Amanda Seyfried, the actress and face of Givenchy, has a thoughtful approach to health and wellness. She is famously open about mental-health issues, and that’s often on her mind. Seyfried emphasizes the importance of resetting from stress, noting that stress is inevitable, so controlling how we deal with it is key. Here's a comprehensive look into her wellness routine, incorporating exercise, meditation, aromatherapy, and lifestyle choices.
The Importance of Exercise
Exercise is first and foremost what Amanda Seyfried needs to keep doing to promote those good vibes, and she tries to do it every day. That physical release of stress is so therapeutic. Even a half-hour of jump-roping, on the bike, at Pure Barre, always makes for a more relaxing day. When she doesn’t do it, she feels stuck - she feels like she’s holding all this tension in. It’s important to have that routine, especially around the holidays. Some days, she skips it and gives herself a break because she's tired - but that’s also healthy.
Like Katy Perry, Seyfried also counts trainer Harley Pasternak as one of her secret weapons, but she also likes to try workout classes with her friends, and take her workout outdoors, on hikes with her dog.
Running a half hour four to five days a week keeps her alright - five days, because she feels guilty when she doesn't. She also goes to Harley Pasternak's three times a week, and she loves it. He's fun and they do different things every time. It's 45 minutes, and he kicks her ass! Her legs are really strong, and she feels really great. And she goes to her pilates teacher, Nikiko, on the weekends - she's all about stretching and toning and being long and lean.
Meditation and Mental Well-being
A new thing she has been doing for the past year and a half is meditating. She tries to meditate every day in the afternoon or early evening, when the sun goes down. It does wonders for your brain. She is a high-anxiety person anyway, so she needs as much natural help as she can get grounding herself. She has an app, Insight Timer. They have thousands of guided meditations; they have all these great chimes and background music. If you’re trying to drown out the noise of New York City, she’d recommend listening to rain. The two go together so well, exercise and meditation.
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The Power of Aromatherapy
Smells are very important to Amanda Seyfried. She’s so sensitive to smells, and it's really helpful when you can lose yourself in something like that. When you smell a campfire, it just brings you back to childhood - it’s a calming, soothing smell. Any kind of floral reminds her of every Easter and women that she had when she was growing up - her grandmother, her aunts. At night, she’ll put lavender oil under her nose to help her relax to sleep.
Perfume is so important. Even if you’re just stressing out, you can smell your wrist and there’s something grounding about that. For example, Live Irrésistible Délicieuse, there’s a buzz to it. It’s effervescent, it’s energetic, and she needs that in her life. “There’s something super therapeutic about perfume,” explains Amanda Seyfried, gesturing toward a pretty pink glass flacon in front of her. “It evokes so many memories and feelings and visceral reactions to things you might not even be aware of.” The actress and face of Givenchy is happily perched in a penthouse suite at New York City’s Crosby Street Hotel, here to discuss Live Irrésistible Délicieuse, the house’s forthcoming fragrance (debuting in April)-a heady rose blend with a whiff of madeleine that winks at Proust, too.
Beauty Indulgences and Relaxation
One of her favorite things to do when she’s not working around a holiday is to go to a Korean spa. It’s about the scrub and the saunas - so relaxing and it feels so good to buff your skin. She loves it. She’ll do the 90-minute scrub and the massage. Then she go rinse off, she go into the salt room, and then the air-conditioned room. That’s such a nice treat.
She loves acupuncture, it relaxes her in a way that no massage does. They hit the points they need to hit, and she feels like she’s bettering herself. She always feel it relieves her neck tension - she always has a lot from crocheting.
Creative Outlets and Hobbies
She shares a lot of crafts projects on Instagram. Knitting is fun, crocheting is way more fun. It’s meditative, and she can do it anywhere - she has a miniature loom she do on the plane. She listen to a book on tape or good music, and she just go away and she just feel safe. No one can get in, nothing can tamper with my mood.
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She’s very obsessive about it. When she’s not working, it’s all she do. All of her friends are having babies, so she's constantly crocheting booties. They’re easy, it’s about 45 minutes each, then an hour and a half later, you have these two little shoes. She just finished another bootie last night for her girl friend, who’s going to have a baby today, she hope. It could be tomorrow, it could be next week, you never know with that!
Farm Life and Connection with Nature
She also shares a lot of photos from her farm upstate. We just had Thanksgiving break, so we were up at the farm for two weeks. We just got goats, which is really exciting. You’re just within nature, it’s completely real. The animals there - horses, chickens, you see how they live day to day. She loves animals so much. They're so innocent and living in the moment, and it’s hard not to absorb that energy. She likes the routine of feeding when she’s there: letting the chickens out, giving them treats, going to feed the horses, feeding the cats, getting on the tractor, bringing up the hay.
It’s just so soothing. You feel a sense of purpose. She loves acting so much, and she loves her job and having a platform. It’s just the perfect balance. That’s where she reset from all the stress that can build up when she’s working and she doesn’t have time to focus too much on herself. Sometimes people need to get away, and she’s fortunate to have a place that’s mine that she can actually retreat to.
Holiday Indulgences and Moderation
Every year without fail on Thanksgiving and Christmas day, when she knows she’s having huge meals, she won’t eat a full breakfast. She’ll have just eggs and a smoothie, and she’ll work out, so she can feel really good before the meal. And then she try to eat really slow. But you know, these days we make ourselves feel guilty, but when it’s the holidays, you should just overindulge. Eat that bread and butter, have that drink if you drink, have the egg nog. This is what we live for, these moments. Moderation is a healthy thing.
Body Image and Self-Acceptance
Last year, Amanda Seyfried stripped down for the indie flick Chloe (she played a hooker hired to seduce Julianne Moore's character's husband.)
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You hear about the pressure in Hollywood to be young and skinny. Do you feel that? Hell yeah! From myself. When I see a scene in a movie where my belly sticks out, I'm like, that doesn't look good, I'm not going to do that for the next movie. And then I never get there for the next movie; I still have a pudgy belly. The reality is, I look back and has my body every been that drastically different? No! So what are the chances of my having a six-pack for the next movie? Slim to non. So why live and breathe exercise when I know I'm just going to eat crap? Moderation is key. You can change your body to an extent, but if it's taking all the time out of your day and taking up all your thoughts, what's the point? The point isn't that important.
When it comes to eating, the actress credits a diet high in fiber and protein-rich meals - a favorite snack is Greek yogurt - and also does not deprive herself of a food item she really wants.
Diet and Nutrition
What's the hardest diet you've ever tried? A five-day raw food diet I'll never do again. I go to this raw foods place everyday, and they do super-cleanses every month for 5 days. I was like, oh, I have to go on a press tour in six days, so I'll try it! It's really hard! everyday because there was nothing to eat. Dinner would be cucumbers and kale and dressing. In the morning, you feel great, you're doing a liver cleanse and eating raw oatmeal and blueberries and drinking great shakes. But at the end of the day, if you can't have girl scout cookie and piece of cheese, what is life all about?
So do you just eat whatever you want now? Yea, I want the raw stuff in the morning. I want the shot of chlorophyll or the ginger lemon drink or the asahi and hemp granola drink. But for lunch, I want a piece of pizza.