas about how to be body smart in this book.
One of the main ideas I came to is that being body smart is an ongoing process, not a diet or a program that begins one day and ends twenty-one days later. Just like yours are, my body and mind are always changing, which means that taking care of myself requires that I tune in regularly, ready to make small adjustments to fit the changes. This idea of constant change was a huge revelation for me! I used to think I could just figure out the best diet for me, that I’d lose weight, stick to that weight, and never have to worry again. But life doesn’t work that way—nor does true self-care. I want this book to be a map for you to figure out how to take good care of yourself—mind and body. I didn’t just wake up one day understanding how to take care of myself. I had to learn how to do so over time, and I continue to learn—each and every day. Again, this is a process because my body is constantly changing—so is yours.
And when I learned how to accept that it will always be like this, I relaxed. Our bodies do not stand still for time.
From the book PRETTY HAPPY: Healthy Ways to Love Your Body by Kate Hudson. Copyright (c) 2016 by Kate Hudson. Dey Street Books/HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.