Chloe Moretz: ‘I had quite an unhealthy relationship with food for years’

2019 iHeartCountry Festival

Chloe (Grace) Moretz covers the latest issue of Shape. She’s promoting two upcoming movies, the live-action Tom and Jerry (for real) and Shadow in the Cloud, a WWII drama. It’s been a while since I’ve read an interview with her and she sounds pretty good here. For all of the angst about pandemic lockdowns among the celebrity class, I think a majority of them enjoyed having a big break in their schedule, and they figured out that they could amuse themselves and try new things and not have to be the center of attention and it was fine. Chloe sounds like that – she was a child actor (with all that entails) and is now an adult actress who has spent much of the past year not working and figuring out her own sh-t. She sounds happy about it. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

She became unmoored during the lockdown. “In the beginning it felt nice to take a break. I thought it might last for a few weeks. Then it became very real that we weren’t going back to work. It was daunting and so scary. I thought maybe I had anxiety, but then the pandemic hit it, and I was like, ‘Oh, I have anxiety for sure.’ My most calm and centered self is when I’m on set and busy. I tend to feel stress in the mundane everyday moments at home. Now that I’m home all the time, my anxiety is constantly being revved up. I’ve learned that when that fight-or-flight kicks in, it’s up to me to catch those tendencies, recognize them, and respect them but then bring it back.

Working out helps her mental health: “A few years ago, I lost sight of how important exercising is to me. I forgot how it provides mental clarity and dexterity and keeps me grounded and strong. Now I’ve really gotten back into it full time. Working the mind, body, and soul — that’s super important. Before the pandemic, I was exercising with my trainer Jason Walsh…But in quarantine, I’ve paused the trainer workouts. For the first time, I’ve realized I have the ability to continue regular exercise on my own, although it may not be as intense. Some days, all I can muster is getting up and stretching. It’s enough to say, ‘I thought about working out, but now I’m sitting here and at least I’m having 20 minutes of quiet.’ I’m using that designated workout time to unravel my emotions.”

An unhealthy relationship with food: “I had quite an unhealthy relationship with food for years, always trying to create a calorie deficit and never feeling fully satisfied. One big thing I’ve learned about is conscious eating — eat how you want, but do it smartly. I grew up and began trusting in eating for my body and eating whole good foods. And if I know that I’m going to have a big dinner or a big lunch, I have a little less in either direction. This has been really successful for me. I also drink alcohol on weekends only. It’s very easy for me to fall into having a glass of wine every night, which affects my mental clarity.”

She needs fried chicken: “I was pescatarian, but then over quarantine, I just couldn’t not have fried chicken. For a solid two weeks, I ate Dave’s Hot Chicken: two fried chicken sandwiches every day. I was like, ‘I’ve got to have it. I don’t know what to do about this.’ I became a little demon. Then I was like, ‘Something happened. I’m not OK. My digestion isn’t normal. I’m totally breaking out.’ Once I got on a food routine cycle, that really helped. Now I’ll usually have fish, often salmon. I prep meals for Sunday through Wednesday and then freeze the rest of the salmon fillets to bake Wednesday night for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. But on the weekends, I definitely give myself a break. I’m like, ‘Eat what you want, and have a good time.'”

She’s been cooking & gardening too: “I never had enough time to cook because I was always running around with work. During quarantine, I stocked up on groceries with the plan to be creative with everything. I also really got into gardening to grow food for myself. I could taste the difference in home-grown herbs and then compost whatever I didn’t use. I wanted to get down to the basics of cooking, learn to make my own bone broth, roux, and gravies and then play with different cuisines.”

Fighting curly hair: “I always messed with my hair. I’m naturally blonde, but I really enjoyed coloring my hair. I was also constantly fighting my natural curl. I have very curly ringlets all over my head. Recently, I stopped doing Brazilian straighteners. My hair is so thankful, and I’m obsessed with taking care of it. It hasn’t been this thick and long since I was 11 years old.”

[From Shape]

The drinking-only-on-weekends thing sounds like a smart thing for a social drinker or someone who doesn’t want to rely too heavily on that “glass of wine in the evenings.” I bet learning how to cook and growing a kitchen garden helped with her pandemic anxiety too – that gave her something to do, goals to set and meet, something to tick boxes, boxes which she would normally tick with work. I don’t remember her ever having curly hair so she must have been messing with straighteners for a while! And what else… I like that she canceled her trainer and realized she can do her own thing workout-wise.

2019 iHeartCountry Festival

Covers courtesy of Shape.

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4 Responses to “Chloe Moretz: ‘I had quite an unhealthy relationship with food for years’”

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  1. Mabs A'Mabbin says:

    She’s really is so stunning.

    • JK says:

      She really does look lovely! She was so cute when she was younger and now she’s grown into a stunning woman.

  2. Piratewench says:

    I relate completely to anxiety coming in during the mundane parts of life.
    Lockdown with two small children has been really really hard on my anxiety. For people who are like Chloe, it’s been hard on all of us. I would take a high pressure deadline day over a “what should we even do with all these hours?” day any time.

    • Noodle says:

      @piratewench, me too. Sometimes my work is a nice distraction from the kids and the house. It provides structure for me, and distracts me from all the other sources of stress.