Kate Hudson covers the March issue of Shape in a pair of camo workout tights. I think she’s promoting her Fabletics clothing line, which offers a subscription service for workout clothes. (I looked into it, and decided it wasn’t for me after reading all the complaints about how hard it is to cancel.) Inside, Kate talks about her personal workout philosophy and how she finds it fun to work different types of exercise into her day. You have to hand it to Kate, she’s always admitted that she works out hard and counts calories, she’s doesn’t just blow smoke about how she “runs after her kids” to get those abs. Here’s some of what she said, with more in the print edition of Shape:
On having to prove herself to her brothers
I’ve always had that girly gene, but I lived with boys. So I’d go out in a party dress looking pretty and come back torn, muddy, and bruised. I was the sister who wanted to keep up. I was that bungee-jumping, rock-climbing kind of girl. My brothers and I would ski the double black diamond. Now that I look back, I can’t believe I did it.By nature, I’ve always been a ‘dive in the deep end’ person. Literally. My mom says as a kid I used to jump in the deep end the pool without knowing how to swim.
Why she hates dieting
It puts so much pressure on people to lose weight quickly. Getting healthy is not a two-week process, it’s a change of lifestyle.How shade from a French woman helped her rethink her diet
I was at my favorite French restaurant in Paris … eating everything I love … steak, fries, lots of wine. Then the dessert came, and I was having strawberries and cream pastries plus the wine. [Then,] a svelte, sophisticated woman approached [my] table. She pointed to my glass of wine. ‘This is your piece of cake. That’s how you should be thinking.’ And I always try to remember that: Everything in moderation!On exercise and being active
I’ve been switching up from the softer stuff, like Pilates and yoga, to more aggressive activities like TRX and boxing. It’s not just about trying to look good physically, it’s important to get oxygen to my brain and feel like my blood is really circulating. I love skiing, walking, hiking and especially riding my bike. It makes me feel like I’m a kid again.
[From Shape via Page Six and Huffington Post]
I agree with her that you feel better when you’re exercising. It’s awesome when you get that high and suddenly feel happy. Exercise improves your whole day. Plus there’s something really wonderful about riding a bike, especially around a city. You feel like everyone else is missing out by walking around like chumps.
The story about that woman in a restaurant telling her not to drink and eat cake too was ridiculous. If some random person tried to tell me not to eat dessert I would have some words for them, I wouldn’t take it as inspiration. Kate has spoken in the past about how she doesn’t believe in diets, but she does count calories. It may sound like she’s arguing over semantics, but diets can be so much more limiting than calories. She’s not telling people to go on juice cleanses or cut out gluten and dairy like so many other celebrities.
Also, last week’s Star has a little blurb about Kate that sounds like it’s true. They claim that she was mistaken for a hostess at a restaurant and she played along by picking up menus and leading the guests to a table. The real hostess stopped her in time and “Kate was laughing her tail off.” It sounds just like her.
Kate is shown yesterday at a Michael Kors eyewear event credit: WENN.com and she’s also shown on 2-6 at a Fabletics photoshoot, credit: Pacific Coast News. Photos from Shape Magazine via Huffington Post
I think she figured out how to love the work she does for her body. I like her!
She’s right about being healthy. I also like that she’s honest about her work outs. But that french lady was rude! Worse than rude. Is there a word because I can only think of words I don’t want to type 😉
I can’t believe someone would actually come up to her table and say that.
I can’t either. I’m wondering if it actually happened, or if it’s just an anecdote she or her publicist came up with for the interview. After someone was caught recycling a story on one of those late night shows (I can’t remember who! Stupid migraine!) I am very skeptical about the Hollywood publicity machine.
I cannot believe it was just a completely random person walking up to her table and saying that. Seems much more likely that maybe they had struck up a conversation and then this comment came out of it. Like, maybe they were at adjacent tables, engaged in some chitchat, discussed whether or not they were ordering dessert, and the French lady said “nope, this wine is my dessert”….that sounds somewhat more believable to me. I am happy to tell people what I do to fit in exercise or keep my diet healthy (lead by example and blah blah blah), but telling people what *they* should be doing is just rude.
I was eatting a chocolate bar (from a vending machine inside a transit station on the RER train outside Paris and a man shamed me by asking where I was from and then telling me that no French people would ever eat a chocolate bar on public transit because it’s impolite. Meh, I actually don’t mind that he shared his opinion on the matter. I don’t think most French people do approach strangers with advice this inconsequential though.
European’s do that all the time to Americans. The same thing happened to me but I think it was a woman from Denmark.
