We haven’t talked much about Maren Morris, but she’s a country star who seems to be everywhere lately. I’m sure you’ve heard her song The Middle with Zedd and Gray, and her other big country hits are My Church and Girl. She’s covering Women’s Health and she gives a lot of good quotes actually, about her diet, about getting stage fright, and about how A Star Is Born hit too close to home for her. I really wonder about that one, but we’ll talk about it after reading some of what she said.

On her diet: Her life is timed out and hyperscheduled, starting every morning with breakfast on her bus: three egg whites and spinach cooked in olive oil, and wheat toast. She usually eats salads with protein for lunch, then pauses on eating after 5 p.m. on show days. As a result, she comes off-stage ravenous. “When I’m on there, I make it count. I know I’ll feel awful if I don’t eat right after burning all those calories in the show.” She usually then consumes another salad – skinless chicken over spinach with lemon vinaigrette, for example – and she might have a glass of ros, though her trainer would prefer it were lower-cal tequila and soda

On her goal to “look like Tomb Raider” – setting a photo of Alicia Vikander as the background on her phone: “This is what I have to look at every time I unlock it – if I’m at a bar, or eating a French fry. So that’s motivating.”

On addressing mental and physical health: “I’ve gone through ups and downs,” she says when referencing a photo she posted in advance of her San Francisco concert with the caption Five years and 20 lbs ago. “After taking that picture, I went through this horrible breakup, and I lost so much weight. I didn’t look at my body like it was healthy – when you’re going through emotional turmoil, it’s hard to eat. That was a wake-up call: I need to address my mental and physical health. I put weight back on when I started really laying into my career and tour – things that brought me happiness.”

On anxiety as a result of singing on stage: “It’s stage fright. Some parts of it never go away. When I get out there and relax into it, I’m fine. It’s a gift to sing well and make people emotional, so I don’t take it for granted.”

On giving up one of her old coping mechanisms, cigarettes: “It used to be such a stress reliever,” she said of the habit, which ultimately impacted her vocals. Now, to relieve stress, she likes hanging out after the concert and having a good chat with her band and whomever is visiting that night. “My life revolves around music, so anytime I don’t have to talk about it is a nice defuser after a crazy adrenaline rush.”

On her relationship with husband Ryan Hurd: “Sometimes you think you know all there is to know about somebody, and then a year happens and you keep surprising each other.”

On relating to the movie A Star is Born: “I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had to go to therapy. Not the substance abuse part, but there were things that happened to [Lady Gaga’s character] that happened to me. That movie rocked us both. We were like, ‘We can never end up like this. Cool?’”

[From Women’s Health]

Is she saying that she was like Lady Gaga’s character Ally in that she was told what to be and how to act early in her career? She did say that it’s not about substance abuse. I can’t imagine what it’s like dealing with those industry bros. It’s hard enough talking to ad company people. As for using Alicia Vikander for motivation, I saw Tomb Raider and while Vikander was more convincing than I expected she was still quite tiny, I’ll say that. I did this once with Kate Hudson’s bikini photos! I didn’t put them on my phone, I just saved them and looked at them on my computer whenever I needed workout motivation. It’s a good idea in theory but in practice I don’t know if it would work for me again. Maren works with Carrie Underwood’s trainer and they do remote facetime sessions. I didn’t even realize you could hire a remote trainer, but now I want to do that. It would work better than staring at photoshopped pictures of superfit celebrities.

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Photos credit: Peggy Sirota for Women’s Health received via promotional email and Getty