She’s married to a martial-artist, she’s friends with the 300 stuntmen and she busted out in Prison Break. Last seen killing zombies in TV series The Walking Dead, actress Sarah Wayne Callies reveals the secret to a great marriage, how to train all day and the smell the beats stress.
1. Canada’s cure
“Poutine is a great French-Canadian hangover cure. It’s fries with beef gravy and cheese curds. It’s just salt and fat, so it replenishes your body and makes you feel better. You should start off each morning-after with poutine. I did when I was at university…”
2. Bee a healthier man
“We live right next to a beekeeper, so I take a lot of propolis. It’s what the bees give the queen of the hive to keep her healthy and it’s a really natural way to build your immune system. Take a couple of drops in water every few hours to feel better.”
3. Use pilates power
“Never do the same exercise more than twice in a week – and you don’t have to just work out twice in a week – because boredom is death when it comes to exercise. The repetition of just lifting weights can get quite dull, so mix it up with pilates. It’s great for your core and there’s so much going on physically that your mind doesn’t wander.”
4. Get a Spartan body in 30 minutes
“Do what the 300 stunt guys did to get into shape: do a set of four different exercises as many times as you can in 30 minutes. For example, your set could be: squat jumps, run a half mile, jump rope for 30 seconds, do 15 push-ups. Do a different set every day – it’s very high cardio and your body never gets used to it so you get stronger, faster.”
5. Motivation from Madonna
“I remember reading an interview with Madonna when I was a teenager. They said, ‘How do you keep yourself going to the gym?’ And she said, ‘I think about myself being fat.’ A great motivator is thinking about the alternative to being in shape – how it stops you doing the things you want to do.”
6. Have a hot breakfast
“Start your day with a lot of protein. I eat two eggs poached and drowned in hot sauce. It’s great for your metabolism – and I don’t like the taste of eggs! Eat whatever on earth I want to until lunch, because you burn it off quickly and that’s when you need the energy the most.”
7. The sweet smell of de-stress
“Lavender penetrates your brain and chemically calms us down. So find a few minutes each day, take some deep breaths and swing a little lavender by your nose. Buy a little Essential Oils jar – I’ve got one in my purse all the time.”
8. Know when it’s knot-tying time
“It’s the right time to get married when you’re not waiting for them to change to make you happy. At a certain point, you look at them and say, ‘If none of this changes, if these are her flaws and these are my flaws forever, is that okay?’ If you are, great. We’re never going to marry perfect people because we’re never going to be perfect people.”
9. Make your marriage immortal
“The secret to a marriage that lasts? Every Saturday night, come hell or high water, rain or shine, go out. Just the two of you. Don’t wait until you need to. Fight for that time, to not be talking over the kids and trying to make it over the chaos and the clutter. Go out and make somebody else do the cooking and washing up. Going for dinner is cheaper than therapy.”
10. Save your skin every morning
“One of the biggest causes of ageing is sun damage, so the real secret to great skin is adding sunscreen to your daily routine. Every day, I moisturise, let that soak in while I’m getting dressed, and then the last thing I do is put sunscreen on my face.”
11. Get more power every hour
“Once an hour, every hour, do a set of 20 push-ups. A good push-up on your fists and on your toes works so many muscle groups in your body. A friend of mine is a champion kickboxer. He said this got him in better shape faster than when he was training for fights. And you’ve always got time to train.”
12. Fear is your friend
“Do something that scares you every day. Once you do it, you’re not scared of it anymore, so that’s one less thing on the list of things that scare you. The more fearlessly you live your live, the freely you live your life.”
Publication: Men’s Health.
