14 DAY TRIAL // Canadian singer Alanis Morissette literally hit rock bottom when she and then-fiancé Ryan Reynolds decided to call off their engagement in early 2007. Already with a history of anorexia and bulimia nervosa, Alanis turned to comfort eating to get over the breakup, resulting in her piling on more pounds than ever before. In early 2009, she decided to make a change, overhauled her diet and started working out, which is why she can now speak of being in her best shape possible, as she does in her latest interview with OK! Magazine.
After the split from Reynolds, as well as after his quick and unexpected marriage to actress Scarlett Johansson, Alanis began to find comfort in food. Her ballooning weight in the last part of 2008 shows just the extend to which she took her comfort eating. However, in early 2009, she stumbled across a book called “Eat to Live” promoting a vegan diet focused on overall health and disease prevention, while also starting to work out again.
She was “indulgent for a good nine months,” Alanis says, so coming across the book was like a miracle she did not expect. Based on fruit, vegetables, nuts and beans, the diet there included is not so much about losing weight as it’s about staying healthy, the singer points out. This, combined with her starting to work out again, has left her full of energy and in the best shape of her life. Moreover, it has also helped her find balance in her life and accept that bad things do happen, but that doesn’t necessarily mean one has to destroy oneself because of them.
“I used to get out of bed in the morning and things were aching, and I just thought, this is what happens when you get into your 30s. But now I jump out of bed and have so much energy; I feel very alive. Even after a workout, I feel like if I rest a little bit I could go out dancing all night, so that’s exciting. I saw this book, ‘Eat to Live,’ and I thought, that’s exactly what I want to do. I wasn’t interested in some fad diet that was unsustainable. So I opened it and flipped through and thought the weight loss is incidental. The primary focus is disease prevention.” Alanis explains for the mag.
Now lighter and more toned than ever before, the singer is actually considering running for a marathon for a cause. She doesn’t lack the training for it, one might as well add. “I do between a half hour to an hour of light weights, running, biking, swimming, probably five times a week. I also love to kickbox and dance. I’m back to what I was born to be, at my best.” the singer adds.