Cameron Diaz quite literally wrote the book on celebrity health and wellbeing. Two in fact.
The American actor has co-written a pair of titles – The Body Book and The Longevity Book – focused on physical fitness and longevity respectively, and she regularly talks in interviews about her approach to exercise, food, beauty, and how she looks after her mental health under the glare of the Hollywood spotlight.
It’s great news for anyone who wants to find out how the Californian beauty has cracked the key to eternal youth. Diaz, who turns 50 on August 30th, has hardly aged since she began starring in blockbuster movies in the early 1990s.
As Cameron Diaz celebrates her milestone birthday, these are her wellbeing and beauty secrets…
Varied workouts
Working with trainer Teddy Bass, Diaz tries to go to the gym every day and likes to mix up her workouts, doing weights, strength training, HIIT and pilates.
She’s also known to be a keen golfer, and likes to stay on her feet throughout the day rather than lounging on the sofa – but she doesn’t put too much pressure on herself to stick to a strict fitness schedule.
“Some days I go to the gym for literally 10 minutes,” she told Self. “But the fact that I got up and got there matters to me. Because at the end of all of this, I want to be able to say, ‘I did the best I could.’ It’s not about having a ripped stomach. It’s about taking care of myself.”
Eating two breakfasts
Yes, really. Diaz has one breakfast before her morning workout, and one after. They both consist of very healthy choices to fuel her active lifestyle.
“At my first breakfast, I just put something in my stomach before my workout — usually scrambled eggs, toast, an avocado, an apple with almond butter, overnight oats, or a piece of chicken,” she told Bon Appetit.
“It’s just enough to kick things into gear. Then I work out. After that, at second breakfast, I joke that I eat dinner for breakfast. It’s a full meal with chicken, grains, and sautéed or roasted vegetables.”
Work/life balance
Not many A-listers would have the guts to quit Hollywood at the height of a hugely successful career, but that’s exactly what Diaz did in 2014.
During a six-year hiatus, she married musician Benji Madden and had her first child, daughter Raddix, at the age of 47.
The actor later revealed to BFF Gwyneth Paltrow that the pressures of movie-making and the lack of work/life balance were what prompted the decision.
“For months on end, you have no time for anything else. I realised I handed off parts of my life to all these other people and they took it,” she said in a Goop interview.
“I had to basically take it back and take responsibility for my own life. That’s my job. There’s a lot of things I had to iron out, a lot of relationships I had to repair, a lot of relationships I had to build that were absent in my life.”
Taking breaks
As well as stepping back from work commitments, Diaz knows to listen to her body and take breaks from strenuous activity whenever necessary. For example, when she suffered an Achilles injury and couldn’t work out for eight months.
“Going easy on yourself is the way through it,” she told Goop. “I did a lot of lying on my floor, being with my body to understand what it needed. Maybe my hips needed to twist or my back needed to arch – I didn’t force it into anything and just honoured the fact that I had an injury.”
Simple skincare routine
Seemingly at the vanguard of the ‘skinimalism’ trend for pared-back daily routines, Diaz doesn’t waste time worrying about her complexion.
“I literally do nothing,” she told Michelle Visage on the Drag Race star’s Rule Breakers podcast. “I, like, never wash my face. Twice a month, if I’m lucky, I’ll be like ‘Oh, I better put this on. One time works, right?’ Like is that all I have to do?”
Which goes to show you don’t need to spend a fortune on expensive lotions and potions to have A-list skin.
Everything in moderation
Not only is Diaz partial to the odd glass of vino, she’s got her own wine brand.
Avaline makes organic wine, including the canned variety, which the founder loves when she wants a small tipple. She told Harper’s Bazaar: “It’s just so easy at the end of the day to pour myself a glass of wine and not open a whole bottle. It’s amazing.”
Plus, the actor-turned-vintner has previously spoken about the importance of staying hydrated, telling The Cut of her morning routine: “I drink a litre of water straight down, I meditate, I work out, have breakfast, and I get my day started.”
