Brooke Shields: Learning to Love the Way She Looks

It's taken 43-years, most of them spent in the spotlight, for Brooke Shields to learn to love the way she looks. Today this busy mom-of-two is finally finding comfort in her own skin and rejoicing in growing older. In this month's issue of Health Magazine she talks about finding time to reenergize, growing older,

Some highlights:

On finding time reenergize as a working mom:
"Exercise is the only thing that reinvigorates me. I make appointments with other people [to go hiking], and I meet them at the base of the hill—because I’ll answer to that. I usually enjoy [exercise] after much more than I enjoy it during."

On the most surprising thing about getting older:
"The older I get, the younger I feel. Growing up, I was always the kid, but I spoke like an adult and was in adult roles. I didn’t feel like a kid. The older I get, I actually feel younger! Which is good. I always thought when you get older, you’ll want to slow down, but I want to do even more."

On her favorite splurge:
"A good hunk of dark Belgian chocolate. As I’m getting older, I’m enjoying my vices so much more because I feel like I’ve deserved them."

On her biggest health regrets:
"Not learning to love the way I looked earlier. And I think I would have had sex a lot earlier! [Laughs.] I think I would have lost my virginity earlier than I did at 22. I had the public and all this pressure, and I wish I had just gotten it over with in the beginning when it was sort of OK. I think I would have been much more in touch with myself. I think I wouldn’t have had issues with weight—I carried this protective 20 pounds [in college]. It was all connected. And to me, that’s a health regret."

On her favorite relaxation rituals:
"I love getting baths, and going to the Korean spas, and getting pummeled and scrubbed, and it’s so hot in the sauna you can’t even stand it. I have to do things in a pretty extreme way to calm down. So a Swedish massage is not going to do it! I need to know that they’re in there with their thumbs and moving stuff around. Even in a bath; if it’s not boiling hot, and I’m not thinking I’m detoxing, I’m like, what a waste of water! But, I’ll put in Epsom salts and boil something out until I get light-headed, and then I’ll be like, Ahhh!"

On marriage advice that she thinks is just plain wrong:
"That love is enough. It’s not practical. Without love, I don’t think it’s possible, but it’s not the only thing. Love without communication means nothing. Love with completely different views on how you want to raise children? Doesn’t work.

"Love can produce the children, but it has nothing to do with the raising of the children. I grew up thinking, Oh, that’s it. All I have to do is fall in love. [sighs]. You may think love will change everything, but it really is different with children. Children don’t necessarily bring you together, they challenge you."

On how her own childhood impacted her parenting style: "I definitely see how unique my upbringing was, and how glad that they’re not being subjected to it. But I’m also so used to drama. I was always with a single mom and we never had schedules or anything. We were just Bohemian, us against the world, which was kind of great, but it certainly didn’t breed security. I’ve gotten hyper-sensitive to schedules and bath time, and eating at the dinner table. We don’t just “Bohemian” go out at nine o’clock and go get Chinese Food."

Source: Health