14 DAY TRIAL // Shonda Rhimes must be one of the busiest women working in television right now, but she still has time to take better care of herself. The series creator of hits like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal” has lost an impressive 117 pounds (53 kg) in recent months, and she’s happy to share her secret.
Rhimes showed off her new figure at the ABC TGIT Celebrations in Los Angeles the other day, and Extra caught up with her on the red carpet to get all the details. Video of the chat is embedded below, at the end of the article.
Lowering expectations, learning new things
Here’s the part where, if you were expecting Rhimes to have knowledge of some kind of magic weight loss bullet, you’re about to be disappointed: she doesn’t. She did it the old-fashioned way, with dieting and exercise, and just like every person on this planet trying to shift some extra weight, she hated every second of it.
Still, she’s understandably thrilled about her accomplishment, as you can see in the video below.
Her only secret consists in preparing herself mentally to hate every second of her journey to a healthier, slimmer body, because this way, she lowered her expectations and actually found that it wasn’t as bad or as difficult as she imagined.
She combined plenty of exercise with a healthier diet based on portion control, and she soon started seeing the results.
“I changed everything I ate - and I hated all of that - and then I hate exercising and I did that, too, and I hated it the whole time,” she says. “I try to make it much less and smaller portions, but you change what your palate wants. I'm suddenly craving fish and salad.”
Doing it for the kids
The other thing that worked for Rhimes in terms of keeping her on track with her weight loss progress was having good motivation for it.
She tells Extra that she finally decided to get in shape for her kids, because she wants to “be around” for a while longer for them. She’s probably also trying to lead by example, which is understandable.
As for how she found time to exercise when she’s already working with such a full plate, Rhimes says that she’s actually more energetic now that she’s slimmer and healthier. Here’s your weight loss motivation, if you need it.