I think Kate would make a much better lifestyle guru than Gwyneth. Gwyneth keeps trying to give everyone her eating disorder.
What? I’m German and have visited many European countries, I’ve lived in 3. NEVER have I seen such rudeness. My wine would have landed in that snooty woman’s face. This is not “European” behavior. I’ve seen some sh*t in NYC that made me cringe but I’m assuming that that wasn’t “American” behavior either. You’ll meet assholes everywhere.
Kate looks fantastic, I’ve always liked her.
I said to Americans not to everyone.
excuse me, I’m European and I would never do something like that, nor would anyone I know! Maybe it’s a french thing 😉
Okay some Europeans do not believe Americans understand Moderation and say so. 😉
The thing is, sometimes we want to try and enjoy on our vacations-esp. as an American visiting many European countries that have wonderful food. I think I did come off ‘distasteful’ in some parts of Italy-b/c I would sometimes order several items. I love trying everything and I’m thin; my spouse and son are super thin, as well. So what’s the harm? omg, pastry AND wine? In one meal? In PARIS on VACATION? lol. I probably would have said ‘True, when I’m not in PARIS on VACATION, I do think that way’ (:
I lived in Germany for five years and found the people to be wonderful. And in France they were as well. And in Switzerland… basically Europeans were very nice. However – admittedly, I did experience more open criticism in more places there than stateside. I think it’s because, it seems to me, the public is self-regulating. It’s like they feel that not saying or doing something when they see another person going astray is like leading them down the path of doom themselves. They see it as a kind of guidance.
The same goes for general disrespect as well though. If someone is being rude or doing something mischievous or committing small crimes (like not paying the parking meter or jay walking) you can bet that someone is going to, at the very least, give you major stink-eye. They want you to know that they notice and as a fellow citizen, aren’t happy about it as it’s the little things that add up to a less pleasant world over-all. They see that and fight an active fight against general public decline by being active instead of apathetic.
Basically, I’m just saying that it’s not intended to be nasty or rude. It’s actually intended to be helpful.
Denisemitvh I believe you. In Europe I had several people ask my why I was so fat. I was really surprised- I am 5’7 and a size 2! 120lb! Friends and family gently mock my thinness. In Eastern Europe, One even asked how I fit through doors. I am not kidding. Of course nearly everyone I met was extremely nice to me- even more than here where I live. But I’d be lying if I said the same didn’t happen to me.
I believe in quality foundation garments and have had women in the US, Europe and North Africa walk right up to me and ask if my girls are real. It happens.
Really. How do you say “bite me” in French?
MANGE MOI = eat me
Not sure about ‘bite’! LOL
That’ll do. Lol
I honestly have no interest in anything Kate Hudson says, does, thinks. None.
She is 100% right.
I like her , but man, am I the only one who craves a sequence to The skeleton key? Anyway, the french “lady” should mind her own life. I don’t know why Kate is proud of this story, there are so many wrong things to point at it. If it helped her to get a perfect shape, ok, but is it really what women should aim for?
NO! I loved that movie, they should def. do a sequel to that movie, the ending left it wide open for that.
I thought I was the only person that liked that movie. It was awesome!
Ahhh, awesome! That’s the first and only thing I’d ask her about!
She does look great. Good for her.
The story about that french woman pissed me off. I’m at a damn restaurant – eating is what I’m supposed to be doing! I would’ve told her to f*ck off right off the bat.
I don’t think the french lady was intending to be rude. I think she was giving what she thought was good advice; apparently Kate thought so as well. Plus, we don’t know exactly how the entire story went. For all we know, Kate could have complimented her figure, and asked her what she does to maintain it, and then the lady said that. Who knows….but I think it is great advice myself. When I have wine with dinner, I consider it a treat, and skip dessert as well. (unless I have had a few glasses, then I want to eat the whole dessert tray lol)
Telling a stranger that they shouldn’t be having dessert is rude, whether she intended for it to be “helpful” or not. Unless Kate misrepresented what happened, the woman’s behavior was inexcusable.
Maybe Kate simply misremembered the event.
Could be. It does sound unlikely. Of course, I have a small, hardly noticeable (I thought) scar on my chin from when I fell off a wall as a child (I was super coordinated even then) and a woman on a bus in NYC turned to me once and said “I just HAVE to ask you – what happened to your face?” So…
@mimif: was that before or after Kate rescued the puppies?
Eh. I could see one of my French family members saying that to me, but I can’t imagine some rando French stranger doing that. That would French BALLSiness at it’s finest.
But as rude as she was, the French lady was spot-on. Every time I go to France, I’m struck by how thin the general population is–and these are people who are walking around with a couple baguettes under their arms or a gelato in their hand. They really do understand the concept of moderation out there. It also helps that everyone seems to walk a lot.
