Mila Kunis, the Ukranian born actress known for her roles in "That '70s Show," "Black Swan," and "Ted," has captivated audiences for decades. While notoriously private, Mila has occasionally shared insights into her health and wellness routine, offering a glimpse into how she maintains her fit and strong physique while balancing a busy lifestyle.
Consistency in Exercise
Consistency is key to seeing results or just feeling your best. Mila shared that she trains three times a week. In another interview, she added that this increased to seven days a week, five hours per day, in prep for embodying the Black Swan.
It is important to find a routine that you can feasibly stick to. First think about how often you can realistically fit in a workout per week, then consider how long those workouts should be. It’s not necessary to do 60-90 min long sessions. A 20-30 min session may well do the trick, depending on your goal(s).
Home Cooking and a Love for Leftovers
When it comes to food, Mila likes to make her own meals. ‘I can make anything out of leftovers. I want to be a judge on Top Chef,’ she told Harper’s Bazaar, adding, ‘My glass of wine and I are besties.’ She consumes a healthy diet. “When I make my own avocado toast, I like to make sure to grab bread that I have,” she said. “So whatever I have is what we’re using. A lot of times, it’s something healthy, because, again, I have children, so you try to do as much as you can. So it’s like Dave’s Killer Bread … it’ll be like, some whole-grain bread with nuts and things and texture and crunch … I toast it. “
“There’s a service that comes and delivers smoothies to your house. It’s frozen, you put it in the freezer, it’s really convenient,” Mila told Harper’s Bazaar. “I stick it out, or my husband does it, pours in a non-dairy milk for me, and then a protein powder. Mila’s dinners are packed with protein. Since her daughter and husband are pescatarians, Mila shared, “I don’t cook two separate meals; ‘cause I’m not a restaurant.
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Dedication and Awareness of Overdoing It
Mila dropped to a weight of just 95 pounds when training for the Black Swan, but she was well aware this wasn’t healthy. Speaking to E! News, she explained: ‘I would literally look at myself in the mirror and I was like, “Oh my God!” ‘I had no shape, no boobs, no ass…All you saw was bone. I was like, “This looks gross.”’ It’s Mila’s job to lose (or gain) weight to embody certain roles for filming, but for you and us, the emphasis should be less on aesthetics and more on how you feel inside. Start by switching out aesthetic goals for those with a skill focus - they come with a much greater sense of accomplishment.
Balance and Indulgence
Once filming for Black Swan wrapped up, Mila’s mission was to gain the weight she’d lost. First stop? Fast food. ‘The first thing I did was go and get Panda Express at the Virgin America airport terminal at JFK. Then I landed in L.A. and I got in my car and I drove to In-N-Out (Burger) and I had a Double Double Animal Style with a root-beer float. It was fantastic,’ she told the Boston Herald.
The Benefits of a Personal Trainer
A personal trainer can be an invaluable investment for someone with the time and money. Mila knows the deal and worked out with Brian Abercrombie in prep for her role in the Black Swan, who helped her train as safely and sustainably as possible, albeit with such an extreme aesthetic goal to achieve.
PT not an option? Our guides on everything from technique and form for strength training, weightlifting and cardio can be a useful resource. Alternatively, try following one of our many training plans, like this 7-day workout plan for beginners with Kayla Itsines, or this 14-day kettlebell workout plan with Cass Olholm.
Workout Structure: P.A.S.E. Training
Whether with a specific workout split, push-pull workout plan or training method, achieving your goals will be a ton easier if you decipher a clear-cut way of getting there. When Mila trained with PT Brian, he used a technique called P.A.S.E. (Power, Agility, Strength and Endurance). For one, it’s an efficient form of workout for someone tight for time like Mila, since it incorporates the whole body rather than one part, but it also ticks off four major elements of fitness: power, agility, strength and endurance. The traditional P.A.S.E. workout is formed of six exercises, done in circuits for 40 minutes with no rest:
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- Walkover push-ups
- Mountain climbers
- TRX rows
- Bootstrapper squats
- Stir the kettle
- Medicine ball slams
- TRX Move Suspension Trainer
Prioritizing Downtime and Social Connection
Mila values her downtime as much as the next gal, and her fave way to switch off is by spending time with her friends. ‘We’ll hang out by the pool, have mai tais, and roll around in the grass with my dogs,’ she told WH US. Since the time of WH's interview, she’s become a mother to two and is married to Ashton Kutcher (follow his IG for a look at their home life), so she undoubtedly now spends time with her family, too.
The Importance of Routine
For anyone with a busy lifestyle like Mila, a routine can be an easy way to maintain a clear head without getting overwhelmed. Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, Mila said she’s always been a ‘creature of habit’.
