Free Brunette Ambition by Lea Michele

count calories. You can consume all of your calories through Hershey’s Kisses and not give your body the nutrition it really needs; alternately, starving yourself isn’t an option, either.
3. When you’re going out for dinner, read the menu in advance so you can be thoughtful about your choices.
4. Check the grocery store for healthier alternatives to your favorite foods—you might be surprised that there’s an even yummier (healthy) version of Cheetos.
5. Pack a lunch when you’re traveling—not only is it far more nutritious (airplane meals tend to have a ton of sodium, too), but you’ll never go hungry looking for the peanut cart.

CH 5
    LIVING THE FIT LIFE
“I’m a work in progress.”
—BARBRA STREISAND

N eedless to say, acting—particularly on a show like Glee —requires a lot of energy. Actually, scratch that: Life in general requires a lot of energy. I can’t roll onto set out of shape or sleep-deprived and summon everything I need to make Rachel Berry come alive on the screen. Besides wanting to feel generally good , one of the requirements of my job is that I really bring it to the set.
    When I lived in New York, I never belonged to a gym, or even gave a second thought to scheduling in exercise, because, plain and simple, I was constantly on the move. On Broadway, I spent my days dancing numbers on the stage, which is arguably equal to about three spin classes. And even during my days off, I wasn’t sitting around. Walking the New York City streets and heading up and down the subway steps is a workout; it’s easy to put in the miles without even thinking about it. Because of this, I got a little spoiled.
    Thanks to my Italian heritage, it’s safe to say that I love carbs. When I was on Broadway, I was easily burning more calories than I consumed without any extra effort, so if I ate a box of Annie’s organic macaroni and cheese when I got home from doing two shows, I really didn’t think much of it. Thanks to my anti-sedentary lifestyle, though, I had plenty of energy to perform—and then some. But when I moved to Los Angeles, things changed.
    Los Angeles is a car culture, and because you drive everywhere, you’re automatically sitting around for most of the day (hello, traffic!). I didn’t really take this into account when I relocated; in fact, because L.A. has some of the best produce around, and you get to be outside 365 days a year, I figured I’d be my healthiest yet! Not so much. After the first few months of filming, I started to feel a bit tired and listless, and giving Rachel the vivaciousness she requires and deserves was becoming a struggle. I’ve never owned a scale, and the costume department never made a point of it, but when the season aired, and I got to see myself on TV, it was clear that I had gained about five or six pounds between episode 2 and episode 12. Five or six pounds may not sound like a lot, but when you’re five foot two, it’s very visible!
    I really didn’t care that I had gained weight—I cared that I didn’t feel well and didn’t have as much energy as I really needed to play Rachel every day. For that, I needed all the help I could get! I had already sworn off late-night meals from the craft services truck (rice and pan-fried vegetables, yum!) and started to inject a lot more movement into my days. On Broadway, I was doing eight shows a week involving a lot of dancing. While Glee is active, the schedule is different every day: Sometimes we’re doing musical numbers and learning choreography for hours on end—and then there are the days that we’re sitting in the choir room. And sitting is all we do.
    I started to investigate all my workout options, which was a whole new world to me. And because working out sucks sometimes, I wanted to try to make it as fun as possible and try everything until I found the best fit. There are a handful of different exercise tribes in Los Angeles: There are the gym rats, who spend hours at Equinox or the famous