Kitten, you are even cooler for having French family members. Btw, I went to Provence last spring and I saw pretty many chubby people. I was surprised. But I was the fattest person in Paris.
Oh, GNAT, I meant to add that the thin people I’m talking about are Parisians. I’ve been to the French countryside and I agree that it’s a different story out there.
Wow I had no idea fabletics was such a scam!
She bugs me but I can’t shade her for her exercise routine/habits. Fitness is a really important part of my day, too, almost as much as brushing my teeth. And more and more I have come to love a really hard workout, too, it really does contribute a lot to my mental clarity and overall well being.
I love working out and running is my therapy. With all the snow and lack of public trans out here, I’m really missing my regular gym routine 🙁
I’ve been doing intermittent fasting to off-set the lack of physical activity.
I bet the snow has really thrown a wrench in your routine! Just stay safe, sweetie. Hugs.
Ugh, it’s the worst when you can’t run. I went through it last winter and finally broke down and got a treadmill. I hate being cooped up down in the basement on it but I realized it actually gives me a better workout than out in the streets, I think, because I’m not stopping for traffic or slowing down for whatever reason. And I can do hills and sprints with the push of a button.
Hang in there, here’s hoping a warmup will start to melt all that snow soon!
All of the reviews for Fabuletics were spot on! I ordered something – the sizes were way off – the Small top was HUGE, the pants were tiny. When I tried to cancel my subscription they kept me on the phone for 20 MINUTES trying to talk me out of canceling. I will NEVER order from there again!
I don’t even believe the French lady ever happened. These people lie all day and night.
hohum. Pretty sure she still smokes.
I never have room for dessert after eating all my food. The French lady should have minded her own business because for all she knew it was Kate’s cheat day.
The first year we were dating, my husband gave me a bike for my birthday. I hadn’t ridden one in years, and it really gave me that sense of freedom and joy I had as a kid when I used to ride my bike everywhere. It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with him.
That’s sweet! My hubby gave me a bike last year and it really did make me feel like a kid again when I was riding around my neighborhood. I even had a little girl on her bike tell me how much she loved mine and we had a pretend “race”. I can’t wait until all this dang snow melts and I can take my bike out again.
I rented a bike by the beach when I had family visiting, and I loved it sooooo much! There is nothing like the wind in your hair! It really does bring you back to childhood.
I would love to get a bike, but I am scared to ride it on the streets in my crazy city. I think I would have to load it up in my car and drive to a bike path in order to ride it, which has kept me from buying one. But I think about it all the time!
Nothing I hate more than the Hard Sell and a Draconian contract which never allows you to cancel.
Newsflash: If something is truly terrific, you don’t have to tie people’s hands to the product.
Yeah. Those are poor excuses for workout clothes. But I still love Kate. She’s playful and silly – just like her mama.
I always liked her too, but I find these ads camouflaged as interviews (and infomercials in general) completely off-putting.
I’ve seen identical workout pants at TJ Maxx for like $15.
Word. I won’t go back to salons and stores that give me a hard sell, because it’s never for anything I end up loving. It’s just the product they’re supposed to move. And the Fabletics stuff looks cute-ish, but cheap and I need my workout clothes to not fall apart.
I temped as a receptionist at an online dating site years ago. All day long, people would call saying they cancelled their subscriptions repeatedly but they kept getting charged and couldn’t get a refund. It has made me never want to sign up for those “cancel at anytime!” automatic billing deals.
Okay, the implication that doing something like skiing the double black diamond is “keeping up” with the boys really bugs me. Kate thinks she’s so cute because she was a “tomboy” who got muddy and dirty because she had brothers. Give me a break.
Her expanded thoughts on feminism, right NOW!
I think this may have been her authentic experience though. That quote didn’t sound like she was putting up an image — her brothers probably did inform certain experiences that she had. I don’t have a brother, and I’ve not been exposed to the feeling of needing to keep up or prove myself with activities in the vein of rock-climbing or bungee-jumping, so maybe that’s why I find the contextualization of her experiences believable. I don’t even know what skiing a double black diamond means (I feel dumb).
I’ve always got a huge mean girl vibe from her. Not sure why. But she looks exactly like Alexandra Wentworth in these pictures.
She is very fit, I love her girlish smile and laugh. Getting fit, eat healthy is great but do it for yourself because you want to do it, not because some b…t mocked you. Should have told that French woman to go have a shower like it’s her last too! Read somewhere that French don’t shower much, may be once or twice a week. Yikes.