The Practice of Yoga
During her first pregnancy with son Wyatt, Mila was photographed outside a yoga studio with her bump in full bloom, and she’s not the only celeb who practices yoga on the reg. Kate Hudson, Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston are also big fans, and have spoken about the effect it has on both their physical and mental health.
Sustainable Living and Family Values
Real talk: Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are couple goals in more ways than one. Kutcher is gearing up for the 2022 New York City Marathon and lost around 12 pounds while doing it, with a solid support system right by his side. The couple’s lifestyle game is totally on point. Their gorgeous Beverly Hills modern farmhouse is complete with a sleek barbecue pavilion, a stunning pool, and a solar-powered farm that’s absolutely bursting with fresh vegetables, according to PEOPLE.
Growing your own vegetable garden is a total game-changer when it comes to leading a healthy lifestyle, and Kutcher and Kunis clearly understand that. With fresh veggies conveniently located in your own backyard, you know exactly where the meals you consume came from. It all started with the couple’s strong, wholesome values and a dream.
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“Ashton and Mila are concerned about the quality of the soil, the purity of the food they eat and the water they drink. Kunis shares in a cover story with C Magazine the couple’s excitement, saying, “We had this grand idea, and then we moved in four months before COVID hit,” adding, “We didn’t realize how incredible it was to have a fully sustainable house until the world shut down” (via PEOPLE). Kutcher (44) and Kunis (39) are understandably proud of living healthy and waited five years for construction on their farm to finish.
Kutcher reveals to Architectural Digest, “We wanted the house to look like an old barn, something that had been here for decades, that was then converted into a house. But it also had to feel modern and relevant.” He also says of their abode, “To feel tranquility in a space, everything needs to be in order. If the world around you isn’t in order, it’s hard to get your brain in order. Being in charge of what you put into your body comes with a lot of responsibility. By tending to your own backyard garden-complete with fresh herbs, veggies, and fruits-you’re opening yourself up to a wealth of positive opportunities, specifically being the decision maker on what pesticides and fertilizers come into contact with the food you grow (via Harvard Health Publishing).
According to Dr. Helen Delichatsios, an internist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, we should all learn some planting skills. “Backyard gardening can inspire you to take an interest in the origins of your food and make better choices about what you put on your plate,” Dr. This celeb couple’s solar-powered home benefits their overall health and also the environment. Dubbing themselves “the Kukus,” the pair makes gardening fun family time, recruiting help from their daughter and son, Wyatt, 7; and Dmitri, 5. Kunis admits, “My husband’s from the Midwest, and a lot of this has to do with his upbringing. He’s like, we’re building a farm and we’re all going to work on the farm.” She adds, “I’m from L.A., and I was like, we are?
The Dangers of Drastic Weight Loss
Losing weight like a star may seem like a dream come true. With a personal trainer, personal chef, personal dietitian and personal assistant at your side, who couldn't shed 20 pounds in a few short weeks? But a new interview with actress Mila Kunis in Harper's Bazaar indicates that fast weight loss (in this case for a role) can sometimes result in fast weight gain -- in all the wrong places.
Already lean, Kunis dropped 20 pounds in order to play Natalie Portman's ballerina frenemy in "Black Swan." At 95 pounds, Kunis says "I was muscles, like a little brick house, but skin and bones." Unfortunately, when she gained the weight back, Kunis says it ended up in completely different places. "All the weight that left my chest went to my side hip, my stomach," she told the magazine.
Andrea N. Giancoli, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, says redistributed weight isn't uncommon after drastic weight loss (and weight gain). "What often happens with extreme weight loss and when you lose weight very quickly is that you lose muscle tissue," she says. "Unfortunately, when we gain the weight back, it comes back as fat." And that fat tends to show up wherever you're genetically predisposed to get it. "Some people store fat in their bellies, others in their thighs or their breasts or their buttocks," she says. "Wherever you typically store fat, you're going to see it go back there."
What's more, fast weight loss usually affects your metabolism, slowing it down so your body will burn the calories it gets more efficiently. "You turn down the fire of your body furnace," she says. "But when you go back to eating normally again, that furnace is still turned down to low, therefore you gain weight more easily and you gain it as fat, unless you're really diligent about not overeating and exercising." If you're dieting, Giancoli advises you shoot for losing 1-2 pounds a week, which gives your body opportunity to adapt to the weight loss and minimizes the loss of lean tissue and muscle.
As for celebrities and their weight-related ups and downs, she says they're often a perfect example of what not to do. "Celebrities are great Petri dishes for us in a way," she says. "They demonstrate what happens with extreme weight loss. We'll hear that so-and-so lost 20 pounds in 20 days and we'll see her all thin and gorgeous. Then a few months down the line, she'll have gained all the weight back because she did it too rapidly. And we blame the celebs, not the ridiculous diets. But really, it all comes down to human physiology and biology. Your body doesn't like it when you lose weight that fast."