I remember how Eva Mendes used to be before she fell for Ryan Gosling. She was a pap-stroller and hustler who worked often and did a lot to promote herself. That changed with Ryan, and it changed even more profoundly when she became a mom almost five years ago. Motherhood changed her – she barely works in Hollywood anymore, and the only time she gives interviews is when she’s promoting her line with New York & Company. She doesn’t even walk the red carpet with Ryan Gosling anymore – she’s just a full-time mom, not a Hollywood power-wife. Eva covers the latest issue of Women’s Health to talk about her clothing line and motherhood. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

She never pictured herself as a mom: “It was the furthest thing from my mind,” she admits. I ask how the shift happened—how she ended up with 4- and 2-year-olds and a schedule full of music classes and playdates. Eva beams. “Ryan Gosling happened.” Then she giggles and adds, “I mean, falling in love with him. Then it made sense for me to have…not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him.”

Getting out of mom mode: “We’re just starting to get out of survival mode. I’m starting to feel like a person again.”

She works out three times a week: “I’m envious of women who enjoy working out, because I have the worst attitude about it. My vanity gets me to the gym—and obviously health reasons—but I’m kicking and screaming the whole way through.”

She does diet: “I have blood work done at least twice a year because I have high blood sugar, and high cholesterol runs in my family,” says the actress, who eats a lot of salmon and quinoa and has found that fish oil and CoQ10 supplements help her feel balanced. She has scrambled eggs and coffee with coconut oil or coconut sugar every morning, and she cops to sipping a soda or two a week. “I’m not squeaky-clean healthy. I have a sweet tooth, so I can’t keep anything in the house.”

Having two girls less than two years apart: “Family… We have an amazing support group: Ryan’s mom, my mom, Ryan’s and my sisters. It’s a village that helped us. My heart goes out to women who do this alone. I basically come from a single-parent household; although I love my dad, my mom mostly raised four of us on her own.”

Raising kids in LA: “It’s definitely a concern. Not only are we in the industry, but the whole fame component is super scary when you try to raise your kids… What I try to emphasize is that I don’t let them see me put attention to how I dress. They’ve never seen me get ready for something; they’ve never seen me at work. Which is fine, for whoever wants to do it that way, but the way I keep it normal is by not letting them see me in these situations. I’m just Mom. And I’m more than happy to just be Mom.”

The lack of ambition: “I felt a lack of ambition, if I can be honest. I feel more ambitious in the home right now than I do in the workplace.”

[From Women’s Health]

I dislike the conversation about ambition, but I like the way Eva states her position – yeah, she doesn’t have “ambition” when it comes to Hollywood right now, but she’s still ambitious about motherhood. These are decisions which many women make – for some women, it’s either/or, and for some women it’s both, career AND motherhood. I feel like Eva is doing a good job of saying these are her choices and every woman can make her own choices. I mostly think Eva surprised herself with how little she cares about her career at this point – she had her babies and suddenly five years passed and she was like “oh yeah I forgot that I could have been reading scripts.”

Photos courtesy of Molly Creeden for Women’s Health, sent from promotional email.