If I were Kate in that situation I would have taken a much larger bite of dessert and laughed in her face. Sounds to me like she may have been envious. The French have a reputation as being rude but I have not found this to be the case. I used to work with a bunch or French folks when I lived in Las Vegas and they were awesome! I don’t think Kate needs to worry much about her diet or counting calories because she’s so active. Of course being active means you can eat more as long as you don’t over do it. She sounds like she’s got the right balance going on. I admire how athletic she is. I would much rather take her advice than GOOPY’s any day. And as a Woman who has two brothers, I too was a bit of a tomboy in a party dress so I can relate to that story.
As I’ve said many times around here, I’m half French (dual citizenship) and I find that there’s a cultural difference between the US and France in regards to what is socially acceptable to say to someone.
From my perspective, it seems like French people in general are simply more blunt and to-the-point but truly do not intend to offend. Americans on the other hand, tend to be very skiddish and avoid being honest in favor of being polite.
You could also say that in social situations, French people value truthfulness, whereas Americans value sensitivity.
I really believe it’s simply a cultural difference.
To add that this is just sweeping generalizations on my part, based on my personal experiences and observations–I’m sure there are loads of exceptions in there.
Kitten, I agree with you re French & Americans though my experience is from working for a Paris-based company for a decade. I’m Korean and we are the same way. Calling someone fat is the same as calling someone tall or short. Just a descriptive word. I’ve been ordered to stop eating, stop ordering so much at restaurants many times and they were all by Korean and French people and restaurant owners.
Her body is amazing…I wish I had the motivation to look like that but for now I’m sticking with yoga a couple times a week 🙂
I read a statistic once: Only one-third of the population owns a toothbrush.
Double Yikes!!
That’s scary, to say the least.
I believe in being on point all week and a carb slut on the weekend. If I’m in France, I am having the pastries AND the wine. Go away, lady.
Weekend carb slut…you’re my hero!
Hey, Kate, why are there only white blonde women modeling your clothes, how about putting somebody with a different look, like black or asian? I’m white and I want there to be options for everyone.
This!
She smokes like a fiend and drinks like a fish. She swaps food for booze and works out incessantly. She looks amazing, but it’s not because of a “healthy lifestyle”.
How does she manage to look like this if she “like a fiend and drinks like a fish”? She doesn’t look botoxed nor has signs of any plastic surgery… Genuinely curious here!
Maybe the French lady was trying to be helpful, but since Kate Hudson isn’t remotely fat I don’t get why she’d be telling her to eat less. That’s where I’m baffled the most. Not that this would be any better if she told an actual fat person to eat less, but Hudson has never looked like she needs an intervention. In her entire career, I can’t recall her ever looking even slightly chubby.
Whatever she’s doing it works. She’s been looking her best the past couple of years.
Hello!
Some things are really common sense when it comes to staying in decent shape. I like Kate a lot but she and a lot of super stars “advice” is just common sense.
Cameron Diaz for instance, “I find I feel by best when I give my body the sleep, food and water it needs.” I’m paraphrasing but it was something like that.
Just add, ” I don’t drink bacon grease in the morning” to that little tidbit.
Cameron Diaz’s constant advice-giving drive me nuts. Isn’t she known for having terrible skin? Why would we want her beauty advice? And it’s not just that… she constantly wants to tell people how to be single, how to be over 40, how to be female. Thanks, Cam. Let Jesse rob this train.
I don’t know what she has done to her face but she looks so weird. Even when they try to make her look amazing she looks so off to me. I don’t know what she has done to herself.
She looks fantastic! And the restaurant story sounds funny (the one in which she was mistaken for a waitress, not the one with the French lady).
I like her, but I wouldn´t like to have her body…. no waist… just a flat line… but I like her healthy attitude
(I know, I know, I am not perfect either:) but it is just the thing with me, I don´t even like some supermodels´, because they have no waist)
I worked in a coffee shop back when she was married to Chris Robinson of the Black Crows. They were playing a show across the street and she tagged along. They came in for some coffee. Never before have I met two more entitled and rude people in my life! Maybe the French woman was just giving it back to her!
I’m sorry, but that beach pic looks photoshopped to hell to me. Her waist looks impossibly tiny. Anyhoo, I say eat whatever you love in moderation AND exercise. It’s about enjoying life.
It’s just so stupid to put someone with NO BODY FAT on the cover of a magazine called Shape.
Whoa. Wasn’t there a photo of her somewhere on this site that showed her belly button completely wonky, as if she had a tummy tuck. I do remember everyone scrutinizing the photo. I don’t believe much of what she said, especially the part about the French woman.